Karen Wright: A proud moment watching graduation

Last week we took a trip to London. Our youngest daughter Vanessa was graduating with a master's degree from UCL, quite an accolade but as she already has three degrees she had said not to bother making the journey down but, of course, we were just as proud the fourth time around as we were the first so we made our plans to travel.

Karen and her daughter Vanessa at her graduation

I wanted to make it a mini break, so I booked coach tickets to travel out on Tuesday and back on Friday. I chose the coach as the tickets were far cheaper than the train and, although it obviously takes longer, I thought it would be quite a relaxing way to travel.

We caught the bus from our house into Wakefield and then took advantage of the free city bus that runs all day around town, and this enabled us to hop off at the coach stop. The coach was good, with free Wi-Fi and charging points and, even though the journey took five hours, it seemed to go by quickly.

Once we disembarked in London it was simply a matter of taking the District line to Whitechapel and then hopping onto the new Elizabeth line which took us swiftly to Abbey Wood where we had booked a glamping pod on the Caravan and Motorhome Club site.

My daughter had booked a room in a floating hotel on the Thames just outside the Excel exhibition centre where the graduation was to take place. The hotel is a retired yacht and is called the Sunborn.

They were telling us all about it, how glamourous it was in rather a faded way, and we agreed that we would call in to have a look around before the graduation ceremony the next day.

We decided to take advantage of the few hours we had to kill and take a cable car over the Thames.

Now I do suffer from a fear of heights, but I gritted my teeth and climbed onboard, it was fine and the views were great and I stepped out of my comfort zone which is always a good thing.

The graduation ceremony went ahead without a hitch, we clapped and clapped as Vanessa walked onto the stage, now she is Dr Wright PhD, MSt, MA and BA Hons - we are very proud parents!