It's hot in Aber this week (when is it not, I hear you ask?), so hot that the magnificent Aber Arts Centre, where we hold these august proceedings even though it's still July, is wilting the willing alumni staff who are manning the stand dispersing goody bags full of freebies to the graduands. Louise, the Alumni Manager, is trying to convince anyone and everyone to fan her with copies of Prom. Try it with a woolly coat, I tell her, even one that is barely recovering from the depredations of the phantom sheep shearer.
I did manage to bump into some Japanese distant cousins (okay, so they are bears and I'm a baa but it's close enough) who agreed to pose with me. Their kimonos were a delight.
Over two thousand new alumni are joining the fold this week, and I am presiding over eight degree ceremonies to get them all scrolled and gowned. There's more mortar boards here than at the Olympics building site.
I'm off to Argentina soon, attending a prestigious conference where I shall attempt to wean the Argies off leathery beef and onto mouth-watering, succulent, tender and sweet lambikins. Got to do my bit for the Welsh Lamb Marketing Board after all.
