Durham: a reprise

So a couple of weeks ago now I made the long journey (never take a train on Sundays) back up to Durham. Walking through town and getting back to House 3 it was as if I'd never left. Of course, Matt was out so I had to wander around in the rain for a bit but eventually I found him and got the spare key. I wandered into the bar and everything was the same - same bar staff, same students (strangely, there were hardly any 1st years around) so I sat with a couple of 4th years and caught up on what had been happening.



Over the next week I finished off my thesis, printed and bound it (a lot more fidley than it sounds. Nothing is more frustrating than having to reprint 25 pages cos there's a dash missing in the header), had a meeting with a prospective employer, went out to lunch with the girls from my group and of course, the weeks big event: Blondie's viva. He passed and is now Dr Matt Cartwright subject to completing his corrections. This of course meant that a large night out with the chemists was in the offing leading us from the New Inn to the union, Varsity, Jimmy Alan's and finally Klute.



By Friday the effect of living amongst a new generation of freshers and their dirty germs had hit me and my head felt like it was going to implode. That night was the group Christmas meal and I had managed to get myself invited.



We went across to the New Inn at 5 to start the drinking before heading to Bella Italia. Kara ended up sitting opposite Martin who is infamous for ordering lots of wine, only having a glass himself and dishing out the rest to those around him. About 10 minutes in and she was hammered. As it was an evening meal, only 4 of us made it to the pub afterwards and pretty soon we were down to me, Kara and the 4th year Laura who stayed the course until chucking out time. After two months of not drinking, two nights in a row was surprisingly doable. On the way home I chatted to Laura about the group and she told me that the group had been pretty dull until they heard I was coming back at which point they started discussing going out for lunch and to the pub. Maybe I did leave a mark and they didn't just think I was dickhead alcoholic.



Over the weekend I just chilled out with the chemists around Durham and heard about Alan's plan to get a Bengal leopard cat - even when he's settled down, he just can't be normal. Finally on Monday I submitted my thesis and headed home. I didn't have a camera on me, so the only evidence of my thesis is this really bad camera phone shot (I really need a new phone - possibly one of those N73s with 3MP Carl Zeiss lens...).



Most upsettingly I had to give back my laptop. Now this has been pissing me off for a while now. It was taking longer and longer to boot up, it no longer went into standby when you shut the lid, it occasionally couldn't find my wifi network even right next to the aerial and had the occasional issue with Endnote, but it was mine: it even made the trip to Japan with me in May meaning it's more well-travelled than half the group.



Being back in Durham was like a second nature and with all the chemists it felt like nothing had changed. However, Trevs seemed a little bit deserted. I realise that it's the people that make it special. Last year was bad enough with a load of people I didn't know, but now I'm pretty much left knowing only postgrads and 4th years amongst some token 3rd years from my bar days. Next year it could well just be the physicists that I know. It'll be the same with chemists - almost all of my friends are now 3rd years and will leave in September. Time to move on. Ironically, I could spend the next few years in the same area, but more on that later.

Also, being at Trevs but living out of a bag was very weird. For the last three years I've lived full time at Trevs, but I guess my permanent address was still in Bromsgrove along with a load of my stuff. Next year I'm going to have to face the complete move to a new permanent address. Scary.