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.