Entry tags:
Having a minor crisis...
I've just received an email from my broadband provider informing me that I've almost hit my maximum useage for this month. They'll charge me £1.95 per GB if I go over. Noooooo! Not just before a bank holiday. What am I going to do with myself without YouTube and the like to waste my time on?
In other news I took the day off work on Wednesday and went up to London with mum. We went to the Bank of England Museum, had a look at the memorial to everyday heroes in Postman's Park and then went to the Clockmaker's Museum in the Guildhall. With the exception of the price of an extension to my travelcard so I could enter zones 1-3 it was a free day of entertainment.
The Bank of England museum was quite interesting. We read about the architecture of the bank and I was suprised to read that it was largely rebuilt in the 1930s. The enormous screen walls around the outside are all that is left of the old bank. The old buildings were demolished within the screen walls and much taller, more modern buildings were built inside. To provide visitors with an idea of what the old building was like they have recreated a one of the old rooms in the museum. I was a bit disappointed that it was all quite new. I thought it would be just like the bank in 'Making Money'. Anyway, there were some quite interesting displays showing examples of all the different designs of banknote since banknotes began, full sets of all the coins minted since the reign of William and Mary and a few bits about the career of Kenneth Grahame who worked at the bank before retiring to the country and writing 'The Wind in the Willows'. We also got to touch a bar of gold which was worth over £200,000. It felt warm and kind of soft. We also saw lots of cartoons from Punch in which a human representation of 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street' appeared regularly. Most of all I loved seeing examples of the enormous books in which peoples account details were recorded in beautiful loopy handwriting. The book containing Handel's account details was on display. I decided that I want my account recorded like that in the future. Much nicer than a run of the mill computer printed statement. I wonder how Barclays would react if I asked them!
Postman's park is a little park near St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London. It's called Postman's Park because it is next door to the former head office of the Post Office. Mum wanted to go there as she had read about George Frederic Watts' 'Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice' which is the main feature of the park. Watts' created the memorial in 1900 to commemorate the lives of ordinary people who had been killed saving the lives of others. Each person has been given a beautiful tiled plaque detailing their heroic action. Some of those remembered are children as young as 10 years old who lost their lives saving others - usually younger brothers or sisters. It's a very peaceful area and I guess unique to London. The nice thing is that the Diocese of London have rediscovered the memorial and added someone to it in 2007 - the first addition in nearly 80 years. Long may it continue.
We'd planned to get a river boat down to Tate Britain in the afternoon but the Bank of England Museum took longer than we expected so there wasn't time. We decided to visit the Clockmaker's Museum in the Guildhall instead as it was close by and my mum loves clocks. The Clockmaker's Museum is certainly one of the 'hidden gems' of London museums. Although it is well signposted it is actually quite hidden away in the corner of the modern building which forms part of the Corporation of London offices. We were the only visitors for a long time. The museum contains the collection of The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. Unsurprisingly this consists of lots and lots of clocks and watches. I had no idea that London had a thriving clockmaking trade from the 17th Century to the 19th Century. The company is still going today but it's members tend to make one off commissioned work. Some of the clocks and particularly the pocket watches on display were absolutely beautiful. The precision work and creative effort that went into making the movement of a tiny watch was quite remarkable. Even the watch keys on display were stunning. It was a very sweet little museum and well worth a visit on a rainy day (but only if you like clocks obviously)
I can't believe that it will be September next week. If I'd still been working at the College enrolment duties would have started last Thursday. Mum's school starts back a week on Monday and then the next thing will be Christmas. Someone in my office found a random decoration which had been left up since last Christmas today so it must be almost time to start putting them up again. There is quite a lot to look forward to in the interim. I'm hoping to go up to Leicester with my parents at half term on another family tree investigation. Then we have a big launch party for work at The House of Lords at the beginning of December. I am ridiculously excited about getting to take a look around. My friend goes fairly often with her job and she says it's amazing.
I've just finished watching a double episode of The Tudors. I hadn't seen it before. It was an interesting interpretation of historical fact. King Henry is ageing remarkably well and it's terribly melodramatic. Despite it's shortcomings it was great for 'oh, isn't that the bloke who was in...' moments. I spotted the chap who played Gary's colleague George in Men Behaving Badly and the chap who played Dan Hunter in Hollyoaks. Also, my brother in law's friend Max Brown was in it and he was credited as 'Guest Starring' at the end rather than just being lumped in with the rest of the cast. He must be on the up (as they say).
In other news I took the day off work on Wednesday and went up to London with mum. We went to the Bank of England Museum, had a look at the memorial to everyday heroes in Postman's Park and then went to the Clockmaker's Museum in the Guildhall. With the exception of the price of an extension to my travelcard so I could enter zones 1-3 it was a free day of entertainment.
The Bank of England museum was quite interesting. We read about the architecture of the bank and I was suprised to read that it was largely rebuilt in the 1930s. The enormous screen walls around the outside are all that is left of the old bank. The old buildings were demolished within the screen walls and much taller, more modern buildings were built inside. To provide visitors with an idea of what the old building was like they have recreated a one of the old rooms in the museum. I was a bit disappointed that it was all quite new. I thought it would be just like the bank in 'Making Money'. Anyway, there were some quite interesting displays showing examples of all the different designs of banknote since banknotes began, full sets of all the coins minted since the reign of William and Mary and a few bits about the career of Kenneth Grahame who worked at the bank before retiring to the country and writing 'The Wind in the Willows'. We also got to touch a bar of gold which was worth over £200,000. It felt warm and kind of soft. We also saw lots of cartoons from Punch in which a human representation of 'The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street' appeared regularly. Most of all I loved seeing examples of the enormous books in which peoples account details were recorded in beautiful loopy handwriting. The book containing Handel's account details was on display. I decided that I want my account recorded like that in the future. Much nicer than a run of the mill computer printed statement. I wonder how Barclays would react if I asked them!
Postman's park is a little park near St Pauls Cathedral in the City of London. It's called Postman's Park because it is next door to the former head office of the Post Office. Mum wanted to go there as she had read about George Frederic Watts' 'Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice' which is the main feature of the park. Watts' created the memorial in 1900 to commemorate the lives of ordinary people who had been killed saving the lives of others. Each person has been given a beautiful tiled plaque detailing their heroic action. Some of those remembered are children as young as 10 years old who lost their lives saving others - usually younger brothers or sisters. It's a very peaceful area and I guess unique to London. The nice thing is that the Diocese of London have rediscovered the memorial and added someone to it in 2007 - the first addition in nearly 80 years. Long may it continue.
We'd planned to get a river boat down to Tate Britain in the afternoon but the Bank of England Museum took longer than we expected so there wasn't time. We decided to visit the Clockmaker's Museum in the Guildhall instead as it was close by and my mum loves clocks. The Clockmaker's Museum is certainly one of the 'hidden gems' of London museums. Although it is well signposted it is actually quite hidden away in the corner of the modern building which forms part of the Corporation of London offices. We were the only visitors for a long time. The museum contains the collection of The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. Unsurprisingly this consists of lots and lots of clocks and watches. I had no idea that London had a thriving clockmaking trade from the 17th Century to the 19th Century. The company is still going today but it's members tend to make one off commissioned work. Some of the clocks and particularly the pocket watches on display were absolutely beautiful. The precision work and creative effort that went into making the movement of a tiny watch was quite remarkable. Even the watch keys on display were stunning. It was a very sweet little museum and well worth a visit on a rainy day (but only if you like clocks obviously)
I can't believe that it will be September next week. If I'd still been working at the College enrolment duties would have started last Thursday. Mum's school starts back a week on Monday and then the next thing will be Christmas. Someone in my office found a random decoration which had been left up since last Christmas today so it must be almost time to start putting them up again. There is quite a lot to look forward to in the interim. I'm hoping to go up to Leicester with my parents at half term on another family tree investigation. Then we have a big launch party for work at The House of Lords at the beginning of December. I am ridiculously excited about getting to take a look around. My friend goes fairly often with her job and she says it's amazing.
I've just finished watching a double episode of The Tudors. I hadn't seen it before. It was an interesting interpretation of historical fact. King Henry is ageing remarkably well and it's terribly melodramatic. Despite it's shortcomings it was great for 'oh, isn't that the bloke who was in...' moments. I spotted the chap who played Gary's colleague George in Men Behaving Badly and the chap who played Dan Hunter in Hollyoaks. Also, my brother in law's friend Max Brown was in it and he was credited as 'Guest Starring' at the end rather than just being lumped in with the rest of the cast. He must be on the up (as they say).