r v l . c o m

or: “Doff THIS you bitches”

My Graduation last night was, well, ‘lots of fun’ isn’t really the right phrase, but how about a very worthwhile experience. Sitting through half of Singapore receiving an economics degree (Andrew’s joke) was a little tedious, but it was fun to sit on stage, in the very grand Wilson Hall and take part in a ceremony full of pomp, billowing gowns and silly little hats.

At the start of the proceedings, someone walked into the hall carrying a huge crystal staff/rod thing, that looked like something from Masters of the Universe. I was hoping so much that it was actually going to fire our degrees at us, Duff-beer T-shirt style. But alas, it was just placed on a stand and not used for any muscle-man transformations or degree-shooting antics. I’m not sure if anyone got a photo of it, but I’ll add it to the set below later on, as various caches of photos arrive in my in-box.

I was lucky to be able to get sufficient tickets to invite one of my supervisors, some of my family and very close friends to share in/suffer through the evening with me, which made the night quite special in the end.

There were about 15 people graduating with PhD’s, which are designated with floppy hats and blood-red coloured gowns and hoods. We sat on the stage, along with the University ‘elite’ and several very grabby-ushers. I think I have bruising on my elbow from one of them holding it so tightly before she rather unceremoniously shoved me in the direction of the Dean to receive my testamur and doff myself stupid.

With all the instructions on walk-here, nod there, shake this, turn and smile, I actually walked off on the him as he was saying something to me, after handing over the scroll (with worlds cheapest plastic cover) and then also forgot to ‘doff’ to the person who was reading out my name and short description of my PhD work. Thankfully I didn’t fall down the stairs on the way off the stage and also resisted the urge to swirl my gown fabulously as I strolled back to my seat on the stage.

Afterwards the conclusion of the ceremony, stomachs slowly digesting other internal organs, we went for a nice Italian meal and a bottle of champagne on Lygon Street, just a couple of blocks away from the Uni. I was given some very nice gifts from my friends, fished for compliments about my new glasses (a graduation gift from my parents) and then started the farewells as I count down the hours till I leave Australia, once again, and head over to the US!