We took Kristan out to lunch to say 'goodbye' as she has a full-time teaching job for the next two terms covering a maternity leave; it is near to where her boyfriend lives and works and there is a reasonable chance that she may stay at that school: she's a nice lass and we will miss her. Apart from lunch when my day was just boring and very tiring in an overheated room with no natural light, making lists of all the things we have in each of the workshops we do in the museum, while other colleagues were undertaking the same pointless exercise at Normanby. We actually keep 'them in the office' very much up to date with what needs replacing, cleaning, updating etc. and are usually told that there is no money, but it is on the list. Nothing was missing, except what we knew about already.

Kristan and I did sneak an opportunity to join Dianne where she is 'enabling' (in costume as a Roman lady)in the temporary Roman exhibition which is fantastic and we played with everything. We built an arch, sat on a Roman loo, ground corn, I made a mosaic, and Kristan made a bracelet, and we both knocked down a small wall shooting at it with a ballista. We could have dressed up, but we do that most days at work, and we did have to get back to our lists. Some families have already visited and have commented favourably - including a quite severely disabled teenager and a pair of tots who were all kept amused for a long time to the relief of carers who in the first week of their school holidays were already at the ends of their respective tethers. The serious and mainly retired friends of the museum who had been in to attend a lunchtime lecture - some accompanied by visiting grandchildren - also enjoyed a good play. So well worth a visit whatever your age.

I took some photos of the new improved laundry education room yesterday.
LaundryLaundry (1)Laundry (2)Laundry (3)
It's not quite finished as there are proper picture boards to go up instead of the temporary photos.