Sunday 30th June

So another very eventful week for our family.

Saturday:  Jenny returned home from College which is wonderful.  We celebrated her return and end of college life with a chinese take-away and a bottle of Moet.  We stayed up until the early hours sat in the conservatory, candles lit, playing pass the ipod.  :-). Lots of alcohol drank, great conversation and a background of some great music.

Sunday: Was pretty much chill out day for us all.  I don't think any of the female members of the household emerged before noon. Simon as usual, was up at the crack of dawn.  He rarely lies in.  We all did find it a little difficult to get going though.  Jenny and I did have to squeeze in a trip to Meadowhall  to find her a dress to wear for her graduation on Saturday.  The brief wasn't good.  Long-sleeve black dress, has to be longer than mid-thigh length and sleeves have to go to the wrists.  Urgghhh - impossible to find a long-sleeved black dress in the middle of summer.  We'd been around half of Meadowhall and were just leaving House of Fraser when I spotted a rack of different coloured dresses, spying a couple of long black sleeves peeping out there.  Hurrah!  We got her a nice dress that fitted the brief, and was bargain of the year to boot.  £99 reduced to £29.70.  Jenny was happy, I was happy not to have to look in any more shops, Simon was happy that his wallet wasn't hit heavily -  so mission accomplished!

Monday:  Continuing Becky's tour of Universities she fancies, she and Simon went off to Durham today.  I desperately wanted to go with them - it's so close to my home town and I've only ever spent half a day there.  Unfortunately the open day fell on one of my works days, so it wasn't to be.  She came back feeling that although the university was impressive and prestigious, she would struggle to get an offer as their criteria for acceptance is higher than even that of Oxford.  She's wanting to do PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics) and the course requirements are a lot stricter than at any other college also.
 

Becky receiving her award

Our Oscar winner!

They had a quick turn around as Becky had been nonimated for an award at college so we got our glad rags on and wound our way down to St Paul's Hotel in the centre of Sheffield for college oscar night.  She had no idea what she had been nominated for, and when we signed in saw her name was on a sheet headed 'Achievement through enrichment activites'.  She had initiated the reinstatement of the college newspaper at the beginning of the course, and edited the first issue, so we decided this must be what the award was for!  It's been great to see her turn things around considering this time last year she had ditched her A-levels and was heading off for a career as a shop assistant.  She has worked hard this year, and I know she finds college a lot more to her liking than school.  Very proud of her for her hard work and achievements.

 




Tuesday:  A quick tea and change of clothing after work saw Simon and I head off down the motorway to see Bonnie Raitt play at the Royal Festival Hall.  I was thrilled to see the wonderful Foy Vance was supporting again.  He was very chatty on stage and his quick Irish wit had us all in stitches inbetween songs.  He played for just 45 minutes which went in the blinking of an eye and we were sad to see him leave the stage. 

Bonnie was amazing - she played for over 2 hours, again this sped by in no time.  Like Vance, she was in top form and was cracking jokes throughout the show.  I've not seen her like this before (although to be fair it's only the 3rd time I've seen her as she doesn't come to the UK to play too often).  Brilliant night though singing a selection of tunes from across her 30 odd year career.

Hogwarts Dining Room

Thursday:  Another college to visit, this time Oxford, and this time my working week had finished so I got to go on the visit too - yay!  We all piled in the car and headed off on yet another road trip.  Oxford is a nice town, bigger than Cambrige but not quite so quaint.  The colleges, however were another thing, all absolutely amazing.  We started off at Christ Church, very Harry Potter, and apparently some of the films were made here.  Magdalen is Becky's favourite and I have to say it would be a gorgeous place to study.  We then headed off to one of the University libraries for the PPE talk.  The lecturer who gave the talk, so enthused about it that we all decided we wanted to apply!  Becky of course was horrified at the prospect!!  It would be wonderful if she got a place here, but we are all very aware that places are few for this course at all the Universities who do it, and applicants are many, many.  However, as Jenny has proven, there's no harm in aiming high.

Magdalen College

Magdalen College

Manfield College Library

 

Friday:  Jenny was up early to get the train down to Cambridge for her graduation rehersal. She was staying in halls overnight and we left home just after tea and met up with her for a quick drink.  Poor thing was dead on her feet having been in rehearsals all afternoon, followed by drinks with the college Principal then the last of her formal dinners with her college.  However, we dragged her off to the pub and managed to demolish a pitcher of some fruity vodka concoction before saying goodnight and heading to the hotel.

Saturday:  Graduation Day dawned bright and sunny - thank goodness as it was dull as ditchwater yesterday.  We arrived at the college around 9am for the procession which went from Newnham College to the Senate House in the middle of Cambridge.  This took about 15 minutes and it's not only U2 who stop the traffic.  The girls all looked wonderful in their gowns with white fur trimmed hoods. 

We took our seat in the Gallery and had a great view of the procedings. It's quite funny.  The girls were lined up in 4's and went forward to be received by the Principal one by one.  Each quarter stepped forward when it was their turn, and one of the other female officials held out her hand, fingers outstretched to be grasped by each of the graduates to be.  Yes, lots of comments about pulling her fingers were going round and a little stiffled laughter here and there.  There was lots of doffing of hats and lots of Latin, and once again it felt like something out of Harry Potter.  Just the wands were missing  The girls went forward individually when their name was called, and knelt on a red foot stool at the feet of their Principal.  They put their hands together at face level as if in prayer, then the Principal clasps their hands and in latin invokes them as being worthy to become graduates. Or something!!!  We werent allowed to take photos in the Senate House although Simon snuck a couple before the ceremony began.  There are official photos of each graduate so we made sure we ordered one of Jenny before we left.

Newnham's stunning gardens

Afterwards we made our own way back to Newnham for a gorgeous garden party.  It was all very posh, but with very normal people there!  Definitely no 'Made in Chelsea' sorts to be seen anywhere.  I think that has been the thing that has surprised me most about Jenny's time in Cambridge. Everyone we have met have been very normal and down to earth. I'm sure there are some toff types about but we haven't encountered any.  There was a gorgeous buffet and and Brut to drink, and the sun was full out by this time as we all sat on the lawn sipping wine and eating strawberries and cream.  I could definitely get used to this!!  We sat with Jenny's friend Amy and her parents who we'd not met before, a lovely friendly couple who were easy to get along with.  Amy's Dad turned out to be a Leeds United fan, so we left with Simon issuing him an invite to attend a match together next season.

We left around 1pm and headed back home to Derbyshire.  It was quite emotional for Jennifer as she's had such a good time at Cambridge and it really has been like a second home to her.  I know she would love to work there sometime in the future so I did have a feeling of au revoir rather than goodbye.  I'm sure we will all be back.

Once home we all headed our seperate ways, and after a couple of hours rest/sleep we headed off into Hathersage to the Scotsman's Pack for a late tea.  We were all very tired, but thought it would be good to end the day with a nice meal, as a last celebration for Jenny.  As always the food was lovely and the scenery on the drive out there is second to none.  Jenny was given a bottle of Prosecco a few weeks from her Director of Studies, but she's not a wine lover.  I put it in the fridge to drink once we got home after the meal.  We were going to have another 'conservatory night' but some of the family were a little fractuous.  It has been a hell of a week all round again, so we called it a night pretty much as soon as we got home. 

As I headed off to bed I couldn't help my thoughts turning to those who weren't able to be a part of the day.  My parents came from such a humble background, my Dad an electrician's mate and my Mam a cleaner.  They didn't have much in the way of academic aspirations for us, and university was so far outside of their expectations. It would have blown their minds if they knew of Jenny's achievements today.  Likewise Simon's Mum would have been very proud.  Mostly I miss my sister Sylvia who was always such an encouragement.  I'm glad she knew Jenny had got a place at college, but it would have been lovely to have shared the day in some way with her too.  I hope that somehow, they all know and are smiling.

So it's been one hell of a month for us and I'm just looking at my calendar for next week. Apart from work, the blank spaces are looking so attractive. A chance to catch up on the mundane bits of life and get a few early nights in methinks.

Onwards towards July then!