Six (or less) degrees of seperation

Back on placement today after a couple of weeks holiday. I have been placed in design this week who are the team who are responsible for the design of the exhibitions in the museum. They have a slightly bigger budget than us, but seeing how they approach the subject has been really interesting. Very similar in many ways but on a much larger scale. They have also been showing me the tendering program for building the new exhibits, which has been fascinating.
However, that is not what I am writing about. The next exhibit they are currently researching content for is about the 500th anniversary of Trinity House, they have asked me to put some interesting stories together about the Needles Lighthouse, which may form part of the exhibition. They were very chuffed to have an expert on hand and without paying the consultants fees! This however means I have had to trawl through my brain for information I had filed under 'Not currently required'.

The turning of the year

I hope you have all had a happy and peaceful Christmas. Thanks for all the Christmas cards, so nice to think that many of you are thinking of me. 

We had a busy Christmas back with family and friends in Bolton. I managed to get a horrendous cold which struck as soon as I sat on the train from Waterloo back to the Island for my Christmas break. However, I managed to enjoy myself and was well looked after by my mum!

We have done nothing but party and catch up for the week or so and have decided to have a quiet New Year at home in front of the TV with a glass of cider.

New Year tends to lead to reflection and 2013 has been an interesting year which has culminated with me taking this sabbatical which has opened my eyes to so many opportunities and ideas for 2014, which I look forward to experiencing. Thanks to you all for supporting me through the tough times this year and believing in me when I didn't believe in myself.

To you all a Healthy and Happy New Year - all the best. And I'll see you all soon.

Oh and for anyone wondering - I did finish the top 100 books in mid December a few weeks earlier than my goal so you can give me your best recommendations for books to read now!

Also please feel free to comment on this blog or drop me an email - it would be lovely to hear from you

Elf and safety

Well who would have thought that spending the day in Health and Safety would have opened so many doors!
Today I have met everyone from the Porter-messengers, the chaps who keep the place running, they do everything from delivering the post to making sure we have enough loo roll! Right through to the Deputy Director of the Museum and the Directors PA and pretty much everyone in between. I got to chat to some very knowledgeable volunteers about the history of the site and some of the contractors carrying out five year checks on the wiring.
The lady who I have been shadowing today has known the name of everyone we have chatted with today, which is no mean feat and I have shaken a lot of hands. Overall it has been positive and people have been very enthusiastic about my sabbatical, many wanted to know more, so I have told my story a few times today. They think it's good for the museum as well as being a great opportunity for me and want to know if there will be any more after me. I have also had a few requests for a sabbatical on the Isle of Wight in return. The head of Security is particularly keen on doing Davey's job at the harbour for a little while - preferably when the sun shines!
I have been through many a locked door, seen a tunnel to rival ours and the inside of a lot of plant rooms, this is the wonder of Health and Safety it gets everywhere and affects everyone!
So perhaps Health and Safety is not so bad after all...

No escape!

As David will agree, one of our least favourite tasks is interviewing. I hoped I had escaped this chore for a year as I am away when most of the interviews will be taking place, alas not! I am working in HR this week and my first task on Monday morning was to sit in on interviews! However, it turns out they are a lot less stressful when the decision isn't down to you! It was a good chance to see how other people approach the task and how we actually all think very similarly when faced with an interview situation!

Another of our least enjoyed tasks are workplace inspections which I am carrying out today. This is basically a review of health and safety in the workplace. It seems that when it is not your workplace then the task is a lot more fun especially when it entails going into the basement of dark and dusty places and getting to audit the conservators offices. There is a lot of very cool stuff going on there from paper conservation, pictures being cleaned, metalwork being repaired and textiles being darned, there is also a good amount of health and safety risks to be monitored as you can imagine! I am hoping to go back to conservation for a bit longer at some point during my sabbatical so I can tell you more then I hope.

The sad thing is - no photos allowed!

Meet ups and Tweet ups

I am feeling guilty, I promised myself I would be regularly updating this blog and it would be all full of pictures and adventures but it turns out that when you are busy having adventures there isn't as much time as you would expect for updating blogs and such like!

The last couple of weeks have been busy, late nights at work, meeting old friends and new. Last night I went to the #drinkingaboutmuseums tweet up in Covent Garden, run by the same lady who did Museomix. It was a chance to meet up with some other people in the Museums, publishing and animation business. Lots of really interesting people including staff from the Science Museum, HLF and the man behind the popular CBeebies show Sarah and Duck ( I know a new on on me too!)

However, this is my favourite new festive friend - he has different head gear everyday but here he is in his finest Santa hat!

I will try and catch up with my back log of posts over the next week or so while I am at home for Christmas so they might not be in chronological order but you will get the stories!

Cutty Sark transformed

I was lucky enough to be asked to shadow a top corporate event at Cutty Sark last night, for a large oil company who were using the dry berth for a Christmas drink reception.
The Cutty Sark bookings are taken by the Events team who I am working with at the moment, the venue is hired from the museum and then they have to bring in caterers, floral displays, lighting, sound and the whole shabang! The museum works with accredited suppliers for all these areas to satisfy the conservators and the insurers. This kind of thing as I am sure you can imagine does not come cheap! Many of the clients are from big city firms, an event in such a lovely setting is a big sell for them.
There are all kinds of rules and regulations for the events including that you can't serve staining foods like beetroot or red wine which may damage the ship. This area of the administration was very interesting and the fact that the top catering firms get round these regulations for the client by making things like beetroot jelly, which is permitted is very interesting too. I guess that's what you pay for.
I also had a chance to chat to the 'Event Hosts' members of staff who just man the events for the museums, many of whom use this part time work to get some extra cash or use it as a leg up into the events and museums industries.

This takes me back...

I spent a couple of summer holidays working at the family printing business - a printers. I was put in the binding room where all the print for books, binding and folding was converted from printed sheets to the finished product. I was very happy walking around a table collating sheets of tickets or making folded sheets into books. My job on Monday was stuffing 400 envelopes with tickets for the Turner and the Sea exhibit for the Goodie Bags for the awards Ceremony on Wednesday night. It was lovely to switch my brain off for a while and stuff the envelopes!