Celebrations and Graduations!

Yesterday my little brother received his Post-graduate Diploma in Medical Illustration. He's been working as a medical photographer since he left college for more years than I care to remember, and the hospital where he works has only just seen fit to fund him through a one year part-time distance learning course. He put the work in and passed well, so we're all proud of him. We all travelled up to Trentham Gardens for the ceremony, which is where my graduation ceremony was too, many years ago *lol* It was weird being back there. It was a two and a half hour journey in torrential rain during which I managed to knit up quite alot of my new WIP. We stopped for a 'comfort break' at the motorway services and watched the rain sheeting off the glass veranda outside the cafe rather in the manner of one of those modern garden water features.

You may wonder why he's wearing a different sash in the photo above, to the one below. Well, the stupid gown assistants who were responsible for dishing out the hired gowns and mortar boards gave him the wrong colour initially. He didn't realise until he saw the others from his course and saw that they were wearing gray and black. At that point it was too late though, so he wore the one above to the ceremony. When his name was called out, my mum, my sister and I all cheered at the top of our voices and clapped our hands as hard as we could; we figured what we lacked in quantity (being only the three of us) we could make up in quality and it was worth it to see the big grin on his face as he strode across the stage to the University Chancellor.

After the ceremony I persuaded him to change his sash to the proper colour (and made a complaint at the same time) so that we could have some photos with the right sash on. These were in the formal gardens which made a really nice setting, although the weather was truly awful yesterday. Think monsoon and you'll be getting there. We had to have a shot of him with the tools of the trade, although this is his own camera and not one of the top of the range ones that he uses for work. Honestly, as a keen photographer myself, I'm green with envy at the equipment he has at his disposal, but then I guess that others might think the same about me and my art room at school *lol* Just look at the sky behind him, don't those clouds look ominous!

And this is why! The walk back to the car took alot longer than it should have because we needed to keep stopping to shelter under convenient trees for the downpours to ease up.

So on the way home we took the opportunity to stop in a pub for a bite to eat and to dry off. See how much happier we are, now we're warm and dry!! Here's Mum and my brother:

And my sister and I:

We had a nice meal, mine was a veggie chili, my mums was a stilton and vegetable bake, my sister had a mushroom moussaka, and my brother, being the only meat eater had prawn stuffed plaice. Then we went back to my brothers and drank champagne in celebration.