SpaCeMonKeY UK

Saturday, February 28

I'm all better now. After blogging about being ill, I became much iller on Sunday morning. I actually took Monday off work. It was bad. But now I am better.

I keep meaning to blog about a couple of things, namely archaeological discoveries at my family home of Southend on Sea. My family insist on sending me millions of newspaper cuttings, and saying things like, "Why did you move away to be an archaeologist?", which is slightly annoying. Still, it's amazing what discoveries have been made around there lately.

The number one archaeological find has to be the discovery of a Saxon King. He's been called several things - the King of Southend seems popular, although for alliterative purposes I prefer the Prince of Prittlewell. :)

This Saxon bloke, whoever he was, was buried with loads of loot. And not only that, everything was in great condition and in the same place as it was buried over a thousand years ago. Pretty amazing, eh? The only thing missing is the body, which presumably dissolved. Still...

The Museum of London has lots of things on its site about the treasure, so you could check it out. Stuff was found there when they ran the railway through 80 years or so ago, so it wasn't a complete surprise, but it rivals Sutton Hoo, which is... pretty amazing. ;)

The other thing is that they reckon they've found Darwin's ship, The Beagle, in the marshes off the Essex coast. Here's a fairly randomly chosen article about it. It's an interesting tale... I have to admit I didn't know much about the history of the ship.

So that's a round-up of archaeology around the Southend area. :)

Bye!

I have been mostly.... READING: replicant night (kw jeter); edge magazine / WATCHING: stargate (sky 1); neighbours (bbc 1); angel (sky 1); jake 2.0 (sky 1); jonathan creek (bbc 1); friends (c4) / PLAYING: everquest / LISTENING: kish kash (basement jaxx)

Saturday, February 21

I'm really sorry I haven't posted sooner. I don't know where all my time goes. I'm not dead, although I feel quite like one of the undead this morning. Although admittedly I don't know what undead beings feel like. I should imagine they feel like someone who has a bad cold, which is what I seem to have.

I always used to be fairly okay during the week, when I had to work, then be iller at weekends. I don't know why that is. It's good from a 'not having to miss work' point of view, but slightly irritating from a 'doing things at the weekend' point of view. Ah well.

The job's going okay, anyway. :)

I can't think of much to say. Rob's been in Scotland most of the week, so I've been playing Everquest a bit and sleeping more than usual. I have a barbarian beastlord called Ixantria. She's level 19 now. I think. It's quite fun. Bashing stuff can get a bit repetitive though.

Hmm... I'm looking forward to getting some pay, I figure I'll be able to buy a couple of CD's or DVD's or something that I've wanted for a while. That'll be nice.

I keep meaning to do some web stuff, too. I made a portal... nearly finished it, anyway. And bought a new domain name. I keep meaning to get my FTP details from the PC upstairs so I can FTP with my laptop Brian, but I never get around to it. I remembered today but I didn't have a mouse upstairs, so it would have been difficult. Ah well.

Amigas didn't need mice, they were great. *sigh*

I ought to update a few of my old sites too. I've been neglecting them lately. Other things to do now, other than hang around online. Who'd have thought? :)

Well, I'll be off then.

Oh, nearly forgot, I finally had a Valentine's Day where I had a boyfriend! And not only that, but a husband to be. He bought me a card and cooked me a lovely dinner. And was as lovely as always. *sigh*

I have been mostly.... READING: magician (raymond e. feist); replicant night (kw jeter); edge magazine / WATCHING: stargate (sky 1); neighbours (bbc 1); angel (sky 1); jake 2.0 (sky 1); jonathan creek (bbc 1); friends (c4) / PLAYING: everquest / LISTENING: big band small world 3 (jools holland); kish kash (basement jaxx)

Tuesday, February 10

Time to blog, I think. If I thought I had no time before, not being at home from 7.30am until about 5.45pm hasn't improved things! Ah well. At least I have a job. And some money, eventually. For a couple of months at least.

My bank sent me a letter today asking if I was okay. I hadn't paid any money in since November and I'm £103.93 overdrawn. Which isn't a lot, considering I have a £2000 interest free overdraft. Odd.

But in a few weeks I'll have money to pay in. I'll move some from somewhere else or something to placate the bankers. :)

Anyway, you probably want to know what I do at work. What exactly does an Assistant Planning Archaeologist do?

All the council authorities in Leicestershire have an obligation to get advice on planning applications. They send lists of all the applications to us, and we go through them. We mark the ones that look like they might be interesting (listed buildings or in historic areas) and get them to send the detailed plans. When we have those, we work out exactly what the archaeological potential is and advise a suitable scale of work.

Sometimes we might advise a desk-based assessment (documentary research on the site), to get more information before the planning decision's reached. On rarer occasions we might ask for an Evaluation, with a few trenches put in to see what's there. Sometimes we say it's fine for them to approve the application as long as they have an archaeologist doing a 'watching brief' when they do groundworks, or record a historic building. Anyway, the councils don't have to listen to us, but that's what we do.

If it was the sort of work that's investigative, to see what the site's potential is, we have to read the reports and get more involved, because further work might be needed. It's quite interesting, although going through planning lists isn't that fun. Still, not a bad job. Bit scary when you don't really know anything, but I'm glad it came along. :)

I'd best be off then. At least now you know I'm not dead.

Maybe someone could tell my bank manager that. ;)

I have been mostly.... READING: magician (raymond e. feist) / WATCHING: stargate (sky 1); neighbours (bbc 1); angel (sky 1) / PLAYING: everquest / LISTENING: major earth minor sky (a-ha)

Monday, February 2

I kept meaning to blog because... I have a job! It's only until April, probably, but at the moment I'm the Assistant Planning Archaeologist for the county of Leicestershire. Ooer. I'm sure what I do can hardly deserve such an impressive title.

I will blog more about this later. ;)

I keep thinking I've forgotten something.

Hmm.

I have been mostly.... READING: magician (raymond e. feist); edge magazine / WATCHING: stargate (sky 1); neighbours (bbc 1); angel (sky 1) / PLAYING: everquest