so tired

Today was great, but really really tiring because Hannah and I went to a show last night that ended up going a lot longer than we expected. I didn't get home until about 2 am, and then I had to be at work early for 8:30 because we were running trials of the tours I have been working with a group of Key Stage 3 stundents (about grade 8).

It was a good day, I was a bit frustrated in the morning but things worked out well in the afternoon. I felt like my part of the tour went over quite well, but I'm not sure if it was because the tour was interesting or that the kids just really liked listening to my accent. As soon as I started my portion of the tour they all got excited and gathered around much closer to listen in and ask me questions... it was nice, but I also felt like a bit of a spectacle.

Today at work I also got to wander around the big store room which houses the collections that the Museum inherited from the commonwealth institute. It was so much fun that I think I'm going to have to go back and do some more exploration (for professional reasons of course) tomorrow or maybe next week. The room houses artifacts from all over the empire, and I'm pretty sure its the only place in the world where you will find the following in the same place;

- a real stuffed Lion and cheetah standing next to a stuffed mountain goat
- a lobster trap from Nova Scotia
- an almost four foot tall statue of buddha
- masks and costumes from Carnival in Trinidad
- a giant Chinese dragon costume
- war uniforms from everywhere in the empire from Sikh Soldiers to members of the Canadian Air Force

one of the staff who took me up to the room event pointed out that there is a "real Canadian chainsaw" sitting behind the giant Chinese Dragon Costume, and I didn't have the heart to tell him that to me it really wasn't much of a novelty...

so it was a fun day, even though I was dead tired by the end of it.

I'm hoping to go exploring in the room again, I could seriously spend days in there... hopefully I'll soon be well enough aquainted with the collections that I'll be able to take friends and family who visit in to see the same store rooms.

off to bed early I've got some sleep to catch up on!

- Chris