Friday evenings, when there’s nothing special going on like Old Boys, are usually dull affairs. Campus is quiet – many people go home for the weekend. So, last night I’d thought I’d go out onto campus for a stroll. First I went into the sports hall to watch the end of a volleyball match. Then, fancying a nice quiet pint of bitter, I headed over to the bar, expecting the place to be deserted.

It wasn’t. what I saw was amazing; it was like a geek’s wet dream. On temporary wooden tables were set up hundreds of computers each with it’s owner – invariably a long haired Goth or suchlike – sitting in front of it. We’re talking some serious computing power here! Where these guys came from, I don’t know, but they weren’t university students. Someone had organised a – what did Luke call it? LAN party.

I was amazed. It was the coolest thing ever! They were playing death matches! When I got in, a bloke in a black top greeted me.

‘so much for my quiet pint’ I said. He laughed, an we got talking. I told him how we once networked a 486 to a Pentium to play doom 2, which quite impressed him. I got myself a Tetley’s, and spent the rest of the evening talking and watching. I kind of hoped they would let me join in, or perhaps give me some pizza, but neither of these things happened.

A couple of hours later, just after 11, I came home. I never saw anything like it, nor expected that anything so geekily cool could happen here!