A Night at the Museum

Posted on by nyamazela

“My dear young lady, crime, like death, is not confined to the old and withered alone. The youngest and fairest are too often its chosen victims.”

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Crime Scene InvestigationWe gathered around our Mancunian ‘lecturer’ for Forensic Anthropology.

“Skeletal analysis is all about 4 things: Sex, age, stature and cause of death,” she counted down with her fingers.

“Let’s begin with the golden rule – ‘Sex before maths’! Come on detectives, you heard what I said. Use your noggin, do some loggin’. ”

Some of us turned to each other and sniggered, but quickly scrambled for our notes. Continue reading A Night at the Museum

Ferry across the Mersey … of my life

Posted on by nyamazela

”The steamer Mongolia, belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Company, built of iron, of two thousand eight hundred tons burden, and five hundred horse-power, was due at eleven o’clock a.m. on Wednesday, the 9th of October, at Suez. The Mongolia plied regularly between Brindisi and Bombay via the Suez Canal, and was one of the fastest steamers belonging to the company, always making more than ten knots an hour between Brindisi and Suez, and nine and a half between Suez and Bombay.”

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Jackup semisub barge tugboat
Marine tonnage – my daily grind & night time dreams.

The year A.D. 2017. Month October. Any given day.

Banned from using the word ‘busy’, I’m left with ‘occupied’, ‘challenged’, ‘hectic’, ‘exacting’ … or perhaps the more positive, ‘full’, to describe my life. “It’s the new normal,” you say. “Same for you, then?” I reply.

What’s the saying I’m looking for … You are what you eat? Dogs resemble their masters? Stupid is as stupid does? Continue reading Ferry across the Mersey … of my life

Two weeks into September, into work, into autumn at 31 deg C

Posted on by nyamazela

“A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o’clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

the working life“A campaign for a 4 day week you say? Let’s vote for that!” said …. pretty much everyone.

Dreaming aside, it actually did happen. From 1st January to 7th March 1974 UK Prime Minister Edward Heath initiated a 3 day week as a measure to save electricity during a rather torrid period brought on by the second major coal miners strike in two years.

If we could travel back in time to the United Kingdom between 1972 and 1974, I think we might find it was rather a dark time – and I don’t just mean because the lights were turned off. Continue reading Two weeks into September, into work, into autumn at 31 deg C