6.34pm. The lab ended for the day at 5.30pm, and Dunc and I rushed to get a few last measurements, as we were very close to getting readings for our allocated scattering angle of Caesium. We are not behind schedule but the end of the lab often comes around when you are still in the middle of measuring something.
We walked back up the hill to Grey, and Dunc again talked at some length about his father. He has done this every day so far, and he clearly needs to talk. His bright outlook and sunny disposition is tempered fairly traumatically by the death of his father less than a week ago. I gather from what he's told me that he did quite a lot of the looking after him in the last few days of his father's life, and now, perhaps by choice but certainly due to being up at Durham, the rest of the family are having to step in and take their turn. Quite right too.
I feel for him deeply; I cannot imagine the world without either of my parents.
I got back to my room, dumped my books, quickly downloaded photos from the camera and audio recordings from the recorder onto the laptop, then dashed back out again for dinner.
As I got up the stairs to the dining hall, the doors were being opened. Alex was already in the dining hall having soup; I think he'd arrived early and decided to sit down rather than stand in a queue for ages and wait.
Tonight's choices were either fishcakes again or gammon, I opted for the latter. I sat opposite Alex and a couple of guys in his green spots group, one Irish, the other Italian. We chatted about where we saw ourselves going academically after graduating.
Alex said he wanted to go on to do a masters degree. The cuts in higher degree funding is only going to make this harder though. He said, not unreasonably, that he doesn't want to work in a wine shop all his life. I can understand that. I've more than done my fair share in retail. Whilst it's clear that he enjoys his job he doesn't see it as a lasting career, and I can appreciate that.
There's a fractionally odd sadness to Alex which I find both interesting and compelling. I have a feeling that if I were to be dreadfully nosy and probe beneath the surface, I would find a man with an interesting story. He makes me want to know more about him; why the leather coat, why the leather cowboy hat? These draw attention to him, but to talk to him is to gain the impression of a man who doesn't seek or enjoy attention. I also realised that he has his hair in exactly the same style as my ex Chris. That's neither a good nor bad thing, it feels wholly neutral, but it's interesting to me.
Well, I certainly didn't fancy the karaoke tonight over at Collingwood College (the college next to Grey), tempting though it is to go and look around other colleges. Had it been at Ustinov I would have gone, partly for the name, partly because I like the look of the place having had a good virtual look around online. Similarly if it had been at Van Mildert I would have good for the nostalgia, but I know it wouldn't have been anything like as good without Paul - despite Paul texting me earlier with the code for Van Mildert's door! (1376) Nor would it be the same without the same bar staff as last time. Sometimes nostalgia is best left in the past and not revisited.
So after dinner I decided to head towards town for a walk, and to let my dinner settle. Unfortunately I picked exactly the wrong time to leave the college. The sky was black and heavy, the air sick with an intense aroma of unidentified flowers, and about half a mile down the road, the heavens opened, and I was drenched within seconds.
I couldn't get any wetter, so I figured I might as well keep going for a little while. I walked past St Oswald's handsome Norman church, past Dunelm House and Kingsgate Bridge, past Palmers Garth, and got a little way down the hill when I decided to pop into a shop for a couple of bits and pieces.
Inside the shop, a Scottish woman was arguing over the price of cigarettes, as if doing so would make the owner relent and charge less. I treated myself to a couple of cans and some Tic Tacs, then walked back up South Road to Grey. There seem to be an awful lot of Japanese students in Durham at the moment, a group of about forty of them, all armed with umbrellas, were walking into Dunelm House as I came down the hill.
The rain has stopped but it is incredibly humid still, and it feels as though something is hovering in the air, waiting to happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment