Tuesday, Wenesday, Thursday and Friday

Tuesday

Still didn't sleep, neither did Jon and we were both up through the night to go to the loo.

Jon and I took Jane to the Bedford Lodge for lunch which was very nice. The debit card machine would not accept our cards so Jon had to pay with cash and then we had to go home to call the bank to ask why they had stopped them. They told us there was no stop on them and they should be fine so Jon went over to see people at his old office and I went shopping with Jane and to try out the card. Fortunately, for me it worked and we had a happy afternoon in the shops.

I met Elaine Carr in M&S and amongst other things she said I looked younger than when I left!

I went to meet Sonia at the Rutland and we had a chat before meeting the rest of the girls from the Rookery for dinner at the new Thai restaurant. We had a lovely night and it was so nice to see them all.

Wednesday
Heather took me down to the Rookery and I went in to see the doctors and the other girls and had a lovely time but I am glad I am not working there now. They have had lots of changes and it all sounds quite stressful. I then did more shopping before going home for lunch.

Penny picked me up to take me across to Janet's to meet with all the Tangent ladies and we all had a lovely time with lots of chatting and catching up.

Jon went out for an Indian with Roger and Ian and really enjoyed it.

Thursday
We ended up rushing to get out and off to Derby as Heather hadn't told us she was meeting a friend for lunch so we left thinking we had forgotten something.

We arrived at the Jonty Farmer and met up with Sami for lunch, not particularly good food as it is a student pub but it was OK.

After lunch we went to the hotel which was very nice. Heather went off with Sami and Jon and I went to the shops and I bought some shoes. We got back to the hotel to have a cup of tea and Jon realised he had forgotten his soap bag so had to rush out to buy all new stuff and then had a very nice Tesco wash bag to carry it around in!

We went out to la Tasca for dinner which was just around the corner from the hotel. We had a lovely meal of tapas and a very simple pudding of vanilla ice cream with a tot of sherry poured over it and it was so nice.

Back to the hotel and hopefully a good night's sleep.

Friday

We had a very early start to get to the assembly rooms to get Heather's robes and we had to be in our seats by 9.15. It was really cold today -5 degrees! We had the official photos taken and then we went to get a seat. One very nice young lady told us the best place to sit and we managed to get seats on the balcony looking at the stage and hopefully would be able to get a good photo as she walked across. That was not to be as she walked across so fast I don't think she even touched the chancellor's hand!! It was a lovely ceremony and I had a few tears. i dread to think what I will be like when they get married!

After lots of photos with friends we went back to the hotel to check out and had more photos taken there as it was so nice on the stairs. We then went up to the university for lunch which was not so good, a bit like a school dinner really!!! We had lunch with Katharine and her dad who wanted to join us. Katharine will not have her ceremony till tomorrow.

We set off to drive to Liverpool land Heather stayed as she is going to the graduation ball tomorrow.


We made good time and arrived at Joyce's house in time for a cup of tea.


We had dinner later and then did lots of talking. We were very tired when we went to bed.