Bridges and Tunnels
Posted: Monday 20 September, 2010
Alex Smith
Last week I had the pleasure of finding myself out of the office in Sweden of all places, which was a great experience in itself and a very productive trip. The sight from the Øresund Bridge as myself, James and Dereky (Keredy) made our way back across (and underneath, it's part tunnel don't you know) the North Sea to Denmark for the flight home was particularly spectacular, not least because bridges and tunnels are what I aspired to build as a child.
Having been asked the traditional question at primary school at the age of around six or seven, I wasn't content to respond with one of the more traditional answers, like "fireman" or "policeman", or indeed "Banker" as the poshest of kids aspired. What I really wanted to do was be a structural engineer, one that designs and builds bridges, tunnels and such. I distinctly remember that whilst other kids would be at the beach making sandcastles (a structural feat in itself) I would be found creating mounds of sand big enough to build tunnel through instead, an act that would usually result in the passage caving in and leaving me buried beneath my own masterpiece.
Unfortunately the sciences of Mathematics and Physics turned out to be anything but my forte at school and I swiftly turned my attentions to the written word instead, meaning that my childhood aspirations went more or less out of the window. Still, I console myself in the arts that we practice hear at Punch, which continue to allow me to see such spectacles without the burden of having to actually build them first. As they say, it never tastes as nice if you cook it yourself.
