The joys of a hall of residence

Had a fire alarm at 1am today. This siren sounded, stopped, sounded again, stopped again, then silence.

Then it started and didn't stop. Alex and I went to investigate, it was going off all around the building, despite the fire safety talk which said each flat was on it's own enclosed circuit.

They also promised us no late night fire drills. In fact they said the alarm would never sound throughout the building

We got to the bottom of the stairs in our block, discovered everyone was evacuating, so I followed suit and Alex went back to get dressed. After 2 mins outside, 2 things were discovered...

It were flippin cold...

....and the other 2 flatmates who were in at the time were still in bed. Asleep.

You see the alarm sounder is outside the main flat front door and unless you're awake you're unlikely to hear it. Great designing.

I went back for a fleece, despite being told never to re-enter a building, and hammered on their doors.

after 15 mins outside in the cold, surrounded by people in dressing gowns and mini skirts, the nice fireman let us all back in.

I feel sorry for those who had to be up early for teaching practice