Today is the last Sunday of term, so after going to the 9:00 Mass and mulling around the tea-and-coffee afterwards I headed over to St. Salvator's Chapel for the last chapel service of the academic year. Thankfully the final hymn was "Guide me, O thou great Redeemer" which is a classic. Most of the other hymns were good traditional tunes but with different lyrics to suit the touchy-feely Teddy Bear Christianity (if you can call it that) of the Church of Scotland today. But at least the last hymn of the year was a good, solid one. And I had Matt Normington at my right hand and Jenny Maxwell at my left, so I was amongst friends to boot.
Above are seen Sara Lawrence Goodwin (center) and the Rev. Dr. Ian C. Bradley (right), in my mortarboard which he nicked for the purposes of the photo.
Speaking of friends, at the after-chapel sherry I had the pleasure of meeting James Bradley's parents who, despite being scientists the both of them, are absolutely great fun. After the traditional after-chapel sherry, I joined them on the traditional after-chapel pier walk.
Along the way on the cliffside path we came across a rather charming Old English Sheepdog named Becks.
We hung out on the end of the pier for a while as Dr. Bradley (not the Rev. Dr. Bradley, nor the Dr. Bradley who is James' mother, but the Dr. Bradley who is James' father) regaled us with tales of India, where James will be teaching orphans for part of the summer.
After it was James' turn to rip a yarn or two we headed back down the pier and into town where the Drs. Bradley very cheerfully bought us not one, but two rounds of drinks and told us very amusing tales of their undergraduate and academic careers.
