Last night the Year 2 Mech Eng Singaporeans came over for a small gathering. It was nice to get together and not talk about school work or ask Godwin for tutorial answers. Lester and Kenneth cooked, and Godwin and Vivian washed up – thank you so much guys! There was lots of laughing, I mean, it’s hard not to when Lester starts with the storytelling.
The day started really early this morning, even earlier than for a 9.00am lecture just to catch the bus to the power stations. Only 14 of the 25ish people turned up for the Kingsnorth trip. It was okay in the end I guess.
We spent more time on the bus than actually touring the plant. The guide was a retiree; you could tell he wasn’t happy about the way things had changed since his time.
There was a short lecture on how the plant works – plenty of numbers, but didn’t really come out with anything useful, except that politicians and accountants understand absolutely nothing about making electricity. After putting on oh-so-sexy helmets (that’s why I didn’t become a chemical engineer), safety glasses, and high-visibility jackets (in yellow highlighter with sparkly silver detailing) we started the walking tour.
The control room was massive and clinical-like with sprawling computers and a fantastic selection of buttons. Then we walked into the main housing for the boilers, turbines, and generators. We spent a few minutes looking at arrays and arrays of pipes, some big, some little, stretching for miles and miles in every direction, bending around each other in a precise dance. There was a hot geyser of steam leaking out one of the turbines, and you could see the heat waves radiating off those metal monstrosities. The standard-issue ear plugs kept falling out, and it’s not like they helped, because the vibrations pretty much bypassed the eardrums and went straight into the centre of your brain.
The day started really early this morning, even earlier than for a 9.00am lecture just to catch the bus to the power stations. Only 14 of the 25ish people turned up for the Kingsnorth trip. It was okay in the end I guess.
We spent more time on the bus than actually touring the plant. The guide was a retiree; you could tell he wasn’t happy about the way things had changed since his time.
There was a short lecture on how the plant works – plenty of numbers, but didn’t really come out with anything useful, except that politicians and accountants understand absolutely nothing about making electricity. After putting on oh-so-sexy helmets (that’s why I didn’t become a chemical engineer), safety glasses, and high-visibility jackets (in yellow highlighter with sparkly silver detailing) we started the walking tour.
The control room was massive and clinical-like with sprawling computers and a fantastic selection of buttons. Then we walked into the main housing for the boilers, turbines, and generators. We spent a few minutes looking at arrays and arrays of pipes, some big, some little, stretching for miles and miles in every direction, bending around each other in a precise dance. There was a hot geyser of steam leaking out one of the turbines, and you could see the heat waves radiating off those metal monstrosities. The standard-issue ear plugs kept falling out, and it’s not like they helped, because the vibrations pretty much bypassed the eardrums and went straight into the centre of your brain.
The second part of the tour was outside to see the fuelling jetty and water intake. It sits on a river, so to cool the steam it sucks in huge amounts of water, strains out all the debris, and then pumps it through the system. They had great big metal baskets of dead fish and seaweed. It stunk like crazy. After a cursory glance at their lunch menu on the way to the cafeteria line, we figured out what happens to all that fish:
-Friday-
Main Fish and Chips
Dessert Bread pudding
I suppose that once they batter and deep fry it, no one can tell the difference.
-Friday-
Main Fish and Chips
Dessert Bread pudding
I suppose that once they batter and deep fry it, no one can tell the difference.
All in all, it wasn't a bad day, now just waiting for Weng to get in, so I’m going to go play GB.
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