I have to say I have just come back from one of the best social events at university. It may have involved a ten-hour round trip and be the cause of an all-nighter to finish off the work I could have been doing over the weekend, but it certainly was worth it. I am of course talking about Opfest, the inter-optometry school sports day. It sounds like a lot of fun.... and I can confirm, it was! We left Cardiff at 5:30 and arrived just before midnight. It seemed a long trip as the bus heating seemed to have been left on - cue lots of sleepy optoms upon arrival. Bradford had arranged for us to head straight out to a "Geek and Optometry" themed night out at their union. Despite being tired, after checking into out hotel, we were straight out. Our school decided to head home before the end...after all, a 3 am bedtime and an 8 am start for the competition gave us only a few hours sleep and it was thought if we left earlier, we'd have an edge over the other universities...oh how untrue that turned out to be! The morning came and tired heads arrived for breakfast, before trekking off to the local sports hall to open the games with a relay race, of which I had the last leg. My task was to do the (refuse) sack race. Cardiff came 3rd, not bad...I think it turned out our best result of the day! This was followed by the Tug of War, with many a tactic learned for next year! We finished 4th! The rest of the morning period consisted of rounds of touch rugby, football and dodgeball. Overall, I think Cardiff lost every game, but our tactic was just to keep having fun as some students were overly competitive. I think for that, we were awarded "friendliest university". In the afternoon, many of the girls from the Cardiff team took on the challenges of netball. Although I know the basic rules, I have never watched a game. It was really good fun to watch and our girls did us proud! After the day had come to a close, we retired to our hotels to remove our coloured warpaint from our faces and have an hour or so to relax before returning to the union for the Bollywood Ball. The evening was fantastic - the main hall of the union was decorated in Bollywood themed colours and objects and an Indian-based menu was served. Bradford surpassed themselves here - it was brilliant! The evening continued after food with a dance show, with some amazing dancing from Bradford students, Aston students and some professional dancers. Of course, once this was over, it was time for the awards. Bradford really did well throughout the sports and claimed the majority of the awards, but other awards did go around to pretty much all of the universities. One of the Cardiff team won one to show his team spirit - never have they seen someone put so much effort into the sports - or receive so many injuries because of it! Overall, the weekend is one that EVERY optometry student should at least try and attend - even if not participating you can support (credit must go to Aston with their HUGE following of supporters, they put the other schools to shame!). I'm certainly glad I took the chance to go and will certainly be putting my name down to go to Aston next year, for when Opfest 2012 springs into action. However until then, I best get on with my studies!