friday evening

this evening, i joined the Friday pub-evening congregation from the dept. at the festival Spiegel Tent -- a venue resembling a 'Moulin Rouge' - like environment, which has been set up in the corner of the rather large gardens between the old-boarding-school-turned psychology department and the main library. i don't usually join in the Friday pub-event, partly because i don't really enjoy the smokey environment of pubs in general.... i makes my breathing difficult and my eyes sometimes tear or go red, and partly because it's often impossible to have real conversations in a pub buzzing with loud voices vying to be heard... but since it's at the Spiegel Tent, it's alfresco and well, the gang has been trying to get me out for a while...

apart from the cold windy weather that could almost pass off as a haphazard hurricane... it was pretty enjoyable, with smatterings of light-hearted bantering and a quick catch-up for me with a few people i have not spoken for a while. most applaud my choice of a hot-chocolate for the occasion as they were freezing in the wind with their cold beers... i find this amusingly pleasing... i don't usually drink much... and often only with or after a full meal as i've had 2 pretty awful experiences in my first year at uni where i just ended up with rashes and bad headaches with the strange mixes people fed me. ... in fact, i often stand out for not holding an alcoholic drink... but today, my choice was actually praised... and i happily held it firmly to keep warm.

after a brief show-up... i bade my goodbyes and headed off to Tescos (one of the large household name Supermarkets) nearby... and picked up a few things to fill up my rather bare fridge. i've been trying not to do my usual weekly food-shopping as the raw produce don't seem to last very long in the apparent summer... and yesterday evening's chicken udon takeaway convinced me that it wasn't really worth it eventhough i appreciated the promptness of dinner as i reached the loft at about 10pm, exhausted and very hungry.

afterwhich, i returned to the dept. with the intention to just pick up my things and cycle home because the experience 2 nights ago(##) highlighted the fact that even with the security door systems strangers who could potentially be up to no good could still somehow sneak in before the dept. closes and the security locks in operation. ... but i ended up debugging a bit and running analyses on a few more sessions' data before eventually leaving the department. i really should try not to stay in there till too late... but all my huge sets of data are stuck there... and it will most likely crash my laptop if i'd tried to transfer them....

anyway, i cycled through a fliming scene set on the Bruntsfield Links on my way back.... the police on patrol said i could pass through when i slowed down to query and she said:"yup just keep to the right and i'll signal to them you are coming." her response echoed a few meters forward as i peddled the 2-wheeled frame across the cluster of people in black, the camera man, and infront of what then became clearer as the Actors, one of whom was clad in a Priest-like costume, and i felt embarrassed. i uttered an audibly apologetic "sorry!", half out of breath from the hill-climb with my box of groceries... but the 'Priest'-guy kindly replied saying:"it's quite alright!"

got back at about 15 past 10pm... returned a few phonecalls and started making dinner... cooked some basmati and wild rice and heated up the roasted chicken wing portion i got at Tescos for 50p at clearance and made some giant wild mushrooms and tomatoes stir-fry, all in about 20 minutes... pretty random but is far more satisfying than the chicken udon takeaway from the Chinese Takeaway round the corner... at probably half the price!

(##): to find out about what happened 2 evenings back...

## well two nights ago i was working till rather late in the department... i spotted this strange guy fumbling in the mailroom when i went down to the coffee room on the ground floor to get some hot water to make some tea when it just turned evening and it was quite fortunate that two security people were about, apparently because of some suspicious events the nights before. as i hadn't signed in after office hours i decided to walk to the sign-in book located on a desk next to the main entrance to put my name down because i didn't want to be locked in, if the security people were doing the lock-up... this bloke walked pass me as i made my way to the desk and brashly said: "how's it goin?"... i was stunned by his behaviour but said nothing, ignored him and just did as i intended. by the time i penned my name in the book and was making my way back to my first-floor shared office, i overheard this bloke asking the security people about the vending machines located near the other department stairway... i thought it was weird; this guy's really in the wrong place at the wrong time and i wondered why the security people weren't interrogating him. i went to my office shielded by another security-coded door telling myself i've got to get the bit of programming done and go home asap.

some 20 minutes later the two security persons got into the office asking if i was someone the bloke mentioned he was looking for and i said no and that the person mentioned had left some 30 mins ago and told them that i thought he was acting rather suspiciously and they concurred. asked me for some basic details and left.... i got on with debugging etc. until one of them returned panting away from chasing after the guy some distance away from the dept. this was when i got rather scared and doubtful about the dept. after-hours security system... i helped the officer with what i could recall of this bloke, his physical built and features etc. and showed him what i saw the bloke did in the mailroom... and then pretty much immediately cycled home, feeling rather disturbed and wondered if anyone else who was in the dept. saw this strange chap, or how he entered the building and when... etc.

posted by ~overacuppa~ on Friday, 27 August, 2004 at 23:37 hrs