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")