My Graduation Weekend

So I'm finally here to talk about my graduation weekend a week late. Sorry about that :-)  I'm getting caught up slowly but surely. Anyway, it was a great weekend and it was a big moment in my life. It was also just a lot of fun!

We took the train into London on Friday around eleven o'clock and we had a good journey. I love taking the train!  It's a great way to travel and only takes half of the time that it would for us to drive to London. We ate something quick at the train station when we arrived in London and then we headed to our hotel to check in.

Once we got checked in we decided to get out and enjoy the city. We walked around a bit and did some people watching and then decided to go the O2 complex to have an early dinner. You know how I love taking pictures of food, but I forgot because I was feeling greedy and went ahead and ate. LOL. We ate at a place called Nando's. They have really good spicy food and it's right up my alley.

After we left Nando's, we walked around the O2 Arena. That is one thing that I love about the O2...there are loads of restaurants and things surrounding the arena so you can do everything there. On that particular night there was a Rod Stewart concert getting ready to happen, but we got in and out of the restaurant before the rush.

After we left the restaurant area of the O2, we went outside and walked around. This is a picture of this cool structure that's outside the O2 and I love the way that it was catching the evening light. It's called the Peninsula Spire.

Next to that is this interesting building called the Ravensbourne. It looks like a big toy to me. It seemed to glisten that day.

The next day was the Saturday and it was my graduation day :-) We had to get up really early in order for me to be there to get robed up and everything. Everything was very well-organized and The Barbican where it was held was lovely inside. It's a nice size...not too big, but not tiny. Before the ceremony, there was a mini concert given by the Westminster Brass band. They played about five songs and then the faculty marched in. Here's a slightly blurry picture of the band onstage.

My graduation ceremony was the last one that the chancellor of the university was going to preside over, so it was a special ceremony. The chancellor was David Putnam and he has had an amazing career within many arenas. The thing that I was so impressed by was that he produced the Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire, along with many other films. He was so genuine and inspiring when he spoke. I just loved it! There were two honorary degrees given out. One was given to Anthony Barnett, who is an activist and the other was given to the former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. It was so wonderful! I truly felt this was a milestone in my life...I really felt it and I'll have that memory forever :-)

After graduation, we headed back to the hotel so that I could change out of my uncomfortable outfit ;-) And then we headed to our favorite place to eat....Sophie's. I was feeling so good that I got a cocktail and it was so good! It was called a Frozen Sicilian and it had vodka, lemon, and raspberry in it. Check it out!

And here's my appetizer. It was calamari and it was so good.

I forgot to take a picture of the main course because I was greedy again. LOL. But I had a peppered steak salad and it was great too.

After we ate, we decided to take a good stroll around London. Here's the thing, I don't drink much so that cocktail had me feeling beautifully fuzzy. LOL. I was fine, but just laid back as heck ;-) I was so relaxed and everything.

We walked all around and eventually ended up in Trafalgar Square. It was really buzzing with people, but it didn't seem overcrowded at all. I got free hugs from these two girls who were dressed up like two cats. I've often seen them or others like them there, but I never joined in. Well this time I did and it was great! :-) I just felt in love with the world that evening! Here's a picture that I took across Trafalgar Square and if you look in the center and in the distance you can see Big Ben.

It's always a hive of activity there and there are always sidewalk performances or something going on. There is this section of Trafalgar Square with this pedestal called the Fourth Plinth and it features an ever changing display that lasts for a particular period of time. Currently there is a huge blue chicken called Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch. Here's a picture.

That weekend was one of the best I've ever had and I'll never forget it. I saw so much, I did so much, and I loved it all!

P.S. ~ I just realized that I didn't tell you about my broken heel. This post is already long enough so I'll save that for another post :-)

Misplaced Wires

Hello!

I wanted to stop by to say hi. I've been studying quite a bit over the last few days, but I wanted to take a moment to check in here. As I said in my previous post, I'm feeling rather chatty lately, so I want to get here to my blog. I've been taking some photos that I wanted to share too, but guess what...I've misplaced my camera wire. Ugh! As I typed that I just thought of where I had it last, so once I finish this short post, I'm gonna go look for it where I think it might be hiding. This is quite out of character for me to misplace things like that since I'm kinda particular about putting things back where I got them. Maybe I'm slipping. LOL.

Anyway, in my next post, I'll share some photos that I've taken...nothing spectacular, but I like sharing photos of everyday life. I used to do that a lot in the past here, so I want to get back to doing that :-)

Talk to you later!

Dori ~ From a Yellow House

Cranky Computers and Hitting the Books

Hi there! I just wanted to check in and say hello. I'm currently in the middle of studying for my exams, so I'm not able to post here like I wish I could. I'll get my other photos up that I promised to share very soon. By June 15th I will be finished with my exams and then I will be a posting fool :-) Of course there's also something else keeping me from posting, even if I didn't have exams. You see, my laptop has decided to stop working, so I can't get to my photos and things. So please wish me luck that we can get my laptop fixed and that all will be well. I'm using Brit Boy's laptop right now, so I have a small bit of internet access. Yay!

Anyway, I look forward to getting back here soon with my laptop and photos all in tact. Now it's back to studying. Thanks for continuing to visit me here!

Until next time...

Olympic News and Weekends

Hello there! This is a short post just to check in and say that I hope that everyone had a great weekend. Mine was good after a frenzied week of trying to write my umpteenth essay for school ;-) I gave myself the gift of a break this weekend before I plow headlong into more studying and writing. It has been hard I will admit, but it will be rewarding in the end. I know that I'm doing just what I need to be doing at this point in my life :-) I'm way behind on basically everything it seems including tending to my blog which I love. Thank you for continuing to visit me here even though I've been quite sporadic lately. But I know that once I get past this next month, I will be able to come here and hang out more.

So many things have passed by that I wanted to write about here, including the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece the other day. I know this may seem like a random thing to want to mention in the scheme of things, but I want to mention it because Brit Boy and I are going to the Olympics in London. We're both looking forward to it and this will be my second time going to the Olympics. I was lucky to get to go to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and it was fantastic and I got to enjoy it in my home state. So now, I think it's such a wonderful thing to be getting the chance to go again. It was hard to get tickets, and it's been a long time coming, but we finally got some tickets after a couple of tries. I will most definitely be sharing some photos of our adventures in August.

I didn't want to let that milestone of the torch lighting get too far in the past, because I wanted to share my news and let you know that I'll be sharing some pics. I'm really grateful to get this chance again. I look forward to it.

Now it's back to my school work. One more thing though. Brit Boy and I went for a walk this past Saturday and I took some nature shots of those beautiful green woods that we saw. I will get the pics up this week and share a bit of Wiltshire, England here on my blog.

Have a great day everyone and I'll be back with the pics !

Until next time...

A Quick Sunday Note

Hello :-) I can't believe that my catching up post was nearly three weeks ago. Eek! Time does fly. I'm still in the thick of studying, but this current course is coming to a close. I've received my new textbooks for my second year so it's good to see progress. And I'm happy about that!

I mentioned in my last post that I'd be sharing some pics again and I will in this new week we have ahead of us :-) I'm going to share a kind of hodgepodge of pics over the last three weeks I think. I remember that I used to do this sometimes in my early days of blogging and perhaps it will be a breath of fresh air. I feel the need for a bit of a new direction, or in this case a revisiting of an old direction that can be new again. Besides, I'm always snapping photos, so I could be sharing just about anything...within reason and decorum ;-) Yes, I think that's what I will do...share some random photos to invigorate things around my blog here and stop these darned tumbleweeds in their tracks!

So I hope that you will come back and visit me early this week and see what's been happening around The Yellow House! Until then...have a great rest of the weekend...