26 September 2003 23:43 [link]
dinner
This evening I went to a retirement dinner for the senior chemistry tutor at Jesus College, Oxford, Prof. Tony Downs.
Tony's a very, very intelligent man, but I found him a difficult tutor to like. Probably because I was lazy, really, and he liked people who worked hard rather than people who got by by the skin of their teeth. I get the general impression that he didn't think I deserved my degree (and, possibly, I agree). Still, he greeted me like an old friend when I arrived - possibly because he thought I was someone else, but probably because he was just really thrilled by the thought of the whole evening.
There were chemists from about 1960 onwards, about 120 all told (roughly the capacity of Hall, which was handy), and a all bar one from my year were there (partly because half of them haven't left yet) along with various chemists from the years near mine, so it was a nice reunion.
The food was very good - four courses, with wine, all nice; college can do really nice meals when it tries. The speeches were good-natured, if a little over-long.
Sadly, I had to go home when the bar closed and miss out on the late-night boozing because work calls tomorrow.
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