Day 83

Family suitably excited heading towards bed. My fault for providing the chocolate, but I think tonight's viewing was a big hit. Managed to keep Frozen 3D a secret for a while. Thanks to Kevin and also Lina and Sean for providing extra pairs of 3D specs. It was fascinating to hear the children (Kyria included) sing the songs, which I presume they only learnt through Youtube clips. Progressing the Family Von Whitbys towards our big debut.

Received an email from the Vice President of the University today assuring me that the marble tile incident is being taken seriously, which is a relief. I also heard discussions about certain contract developments are also progressing, so it makes me hopeful that such changes will not proceed in similar fashion in the future and hopefully ensures some stability. Some of the issues are also being dealt with, which just leaves the wild dogs.

Survived giving a 2 hour lecture on safety. Had 100 students in the first class. Had to throw one of them out for talking, despite repeated warnings. These second years are highly disruptive if you let them. Then only 50 turned up for the second half. But there were 20 or so that engaged with the topic. Contrasting how serious the Kazakhstanis take the issue of safety compared to the UK and USA is causing some concern. I took them through the different kinds of accidents that can exist within engineering (especially with chemicals) and despite the horrors, it feels like these students only reckon it will happen to someone else. But if the message sinks into just a few, perhaps those few will go on and effect change in the correct way.

Ray