Summer Ball baby!

I finished my last final exam on Friday afternoon. It was horrible (confusingly written, badly spelled and the "multiple choice" section included random short answer questions. And they accidentally printed the answers to one of the questions on the exam. "Excuse me, it says to draw a diagram, but there's a diagram already there!" "Oh! Er... maybe just don't answer that one." "Maybe you should tell the rest of the students?" "Oh! Right. Er, do you know where your colleagues are?" ). (oh yeah, and the lectures were given by two lecturers. However, only one was there at any given time. I asked one to clarify a definition, and she told me, "Hmmm, I don't know what that means. It was Martin's question. Just answer it as best you can." Yikes!)

Ooops, that was a longer rant than I intended. It really was a horrific exam, though, to cap off a really rotten module.

ANYWAY. Point being: the weekend was free! And man was it fun. Friday night one of the cute li'l fencers cooked me dinner. Saturday was the last fencing session of the year (sob) but it was a good one - I finally seem to have got the hang of timing my lunges properly and did really well in all my bouts. Very depressing that this didn't happen until just about too late - it's only been in the last month that I've gotten past my plateau - but at least it DID happen and I now feel like I can hold my own.

Saturday night was the Summer Ball, which is sort of a Brit equivalent of the prom, only more so. They cordoned off the Main Arts complex (the old and pretty bit of the uni) and had several marquees, bands, a disco ball, and a FERRIS WHEEL! The evening starts at 9pm and ends at 5am. Everyone gets dressed up - like REALLY dressed up, we're talking ball gowns - and it's actually really cool. It was expensive, but I reckoned it was my only chance to check it out, so in the end I decided to go. I didn't have much time to throw together an outfit after fencing, but I gave it my best shot and the end result did not look out of place.

The ball was a spectacle. I think it was worth the entry cost just to see the sheer number and variety of frocks! (The men in kilts did not hurt matters either). There was a free casino, several bands (Athlete, the Fab Beatles and the Cuban Brothers), a couple of cocktail bars and that sort of thing and the ferris wheel. The best part, however, was being declared a VIP. I was hanging out with some of the fencers, one of whom has political aspirations and is mates with the AU (Athletics Union) president. Somehow the AU president ended up producing VIP passes for me and the other fencer. This allowed us into the VIP tent and to sit in the balcony of the hall where the bands were playing. It was great - swanning my way past the massive bouncer, flashing my VIP pass. The balcony had seating (carved benches covered with red velvet, naturally) and a great view of the stage.

I did manage to stay till the very end. We danced to the Beatles tribute band until 5 am, at which point we were booted out to full daylight. Heck of a night, though.