Clever clogs

Grace Hopper turned 107 today. At least, she would have done if she hadn’t died in 1992. She was an amazing woman who was not only a Rear Admiral in the US Navy but also helped create the COBOL computer programming language.

Here she is on the Letterman show. She is very funny and very, very smart.

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I was sitting on the train tonight, returning from Waterloo, when a bit of raucous singing reached my ears. It was coming from the first class carriage, which was a bit unusual. The noise would increase whenever someone walked through, opening the doors as they went. In the normal carriages, we may get serenaded by happy or sad football fans, bawling out supporter songs but these were drunken renditions of badly remembered Christmas songs…with the occasional Michael Jackson cover, thrown in for good measure.

I was on the train, returning from the annual Science Museum volunteer awards evening, following a short stint in the library, doing a bit more research into Thames Ironworks.

Last year, the awards night was great fun and it was better this year because people now know me. I’m a bit of an ‘old boy’ these days which means I’m recognised by staff and, basically chat knowledgeably with the newer volunteers.

As soon as I arrived, I was cornered by, the incredibly cool, Edouard. He works on shipping with me though on a different day. I just love hearing his stories of being a submariner and oil rig installer. He has some seriously cool stories and I told him so. Being a very nice man, he told me that everyone has done cool things. I replied that that might be so, however, not as cool as him.

Nick (at work) had nominated us in as many categories as he could. I was nominated in the Always Eager to Learn Something New Award. However, following last year’s triumph, we didn’t win anything. Still, that didn’t matter one jot. It’s all about encouraging the newer volunteers and I hope we did that.

I spent a bit of time with Howard, a new volunteer in documentation. He’s scanning images into MIMSY. A very boring job which I did for while under Kevin, back when I worked two days. Anyway, Howard seems a lovely man, so I gave him the benefit of my years of experience and helped him with the quiz. He’s only been with us for two weeks so I hope I haven’t put him off.

It all lasted just over two hours and I was back on various trains going home. Arriving at Farnham, I realised that the group who’d been serenading us for the entire trip, was a bunch of chaps in suits who’d obviously been out for a work Christmas do. They were clearly a happy bunch, generously expressed by singing along the platform, heading towards the closest pub.

Mirinda would not have been impressed. It’s the sort of behaviour that’s usually frowned upon in first class.