Picked up my shiny passport on Friday, so it's all official. I am a Hungarian. Just need to learn the language now. I understood quite a bit as a kid, but not much, if anything now. My friend Sarah, who has the same heritage as me, mentioned us learning Hungarian together. Now that she has a 5 month old baby, I'm not sure that will happen!! I will have to look around for a class myself.

Work was the same as usual. Although I did have the all time best example of visitor stupidity ever. I was asked by a lady where the toilets were, so I showed her the door to go out so she could duck upstairs and use the ones on the third floor. My museum is a bit of a maze, but we do have points where you can leave, all known by the staff. Next thing I know she is popping the emergency catch on the emergency exit from the gallery and is walking through. STOOPID! I showed her where to go, and she cannot follow instructions. And the big sign on the door saying "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY" should have rung alarm bells, surely??? Humans are daft creatures.

Off to see Cars again tomorrow. I saw it last night with Scott. It was really great - funny, clever, great animation as usual. Tomorrow I am seeing it with Sarah. It is one of these mother baby sessions, so if your baby yells etc, it won't be alone. I wanted to see it before I went tomorrow just in case I missed anything, which I am sure I will as it is school holidays over here now, and I am sure there will be lots of kiddies around.

Forgot to mention yesterday that whilst on the barge I received a phone call from the Hungarian embassy in London. They left a message on my voicemail (in Hungarian) but I picked up the word embassy. Tried to call them, but gave up as the signal on my phone was not good enough. Sent my mum a text asking her to give them a call. She then rang me back with some very good news - my passport is waiting for me at the embassy in London! All I need to do is pick it up! YAY!!!! It is certainly a weight off my mind. I can tell you! I have been having stressed out dreams/nightmares about it.

So I am a Hungarian! I will pick up my passport tomorrow.

For those of you wondering why I have gone through the hassle.. I can work in the UK with a Hungarian passport without requiring a visa - Hungary is in the European Union now. :-)

Sailing on a Thames Barge

Scott and I travelled up to Ipswich, a town in Suffolk, north east of London on Sunday afternoon. We were early, but spent a couple of hours in a pub having a nice lunch and lots of Pimms with lemonade. I got quite happy on it actually. ;-) We wandered down to the quay where the barge was. There was no one around when we arrived, so we had a wander around, tried to get more Pimms in the pub but to no avail. Ayesha met us down near the barge. I phoned Alison to see where she was, as she was late. Her partner Phil gave me directions to find the key so we could put our stuff in a room and wander about the boat.

We were slowly joined by others. The only people we knew were Alison and Phil, and of course Ayesha. Most of the people who were on the trip were mates of Phil's. And seeing as though he is 35 years older than us (and 30 years older than Alison) most of the others were much older than us. But we all got along very well. The others were all lovely, and it was nice to be able to get to know new people. I have exchanged details with one lady, Rina, who I will probably keep in contact with.

We grabbed some dinner in a local pub, which was very nice. Huge meals, but lovely. Headed back to the barge, sat around on deck until well after dark then hit the hay. We stayed in Ipswich dock that night, and left early the next morning.

Monday morning we left Ipswich about 7.30am. Nothing happens quickly on a barge, which is fine for putting you in a holiday mood. Can't really tell you where we sailed to, as it was never really spellt out and I didn't really mind because I was happy and relaxed. We saw Harwich (pronounced Harridge), Felixstowe and Pin Mill. That's all I remember. The rivers are huge. About twice as wide as the Thames or the Brisbane River. But the Thames used to be a lot wider than it is now.

All in all I had a nice time. There were moments that frustrated/annoyed me, but they were really to do with a lack of communication on the part of Alison and Phil. They have done this many times before, you would think they knew how it works!! ;-) Ayesha too had a nice time. It was a good way to while away the time. I knitted (apparently a first for a Thames barge passenger) and read and chatted to people. There really isn't much else to do! This is the barge. Her name was Centaur. Built in 1895, to carry cargo etc. 85 foot long, 65 tons (without cargo or people).
The sail, looking up from the deck.
This is the view up and out of our cabin. Each cabin had a hatch, which allowed ventilation and also acted as a fire escape.
Sunset on Monday evening about 9.45pm. I am really impressed with the way this photo turned out. I loved the colours and the rigging of the barge on the left of the pic. I'm good!! ;-)
Scotty pulling the ropes which hold the main sail. This is then hooked to the metal ring which slides along the brown horizontal pole behind him. This acts as the boom, allowing the sail to swing to either side of the barge depending on winds etc.

Convoys Wharf - and a baby

The inside of shed 4 at convoys. The sheds are huge, with each one housing different things.

Orlaith (being tickled by Sarah)
Signs various propped up in one of the sheds.

It's a scorcher!!

It is hot hot hot today. It is about 30 degrees in the staffroom of the museum. I know this, because I brought in my thermometer from home to tell me. There is no health and safety law here that tells you the maximum temperature to work in. Someone should really do something about that!! There must be one in Australia. I know they send kids home at a certain point if it gets too hot. Anyway, thjey are calling it a heatwave here. I am really happy that I no longer commute on the tube. They have been measuring the temperatures on tubes and buses - 47 degrees on tubes, and 52 degrees on the buses. That was in the paper this morning. And the fact that there is European legislation stating that cattle cannot be transported anywhere if the temperature is greater than 27 degrees. Hello? Something is amiss here!!!

Apart from the heat, life is good. Scott and I , and Ayesha are going on a boat trip on Monday and Tuesday. We are going on a Thames Barge - see link below. I am really looking forward to it. Although I am hoping that it cools down a little, otherwise I will be passed out on the deck somewhere! It will be two days of sailing around in rivers and maybe harbours as well. It will be nice and relaxing. Scott has taken the whole week off, lucky bugger. I have Friday off before working the weekend, so we shall do something nice together then. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Sailing_Barge

This Friday I am being trained to run an archaeological workshop for kiddies at my work. I am a bit nervous about it. I will be paid £60 per time (per day, three sessions of the same workshop per day), which will make it better. I am looking forward to it, but I have never done this before. I am more confident with talking to large groups than I used to be, as at the museum I have to brief school groups and adult groups on the do's and don'ts of the museum. this will be different though. It is summer holidays over here as of next week, so there will be lots of stinky kids around!!

I have also been thinking about writing a book for kids on archaeology. I bought one a few years back at a conference and thought it was a good idea then. I would like to make it UK or even London based. I think the age group would have to be between 8 and 12, something like that. I have never written a kiddie book before, so I think it will be an interesting exercise. Not sure if it will ever get published, but fingers crossed! Well... I have to write it first!!

I went to see my Museum's big off site storage area today. I met the conservators ALison and Paul down there, at a site near the river at about 11. Had a tour around. Saw lots of stuff! I took photos as well, so I will be able to share my experiences more fully shortly.

I couldn't really help much, as I don't know how to drive a forklift truck, and I don't own safety boots. I did wear boots and dirty-able clothes though. I helped load a skip full of rubbish, and watched Alison drive the forklift around lifting large pices of rusty machinery destined for the scrap heap. It sounds terrible I know, but they have tried to give it away to other museums, to anyone they can think of, but no one wants it. So it is being sold for scrap. They make about £50 a tonne, which comes in handy of course!

Off to the movies now, so more later!!

Hello all!

Yesterday was a fun day. I mooched around in the morning, slept in etc. I met Sarah and Orlaith at 1pm at Fenchurch Street Station. We wandered around a bit, grabbed some lunch and went to sit in the park behind the Tower of London. We sat there for a good couple of hours, just watching life go by, chatting away. I took a load of photos of Orlaith when she was lying on her blanket. She is becoming quite vocal, telling us stories. I can't understand her, but I am sure they are very interesting!! We went into a pub, mainly to use the loo, and stayed for a drink there. Then it was off wandering again. I met Scott at his work so we could go home together. Turns out he had a cab ride home, which was much nicer than being in a hot sweaty train!

Today, tomorrow and Monday I am at work. Nothing exciting is happening. But on Tuesday, I am very excited as I am going to see the museum's store area. It is off site, and houses all the large objects, such as boats, machinery pieces, vehicles that kind of thing. I have been pestering the conservation people for months and they are finally going there on one of my days off. I have to wear daggy clothes and boots and get to mooch around generally. I can't help too much as I do not own safety boots, but I can help as much as I can. I am really looking forward to it. The conservation people, Alison and Paul, are lovely, and completely mad. So I get on well with them! Hopefully I can take piccies and show you all.

There was an almighty crash yesterday apparently, when a glass shelf came down in one of the display cases. I helped Alison, the conservator clean it up and we removed the shelf. We rearranged the artefacts and made it look better. Alison thinks that vibrations from the floor boards helped to tip it off the brackets. Interesting. There is no other explanation really, considering all the other cases in the area are fine. :-) I enjoyed helping her. I also had lunch with her in her office. :-)

Last night I went to a bbq at our parent museum. It was a really fun night. It was lovely to catch up with people, as well as meet new people. We can sometimes be a bit isolated from others at our museum because of the location as well as politics. But it was a relaxed evening with plenty of food and drink. Scott also had a nice evening as he had a night out with his work people, all paid for by his boss.

Helloo all!

It has been a while since I am made a typed post, as opposed to a photo post. I have been caught up with Scott's sister Kim being here and playing Tour Guide Barbie - see above. Kim was here for only 6 days, but we tried to squeeze as much in as we could without tiring us out completely. With only six days in a huge city like London, there is no way you will be able to see it all anyway, or even worth trying. You have to be realistic and figure out what you want to see, or what the guest might like to see. :-)

This was the itinerary for the week:
Monday - pick up from Heathrow, lunch with Scott near his work, walked around St Pauls, went to Harrods, Natural History Museum, barbeque for dinner.
Tuesday - British Museum, tour of Egyptian gallery and funerary traditions, shopping in Oxford Street, dinner in Brick Lane
Wednesday - Westminster Abbey, lunch in pub, Cabinet War Rooms, walk to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, London Eye, dinner near Waterloo station.
Thursday - I went to work in the call centre, but Kim and Scott came to my museum to have a look around then went to Greenwich, went to see The Producers in the West End.
Friday - I went to work again, Scott and Kim went to Canterbury.
Saturday - we went to the Tower of London, to Greenwich on a boat, then had pie and mash for dinner.
Sunday - Took Kim to Heathrow.

So there you have it. A busy week, but it was lovely to see Kim. I know it was a little odd for both Scott and Kim as they don't really know each other much anymore. But the week together was a good start in the process of getting to know each other again. I hope they can maintain whatever they got out of the week.

In other news, I am going to be a mentor for one of the new staff. Should be interesting!

In a moment of homesickness, I was thinking about how blessed I am to have parents who love and support me. It doesn't matter how far away they are. I miss them, but I know they are only a phone call away, etc.

:-) Not much else to say really. I am waiting for my contract to turn up in the mail. I have to wait a month or so to get paid, which should be interesting!! ;-)

xxx

Recent photos

This is a view of Trafalgar Square down towards Whitehall. Between the buildings on the left you can see Parliament House.
The London Eye from below
The Horse Guards palace.
A horse guard.
Kim and Scott in front of a giant pipe near Scott's firm's new building. The building is built over an archaeological site, as is most of London! They have archaeological finds under glass tiles so you can see them, and walk on them!!
Westminster Abbey, the tourist entrance.
RRAAAARRGGHHH!! A dino in the Natural History Museum
A disposable barbeque we tried. Pretty useless actually, but only £1.97. They don't get hot enough. Next time I think we will try adding matches underneath to light other parts of it.
These are puppets a colleague of mine Jo and I made one boring day at work, last weekend. She made me and I made her. I am the blonde one, obviously!! I am very impressed. I gave her a towel, a sarong and a reversible handbag. Can you tell it was a quiet day at work?!!

Portsmouth Photos #2

Southsea, the town next to Portsmouth, has a hideous fun fair that looks tired and a bit sad.
Bill and Ben, the creepy children's ride men.
Bunny!!
Guinea pigs in a city park.
View of Portsmouth Harbour from the Spinnaker Tower.
Again from the Tower
My feet walking across the glass floor at the top of the Spinnaker Tower.
The Spinnaker Tower.

My obsession with sad old cranes is still hanging around. :-)

Portsmouth photos #1

This is one of the views the naval dockyard. I loved the number of cranes.
This is the Spinnaker Tower on the right with the mast of HMS Warrior.
HMS Victory, most of her.
This is rigging which seems to allow sailors to walk on the outside of the ship, but I am not sure what it is called.
HMS Victory in dry dock.
The masts of HMS Victory
The Mary Rose, showing the shape of the hull.
The delightful Mary Rose. Otherwise known as "half a ship in a car wash"
The stern of HMS Victory, the oldest commissioned ship in the world.

This was the view we had from the railway station.