My Job

I work for an entity that promotes the use of film and video within higher education and further education. The project they hired me for is one that will put over 3000 hours of newsfilm material online so that these HE/FE institutions can access it. I am a cataloguer on this project. This means that I am creating "meta-data" for the material that will be put online and assisting in digitizing it so that it can be put online. I know that sounds pretty dry (and it sometimes is), but I'm learning a lot. Not only historic and many mundane events from as early as the early-1900s, but also about cataloguing and digitising.

It takes me about 1 hour and 40 minutes door-to-door to get to work (and the same amount of time to get back home). That may seem like a lot, but it's not too bad. One hour is sitting on a train and the rest walking or waiting. I get a lot of reading done. Being able to live in Winchester, out in the country, away from the noise and crowds of London, makes the commute completely worthwhile. As an added benefit, exercise is built into it. I have a brisk 25-30 minute walk in the morning and in the afternoon. Part of this walk takes me across the Waterloo Bridge where I can see such stereotypical British sites as the Thames, the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, that strange rocket-shaped building, and the concrete ugliness of the National Theatre complex. When I bought my annual "season ticket" for the train, I chose to save the £400 or so by getting a rail-only card (i.e.- travel on London's public transport is not included). This forces me to get exercise and keeps me off of the Tube.

A good portion of my day is spent travelling, obviously. Consequently, the only time I really have free time is on the weekends. During the week, by the time I get home there is not much of an evening left. This is why you'll have to forgive us for being such pathetic bloggers over the past couple of months. It likely will not improve very much, so we are going to have to ask that you get used to it. K just started her job in Bournemouth last week. Her free time has also dwindled to a minimum, though I do have to say that she has quite a nice job going, which allows 1 to 2 days of working at home. I'll pester her to tell you about it.

There are also some really crazy synchronicities between our two jobs, a whole other story which we will divulge in due course. Until then...

-RP-