I bow to your superior knowledge, I didn't take history either. I decided I couldn't cope with a history teacher who gave me an "A" for an essay on Nelson just because I included a drawing of the "England expects" flags. Now, if in my day, I could've taken archeology I'd have been in there.

 

I really don't want to know about your Sundays... just keep taking the tablets.

What? You did all the message or just the 'England expectorates' bit? That's a lot of flags in the former instance. No wonder you didn't get anywhere with Hysteria as a subject. You're supposed to write words not doodle piccies!

 

Nice try! I'm sure you feed me these gag lines so you can complain that I am always being rude to you. There is such an obvious one arising from "if in my day, I could've taken archaeology" that I shall resist your trap this time. Just.

 

I don't want to know about my Sundays either. They are, ironically, godawful. Yesterday I had to belt out 170 starters in two hours, then go and do the carnagery for 80 bods in just over an hour ..... and then come back and do it all over again at 5.30pm. Day of rest? I think not. Day of worship? Well, judging from the frequently heard words and phrases used in the kitchen we all seemed to be having some sort of religious experience!

All of it.  My point exactly. Though what about your "thesis"? Histry is facinating but not the Notes, Treaties and Wars.  I was always concerned about what was happening to the ordinary every-day people left behind to fend for themselves.

 

Darn it! - you've sussed it.

 

We went to Rutland (Multipla in parvo) yesterday to the British Bird Watching fair.  Lots of gorgeous (and vastly too expensive) hols.  Lots of wonderful (and vastly too expensive optics - no not the pub sort) But a good day was hod and the weather stayed kind until we got home.

 

With my usual immaculate diary co-ordination I've taken a day off today (legit!) and BM has gone to Durham.  My car's in for a service so I'm stuck at home with the iron and a duster. Complaining about the hours/days you work is a bit like me saying I can't stand dealing with people who are disabled -- goes with the terratory.

Good grief, you must have had a big set of crayons. If you mean the Brief Pictorial History Of The Crusades that was actually a seminar presentation. PowerPoint hadn't been invented in those days. Unfortunately ordinary history is mostly very boring. The very definition of ordinariness means that nothing much of significance actually happens. I mean the much cited first instance of preserved 'ordinary' people's history is/are the Paston Letters. But they were hardly Joe Q. Public as they ended up as the Earls of Yarmouth! Also, ordinary people don't tend to be very bright and/or well-informed. I did actually study Oral History as part of my degree and the conclusion, sadly, was that despite the other merits of recording ordinary peeps' recollections of their past as histories they got an alarming number of things wrong. I can give you a classic example of that from another field. When David Putty made Chariots of Fire Eric Liddell's widow was still alive and so he gave her a pre-release viewing to see how she reacted to the fictional portrayal of her hubbie. At the end she said that she thought it was all very good apart from one thing ..... he didn't flap his arms like that when he was running. As Putty said about the one concrete piece of info they had about Liddell was old film of him running ..... flapping his arms exactly like that.

 

Sorry my Latin's a bit rusty. Many live in poverty? Were there any boids at this fair or was it all just human beans. Did they fly in a special display team of rare south american parakeets? Did everyone hide in bushes observing each other's mating rituals? Surprised BM was able to resist the optics (both sorts). And why did you end with a brick-carrying? "But a good day was hod"!

 

Well, there's only so much time you can spend ironing a duster so you might as well open a cask or two to keep you company while you wait for BM to leave old Durham town.

It can be the mis-remembering that can be interesting.

 

I might've got it wrong, mixing the sexes or something - you can't have ..........a followed by ..........o can you?  It might've been multiplum in parvo, or possibly even multiplo in parvo.  Anyway, it means a lot in a little (I think) what with Rutland being a bit dimensionally challenged.  Lots of places in Leics. are something-or-other Parva as opposed to Magna.There's even one or two places hereabouts with those definitions.

 

I think some were being ringed but we didn't see that.  Mostly a lot of peeps shuffling around with their binoculars hanging round their necks, a few who even had their 'scopes with them which made not much sense in the marquees until you got to the optics bit - then there was a lot of comparisonning going on.  The real anoraks also had their pagers beeping and Blue Tooth earpieces. But we did see 3 ospreys wheeling above the A47.  Strange to relate we don't just spy on the mating rituals - there are other things in life you know?

 

The duster is immaculate. And like those of  the future Madame Bovary, the worn corner has been darned! Bit of a problem here. I can't go out at the mo, nothing to do with the weather which is sunny and warm, but am waiting for my car to be brought back.  Then I can go and get a cask.

Interesting but not history. History doesn't have to be boring (as the Time Teams, Simon Schamas, etc have shown) but it does have to be accurate. Anything else is Mills & Boon fodder.

 

I didn't even know that Rutland existed during the Roman occupation. To be honest I just thought it was something that Eric Idle invented. How did they manage to fit BM into the county if it is so small? And what are ospreys doing in Rutshire, I thought it was inland.

 

What! You are trying to tell me that you booked a day off work, got BM out of the house and you hadn't already got in several vats of claret in advance! What sort of planning do you call that?

Its true to me if that is how I remember it.I agree it doesn't have to be boring.  I have a bit of an issue with Time Team (although I do enjoy the progs) The accuracy sometimes seems to have been compromised for speed.  Where is all that thorough, painstaking trowelling?  And how does 1 tessera "prove" that there was a Roman Villa in that field? There are times when oversimplification becomes inaccuracy.

 

Rutland has always existed, it may have benn called other things, but its been there since before the ark. Yes tis inland but has a large area of water - wait for it.........Rutland Water.  How imaginative can you get?

 

Well, I said it was a badly planned day. No wheels,no casks,no fun. The only light relief was the visiting carpenter

I'm sure it is but it's not history. Time Team made me laugh uproariously once when they did a special in America. Talk about putting a nation's history into perspective. The Yanks wouldn't let them dig anything by machine for fear of losing some small piece of something near the surface whereas in Brit they usually just get a JCB and hack through the first 500+ years worth because we've got loads of that. Mind you, while I can actually understand the tessera=villa thing (they just cut out most of the dull logical steps you have to use to prove the theory, so you should approve actually!), it's the 'ah this [completely non-descript] fragmentlet of pottery is from a second century drinking chalice made for a left-handed blind man with a broken leg' that mystifies me!

 

But is it/was it full of Ruts? Were they an ancient British tribe or was the place just heavily ploughed?

 

An itinerant carpenter, eh? What did he do, just knock on your door and ask if there was any joinery you wanted doing? I suppose he could have knocked you up some casks. Then you could have sent him to the vineyards to get something to fill them with.

I know what a rut is, but what or who is a Rut?

 

There's nowt itinerant about m'carpenter and he's not a cooper.

Well, I assumed that it must have been an original inhabitant. Y'know, like the Cornese live in Cornwall, the Bretons in Brittany, therefore the Ruts in Rutland. (They were also a fairly obscure punk/new wave band of the late 70s/early 80s. As opposed to the Rutles who were, of course, the legendary Prefab Four). The least you could do when you travel abroad is find out a little about the place you're pillaging.

 

Couldn't you persuade him to make you some small barrels and then he could be a mini cooper!