Last week in Blacksburg

The last week has been a bit stressful with the move. Everything had to be sorted, sold, packed, shipped etc within 10 days. Plus sorting a bunch of forms for the next job. Thankfully I sold all of my furniture. Which did mean for the last week I was sleeping and sitting on the floor.

My "sofa"

 And then there was all the cleaning. I spent Wednesday and Thursday (when not working) just cleaning. It was made more bearable with some music and a great bottle of wine!

Bribery to clean

 On my last day at work, the weather was gorgeous and I got some nice last pictures of campus.

Burruss Hall

War Memorial 

VT (and road works)

The campus is definitely the prettiest I have been on. (Minus all the current road works.)
For the past week I have been helping the VT police department with orientation, doing demos of the RAD stuff. I am really going to my police department and my friends there.

Watching the presentation

 The last night was exhausting but I managed to get everything done. And finished off in the morning.

My last BB breakfast

I got a lift to the airport from Nicole and we had a lovely lunch before checking in. (My luggage was exactly at the maximum weight.)

The first part of the trip from Roanoke to Washington Dulles was mostly uneventful though we did have some serious turbulence thanks to thunderstorms. And I managed to be leaving Dulles from a food dead zone it seems. The flight out was delayed. First, they hadn't stowed the luggage. Then the electrics kept crashing through the cabin and then the cockpit. They had some great movies but I ended having to restart and fast forward the avengers film about 5 times as it kept resetting. Then they couldn't detach the outside stairs from the plane. Thats a new one!

I was hoping to catch up with Caroline at Heathrow as we both landed at the same time. But you needed a boarding pass to get to where she was leaving from! :-( 

I am now home, after a lovely English breakfast in the sun (it has, of course, since clouded over), a shower and a nap. The main reason I am updating this is to stay awake! I have to stay awake so I avoid jet lag. Which considering I got no sleep on the plane is not easy! 

But it's good to be home even if it is only for a short time. :)

VT Cheese Festival

One of the best things about Blacksburg in the summer is the number of festivals. There seems to be one pretty much every weekend. This weekend was the first Virginia Tech Cheese Festival. Thankfully it was held indoors at the Moss Art's Centre as the weather this week has really heated up - 90 F with ~80-90% humidity (I wish I was joking about the humidity level). I have been working from home as much as possible as my office is generally in the summer 10-20 F hotter than outside and like a sauna.
I decided to go to this one on my own as it was easy than trying to organize people so I got the bus down there.

Outside the Arts Center

With the ticket, you get a free drink. Someone warned me that I should get a drink first as the queues inside were long and it would be more pleasant with a glass of wine. You don't have to tell me twice. So I grabbed a glass of Riesling and a bottle of Sprite (which turned out to be an excellent decision). Unfortunately the lady was right about the queues and the wine didn't make it to the first tasting!

Cheese

My favorite (they even gave me extra free cheese later!)

 Overall it was not very well organized. They had about 15 vendors split over 3 floors. But each floor only had one queue, so you had to wait in that one queue to try any of them. Even if you didn't want to try some. And they only had 2 drinks vendors, both on the ground floor. Hence why I was very happy to have the extra drink. If you are in a group, you can send someone on a drink run, but I would have lost my space in line and have to start again. Not going to happen.

Very long queues.

Also a lot had bread or crackers with the cheese on, which makes sense. But for someone who can't eat wheat, it sucked!

Looks good

 At least VT can make fun of itself. That the only explanation I have for the amount of cheese related merchandise.

Cheese everything

Cheese hat anyone?

 The Moss Arts Centre is very nice and though I was standing in line for a long time, the view was pretty good at times. And, when not so pretty I had my book. That is when not eavesdropping on the sometimes bizarre conversations around me.

Cathedral style windows

They also had live music outside which was good (though they must have been melting), but as everyone was inside and couldn't hear it, I was a little confused as to why.

Music

 And they had a little petting zoo. Well, some cows and sheep. The calves were so cute. :-)

Chilling in the sun

So cute.

teenagers!

On the way home, I stopped by the UPS store to buy boxes. I am starting to organize my packing. However it was not fun getting them home on the bus!
On the evening, I cooked dinner (the cheese and broccoli bakes sort of worked) with a cheese platter of my recent acquisitions for dessert.

Gouda, Fetina and cubes of horseradish cheese.

Sadly I was woken up in the middle of the night by a bug bite on my leg. It didn't seem bad during the day. Now it is roughly the size of my palm. :-( And the itching is driving me crazy!!!!

 On Sunday I attempt to sell some of my clothes at a consignment store. Apparently my style is too old. Very insulted. But they only want clothes for teens and considering the clothes they had, I think I should be happy to say I don't have any of those. But I did have a nice meal at a friends house on his deck to end the day, so not a complete loss.

Cissi's graduation!

Friday was Cissi's PhD graduation so she is back is Blacksburg! It's only for a week but it is so good to have her back.  I miss her so much! The graduation was at the Coliseum basketball stadium so Cait and I went along as the cheering squad.
Luckily she was on the end of a row so I got some photos of her as we waited. (It took them ages to all file in.) And as proved by the photos, some things never change.

Waiting to start

never without a camera.

talking. 

 The ceremony was very "pomp and circumstance".

Flags. 

National anthem

Cissi finally found us and started waving her grad headband.  At least I had thought she had. Turns out she was waving to someone else in our direction. Still.                                

The whole ceremony was really long. They had multiple speeches and a special music arrangement as well as a few other bits that seemed irrelevant. Finally they got to the doctoral awards. It was odd. So few people were clapping. Yes it took a while but still. Cait and I made sure we clapped for everyone. As you can see, not everyone had the same idea. (Grumpy people!)

On her way

At VT, the graduate advisor place the hoods of their students around their necks on stage. (I am so amazingly glad they didn't do this in the UK - those of you who know my history at UCLan will understand why!).

Happy.

 At this point Cait and I started wooping and yelling!  (Nothing like 2 embarrassing friends!)

She heard us!

Getting her hood. 

Shaking hands

Official.

The hard part - the steps!

We didn't get to see her afterwards :-( as we had to skip out and go back to work. (We left after 2 hours and they still hadn't gotten halfway through.) 

But Saturday we went to campus to take some photos.

Getting ready 

not impressed with the hood

Classic Cissi!

Mom and daughter

We managed to meet up with a couple of her friends and their daughter for some more photos. 

With Emma

Playing hide and seek

Doing the VT sign.

Group shot.

After we had take a lot of photos, Cissi get to take her gown off. I was hot so she must have been boiling and we all headed off to get a cold drink. I miss her so much. She's always such cheerful company.

Congratulations Dr. Cissi!!!