On Thursday the 9th of July 2009, I graduated from university.

I got a ride to Dundee with my Mum and my Grandad- my guests attending the ceremony.  My sister was supposed to be there but she had a flight to Barcelona that afternoon and wasn’t able to make it.  On arriving in Dundee, I had to head straight for the Caird Hall to get my official photograph taken.  This involved going backstage at the hall, something I thought was pretty cool.  I got to see all the various committee rooms and also saw the “artists lounge”- where the stars hang out.

It took about 45 minutes for me to work my way through the photography process- there were different stages- check order, get a USB pen drive with order details on it, go to a photography room, wait, hoose your best image, get a cd with the image on it, find the frames area.  Quite tiring actually.

After all that, I got back to Caird Square where I met up with some of my friends.  We entered the hall at about 2.30pm and took our seats.  Mine was in the 5th row- seat E17 if you really wanted to know.  Graduation didn’t start ’til 3pm so much yapping was done until then.  Looking at the Graduation booklet we were given, it was so strange to note that only 6 of us were graduating with BSc (Hons) Computing- back when we were young, bright-eyed 1st years, there were 40 of us!

The ceremony began with crazy Phantom of the Opera music.  I have no idea what was being played.  In fact, I don’t even know if the organist was playing a distinct tune.  Perhaps they had a basket of cats which they emptied over the organ, and allowed them to step all over the keys?  It was loud, ominous and to be perfectly honest, would have been more fitting at a funeral.

The ceremony itself was pretty boring.  Throughout the first half, I felt quite nervous, because you know what I’m like before I have to go appear in front of people.  This is definitely the largest crowd I’ve been in front of- approximately 2000 people.  Before long it was time to go on stage.  I thought I’d be really nervous right before I walked on but interestingly, at the moment, I felt very calm and totally ok with it.  The dvd of the graduation ceremony I received afterwards tells a different story- I seem to be unable to smile.  In my defence, I was concentrating on not tripping over my own feet (I’m a bit clumsy).

After that, I just had the rest of the ceremony to sit through or, as it my case, I had the rest of the ceremony to talk (quietly) to the people sitting beside me.  What can I say?  I was bored.  We knew the hall was probably going to get very hot during the ceremony and thought we might be able to get some water, but no.  We ended up sharing a bottle of water that Kevin brought with him.  I’m fairly certain some of the academics gave us funny looks when they saw 4 of us sharing the same bottle.  Rest assured, we were not drinking alcohol- it really was just water.

At the end of the ceremony, we had to leave the hall, row by row and we were greeted in Caird Square by a Pipe Band which was quite nice .  Of course, my family noted that during the procession out into the Square, I still didn’t stop talking…oops.

I took some pictures in the square, talked to my friends then headed back to return my robe.  I had a message from my mum saying that she was at Starbucks with my Grandad so I made my way there to grab an Iced Chocolate.  After a long day (it was 7pm by this point) it was time to head home and relax.

When I got home, my family told me how proud of me they were and how proud my dad would be if he was still with us.  To be honest, I didn’t think I’d ever get this far.  Back in 2002, I was just a devastated 14 year old, coming to the end of her 3rd year in High School.  I didn’t ever want to go back to school after I lost my dad so it’s a testament to my friends, family and teachers/tutors for getting me this far.  Thanks guys

That’s it.  4 years, approximately 39200 miles travelled, 2 days where I was snowed in, that time I was up for 3 days straight, sleepless nights, days of stress, tears, laughter, good times in Whitespace, Ice Cream cake, the best Lentil Soup ever made, playing Hangman in lectures, rants about Scotrail, great friends, travel buddies, that time we got sent home because of the powercut, PC vs Mac, PC vs Linux, laptop wars, bring back the curly fries and a partridge in a pear tree.  Ok, the partridge thing didn’t happen.

The current economic climate isn’t exactly conducive to finding a job.  Even during the graduation ceremony, the principal pretty much said that it would be tough getting a job in our desired field.  After 4 years of really hard work, that’s a little disheartening to hear.  I know, I know- no one said it would be easy.

Here’s to new beginnings I guess, however they may turn out in these uncertain times.

Good luck everyone- I wish you all the best with whatever you choose to do

Mood : nostalgic   Music : Closing Time  by  Semisonic

Originally, I had planned to head down to Hampden alone (a bold move for me I know) as I thought I was the only Springsteen fan in my family. As it turns out, my Aunt and Uncle are big fans and were also going to the gig so I headed down with them. We arrived outside Hampden just after 3pm and decided to grab some chips and get something to drink. Once we’d done that, we checked our tickets and realised that my ticket was for the West Entrance and theirs was for the East, so we would have to regroup once we were in.

I joined the queue outside turnstile 20 on the West side just after 4pm. It wasn’t that big and there was a fantastic atmosphere. There were these 2 guys, carrying a sofa between them, wandering about, singing Born In The USA at the top of their voices which was pretty funny (even made the Police and the event staff laugh). Obviously, they didn’t want to have to stand and queue, so they picked a line, plonked the sofa down and had a drink. Take note die-hard fans of any artist: this is the way to go!

Annoyingly, there were a couple of heavy showers while I was in the queue. It cleared up a bit but once the doors opened a little after 5.30pm, the heavens opened again. Once inside, it didn’t take me long to find my Aunt and Uncle. We ended up in a really good spot and yapped to the folks alongside us for a good while (one thing I will say- very friendly crowd with plenty of banter and laughs). The rain continued for another hour and I was getting worried that it would be a repeat of the Bryan Adams concert I attended at Murrayfield. Finally, it eased up and some blue sky appeared.

The first person to emerge on-stage at 7.50pm was Nils Lofgren. He was playing the accordion and I wondered what song he was playing at first. A few seconds later it was made clear when the entire stadium burst into a deafening roar: Flower of Scotland. Shortly after that, Bruce, along with the rest of the E Street Band burst onto the stage with a brilliant rendition of Badlands.

Now, I could sit here and go through the songs one by one but instead, it’ll just mention my highlights.

• Outlaw Pete- although I hadn’t heard the new album yet (yes someone slap me), I thought this was brilliant- beautiful American scenery in the background and Bruce paraded around wearing a Stetson.

• Working on the Highway- a highlight for me because I didn’t expect to hear this song live!

• Johnny 99- one of my favourites off the Nebraska album (and possibly the most upbeat song on the record too). I’m almost ashamed to admit I didn’t recognise it at first (it’s play acoustically on the album but the full band played it live).

• Pink Cadillac- I’ve been informed this is a rare one to hear. Anyway, it was brilliant although for a moment, I didn’t think Bruce was going to remember the opening riff.

• Cover Me- this was one of the requests that was written on a sign. Again, I just didn’t expect to hear this live.

• Waitin’ On A Sunny Day- one of my favourite songs off The Rising album and it was pretty appropriate too. During the song, Bruce went up to a little girl who was in the front row of the audience (she must have only been about 5 years old), got the entire stadium to be quiet (you could have heard a pin drop) and let the wee girl sing the chorus- it made everyone go “aww” .  Ironically, at the very end of this song, it rained a little.

• The River- This is the song which contains some of the best lyrics ever written- “is a dream a lie that don’t come true or is it something worse?”. Although it is a sad some and some people may feel that it killed the mood, it was fantastic.

• The Rising- the song is off the album of the same name and I loved the “la la lalala la la” bit live (if you know the song, you know what I mean ).

Of course he played some of his most well-known songs too Born To Run (very loud roar when this started!), Thunder Road, Dancing in the Dark- all totally amazing

There were some funny moments throughout the evening too. Near the start, Bruce walked right alongside the audience and handed a plectrum to a guy who must have been in his mid-twenties. The guy was obviously a huge fan and he was so shocked, I don’t think he knew what to do- for a second I thought he was going to burst into tears, poor bloke. It was quite funny when Bruce was collecting signs that had requesting on them- there were so many, he had to make 2 trips and struggled to carry everything he collected.

The final song of the evening was Twist & Shout which must have gone on for at least 10 minutes- it was completely insane. The crowd were going wild and pretty much everyone wanted the band to keep going but sadly, 11pm was curfew time so it all had to come to an end.

After the show finished, it was a bit of a nightmare getting out of Glasgow. Something had happened in the city centre and nearly all of the traffic lights were out- there were Policemen everywhere directing the traffic. Even after we got out of the city, there were roadworks which caused huge tailbacks. When we got to Dundee, one of the roundabouts on the Kingsway was closed. After all that, we didn’t actually get home until just after 3am.

It was a fantastic night and I still can’t believe Bruce and the E Street Band performed for 3 solid hours without taking a break. When I reach 59, I hope I have as much energy as the Boss- he never stopped running and jumping around! My first Bruce Springsteen concert and certainly not my last- hope he comes back to Scotland soon.

I’ll leave you with one of the pics I took-

For those that are interested, below is the complete setlist-

Flower of Scotland (Nils Lofgren played alone)
Badlands
Out In The Street
My Lucky Day
She’s The One
Outlaw Pete
Working On The Highway
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Atlantic City
Raise Your Hand (Instrumental Gathering Signs)
Incident On 57th Street
Pink Cadillac
Cover Me
Waitin’ On A Sunny Day
The Promised Land
The River
Kingdom of Days
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Hard Times Come Again No More
Thunder Road
American Land
Bobby Jean
Dancing in the Dark
Twist & Shout

Mood : bouncy   Music : Outlaw Pete  by  Bruce Springsteen

Here’s a tip for you web designers out there.

Ever needed to spellcheck your website once it’s live online?  I’ve just found out that it’s possible to do this in Firefox.  Go to the website you want to spellchecked and then enter the following in the address bar-

javascript:document.body.contentEditable=‘true’; document.designMode=‘on’; void 0

This tip came courtesy of Urbanos Blog

javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0

Mood : blah   Music : Out Of Control  by  She Wants Revenge