The Pearson Project - Project Reports

Project Report Part 3

Venue: Edinburgh
Date: 20/6/2003
Team Members Present: Pearson, Gilly, Tooma, Wally, Lanky, Harle + Duck

Written by Chris Gill

The team arrived at Whickham School for 6:30am and were delighted to notice that we were ALL wearing our Hanes t-shirts won in the quiz. We were informed that we would be split into separate buses. 4 buses were parked in the bus lane, Mrs Graham (Head of 6th Form) informed us that none of the team were on bus 1. Tooma, Wally, Harle and Duck were placed on bus 2, Lanky alone on bus 3, and Pearson and Gilly on bus 4.

The journey to Edinburgh began at 6:50am, and the first break was around 8:45am, Lanky, Pearson and Gilly jumped off the bus and had a chat, while Wally, Toomer, Harle and Duck elected to stay seated on their bus. We left the lay-by and headed once again for Edinburgh.

We finally arrived at 10am and the team congregated outside the main entrance of the University. While we were standing deciding where to go, a bus from another school arrived and their bus driver crashed into a lamp post and knocked the lamp from the top off, smashing all over the ground, the team thought this was very funny. The school planned the visit so our 6th form could look around the University, but the Pearson Project Team had other ideas. We couldn't let a free trip to Edinburgh be wasted, this was Part 3 of the Project!

We headed immediately for the town centre, on the way there we spotted a van driving up the street, on closer inspection we noticed that the company who owned the van was 'The Erection Specialists' (Click For Photo), related to Dik Steel by any chance?
We soon found Princess Street and our immediate decision was to visit Burger King. We all claimed free Burger King hats but only Gilly wore his outside of the restaurant (Click For Photo).
We left Burger King and had a long walk down Princess Street, and noticed that Edinburgh has a a lot of Pizza Huts, one on every bloody corner (Despite the excessive amount of Pizza Huts, we failed to take a photo, but we're sure you know what Pizza Hut looks like!). Realising that Princess Street was very very long we decided to carry on walking. We past Bagley (Click For Photo), a strange child from our school, and after taking a photo, quickly left him behind. A few moments later Harle noticed a bus - the bus was heading to a place called Wallyford (Click For Photo), named after Team Member Wally possibly?

The strangest moment of the day however, is when we encountered the Gouranga Man! (Click For Photo) He was a Harry Krishner who claimed to be from Newcastle like ourselves. He blabbered on about his religion and how this was National Happy Day etc, then gave us all Gouranga Stickers, Gouranga Rock, and a Gouranga Book. How Kind.
The team were getting bored, we needed things to liven up, the bus wasn't leaving for hours and we hadn't achieved much. That's where our great sense of humour comes in. As it was The Pearson Project we got Pearson to do some strange stuff. We got him in a phone box talking to no-one (Click For Photo). We found an wooden Indian friend for Pearson (Click For Photo). We also found some animal friends, Lanky joined in here too (Click For Photo)

Most of the team had woke up before 6am and were still suffering from sleep deprivation, so we agreed to have a rest, while we were sitting about(resting) some more animal friends of Pearson's approached us. Edinburgh is full of flying rats(Pigeons). So we took photo's of them (Click For Photo). While playing with the pigeons Pearson spotted a man playing the bagpipes and he was wondering what a Scotsman really does wear under his kilt, so he went to find out (Click For Photo). We found a small shopping centre and decided to have a look about, after quickly realising there was buger all there, we turned around to leave. 6 of the team walked up the escalator which travelled upwards, but Lanky thought he would try and walk up the escalator heading downwards, unsurprisingly he failed and fell over. Coming out of the shopping centre we spotted a shop across the road selling 'See you Jimmy' hats, we thought these would look great with our Hanes shirts (Photo 1) (Photo 2).

The team walked back along Princess Street looking very stupid, but we thought we looked great. Tooma then spotted a van which amused him (Click For Photo). We arrived back at the University at 3:30pm and sat around with everyone staring at us for about half an hour, then the team were once again split up as we boarded the buses. Once again not much happened on the way back but to the dismay of Pearson, the official Pearson Project soundtrack (The Foundations - Why do you build me up) was played over the radio, Gilly was in stitches laughing and was so disappointed that the rest of the team weren't on the same bus. Most people were very tired after the long day and this showed when half the bus fell asleep - including Pearson! (Click For Photo), pity he didn't have any seizures. Sicky and Sonny also fell asleep (Click For Photo) (Click For Photo).

We arrived back at school at 7pm and the team immediately decided that the pub was the best option. However, Duck and Harle disagreed and they headed for home. As it was nearing the end of the month the team were needing a new idea for the competition page, and we ended up taking photos of each others legs. You can view the competitions page by clicking here.. We stopped off at the chippy for some food on the way to the pub, and were astonished when a person called Joe ran upto Pearson shouting "Pearson I've seen your site, you rule, you rule!" (Click For Photo)
After a pint or 4 (Click For Photo) the team left the pub and all headed for their homes, agreeing that this was probably the funniest part of the project so far!