Getting to University Open Days

Who would ever use SatNav to get to university open days, when they could instead do what I do – rely on a child with a crumpled printout of a Google map.  I am still haunted by the possibility that on the day we thought we were looking round Sheffield University, we were actually in Leeds.

My favourite open day park-and-ride scheme was at Bristol where the university had booked parking at the Cribbs Causeway retail park.  Spotting a huge Marks and Spencer, I said to Carenza,

“Look –they’ve got a sale on. When we get back here, we’ll buy you those shoes you need.” 

As we queued for the bus, a girl was handing out vouchers for a further 20% off sale prices.  Other parents were refusing, somewhat snootily – what was the matter with them?  Carenza grabbed one.  Throughout the day, when we found the sandwich stall nearly bare, when we realised we’d walked the wrong way searching for the maths department, when we had our arms pinned to our sides by the crush of people attending the “Come to Bristol” lecture, the voucher in my purse was emitting a warm glow – by teatime, we would be shoe shopping.