Durham

Gavin went to the office first thing this morning and I tried to catch up on some laundry and ironing at home. We  - Gavin, I, Luke and Meriel - were all packed up and ready to leave by 11am to go to Durham. Thomas has stayed at home as he has orchestra rehearsals every day this week at school, so unfortunately could not come with us to attend Luke's graduation. He however got ill on Saturday, and has such a bad cold and poorly chest that he could not go to rehearsals today and stayed in bed for most of the day. I felt awful leaving him when he is feeling so rotten, but I did cook two meals for him this morning so his dinner is sorted for the next two nights while we are away. I have managed to get an appointment at the doctor for him tomorrow in case he needs an antibiotic for his bad chest infection (not with the NHS, I was told I could get one in a few week's time, what good is that?)

Just after we set off Adam phoned and said his meeting today was much earlier than expected so he could come with us, so we drove via Cambridge to pick him up. Meriel has a spare ticket to the graduation so it all works well as Adam can have that ticket. 

We got to Durham later than expected after our detour to Cambridge, and soon after we arrived I went out with my camera to get some photos. The light at 7.30pm was lovely. 

The cathedral is finally free of scaffolding - it has been covered up ever since Luke has been at university here, and thankfully it is now looking lovely again just in time for graduation week! The graduation ceremony takes place in Durham Cathedral so it was appropriate to get a photo of it today. I have some extras of the town - you can see the bunting is up for grad week in the university colours of purple and white.

So, another graduation in another beautiful university town. We have to be at the cathedral by 10am tomorrow morning, and after the ceremony we have lunch booked with all the students and their parents from Luke's house-share. The town is buzzing at the moment, full of parents here for the graduations and all hotels and restaurants (for post grad celebrations) have been booked out months ago as it is not a very large town.

An exciting day tomorrow!