The Family’s Month-long Holiday in England, including A Memorable Journey to University of Nottingham, August/September 2019 

From August 15 to September 14, 2019, Bayo and Tomi decided to take their much-needed and long-deferred family holiday in England. On their Arrival at Heathrow Airport, London, on the morning of August 16, they were met by their son Dr. JBayo, Jnr. who had travelled to England two months earlier on the first leg of his return journey back home from Houston, Texas, USA. The plan was for the three of us – Dad, Mum, & Son – to spend some good and quality time together in London, and also use this as an opportunity for Dad and Mum making up for their inability to attend JBayo, Jnr’s twinned Graduation and Birthday Anniversary ceremonies of May 2019 in far-away Houston, Texas (see above).

Meanwhile, JBayo, Jnr’s earlier arrival in England was also useful because it enabled him to make arrangements for the family’s month-long accommodation, much of which came to be spent at a rented apartment complex in the Saffron Central Square of the scenic town of Croydon (outside Central London), as well as to plan for all the events and places of interest that were to be undertaken or visited, the eateries and restaurants where to eat out, the trips to be undertaken out of London, reservations for transportation and accommodation, their dates, and itinerary. Of course, since the birthday anniversaries of both Dad and Mum fell within that holiday period, it stood to reason that both events were going to be among the celebrations to be marked in England. But a major objective for the long-planned family holiday was to pay a visit to the University of Nottingham located in the Midlands of England, where Professor (Mrs.) Adekanye had earned her doctoral degree some forty-five (45) years ago. Thus, from the very beginning, the vacation was meant to be a greatly relaxed, enjoyable, and memorable time for the family. So it turned out to be.              

The first major event of the holiday was Emeritus Professor Adekanye’s August 19 Birthday Anniversary Celebration which was marked by a Luncheon organised for the three family members (including wife and son) at an antic Italian restaurant by name Ponte Nuovo located on the High Street of Croydon. Exactly two weeks later as has often been the case took place Professor (Mrs.) Tomi Adekanye’s own September 2 Birthday Anniversary Event which was also marked and celebrated, with dinner for three (including husband and son). The latter was held at Nando’s Croydon, being part of the Afro-Portuguese chain restaurant serving flame-grilled chicken in spicy chili sauce, and located close to the railway station on High Street of Croydon. For most of the remaining days of the vacation, however, much of the time was spent taking both morning and evening walks in the neighbourhood, window-shopping or sight-seeing on the paved walkway where most of the Croydon Shopping Centre Shops are located, or simply reclining, sleeping or eating in our rented apartment; except when we had to travel out of Croydon, which was only twice. The first was on August 21, when we had to travel to Belvedere, Kent, to attend a party organised by an UK-based extended family member who was celebrating his birthday anniversary combined with retirement from service; and the second was in fulfillment of one of the key objectives for the planned family vacation, namely the trip to University of Nottingham

As decided by us from the beginning, the trip to Nottingham was made by train, rather than by either air or bus. That mode of transportation, by train, was considered the best and most pleasurable way of travelling from London through much of the Midlands. The decision paid off tremendously as the train travel gave us, from the windows of our moving cabin, the opportunity of a close view of the scenery of the Midlands, including the undulating hills and valleys, the farmlands, enclosures and rivers or ponds, as well as the various agro-business centres and industries found dotting the landscape. The journey from London St. Pancras International, where we boarded the East Midlands Railway by about 10.00 am of Wednesday September 4, was 1 hour 52 minutes to Nottingham, and covered a distance of 108 miles (some 174 km.).

By noontime, we had checked into our accommodation booked close to the main campus of University of Nottingham. After calling the Alumni Relations Office to notify them about our arrival, we headed straight-away by taxi to the bus stop of the main campus of the University to take the free Hopper service from the Main University Park complex to Sutton Bonington. While waiting for the Hopper bus service to arrive, we seized the opportunity by taking the first set of our photograps about our Nottingham visit. The photos were taken around the Hopper bus service stop area of the University Park Campus, which is set against the background of a large expanse of well-manicured greenery and a lake. The area is ranked as one of the most environmentally friendly, aesthetically beautiful, and scenic University Parks and gardens in the world. One of the shots taken at the University Parkland Campus was that of Emeritus Professor ‘Bayo & Professor Tomi Adekanye standing together, holding one another by the hand, and eye ball to eye ball. Viewed against the background of that amazing natural scenery, the photo would seem to suggest as though the couple had travelled all the way from Nigeria to this University Park in order to have a renewal of their Wedding vows!

Sutton Bonington campus of the University complex was the next stop in our itinerary and indeed a key object of the whole Nottingham visit. It was at that campus Professor Tomilayo Adekanye had studied and taken her PhD in Agricultural Economics some 45 years ago. For what used to be known as the School of Agriculture was based at Sutton Bonington, although as we found out by the time of our visit, the academic programmes on Agricultural and Environmental Sciences had since come to be collocated and brought together with other programmes such as Animal Science, Food Science, Nutritional Sciences, and Plant Science, and constituted into one new School, namely the School of Biosciences. The ride to Sutton Bonington took less than 30 minutes, and the current Head of the School of Biosciences and himself a Professor of Human Nutrition, Professor Simon Langley-Evans, was available to receive us on arrival, welcome us to the School, and to conduct us round Campus.

After brief self-introductions and the exchange of some pleasantries, Professor Langley-Evans informed that the Alumni Relations Office at the University Park Campus had told him about our coming. He welcomed us to Sutton Bonington, but apologized that Head of Department of Agricultural Sciences was unavoidably absent and could not see us. Professor Langley-Evans wanted to know from the visiting distinguished alumna how she found the Sutton Bonington campus, compared to what it was in 1974 when she was completing her doctorate there. Responding, Professor Tomilayo Adekanye said that the campus had changed most remarkably in terms of physical infrastructure. Certainly, all the new purpose-built buildings (both brick and glass) now found dotting the landscape were not there when she was a student. She referred in particular to the new students amenities building called The Barn, which she said the visiting team had previously been to see and indeed entered, and the building housing one of the new Schools, namely the School of Biosciences, where we first met with Professor Langley-Evans, as among the new purpose-built buildings that she was seeing for the first time and as not definitely existing at Sutton Bonington in the ‘70’s. Also, definitely, new and purpose-built was the building housing the new School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. In addition to those infrastructural changes, Professor Tomilayo Adekanye was sure that many of the practical courses that used to be part of the curriculum set-up of programmes run in the past would have by now, and for understandable reasons, been jettisoned or made to give way in order to allow the new faculties and departments take on the greater challenges of academic, research, and graduate and postgraduate teaching necessitated by the more contemporary times, and along with these the need for more state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for meeting those challenges.       

To Professor Tomilayo Adekanye’s excitement, however, many of the physical changes that had taken place at Sutton Bonington had not been allowed to affect the natural beauty of the campus. She was also excited that the large old building that once housed the old School of Agriculture was still standing and left in tact, and was being still used perhaps as lecture rooms and offices for the administrative and support services for the various departments, divisions and faculties constituting the new School of Biosciences. Wondering what could have become the Eviton House where she had stayed as a student, Professor Tomilayo Adekanye requested that Professor Langley-Evans please lead us to the place. To Professor Adekanye’s great wonderment, the way to Eviton House was by that same old untared and winding pathway through a garden of woods and flowers as she knew it have been in the ‘70’s, when she used to ply that route to and from lectures. But for an even more exciting story, Eviton House when we got to it was found very much untouched.         

For the visiting distinguished alumna, to be personally standing in front of the old scenic Eviton House, at Sutton Bonington, where she had stayed for much of the time when she was a postgraduate student some 45 years ago, was perhaps the highest emotional point of the whole Nottingham visit and homecoming; and, for the husband and son witnessing it all, quite an honour and privilege to have been part of that re-living of past experience and the shared memories and nostalgia which came with it. After the visit to Eviton House, we took a walk with our guide Professor Langley-Evans along the sidewalk on the other side of the road leading back from Everton House to the free Hopper bus stop area, where we thanked him for the guided tour of Sutton Bonington, and said our good bye.

Back to the University Park Campus, we went straight to the Alumnus Relations Office to see Georgina Woolley, the Senior International Alumni Relations Manager, who had helped to set up the whole University of Nottingham visit and itinerary. Her office was located at the Portland Building. We had been in communication with the office not only before departing from Nigeria but also when we arrived in the UK and even to the city of Nottingham. The purpose of the meeting with Georgina Woolley was to thank her for all the help in setting up the guided tour of Sutton Bonington Campus and to brief her about our take-aways from the whole Nottingham visit. The meeting also permitted some useful exchange of information and ideas between us regarding the University of Nottingham Alumni/ae Relations networks, first, globally, and, second, concerning the Nigerian links. That done, we stopped over briefly at the University Bookshop, also located in the Portland Building, to look for some University-branded souvenirs to buy and take away with us back to Nigeria

Located downstairs was the cafeteria which the University of Nottingham Students’ Union runs, and it was there that we had our dinner. We were surprisingly delighted to observe that Nigerian cuisines, including jollof and fried rice, pounded yam with a variety of vegetable stews, fried beef meat, chicken and fish catered for by an immigrant Yoruba-speaking lady, were among the choice of dishes available at the cafeteria (Perhaps, not surprisingly. For as we later came to learn. Nigerian Students were found to constitute the largest African group at the University of Nottingham by the time of our visit). But there were other food items also available, such as the American Burger King’s hamburgers, French fries or potato chips and fish, and a variety of Vegetarian dishes catered by a couple of other nationality groups of cooks or individuals for satisfying the University’s community of multicultural interests and tastes, including the Chinese and Malaysian. For our dinner, it was decided to have each of us choose a different one from the three conventional groups of dishes in order for all of us Dad, Mum, and Son to be able to sample and taste from each other’s plate.               

What remained of the Nottingham visit was for us to take the second and last round of photographs, making sure the shots covered as much of the landmarks in the central square of the University Park Campus left out of the first set of photographs. These included frontage of the Portland Building, doubling also as the University of Nottingham Students’ Union Building, and the University Park. By 7.30 pm we were back to our rented flat outside campus, feeling  very much exhausted and yet also satisfied by all of the day’s visits, walks and work. We needed a good night rest and also to prepare for the return journey back to London on the following day.

Early in the morning of Thursday September 5, Professor Tomilayo and her son felt the urge to  go and see the University Park Campus briefly again., after we had checked out of our accommodation; while Dad stayed back, guarding the family’s packed pieces of luggage at the Nottingham Rail Station.. As it turned out their mission to was to return to the cafeteria in the University of Nottingham Students’ Union Building on campus to grab some sandwiches for us to munch on our train journey back. It had started to rain by this time. Nonetheless, mum and son made it back from campus in 2 hours, and by 12.00 pm we were on board the East Midlands Railway for our return train journey back from Nottingham to London. By 3.30pm, we were back in our rented apartment at Saffron Central Square, Croydon.

Part of the last week of our stay in London beginning from Saturday September 7 and continuing into the next Tuesday September 10 was spent doing some small shopping, but with all of this taking place along the High Street area of Croydon. Fortunately, the Shopping Centre on the High Street of Croydon contains branches of most of the major UK shopping outlets and stores – Mark & Spencer, Primark, Boots,  H & M, Debenhams etc – that we needed to visit; there was therefore no need to go farther afield. Wednesday September 11 was devoted to the logistics and preparations for our return travel. These included getting reconfirmation for the date and time of departure with the British Airways; arranging for the cab service to take us to Heathrow very early in the morning of Saturday September 14; and sorting out our accommodation accounts with the agency that had helped book for our month’s stay at 11 Safron Central Square in Croydon. Some packing of our suitcases was also done in the evening of that same Wednesday. Much of Thursday September 12 was taken up with washing and drying our used clothes, a chore greatly helped because we had an installed watching machine and drier already available in the flat where we stayed. Finishing touches were put to the packing of our suitcases late in the evening of same Thursday. We got the flat thoroughly cleaned up in the morning of Friday September 13, being the last day of our stay. It was such a blessing having our son with us, for it was he who helped to shoulder many of the responsibilities involved here as with the others, including the many chores. By about 11.30 am on Saturday September 14, all three of us Dad, Mum, & Son had left London Heathrow on board BA Flight 075 for a six-hour non-stop return flight back to Mohammed Murtala Airport, Lagos, Nigeria, thereby ending the month-long holiday embarked upon by the Family in England.                       

The Trip to University of NottinghamPictures (26 Photo