I Know it's Over/Hand in glove/The Sun and Ayr
Excuse the tenuous title to this post, Smiths lyrics anyone?
So it's official: the (im)mature student has left the campus building – it happened a week last Monday, after my final exam (Formal Aspects of Computer Science – nasty and nice logic type stuff). I'd had the same feeling before: in 1990 after my final GCSE, walking out of the (newly rebuilt) sports hall of Stapylton Secondary School, now completely demolished (along with said sports hall). The feeling was/is a mixture of disbelief – I'm free?! - and is bittersweet, like finishing a good book.
Five years of secondary school and five years of university education behind me (and a bit of a gap between), I move again into the land of the employed – I'm happy to say that a few days prior to leaving Uni I was offered a job with Serco as a software engineer (to give 'computer programmer' its Sunday name) subject to a 2:1 pass (roll on 19th July when I'll find out). This is good on so many levels, to name just a few (as long as I get that pass): I'll be doing what I've been educated to do – I won't be answering calls on a helpdesk (this comes to mind) or be doing anything else completely unrelated to the degree (not comparing myself to this guy of course, but talking of skill/job mismatches...). The work itself sounds really interesting and the office itself is really nice. It's only a few minutes walk from the train station so I don't even have to worry about sitting in long queues of traffic on the 'mad mile', getting madder and madder (if you're local to me you'll know what I'm talking about) and I get to travel on trains every day – I won't pretend I don't love doing that, though I swear I've never stood on a bridge and took down their numbers in a little notebook...
Anyway, on finishing Uni, Bex smashed up my computer, well OK she just pulled the plug out (with gusto) and we all went up to Scotland for a holiday. We went to a Haven - the Gorgonzola of cheesy holidays - caravan site in Ayr (in this exact caravan - so close to the Google realm of death as of today's date, where high-q sat maps go ultra low-q!), and spent most of the time travelling around the area, though we did take Joni and Ed along to a few shows on the site. I can't believe what a good little dancer Joni is! And Ed dances too, well he spins around till he falls over... The highlight of the holiday was seeing bottlenosed dolphins from the ferry – we took a day trip to Arran (Broddick). Look at the photo I took below:
Well OK I didn’t really, although that photo was taken on the West coast of Scotland. Click on the photo to see the photo I really took. Can you spot them? ;-) We did get a really good view of one right alongside the ferry (Joni was so excited), it could even be clearly seen swimming under the water with it being so calm. Unfortunately I was too busy looking with my eyes to use my cameraphone - but hey, better to enjoy the moment than capture it eh? The uncaptured moment is worth a thousand captured if it is enjoyed - you were there, not just your camera.
There are a few more photos from the holiday which can be seen over at flickr.com/photos/byjohn.
So it's official: the (im)mature student has left the campus building – it happened a week last Monday, after my final exam (Formal Aspects of Computer Science – nasty and nice logic type stuff). I'd had the same feeling before: in 1990 after my final GCSE, walking out of the (newly rebuilt) sports hall of Stapylton Secondary School, now completely demolished (along with said sports hall). The feeling was/is a mixture of disbelief – I'm free?! - and is bittersweet, like finishing a good book.
Five years of secondary school and five years of university education behind me (and a bit of a gap between), I move again into the land of the employed – I'm happy to say that a few days prior to leaving Uni I was offered a job with Serco as a software engineer (to give 'computer programmer' its Sunday name) subject to a 2:1 pass (roll on 19th July when I'll find out). This is good on so many levels, to name just a few (as long as I get that pass): I'll be doing what I've been educated to do – I won't be answering calls on a helpdesk (this comes to mind) or be doing anything else completely unrelated to the degree (not comparing myself to this guy of course, but talking of skill/job mismatches...). The work itself sounds really interesting and the office itself is really nice. It's only a few minutes walk from the train station so I don't even have to worry about sitting in long queues of traffic on the 'mad mile', getting madder and madder (if you're local to me you'll know what I'm talking about) and I get to travel on trains every day – I won't pretend I don't love doing that, though I swear I've never stood on a bridge and took down their numbers in a little notebook...
Anyway, on finishing Uni, Bex smashed up my computer, well OK she just pulled the plug out (with gusto) and we all went up to Scotland for a holiday. We went to a Haven - the Gorgonzola of cheesy holidays - caravan site in Ayr (in this exact caravan - so close to the Google realm of death as of today's date, where high-q sat maps go ultra low-q!), and spent most of the time travelling around the area, though we did take Joni and Ed along to a few shows on the site. I can't believe what a good little dancer Joni is! And Ed dances too, well he spins around till he falls over... The highlight of the holiday was seeing bottlenosed dolphins from the ferry – we took a day trip to Arran (Broddick). Look at the photo I took below:
Well OK I didn’t really, although that photo was taken on the West coast of Scotland. Click on the photo to see the photo I really took. Can you spot them? ;-) We did get a really good view of one right alongside the ferry (Joni was so excited), it could even be clearly seen swimming under the water with it being so calm. Unfortunately I was too busy looking with my eyes to use my cameraphone - but hey, better to enjoy the moment than capture it eh? The uncaptured moment is worth a thousand captured if it is enjoyed - you were there, not just your camera.
There are a few more photos from the holiday which can be seen over at flickr.com/photos/byjohn.
Labels: dolphins, holiday, Serco, university
posted by John Doran-Armstrong at 1:38 PM
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