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!