Modern minioning

So today I was back minioning at the Horniman Museum SCC.  I think the plan might have been to crack on with some specimen cross referencing, but as I hadn't been there and apparently Paolo had been 'busy' doing curator type things the room was a complete mess. Paolo could see my OCD kicking in, so before I started twitching he suggested "we" have a bit of a tidy.
Three hours later the bin was full and some progress had been made.  I was calm enough to confront the two lists and two piles of index cards whilst Paolo wrestled with MIMSY.
After half a hour I got to the foxes, and realised we hadn't yet looked at them so excitedly ran to the shelf to pull them out.  Emptying the contents on to the table (I mean box on table, but it was a flat surface) to be confronted with two bags of poo.
I'm not sure why they are in the collection, or for that matter the collectors obsession.  They were collected two years apart and from Nottingham.
Was this an exciting dietry experiment involving the comparison of fox faeces from around the country? Were the sixties concerned with the evolution of vulpes vulpes tastes?  Or was this an environmental conservation query?
The more burning question should probably be: why does the museum have TWO samples of fifty year old fox poo? And more importantly: why do we have to create records of their existance before we can dispose of them?
Hopefully the bin will have been emptied by friday...

A Sambista's Journey

So apart from my general lazyness, my appalling excuses and having short term employment, one of the main reasons for my poor blogging in recent months was my marvellous trip to Kiev.

I cant remember if I told you, but this year I joined a Samba Band (buying my own small drum, much to the delight of my husband).  At the end of April the opportunity arose to travel to Kiev for a meeting with our sister bands from around Europe, and the chance for a good old knees up in a relatively secluded area so as not to upset the locals - or at least a few as possible with a band of over 100 drummers :).

Accompanying me on my journey were two lovely band members (when I say accompanying I mean they planned it and I brought a ticket).  

The first leg of the journey was straight forward and relatively dull - we got a bus to Vienna, which took 25hrs. We saw Dover, the euro tunnel (gasp), Calais, Lille, Brussels and slept through a massive amount of German motorway before hitting Vienna mid morning.

From here on it was easy - team London picked up the "just tag along with people who are more organised" routine .  After spending 2 days doing touristy bits we hit the road again, this time a train to Budapest.

A few members of the Vienna band had managed to hitchhike and would be meeting us at the station in Budapest for the onward journey. All this sounded terribly organised, and of course therefore didn't work out quite so well.  We arrived at the train station in Vienna with plenty of time to spare - only to realise that one of the band members was at the wrong station, luckily loading 10 people with massive bags and drums is quite time consuming and she managed to just make it.  Then of course the train was delayed and we missed our connection, but not to worry as team hitchhiker were on the case to find a back-up route, which we made with minutes to spare... we were on our way to the border.  

All was going well until we hit passport security in the Ukraine.  The youngest amongst us had forgotten his passport and wouldn't be allowed in to the country.  I on the other hand was unable to pass through for reasons that were never revealed to me.  The nice man (and he was nice) found a problem with my passport which was then taken away.  Then he disappeared.  Everyone else passed through and were ushered out and still I stood there.  Eventually I was taken in to another room, where the other band member was still having issues with his lack of passport.  Eventually a translator turned up - who was clearly at the end of her shift as she couldn't wait to leave.  When I asked her about what was happening with my passport she looked at me like I was mental and disappeared.  Ordinarily this wouldn't have concerned me (I get it all the time) but we did have a train to catch in 20 mins.

Out of the blue (or more accurately out of another room) man in a marvellous hat (obviously in charge) returned with my passport and I was sent on my way.  That's it.  No explanation.

Train tickets were speedily brought, stray band members rounded up, and we were on our way to Kiev.

Easy.

The return trip was fun too, but that's another story...

sunny scotland

i am spending a marvelous few days in sunny scotland (ha ha), and although i have visited a couple of times before, this time we are trying to cram in some free culture.

i have dragged my wonderful husband around the scottish national gallery, the scottish museum and the hunterian in glasgow. i think tomorrow we are off to sterling for more culture (must remember to steal the membership cards, can't be seen to pay for these things).

today however is being spent partaking of a proper past-time, one which i rarely get to enjoy:

watching rugby in the pub.

ahh, culture...

the meaning of interesting...

last week, whilst having a rather excellent afternoon tea with my bestist friend, I got to thinking about the meaning of interesting.

it has been almost a month since my last post (gasp), the reason being i hadn't been up to much except work. it was then noted that as i recounted what exactly i had been up to at work that it was quite interesting when viewed by someone else.

isn't that interesting...

it makes me wonder why you get bored, it's not as if i am doing the same thing day in day out, for instance, yesterday it rained, so i worked whilst getting progressively damper, is that interesting?

probably not.

who judges? clearly the listener (or reader) which means it must be defined by the people, and we all know that they can't be trusted...

Lazy!

I can't believe that it has been a week since my last post, I'd like to say it was because I have been super busy doing fun and exciting things. But to tell the truth I'm not entirely sure where the time has gone.

I remember visiting the Horniman on Tuesday, with much progress having been made on the new project we were filled with a tremendous sense of achievement, which was novel.

What I remember most however is Rhino's introduction to Google and YouTube, where you can find pictures of crickets the size of the screen, he sat and stared at them for what seemed like hours, though on reflection turning on the sound was probably a mistake, especially considering he threw himself at the screen...

my wonderful wee man. It's what I like to call "cute".

I think this week can be only be described as lazy, still maybe next week the laziness will be note worthy...

Friday!

Another day with the lovely people of AOC Arch, and I finished going through the context sheets in an effort to identify the grip plates from the mud covered, dirt encrusted, vague descriptions and sketches (successfully i might add).

Anyway, a byproduct of all this record checking was a discovery of an entertaining marvel of stating the obvious. The point of the sheet is to note down any useful information that will help in the analysis, and as such prompts have been provided, but these notes are classic...

power to the people

tonight (so far) is the first night this week where we have had power (electricity, not total world domination, mores the pity). it is amazing to realise just how much it has affected our lives, and i definitely realize that we need either a gas hob, or some kind of back-up generator cos i have been gasping for a cuppa.

so what has been happening these past few days? rather disappointingly not a lot i have to say. i have visited the Horniman SCC, and had a fun day looking at scales, trying to identify any possible existing records for the specimens, and them putting them in the second comparison draw. yes i am fully aware that this might not be most peoples idea of fun.

today i had my interview with my JSA advisor, and after talking at him for a few minutes he said that in his 25 years he had never met anyone like me (probably true) and that i had made his day.

bless

boxes of awesome

one of the best things (and to be honest it is mostly best things) about volunteering in the Horniman's natural history department is the boxes that come back to the study collection centre after they have been to either conservation of to a specialist.

yes more often than not they have been rearranged, co mingled and the labels lost, resulting in untold misery and confusion. but sometimes, just sometimes they contain what can only be described as totally awesome.

today was just such a day. already on a high from practically finishing the human remains audit, it was time to put away all of the specimens that had been returned and dumped on the work space. having already opened one of the boxes and realised it didn't contain all of the specimens listed on the label, i wasn't really looking forward to the task, but the second box was more promising, and then we found this:

awesome!

limited

a successful day at the AOC office, i spent my time sorting the coffin grip handles into types. just in case you are interested there are nine different types (two of which have sub-divisions).

i am now able to identify a type from a small amount or clay covered plate. i feel that this is a quite limited speciality to have. upon mentioning this i was informed that i would be surprised, and yes i think i would not only be surprised, but also shocked and amazed to realise that an ability to identify an AOC grip plate from poor sketches and vague descriptions was ever a required skill.

on an unrelated note today saw the return of the daft verbal expulsions. on looking through old photos my friend suddenly remarked "ahh, a baby elephant", shortly followed by, "oh no, it's a monkey". several minutes later: "a rhino", "are you sure?", "yes!...or a baboon"

what fun!

time

so the second working week of the year, and already it is tuesday night, and i have applied for the grand total of one job. despite being unemployed i have so far only had one day off (i'm not counting weekends, no-one does). a grand total of eight Paul and work free Cat hours.

having said all that where do the hours of the evenings go? how is it the same five hours of evening fly by, but the last five hours of a work day seem to last for days?

i have decided that my computer is stealing mine, tucking them away in it's evil "windows time vortex". it is this stolen time that it can then use to drag the two minute file transfer time take the best part of half an hour.

if only i could bottle this time. i'd make my fortune on ebay...

application

today saw the return of my long standing fight with my much put upon computer. i spent much time diligently searching for jobs and trying to fill in the application forms, and although i did much to blame the internet connection, and then the site, it is probably my poor abused computer who is ultimately to blame. obviously as primary user of said computer it is not my fault.

having given up the application process (after checking closing dates - i still have time) i thought i would try to continue one of my crafty projects, which also unfortunately required the cooperation of my computer.

having suffered for several hours with the random windows time vortex whilst trying to simply transfer photos i have come to the conclusion that i might have to give it a good kicking, or alternately just reset it back to factory settings.

now where did that start up cd get to...

oh, christmas tree...

so the end of the first week of the new year heralds the official end of christmas and with it the mass abandonment of the christmas tree. on my way to the station this morning i passed no fewer than 7 trees before even reaching the main road, impressive as i only live at number 13.

i must say it did make me a little sad, gone now is the christmas spirit, the twinkling lights cheering the morning darkness, and the tinsel hiding the cobwebs. now that all the decorations have been packed away it seems people have returned to their casual rudeness.

i feel that maybe, just to bring good cheer a little further into the year, a communal burning of christmas trees and an unwanted christmas present exchange might go a long way towards boosting spirits...

on the plus side friday spirits were high at AOC Archaeology (or maybe all staff were just running on autopilot) but there were some good quotes of which i shall share my favourite:

whilst discussing the coffin plates and furniture from one of last years sites with Dr Rachel, the consversation moved on to the new exhibit soon to appear at the Museum of London, and amongst other things would be work from "disection people", otherwise known as surgeons or pathologists, whichever you prefer...

sardines!

so, although a day off from volunteering i spent my time wisely hunting for future employment (2 potentials - good times) and the day was topped off with a night at the theatre...

Noises Off! having spent my life thus far having missed all previous incarnations of the production i feel somehow i have been missing out, but not to worry, i am now topped up with farce.

i am also happy to learn from the programme that for a mere £10,000 i can become a member of the artistic directors circle which includes invites to members receptions, opening nights and memorable post-show parties, dinners with the cast and creative teams, backstage tours and a personalised booking service.

what amounts to basically my annual wage (assuming i get some work this year) does not however include any actual theatre tickets or even a signed photograph of Kevin Spacey. i might give it a miss this year...

a quiet wednesday

today saw the return of volunteering at AOC Archaeology, which holds a warm fuzzy place in my heart as having given me my first "real" job (for those that consider archaeology to be a real job)

it seems to be that whenever they are not employing me to dig big holes in the ground i am volunteering in the finds department, this of course is beneficial to me on several levels:

a) i get to see what is going on post excavation and check out all the cool finds i missed on site,

2) it looks good on the CV that i'm not just loafing around during phases of unemployment,

and

iv) it is quite hard for them not to employ me when jobs do come up as i will obviously find out,

minioning as a spying tool, cunning huh

:)

spider

so today i was excited to be back volunteering at the Horniman Museum SCC, and it occurred to me on my journey in that i had now been volunteering there for two years now (with time away for intermittent employment)

i was remembering my first day, the first time that i had entered the museum. there was actual snow on the ground, and although a few people were due to be inducted i was the only one that had been able to make it in, and as such bagged myself a personal tour pre-opening - awesome!

i met the wonderful Paolo Viscardi (for whom i would be minioning) and after filling in the reams of paperwork was taken to his office behind the scenes. i hadn't been that excited about the potential of a door since i was 7 and we moved to our new home where i was to get my very own room, and it didn't disappoint. we could barely get through the door for the boxes, shelving units and drawers, and despite the small size of the room still took a wrong turning and had to double back and try an alternate route.

of course weeks later all this excess storage had been moved and it is now a nice open workspace, but i'm pleased my first glance was how i imagined it should be.

so back to today.

the current must do project involves checking the collection of human remains basically to make sure that the museum is allowed to house them. its quite exciting as it is nearly done (this may depend on your interpretation of the word exciting). as is so often my way i was busy emptying a box with a label that can be generously referred to as vague when i suddenly let out what can only be described as a girly yelp (ok i screamed, whateva). nicely tucked inside one of the vertebra was a dead spider.

after P's initial shock (now he was definitely awake) he felt the incident amusing enough to tweet about, remarking that having gotten to the bottom of the box barely batting my eyelids at dead rodents, birds, teeth and human bone, i was slightly traumatised by a spider.

it's not that i'm scared of them, i just don't see why they feel the need to lurk and scare the unsuspecting even when they are dead, i don't mind them when i know they are there. obviously the tale was recounted at tea break, and i will tell you just what i told them, there is no need for spiders to skulk around in this country, and i feel they would have more fans (or at least less enemies) if they but troubled themselves to announce their presence. why can't they be shiny with bells on, and as is so often the way of things thus was born the spider bejazzle - the spijazzle. (i will not recount here the rest of the conversation but the northern element did ponder on the size of a "spider chuff")

let me introduce myself...

having spent a fortune on my education it amuses me that i am still unable to get a job. I say unable, that of course is a lie, i am perfectly able to get a job, just not one that i want, or i can get one i want but not for any length of time.

let me explain...

as a child i wanted to be a vet (being too round to be a ballerina at that time) and spent my time trying to achieve this aim, however at the age of 14 i was introduced to social drinking (smoking not being rebellious enough and made you smell)

i realised whilst looking for veterinary schools in the first year of my a levels that i was in for a lot more education, and having already undertaken in my mind sufficient decided a career in veterinary surgery was perhaps not for me.

so what would any girl do in that situation, of course you get out the UCAS guide and flick through until you find something interesting... forensic science, that will do (pre CSI i'll have you know)

fast forward three years and i am yet again looking for a career, not fancying being stuck in a lab or becoming a copper, archaeology and osteology that looks fun, sign me up.

so one bachelors degree, and a masters, lets get volunteering as despite having spent a substantial amount of money i still have no experience in anything other than pulling (and drinking) pints.

luckily there was lots of work around and i soon picked up digging and skeletal assessment experience so what better time to be made redundant... back to pulling pints then.

somehow three more years have passed, luckily working for one of your best friends pays off in the time off for volunteering department and i was able to start at the Horniman Museum playing with animal bone, what fun.

i cant really complain, i did spend most of last year employed as an archaeologist, and january is quite a nice month to be unemployed when you are normally is a cold wet and usually smelly hole.

lucky me.