Trip to the past

On a wet, windy Sunday, what could be better than to visit a museum. Milestones near Basingstoke is a network of streets with shops, a village green and a pub, dating from Victorian times up to the 1930s, recreated inside a massive modern building.

20,000 objects that ordinary people used in the past are on display - tin baths, Spong bean slicers, mangles, toasting forks, wooden split pegs, hat pins, liver pills... the variety is astonishing, yet each thing has been carefully placed to tell its own story.

Memories came flooding back to me of my grandmother's scullery.... my mother's kitchen... and then my own first home. This was less welcome! I found it hard to believe that things I had once used were in a MUSEUM! Made me wonder if I shouldn't have been exhibit 20,001....



It did make me appreciate how the technology of that time moulded our characters, how hard physically we had to work in the home with no washing machines, fridges, vacuum cleaners, convenience foods, supermarkets, transport.... it was very character building but I'm grateful for the modern appliances that give me freedom from domestic servitude, allowing me to live a fulfilling and much more comfortable life-style.

In need of sleep

I am TIRED..... I'm getting past working 12 hour days. Retirement wasn't meant to be like this, it was lying on a beach in the sun, travelling, being creative.... I wonder though, how long that would have kept me happy. I do love the steep learning curves, the pressure to get things done, the buzz of the lecture room, the interaction with students..... the answer lies, as with so many other things, in having a balance.

I wonder if my polarities are caused by being born on the cusp, the reason I'm sure why I feel more than slightly shizophrenic at times. When your life bounces between extremes, it's very hard to live the middle path.

Lest we forget

A simple remembrance observation is held every year at Fort Nelson. A shell is fired to mark the beginning and end of two minutes of silence, and a poem about the war is read by a volunteer dressed in a uniform of the First World War.





This little ceremony is heart-wrenchingly poignant, especially as the number of our service personnel dying and suffering horrific injuries in Afghanistan is soaring.


How sad that mankind has made such great progress in so many areas over the last century, but in spite of awareness of the horrors of war, has somehow not yet been able to embrace peace.

Half term

Restful week? Not quite.... went to help Son#1 to sort out his Palace to rent while he's away. Mixing concrete, fencing, laying paving slabs, shovelling rubble, clearing brambles.... not quite a relaxing few days! But it was great fun, we worked from when we got up until it was too dark to see what we were doing, then made for the local Chinese/Indian/pub for dinner before falling exhausted into bed.

It was better than a daily session in the gym and I'm still glowing from all the fun we shared. Everyone had a great sense of satisfaction from putting the house and garden to rights, but my biggest happiness came from knowing that I was still 'useful' and able to help.