She'll be coming up Trumpington Street when she comes | top

This song was originally composed on Tuesday in the comfy surroundings of The Mill. It has undergone a number of revisions since then and now has a more cheerful feel. It should be sung to the tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes"

The crane arrived here late on sunday night
All the people who were up got such a fright
It took hours get together
because of windy weather
When they finished it had reached terrific height

It was lifting buildings high above all day
Then the wind blew and the crane began to sway
The fellows looked quite worried
The builders were not hurried
Now it looks like there will be a long delay

It is really rather large at first glance
You can see it from as far away as France
The whole college was so smitten
With the biggest crane in Britain
But the chapel doesn't stand the slightest chance

It's the greatest thing to happen here in years
But the college just dismissed the student's fears
Now the ropes have started squeaking
Hydraulics are all leaking
The chances are it's bound to end in tears

Tourists, students, fellows all the same
Are inspired by the giant yellow crane
So we'll all have lots of fun
Before the crane gets done
And it's giant form is on the road again

OR

Tourists, students, fellows all the same
Are inspired by the mightily large crane
So we'll all take lots of snaps
Then watch the crane collapse
and the college claim the students are to blame

The baking of the crane cake | top

Not content with writing 5 verses of a song yesterday evening, we have now surpassed even our own expectations by baking a cake in honour of the crane. This magnificent chocolate cake is 8 inches (20 cm) across and 5 inches (12 cm) tall, it consists of 3 layers of sponge cake and 3 different types of icing.

This is a picture of it in construction (showing our lovely kitchen and proving that it does indeed have 3 layers)....

... And here is the final result of our labours. The crane image on top was designed by Tim. He would like to point out that because the crane is so large he had to continue the picture down the far side of the cake.....

Should you want to repeat this feat of engineering for yourselves you might wish to  browse through the following recipes for the various components.....

For the cake:
Ingredients...
10oz Margarine, 10oz Caster Sugar, 4 Large Eggs, 8oz Self Raising Flour, 2oz Cocoa

What we intended to do...
1. Cream margarine and sugar together until pale and soft.
2. Add eggs one at a time (with some flour if curdling)
3. Sift flour and cocoa together and fold in to the mixture
4. Add milk or orange juice to achieve dropping consistency

Actually what we did was.....
1. Put the flour and the butter in a bowl together by mistake
2. Add the sugar as well
3. Add the eggs one at a time giving it a serious beating with an electric whisk

Divide this between 3 tins or whatever your friends have available. 

Bake in the oven at 190 degrees centigrade (yes the oven is marked in farenheit Ariane) for about half an hour or until firm to the touch and passes the fork test.

For the butter icing:
Ingredients...
6oz Butter, 10oz Icing Sugar, 2oz Cocoa

Method...
1. Cream the butter to soften (using electric whisk)
2. Add icing sugar and beat until pale in colour
3. Add cocoa and little water and mix in

For the sugar icing:
Ingredients...
20oz Icing Sugar, 4oz Cocoa

Method...
1. Mix the ingredients together with a spoon
2. Add very small quantities of water until a thick paste is formed
3. This hardens quickly so add to cake as soon as possible

For the crane:
Ingredients...
1 Packet of White Icing, Yellow food colouring

Method...
1. Kneed a drop of colouring in to a small quantity of white icing
2. Using a rolling pin (or a glass) to make a flat piece for cutting
3. Cut out the shapes required for the design

Putting it all together:
Method...
1. Assemble the layers using the butter icing
2. Pour the sugar icing over the top of the cake and allow it to continue down the sides
3. Use a knife or fingers to redistribute the sugar icing if necessary
4. Add decoration to top

Eating:
Get lots of friends round and sing our crane song (see above). Hopefully you will enjoy it as much as we all did.

How to build your own anemometer | top

Whilst checking the spelling of anemometer I came across the following website that has instructions for building your very own (toy) anemometer.

External Link - http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/units/energy/dixie.html

CraneInvaders - Save the chapel from the keynes units | top

The giant computer controlled crane has been "enhanced" by some cambridge compscis but a bug means that it now drops all the units on Kings Chapel. Your mission (should you choose to accept) is to destroy the errant rooms (with a laser canon) before they impact. Good Luck.

NOTE: This game is still in development and has an issue with excessive flickering.

Click here to launch the applet window

Views of the crane from around the world | top

Following on from the idea in our song that the crane can be seen from as far away as france we wondered where else the crane might be seen from...