...And We did all the Packing Ourselves!

As many of you know, Mum and I are moving to the nearby village of Bloxham. Mum found the house herself in the news paper, and there hasn't been a single person who hasn't liked the house after seeing it. The walls fresh paint on them, the carpets look new and clean, the garden's a great size and I'm loving mowing the lawn again (with our Canadian mower), there's a double garage so lots of storage space for the "bloody boxes" as well as the canoe and a few other things. I smiled when after the movers had brought in all of our furniture, Mum said "our furniture looks like it belongs". We've met a few of our neighbours, and look forward to meeting the rest of them in good time. These are a few pictures from the beginning of the process... As things progress I'll add more.

My Aunt Christine, and Aunt Lorraine with Mum as they headed back home after 2 weeks of pure labour. We couldn't have done it without you!!
The bonefire Derek and I put together to get ride of some of the burnable items from the skip.
The bone fire again.
The skip after Derek climbed in to pull stuff out. It was full before we started, and we took out about 2/3 of the stuff!!
Bags of recycling destined for the curb. The Recycling guys were fantastic! They took everything so long as it was clearly marked (which it was) having labels with "recycling", "paper", "textiles" or "books" on everything.
The Skip... or is it Tip?? ;P

Flight Over The Tews

For quite some time, our good friend Peter has promised to take Mummy up with him and his wife in a plane ride that he was given to him as a Birthday present. For several reasons including bad weather a couple times, and even the plane being un-airworthy, this flight had not taken place. That is until we got a phone call from Peter starting with "I know this is short notice, but..." So Mum headed off to fly over the village where we live as well as some of the surrounding towns. However, due to fuel delays they didn't take off when they expected, so I then got a phone call from Peter saying that my Mum and his wife had gone up first and would I care to join him for his turn. Of course I said yes!! The last time I had gone flying was way back in 2006 with Sir Grumpy, and that was flying over Montreal and the West Island so very different :) These are a few images that I managed to take, unfortunately neither Mum nor I were able to capture the Vicarage from right above, but we got the church a few other landmarks.

Peter, and our pilot Derek in our plane.
The dash board, I have no idea what any of it means...
Tew Park, where the Horse Trials are held (you might be able to see some of the jumps).
The wee Village of Tew :) From the top of the picture down, the green circle is of Court Farm; the purple circle is of the Green where the shop, pub and school are; the yellow circle is of the Estate Offices; the red circle is Big House (unoccupied); the black circle is the Coach House (aka: the Glass House) where the Squire and Family lives; and finally the faint blue circle is the church.
Tew Blue Vein and Ironstone Quarry
Another view of the Village, and the yellow circle is the Vicarage!!
This is Little Tew to the south of Great Tew. The small L-shaped building in the center of the picture is the church.
Great Tew, the dark trees at the top of the picture, and Little Tew at the bottom, together.
The nearby market town of Chippy.
The town of Bloxham where Mum and I are moving to. the steeple spire you can see slightly left of center of the picture is the church.
The great town of Banbury, home of the Banbury Cross ridden to by the fine Lady upon a white horse...
The runway upon our descent.
Back on terra firma :)

Convocation!!

On July 9th, I officially graduated with a 2:1 (B+) degree with Honours in Biological Anthropology! Mum and I took a few days to go into Canterbury, when we had dinner at Zizzi's with Ed, his brother Jack and their Mum Deb; we also went to a few drinks parties, one for Scott as he's going back to the States to work (GOOD LUCK SCOTT!!) and another one for the whole Anthropology department. Typically, it rained on the day and it was very windy but I think this was a benefit because I didn't have to worry about sweat stains and blisters, and most of the photos look like action shots with all the wind blowing around. We couldn't have asked for a better location though. The Cathedral was packed and I for one was proud to be there. As it was Dad's birthday, I carried his academic hood from when he received his PhD. The hood was bright red, so I certainly stood out in a sea of black robes and grey hoods even though Mum, Catherine, and Ed were sitting right up in the front in the Nave, so they wouldn't have had any problems anyway. After the ceremony and the drinks party, I handed in my robes and we headed out for dinner at a restaurant of Catherine's choice called Strada. The next morning Mum and I headed back up to campus to get my photos done. This was definitely better then having them done on the day of the ceremony. For one thing I didn't have to worry that my makeup was running or that my hair was flat. It went as well as it could have, and now I can hold up that piece of paper that gives me the right to say: "Sarah Conway...BSc!"

Mum with me outside the Cathedral after the ceremony.
Me with Ed and sistor Catherine.
Ed with me in front of the Cathedral.
Me with Scott, my supervisor, at the departmental drink party
(L-R): Ben, Han (way in the background), Beth, Ed, and me at the departmental drink party.
Dinner with Ed's family: (L-R) Deb, Ed, Jack, Mum, and Me.
Rosie, a fellow survivor, and Me after Scott's going away party.
Me with my dissertation bones that I cleaned and organized into these boxes. That's Cedric, the Lab's skellie, in the background.
The Nave of the Cathedral where we received our degrees.
Me!!