text: Ride a Shiny Bus to a Competition Lifestyle — robmiles.com
  Ride a Shiny Bus to a Competition Lifestyle
  March 09, 2006 / Rob Miles
  At 11:30 we were on the shiny bus and off to Reading to the Microsoft Imagine Cup Software Design Challenge Final(tm). Just me, Dave, Iain and most of the four winning teams. A very smooth ride down, enlivened by a really naff, but hugely enjoyable, film called "The Longest Yard". This is a remake of "The Mean Machine", a film about an American Football team made up of jailbirds who sign up so that they can beat up the guards but end up learning important life lessons and stuff like that. A hoot.
  When we get to our posh hotel we just have time to down a couple of free drinks before being ushered into the dining room to eat a delicious meal (which was curry as the final winner of the UK competition gets to go to India to take on the world - I of course was the last person to spot the significance of this). Then a quiz which, much to our surprise, our table manged to win. After that it was one more free drink and then off to bed.
  At least, that was the plan. In fact I spent another hour going through team presentations and then bed. But great fun.