Expectations Exceeded

Last Friday we put Fixit in some smart clothes (No denim! said the invitation) and went off to collect his Oscar for Most Outstanding Performance in the Aeronautic Engineering Category, 1st Year. The lovely Jenny came over and minded the boys, even going so far as to listen to and sign off on the Cherub's Home Reading, which saved us a bit of panic on Sunday night. The Awards were held at a nearby reception centre and the alcohol was plentiful and the food was fine; one of those alternating chicken/beef menu drops but all perfectly edible and NOT lasagne so I was happy. They had an amusing MC and an official photographer* and lots of prizes. Bizarrely they made all three nominees for each award show up, and hauled them up to stand on stage for as long as it took to announce that they hadn't actually won, upon which they were summarily kicked offstage to give the winner a moment of glory. We actually knew Fixit had won, his letter said so, but I think maybe some of the nominees might have lived in hope, and then been cruelly dashed. Harsh.



We had very pleasant people sitting at our table including the winner of the 2nd Year honours in Fixit's division, whose father drove 200 kms (and 200 more back home) to be with his beautiful son and was such a good honest country type that when I, overcome with a sort of motherliness at his young son's sweet face and demeanour, said are you bursting with pride? replied with something noble like well if you put in the work you can go far, but then looked up at me with proud tears in his eyes and I had to look away before I broke down and embarrassed myself.



Anyway, despite the other table members being perfectly nice I found myself, as the evening progressed, balking at starting yet another conversation with strangers (possibly because I was the designated driver and therefore sober) and that is how I learned how to Tweet-on-Twitter with my phone. Thereby ensuring that I could hang with my peeps while Fixit worked the room.

And work the room he did! Turns out that the guy who looks after the apprentices at the big-airline-for-whom-we'd-rather-Fixit-worked was there that evening (at the next table no less), and one of Fixit's lecturers** made a point of engineering a meeting between the two of them. People, there was networking. Networking is a powerful tool in a world of it's not what you know it's who you know. Not only did Fixit come away with his prize-winner's cheque, he also had the business card of the important guy and an appointment next week to talk things through.



Our fingers are crossed!

*We are waiting to receive official photo in the mail.
**It has been quite heartening how the TAFE has rallied round Fixit since he told them of his problems