Thesis Submission, Physics Society BBQ and Final Bar Night!

Thursday October 21, 2004 was a significant academic and social date for the final year LTU ELE students. It happened to be the submission date of final year thesis, the annual Physics Society BBQ and the final bar night of the year! Was it simply coincidence these 3 events fall on the same date or, as I would like to think were there are greater spiritual force at work, rewarding us for four years of torment and suffering at the hands of a 35 contact hour a week course (and to the humanities students, yes we too had homework and “reading”)???

The mood before 12 pm was tense with thesis due then, a constant queue for photocopiers/printers and Office Works quoting a 1 hour turn around time to bind a thesis meant timing would be tight. The mood lifted after 12 and was very jovial with everyone in party mode by time the Physics BBQ fired up at 12:30.

The Physics shin dig is an annual BBQ where the Physics Society drops the reminder of their yearly budget on food and alcohol for willing Science, Technology and Engineering students to enjoy. A good crowd of 50-60 people meant that the initial wait for the BBQ was lengthy but the quick distribution of cool refreshing beverages ensured the mood remained festive. See Dave and Libba enjoying a beer with “Joe Cool.”

Joe Cool is Joe H European travel/drinking buddy and their friendship has blossomed since their trip a year prior. Joe Cool makes an appearance in most of Joeys photos (ref to the food and alcohol photos. Did you notice???). The places that dog has visited has made many a boy jealous and would require another blog to fully list his adventures.

After a hardy lunch and the development of “dutch courage” leading to the firm believe there where several undiscovered AFL stars within the group we went for a kick. Some early enthusiasm from Joey meant the group had to remind him to keep an eye on the ball before he soared with the eagles! Not to be out done Libba took a good leap over Dave and all good football games/kick to kicks need a cheer squad in the outer!

At the conclusion of the BBQ (when the food and alcohol ran out) we headed across to Caffaine where the top bottom right group photo was taken (what is wrong with the picture? Seems Joe Cool was not the only little friend to make a cameo…), Joey treated us with a few shots of his family home made sprit (I think it was Grappa??? It packed a punch). Joey’s friend Anna gave Joey “Fashion Faux pas” red and yellow cards to distribute amongst the group.

Fashion Faux Pas cards worked in the same way as soccer red and yellow cards, where the engies were the umpires of mainly female fashion over the course of bar night (because engineers are the most fashionable group…). Shortly after distribution I gave my first and only red card out for the night.

Predictably the engies were the first to arrive at the Eagle Bar having just enough time to grab a drink and pose for another group shot (top middle right) before things got too hectic! It was great that word had spread and some past students and friends come across to help us celebrate, Frank, Tim, Ally, Mel, Sam, Caroline and friend thanks for putting in the effort. Apologies to anyone I forgot.

The night rolled on full steam ahead! A great survivor story which I hope enough time has passed so he can see the funny side. After staying at uni for two straight days to complete thesis, Conrad drove home to drop his car off before returning to the bar. Unfortunately on the way he had an accident damaging both his another car, making his car undrivable… When everyone thought that would be the last we would see of him Conrad made it back to bar night! Huge effort!!! Anna and friend give Conrad a well earned cuddle!

The Faux Pas cards turn out to be a bit of a hit in the sense that they lead to three people getting slapped, one person getting temporarily kicked out (before sneaking back in) and another person kicked out I suspect for wearing the cards. They seemed like a good idea at the time…

When the queue to the bar got too long Thilan and I thought that we maybe be able to shorting our way to the bar by befriending the Jim Beam promo girls, turns out they had no control over the bar however offered some Jim Beam promo gear and they were good sports and posed for a couple of photos.

Over the course of the night Joe Cool made a notable cameo before passing out at the bottom of a jag… Before the night concluded with bang! The bar put on quite a large scale firework display (top right photo)!

I think/hope a traffic day was had by all. Personally I thought it was fitting way to celebrate the conclusion of a fun yet challenging period of life where I learnt a lot academically, personally, build some great friendships that come about because I was lucky enough to share the experience with a great group of people! Thanks to everyone in the La Trobe Electronic department and class of 2004