Pride

The youngest member of the female quartet I mentioned in my last post was our daughter Frances. Two days after the quiz, it was ten o' clock in the morning and I was yelling at her to get up. I mean after all, it was A level results day and most of her friends would have been at school before dawn to discover what they had got. A day like that day is a day that can literally change the whole course of your life. "No! I'm not leaving this room!" she was yelling back. "I'm scared! I don't want to know!"

Finally, she came downstairs ready to face the inevitable. I said I'd drive her up to the school but before we went I gave her an envelope from UCAS - the university admissions service. We both thought it would just be some more official bumf to put in the recycling bin. She read it sitting at the bottom of our stairs and then she realised. It was not a general UCAS mailing after all. It was saying something very special, something she had been hoping for and waiting for all summer long. I can't remember the precise words but it was along these lines -"congratulations... successful... required grades... University of Birmingham". Her eyes filled up. "I've done it Dad! I'm going to Birmingham!"

We set off to her school in full and confident knowledge that she had made her required grades. She went in to pick up her exam documents and emerged moments later to tell me how well she had done - A in English, A in Theatre Studies, A for the General Paper and B for Sociology - missing out on a fourth A grade by just five marks. Fanbloodytastic! I don't mind saying I wept a few tears myself. Funny that, isn't it? How sometimes positive delight can grab you so much that you weep tears of joy.

Frances (Right) with her friend Meg before the Sixth Form Prom in July.

We are all so proud of her. She will be taking a four year degree course in American and Canadian Studies with a year studying at a North American university. Do they have any universities in Seattle or maybe North Carolina? Watch out! The Yorkshire Pudding empire is spreading!