MONDAY 10th NOVEMBER 2008

Graduation

Graduated last Wednesday, completed a HNC in Computing Science. Wasn't really looking forward to the ceremony and didn't really think much of it. The course had been fairly easy on the mind this year. I think I must have just become more confident in my own abilities.

Anyway, I decided to go (on my own) and opted for a train ride into Leicester rather than taking the car and having to fight for a parking space. It seemed to be the right choice as most people coming in were complaining about the parking facilities - I had a leisurely strool from the railway station to De Montfort Hall where the ceremony was to take place.

Made my way to the robing area - feeling a little bemused and self-conscious about the whole thing, but once I had received my garments I met up with Steve Johnson (another member of the course graduating at the same time) and we exchanged photographs etc to record the event.

Soon the time came to enter the hall and take our seats, there must have been between 1,000 and 1,500 people graduating - and then a great number of family attendees too!

I got quite caught up in the event of things and at a couple of times became quite emotional. We all took to the stage and doffed our hats to the Chancellor of Leicester DMU before shaking hands with the vice-Chancellor and then receiving our certificates.

All-in-all I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and thoroughly recommend attending to anyone else who has doubts.

At the end of the day Caroline treated me to a lovely romantic meal and we also received complimentary champagne (not sure if the waiters knew if we were celebrating or not, but it was a lovely touch) this all rounded off a pretty perfect day.

Back to the trip

I have now finalised the travel itinery although not the actual modes of transport, and took myself off to the local co-op travel agent on Friday afternoon to see if they could do me any deals on the air fares. I'm awaiting notification on this as I write this.

My intention is to fly to Mumbai (Bombay), do my travels and end up in Kolkata (Calcutta) from where I'll fly on to Singapore then back to the UK. I have estimated the whole trip will take around 20 days.

The Singapore leg of the journey is to follow up on what has become a bit of a legend in our family - reportedly there is a poster in one of the waterfront hotels that depicts Harry, my grand-dad during his navy days when he was involved in a naval boxing match on board ship in Singapore docks. One of my cousins has seen this, although it was a good many years ago and I need to see if it can still be located so I can obtain either a copy or a photograph.

My mother is over the moon that I'm planning this trip, I think she had always wanted to go but for one reason or another never got round to doing it and now it would be too much of a problem to do. That is reason alone to hope I do find something tangible to take back!