This week my Word of the Week is: Conduit! #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:

Conduit, conduit, conduit. That's all I've heard this week. lol This time last week I didn't even know what a Conduit was but I have heard all about them from Ellie. She even had a good chat with my dad and brother about them, they are into things like that. 

A conduit is "a channel for conveying water or other fluid or "a tube or trough for protecting electric wiring". It's the electric one we've been interested in as Ellie has been learning all about them in college. It is something she will need to know all about as she is training to be an electrician.

She has been working with steel and PVC conduit's and they have both had their own challenges with learning how to bend them. With the steel one's there is a machine which bends them which sounds easy but it's hard to get the bend in the right place and with the PVC one's you bend them by heating them up which is easier said than done when the weather has been so cold, the college workshop is not the warmest of places. You rub them until they are warm and flexible and then shape them how you want them. Ellie said she was glad for her gloves and it was the only time that day when her hands were warm. I am sure trained electricians have some sort of heat gun to help them out, I said to Ellie when she is qualified she'll need to have a hair dryer in her tool kit, that would do the job of heating them up without burning them. lol Ellie came home from college on Wednesday with aching arms and legs where she had been pushing on the pipes to bend them. She feels like she is really learning lots, especially over the last week. There is way more to electrical engineering than just wires.

Ellie had an assessment this week, it was a resit from one a couple of weeks ago which she failed. She doesn't have an exam at the end of the year, she has these assessments throughout the year. Her and a few others were told if they didn't pass this they couldn't move on to learning new things and potentially run the risk of not passing the course. I have been worrying but of course she smashed it! Phew! Now she can move onto the next topic. 

She is now one step closer to completing the course and it really is flying over. When she breaks up for Christmas she will be almost half way through. She is loving it, everything about college apart from getting the bus each morning. It's dark when she leaves and dark when she gets home now. She's even started wearing a coat now which is unheard of for Ellie. She is one of those teenagers who thinks coats are for wimps but she's given in and would rather be warm than look good. lol I am not liking this cold weather either, I hate being cold so I am living for fluffy socks, hot water bottles and blankets.

How has your week been? I hope you have had a good one!