After a long absence

I've been thinking of doing a blog on this or that for ages... like most things my muscles are out of condition... so I'll dip my toe back in by merely saying, BBC you can stop messing with your website now.

Things I learnt this week

This week I have been at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds. Amongst the things I have learnt are:

1. There is no limit to the number of times the project team I currently work with are prepared to eat dinner at the local chippy
2. The brick gatehouse at Herstmonceaux castle cost about £4,500 to build
3. There is no limit to the amount of alcohol which the project team is prepared to consume
4. There was a class of servant called gentleman ushers, and you can find out about them in the Earl of Northumberland's second household book (or you can when Chris Woolgar has done editing it)
5. There is no limit to how late members of the project team will stay up attending to item 3
6. The Cistercians at Melrose abbey probably kept records of miracle stories, in much the same way that we know monasteries kept financial records
7. Its nice to be part of a friendly project team (and you can see the shiny websites here POMS and BOB)

Things I do and don't like

I do like top tips and local knowledge e.g. go to the Post Office for a passport renewal form and be told to really not wear my glasses in the new photos and that the Boots machine is doing really good photos at the moment. I don't like nursery bugs, e.g. the one currently doing the rounds of the house.