Fairly constant

Had a very nice evening. The bar was packed; Andy was loud as ever (cue Kirsten saying, "Erm, volume?"), Paul was also on form. Kirsten and Roy had a couple of Malibu and Coke type drinks but then disappeared fairly early on, presumably to bed. Kirsten looked a little pale, and as the evening drew on, Roy looked a little warm. They've already said that they aren't really drinking this week, which is fair enough, entirely up to them of course.

I stayed for a couple of rounds, and we poked fun at the pub quiz. None of us felt like taking part, but there seemed to be some extremely easy rounds, and others that were fiendishly difficult.

When the bar closed (really early) thanks to Paul's sense of enterprise, Andy, Paul, another guy (whose name I don't know - imagine social misfit who we really want to get involved but who never seems to feel able) and I found ourselves in the room in Holgate House that has been given over to the tutors, armed with two bottles of white (yay) and two bottles of rose (ugh).

Andy (fellow OU student) and Katherine (Durham University student staff)

Two members of Durham staff joined us (Katherine and Andy), and later the college porter -- well, to be honest he discovered us in there, so we got busted. But they joined us and we had a really good evening together. This included an in-depth conversation on the popularity of the c word 'up north'. I also managed to swipe a copy of the tutor notes for this course.

There was also a funny moment when Paul spotted a ten quid bottle of red wine sitting on a work surface, and decided that we should appropriate it 'in the name of the people' (i.e., us). He'd had a few by then and struggled to open it, so I popped the cork. He then both astonished and appalled me by pouring some of the contents into a plastic glass which already contained half a glass of rosé. Yuck!

Paul, committing alcoholic murder!

Katherine, one of the people who joined us, is also a student at Durham University, studying social sciences, and we had a fair bit of banter about justifying the word 'science' in 'social science'. Her role this week involves her working for Durham University in the OU office, dealing with any liaison issues for the week.

She was very nice to chat to, and I thought the others were rather mean for shouting her down. I felt that I was the only one who took her subject seriously, and to her credit, she made a point of thanking me for it later.