My visit to Manchester today revealed two things to me...

1. There is a conspiracy to stop any post grad. theology being done because both LKH and John Rylands libraries have packed away most of their theology books while they refurbish their libraries.  Whilst this is good, because it forces me to take a break, it is annoying to go all that way and find, yet again, not a lot to borrow
2. It was a graduation day and lots of (extremely young-looking) graduates and their proud parents were cluttering the food court.  The graduation outfits have improved dramatically since 2002 when I completed my BA!  The 'new' colours are much to be preferred - gone are the red and yellow jester suits for PhDs in favour of fairly tasteful black with purple and gold trim.  Also, thankfully, gone is the fur trim on the batchelors' hoods (Artificials everywhere can be released from captivity and will no longer be intensively farmed for their fur) and the rather insipid faculty colours in favour of a uniform purple and gold.  I am suitably relieved by this, as, assuming I do one day complete this doctorate, the thought of prancing around in a red and gold jester suit did not appeal one iota.