Wow, I haven't posted since... Wednesday. I've been busy. I almost didn't go online tonight - I was going to check my e-mails and disconnect - but I thought I ought to write some stuff before I forget everything. :)

On the plus side, I'm feeling better within myself, although I can't vouch for my physical form. :D

What have I done since Wednesday... well, Thursday I identified minerals under the microscope (those thin sections again!), did some Christmas shopping... that sort of stuff. The most entertaining thing that happened on Thursday was that the person who runs the course I'm on (Mark Gillings) was on the TV! Yes, he was on the BBC programme Time Flyers. I didn't know he was going to be on it, so it was an entertaining surprise. Mwahahaha.

The programme was all about a research excavation he'd carried out, trying to find an avenue of stones at Avebury. (Land of stone circles, etc..!) The avenue had been documented by William Stukely, who was rather keen on recording things. Unfortunately, they didn't find the stone avenue. So not only is he sad because he didn't find anything, but his lack of finding anything was televised. Aaah.

What made him being on the TV even more amusing was that he took us on a field trip the next day (Friday). He drove six of us, in a minibus, to York. And he got lost a lot. Honestly, he can't find anything. :p

(I'm being mean.)

I was the only person to see his TV appearance - I think he'd been hoping no-one would see it. And you know what made things even stranger? It was his birthday on Friday. We bought him a weird neolithic man in York, with a crazy beard and a stone raised above his head (in order to crack a walnut in front of him). It was an awful present, but he actually seemed to like it!

He is a nice man, though. He tends to get road rage when he drives us anywhere, but as archaeologists go he's incredibly cool (from a dress sense point of view). I mean, he's cool anyway, but he even looks like he works out. And you only have to look at his trendy glasses to see that he's not a stripey jumper stereotyped sort of guy!

So I was in York. We had a talk from the person who runs the York Archaeological Trust, which was very interesting. Didn't have time for much else. Not by the time we'd had lunch in a pub and found a present for Mark! Heh...

And Saturday was Ali's birthday. I worked out my presentation for Monday (did some overhead projector acetates), and in the evening we all went to the pub and had dinner. To celebrate Ali's big day.

I'm not feeling eloquent, so I doubt I've done justice to what is (unusually) a slightly more exciting few days!

But you get the idea. :)

posted by Fiery Fred @ 10:45 PM