A busy afternoon

6.40pm. At about 3pm I finally got bored of staring at the same four walls, so I left my room, and went out for a look around. I found myself sitting on a grass area close to reception, at a picnic table. After a while some ladies came and joined me, who turned out to be a small contingent of Northern smokers. Chatted to them for a while but then Paul (who is billeted in one of the Elvet (non en-suite) buildings, rather than Holgate, unfortunately) arrived.

The wooden picnic tables in question, after we'd vacated them.

Big man hugs ensued, it was really good to see him, and within about ten minutes, the four months since I saw him last just seemed to evaporate. He did manage earlier to ingratiate himself with Gemma, the goth-lite girl who checked the rest of us in, and as a consequence, Paul is also a yellow spot like us.

Shortly before 4pm we congregated outside reception with an increasingly large bunch of other students, waiting to have our introductory briefing. Although Paul got stung by a wasp this was an otherwise fairly bland dull wait, and the staff were late. If we are meant to be on time, the least they can do is to return the compliment.

Paul's arm, complete with wasp sting.

We were taken down to the geography block (perversely) past a load of builders putting up scaffolding outside the physics block. One of them wasn't bad looking, but instantly forgettable.

Paul's arm came up like a treat at the site of the wasp sting, but he seems to be used to it. As a stay-at-home father, he's grown accustomed to working with his children in their garden, and a wasp sting just doesn't faze him. Unlike me; I'd run off screaming like a big girl's blouse!

Roy, Kirsten, Paul and I were astonished to run into Tim, who was on SXR208 in Mallorca with us. He's a really nice guy. Campish-but-patently straight, fifties, foppish long greying hair and a genuine pleasant sense of humour. Lord only knows what he sees in us lot but the feeling is reciprocated, and it was great to see him.

After what seemed to be a long wait outside the geography block (I posted to Facebook that I had stood outside more than enough buildings for one day), we were led finally inside, down some steps and into a lilac-lined lecture theatre. I hope it wasn't designed to be soothing. It isn't.

Helen, another yellow spot who has fallen in with our group, sat to my left, then me, then Paul, then Roy and Kirsten.

We had an absurdly long introductory session from a lady all too fond of the sound of her own voice. During the session, large quantities of people introducing themselves, such as staff from the OU, staff from Durham, special assistance helpers, etc etc, none of whom I will remember by the end of the evening (or probably even the end of the lecture), with the possible exception of Andy, who is a general fix-it technician I think; his strange insistent enthusiasm for all things physics and Durham are likely to stick in my mind for a while. I know these sessions are a necessary evil but they really could do with being pared down to the bare minimum required.

In this introductory session we were told in which order we're going to be doing the three main experiments and set of short experiments. Our yellow spot group is going to be doing electrical oscillations tomorrow, which should be quite good. We were also given a temporary username and password for the Durham University computer network, which both appear to be randomly generated.

Once this session was finally over, we filed out of the lecture theatre in group order in the direction of the physics lab. I joked to Paul that the quest of the week would be to find another girl to give him a blow job before the end of this residential, on the grounds that he managed that at Mallorca with Louise. Much laughter.

We then found ourselves in a small lab which looked like it should have had sewing machines in it more than physics equipment. I think it just reminded me of the classroom from my old school that had sewing machines in. It all seemed a bit low-tech but we'll get into it tomorrow I'm sure.

The activity tutor David Keen introduced himself; he and I have enjoyed some banter together on the OU course forums, mostly about a particularly rude contributor who objected to a request from me as to whether there were ironing boards in the accommodation, on the grounds that it wasn't physics-related. David does indeed, as promised wear shorts, but unfortunately manages not to look cool and relaxed, instead he looks like a Brit abroad, with his white socks and sandals. It's not a pretty combination and the fashion police will have to be called before the end of the week. But he's very kind-natured and I can tell that we are going to get along.

Helen, Roy, Kirsten, Paul and I all sat at the back in what seems to be a rapidly emerging pattern ("Why don't you come and sit at the front? There's plenty of chairs." / "Yes, some of which are at the back"), and listened intently to some basics on coil winding, followed by a brief practical demonstration of soldering, which we'll have to do ourselves tomorrow when we build oscilating circuits for ourselves.

I haven't soldered for about 20 years, so it was a useful reminder for me, but I won't feel properly comfortable until I do it for real tomorrow. David Keen made an unwittingly funny remark during the soldering demonstration, when he suggested that "you should always keep your end clean." Much infantile tittering from our ranks!

After filing out, we went back to Grey, and stood outside the dinner hall waiting for it to open, which seemed to take an absolute age. Dinner tonight was not an encouraging start; I won't bore you with all the choices but I ended up with a little bit of many things, including a shepherd's pie which didn't appear to be on the menu, a couple of pasta things and some ratatoille.

I didn't imagine that straightforward food like this could be mucked up, but the pasta was a little undercooked, with creases that looked like a diagram of the Fallopean tubes, and the ratatoille was hot but undercooked, taking aldente to its most extreme. I believe this is a meal which will not be quickly forgotten by everyone and everything except my bowel, but probably ought to be.

I tried to phone Alan for a chat, but the noise in the dinner hall was too loud, and the reception on the line itself was too poor to have any kind of decent conversation. Regretfully I had to hang up, and I'll try and call him again later when an opportunity presents itself.

Tonight there is an apparently light-hearted session on physics, which takes the form of a physics related quiz, which hopefully is better than it sounds. After that, it's off to the JCR for a couple of sweet sherries. I cannot and will not drink much tonight; I need to be on form tomorrow for 9am.

I had intended to jump in the shower, but it's taken quite a while to download audio recordings and photographs from the day, attempt vainly to connect to the internet via an ethernet cable, and then to type up this blog. I now have about 10 minutes to get ready, get out again and head off for the rest of this evening's activities.

Apropo of nothing, it would seem that there are very few compulsory evening lectures, which is good news. I will probably go to the special relativity one, the guest one and the writing up experiments one, but other than that I'll probably give them a miss, otherwise I'll just be too knackered to get the best out of it all.