Quizzical

10.19pm. After the 'technically food', I took a walk up to Holgate House, and stood outside with Duncan, and later Alex(ander) too. He is trying to get hold of an extra pillow for his room, as the single pillow supplied is thin. I pointed him in the direction of one of the women who works in the OU office, hopefully he'll have some success there.

There was a quiz in Holgate House, and it followed much the same format as the quiz last year, but there seemed to be much more life in it this time. We had to sit in our groups (yellow spots for me), and had to devise team names. For some reason we were the only team who didn't end up with a colour-related team name. I even made lots of relevant suggestions... yellow submarine, yellow fever, yellow anything, but we ended up with the team name of Fred. It wasn't my idea, and I don't think David Kean saw a funny side either.

The quiz was good, although there was a guy in the other yellow group who I wanted to punch with increasing ferocity as the evening went on. There was nothing wrong with him per se but he kept coming out with horribly geeky comments (when David Keen referred to someone who could recite pi to 30 decimal places as 'a tosser', funny and quite justifiable in the context of the evening), this bloke pipped up with the lamest cringeworthy anecdote ever (which I am embarrassed to admit to knowing already).

Our team lost the quiz by just one point; it was hardly a ferociously fought affair but we had worked hard on it, and it was a bit galling to lose on a 'Call My Bluff' style round. Even the scenarios were the same, I really ought to have remembered them from last year.

Alex in his hat.

After the quiz, we all retired to the Grey bar ("I wanna take you to a Grey bar!"). Duncan bought a round before I even had a chance, then a nice lady called Zoe bought a second.

Duncan raised the subject of the very recent death of his father. As he'd mentioned it I didn't feel awkward returning in kind, and I said I was surprised that he'd made it to Durham. Duncan said his father had insisted that Duncan attend (he'd been diagnosed with end-stage cancer), and in fact died on Thursday, which Duncan said "made the decision for me." Even so there must be mixed feelings, and I am conscious that all the laughter from him and the jolly nature I am seeing isn't the real person; he must be dreadfully upset inside that he has lost his father. They were clearly very close.

I left with the party in the bar still going strong, rang home, had a lovely chat with Alan as I walked back to room 23, and signed off for the night, feeling a little rueful. I could easily have stayed much longer, but it's been a long day, and there is a succession of long days to come.