The aeronautical engineers’ christmas party
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007We pull our crackers and put our hats on. The man opposite me shakes a crappy plastic aeroplane out of the cardboard tube; one of the wings is bent in a manner incompatible with flight. I find this slightly amusing, as I am sitting eating taramasalata with a bunch of blokes who design flying machines.
The man next to me picks it up, and indicating the bent wing, delightedly says “anhedral and dihedral”. Everyone chuckles. Except me, having a congenital inability to do maths or physics, and no knowledge of aerodynamics. I smile, wondering whether we will be making engineering in jokes all evening.
“Split the difference!” quips my future husband. Everyone laughs again. It is clear that a fine joke has just been made.
I pick up my glass to take a gulp of wine, and find a small blue plastic frog in it.
Christmas parties in Namibia just aren’t the same.
