Well well. A flying visit from Jack. It's the usual excuse of lack of time that prevents me from regularly posting. I think I need to get away from the idea that I MUST post something daily and maybe just learn to do 2 or 3 per week. I also want to move away from it just being a whinge, despite the whole thing being about Grumpiness, Oldness and Blokeness and the seemingly unbreakable bonds between those 3 states.
So, let start by applauding the man who appears at the head of the blog as the type of bloke many of us aspire to be. Someone hard and tough, uncompromising, torn between what's fair and what's right and above all a proper bloke. Not a namby-pamby, sandal wearing, in touch with his femininity, caring, sharing New Man. Yep, the welcome return of Gene Hunt. The new Ashes to Ashes series is well in its stride and is hitting all the right buttons and delivering a hefty dose of nostalgia. It's such a refreshing change from the normal 'costume drama' we see. And doesn't Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake look utterly gorgeous, or should I say in a completely non-politically correct way....shaggable?
Not that New Man is essentially all bad of course. It's just that many of us disguise our 'New Man-ness' under a similar gruff exterior guise to that displayed by Gene Hunt.
Moving on and a celebration to tell you about. In the last 3 or 4 months young Pie has managed to get herself 3 GCSE's - at the tender age of 14 and some 2 years ahead of schedule. She got 2 C grades in Science (Physics and Chemistry) and her first stab at the Maths returned a B grade. Despite my own misgivings I went along with the schools view that she should retake the Maths to see if she could get the original projected A grade. And do you know what? She only went and got an A grade! I'd like to say it runs in the family but for me Maths was always a struggle, at least until I did the Open University's Maths foundation course, which merely proved my own theory that my failure in Maths at school was down to bad teaching and 70's Comprehensive School teacher apathy. They weren't always nice
people back in them days.
Last Friday saw the arrival of my own graduation ceremony at The Barbican to pick up my own hard earned BA degree. For once I was a bag of nerves, not having ever experienced such a day as a student or guest. Receiving it was even more rewarding than attaining it. The whole day was a really superb experience and made even more meaningful by the attendance of The Grand Master, Audrey Roberts, Kid, Pie, Hells Bells and Little Sis, who deserves a special mention for kicking me up the arse 3 months before the exam when I was thinking of chucking
it all in.
The day itself started with the registration to let them know that I was there, plus to actually receive the official certificate of achievement. After that came the robing bit where all the graduates collected their robes and are ....ahem....dressed by the company's staff. All very Mr Humphries. I don't do pomp and ceremony, nor am I comfortable with being in the spotlight when I've done something OK. But as the robes were being fitted, and i looked at the growing
number of people doing the same thing, a kind of individual and collective pride started to permeate around the venue. The girls took some photo's in the robes, and then we moved to the official photography site. By now, in the London Spring heat I had started to moisten a bit and by the time we'd got to the actual studio I was sweating from the head rather profusely. The good thing about women is they always have a stack of tissues in their bags, and this was no exception. I'm sure the photo's will look great, especially having removed the waterfall falling from my head.
The ceremony itself started with a 30 minutes musical performance from Westminster Brass which set the tone for the presentation section. The procession of the dignitaries followed the music, with several senior Academics from the OU and other Universities overseeing the event, and followed in by The Chancellor, Lord (David) Puttnam and the ceremonial OU mace. All very ceremonial and very ........formal. He then proceeded to make a lovely speech about recognising the achievements of the graduates and postgraduates. The only real bit I remember was Lord Puttnam saying that he expected to hear nothing less than 'thunderous applause' for each recipient, a tall ask for those watching a couple of hundred students walk across the stage one at a time.
Then it started in earnest for real, PhD's first, then Masters, then the honorary degree plus associated speech, and then us, the Bachelors.......a fantastically proud moment in my life, and a rousing cheer/scream hybrid from Kid, Pie and I believe all the others there to watch me. Lord Puttnam congratulated me on my degree and on my family! It's a moment that will live long inside me, and if the truth be told the whole event has inspired me to get the Honours attachment and maybe even look to the Masters degree further down the line. They had very attractive robes
The final moment, and the one that had me welling up, was in his closing speech, Lord Puttnam spoke of breaking pre-conceptions, using Susan Boyle from modern day freak show Britain's Got talent as an example of how people can always surprise others and themselves. It was very apt and very powerful, but what really capped it off was when he asked all the OU graduates to stand and then invited the audience to salute the achievement's in time honoured fashion. For 2 or 3 minutes we all stood around gazing up to the stalls, across the floor we were on, to the stage where we were raucously applauded and cheered. I can honestly say it was almost like a film, played in slow motion, students gazing open mouthed
and soaking up the noise from the watching audience. Just thinking about it has given me goosebumps.
After the closure of the event the procession lead the way out of the auditorium and all of the students joined in. Again, the applause was overwhelming.
To think that when the exam result popped in my email box, when I accidentally saw the mail notifier pop-up on screen with the words 'Your Exam results are ready' followed immediately by the same thing starting with 'Congratulations on your award...'I was prepared to just let them shove the certificate in the post and not do a ceremony. It was a good job that some common sense advice was proffered to me on the wisdom and enjoyment of attending, advice that prevailed and was of course absolutely right. I want more, simple as. And to anyone thinking that the award ceremony is not important or enjoyable, then my advice would be to seriously think again.
Days like this in life are few and far between. Enjoy them when they come. I know I did and hopefully will again.
Later, GJ
So, let start by applauding the man who appears at the head of the blog as the type of bloke many of us aspire to be. Someone hard and tough, uncompromising, torn between what's fair and what's right and above all a proper bloke. Not a namby-pamby, sandal wearing, in touch with his femininity, caring, sharing New Man. Yep, the welcome return of Gene Hunt. The new Ashes to Ashes series is well in its stride and is hitting all the right buttons and delivering a hefty dose of nostalgia. It's such a refreshing change from the normal 'costume drama' we see. And doesn't Keeley Hawes as DI Alex Drake look utterly gorgeous, or should I say in a completely non-politically correct way....shaggable?
Not that New Man is essentially all bad of course. It's just that many of us disguise our 'New Man-ness' under a similar gruff exterior guise to that displayed by Gene Hunt.
Moving on and a celebration to tell you about. In the last 3 or 4 months young Pie has managed to get herself 3 GCSE's - at the tender age of 14 and some 2 years ahead of schedule. She got 2 C grades in Science (Physics and Chemistry) and her first stab at the Maths returned a B grade. Despite my own misgivings I went along with the schools view that she should retake the Maths to see if she could get the original projected A grade. And do you know what? She only went and got an A grade! I'd like to say it runs in the family but for me Maths was always a struggle, at least until I did the Open University's Maths foundation course, which merely proved my own theory that my failure in Maths at school was down to bad teaching and 70's Comprehensive School teacher apathy. They weren't always nice
people back in them days.
Last Friday saw the arrival of my own graduation ceremony at The Barbican to pick up my own hard earned BA degree. For once I was a bag of nerves, not having ever experienced such a day as a student or guest. Receiving it was even more rewarding than attaining it. The whole day was a really superb experience and made even more meaningful by the attendance of The Grand Master, Audrey Roberts, Kid, Pie, Hells Bells and Little Sis, who deserves a special mention for kicking me up the arse 3 months before the exam when I was thinking of chucking
it all in.
The day itself started with the registration to let them know that I was there, plus to actually receive the official certificate of achievement. After that came the robing bit where all the graduates collected their robes and are ....ahem....dressed by the company's staff. All very Mr Humphries. I don't do pomp and ceremony, nor am I comfortable with being in the spotlight when I've done something OK. But as the robes were being fitted, and i looked at the growing
number of people doing the same thing, a kind of individual and collective pride started to permeate around the venue. The girls took some photo's in the robes, and then we moved to the official photography site. By now, in the London Spring heat I had started to moisten a bit and by the time we'd got to the actual studio I was sweating from the head rather profusely. The good thing about women is they always have a stack of tissues in their bags, and this was no exception. I'm sure the photo's will look great, especially having removed the waterfall falling from my head.
The ceremony itself started with a 30 minutes musical performance from Westminster Brass which set the tone for the presentation section. The procession of the dignitaries followed the music, with several senior Academics from the OU and other Universities overseeing the event, and followed in by The Chancellor, Lord (David) Puttnam and the ceremonial OU mace. All very ceremonial and very ........formal. He then proceeded to make a lovely speech about recognising the achievements of the graduates and postgraduates. The only real bit I remember was Lord Puttnam saying that he expected to hear nothing less than 'thunderous applause' for each recipient, a tall ask for those watching a couple of hundred students walk across the stage one at a time.
Then it started in earnest for real, PhD's first, then Masters, then the honorary degree plus associated speech, and then us, the Bachelors.......a fantastically proud moment in my life, and a rousing cheer/scream hybrid from Kid, Pie and I believe all the others there to watch me. Lord Puttnam congratulated me on my degree and on my family! It's a moment that will live long inside me, and if the truth be told the whole event has inspired me to get the Honours attachment and maybe even look to the Masters degree further down the line. They had very attractive robes
The final moment, and the one that had me welling up, was in his closing speech, Lord Puttnam spoke of breaking pre-conceptions, using Susan Boyle from modern day freak show Britain's Got talent as an example of how people can always surprise others and themselves. It was very apt and very powerful, but what really capped it off was when he asked all the OU graduates to stand and then invited the audience to salute the achievement's in time honoured fashion. For 2 or 3 minutes we all stood around gazing up to the stalls, across the floor we were on, to the stage where we were raucously applauded and cheered. I can honestly say it was almost like a film, played in slow motion, students gazing open mouthed
and soaking up the noise from the watching audience. Just thinking about it has given me goosebumps.
After the closure of the event the procession lead the way out of the auditorium and all of the students joined in. Again, the applause was overwhelming.
To think that when the exam result popped in my email box, when I accidentally saw the mail notifier pop-up on screen with the words 'Your Exam results are ready' followed immediately by the same thing starting with 'Congratulations on your award...'I was prepared to just let them shove the certificate in the post and not do a ceremony. It was a good job that some common sense advice was proffered to me on the wisdom and enjoyment of attending, advice that prevailed and was of course absolutely right. I want more, simple as. And to anyone thinking that the award ceremony is not important or enjoyable, then my advice would be to seriously think again.
Days like this in life are few and far between. Enjoy them when they come. I know I did and hopefully will again.
Later, GJ
No comments:
Post a Comment