I suppose in the same way that if you write you’re a writer, if you make YouTube videos you’re a YouTuber. I know my nieces think I’m a YouTuber, and I have made quite a few videos, but I’ve never felt that the cap fits well. However, yesterday I reached a new milestone: I had a video banned from YouTube!
A wee photo post for you, because I was called upon this week to go to Glenrothes for work. It is not the most photogenic of locations, being one of those ugly new towns that are all shopping centres and roundabouts, but as I had already travelled for over three hours (!) I thought “what’s another hour?” and went for lunch in St Andrews, which is much prettier.
It’s no secret that I’m extremely fond of the university I attended – St Andrews, affectionately known as the Bubble, because going there really is like entering a secret, magic world, cut off from this one. I’ve blogged before about the way St Andrews never changes, the bizarre things people say in St Andrews, and the way Latin incantations are used to turn the students into graduates, but I thought I would share someone else’s words about the Bubble today.
The St Andrews Alumni Network recently provided a link on Facebook to the June 2012 graduation address, given by Dr Chris Jones. The comments underneath said things like “this made me cry”, “I can’t get over this” and “I am still BAWLING”. With curiosity, but also a steely(ish) determination not to become easily emotional, I clicked through and read it. The beginning was spot on, the middle was fascinating and educational, and the end – well, I was blubbing like a baby throughout the last paragraph, too.
I know that university is a big part of all graduates’ lives, but it is remarkable quite how much of an enduring influence it seems to have on us St Andreans. I would encourage you to read the excellent address even if you are not a graduate of St Andrews, or indeed of anywhere. It gives you a quick run through 600 years of very eventful history, and some of the fascinating facts might come in handy for pub quizzes. If you are an exile from the Bubble, though – please have a hanky at the ready.
K C Murdarasi 