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)