Quiet in the basement

Finally! Today marked the first day back at work since 19 August. The train trip hasn’t changed in the least. In fact the biggest surprise was that the guy who I buy my coffee off remembered me. At work, however, there has been a few changes. Old staff have gone and new staff arrived.

I was filled in by Jess who was shocked I’d been away for so long. It was like a long casualty list. I’d say “Where’s Sophie?” and Jess would answer “She’s gone.” and so on. Actually the list of remaining staff was a lot shorter.

In fact there was only Jess and me in Documentation today. Nick at Work was off somewhere, the really quiet girl who Nick didn’t like has left and Howard was not in for some reason. The Registry had only two people in it. It was very quiet.

Surprisingly I managed to log-in quite easily. Usually, if your password has expired, there’s a long rigmarole contacting IT and getting them to reset it. There must be a new system in place because I logged straight in and just changed my password. A bit of a first for me at the museum.

I had an email from Nick at Work asking me to do some research on a model which took most of the morning and then it was back into the spreadsheet. It was all a bit frustrating trying to find out who made a series of propulsion models which were loaned by a marine engineering firm called Jackson and Watkins in 1861. All very mysterious but, given I didn’t really find that much out about them, too boring to write about.

At lunch I popped over to the V&A to see what’s changed.

The most obvious change is the forest of scaffolding at the new entrance which, I suppose, will be finished next year.

V&A Panno

Once inside, I noted a few different bits and pieces but, basically, it was all as I left it in August. Well, except for the big engineered exhibit that was building itself by robotics. It’s a pity I didn’t see how far it managed to get before they dismantled it – did it dismantle itself, I wonder.

The grass has been roped off because the robots left it a bit muddy. A guard was there, making sure people didn’t invade the plastic taped off area. Meanwhile the remains of the robots work stand, all wrapped and ready for removal.

Inside there’s the usual special exhibitions (Undressed is still on, Say You Want a Revolution is on and there’s one on religious embroidery called Opus Anglicanum) which need to be booked and paid for before entering and also one on very old Selfies. Called The Camera Exposed, it features some extraordinary images from as early as 1853. The Selfie bit refers to the camera rather than the human subject.

Being free and almost empty, I had a delightful wander around looking at the images.

After a very satisfying day at work I headed for home, noting as I walked to South Ken Tube that the ice rink has been opened at the Natural History Museum. This always says Christmas to me.

My knee held up very well. It was a great day.