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jemck at 10:35am on 04/07/2008
jemck at 10:35am on 04/07/2008The next time I'm asked this, I can say 'a Glasgow University degree ceremony' as well as the usual answers (telly, National Geographic, C17 Enclosure awards). I saw my kid brother duly created Master of Arts in Bute Hall (very impressive) on Wednesday. That makes all four of us siblings proud possessors of 2.1 degrees - two in arts, two in sciences, three of the four of us from three of the four oldest universities in the UK. We are naturally very proud of the lad. And while listening to the litany of names of the processing graduands, I made a few notes...
Not having seen a great deal of Glasgow when I was there for the WorldCon and EasterCon, beyond the SECC, I got an evening flight back on Thursday so I could do some sightseeing before leaving. Kelvingrove Museum is most impressive. And has some wood and shark's teeth swords I've have loved to have seen before writing Western Shore. Ah well, their time will doubtless come.
And then home, to discover senior son had been awardedThe Mrs Joyful Prize for Raffia Work the 10JC Achievement certificate yesterday. It's all very different from prize-day when I was at school - teachers all in gowns and hoods, 850 of us sitting im/patiently for a whole afternoon as they went through Form Prizes, O Level Prizes, A Level Prizes, The Simmonds Prize for Classics, The Maule Horne Award etc etc etc.
With around 1400 pupils, the sons' school does smaller prize days for each year group with certificates in attainment, achievement, and um, can't recall quite what they call the other two but 'contributing to extra-curricular stuff' and 'being a credit to the school somehow' just about covers it.
I would be able to be more specific if senior son had told either of us parents that he'd been nominated. The teachers all put forward names, the top three in each category are officially nominated and on the day, the winner is announced. So we should have had a letter inviting us along... No, since he knew I was going to be in Glasgow, he didn't think to pass that along or even mention it. Parents will be familiar with the sensation of simultaneously wanting to embrace your child with love and congratulations - while at the same time, feeling a powerful urge to shake them by the neck!
So, overall, a very pleasurable couple of days.
All of which was somehow made rather brighter and more precious by getting the news of Frank Darcy's death as I sat waiting in the departure lounge at Heathrow. News I'd been expecting but no less unwelcome for that. An incalculable loss for his family, a source of abiding grief for his close friends and for those of us who knew him through Irish SF and convention circles, an occasion for deep sadness, initially tempered with gratitude for all that Frank had done and for all the happy times spent in his company, and then sharpened again with the bitter realisation that he's really gone, taken from us far too soon.
Not having seen a great deal of Glasgow when I was there for the WorldCon and EasterCon, beyond the SECC, I got an evening flight back on Thursday so I could do some sightseeing before leaving. Kelvingrove Museum is most impressive. And has some wood and shark's teeth swords I've have loved to have seen before writing Western Shore. Ah well, their time will doubtless come.
And then home, to discover senior son had been awarded
With around 1400 pupils, the sons' school does smaller prize days for each year group with certificates in attainment, achievement, and um, can't recall quite what they call the other two but 'contributing to extra-curricular stuff' and 'being a credit to the school somehow' just about covers it.
I would be able to be more specific if senior son had told either of us parents that he'd been nominated. The teachers all put forward names, the top three in each category are officially nominated and on the day, the winner is announced. So we should have had a letter inviting us along... No, since he knew I was going to be in Glasgow, he didn't think to pass that along or even mention it. Parents will be familiar with the sensation of simultaneously wanting to embrace your child with love and congratulations - while at the same time, feeling a powerful urge to shake them by the neck!
So, overall, a very pleasurable couple of days.
All of which was somehow made rather brighter and more precious by getting the news of Frank Darcy's death as I sat waiting in the departure lounge at Heathrow. News I'd been expecting but no less unwelcome for that. An incalculable loss for his family, a source of abiding grief for his close friends and for those of us who knew him through Irish SF and convention circles, an occasion for deep sadness, initially tempered with gratitude for all that Frank had done and for all the happy times spent in his company, and then sharpened again with the bitter realisation that he's really gone, taken from us far too soon.
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