Squids.
Being a biology nerd I willingly applied to a massive museum in London thinking it'd be interesting, that and I got a couple of weeks off of sixth form for the pleasure of it.
Most of it was pretty dreary, I spent most of my time rearranging drawers full of snails.
The highlight came when I had to help with the display of the museums recent acquisition, a massive squid by the name of Archie. This was all well and good, it meant I didn't have to sit in a dingy room, however the room stank of formaldehyde and other toxic fumes and so we had to don protective suits, masks, wellies and goggles making me look like some sort of monster.
So this squid, is sitting in a home made tank, which was essentially some wood nailed together and a load of pond liners. To the right of this is a massive glass tank a metre off of the floor. We have to lift this squid into the tank. Easier said than done.
In the end we make a squid lifting device out of some of those trolley things with a raising platform, some rope and yup, more pond liners.
It was going well, until the trolleys decided to start wobbling. Luckily we save the squid falling off of the floor by holding it (a hand full of damp, formaldehyde laden squid is not nice) and then pushing it into the tank.
This said tank is filled with more formaldehyde which is an attractive green colour and when breathed in makes you pretty darn high.
Squid reaches the tank and lands with a massive plop sending what can only be compared to a small tidal wave of toxic liquid, squid juice and rotted flesh over all fifteen so of us.
The tube journey home was fun. It took days to get rid of the smell.
At least I got free drinks at the end of it.

Apologies for length, but the squid was huge.
(LoLLie, Thu 10 May 2007, 23:09, Reply)