Friday night

On Friday night, a group of us headed out to a local bar to have celebratory drinks with a friend. She has recently managed to complete her MPhil with her sanity intact (well... as intact as it ever was!) Anyway, the bar is a pleasant enough place, even at the weekend; the DI (detritus index) is - for this town at least - mercifully low. Thankfully, she had delayed the gathering until the last working day of the month (or Payday, as it is otherwise known). This probably helped to ensure a respectable turnout.

I had worn my now seemingly infamous Little Green Slut Skirt, partly in the hope that a cute postgrad from my department would be there. He wasn’t. Its percentage success rate is dropping every time I wear it; it now stands at just 33.33 %.

Anyway, during one of the more interesting conversations of the evening, Alan (an academic member of staff) pointed out to me, that when I become a postdoc, I could have my own tutor group. He knows I’m single. I’m also on good terms with the woman who organises which tutees get assigned to each group. He suggested I wait until we have their photo’s, then try to “arrange” to have the better-looking male students given to me! I’m still unsure as to whether or not sequestering the impressionable first year students is contrary to university policy. At least I won't be an academic member of staff...

When I started as a postgrad, they made us do this poxy little PGCert in Scientific Research Methods. Some of it was of a little use, but most of it was a total waste of time. They told us about the university policy on Staff/Student relationships. I guess it is all rather civilised. I get the impression that at US universities, any type of non-work related relationships are banned. Here, it is permitted, but you have to formally declare your relationship. I thought about my supervisor, who is a very nice man, but just came to the conclusion that if anything happened between us (it won't), I certainly wouldn't “declare” it; it would be a secret I would carry to my grave :-)