Last week, national lockdown 3.0 began. With over 80,000 people in the UK who have died from the virus we simply don’t know how tough things will get before things improve. Generally people are compliant with the rules; we’ve been told there may be more enforcement; and we’re grateful that the more vulnerable after being vaccinated. My own mother, who’s in her mid 80’s, received her first vaccination injection last week.
Last week, the children began home school again. It’s much more organised than lockdown 1.0 (schools were open during lockdown 2.0) and they seem to be getting on with the work. My Lenovo Chromebook is getting a daily workout with home studying!
Last week, some of the news was showing empty shop shelves in Northern Ireland. Not because of the pandemic, it’s because of Brexit. Those more cynical UK citizens might be saying the pandemic is convenient to keep Brexit/ EU/ border control issues out of the news. There’s definitely not been as much coverage as I thought there would be… but it’s there! Last week’s news was taken over by events at the Capitol Building in Washington DC, USA, last week.
And last week was back to work – I’m so glad I avoided starting on Monday – it made for a shorter first week back. It’s amazing how lazy I can become… so quickly. It’s a good thing I need to earn a living!
7. No Books I’m definitely embarrassed to reveal but I didn’t read any books in full during 2020! Daur1 gave me a book last Christmas, I think, Four Walls and a Roof by Reinier de Graaf and I’ve read just 35 pages! It’s ridiculous I know given the additional time at home I’ve had! So I definitely need to change that in 2021 and read some books. I confess, during this same period I have taken full advantage of our family’s streaming subscriptions: X-Files seasons 1 to 9 on Prime (I found it too strange with older Mulder & Scully from season 10 but might still watch them); the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, in order, as found in Disney+; Pirates of the Caribbean 1, 2 and 3 (Disney+); House, seasons 1 to 8 (Prime – I’ve almost finished season 8 but got sidetracked by seasons 1 and 2 of Homeland on Netflix); Mission Impossible 4, 5 and 6 (combination of Netflix and Prime). I did buy myself a Lenovo Chromebook C340 – it’s 11 inch touchscreen, converts from a laptop to a tablet with a fold, I love it! Son2 started using my Samsung tablet for home lessons when schools closed so I needed something for myself. It doesn’t have a huge memory but it’s fine for my needs and means that finally I have a larger screen for writing!
8. Indexing This is all about family history. As you may, or may not know, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which I’m a member, has a huge family history library (familysearch.org) One of it’s activities it’s to transcribe older written records into digital searchable data. Indexing is that transcribing process which anyone can volunteer to do. When lockdown started, with the extra time available on Sundays I decided to give to indexing. I felt this was something I could do to serve others. When I started, around April/ May 2020, I found there were a couple of Caribbean records needing transcribing and they became my focus, since that is my immediate heritage. I set myself an annual goal which I surpassed by a few hundred entries. So for 2021 I’m going to keep going and double my goal.
9. 156 Applicants That was how many applications we received for an architectural assistant post job vacancy within our team advertised in November 2020. We took 52 candidates each and three of us – the other senior architect, our manager et moi – shortlisted them down over a couple of days to seven for interview. I am going to do an actual post about this because it’s really important – you’ve got to know how to write a job application so you don’t annoy those that are shortlisting and so you get an interview. We read a lot of irrelevant, uninspiring, unprofessional nonsense!! It wasn’t difficult to get from 156 to less than 10!! Think about that!
Growing up in Southampton means that you know about at least two famous historical ships – the Titanic and the Mayflower. And this year is 400 years since the Mayflower sailed from this port town.
The thing that impressed me most about hearing the story of the Mayflower is that it’s about a group of people that fled religious persecution. It’s essentially the story of a group of people who wanted to live and worship differently than the dominant religion at the time and were being persecuted for that. They gathered together, got a ship (the Speedwell), and sailed from Holland to Southampton where they met the Mayflower ship, which had set out from Rotherhithe, London. The Mayflower was carrying 102 passengers who wanted to build a new life, in peace, across the Atlantic Sea. Half of those passengers died within the first year in their new home (mainly from disease having arrived in November 1620). But essentially they were colonisers, settling where other people already lived. That always seems to end in pain for those who lose their land for no other reason than someone else wants to live there! This website gives a great in sight into the full story of the event and it’s position in terms of native Americans and the colonisers: https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/the-mayflower-story/.
So, these past several months one of my work projects has been conservation work to the Pilgrim Father’s Memorial (aka Mayflower Memorial) here in my hometown, originally constructed 1913. As it is literally a 5 minute walk from my former primary school, I can’t tell you how many times, over 40 years ago, I saw the memorial and heard the story of the Pilgrim Fathers.
The commemoration weekend here is in 2 weeks – 15 August 2020. Despite knowing about the commemoration date for the last, well, hundreds of years, the Culture team were a little slow to get going on the conservation work and had to be rescued (financially) by the Property team. An exemption request submitted to Procurement was eventually approved and a specialist main contractor was appointed in February. However with stone to be sourced and carved, completion of the works for the commemoration weekend was always ambitious. And then, the pandemic was declared!
The first half of the contract took place in the stonemasons yard with lots of photographs being sent showing the stonework progression. I really wanted to go to the mason’s yard so was rather disappointed that the pandemic meant this was too high a risk to take, especially with 5 of us at home, since the yard was in another town.
However, with site works commencing in May, I was finally able to visit site and hold external site meetings, rather than conference calls. And this past week, with copper Mayflower ship back atop facing West, the upper layer of scaffolding came down to reveal the refreshed mosaic dome, renewed stone work and, at night, a beacon light shining out from it’s quirky Art Nouveau/ Arts & Crafts style fire basket metalwork. The memorial isn’t the tallest of columns, about 15 metres or 50 foot. And it’s location means that most people in town probably will never see it, unless they make an effort.
But it is a story, an event that happened, 400 years ago and, like with any real event, it shouldn’t be forgotten.
I am descended from people who, not wilfully, were transported across the Atlantic Sea from the African continent to work and effectively colonise islands of the sea. Many of them died within months of arrival, from disease, from hard labour, from abuse, from broken hearts. Though there is no specific monument with their specific name that I can definitely say they are my descendants, I still feel proud that somewhere in my family history, I am descended from survivors.
I’m sorry to read today – BBC news article – about the destruction of the temple at Palmyra, Syria. It seems insane, to me, that historical buildings and art work should become targets. But I suppose that is part of any ideological war.
I’m working on qualifying as a conservation architect and I love the care that can be found in older artefacts. This summer we visited a Gothic church (or two!) in France – those vaulted ceilings are an inspiration.
Why did they build like that?
One of our dear children asked me. To glorify God, I explained – they were building the best for God.
Those buildings, constructed following a simple belief system of worshiping Deity, are marvels in whatever culture, because of the belief of those that caused them to be built. I’m sure there were some unrighteous happenings during their construction – slave labour, exploitation, corruption – and there was death and injury. For those reasons too we should never forget – that construction may be their only legacy. I find when visiting such historical places that my mind reflects on the people of that time. My spirit is touched by their lives.
So I’m grateful for those that work hard to record buildings, edifices, so we can visit, reflect and grow.
Princess Architect 