And that! And that! Ooooh!’ ‘Muddy,’ I growled through clenched teeth, ‘pack it in. People are staring.’ ‘But look,’ he cried, ‘they’ve got a proper laboratory. And have you seen the size of their canteen? And that sign up there says IT Centre. Not just a room like at school – a whole centre! I can’t wait to be a university student. A real laboratory, plus parties all the time and making a lot of noise at three in the morning!’ The university was certainly an impressive place. A narrow road wandered through the main campus, passing all kinds of buildings, each of which was totally different in size and style to the ones either side. It looked as if teams of builders had raced each other to finish one idea after another. Signposts and diagrams pointed here, there and everywhere, to the Department of This-Subject and the Institute of That-Studies. Muddy and I were surrounded by flowing streams of students, all of them way taller than us and most of them wearing designer jeans.
