Look at Moie
well we've now finished the group project. big sigh of relief. i'm really happy with what we finally produced, but it took so much time. I can't believe how much i thought about it during the last two weeks. the last two days were really intense. I volunteered to be one of the two editors ... 6 hours later the two of us were a little gaga. The light relief came from our project title ... 'Look At Me'. Thankfully, Dave the other editor has seen Kath and Kim, so didn't think i was totally loopy when i came out with 'Look at Moie, Kimmy, look at Moie'. Funny how many quotes we could remember between the two of us. Maybe it would have been shorter session if we hadn't been killing ourselves over kath and kim so often. Friday was also a marathon session, the whole group met at 11:30 and then finally finished at about 5:30. Dave and I decided to introduce the whole group to the delights of Kath and Kim ... it doesn't work so well if you haven't seen it. ah well, we laughed.
As we had the start of this week free to prepare for our oral exam I decided to go to London for two days. I thought it was a good chance to explore some of the smaller museums. Monday I went to the Museum of Garden History and the IWM (not a small museum but one i hadn't seen before). The Museum of Garden History is in an abandoned church, it was going to be pulled down when someone pointed out that the tomb for the Tradescants, and Bligh, were in the graveyard. So instead it was turned into a museum focussing on the Tradescants and their influence on British Gardens. It has been very well supported by Lady Salisbury who restored the gardens at Hatfield House to their Tudor and Stuart style, using the notes of John Tradescant the Elder. This support was very obvious as almost every text panel had some mention of Hatfield House or Lady Salisbury. It was quite interesting, looking at how garden design has changed, and what sort of plants were introduced into England. I'm well aware of all the things introduced into Australia and the damage some of those plants have caused, but it hadn't really occurred to me that England has also been shaped by introduced species. I guess because most of them were introduced so long ago, they seem like they are natives. It was great finding out a little bit more about the Tradescants as I have become very interested in them, especially once i found out that it was their collection of oddities that started the Ashmolean Museum.
Bligh's Tomb
The Knot Garden at the Museum
The Tradescant Family Tomb
The IWM was impressive, as it should be. I didn't have a lot of time for exploring, but looked through the children's war exhibition and the holocaust exhibition. Both were very well designed, very interesting information and cleverly put together, but I was disappointed that neither really tried to bring the history into contemporary society. Both of these exhibitions were looking at things that have shaped and continue to influence current society - the mass evacuation of children from London and other industrial cities, and the holocaust. However both exhibitions seemed to just end with the end of the war and leave it there. The Holocaust exhibition had a reflection section where survivors spoke about how they told people they were survivors, and reactions, but very little on the impacts of the events, other genocides that have occurred since, etc. It was very much as if these things occured in the past and have no bearing on us now, except we should know about them. It could have been so much more.
Tuesday i went to the Sir John Soane Museum and the Geffrye Museum. These are more design and architect based museums and both very different. The Soane Museum is the house of Soane as he left it when he died. It was so crowded! He taught architecture to students and so had the back part of his house dedicated to study of classical design. it was filled with casts and marbles with barely room to move. I'm afraid my first thought was to wonder how many of the marbles had been looted. How cynical I have become about the trade in artifacts. It was also interesting to note that there were no females as part of the interpretative staff. all the floor staff were older men, all seeming to have come from the same mold. The house was interesting, just to see how over the top it looked and to see all the fantastic books Soane collected.
The Geffrye was mostly closed for refurbishment, only the 19th and 20th century rooms were open. So it was a very quick visit, and i didn't manage to get out into the garden. However now that i know where it is and how to get to it I'll head back later in the year when more should be open.
I had mixed hockey training last night, and I actually got to coach the guys. I was the only girl there to start with, a few others turned up, but by that stage I had got most of the guys doing a drill to make them play wide. I got really frustrated on the weekend how they insisted on playing everything up the middle, so all of last night I made them do stuff playing wide. It was great to take over, yell at the guys, but also get a training session happening where we all worked really hard and got warm. I had to take off my jumper i was running around so much - it's been a while since a training session got me that warm. I might have to take over more often.
This morning i did another Rotary presentation, to the Leicester DeMontford club. They are a breakfast club, so the meeting was at 7:30am! They gave me and Beyza a bit of a ribbing about the student life, even more so when they found out that my only lecture today is at 3:30 this afternoon and Beyza has nothing today. They were really friendly and welcoming, but the meeting was a bit rushed as they needed to get to work.
i have my oral exam tomorrow morning, I'm going to talk about a little museum in WA the No 1 Pump Station Museum. I'm really not that worried about it, which in some ways is worrying in itself as the rest of the class seem to be very nervous and concerned. I'm not sure if i've missed something vital, or if i'm just lucky not to get nervous about speaking things. Anyway, I'll know tomorrow if i've made a mistake or not. Next week is the special option lectures, then holidays. Looking forward to that, and I promise I'll get my cameras out a whole lot more and once again fill this blog up with images.
As we had the start of this week free to prepare for our oral exam I decided to go to London for two days. I thought it was a good chance to explore some of the smaller museums. Monday I went to the Museum of Garden History and the IWM (not a small museum but one i hadn't seen before). The Museum of Garden History is in an abandoned church, it was going to be pulled down when someone pointed out that the tomb for the Tradescants, and Bligh, were in the graveyard. So instead it was turned into a museum focussing on the Tradescants and their influence on British Gardens. It has been very well supported by Lady Salisbury who restored the gardens at Hatfield House to their Tudor and Stuart style, using the notes of John Tradescant the Elder. This support was very obvious as almost every text panel had some mention of Hatfield House or Lady Salisbury. It was quite interesting, looking at how garden design has changed, and what sort of plants were introduced into England. I'm well aware of all the things introduced into Australia and the damage some of those plants have caused, but it hadn't really occurred to me that England has also been shaped by introduced species. I guess because most of them were introduced so long ago, they seem like they are natives. It was great finding out a little bit more about the Tradescants as I have become very interested in them, especially once i found out that it was their collection of oddities that started the Ashmolean Museum.
Bligh's Tomb
The Knot Garden at the Museum
The Tradescant Family Tomb
The IWM was impressive, as it should be. I didn't have a lot of time for exploring, but looked through the children's war exhibition and the holocaust exhibition. Both were very well designed, very interesting information and cleverly put together, but I was disappointed that neither really tried to bring the history into contemporary society. Both of these exhibitions were looking at things that have shaped and continue to influence current society - the mass evacuation of children from London and other industrial cities, and the holocaust. However both exhibitions seemed to just end with the end of the war and leave it there. The Holocaust exhibition had a reflection section where survivors spoke about how they told people they were survivors, and reactions, but very little on the impacts of the events, other genocides that have occurred since, etc. It was very much as if these things occured in the past and have no bearing on us now, except we should know about them. It could have been so much more.
Tuesday i went to the Sir John Soane Museum and the Geffrye Museum. These are more design and architect based museums and both very different. The Soane Museum is the house of Soane as he left it when he died. It was so crowded! He taught architecture to students and so had the back part of his house dedicated to study of classical design. it was filled with casts and marbles with barely room to move. I'm afraid my first thought was to wonder how many of the marbles had been looted. How cynical I have become about the trade in artifacts. It was also interesting to note that there were no females as part of the interpretative staff. all the floor staff were older men, all seeming to have come from the same mold. The house was interesting, just to see how over the top it looked and to see all the fantastic books Soane collected.
The Geffrye was mostly closed for refurbishment, only the 19th and 20th century rooms were open. So it was a very quick visit, and i didn't manage to get out into the garden. However now that i know where it is and how to get to it I'll head back later in the year when more should be open.
I had mixed hockey training last night, and I actually got to coach the guys. I was the only girl there to start with, a few others turned up, but by that stage I had got most of the guys doing a drill to make them play wide. I got really frustrated on the weekend how they insisted on playing everything up the middle, so all of last night I made them do stuff playing wide. It was great to take over, yell at the guys, but also get a training session happening where we all worked really hard and got warm. I had to take off my jumper i was running around so much - it's been a while since a training session got me that warm. I might have to take over more often.
This morning i did another Rotary presentation, to the Leicester DeMontford club. They are a breakfast club, so the meeting was at 7:30am! They gave me and Beyza a bit of a ribbing about the student life, even more so when they found out that my only lecture today is at 3:30 this afternoon and Beyza has nothing today. They were really friendly and welcoming, but the meeting was a bit rushed as they needed to get to work.
i have my oral exam tomorrow morning, I'm going to talk about a little museum in WA the No 1 Pump Station Museum. I'm really not that worried about it, which in some ways is worrying in itself as the rest of the class seem to be very nervous and concerned. I'm not sure if i've missed something vital, or if i'm just lucky not to get nervous about speaking things. Anyway, I'll know tomorrow if i've made a mistake or not. Next week is the special option lectures, then holidays. Looking forward to that, and I promise I'll get my cameras out a whole lot more and once again fill this blog up with images.
posted by bronwyn | 10:30 AM
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