THE third Learning at Work day last Thursday, part of Adult Learners' week, encouraged staff to take part in tai chi, reflexology, pictured right, language classes and card making.

Rosalyn Anne Doyle demonstrates reflexology points on Victoria Thomas, centre for educational development

This year's events were put together following a brainstorming session by the staff development team. "It's got bigger and better each year. This year's newest events include beginners' Mandarin, beginners' Russian and visits to local museums," commented Judy Barnett, staff development unit manager.

"The entire team have worked hard, particularly Sara Melloy and Val Sockalingum who have done so much to organise the day. In total, 240 Imperial staff took part in the classes and visits."

I went up the Queen's Tower, guided by Amanda Bailey, a Master's student in environmental technology.

Amanda was climbing the stairs for the sixth time and claimed to have swallowed a lot of dust.

Many of her fellow climbers had long been intrigued by the history around them. Val Flisher from Registry had watched aeronautics launch their planes from the building year after year, and had always wanted to go up. Another member of staff commented after the visit: "We live in a place which is extraordinary, and we just walk past it every day."

Liz Carr sought out some Energy at Work and learnt a number of energy increasing techniques.

"The first session, qigong, focused on improving our energy by experiencing, harnessing and working with qi, the human body's vital energy," she said.

"With the emphasis on gentleness, we worked through some exercises to harness and increase our qi, followed by some flowing movements reminiscent of tai chi.

"This is hardly surprising when you think that qigong exercises are the building blocks of many practices including tai chi and various martial arts.

"For the second half of the morning we learnt some basic shiatsu techniques and practised on each other. Shiatsu is an ancient healing therapy which combines Japanese bodywork with traditional Chinese medicine.

"By the end of the morning I felt energised and invigorated.

"We all agreed it had been very beneficial for all those stresses and strains of deadlines, working at computers, and the extremely cerebral nature of university life."

Anyone interested in joining a regular class should email l.carr@imperial.ac.uk.