Emma-Jane’s Graduation
On an exceptionally windy day, on and extraordinarily windy hill, I stood outside Guildford Cathedral three weeks ago, clutching a heavy bag that would get me to Devon for my holidays later that afternoon. But before then it was my sister’s graduation ceremony: only 8 months behind me, E-J would be receiving her degree in Primary Education, with a specialism in Geography.
Guildford Cathedral is immense, and despite its imposingly modern, red-brick exterior, wows congregations on the inside with its marble floors and limestone pillars. The organ sounds magnificent despite it being tucked into several odd corners, spread around a building apparently built with no intention of housing such an instrument. It’s nice to hear to it played well, and more importantly loudly, entertaining the assembled masses with that tune whose name i can never remember.
The Chancellor of Roehampton Univeristy happens to be John Simpson, which added an air of amusement to the day as proud parents tried to snap as many photos of him processing down the aisle as their sons and daughters receivng degrees they’d worked three years for. Still he is, of course, an intelligent and eloquent presenter, and he spoke with inspiration and admiration for the graduands present.
The end of the ceremony cued a mad flurry of photo-taking in every possible corner of the Cathedral grounds, followed by frenzied attempts to claw more champagne, strawberries and cream than everyone else. A merry pizza in a nice restaurant up the road, and then it was back to the cars for some long journeys home. For me, that meant Budleigh Salterton, and the start of tour 2007 …
