Melting in robes...

Ok, so as one of the Union sabbs i have to attend a fifth of the graduation ceremonies as part of the podium procession. This involves; Wearing special union robes, with a crest and everything - very nice. A silly tudor bonnet - less nice, but i can go with it... Walking in to organ music trying to look as serene/important/holy as possible. I go with the clasping hands together over my belly walking posture... I was walking in next to Simon, the chaplain, during a couple of ceremonies and we thought it may be a giggle to walk in like monks in prayer - you know, prayer-hands up in front of the chest - but we opted against it... would have been good craic though!

So anyway, the theatres where the ceremonies take place may be more accurately described as tandoori ovens. Particularly pleasant for us on the podium as we have the added pleasure of stage lights on us! I'm not a big one for sweat patches normally, but I decided go with the flow (so to speak) and see how damp I could make my shirt in the 1-hour ceremony. By the way, this was after several liberal douses of anti-perspirant. I didn't do badly, my sweat patches *nearly* reached my beltline, but i was beaten hands down by some of the real bigwigs - the chancellor, vice-chancellor etc who have the privalege of the front row - including leather chairs! so sweat patch prize i think goes to the chancellor this year, who acheived complete shirt-saturation in a single hour. Bravo!

With my own ceremony coming up on Thursday (and another two before that, tomorrow) I'm getting fairly familiar with the chancellor's speech too... I think i'll be able to lip-sync with his joke by the time it gets to my own graduation! :-)

I've temporarliy gone against my environmental beliefs and used my office aircon unit to create my own personal fridge... those of you who have more environmental integrity than I, dont fret - it's only for this week! or maybe for this heatwave... i kinda like it :-S

I reckon that's enough for now... incredibly long blog entries are fairly off-putting, don't you think? Having said that, so (potentially) are stories of sweat-patch competitions...

C