Post exams and Portsmouth

So, exams have been over. The week following that was spent working on a business simulation exercise. With that out of the way, we now concentrate on the research proposal for the dissertation coming up in July.

The exams were taxing, with 5 in 5 days. Yep, you got that right. It was 5 in 5. Not a shred of mercy for the business school students. We lived, we sailed through... and finally crashed after the exams were over. But the exhilaration triumphed over fatigue and we spent the afternoon lazing about at Hyde Park, soaking in the sun over a few beers and then trooping in for an after-exams party at a classmate's place at Fulham Broadway (nice house he had there!!) And so the much awaited weekend started. And honestly, most were interested in lazing about than anything else. However, me and a couple of my classmates decided to spend the day out on Sunday, walking about in Soho. (read about it here: Soho Walk on a Sunday)

Hyde park on Sunny Afternoon (May '09)

The business simulation exercise though was mind boggling. Having had to run a business on a software simulation, each team (formed at the beginning of the year) had to manage it to ensure profits, good share price, nice dividends, valuable market share, sustainability and other aspects as one is supposed to encounter in the real life scenario. A steep learning curve it was, with the advantage being, the mistakes would cause losses but they would only be numbers on the screen. Definitely a better way to try out the fundamentals we have been picking up over the year, without any serious repurcussion which was, as a professor pointed out, an advantage managers of yesteryears never had. :)

*****

Going ahead the scheme of things as laid out before, I would be sharing a few pictures from Portsmouth, which I visited in February. A port city and a major naval base of the Royal Navy and Marine Commandos, Portsmouth has been in the thick of actions since the medieval ages. It's most famous creation being the Mary Rose (built during the reign of Henry VIII), which had infamously sunk a few km off the shore in 1545. Speculations are rife over why she sunk till today. The last of its remains were recovered from Davy Jones' Locker in 1982, and is the oldest surviving remain of any ship. It can be viewed at the Portsmouth Historical Dockyards. The Dockyards also houses the famous HMS Victory (oldest ship in commission), which Lord Nelson commanded during the Battle of Trafalgar, and it was on this very ship that he breathed his last on 21st October, 1805.

The remains of Mary Rose, washed in molten wax

The HMS Victory, portside

The Spinnaker tower