h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Sometimes we have to stay late at work to finish something. In my case, it will be some IT system that's failed and which needs to be up and running before the next working day. I work with all the technical experts to fix it, and depending on how important the system is, we can stay there as long as it takes. It's not unusual to be in the office for many hours after everyone else has gone.

Surprisingly, there's always activity taking place. You get cleaners doing their night-hoovering, maintenence men fixing things, and security guards regularly patrolling, often jingling ridiculously large bunches of keys and testing all the window locks. When it gets beyond 9pm, we're authorised to send out for a pizza.

At some point you have to make a decision about whether you're going to be able to get home by public transport or whether you're going to hang around all night. Last night I saw the prospect coming and decided I'd rather be in the comfort of my own home. I sneaked away at 7pm and by 9pm I was back online. We worked on the problem until about 1am until someone decided that we were all a bit jaded and should get some rest, so we could tackle it anew first thing in the morning. No sooner had we said our instant message goodnghts, than the phone rang. It was a major hardware failure affecting another critical system. I had to get some of the guys back online, and ring others, some on the other side of the world. In a nutshell, it took until 6am to swap the system over to a backup version and test it.

Go to bed.

Nah; 72 hour shifts in the 3 day week. But I noticed at Argos distribution near xmas some shunter drivers sleeping on the job. The only all nighters I do now is when my pc goes down. But I use Max Blast now and can be done in half an hour.

Should live in London; buses run 24/7 if your near the centre or even if your not if your lucky.

Hm, another Nighthoover spotting.

[Amy P]

Because my ex wouldn't move I had to commute to university and therefore had only about half the time to answer the sixty or so problems presented every the day.

I used to like working on the deserted bridge because I could keep an eye on Old Joe the clock, and the tables had reading lights important since power to the main lights is cut at 3pm unless there was something going on. Of course the toilets and downstairs are in the dark, and the main door is on an electronic lock; if you leave, the door locks behind.

After 5pm the lock is both ways and you will be locked in unless you use a fire escape or go upstairs to the staff rooms and walk the entire length to the other end. This door locks a little later but it does lock.

But one of the researchers worked late to finish his book and managed to get locked in; so he decides to stay the night but on his way to the toilet bumps into the old professor who lives there; about a hundred years old and always wears a black gown covered in chalk. I don't think he needed the toilet anymore

Ooh were you at Birmingham too?

I spotted that Joe reference too...

Hope you got some sleep!

Me too! Which bridge?

I used to enjoy habiting the old CS rooms at the bottom of the Aston Webb building. Also the tunnels underneath the whole lot, but not that often.

The bridge between Watson and Physics; I didn't like to explore Physics because it was full of laboratories, and who knows what kind of trouble you could get into.

Oh yes, I remember. I did music, so I didn't have much cause to go up there, but I did go to the coffee shop once or twice while is was studying a particle physics module (which I failed abysmally but really enjoyed).

I just remember a small group of physics students in the dark corner playing dungeons and dragons; that with the occasional postgraduate visitor talking about not much really. It was a surreal experience; a place I could think and had a very big impression on me.

Definitely a nice place to be.