So I did it again! Months have gone by with no updates. Sorry!

I'm not sure what I want to do with this blog now. Do I keep it as a general, this is my life type blog? Or do I turn it into a record of the objects I work on at university?

Since my last post I've had a busy time. I finished my first year at uni with really good marks. I know they don't count towards the overall degree classification but I'm really proud of myself and am using the feedback I got to aim for the best marks I can overall (first class with honours of course!).

After Christmas we were let loose on real objects which was really exciting (although I'm quite sure the iron chisel I spent hours removing the corrosion from is now back in it's owners shed gaining another layer for future students to remove).

I did get to work on what looks like a rather boring and pretty crap object....

Yes, I know what you're thinking! It's a bit of burnt wood! So what??

Ok, it's actually quite an important piece of burnt wood. It was salvaged from the fire at the Glasgow School of Art a few years ago and was used in the research into the materials and finishes used by one of the companies involved in the huge restoration project that is currently ongoing.

My brief was simply to consolidate the wood so that the pieces didn't fall off and so it could be handled without the black residue transferring onto hands or other surfaces.  It was a simple job but I was really chuffed that I had been trusted with it. I really enjoyed doing it and am really grateful to the lovely guys from Crick Smith conservation for all their help and advice and their generosity with their time and objects.

I had almost five months off over the summer which was lovely but I was desperate to get back to Lincoln by the end of it.

We went to see New Order again, in Manchester, again and also got to see the fantastic New Order exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery while we were there. It goes without saying the band were amazing as usual and it was really good to see them perform their older stuff. They had a synthesiser orchestra from the Royal College of Music and later discovered one of the musicians is the niece of a lad I went to school with. Going to see NO seems to be an annual event now doesn't it??!!

We also rediscovered a mutual love of camping and had several camping trips which was fab. We risked a family camping trip that was a huge success and we're already looking forward to going again next year when the weather warms up again. We managed to miss the big camping show this year but we will be going next year. Coincidentally we're going to be in Birmingham that weekend anyway for a concert but my poor old 17 year old isn't impressed that she's going to spend the day looking at boring tents before she gets to see Imagine Dragons in the evening.

I've been back at uni for three weeks now and already I can see that second year is going to be far more intense and harder work than first year. Already we've been given three objects to work on between now and Christmas and the last couple of weeks have been spent researching the objects and the best way to treat them. I've written my treatment reports ready to hand in this week and hopefully they will be signed off and I can get to work straight away.

I still can't quite believe I'm actually at university achieving my dreams. I love it, even the two hour lectures on things like dust (ok, I will admit, a two hour lecture on stone did almost finish me off) and the only time I missed was when I was really too ill to go in. Anyone who knows me will confirm that I love sleep and being in bed and that I really do not do mornings. So something that gets me out of bed at 6am even on cold, wet, miserable, dark winter mornings when my lovely cosy warm bed is begging me to stay has got to be pretty damn amazing!!

February Update

After my last post things got busy. Very busy!!

In September I started my degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Lincoln and the time has flown by, I can't believe I'm already halfway through my second semester!!

I absolutely love it. I knew I was going to but I didn't realise just how much. It's really interesting and lots of fun - in one class we had to package up an egg stuck to a stone and test the packaging by knocking it off the table, kicking it down the stairs and best of all, dropping it off the roof. So far that class is the best one yet, closely followed by the lecture in which we were shown a New Order video to demonstrate post-modernism.

Because the majority of the course is practical - working on objects and doing scientific testing - I'm travelling to Lincoln four days a week which has been a great opportunity to listen to podcasts on the long drive. We get to do all kinds of different stuff and it's great getting to find out what we like doing and what we don't. So far I've loved gilding but I have discovered I have a huge interest in medieval stained glass so that may be the route I eventually go down.

Our lecturers are experts in their fields so are very knowledgeable and have worked in some amazing places previously like the British Museum, the V&A and top museums around Europe. The lecturer that played the New Order video is an expert on medieval stained glass and has written books on it which I'll have to get out of the library. He co-wrote them with one of the country's leading experts on the subject who just happens to work at Lincoln cathedral and gave us a tour of the glazing department which is where I had my "this is what I want to do" moment.

Funnily enough, Carenza Lewis from Time Team now lectures in history at the university. It was while watching Time Team that I had my first "this is what I want to do" moment when I realised I wanted to be a conservator 8 years ago. I always smile to myself whenever I see her around the campus.

Apart from uni not a lot else has happened. Millie and I went to see Bastille in November almost a year to the day that we saw Imagine Dragons at the same venue. It was a fantastic show and despite being seriously delayed getting there we still managed to end up right at the front and just by the spot the lead singer kept standing. I'm ashamed to say I shouted and sang so much that I lost my voice for several days afterwards. There was definitely a Muse influence in the show, you could tell they had toured with Muse in the past.

So that's pretty much it for now.