What do you want to be when you grow up?

Before I get onto the main news, here are some pictures from my holiday in Croatia with Vicki and Sarah.

It was basically better than I know how to describe in words, so hopefully the pictures will have to do. Dubrovnik is a beautiful place, and sharing the experience with two amazing friends only deepened the experience. I'd encourage anyone to go there, but watch out for the cars and bikes, they're pretty lethal.

Onto the main piece of news: I'm getting pretty close to doing an Archives and Records Management MA at UCL. I've got all my references, I just need to steel myself to do the horrible part of application form where you say why you're amazing and they should accept you over anyone else. I've never been very good at that, at least not when I'm being ironic. Perhaps if I pretend the whole thing is an exercise in irony I'll say everything they want to hear.

I've really enjoyed my time volunteering in the Archives, and although it started purely as a chance to gain some more work/life experience, an interesting story to tell to my children, it's really grabbed me, and I think I'd quite happily become a professional archivist at this point. I'm still working on a bunch of medical prescriptions from c.1900 at the moment, but I'm up to 'W' so I'm nearly done with that.

The only problem I can see with doing an MA is the time commitment. I'm planning on doing a part-time course over 2 years (I won't be able to afford to live otherwise), but that leaves me with 3 days to work if I want a sensible amount of time off. And if I want to carry on volunteering in the Archives while I'm learning then that uses up another day. I'm preparing to be very busy and very poor for 2 years if I get to do this MA. But I guess no pain, no gain, and if what I'll gain is the probability of an actual steady career rather than just a job then I'm willing to stick it out.

Geek News now:

I finally got around to reading Max Barry's 'Jennifer Government'. It was surprisingly better than I thought it would be, although the ending was a bit abrupt. It's a nice satire of consumerism, bureaucracy and the state of today's world, mixing in action, humour and high concept sci-fi. Everyone should read it and form their own opinion, but I suspect most people will love it. If I lived in Jennifer Government's future, would my name be Tom Royal Collection? I guess I would.

Reading this has almost tempted me to get back on NationStates, although I'd have to take less responsibility on the forums than last time. It wasn't fair of me to take charge of the YU only to suddenly disappear.

I've also downloaded Lord of the Rings Online recently. I've only just made it out of the Introduction quests but it looks pretty great so far. Very smooth running, lovely graphics and fluid movement, and changing it to FTP should hopefully attract a lot more people to it. It's probably easier to get into that WoW given that it's set in a world many people are already familiar with through the LotR films - people immediately know what they're getting. I think I'll go on now actually...

I'm Dagoram, a Dwarf Guardian, if anyone plays.

Several upcoming events:

1) Knitting With Charlotte. I'm going to learn how to knit. Not what I'd normally go for, but I'm never one to turn down a new skill set.

2) My 2nd driving test. Which reminds me, I need to book some more lessons or I'll reach the day and have forgotten how to drive.

3) Danny and Kaitlyn's party on the same day as the driving test. A double birthday party, it's going to be big!

4) The Lord Chamberlain's Briefing at some point, I'll have to find out when.

5) Rob's party. SingStar again, wooo! Looking forward to that.

6) But first! Going to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 tomorrow. I'm going in Snape costume :D

I'll report back before long. Everyone have fun while I'm gone.

Blogged to the sound of 'Cuts Across the Land', The Duke Spirit.

Happy Times

Basically good things are happening, everything is A-OK right now.

1. Sarah's birthday on Friday. So far as I know we're having sushi in Kingston, which I've never done before but should be pretty great.

2. Muse concert, also on Friday, only in the evening. It would be on Saturday but my brother messed up the dates, and he's still on holiday on the Friday so I get his ticket, har har. I asked around a bit, was going to go with Alex but she has been medically warned not to go gigging until at least an hour after her surgery. Which was a massive shame, obviously, I was quite looking forward to going with Alex. But I had another ask around and Becky said she'd go, so it's finally all sorted, and there are no gig-related outstanding issues, other than Becky owes me money for the ticket. Pay up! Or I'll send the heavies round!

3. Going on HOLIDAY next Tuesday! This is the most exciting thing all year. Going with Vicki and Sarah to Dubrovnik in Croatia. It's a bit late in the year but being pretty far south the weather should still be pretty good, and I couldn't spend a whole week on the beach anyway. Only two things I really need to finish doing to be ready (other than packing, which as we all know is only done correctly when done the night before departure), which are getting my currency sorted, and learning Croatian, which may take a while, so I'd better crack on seeing as there's only a week til I leave. Luckily I've got a CD called 'Croatian in 60 Minutes', so I should be completely sorted come the 14th.

4. Volunteering in the Archives is still going well, and I'm branching out of old staff files into other archivey things when I'm asked, getting a broad experience. Not sure how long I'll be able to stay in the Archives for as I'm missing out on almost 2 months worth of pay per annum, having knocked a day off wardening each week to make it easier for me to work in the Archives. However if I can make it to a year I'll be better placed to get into an archive qualification, and if I can do that then one day I may end up running the National Archives, who knows. Why not aim big, it can't hurt.

That reminds me, I need to get hold of the Chapel Archives as well, to ask about an ancestor of mine who did some stone-masonry there in the 1880s, see if there's any information about him.

That's it for now! I expect I'll put up some holiday snaps when I get back.

Blogged to the sound of Machine Dreams, Little Dragon.

My Darling Girl...

Quick update as regards yesterday's post.

I've made a basic list of everything in the suitcase. There was more in there than I thought, let me tell you!

I'm also about half-way through organising the loose letters into date order. I don't want to undo the tied-in-a-bunch ones just yet.

I haven't read many of them yet, just the odd one or two, but I noticed that my grandad had sent my grandmother 2 letters at the same time on the same day, but bound for different addresses. Curious, I thought, so I investigated. Turns out one was sent to her NAAFI base for reading probably the day after posting, and the other was sent to her home to be waiting for her when she returned.

The following is the latter letter (hehe).

24 May 1945

My Darling Girl,

Am writing this letter to you my love as I promised, for when you come home from that old Naafi.

Darling I am with you right this very moment, in my thoughts, I am putting my arms around & whispering I love you darling girl of mine.

Sweetheart when I was in your arms last night you said to me, "put your arms around me dear", it came straight from your heart dearest because you said it so lovely.

I received your letter from the kiosk this morning dearest, telling me all the news, but I was so happy to hear it from your own lips, it sounds more thrilling, to hear your own plans for us, gosh you make me so happy & in love with you, are you feeling better now my love.

I hope you have forgiven me darling because honestly I love you truly & no other, & I wish to let you love me freely as the air in heaven above Gracie sweetheart, your an angel incognito I am sure, come down to love me.

So darling mine, I am kissing you right now as you lay in bed in my thoughts, now sweetheart just relax & go to sleep with those lovely eyes you have closed with my lips kissing them lightly, and now darling as you drop off into a beauty sleep, I am holding you in my arms and telling you I'm your true love & that I adore you for evermore, & will protect you with my body through life's way.

Goodnight darling girl & God bless you sweetheart & dream of me as I will of you. Darling from my soul I worship you & I trust you find it worthy of your great love for you are just lovely so darling till tomorrow's letter & Sat at 2 I kiss you goodnight.

George.

Then 66 'x's. I counted them. Plus a bunch of what I think are 'x's, but they get so small I can't count them. There's approx. 35 of them.

If only I could write with such feeling. Of course it would help to have someone to practice writing to. Ladies... ;)

Covert Operation

Some of you were asking after another post, so here it is. It probably won't be what you were waiting for though.

In my loft is an old suitcase that belonged to my grandad until he died. It's been ours for years now, but it's not the suitcase that interests me (for good reason - it's falling apart and smells a bit weird). No, it's the contents that I want to get my hands on.

It contains several relics from my grandad's days as a soldier - medals, an army mug, a knife he bought at a bazaar, stuff like that. What I really want to look at though is the probably hundreds of letters sent between him and my grandmother during the '40s and maybe early '50s. This was back in the days when local mail was delivered 3 times a day, so my grandparents, particularly my grandad, seem to have taken the opportunity to send mail 3 times a day and run amok. This was over a few years, so the letters have built up a bit.

Now, my grandad was no poet, but the love he has for my grandmother is so obvious in these letters, and so pure, it enough to make you cry.

Unfortunately I have only had the chance to read one or two as my mum is adamant that they are private letters and should be left well alone. I'm wise enough to leave well alone and not point out that the letters were written 60 years ago, both subjects of these letters have been dead for about 6 years, and that they likely would not have minded us reading them even when they were alive.

However they have too big a pull on my mind. The romantic in me wants to pick up tips, the genealogist in me wants to search for clues about their lives, the archivist in me wants to put them all in chronological order (they're all mixed up right now).

And tomorrow everyone but my brother goes on holiday for a week. A week of evenings in which nobody will be any the wiser. Except, now, the whole of the internet. But you won't tell anyone, will you Internet?

It may seem like a particularly sad and nerdy waste of an evening, but I'm not likely to get a chance like this for another year or more, so I'm taking the opportunity by the horns. Or by the 50+ year old suitcase.

If I find a really good one, maybe I'll even type it up for the blog.

Blogged to the sound of Forever Faithless, Faithless.

Lean and Mean (not that mean)

A little bit of backstory:

My cousin is currently in Latvia as part of an exchange programme. She's already been out there for a few weeks, but she came back the other day to celebrate her birthday here, as it unfortunately fell while she was away. Tomorrow she leaves again for about two months. I only get to see her every 2 or 3 months anyway, so although I'll obviously worry about her it won't affect me too much (I know that sounds horrible but I don't mean it in a derogatory way). I expect her immediate family will have a harder time of it so we in the other family branch are here if they need us.

Anyway, for her birthday we had a party with her friends and family, which I am very thankful for, and not only because I got to see her again and marvel at her sister's very floral tights (they looked a bit like this). I am also thankful because I had an epiphany on the way there.

I travelled there straight from work and got changed out of my uniform in the train toilet. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realised properly for the first time that I am starting to resemble a blobfish. This probably wasn't helped by the uniform trousers, but that can't be helped. On the spot I decided that something must be done, a decision which today found me in Sports Direct buying various jogging paraphernalia which I don't already own, such as trackie bottoms, and a polo shirt.

Cost-wise it would probably be cheaper to get gym membership than how much I spent on the new outfit, but in the long run I'll be the one laughing; besides, I would rather run about on my own in the early morning than have a bunch of muscle-bound gym-nuts poking my soft places and exclaiming that I've let myself go.

My first jogging expedition begins at roughly 6 tomorrow morning, so I'm off to bed soon. Wish me luck!

Blogged to the sound of: Fire Like This, Blood Red Shoes.

It's all happening!

It all is!

Firstly, apologies for not blogging in so long; let me briefly catch you up to the present day.

- I never found out who the Brazillian woman was, and to be honest I don't care.

- Christmas happened! I thought it was one of the best ever, although I encountered the paradox of having a full-time job and yet having less money than when I was a poor, poor student. I put this down to personal spending sprees, so I'm really sorry if I got you a naff present, I'll do better in 10 months time.

- Vicki's birthday happened! Vicki, Sarah and I headed into London to watch We Will Rock You which was brilliant and I bought a t-shirt, although I wish Sharon D Clarke had been playing Killer Queen. We did various things the next day including taking Archie for a walk in at least a foot of snow (that's a lot in England, ok!), went to PetsAtHome for ages (it's great, I recommend spending the day there, 50% of which should be spent watching degus), and did late Christmas presents and Vicki's birthday presents...or was that the day before? I forget, but either way I got the Dangerous Book for Boys Board Game from Vicki, which my whole family loved despite even the Scouts among us having forgotten all our knots and nobody knowing the constellations, and the Biggest Ever Book of Paper Planes from Sarah, which was not, in fact, a big book with many designs, but a huge, thin book with a few designs for huge planes, which was just as good, if not better. I've made 5 so far and have no idea where to put them. I think I'm beyond the phase of hanging things from my ceiling, so I'll have to figure something out.

I, uh...I think that's everything. I lead a very dull life. Apart from the past few weeks! It's all kicked off, or so it seems.

- I'm getting there with the driving. I found a book with all the answers to the theory test, which feels a little like cheating but at this point I don't care. My main motivation for getting my licence has become the thought of not having to pay out for driving lessons. That's probably not good but if it gets the job done...

- I had an interview to do some work experience at the Archives. I really hope I get one of the available spots, and I think the interview went well so I'm optimistic, which makes a nice change.

- I had both a Training Day and an Induction Day for work, the latter of which happened earlier today. They were, essentially, the same thing, although the Induction Day had a more general outlook compared to the Training Day's more location specific teachings. There were tiny sandwiches and silly group activities galore, plus a whistle-stop tour of BP. That place has got some high ceilings, I'm telling you.

- I should be getting baptised sometime around Easter. When classes were announced the other week I realised that there were no more flimsy excuses from stopping me, and also that it would be a really good thing for me, so I went for it. It turns out I'm the only one taking the classes, but I like it this way, I can have real personal chats with G, our pastor. My first class was earlier, and they're weekly.

- Rob finally sorted out the SingStar evening I've been pestering him about for months now. I wasn't the only one! It was a very popular suggestion. Anyway, it's in about a month, so I'd better get practising. Doe, a deer, a female deer...

Blogged to the sound of: Cosmic Egg, Wolfmother.

PS: I'm hooked on Tic Tacs, which as everyone knows are a gateway mint. Before you know it I'll be wolfing down Fisherman's Friends and Trebor Extra Strong.

She stole my karma oh no

By 'she' I of course mean Mother Nature. Wasn't it obvious?
By that entire statement I in fact mean that I have an awful, awful cold. Again. This must be something like my fifth this year. One of these days, immune system, one of these days...

The upshot of this is that I spent all of today at work outside. Wait, that's not an upshot, it's a, wait let me think...oh yes, a terrible stupid idea, and I really should have requested a move indoors. Nevertheless, it's given me something to blog about.

I spent the majority of today shouting, or at least wheezing, "gum ob da grazz plead" at various tourists, a strategy which was never going to work. I ended up waving at said tourists' families and helplessly making up sign language designed to tell them that the "Please stay off the grass" signs did not in fact say "Please come and take a closer look at this tree". At this point I remembered that I was wearing a cape due to Breezes and they could not actually see my hands. My final technique was to unravel my hands from the cape and flap at people. This seemed to work, although I suspect it was merely that by that time they had taken photographs of everything this side of Maidenhead and wanted to find an ER embossed drain-cover of which to take a snap-shot(I have witnessed this happening. We may as well begin a Drain Photography competition so many people do it).

My apologies if this seems like a whole post of me venting, but this cold has taken all of the minorly irritating events of today and catalysed them into an infuriating blob of anger.

Having now warned you, there was an absurd amount of activity happening in the Mews today, some of which apparently required a huge lorry to drive to and fro between somewhere and somewhere else. As my job title today may as well have been Glorified Car Park Attendent I had to move the heavy, metal (not Heavy Metal) posts - normally used for stringing up ropes so we can treat the tourists like sheep and herd them towards the interesting parts of the castle, otherwise you know they would start taking pictures of the staff car park - around at least 3 times today so the impatient lorry driver could fit through.
Thankfully I have the next 2 days off to recover, and on Friday I go back to the security machines, a job which requires you to sit down for half of your day. It's not a bad job, all things considered.
Also today I got to meet one of the many cats which head up to the Castle for some attention, which was nice and calmed me down somewhat.

To end this post I must recount to you an incident which happened on Sunday. I held the post I shall refer to as Gatekeeper, because it sounds much cooler than the actual title. This was before the Cold and it wasn't raining, so I was quite happy, and the following event served to make Sunday an even better day than today.
I was standing, doing my job, when I was approached by woman wearing an extravagant looking dress, which makes sense now that I know how this story ends, and two men. One of the men started the conversation, his opening line going something like "We from Brazil. No speak good English", an opener you know is going to lead to an amusing anecdote. He tried in vain to explain his request to me, but the only words of English I could make out, and apparently the only ones he knew, were "music", "no professional", "photograph", "video" and "parking". Well, what was I supposed to make of that? So I did my best to look concerned yet confused. His solution, a rather ingenius solution I must say, was to ring "my friend" who turned out in fact to be the pastor of his church, a man who spoke much better English than the man in front of me, albeit with a strong accent.
As it turned out, the woman was something of a professional singer/dancer in Brazil, and they were wondering if they would be allowed to film part of a music video inside the Castle grounds. Blow me down, I'd met a foreign celebrity! Of course, I don't have the superiority (yet. Mwahahaha) to give that sort of permission, so I said to the 'friend' down the phone "Tell him I'm getting a manager" and thrust the phone back at the man.
I managed to track down C who didn't have that kind of permission either, but at least knew that they would need to go through the same kind of bureaucracy as if they'd wanted to film a wedding video here, and given how little English they all knew it was hardly worth it, so just tell them no, which I did. Appeased but a little disappointed, they left.
Not ten minutes later I began to hear music and singing come from round the corner of the Gate. Having mostly consigned my Brazilian encounter to the "Remember later for amusement" file I assumed some yobbo had parked up with his window open. I was more than a little surprised, then, when I rounded the corner and saw that the small group had propped up a large video camera, previously hidden in a bag beneath some very glittery shoes and what may have been a frock, on a wall and were filming the music video right there in the street. The lady singer was actually in the road, singing and dancing. About half way through their recital the bells of the church next to them started tolling loudly and they had to pack up. I chuckled quietly and went back to work.
This whole event either serves to warn me against Brazilians, singers, or both. I'll try to track her down on Google and will let you know if I find her.

Blogged to the sound of: A Brief History of Love, The Big Pinks.