#Museumselfie

So combining my love of social media and museums museum selfie day was right up my street and the fact that the Astronomers at the ROG were all on board too made it lots of fun!
You basically took a selfie in a museum and tweeted about it with the hashtag and people from all over the world got involved.

Here are the highlights from my #musuemselfie day http://storify.com/custard1980/museumselfie

I'm sure it won't mean much to many of you but seeing thousands of people across the globe taking pictures of themselves in museums was thrilling. With over 20,000 #musuemselfie tweets over the day is just brilliant.

Jupiter and it's moons!

I am working at the Royal Observatory Greenwich (ROG) this week with the astronomers. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit daunted as most people there have at least a doctorate, and I was asked how my physics was. To which I replied about C Grade in 1996! However, I have been welcomed warmly, I have seen some of the schools sessions learning about day and night and stars with year 1, about the earth the sun and the moon with year 4 and been on a space safari with a teddy bear called Ted!
I saw a planetarium show lead by one of the astronomers this afternoon, where I learned loads about the night sky and I was lucky enough to follow it up with a visit to the ROG's 28" telescope in the beautiful dome.
I was able to sneak in while the astronomers set up for an astrophotography evening, I got the chance to see Jupiter and some of it's moons and Capella bright in the night sky through the huge telescope, and later through a smaller one. It was an amazing if not rather chilly experience that I was very lucky to have a chance to do. And I got chance to do it before it clouded over!

Bit of Culture!

I thought I'd better make the most of being in London town and spend sometime doing Cultural stuff and getting new ideas and things, after all there is only a few weeks left until I have to plan these things around ferries and trains and getting hotels and things. Using my time wisely!
My staff pass get me into exhibitions at National Museums for free so I have been to see all the current exhibits at the V & A (one of my favourite museums). They have such excellent exhibit there and the building is amazing. The Club to Catwalk exhibit was brilliant, seeing some iconic 1980's fashion was brilliant, the Pearls exhibit was beautiful and the Chinese Art was not really to my taste but it was good to see! I even found time to sample the tearoom - these are most important parts of any museum!
I also took a trip to the theatre to see Jeeves and Wooster - I managed to get a very good value ticket (I'm on a budget you know!) and although the seat was rather uncomfortable, the view was good and the show was excellent!

I have a plans to get out and about a bit more over my last few weeks, so I'll keep you posted ;-)

Play Tuesdays, Pirate school, the Drunken sailor and Sir Francis Drake

I spent the week with the learning team, much bigger than I expected and it covers a wide range of sessions from school visits and family learning to Play Tuesdays - weekly sessions for the under fives learning through play with themes around the National Maritime Museum.
I was invited to join the Play Tuesday's Art session, a 50 minutes session that is repeated 4 times over the day. It is attended by a wide range of people from Nannies with their charges, Mum's, Aunties and Grannies, all willing to get stuck in.
The sessions are designed so that a wide age range can join in but it is essential that you get a bit messy and there were more than a few painty hands and pen covered faces by the end.
We drew creatures from under the sea, painted sea monsters with loads of scary eyes and views from a porthole. We also looked at what sinks and what floats and read stories about fish with beautiful scales!

As you know I am never one to shy away from an art project so here is my view from a porthole!

I also joined Pirate School with a Year 2 class, a female pirate no less told us all about becoming a Pirate. This included having a pirate name (mine was Sleepy Joe), repeating the pirate promise which mainly consisted of stealing treasure and not washing! We learned about pirates weapons, pirate ships, pirate flags and sharing treasure fairly. We learned that the food was rubbish, there was a big chance you would get caught and life was hard as a pirate!

I also joined one of the costumed interpreters from the Queen's House who played the part of a Tudor seafarer, who talked the children through a voyage on the Golden Hind to collect treasures for the queen and a more traditional schools session on the Cutty Sark where we pretended to be a cabin boy on board on a voyage to Australia to buy wool.

It is such a broad choice of sessions covering large topics and it's only the start the Royal Observatory covers a whole other part of the curriculum and the sessions are fun and very engaging, Many of the local London schools visit, although getting 28 7 year olds on the Tube is not for the faint hearted!

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...