UK Graduation Ceremony 2009
...before you hurl any flying brickbats/kitties my way, hear me out =w=;
I don't have any pictures of my own graduation ceremony - with the simple reason that, I'm IN the ceremony itself, so obviously I can't shoot myself, right? ^^; So all the pix of my ceremony, is taken by my brother @ Hogzilla, and he's practically hoarded the entire stash for MONTHS!
I only managed to get it today after hacking accessing his laptop to grab the photos =w=;;;
And because it's Hogzilla's pictures, the angles/colours are kinda off (I got to say, I'm better at taking pictures than him!) so I've tweaked them in Photoshop for resizing + adjusting their curves.
Since it's almost two months back, I shall write a short commentary wherever possible :)))
Cut for image-heavy commentary XD;;;
The ceremony started waaaaaay early in the morning, and I needed to haul myself + the family to the St Alban's Arena to collect the robe and tickets. I initially thought I was lost, but having found Aleks and Damla there, I'm glad to have made it there at the right place :D
Having gone through all the collection procedures (from robe to tickets to placing orders for the official ceremony photographs), we braved the cold November wind to get into the grand Cathedral of St Albans, and after we found our respective graduate seats, we sat down, and waited for the time to begin.
How do we know it's started?
When the brass band started playing XD At first they played lively music, and then it sort of progress to something, erm, bordering tragic (an apt word would have been funereal but it's supposed to be a grand/happy occasion! so I stuck to tragic =w=;;) and as the music died off, and the important people started talking, we know it's officially started.
To put it simply, this cathedral has more than 500 years of history. Heck, it survived the sacking by Boedica when she burnt London(?) down, and actually proceeded to raid St Albans but was halted there by an English general, and subsequently captured and put to death. Despite all that, the cathedral's appearance and ambience is wholesomely preserved - right down to their stained glass windows, arches, and furniture. The only thing that's modern, is the addition of electricity to power up their chandeliers.
What you see up here, is just a small bit. I would have loved to show you its grand volume and space, but Hogzilla didn't capture that *sigh* Maybe next time, ne?
By the time the important people's stopped their long speech and started calling names, it is time.
Time to go collect my hard-earned-through-blood-sweat-and-tears 1st Class Honours degree :D
I apologize for Hogzilla's crappy shot. It seems he wanted to capture the statues behind the whole ceremony, hence this weird angle. But at least he attempted to capture the moment the Chancellor presented the degree to me.
After taking it, like everyone else, we had to return to our seats until they declare the ceremony officially over. The Interior & Spatial Design class was one of the few last to go collect - and there's like, many other majors taking the degrees before us, so you can imagine the time (and all that nervousness of waiting!) we spent in order for our turn to come.
Thankfully, it lasted less than 2 hours - and the moment it's over, everyone can't wait to get to the exit for fresh air (November air is chilly but it's 100x fresher than hot-and-humid Malaysian air!). I took the opportunity to pass around my souvenir gifts to all my close mates in class XDDD as a sort of...parting gift from me.
'Coz well...I'll never know when I'll be back, ne?
And so, to treasure the moments of this day, when we ALL have finally and successfully survived Benedict Anderson's regime to finally graduate with a bachelor degree with honours, we started taking pictures like crazy :D
(in this case, my brother had to tag along with me to take pictures of me with me mates XD)
From left: Me, Erika and Siew.
Erika is my lovely Japanese classmate :D She lives somewhere outside Tokyo (2 hours away from the city) and she had insisted that Siew and I MUST come by one day in Japan to visit her. I'll be keeping that promise :DDD
Siew is the only Malaysian classmate in ISD from Year 1 for this batch - until I come along XD; Having spent the past 4 years in the UK, she's acquired an English accent too (as well as the drinking culture that got me too! XD;;) She's the one who helped me out with the modelling in Rhino (that program that almost killed me in the process of doing the final degree project ORZ) and we used to hang out in class together with Erika, being fellow Malaysians/Asians and all :D
I was only adamant that after the ceremony, the next day she's leaving ;____; *anguish sob* I wanted to see her longer and wanted her to stay back a bit more longer but oh well....at least, I get to see her one last time before she returns to Japan for good. (initially, she told us she didn't feel like coming back due to the long trip and short time for the ceremony, but after much persistence from us/Siew/Aleks/even Ben, she finally came *^_____^* I'm happy. I really am.)
Okay, enough of me gushing about my fellow classmates. Here comes the family shots~
Mom and Dad with me. They are all decked out in their winter gear, despite it being November (because being old, they're afraid of the cold - especially the father). For me, I don't feel that cold in that graduation robe because I'm already seasoned with that temperature, but oooooh when the wind blew, it gets VERY cold XD;
And this, is my brother Hogzilla. Okay...he calls himself Victor (before that, it was Vincent, and before that, it's Paul =w=;;) but his real name is Tan Choo Boon. The 'Choo' and his size and the lucky reading of an article in [The Star] gave birth to my calling him Hogzilla XD;;;
Mom, Me and my sis-in-law, Fanny. It's her first time here in the UK, but she wasn't used to the climate, the people, and the culture - and I shall leave it at that.
Hogzilla never wore the graduation cap before (because he never graduated in anything), so he stole it from me to wear awhile XD; After all, it's his only chance, ne?
Picture on left made me look like a general / pirate ORZ but picture on the right made me look like a small kid who just graduated (which I am! XD;) Pics were taken at the grounds of the Cathedral.
This is NOT the full-scale height of the cathedral - there's more, the camera only can't fit the spires and the giant stained glass window above, as well as the bell towers XD;
But you can see my Mom in the background. In relative scale, that is human scale with the building.
So yes, this Romanesque cathedral is REALLY that huge. And beautiful. Ahhhhh the English town of St Albans always never failed to charm me *^_____^*
Mom and I. With my boots and the hat, I'm at the same height with her XD (sorry for being born short, I blame it on my genes and unhealthy growing years ORZ XD;)
As you can see, the church was getting quite deserted, because most have returned to the Arena to return the robes. So I went back there too to catch up with my mates - for one last time.
The ever-lovely Erika, myself, and Siew with a HUGE graduation teddy bear! *^___^*
And the last, and best picture ever taken:
My Russian mates and I. Me on the left, the legendary (yes! Legendary because she's really cool and really GREAT! 8D) Katya, and the equally-as-legendary Aleks. As my caption said - together, we truly are an unstoppable force in ISD @ Ben's class :DDD
To sum it up, we've been through thick and thin, from Ben's final project to the Degree Show to the Truman Brewery exhibition down at London. We've laughed, we've cried, we've slogged through our projects and we've ALL successfully gained our 1st Class Honours in ISD. I am really proud for my mates' achievements, and I'm glad to have known them. I'm happy for us all *^_________^* Congratulations again to all of us, for gaining 1st Class Honours in Interior & Spatial Design ^_________^
----------------------
...damn, but, finally writing this entry and posting all the pix, have brought back a lot of nostalgic memories of the UK *sigh* And it's making me miss everyone and the places we've been even more - from dreary ol' Hatfield to wonderful St Albans and all the way down to the ever eternal London.
I'm terribly missing the greens, the air, the winter chill, and the autumn colours.
The cobblestoned streets of old London, the magnificent English architecture of Tower Bridge down to Westminster.
The magick of the kingdom.
Most of all - I miss my mates ;____; *sigh*
But I know that deep down, I'll definitely and will find a way to come back.
To come back home to dearest London.
Probably in the far future, or when my career finally allows me to disembark from my base here to walk the world, to be a citizen of the world - and to always return to the place I used to call home.
Home, to me, is London.
Go where we may,
Rest where we will,
Eternal London haunts us still.
-Thomas Moore
------------------------------------
That's enough nostalgia for me. Time to end this entry and call it a night, it's close to 1am now XD;;;
-L
I don't have any pictures of my own graduation ceremony - with the simple reason that, I'm IN the ceremony itself, so obviously I can't shoot myself, right? ^^; So all the pix of my ceremony, is taken by my brother @ Hogzilla, and he's practically hoarded the entire stash for MONTHS!
I only managed to get it today after hacking accessing his laptop to grab the photos =w=;;;
And because it's Hogzilla's pictures, the angles/colours are kinda off (I got to say, I'm better at taking pictures than him!) so I've tweaked them in Photoshop for resizing + adjusting their curves.
Since it's almost two months back, I shall write a short commentary wherever possible :)))
Cut for image-heavy commentary XD;;;
The ceremony started waaaaaay early in the morning, and I needed to haul myself + the family to the St Alban's Arena to collect the robe and tickets. I initially thought I was lost, but having found Aleks and Damla there, I'm glad to have made it there at the right place :D
Having gone through all the collection procedures (from robe to tickets to placing orders for the official ceremony photographs), we braved the cold November wind to get into the grand Cathedral of St Albans, and after we found our respective graduate seats, we sat down, and waited for the time to begin.
How do we know it's started?
When the brass band started playing XD At first they played lively music, and then it sort of progress to something, erm, bordering tragic (an apt word would have been funereal but it's supposed to be a grand/happy occasion! so I stuck to tragic =w=;;) and as the music died off, and the important people started talking, we know it's officially started.
To put it simply, this cathedral has more than 500 years of history. Heck, it survived the sacking by Boedica when she burnt London(?) down, and actually proceeded to raid St Albans but was halted there by an English general, and subsequently captured and put to death. Despite all that, the cathedral's appearance and ambience is wholesomely preserved - right down to their stained glass windows, arches, and furniture. The only thing that's modern, is the addition of electricity to power up their chandeliers.
What you see up here, is just a small bit. I would have loved to show you its grand volume and space, but Hogzilla didn't capture that *sigh* Maybe next time, ne?
By the time the important people's stopped their long speech and started calling names, it is time.
Time to go collect my hard-earned-through-blood-sweat-and-tears 1st Class Honours degree :D
I apologize for Hogzilla's crappy shot. It seems he wanted to capture the statues behind the whole ceremony, hence this weird angle. But at least he attempted to capture the moment the Chancellor presented the degree to me.
After taking it, like everyone else, we had to return to our seats until they declare the ceremony officially over. The Interior & Spatial Design class was one of the few last to go collect - and there's like, many other majors taking the degrees before us, so you can imagine the time (and all that nervousness of waiting!) we spent in order for our turn to come.
Thankfully, it lasted less than 2 hours - and the moment it's over, everyone can't wait to get to the exit for fresh air (November air is chilly but it's 100x fresher than hot-and-humid Malaysian air!). I took the opportunity to pass around my souvenir gifts to all my close mates in class XDDD as a sort of...parting gift from me.
'Coz well...I'll never know when I'll be back, ne?
And so, to treasure the moments of this day, when we ALL have finally and successfully survived Benedict Anderson's regime to finally graduate with a bachelor degree with honours, we started taking pictures like crazy :D
(in this case, my brother had to tag along with me to take pictures of me with me mates XD)
From left: Me, Erika and Siew.
Erika is my lovely Japanese classmate :D She lives somewhere outside Tokyo (2 hours away from the city) and she had insisted that Siew and I MUST come by one day in Japan to visit her. I'll be keeping that promise :DDD
Siew is the only Malaysian classmate in ISD from Year 1 for this batch - until I come along XD; Having spent the past 4 years in the UK, she's acquired an English accent too (as well as the drinking culture that got me too! XD;;) She's the one who helped me out with the modelling in Rhino (that program that almost killed me in the process of doing the final degree project ORZ) and we used to hang out in class together with Erika, being fellow Malaysians/Asians and all :D
I was only adamant that after the ceremony, the next day she's leaving ;____; *anguish sob* I wanted to see her longer and wanted her to stay back a bit more longer but oh well....at least, I get to see her one last time before she returns to Japan for good. (initially, she told us she didn't feel like coming back due to the long trip and short time for the ceremony, but after much persistence from us/Siew/Aleks/even Ben, she finally came *^_____^* I'm happy. I really am.)
Okay, enough of me gushing about my fellow classmates. Here comes the family shots~
Mom and Dad with me. They are all decked out in their winter gear, despite it being November (because being old, they're afraid of the cold - especially the father). For me, I don't feel that cold in that graduation robe because I'm already seasoned with that temperature, but oooooh when the wind blew, it gets VERY cold XD;
And this, is my brother Hogzilla. Okay...he calls himself Victor (before that, it was Vincent, and before that, it's Paul =w=;;) but his real name is Tan Choo Boon. The 'Choo' and his size and the lucky reading of an article in [The Star] gave birth to my calling him Hogzilla XD;;;
Mom, Me and my sis-in-law, Fanny. It's her first time here in the UK, but she wasn't used to the climate, the people, and the culture - and I shall leave it at that.
Hogzilla never wore the graduation cap before (because he never graduated in anything), so he stole it from me to wear awhile XD; After all, it's his only chance, ne?
Picture on left made me look like a general / pirate ORZ but picture on the right made me look like a small kid who just graduated (which I am! XD;) Pics were taken at the grounds of the Cathedral.
This is NOT the full-scale height of the cathedral - there's more, the camera only can't fit the spires and the giant stained glass window above, as well as the bell towers XD;
But you can see my Mom in the background. In relative scale, that is human scale with the building.
So yes, this Romanesque cathedral is REALLY that huge. And beautiful. Ahhhhh the English town of St Albans always never failed to charm me *^_____^*
Mom and I. With my boots and the hat, I'm at the same height with her XD (sorry for being born short, I blame it on my genes and unhealthy growing years ORZ XD;)
As you can see, the church was getting quite deserted, because most have returned to the Arena to return the robes. So I went back there too to catch up with my mates - for one last time.
The ever-lovely Erika, myself, and Siew with a HUGE graduation teddy bear! *^___^*
And the last, and best picture ever taken:
My Russian mates and I. Me on the left, the legendary (yes! Legendary because she's really cool and really GREAT! 8D) Katya, and the equally-as-legendary Aleks. As my caption said - together, we truly are an unstoppable force in ISD @ Ben's class :DDD
To sum it up, we've been through thick and thin, from Ben's final project to the Degree Show to the Truman Brewery exhibition down at London. We've laughed, we've cried, we've slogged through our projects and we've ALL successfully gained our 1st Class Honours in ISD. I am really proud for my mates' achievements, and I'm glad to have known them. I'm happy for us all *^_________^* Congratulations again to all of us, for gaining 1st Class Honours in Interior & Spatial Design ^_________^
----------------------
...damn, but, finally writing this entry and posting all the pix, have brought back a lot of nostalgic memories of the UK *sigh* And it's making me miss everyone and the places we've been even more - from dreary ol' Hatfield to wonderful St Albans and all the way down to the ever eternal London.
I'm terribly missing the greens, the air, the winter chill, and the autumn colours.
The cobblestoned streets of old London, the magnificent English architecture of Tower Bridge down to Westminster.
The magick of the kingdom.
Most of all - I miss my mates ;____; *sigh*
But I know that deep down, I'll definitely and will find a way to come back.
To come back home to dearest London.
Probably in the far future, or when my career finally allows me to disembark from my base here to walk the world, to be a citizen of the world - and to always return to the place I used to call home.
Home, to me, is London.
Go where we may,
Rest where we will,
Eternal London haunts us still.
-Thomas Moore
------------------------------------
That's enough nostalgia for me. Time to end this entry and call it a night, it's close to 1am now XD;;;
-L