Graduation day.

The girl filling in for us with our house sit says she may change the locks....haha....she has just loved being here in the quiet, with so many birds around. She has lazed by the pool, and thoroughly enjoyed her few days here. She has also left the house in tip top condition, so we are really pleased that we had such a reliable friend.

Wednesday was my graduation day. I have worked hard with my writing over the past five years or so, I did my Bachelors degree in two years, doing all the units, two a semester are considered full time study and I normally did 3 units per semester, sometimes 4. Then there were 12 units in my Masters Degree, and I sometimes did two of these per semester, so it has been full on. Today is the day to reap the rewards.

My cold was still fresh and my throat a bit sore from getting a bit chilled on Monday. So I had a couple of easy days at my daughters place. She is right in town, and there are some excellent restaurants within a minutes walk. One was called La Notte, Italian, and had the best food, large servings and the prices weren't too bad.

I was still in my jamas when, mid morning, my daughter turned up from work, with my eldest son! He had made a surprise trip down from Brisbane to come to the graduation. I was thrilled to bits. When I graduated with my B.A. my Brisbane children attended, but my Melbourne daughter couldn't come. Now it was her turn to be there, and surprise! my eldest son too.

One handsome husband and one very handsome son.

So I had a shower and got some clothes on. We had some lunch and Matt and Peter went for a walk. At 3pm I took a taxi to the Convention Center. I met up with Di Hill, a writing buddy of mine from Brisbane who was also graduating.

The actual ceremony lasted just under 2 hours, then there was refreshments provided. Both Di and I were absolutely amazed to find that of all the students we worked with during our two years doing our writing degree, we were the only two that had turned up for the graduation. I know some of them were overseas, but only the two of us? I don't know if that was a statement about Swinburne or not!

There was another disappointing factor too. They had almost no souvenirs for sale. When I graduated with my BA through Griffith University on the Gold Coast, they had key rings, lovely presentation pens, bags, pins, teddy bears, luggage labels etc, all with the Griffith logo splashed all over them. I got several things that I have kept in my treasure box. But Swinburne had some miserable looking teddy bears, or little fluffy toy dogs, that were very expensive, and the only recognition of what degree you had passed was by putting a tiny piece of ribbon round the neck the same color as our gowns. I was very disappointed with that. They did have some rings, but even they didn't look very good.

You could get your degree framed straight after the event, but that was hugely expensive too. Someone was making a lot of money for very little effort. In the end, I didn't bother.

The venue was very nice, and they had an Aborigine playing the didgeridoo, along with a couple of dancers. The didgeridoo playing was very clever.

We finished off the night by having a late supper then off to bed. Even then it was pretty late and we had to be up at 4am to get the taxi to the airport for a very early flight home.

Anyway, it was a lovely few days away, and another milestone in life passed.