I remember waking up a few mornings ago and wondering why I ever agreed to do this as it's really not my thing at all. I think I had got to the point where I didn't know and didn't care, and on the morning of the graduation I felt exactly the same.
We left the house shortly after nine O'clock in the morning but we got off to a bit of a false start. Just as we got to the pillar box at the end of our road Carolyn said she wanted to go to the toilet so we had to go back home again. Fortunately I had allowed for a late start so it didn’t affect the timetable too much. I think Carolyn was more nervous than me. It helped that we got the 136 bus from the Headcorn Road bus stop nearly straight away. Carolyn remarked that I looked like a gangster in my suit and dark glasses, and looking at the photograph that she took I agree with her.
We caught the train from Grove Park to London Bridge where Carolyn used the toilet again. Then we took the Northern Line to Kings Cross. This bit of the journey was a bit fraught. Firstly the barrier at London Bridge didn’t work properly so we couldn’t 'touch out' the Oystercard and then Carolyn got a bit grumpy on the tube itself when she said that she should had been reading a book rather than talking to me. I could tell that something was up because I saw her face drop - aways a bad sign. She got a bit narky at Kings Cross as well when she moaned that we didn’t know which platform we were on. After we saw our train listed on the destination board we found somewhere to sit and Carolyn said she wanted to go to the toilet, yet again. When she came back the grumpiness had appeared to have evaporated. We sat in the front part of the 'Kings Lynn' train on platform 1a, as the rear part only went as far as Cambridge.
Most of the train journey was in silence, as I really didn’t want to say anything to Carolyn which might set her off so early in the trip. A young couple in their early twenties sat opposite us most of the way. They were very affectionate but the kissing and cuddling wasn't at all embarrassing. They moved seats at Cambridge and sat next to their friends who had just got on. A middle aged woman with some young children sat opposite us for the last leg of the journey and they got off at Ely when we did.
We decided to take a taxi to the Cathedral. It was only five quid and it saved us the walk up a very sleep hill. I really didn’t want to wear Carolyn out too soon. The taxi driver dropped us off outside Ely Cathedral where we were met by an OU volunteer who gave me a badge and some literature about the OU alumni.
The first thing I had to do was register my attendance in one of the two tents which were erected on the green. There was a bit of a queue but we were only in line for a minute or two. I gave the lady my name and she gave me an envelope with two tickets in it, which she asked me to open in front of her. There was one for me and one for Carolyn. As well as our entrance tickets to the cathedral they also had our meal vouchers attached to them, which in my opinion was the most important part.
Having successfully registered I had to get robed up, but before I went in the other white tent a lady standing outside gave me another OU badge pin thingy. She tried to engage me in conversation but I was too focused on what I had to do next to take much of it in. Carolyn dealt with her better than I did. The robing was straightforward. I produced an email and a woman gave me a robe. I took it to another lady who put it on me and adjusted it. Job done.
The next stage in the afternoon's events was the photography, which was held in a brick building at the back of the cathedral. I thought it was just me being photographed but apparently I had ordered the 'family pack' which meant Carolyn was included as well. She had to remove her glasses because the light was reflecting off them but the photographer put us at our ease and handled us both very well. He adjusted my clothing for me to make me look respectable which is a task in itself.. He was a very nice bloke and he did a good job.
It didn’t take long to do all the things that we had to do and the next thing on the agenda was lunch. We walked to where we thought the lunch place was but we weren’t quite sure. Carolyn had another wobble and did her ‘I’m not walking around all day' routine and she asked somebody where it was. It turned out that we were walking in the right direction after all. We got to the place which I think was a theatre and handed our vouchers over. We were given a paper carrier bag with a bottle of water, an apple and a cake in it. Then we chose our own crisps and sandwiches. There were vegetarian sandwiches but no ‘vegetation rolls’ like the OU email mistakenly said. We ate them outside sitting on a wall as there were no seats available on the grass area. Carolyn hardly ate anything and she moaned about not being able to digest things now that she is older. I’m not sure what that was about.
We had a cup of tea inside one of the buildings and after a while made our way back to the Cathedral. We took a few photos and hung around a bit, before making our way to join the queue to enter the cathedral. Although it was a long queue it moved quite quickly and we were soon inside. I had a reserved seat but Carolyn had to fend for herself and find somewhere suitable. We kissed goodbye in the aisle and then parted. I made my way to row N, seat 2 and Carolyn found a place towards the back.
I was the only bloke in a row of women, all of us with first class humanities degrees. We were one of the first to be presented on stage after the graduates with higher degrees. The girl on my right reminded me of Cathy Poll's daughter from work. On my left was a younger girl who spoke a bit like Nyree. Both were very nice and very friendly. I'm not normally good at smalltalk especially when I'm nervous, but both put me at my ease. Next to the Nyree clone was an older woman who was also friendly who had studied modern languages. She was foreign sounding and appeared to be on her own.
After listening to some organ music and browsing through the programme for a few minutes, the ceremony finally started. There was slow procession of big-wigs up the very long aisle and then a bit of a speech by Martin Bean, the Vice Chancellor. After a few minutes a lady ushered us to the side and led us up to the stage. We gave our name card to woman who gave it to somebody else who read it out. I wasn’t at all nervous and walked on stage without any problems. Martin Bean shook my hand and congratulated me, addressing me by name. He asked me if I had any family with me and I said that I had my wife with me. Then he gave me a 'congratulations card' and I walked off stage, beckoned by one of the ushers. Then I was directed back to my seat. I couldn’t believe it was over so quickly. The rest of the ceremony was a bit boring because it involved clapping other people that I had very little interest in, and it went on for quite a while. It was a bit of an anti-climax really. I thought I would be more nervous and excited than I was, but in the end I took it all in my stride.
Martin Bean finished up by given a jolly but inspirational speech and then there was the slow procession of the big-wigs off the stage. When it was over nobody really knew what to do. After a bit of looking around the graduates and guests met up with each other. I walked out towards the entrance of the cathedral not knowing where to meet Carolyn but saw her sitting alone towards the back. When I sat next to her I could see that she was crying but assumed that it was because she found the proceedings emotional. It turned out that she had missed seeing me walk across the stage because she was looking at me in the distance and not at one of the plasma screens which were placed all around the cathedral. Even though it was no big deal as far as I was concerned, Carolyn took it quite badly.
After unsuccessfully trying to console her we left the Cathedral and made our way to the green where the tents were. Carolyn was very up and down and at one point she rushed off to ‘talk to anyone’ and came back with a piece of paper in her hand. It was an order form for a video of the proceedings. She banged on about buying this for her instead of Christmas and birthday presents etc. I tried to console her again but she wasn’t interested. She rushed off to buy a cigarette from a bloke she saw standing about and smoked it in front of me, still rambling gibberish about what she thought she did wrong in the cathedral.
She appeared to calm down a bit at this point and we hung about to take another couple of photos. She said she didn’t want to go home but eventually we took a slow walk back to Ely station. She was in a reasonably good mood during the walk but occasionally wobbled. When we got to the station there was a bit of confusion with regard to what train we were catching and what we did next but finally we decided to have a cup of tea in a café on the platform. It went well really.
We finally got to platform 2 which all trains towards London appear to stop at and waited for the Kings Cross train. She more or less held it together. We got the train and sat near a woman who was desperately trying to control her naughty children. She slapped them at one point and this upset Carolyn so we moved to another carriage. Rather than make things worse this made actually made things better. She said that at least she wasn’t a child beater which appeared to help her self esteem. The rest of the train journey was uneventful and the tube wasn’t much of a problem. We retraced our steps and got the train from London Bridge to Grove Park. Before going directly home she wanted a veggie burger so we stopped off at the chicken shop and ate it on the wall by the bus stop.
I was glad to get home and Carolyn appeared to be in a good mood at first but the subject of the 'looking at the screen' reared its head again so we had to go through all the bollocks about whether she was right or wrong not to look at the plama screen. We had a bit of an interrupted night because of it but she calmed down eventually. I wasn’t angry with her, just relieved that the day was all over, and that I managed it as well as I did. I enjoyed the day, but it wasn't particularly memorable or significant as I though it might have been when I arranged it several weeks ago. Would I do it again? Probably, but it wouldn't upset me if I didn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment