Senses:// Re-engineered

Usually, the weather is a topic reserved as a life jacket for conversation about to go under. However, for Glastonbury, it is at the top of everyone's mind. And it doesn't look good this year! Not sure if it will be the same as the 2005 "Brown Wednesday" but it looks like its going to be a wet one! We are talking about army boots, full boot lining for water-proof effect and gaiters!

This entry is kind of dry, I guess this is more for me than anyone else. A kind of nav-point to help me backtrack when I want to do a memory recall years later.

The work placement have kind of slowed down back to the average documentation stage now. Most of the meats have been roasted and its all about writing it all up nice and neat for the client. The mistiming on some of the documents were quite comical though. Corrections were requested from a third-party consultant in regards to documents provided for the contractors building the footbridge. The only thing is, the footbridge is at the last stage of assembly! So I am sure the documents presented were pretty well received by the contractor if they are that far in the game. I suppose its just down to getting it perfect and professional at the end of the day. I would probably have understood the general idea of Lord of the Ring even if it was peppered with spelling and grammatical mistakes but I doubt it will attain its place in the English literacy world if thing were not at the highest of standards and I guess the company is where it is now for a reason!

Committed the mistake of updating documents in an old folder, possibly because of the notes I have made on week 1. Either the guy has given me the wrong directory or I have skimped on the note taking and I screwed up. One of the document was affected, otherwise the damage was limited and damage control has been implemented. In all honesty, the existing folder system is a mine field. There is no logic to which the files are arranged and it would often take in-depth knowledge into a certain project in order to fully appreciate the location of documents and how they are networked.

On a brighter note, during a chat with my Divisional Manager - Faisal, it seems like I will be taking a much more active role in the footbridge design for the next project! Asif, one of the main engineers who has been looking after me, expressed his concerns in my ability (gave the whole "he is too green! he can't handle the G-force, he will die" speech) but Faisal seems keen on pushing me through. This is going to be fucking great opportunity and a worthy challenge to prove my valour! Another one of those "finest moment" scenario and honestly, I can not fucking wait! Its hard not to feel that Asif thinks of me as somewhat a burden. He's got enough on his plate already and to have to show a summer place the rope on top of everything else must be a real drag. Credits to him though for acting so professionally and patiently throughout his ordeal. Even though it feels like he sees me as a nuisance, he nevertheless would give me the time of his day to go through things with me.

During uni, doing an all-nighter in the library was not something unusual and I am not just talking about those desperate pre-exam cramping sessions! Engineering soon changed from bring a career to a lifestyle choice as it bleeds into other areas of your life. The upcoming battle will hone all my existing skills to a new level as well as bestowing me with many new ones! I will be learning to apply my engineering knowledge using Staad Pro, an engineering package I have had no previous contact. In order to excel and achieve, I will need to re-evaluate everything I have learnt, fine-tune all my knowledge and evolve! During this new adventure, I will be overwhelmed, I will suffer failures, frustrations and disappointments, but I will stay strong and focused! I will learn and grow, taking another major step to becoming a full fledge Structural Engineer! If engineering has bled into other aspects of my life during uni, then may my life be stained, forever red! It's time to stop being a student and to start seeing myself as a future engineer!

Have also started my training session for the marathon. Managed to push to it to 8 miles start and stop so that is something that needs improving on. The state of my ankles also raise some concerns as pain started to develop within 30mins of running. Hopefully, additional training and the dietary supplements will help push back its onset. Once fully warmed up, the endorphins seems to mask the pain which would return the following morning.

I would like to think that things are going well in many aspects of my life. The new house is awesome! I have had my reservations at first over the size of the room but it is relatively cosy even with the wardrobe put in. Chris, my new house mate is really cool. I have known him as a brief acquaintance for close to three years now, we share common grounds in term of music and I have been socialised with him a couple of times but I have never had much in-depth contact with him. Always gave me the impression that he is the boring, silent type but he turned out to be quite a laugh. Good to have an intelligent conversation with but also shares my passion for the Nintendo Wii. Our hunt for Mario Kart has taken us across many supermarket megastores across South of Manchester.

The job is developing steadily, it is not without mistakes but I am slowly learning the ropes and its all starting to fit in nicely. I am getting on very well with the people there and I seems to have left a positive impression on Faisal, who is a well rounded team leader and respected by most. He will be leaving us shortly for a position in Dubai. Emidoyo is almost like a brother to me. His humour might rub people the wrong way but he has a clean soul and is a competent engineer! Roxanne is kind and gentle, verging on to being timid but she does the job and she does it well, the only problem is that she need to establish her presence and really communicate. Tarun is the "cool kid" in the team, well-liked by the whole office and a budding engineer with huge potential although he never fails to amaze with the number of arguments he gets into with Faisal. His presentation on Climate Change being exaggerated was pretty controversial. Daniel is a "man's man", beer drinker, good to talk to, a football loving average Joe who have recently found out that his ex is pregnant with his kid. Amed is fresh off a part time MSc, academic in appearance, an echo of Bill in many ways. Lucas, Greek, a cool friendly expert on CAD who will be getting me some Ouzo when he is next in Greece! Kristian, a quiet reclusive Poles who also specialises in CAD. Chris, another typical English gentleman, father, mature and friendly. Overall this team is so so much more interesting and "normal" than the team I had to work with last summer. And nothing can be worse than having Kasia on my back half the time, but thats another story altogether. I guess the only thing I need to watch out for is the amount of partying I have been doing. Some financial issues are in desperate need of sorting out! Possibly because I have been put on the emergency tax, I am effectively getting paid £4 per hour!!! I could have been working in Poland for this kind of wage! :p

Work has been so cool! Spent Monday checking up schematics for train station platform and footbridge designs to see if they comply with the regulations aimed to satisfy the Disable Discrimination Act. Might sound boring but its amazing how much care and considerations have been put into the rules to ensure people with difficulty in movement can have access to the train station platforms. Lifts access to platforms, ramps will need to be below a specified gradient, even handrails will need to be fitted a certain way to ensure that people with partial disabilities can make use of the train station. This is especially special for me since I have had personal experience in travelling with people with physical handicap. For voluntary work I have had the pleasure of being assigned to a particular gentleman in an elderly visit programme: Jeff, ex-army, full of life and a very classical sense of humour. I would not be surprise to see him in an episode of Dad's Army. During our times together, we have form an interesting friendship and he was often kind enough to show me around different towns and cities. Even though confined to a motorised wheelchair, he took me on many adventures to many places. It was interesting to see the world through his eyes and his thick glasses. During a trip to Heaton Park in Manchester, even thought it was equipped to deal with disabled people, one of the lift on the leading to the platform was inoperable and we had to resort to boarding a train in the opposite direction, cross to the other side at another station before getting a train back to Manchester. As a twist of fate, several stations down the line didn't have the facilities to cater for disabled passengers which meant we had to stay on the train for a couple more stops before we could disembark, cross to the opposite platform and board a train back into the city centre. It would have been pretty much impossible for the disabled within the area to utilise the public transport and there was no end of complaints from Jeff for days that followed and quite rightly so!

I guess I have spent quite a lot of my time try my best to make a difference in the past but this project is almost like a godsend! Having hundreds of pounds donate to Oxfam, saving someone's life by putting him into the recovery position and raising the alarm, years worth of voluntary work are waned in comparison because the work I will be involved this summer will last for a long time and will serve many people for years to come! To actually make sure that new train stations will be capable of catering for people who are weighed down by their disabilities and offer them to chance to go out and enjoy the world, to see new things and new places just like Jeff had shown me. Honestly, it feels good to get up in the morning!