Graduation
Yesterday I finally got around to graduating, har har!
Started off as an ordinary work day at my new job at the University, meandering in, having a chat with Karsten and a nice meeting with Shirley before heading down town to meet my Dad. It occurred to me just before leaving the uni that I might need a shirt and tie for this whole graduation thing so I dragged my dad from the train station to John Lewis where in not too much time, and with not too much pain managed to pick a nice black shirt and white tie to go with the shiny black robe they make you wear for these occasions.
We went for a couple of pints at the Hobgoblin as we had some time to kill and I have to say, this no smoking ban thing has a lot going for it. The Hobgoblin is a far more pleasant place without people making you smell horrible while enjoying your pint of Old Rosie.
Skiiip to the London Road campus a couple of hours later and I was merry enough to consider graduating finally. Met up with Stears and his parents and proceeded to get robed in all our finery!
Taking a photo of myself. How clichéd :o
The graduation ceremony itself went smooth enough once I'd worked out where I was meant to be going. I took the holistic method and just followed other people who were considerably more likely than I to know where they were going. I'm not sure how people know what they're meant to do once inside the great hall, but thankfully there were people in front of me who I could copy.
The Deputy Vice Chancellor had a nice blue hat on, so when I went up to shake his hand I decided to show him the appreciation his dress sense so clearly deserved by telling him what a nice hat he was wearing. During his final speech when he was thanking various people for being useful I got a thankyou too, "And thanks goes to Robert for telling me my hat was nice". Ok, I'll not mention that again now, I promise - I was fairly proud about it at the time though :X
So, we're now outside the graduation hall and I'm with my mum and dad who haven't seen each other in like, a gazillion years and I was ready to jump between them to stop any fights that might occur. It turned out unnecessary and we quickly set about taking photos of us to be uploaded onto the internet when they finally make their way to me!
OMG HUNGRY!
Rather than stick around, we all decided to head down town for a beer and an indian, which we duely did. Managing to get through over two hours without resorting to talking about the weather even once! I can't say I recommend the curry house we went to, but the wine was ok and it wasn't too expensive either.
One of the tasks at hand was to get all of my stuff moved from my mother's car into my new house, which I move into tomorrow! It was done and mum gave us a lift to dad's hotel so he could get changed before we commenced more drinkage let mum start driving north again.
I took dad to BoBs and introduced him to the magical wonders of Jagerbull, ho ho ho :D
Dad with Jagerbull!
Aah how I've missed Jagerbull in the long week since I had it last! The Wetherspoons one really wasn't as strong as the DIY ones I was constructing at Glen's 40th birthday but that's probably for the best considering everything else I'd been drinking all day. Back to the Hobgoblin, lots of beer - picked up the passport I'd accidently left there earlier in the day and after a few more pints headed home. Good day, good company and hurrah, I finally have some letters after my name =D
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