Appreciation of students

 I happened to accidentally be locking up my bike at work when suddenly, three of our students appeared.They were bringing flowers and gift bags! That was supersweet. And their timing was impeccable; quite a large number of teaching staff was just about to meet. The students  were all on geo-related degree programs, and there typically aren't many of us on campus. Three of us work at home, one is off work, and only Dei is regularly in the office. He had expected to be in the office this very day; however, not only had he been working from home, but also his car was in the garage. He had realised that a bit late, and had had to jump onto his bicycle and bike like the clappers to make it to our meeting. So they would have been close to not meeting any of us!

The students decided to wait for Dei. When he arrived, as sweaty as anticipated, he was baffled to be greeted by three students carrying flowers and gifts. Rightly so! But he really appreciated the gesture. Luckily, one of our other staff was on the ball and took pictures.

We then had to decide how we would share this gesture. There were five of us, and we live in four different towns. And what the students had bought us were flowers, wine, and chocolate. The flowers needed to find a home soon. The wine and the chocolate had a longer shelf life, but how do you get all five of us together in a configuration where we can enjoy both of these, and how will we get home afterwards? Wine and chocolate don't really go together. So either scratching our chins a bit. In the end we decided that as the gifts were addressed at "Martin and Ocean sciences", and Martin was off work, which is rarely for a happy reason, we would give the whole lot to him. So one early evening I biked up again to deliver the lot. I am sure that connection of gifts gave him a warm fuzzy feeling! We must have done something right. And it was really nice of the students to acknowledge that…

Visibly baffled Dei receiving chocolate