The robes were (unfortunately) blue, but the pockets were present and used to hold all of the papers and paraphernalia that I had to have on me during the ceremony.
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| What has it got in its pocketses, precious? |
And if that wasn't enough, the address was given by the school's chancellor, Rose Tremain, so of course it was wonderfully appropriate for fiction writers. And if that wasn't enough, Colm Toibin then addressed us on being an itinerant writer and the immateriality of national borders, so I felt particularly spoken to by the whole affair. More MA people turned up to the reception afterwards than I expected, and no food that I could eat was present at the reception, which I had expected, so I made friends with the nice boy that poured the champagne and as a result have a vague memory of discussing fiction and process but no recollection of the particulars.
And the day after, Dave and I forayed into the lanes of Norwich and bought wedding rings. Which is something we've been trying to do for a few months, as the city is lousy with little jewelry shops, but which has been repeatedly stymied by the fact that Dave usually comes up on weekends and the privately owned shops tend to only be open weekdays.
And the day after that, I realised that an awful lot of work goes into making a wedding happen, and I'd better get cracking because we didn't have much time. Given the number of people in my family that are in catering, I always expected to have no more involvement in the planning of this occasion than showing up on time and keeping my mouth shut. Except the Atlantic kinda gets in the way of that. So I'm on my own with Dave, hoarding fluffy white things in the spare room like a tulle-obsessed squirrel and repeatedly explaining to my family members that over here is a lot like over there, and we have grocery stores and cars and thing, and that while it is a comparatively small country, flying in to Aberdeen would make a great story later but not a lot of sense, regardless of the price of airfare. My cousin - a 35 year old criminal defence lawyer - was surprised to find out that we have shopping malls; she's also looking forward to using her 'English accent' the whole time she's here.
If there weren't so much PhD work to keep after, I probably would have lost it by now.
And the day after that, I realised that an awful lot of work goes into making a wedding happen, and I'd better get cracking because we didn't have much time. Given the number of people in my family that are in catering, I always expected to have no more involvement in the planning of this occasion than showing up on time and keeping my mouth shut. Except the Atlantic kinda gets in the way of that. So I'm on my own with Dave, hoarding fluffy white things in the spare room like a tulle-obsessed squirrel and repeatedly explaining to my family members that over here is a lot like over there, and we have grocery stores and cars and thing, and that while it is a comparatively small country, flying in to Aberdeen would make a great story later but not a lot of sense, regardless of the price of airfare. My cousin - a 35 year old criminal defence lawyer - was surprised to find out that we have shopping malls; she's also looking forward to using her 'English accent' the whole time she's here.
If there weren't so much PhD work to keep after, I probably would have lost it by now.
