Edinburgh Napier University

On Thursday Mrs Meldrew and I travelled north for the graduation of the eldest Meldrew child. We attended the Edinburgh Festival Hall for the ceremony which was quite emotional for us as the eldest Meldrew child is 37 and he has gained his degree by the sweat of his brow and his personal character.

Edinburgh Napier University on first sight appears to be a modern university. That means that it is not one of our traditional academic universities but combines the academic skills with the commercial skills. There were many graduans with challenging names for the compere which pays tribute to the commercial acumen of this particular university.

I have only one sour note. Some of the degrees appeared to be purely social degrees. They could almost have been labelled 'this degree is to qualify this young lady to be a Chinese waitress'. I think that our commercial universities should be careful to maintain their standards.

Apart from that we had a great time and it was particularly pleasing to meet Dan and his family. Dan is similar to the eldest Meldrew in that they have achieved an Honours degree in Law but will not practice. He shares a house with the eldest Meldrew and they also share a car insurance deal which is too complicated for me to understand!

I would like to thank Ronnie and Gwen for their hospitality and I enjoyed this slight insight into the social life of the eldest Meldrew. Their son Dan has ambitions to be a Police Officer with a degree in Law and I I believe that we need young policeman like him, well adjusted and with his feet firmly on the ground.

Thanks son for a great weekend. We are so proud of what you have achieved!