Life After Masters

Last week I graduated. De Montfort Hall looked amazing. We all looked amazing. The University of Leicester did us proud.

I had been dreading Graduation Day - all that fuss, all that pomp and tradition. What if the gown didn't fit? What if I tripped as I walked across the stage? But then I woke up at 5 am and I was no longer anxious. I was looking forward to it. I was going to enjoy every minute, not least seeing Daughter who was travelling up by train for the day.

Now it's all over. I have my certificate for my MA. I have my Waddington Award for best dissertation and my G. S. Fraser award for poetry. But there is a void. I want a deadline for an assignment. I want the preparation for a seminar. I want the coffee and chat in the Student Union cafe. It will take a while before I stop missing all those things.

Its not as if I've been doing nothing since I finished the MA. I've sent out some poetry - three poems accepted so far this year and there are more out there being considered. What I should be doing is transforming my stage play from a dissertation to a submittable script. I worked really hard on that play, was thrilled to get an award for it, so why can't I just get on with editing and submitting? It's based on a true event from 1935 London. I became very attached to the characters, both the real ones and my fictional protagonist. Maybe I'm afraid that it will be rejected. Maybe I need a bit more time to ruminate. Maybe I should stop writing this blog post and just get on with it...

Ferret Love

For over 40 years I cooked Christmas dinner for the family. Now it's someone else's turn. 

This is the second year that we spent Christmas with Daughter. It has become our new tradition. Daughter found a lovely pub-cum-restaurant where we lounged near a huge log fire and unashamedly allowed others to wait upon us.

Since I last mentioned Daughter on this blog, she has fallen in love with ferrets. She is a weekend volunteer at her local RSPCA and this was how she first met - and lost her heart to - these long furry animals. I didn't realise how tame and loving ferrets could be. It would seem that I am now their grandma and so, as is the way with all good grandmas, I am in love with them... almost.

Between you, me and the blog post, I have to admit that I do prefer cats. My two girls, Mabel and Charlie, are getting on in years now and are both on different doses of medication. This would make going away impossible if it wasn't for my amazing friend/neighbour who even crept round early on Christmas morning to give them food, meds and love before her family woke up.

Of course, there were other holiday events; trips to visit family, family staying over on New Years Eve, a visit with the grandkids to the local pantomime, Peter Pan - oh yes we did - but somehow I keep thinking of those ferrets, of their hammocks to sleep in, their toys to play with and tubes to run through. They've certainly landed on their paws at my Daughter's place and they're not cheap to run. They eat fresh meat every day, need constant care and attention and I'm guessing that all those ferret toys cost a pretty penny and some, but then I think about the amount of love that they have to offer - and that is priceless.