Firstly, on the off-chance that anyone reading this is stupid enough to think you can easily attach a 7m long spanner to the top of a truck think again and don't ever try.

But, a huge thanks to Chris Jackson and his helpers for pulling it off as it did look really cool.

Thanks again to team Bo and all the other people who helped who Chris hasn't thanked, particuarly the "Guilds" people who turned up and helped in the bakground (you know who you are) and similarly for the bioengineers who helped.

I'm going back to sleep now. Night night.

Totally loved it as always! Max respect to Mr. Jackson for carrying spanner on his shoulders the whole way. Good to see messers Asher and Madhvani still strong on the act. Pretty safe to say we had one of the grroooooviest floats again.

A very big thank you to our lorry supplier - Fullers.

What could be more suitable than a brewery lorry to transport a student union float??

BTW there is a trip to the famous Fullers Brewery on Wed 1st December being organised by the RSM Motor Club. E-mail clem@ic.ac.uk for more details.

I agree Chris, DON'T ANYONE THINK PUTTING A 7m SPANNER ON TOP OF A LORRY IS EASY. Does anyone know a good orthopedic sturgeon?

Bet it is easy to put a 7m spanner on a lorry, just got to plan it and round up the right people to do it..

Does any one want to assasinate the President?

"Bet it is easy to put a 7m spanner on a lorry, just got to plan it and round up the right people to do it.."

True until

a) different lorry turns

b) Someone suddenly finds the height restriction regulation halfway through design 8

c) It's not freezing cold

d) It's so cold half the cable ties don't work

e) Will think of some more excuses

With all this thanking of people going around we've forgotten to mention the policeman, machine gun and all, helping me undo the scaffolding at 6pm <grin>

and i still can't believe that Chris McIver made it to the bar and stayed for a few pints despite not having any sleep whatsoever! Respect! :-)

Further to Mr Chong's reasons how about:

e) It's not blowing a gale

f) It's not 4am and you should be in bed

g) The Scaff nuts contract quicker than the bolts making all the scaff connectors un-workable

h) All the drill batteries have gone flat.

i) No one has had any sleep

j) I'm sure we have some more things that went wrong.

I would say as far as having the right people to put it on, I don't think ANYONE in College could have done it better, again thanks to DramSoc. As for planing, I think most people in the Guilds Office were fed up of us planning and designing the spanner. Ant, if you want to have a go at it, the LMS is next year, I'll happily watch you try.

I think the chances of Mr Jackson finding an orthopedic sturgeon are quite low. In fact, I don't think he has much chance of getting a sturgeon in the first place, much less one that has orthopedic qualifications. He could always try "donating" his body to the Medics, I suppose...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not the medics, appologies to those with images of a giant fish treating my injuries, I of course meant Orthopedic Surgeon. As Ms Hawkins will testify (Having edited the article above) my typing and spelling skills are somewhat lacking.

Did you guys grab the BBC dude and force your spanner on TV?

I heard Madvani had been very consistent with this act.

You have the video clip?

Congratulations guys - even heard a Boomalaka on BBC1.

Wow! Boomalaka for Christmas number one!

Oh, and Ant, from my position on top of the Sir Alexander Flemming Building (Us flies get everywhere) that spanner was a total bitch to fit to that lorry!

Right guys, if we built a huge orthopaedic sturgeon, lets say 10m long, and found a way of attaching it to the roof of a very cold beer lorry at night, and then found the market leader in medical sturgeons to sponsor it, do you think they'd put us on TV for more than 2 seconds?

Isn't the way to get on TV to actually have an entry in *before* the programme and BBC coverage is finalised?

Might persuade them to let us have Jez and Clem in it if you're early enough!

No Chris, No! No more giant things on top of lorries! (Well I ain't doing it anyway, find someone else!)

Enough patting yourselves on the back. You have pulled an all-nighter -- jolly well done to all. Now, I, as I suspect, the majority of the readers, would like to know what the point of the entire exercise was and why and how it benefits C&G or IC if at all. It seems like an awful lot of hassle over a very small matter. Why is C&G's participation in the parade so important? What did those sleepless man-hours actually achieve? Sorry to s*hit on everyone's parade here, but I would love an explanation.

As one of those there all night, personally, probably not a lot to be fair. It was either that or do coursework. However with C&G having been kicked out and then been put back in, for this year at least, it was important to put on a good float for the sake of some. As to whether it benefits C&G or indeed IC, what else happens that can provide full BBC1 coverage of the event?

From the Felix article (the only with actual background info), I found that there were about 3 gazillion floats there. I have not seen the footage, but I am sure the Beeb would not dedicate more than 20 seconds to a bunch of students chanting Boomalaka when they have so much to show. Either way, such publicity probably doesn't do C&G (and IC) any favours at all. If you guys wanted to be on telly, there are many, many other ways to say hi to your mum from the silver screen, the X Factor being one of them.

Again, I am glad to see students doing organised things (keeps you off the street ;-), however, I cannot imagine that there were not better things to invest your time and effort into than piling large objects onto a truck and them taking them off pretty soon after, for no obvious benefit.

OK. The back scratching and self-congratulations have probably gone a bit too far. If you have a problem with the content of this website then please contact the Editor.

However, I really do need to address the irrationally negative comments shown above:

“From the Felix article (the only with actual background info)… there were about 3 gazillion floats there””

Thank you! I will take that as a compliment. There were only 77 floats and many were fairly small. Most entrants don’t build floats – they simply march / dance / etc.

“but I am sure the Beeb would not dedicate more than 20 seconds”

And they didn’t, but who cares? The reason we make a big noise about getting on TV is to keep our sponsors happy.

“such publicity probably doesn't do C&G (and IC) any favours at all”

How so? We’ve been doing this for 80 years – if we were to pull out because of poor organisation then our absence would make us look far worse. This is one of ICU’s greatest traditions – a bit like the RSM Bottle match and Wye Cricket week. I will admit that I’m not the biggest fan of the stripy jackets and boomalaka and we probably did look a bit silly. But then so did everyone else! You probably weren’t there to see the hilarious Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation parade, which consisted of a dozen or so middle aged hippies dressed up as giant daisies.

“I cannot imagine that there were not better things to invest your time and effort”

C&G has something like 150 active volunteers, that’s if you count all the dep soc committee members, dep and year reps and club members. 15 students helped build this float. The other 135 were doing other things. I should also mention that we usually make a decent profit from our entries, although this year we just about broke even. Three years ago we made £5000, which was invested in other student events and an office refurbishment

And frankly, who the hell are you to tell other students what they should invest their time in?

“piling large objects onto a truck and them taking them off pretty soon after, for no obvious benefit.”

I have no doubt that the students, who numbered over 40 (the largest turnout in recent years) benefited enormously from the whole event. The Dean had a great time, the sponsors were happy, and the Faculty of Engineering / Department of Bioengineering have said that they were pleased with the outcome of the event. Personally speaking, this is most rewarding thing I have ever been involved in at Imperial College.

Good answer, John.

I'm sure "aha" (one of those anonymous contributors who always strike me as being slightly cowardly) will be able to suggest many more worthy things that a Faculty Union could be invovled with. However, having been closely invovled with this particfular FU last year, I am probably in a good position to say that one of the great things about the distributed & delegated structure of our Union is that it allows people to get involved with what they fancy, on a one-off/volunteer basis, without the necessity of being a hack (like Mr Collins or myself).

Basically, the LMS is jolly good fun, and even if that's all it acheives, then why not? I don't think it detracted from any of Guilds' more important core activities (such as academic representation), and if 40 students want to spend their Saturday waving to old ladies and their grandchildren, then why not?!

There used to be a day (and I have seen video evidence of this) when students used to do things just for the hell of it, and I often think it's regrettable that we can't revisit those times more often the we do...

As Sam and John said, the LMS is good fun and I'm sure all those involved in it enjoyed it as much as I did.

Carrying a project like that through from initial sketches and ideas to a completed project is not only enjoyble and rewarding but is basically what engineers do for a living which surely makes it a suitabe thing for an Engineering union to be involved with and to be offering to its students.

Many societies do activities that I may not see the point of but I don't begrudge them the right to do them for their own enjoyment.

I could see an argument against it if it cost the union money, but in general it doesn't. Sponsorship is sought which would only be available for this event.

The publicity (However much of it we may or may not get) can't do any harm as long as the float is well built and the whole operation looks profesional. Also, the publicity comes in more forms than the BBC, Their is also newspaper coverage not to mention the thousands of people who come to watch the parade.

Which sad git signed up LMS@cgcu.net to recieve porn?

Probably the same person who signed rag@ic.ac.uk to porn, bank offers and general c**p, or the person that signed the RAG Chair up to a dating service.