Regressive dinner

Friday night was the last advertised LUCF O-week event - a regressive dinner. Similar to the more common progressive dinner where a group progresses from flat to flat for different courses, this time we went regressive - first off was coffee & biscuits; then next flat was dessert (excellent custard squares Whitey!); then mains at Barker St where the boys did real well with bbq lamb chops, salad & roast potatoes; and lastly starters at South Belt. Good times.

12 Barker Street is a large flat - large enough for, i think, 12 people to live there. Half of them are part of LUCF. We all arrived to be welcomed to backyard cricket - Duckie (one of the 12) had even mown a passable effort for a cricket strip - good effort. Fatz moved out last year and his bed was handily being used as an automatic wicket keeper -


Later, as the sun set, the use of the bed complete it seemed wise to the Barker St boys to burn Fatz old bed and boxes. All was well until the mattress was burnt; flames increased in size to greater than the height of the two story house. The neighbours got worried, then we heard the fire siren go off, calling the volunteer fire fighters to their posts. The boys didn't think this was a co-incidencence and madly attempted to put the fire out. Interestingly, at no time did i think the fire was out of control - many of these boys are from farms and know their stuff. Yet at the same time I appreciate why the neighbours did think the fire was out of control.....


The fire engine turned out, and the boys got a wee bit worried. All was well though. It turns out the fire chief that night was Roger. Roger's day job is a lecturer in soil science, a subject many take at Lincoln. So the boys said 'hello Roger' and Roger said 'hello boys' - then had a look at the smouldering pile of bed, then went back to the fire station. There may be a fine coming to Barker St......


I do like living in a semi-rural community where people are known to each other. That's great - but it can be hard to be part of that group. I observed that in the LUCF Regressive Dinner group, some of the Kiwis just didn't know how to make those from Laos and Iran feel welcome. Would I have been any different at 20? No, not at all. So it kind of fell to those CFers over 25, from 3 different countries, to welcome our new Lao and Iranian friends. Interesting, Azerro from Iran has just arrived to NZ for her PhD on CO2 in soils and the ramifications for climate change - fascinating stuff. She wasn't allowed to study PhD in Tehran because she's a woman, so is bravely going it alone, including paying her way, in NZ, coming to Lincoln because of its' world reputation in soil science. She seemed bemused by the antics of the night, and I've yet to tell her that her pyromanic hosts are in her department and that the fire chief may well be her supervisor! I don't know if she's a Christian - I suspect not, but I look forward to seeing how God may use the wider LUCF in introducing himself to her.

Well done to LUCF on an excellent idea to finish O-week, the way 4 flats provided wonderful food, and the entertainment of the fire.