Melinda Haunton
@melindahaunton
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archivist-historian-archivesaccreditn advocate--art and language lover-random cook-anxious yogi-ghastly traveller. Also available on bluer skies.
London
Joined June 2009
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Pinned Tweet
Confused about
#JacobinDay
? It's a daily photo challenge based on the short-lived French republican calendar, which dedicated its days to animals, tools and especially plants. Creative fills welcome, as are new contributors. More here:
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I've been greatly enjoying Once Upon a Tome (Oliver
@Sotherans
, obvs), but I think p208 "Hell hath no fury, they say, like a man treated the same way he treats women" is a line worth the book price alone. I won't spoil further, too glorious. But, that.
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No surprises in my teen bedroom now collapsing under piles of stuff to be junked/sold. The lack of overhead light is making it more sinister than usual. Not just in here... If there are any functioning bulbs in the house I'm spending tomorrow up a ladder.
#duvetKnowItsChristmas
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Excited to announce I'm one of three new
@RL_UK
@UkNatArchives
Professional Fellows 2018-19, taking time alongside my day job to investigate a research question. In my case 'Collections, audiences and impact: lessons from public history', working with
@UoYBorthwick
@IPUPYORK
.
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Thank god for season 7. Or I would be SCREAMING AT THE TELLY about now. (V worried about Josephine in borrowed trainers long term. This could break her spirit.)
#spiral
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Every librarian and archivist on here quivering in sympathy. The *stress*.
My mate Christopher has just had a cameo role in the coronation carrying the St Augustine Gospels from the Parker Library.
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I am so tired of reading about impact that doesn't recognise enjoyment as a good. Not everything is educational or prestigious. Sometimes it is fun, and fun can be enough. Fun can be damned hard to achieve, and leave lasting ripples of joy when it really does work.
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Guys? I found an actual use for Nectar points. You can send them to Oxfam for famine relief:
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Morning world. Happy international archives day! And greetings to archivists of all nations. For we are legion, hardworking, committed to our complex mission on behalf of the peoples of the world, and sometimes quite tired and in need of a cup of tea.
#IAD18
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Thing I'm loving about
@yogawithadriene
's
#yogatruth
series? The refrain, "Take up space."
I am so apologetic about taking space. So longing to shrink (in all kinds of ways). It's so good to hear someone fighting back.
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GDPR email deluge now full of pseudo cool ones apologising for being tedious.
You know what would be less tedious? If you'd used an opt-in in the first place OR read the regulation enough to know you don't need to badger us because you did it right first time.
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@deathbybadger
I am currently in Hamburg and have been eschewing things called Krabbebrotchen because I didn't feel like eating crab. Turns out Krabben here are in fact grey shrimps. (Just in case you need a return fact/area for future research in this conversation.)
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COULD PEOPLE STOP RTING THE GDPR/SANTA GAG THAT INCORRECTLY CITES ARTICLE 4 AS THE BIT SANTA IS IN BREACH OF, because that's just the definitions article and I wish I could laugh along without knowing that but NO. (The problem starts at Article 6, I reckon.)
#SantaData
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Possibly the most sensible sentence I have read since February.
In response to 2020, my sister has moved to a tiny fishing village in northernmost Norway, taking morning walks with her cat
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Oh okay, I will RT this one. Thanks everyone :-)
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Deep breath. I really don't want to post this, but we have had some very sad news in the
#ConfinedKitchen
. I'm afraid
@greensideknits
died at home earlier this week.
I've written a little bit about Liz and how she made the whole thing possible here:
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It's exactly a month since I came home from the office to a solitary home, knowing I wouldn't go back for weeks. I was *terrified* I'd go mad.
Loads of things have helped, work, friends, family, general national efforts at good things. And you lot. Have helped a lot. Thanks xx
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It's Christmas Eve. I want to thank you all for being here this horrible year, for being silly and fascinating and supportive and slightly drunk. I hope your various (un)Christmases go well or at least provide memorable stories for future laughter. I am lucky to know you.
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Evening all. Three years and a smidge ago, I really needed a drink and some company. And here you were. It was much appreciated then, and remains a very cheerful Saturday tradition. Cheers all
#ConfinedCocktails
(mine's a Rainbow Sour with no egg)
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Oh, but I have had a *very* nice update from CAIS, that I was nominated for a teaching award. It's *so* hard to know if you're doing the right thing in teaching distance learning, but this is student-led so I guess...something right? Deeply pleasing.
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I think it's been an exceptionally rough week, you know? Not just me, everyone.
If you're not running screaming down the street tonight, I think you're doing okay.
If you *are* running screaming down the street, I think all of us are with you in spirit.
Hugs all round.
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Woop, I have a vaccination appointment. Next week and (obvs) at the football stadium but I will take that.
Now I can get back to fretting about the return to normal life, knowing that another step is being taken.
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#UnconfinedWalks
today was usual parental shopping trip, spiced up by it being 50 years since they were married. Anniversary photo shoot was chaos. Happy golden wedding, folks.
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Well, hurrah! Massive, massive hurrah. (I may have been watching the auction live and pretending it was work. It sort of is work...)
Breaking news! We did it: Charlotte’s
#LittleBook
is coming home! Massive thank you to everyone, esp National Heritage Memorial Fund, our amazing staff and most of all, YOU. We couldn’t have done it without you. More soon…
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Ahem, announcement. Many things are not great at the moment, but we can come together and do things a little differently. Some of you were interested in a cooking club - that
@greensideknits
has made it happen. It's the
#ConfinedKitchen
, and it's here:
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If you're missing
@greensideknits
, you may want to join in commemorating her with this fundraiser set up by her brother. It's good to read about Liz even if you aren't able to give:
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Ach. The first thing in the morning call is never going to be happy news, is it.
Vale, Richard Justin Haunton (1943-2024).
Will raise a glass later. He was very much the jolly uncle who found feeding teenagers weird drinks at Christmas a joy, so let's go with it.
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I'm in my own ex-room, which I'm used to but can see could look in some way disorganised. In shot, inter alia, nightlight from my early childhood, photo of my grandad (d1954), random pewter, second supporting sewing box, mum's lecture notes from the 90s...
#DuvetKnowItsChristmas
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Am tweeting nervously post-vaccine in the 15 mins to see if you drop dead bit. Turns out my anxiety responseto prolonged queueing hasn't gone away after 14 months without doing it. Bah. But yay, vaccine!
Moderna, thankyewverymuch. I feel so new and stylish!
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Have just won directorate Christmas quiz by one point. I like to think it was my ability to recognise a still from the Geographers' Guild's pneumatic archive production system in Paddington 1. It's a specialist art.
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We're coming up to clocks change and the best advice I can give you is, if you have a work calendar in your control, stick a daily hour's daylight in it for getting outside. It won't always work, and some days 60 mins of damp stomping isn't enticing. But it will help with winter.
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Many congratulations to
@royalsociety
who received their
#archivesaccreditn
award today at a packed staff meeting. So delighted to present the award to the first accredited archive service in a learned society.
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Oh man. Not the absolute worst typo you might put into a report but I am so glad I caught it before sending out "the service has a dull collection care policy". Full. FULL!!
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Today has been a good example of why I still hope twitter can be saved. Lovely supportive responses. Me burbling about visits. Someone's museum visit joy being conveyed back to the people who made it possible. You can only do that on a site with loads of people on it.
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Work in UK archives? Need to improve digital preservation skills/confidence? Have 2 hours to spend with new online training and feedback this Feb? We need testers for new
#digpresN2N
resources (). (We are *not* looking for experts!)
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Well, basically everything in my life (not work) is falling apart and I keep randomly crying. BUT I managed to file our company annual return in time to avoid a fine so hooray. One up on last year.
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Happy New Year all. Let it be better. And if that's over-ambitious, let's keep on with the mutual support/propping/cocktails as required.
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I'm walking
#DistanceDrift
today with one of my many Julnisse or Tomte: Scandi house elves. It's a risk, she's used to being indoors and one of a gang. And walking conditions are not so conducive.
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Right. Out of office is on, laptop is off, desk is covered, Christmas leaves are out and the computer socket has reverted to its destiny powering More Fairy Lights.
I am on leave.
#ConfinedChristmas
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Refused to put my tea down for photography. Iconic.
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Morning world. I...am really struggling for optimism today. Indeed, I'm actually frightened of what comes next. Lacking in trust in the right thing being the priority, and no this isn't just one news story. It's so many things.
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Archivists locking up. We know things endure. We work with them every day. Courage.
@melindahaunton
Before I left I went into the strongrooms for one last time, and it occurred to me that those records were there way before all this started (centuries before in many cases) and will still be there long after this all blows over, and it felt comforting to have that stability.
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So sick of "Christmas is over" messaging. Let us just have some lights, greenery and chocolate for another few days while half of us are still off work. Epiphany or bust.
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Oh my god! Looook what was waiting for me at home!
I am smiling so hard right now. I can't believe you did this, everyone. It looks so good and I'm incredibly touched. Thank you thank you
#ConfinedKitchen
folk!
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If this ends with Edelman and Karlsson raising an orphanage of smuggled kids, it'll be a betrayal of about 95% of their character development and I will be delighted.
#Spiral
-the-Christmas-movie.
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Come to think, I do have a cat. My mum, known by my dad as Kat, modelling for my 2020-21 series My Parents on their Doorstep Upon Receiving Deliveries During The Pandemic (January 21, 0 degrees C)
#JacobinDay
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Whooo. Just did
@yogawithadriene
's 7 minute bedtime yoga. On my fifth different hotel night in ten days and I'm so relaxed I could justtt...zzzz...
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So glad to be able to go public with these well-deserved awards (you have been very patient!)
We are pleased to announce that Archive Service Accreditation has been awarded to
@PalaceGreenLib
,
@ExploreWellcome
,
@NAM_London
, Search Engine
@railwaymuseum
, and The Nuclear and Caithness Archives. Congratulations all! (1/2)
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I suspect many people have been wearing something of
@greensideknits
making today. Mine is this beauty, from a joyful crafting workshop. A good one for remembering.
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One of the side glories of
#DuvetKnowItsChristmas
is the ecology of bedding and towels. People carrying duvets across the country, hoarded old kids' bedcovers, the ancient and colourful towels emerging (does anyone have to bring their own towel? It feels like not.)
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I have been for a proper walk. With hills. Down (two) streets I have not been before. To the common. To the church. I feel hot and better.
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This is *fascinating*. (If inevitably grim.)
THREAD 👇Thomas Holmes—the “Father of Modern Embalming”—had an unusual way of advertising his services during the American Civil War. In shop windows, he displayed the preserved bodies of unknown soldiers, which he collected from battlefields.
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Well, I guess I'm on holiday.
Strange times. Strange month. I'm not in the greatest shape tbh but a few days not in cold London listening to (yes) downstairs builders seems welcome. Wish me travel luck early tomorrow.
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My mum got hers yesterday. This is mildly amazing after such a year of worrying. Would be nice if they'd sort dad too, but otherwise all good.
(She reports a faintly sore arm if she really waggles it about.)
I feel very lucky to have had the vaccine. I would have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone.
2K
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The large bottle of Baileys in my fridge is unbalancing the door and stopping it swinging nicely shut. So I am forced to do my best to reduce the liquid volume and even things up a bit.
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I have logged out, and I am on holiday for the rest of the week.
Huurrah!
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Afternoon has been just
#UnconfinedWalks
. Happy to report Paris is still here. Visited my favourite not secret corner, the Hotel de Sens, and the fig tree is just starting to leaf. (Also HEMA still stocks the good cheap earphones.)
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You'll need to power past the dire first para, but it's worth it to get to a really excellent story on the power and value of a rich mix of people engaging with archives
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Evening all. An exceptionally well furbished
#ConfinedCocktails
tonight and I toast you in Official Luebeck Sekt. (Absolutely blew out the candle immediately after this pic, total paranoia re flames in old housesq. But is pretty.)
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My birthdays in recent years have been pretty quiet, and obvs this year would be too...
Wait. I'm sitting in a glorious chaos of presents, from socks to cocktails to seeds to scent, to tablet, chocolate and emergency cake and books.
You lot are wonderful.
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Whee! Have been selected to join the AHRC Peer Review College. Very pleased - thanks to everyone
@UkNatArchives
who supported this.
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It's fair to say I've had better working days (the two hour 8am meeting is fascinating and needed because time zones, but it's quite the start). But my dad spent the last 12 months without cancer, and has a printout to confirm it, so there is perspective available.
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You may have noticed I snuck in a reference to my weekly flowers earlier. I honestly though I'd have a couple of
@fredds_flowers
and then give up but they have become my lockdown sanity saver. Weekly Friday doorstep joy for my new indoor existence. Looook at this colour array!
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I have been out. For a drink. With my bestie. Who I haven't seen since last August. And before that, roughly this time 2020.
Friends are great.
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Hugely pleased and proud to announce another 18 awards of
#archivesaccreditn
, which brings us to over 100 awards:
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I've left Kew for the foreseeable future and am genuinely scared when we try to come back we'll find the geese are the masters now. The Egyptian pair are already perching on the pillars, proprietorially.
@UniofReading
thank you lovely Uni. we send our love and support in these uncertain and stressful times to you, all staff, students, and assorted wildlife. we've never felt more eager about being harangued by Whiteknights' geese
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Well, here we are
#ARA2021
... I've got my pre-session cuppa and I think I've bagged a good seat near a power socket. Anyone I know in here? Anyone want to say hi? Anyone going to greet me warmly while I squint desperately for a name badge as I'm terrible at faces?
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Just checking: lockdown no-weeknight-booze rules are suspended for
#ConfinedChristmas
, yes? I realise it's technically Tuesday, but emotionally I'm about ready for Friday night.
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Old Vic Christmas Carol because the true meaning of Christmas is incoherent sobbing at a story you know every word of followed by blindly doing tappy pay on whatever charity thing is put in front of you.
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Look, I know it's Wednesday but what with one thing and another I am opening some wine.
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But what I am really, really, really missing is even the faintest possibility of someone else doing the bastard washing up for once.
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I had a very nice cake in
#KaDeWe
last time I was there. No one was murdered. No one got felt up in the fitting rooms either. Sometimes I think I'm not making the most of my holidays.
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I'm sorry and I promise not to do this often but I have no other outlet to crow about this. I am mainly a 5/6 plodding wordler, with a few 6/6 scares.
Wordle 210 2/6
⬛🟩🟨🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
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If you ever need an example of why not all digital material needs permanent preservation...
Recently, we found a 3.5" floppy at my library, in a drawer at the Reference Desk.
On it were the lyrics to "Ice Ice Baby."
That's it.
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Many of you are well ahead of me but I declare NYE
#ConfinedCocktails
open if you wondered. Sherry champagne cocktail here for starters, with double cherries. I have opened a bottle of fizz and do not intend to keep it till tomorrow.
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Good message at work from senior management includes advice to be "proactively considerate" - everyone's situation is currently different in ways you can't always imagine or understand. I like this a lot, and not just for colleagues. Imagine life if we all were...
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I am off (gulp) to talk to the extremely eminent Culture is Digital taskforce, about my
@RL_UK
@UkNatArcRes
fellowship research, and specifically the schematic on impact of public history by archives and
#speccolls
. Really glad to be asked to raise it in this forum.
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Ooh just remembered. It's exactly 20 years since the organisation I work for came into existence. I remember it well.
Happy birthday
@UkNatArchives
. Neither of us has aged a bit.
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Incredibly pleased to be watching the
@UKNatArcSector
@HeritageFundUK
event just at present - announcing a £5m NLHF grant to support Archives Revealed, alongside longterm partners the Pilgrim Trust and Wolfson Foundation. This is transformational, for a core archives access need.
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Arrived 48 hours ago. I've cooked 6 meals since (breakfasts don't count, am laying them up for later), have washed up most of it. Family papers reviewed. Still haven't fixed a couple of lightbulbs. Peace on earth, goodwill etc etc but I'm bloody knackered.
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So. Much respect to great-granny, in a way. And I am glad finally to know where Pat fitted in the births. She was the second to die. In her ordinary English family... that's stuffed with tragedy, like any other.
Pasts matter.
Thanks for reading, if you did. (24/24)
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It's so interesting hearing Bishopsgate discussed as a major LGBT+ collecting institution - which it clearly is. But I feel like we've seen that develop in the last 15 years of proactive collecting: a real institutional transformation
#ARA2021
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Archive boxes are the best. Not entirely earthquake-proof, but very helpful all the same. So glad damage is contained and manageable here.
#loveyourboxes
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I am INIMITABLE, folks. Inimitable.
Slightly freaked out by this accolade, on reflection. (Is it an accolade?)
But I am indeed speaking at RMIG event next Friday. See (some of) you there, I hope :-)
We will be welcoming the inimitable Melinda Haunton
@melindahaunton
from
@UkNatArchives
to speak at our event.
Melinda will be speaking about Planning and Performance Management. Fitting with our event theme of Management and Leadership Skills in Recordkeeping!
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Reopening is giving me heebyjeebies. I am *not* ready to do in-person classes. I am *not* ready to eat with others indoors or use the tube. Or go to the theatre if/when it's allowed. So... what the hell will I do when online offers are removed? Sit alone indoors?
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My own
#JacobinDay
clay: 2 survivors of 4 original pieces commissioned by my grandmother from a local potter because I was so sad I could never have crocks with my weird name on. Also Japanese bowl from a flatmate. Beloved items.
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Does anyone else get really paranoid they're going to vote in the wrong box? Even though it's so simple? I often do.
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Have made it to work. Slightly dressed up Friday is a go (still wish I could find that scarlet lippy).
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Do I sound cheerful? I've just had an HMRC letter out of the blue and it *wasn't* bad news about my tax code. Weekly flowers are funded for a bit longer, hurrah.
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Just been part of a pleasing Politeness Ripple on the tube. Pregnant woman gave seat to unsteady older man. Lady gave her a seat. And so on. Most people ended up one chair along but a fit youngish bloke was last man standing. And got off after 2 stops. All good.
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I want to thank everyone on the
#ArchivesAccreditn
Committee today. It's been a hell of a year (fourteen months, mumble) and it's so helpful to have this level of support across the archives sector as we look to find paths to sector support in such a complex situation.
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