Walkabout

7.22pm. After speaking to Alan at about 2pm and then tinkering around on the internet for a while, I went into town for a walkaround. I needed to 'get off the grid', so to speak, for a couple of hours, simply be disconnected from the rest of the outside world, not have to check in with my colleagues, and simply enjoy some time on my own.

Me on Kingsgate Bridge.

I went across the Kingsgate Bridge, took some nice photos of the bridge, the river, the DSU, and even of myself. Afterwards, I walked up to the cathedral (whose towers have dominated the skyline on this residential week so far), looked around Palace Green, again took some nice snaps. I remember the trees by the side of Palace Green were full of blossom when Alan and I came up here in May, today they just had green leaves.

I then walked down and across to Hatfield College, where I stayed in 1995 during my M101 residential school. Interestingly, there were a large number of OU students around, and it would seem that the OU is using Hatfield for an arts residential, A214 I believe. I even took a quick peek inside the chapel through the glass, which I didn't get the chance to do before. I would have gone inside, but there was a lady practicising church organ, and I didn't want to disturb her.

As I walked down the hill, I ran into Colin. We had a quick chat; I got the impression he was doing the same as me. I went off down the hill, found myself in a branch of Waterstones. Bought a Durham hoodie and a tie slide, then ended up in Tesco for a couple of provisions.

On my journey I felt my phone vibrate; it was Paul sending a text message saying that he and Andy were outside reception. I should have replied to it there and then, but to be honest I was enjoying being away from other people for a little while, so I waited.

I carried on walking for a good half hour more, and found myself going down a wide well-defined path, with a canopy of trees overhead, yet close to the river. I could hear people rowing many feet below, but for the most part I was able to see them.


The path brought me out at Prebend's Bridge, which was beautiful. I crossed over that, followed the path, and found myself in a graveyard, of what turned out to be St Oswald's Church on South Road, only a few hundred yards away from Grey College.

When I got back to Grey, I sent Paul a text message, and fibbed a bit, saying that I'd run into an old friend and had lost track of time. He clearly wasn't upset or offended, and after I changed my shirt, the back of which was evidently sweaty thanks to stomping brisky back uphill to Grey, I dumped my puchases on my desk, and went back into town.

Paul phoned me, and said that they would meet me on the bridge. So I plonked myself on Kingsgate Bridge, but there was nobody in sight. I sent a text asking if they were on Kingsgate Bridge or Elvet Bridge, but didn't get a reply. Figuring that he must have meant Elvet, I walked down, and found them malingering in the middle.


We ended up in the Half Moon pub, and sat outside in the beer garden for a couple of pints. It was very nice, but there were too many wasps, and Paul ended up losing about half a pint because a wasp decided to crawl into his Magners.

Not quite sure how the topic of conversation came up, but Andy mentioned that on Friday night he'd been at his fiancée's sister's wedding, to another woman. This apparently explains why he was late arriving at Grey, because he'd been "too busy drinking". Generally liberal credentials are best shown by behaviour rather than claiming to have them, but I do believe him.

We left just after 6pm, took a fast walk back up to Grey, and went straight for dinner. I opted for a turkey and mushroom type affair, vaguely strogonoff-like, which wasn't bad at all, although to be honest I am growing a little weary of strogonoffs, there seems to be one on the menu every day almost!

I walked back up to my room, phoned Alan and stood outside Holgate for most of the call. It was lovely to hear his voice. I have very much enjoyed the evening off.

I need to do some work tonight on finishing off the number crunching from today's Compton scattering lab work, as I have to get this to Jimena, but other than that, it's a quick drink with at least Paul and Andy; I suspect we may not see Roy and Kirsten tonight after today's deep unpleasantness.

I just spoke to Roy, as I felt awkward that I didn't get an opportunity to talk to them after seeing them fleetingly at reception. He said that things had really gotten to him this afternoon, but he was getting them into perspective as much as he could. They are driving around Durham trying to find a nice restaurant, then they are being domestic for the evening, so looks like I won't be seeing them later, but that's okay, I'll see them tomorrow.