Officially a doctor, now I need to change my surname to Who...

Earlier this month was my graduation!

The process of getting through my PhD has been a long one, I can't believe I left the lab to write up over two and a half years ago! Somehow the rest of life just took over and having to find the time to sort out thesis binding and editing parts of my thesis just took a back seat.

However now it is done! I have the certificate!

Now I must change everything so that it says Doctor ;)

So since I went to the University of Sussex the graduation ceremony was at the Brighton Dome which was a pretty swish location. 

Of course I wanted a nice dress to wear so I was able to rely on Vivien of Holloway to provide that. I was also super grateful that my hair decided to behave (a miracle given the heat and humidity!).

Here is a pre-gown selfie.

And after graduation transformation...

Because I was graduating with a PhD it meant that I had to wear a very swishy gown in red and bright blue, with a black velvet tudor bonnet (I always felt it looked like a squashed teabag than a bonnet but whatever).

I didn't think I would care that much about the fancy robe, but being one of about 12 in red out of hundreds in red and black, I couldn't help but feel a little bit special...

And the back:

After the ceremony we were able to frolic around the dome and the Pavilion for a few hours before we had to take the gowns back. This made a great backdrop for photos so I couldn't help but have a play.

The pictures below featuring the umbrella I got for my wedding and the photo with my husband (another important part of my wedding) are my two favourite pictures from the day.

Something really great about the whole day was the fact that my brother was also graduating with a degree in chemistry so it meant that my parents got to see us graduate together.

Of course a little graduation silliness was had by all:

At one point we even swapped robes, mostly because we could, although I have to say I felt distinctly less special in the black robes compared to the red...

It was a pretty nice day, although our university chancellor (Sanjeev Bhaskar) was unable to make it for the ceremony because of filming. He did leave a postcard with an IOU on it though. It is not my mission to cash this in one day.