Unwinding by the river

Several times over the past few weeks, I know I have said “Now THIS is where I want to live for ever,” but at the risk of sounding indecisive, THIS is where I want to live. THIS is Liz’s beautiful airy flat, over looking the River Dart in Dartmouth, with the yachts at anchor and the Higher Ferry tootling back and forth across the river, and sunlight pouring into the flat, and with a coffee to hand.

And before you ask, yes, there is a Lower Ferry, as well.

Himmat and I drove down here to Dartmouth to join Liz yesterday, having left Hari to finish off his packing, and attend his Graduation Ball tonight. We will collect him tomorrow from Exeter, head back to London, and then onto Delhi on Monday.

And thus another chapter in Hari’s (and our) lives is closed. University is finished, and the real world awaits him.

The graduation ceremony on Thursday was lovely. It was surprisingly moving, and while I valiantly took photos galore crying all the while, Anjulie handed over the video camera to Himmat, so she could sob away unhindered. The Chancellor of Exeter is a delightful lady called Flouella Benjamin – well, actually, since she is recently ennobled, she is actually Baroness Benjamin of Beckenham, and she is clearly loved by the students. Given the way she hugged and kissed each and every graduate as they came on stage, it’s hardly surprising. She greeted each young man and woman with a beaming smile, a hug, a kiss, a cuddle for all the world as though it were a cocktail party amongst friends, not a degree ceremony.

Anne-Sophie graduated yesterday, and apparently the amazing Flouella stretched her arms out wide and said to her “Come here, my beautiful, beautiful girl” which is hardly prosaic graduation stuff.

Anyway, that’s it for this morning, as it’s time for Liz, Himmat and your blogger at large, to explore Dartmouth. The sky is cloudy, so we have warmies and an umbrella, those requisites of a typical English summer day.