Return

I'm back. I didn't get the job in Sheffield, but otherwise things went more or less as planned and it was good to catch up with a couple of old friends I hadn't seen in over a year.

I got to the hotel about 18:15 Tuesday night. Didn't want to eat out on my own so just got some sandwiches from nearby convenience store (annoyingly wasn't given receipt so couldn't claim them as expenses). We weren't allowed food in rooms, so I ate them outside the hotel, but was back in to watch the football (good job it was ITV 1 and I had a TV in my room).

Wednesday morning bumped into Kerstin, a recent PhD from Cardiff who I'd met at conferences, who was also applying for the job and staying in the same hotel. She got it in the end - I don't know who else applied, but if it wasn't to be me I'm glad it was someone I know.

The interview itself was ok, they seemed a friendly bunch. After that, I wondered back through Sheffield to the station. Unfortunately my housemate Bobby wasn't getting in until later, so I caught the 13:54 to Durham, which got me there just before 16:00 with some time to kill before my friend Genny left work.

Spent the evening with Genny and her husband, talking, (half) watching TV and playing guitar hero. Maybe we're all a bit old and sad now (plus she is pregnant...) but it was ncie to catch up. She had Thursday morning off, so had a bit of a lie in before lazing around the house and then going into Durham again for lunch at Wetherspoons. She had to be back at work by 13:00 so I just caught a 12:48 fast train that was running a couple of minutes late (have ot say I had pretty good luck on the trains all round, for once).

Got into Kings Cross around 15:44 so went over to Holborn and saw my old flatmate Mike - walked around for a while looking for somewhere to eat and wound up in LSE cafeteria, which was perfectly decent and cheaper than anywhere else in London (though I was slightly disturbed by serving lady flirting with me!) We hung around a while, but managed to get a 21:08 train home, which was pretty packed but got me back in one piece.

Too bad about the job I guess, but an enjoyable few days of travelling.