Tomb Raider: Being Lara Croft

OK, the title might seem like an extra from the Tomb Raider DVD or a new gaming title, but it was what I actually lived today.

Before I begin I should say that in order to make ends meet I am working for the University network team. What I actually do is to solve the users' problems connecting to the local network of the University of Manchester and eventually the Internet. The problems I encounter are mainly as simple as clicking a button, or running some commands from the students' computers. In case that none of those troubleshooting techniques work, I have to go to a room full of machinery, cables and lights (what technicians call "The switch room").

until today the problems assigned to me were what I call "the simple ones". Problems that I resolved by resetting some servers or by visiting the students for a couple of minutes. Today, though, it was different. Whatever I had tried had failed, and all the testings from my side made it obligatory to go to "The Switch Room". I must admit that I was intimidated by that room somehow. If you consider that pulling a wrong cable may cause about 100 students go offline and eventually lose your job, you would understand why I was a bit afraid by "The Switch Room". I, eventually, overcame my fear and asked the security guy to give me the keys to the switch room, which (according to a co-worker) was "somewhere at flat X". The security guy gave me the keys. They looked like keys to open a treasure box. I felt too proud to ask him where exactly in room X the switch room was, so I acted experienced, put the keys in my pocket and went on to "the quest for the holly treasure box".

Flat X was actually a flat. With people staying there. I knocked on the door but I got no reply. I used some other keys that the security guy had given me to open the main door and entered the flat. Everyone was I their rooms so I had all the communal areas to search for the room I was looking for. I opened some doors but nothing was there except for vacuums and mopsticks. I entered the kitchen but no luck there as well.

When I was about to call it quits and go back to the security lodge to ask for the room's whereabouts, I noticed a hatch on the kitchen's room. "No way", I thought. "How am I supposed to get up there?". I moved some tables and chairs -trying not to make noise, wake the residents and have to reply to the question "What are you doing?" with "I haven't a clue"- and climbed high enough to take a closer look of the hatch. It only had one hole, which didn't actually looked like a keyhole, but nevertheless I put my weird-looking keys in and turned a couple of times. I heard some metal turning and the hatch was open. The "door" opened to reveal a weird looking thing. I had to pull it down to become a ladder.

Without knowing what I was about to encounter, but positive that I was on the right track, I climbed the ladder. When I reached the top, I couldn't see a thing. It was completely dark. I could recognize some lights glowing at the other side of the room, but I couldn't tell if my next step was going to be on solid ground or not. It was time to use my brand new cellphone with flashlight capabilities. I made my way to "The switch room" and made the tests I had to do.

I had done it. I used all my skills to discover where the switch room was, to find my way to the actual switches and to make the proper tests I needed to do. And the most important thing was that I had done all of that without scaring the flat's residents. I was something between Lara Croft and James Bond.

I was smiling my way down the weird ladder only to discover 2 of the flat's residents looking at me fearful dressed in their pijamas ready to run scared outside the building. They had just seen a guy climbing down from a staircase they didn't even know existed smiling weirdly.

"I am working for the network team, sorry to disturb you" I said quietly while folding the staircase back into the hatch.

"Damn, it would be really cool if that just hadn't happened" I thought...