you sound like your from laaaannnndaaaaaannnn

Today i went to London. Primarily to find my archive for the achive module at the national archives in kew. fastforward about 3 of the most frustrating hours of my life battling with micro films, security guards, catalogues and cabinets i was relieved to leave that stage of our project behind me. the national archives, awful, awful place.

Me and my long suffering mother, often at my side through my hairbrained heritage adventures, decided to not waste the day and visit somewhere actually inspiring and historically uplifting. unfortuneatly most of these places were shut and so we went to Dr Johnsons house instead.

camera and 2 4 1 to london attractions in tow, we made our way to temple, and begun the horrendous walk to areas unknown,

dear south west trains, when giving the address of your attractions, please, SPECIFY.

almost an hour later, around 4pm (the house shuts at 5) we eventually found it, and breathed a sigh of relief, we may even make the shops before they shut! we entered the house and were greeted by a very friendly front of house volunteer, paid our £2.25 (really..not worth it) and were told to leave our bags and coats (why i dont know as the house only has a few paintings and chairs and neither were particularly nice). The house has 4 floors of Dr Johnsons london home, birthplace of the english dictionary, one may walk around at leisure, taking in his few wooden chairs, and gloomy portraits of himself, and a couple of his friends, and his slave. wonderful. needless to say, we were finished with the house by 4.10pm.

i departed the house with just two exciting pieces of knowledge,
1. Dr Johnson was friends with David Garrick, the famous actor of the time, to which i responded 'Ooooooooh, like the Garricks head in Bath?'

2. Dr Johnsons next door neighbour was kitty fisher, the famous courtesan from the old nursery rhyme;

'lucy locket lost her pocket, kitty fisher found it'.
(lucy locket was also a real person, a sleazy barmaid).

so to those interested in going to visit this place of historical interest, by all means, dont let me put you off, but please..dont pay full price, you may be disappointed, i turned to dear old ma and said 'well, at least we can say we've been'. but unfortunaetly, i dont think i'll make that mistake again.

Home i came, to watch dear old Jack the Ripper, how they're expecting to ever call that a closed case i will never know, however entertaining, i enjoyed the dramatic reconstructions and the chosen thespians to recreate these ginned up working girls of days gone by was marvellous, especially when they were filmed against a still shot of some computer generated crack alley. simply marvellous.

Tomorrow i start my archive presentation, i doubt i'll sleep tonight from the excitement.

F.A.B

post christmas...post.

This is my first entry in quite a while, i hope you all had wonderful christmasses and over indulged..as thats what its all about!

This time of year may be a little lacking in terms of heritagey places to visit, the national trust have closed their doors and covered the furniture in dust cloths in order to do the conservation they need ready for the new season, out of interest i visited their websites and was pleased to see both sites were promoting the outdoors as an alternative time spender, for those seeking the active and keep fit dreams of the new year, let us not forget the thousands of acres the NT keep so lovely and clean for us, me on the other hand, i think i'll stay in with the left over xmas chocs and eastenders, and visit these lovely places on the tv through upstairs downstairs and my splendid period dramas. It is usually a treat for stately homes to open their doors at christmas time, to show us a different scene of upper class living from days gone by during the festive season. i remember a couple of years back visiting Uppark, (a country house near me) that opened its doors at christmas to show the preparations for this busy time in the servants quarters, i think ideas like that are a really good way of keeping the visitor numbers flowing, parents still need things to do with their kids over the xmas break, volunteers still need work and its a great way of giving these lovely houses a seasonal facelift. Bring on march and the start of the new stately season! (especially when you have a years membership and its only technically usable from march-nov).


over and out, F.A.B!

vintage revival

from watching television lately i have joyfully observed how fantastic the craze of the vintage style has swung back into our adverts. From finally catcing up on my 'at home with the georgians' to watching atonement for the gazillionth time (but only upto the wartime part as it all gets a bit macabre from there), i was hit through the ad break by an avalanche of vintage style commercialism, and loved it! almost every perfume ad at the moment is seen through a smeared, black and white vision of seductive 1930s glamourous stars, the likes of which to compare to greta garbo and bette davis with their plump red smiles, silk dresses and pressed curls. I think its a shame young girls modern themselves on the plastic and garish stars of the moment such as Katie Price, and i do wish this sort of 'vintage glamour' was more affordable and accessible to more people, instead of used by the likes of chanel and designer labels. There almost seems to be an elegant of class to vintage that is out of reach unless done to perfection. Goodwoods vintage fair, for a weekend ticket can cost upto £100, although a must do and a lot of fun, it can seem tacky and mismatched, when picking vintage fashions from second hand shops, even the more upmarket vintage shops it can just seem like your dressing from a 1970s curtain shop. Yet the vintage craze it something that we seem to have adopted for the past few years,stars such as scarlett johanson and keira Knightley seem to perfect the look, and many spend their lives and incomes trying to perfect it, with the interior, cars and lifestlye. But our fascination with the days gone by must have a limit? if our focus is held on the past, and constantly trying to remodel and design our current lives on reciprocating that image, how will the future generations model themselves on us? When looking over video footage of what has come out of the bbc, the future historians will find a tomb filled with history re-enactments, programmes that fossilize the past. period drama's, documentaries, murder mysteries, what will we have to show for OUR lifestyle..big brother? im a celebrity? the thought that these shows will be shown to our future ancestors in schools across the nation, or through live internet feeds or whatever the technology may be sends shudders down my spine, where is the glamour of today? and how can we reclaim it without copying history and make it our own identity?


over and out. F.A.B

Robert OH MY Opie

just a shout out to my heritage hero...the museum of brand and packagings own Robert Opie, he was on Turn Back Time the High Street : 1930s episode, fantastic man! doesn't get enough credit...so here is my ode to opie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UubEWv5kUvU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UubEWv5kUvU

One to watch..

Just a blog to say...

I am absolutely loving alot of the tv shows at the moment that are heritage orientated..In particular i just watched today the first episode of 'At home with the Georgians'...I especially enjoyed seeing them feature Jane Austens house and Chawton Manor thats just up the road, as these are places i frequent as much as possible whenever im home as i live fairly locally...however i couldn't help feeling dismayed they didn't show more of Jane Austens cottage. They recently renovated parts of the house that have never before been seen by the public, such as the kitchens and got a fantastic new gift shop and education centre. Where would we be without the HLF eh? I felt especially peeved as such ventures as Jane Austens house really rely on all the publicity they can get, being a small business ran organisation who rely so heavily on admissions and charity, they need all the help they can get!

I have an evil plan to stand outside the Jane Austen centre in Bath and divert all the innocent (and somewhat ignorant) tourist and austen-fans to her lovely little cottage and yell 'SHE DIDN'T EVEN LIVE HERE...SHE DIDN'T EVEN LIKE BATH!'.
(not out of spite, it just irritates me how easy it is for them to recieve visitors due to location when better places struggle so)

over.and.out. FAB.

Heritageness

And so its come to this..the dusty leatherbound books are being removed from the rich mahogony and green felt cabinets and transported into heritechnology!
and why not? for history is not about the past, but the future!
In my lovely blog of blogpages i hope to address the important and the nonsensical whims that delight and excite me in my everyday heritagey life. As well as most likely rant about such factors that dont so much.
stay tuned!