What Are You Doing Now?

[Julie2owlsdene]

Good luck with your new job, Katharine. I'm sure you'll soon get into the swings of the job.

We are ex directory and still get cold callers!!!! I think I'll now start using the tactics of telling them they should be ashamed of themselves too.

[floragord]

Unpacking! Safely back from glorious Rome - one of those sunlit and magical times which live forever fresh in memory! Highlights were the Colesseum, Forum, Circus Maximus and Palatine Hill (of course!), lunching in outdoor cafes under parasols amidst banks of flowers, sublime St Peter's Basilica and the Crypt where I was able to visit the tombs of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his father The Old Pretender, the treasures of the Vatican Museum and most of all the Borgia apartments and the Sistine Chapel, our lovely Convent garden in the evenings after a full day out and most of all the Papal Audience, sitting right at the front in the sunshine looking up at the chimney on the Sistine Chapel where white smoke announces the selection of the new Pope and then seeing His Holiness in an unbroken line of over 2000 years was unashamedly emotional for all. I was honoured to visit the hospital on the island of Isola Tiberina where healing has taken place since it was the Temple of Aesculepius, the staff and snake of the medical profession is still visible and the Church of St Bartholomew apparently inspired the creation of Barts Hospital in London. Altogether once in a lifetime stuff - but its good to be home and looking in on the Forums again!

that does sound fantastic. I'd love to see Rome, although my 'once in a lifetime' trip is going to be to Florence. I think that I would have really enjoyed St Peter's, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museum (even as a wavering agnostic with Protestant tendencies )

Can't recommend the experience highly enough burlingtonbertram, several people we chatted to certainly didn't classify themselves as religious in any shape or form but simply loved being in such a special place, and anyone with huge historical passion like ourselves find themselves in Paradise, skipping through the centuries from the Aurelian Wall of the Romans via Borgias to Pope Francesco... Florence sounds just magical too, hope you greatly enjoy your visit, look forward to sharing your experiences!

[floragord]

Best to go ex-directory - we don't receive any nuisance calls. Keeping my fingers crossed!

We just don't answer the phone unless the number that comes up is one that we want - if its important they'll leave a message!

[floragord]

I'm feeling tired but happy. I had a morning at the health centre to learn the ropes of my new job. I didn't sleep very well last night - was terrified I'd oversleep and turn up late!

The morning went really well, I was there 5 hours and the time just flew by. There's a lot to learn, but nothing that I felt was beyond me which was a relief. Although how much I'll actually remember once I'm left on my own remains to be seen - still I took lots of notes, so hopefully will be able to muddle my way through.

Warm congratulations on the new job, Katherine, sounds as if its going really well, I'm sure you'll soon be completely at home - enjoy!

[floragord]

Sounds as though you had a fabulous time in Rome, Flora! I enjoyed it when I went there in 1989 - though Florence appealed to me even more because it has a beauty all of its own.

Thanks, Anita! We'd previously hugely enjoyed the heavenly Tuscan countryside and visited Pisa on the way back to the airport, took photos of holding up the Leaning Tower!, but it sounds as if Florence deserves a visit purely to itself - we'll have to step up our travels with so much to see and do!

[Anita Bensoussane]

We just don't answer the phone unless the number that comes up is one that we want - if its important they'll leave a message!

Our phone doesn't display the caller's number, but whenever we need a new phone in the future I'll be looking out for one which has that feature! I've just this minute received a call asking me to take part in a lifestyle survey - I said no thanks and put the phone down!

Thanks, Anita! We'd previously hugely enjoyed the heavenly Tuscan countryside and visited Pisa on the way back to the airport, took photos of holding up the Leaning Tower!, but it sounds as if Florence deserves a visit purely to itself - we'll have to step up our travels with so much to see and do!

There was so much about Florence that I loved - the Basilica di Santa Croce, the Boboli Gardens, the Ponte Vecchio, the galleries, etc. The city glows with elegance and splendour, yet is gloriously tranquil.

My friend Vanessa and I also went to Pisa for the day and climbed the Leaning Tower. An exhilarating experience. When you come out onto some of the levels there are no railings or anything - just widely-spaced pillars around the edge:

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[John Pickup]

If I'm cold-called and asked if I'm the home-owner I respond by saying, "No, I'm a burglar." They hang up straight away.

[Katharine]

I gave up getting stroppy or back chatting them, so now I just say that I don't take part in surveys, or give out personal information on the phone, say goodbye and hang up straight away before they can try and con me into thinking they have my best interests at heart.

Thanks for the good wishes people about the job, I'm looking forward to my next lot of training next week. The only part of the job I'm not happy about is having to juggle childcare. I felt really guilty for abandoning my daughter for a whole morning of the Easter holidays, but at least my husband was here, so she had one parent around, next week my other daughter is going to pick her up from school and give her dinner, but the Enid Blyton story book mother in me is feeling really guilty for not being a 'proper Mummy'. The sort who welcomes her children through the door with a freshly baked batch of scones and a pot of homemade jam.

[Francis]

My mother was always at home to feed us at lunchtime but that was because she was forced to leave her job as married women could not be employed in the Civil Service.

[Katharine]

I don't know what year that was Francis, but I'm guessing it was around the time that Enid Blyton was writing many of her best known books. If so, that's what makes me so angry that she is accused of being sexist, she wasn't, she was merely reflecting the life at that time. Women did stay at home to look after their husband and children, because the law said they had to!!!!

[Francis]

It was in the 1950s Katharine - she spent the rest of her life being a housewife despite being a Petty Officer in the WRNS during the war - I am sure she could have had a very good career. AS you say, Enid lived in a very different world but despite that had Allie running a business despite having two children (and taking on two more) and being a widow.

[Francis]

Correction..........My mother married my father in 1946.

'the Marriage Bar was also deterred ambitious women from entering the civil service and/or ensured that, once recruited, they were forced to leave. The marriage bar prohibited married women from joining the civil service, and required women civil servants to resign when they became married (unless granted a waiver). It was not abolished until October 1946.'

[burlingtonbertram]

There was so much about Florence that I loved - the Basilica di Santa Croce, the Boboli Gardens, the Ponte Vecchio, the galleries, etc. The city glows with elegance and splendour, yet is gloriously tranquil.

You're making me jealous, stop it. I've wanted to go ever since Merchant Ivory's "A Room With A View". I'm very interested in Renaissance art and architecture too, so what better place to go? I want a good stay there - 3 or 4 weeks. Worst case scenario is that I'll finally get there when my Work pension pays out; 20 years 4 months and counting!!

[Anita Bensoussane]

Sorry to have made you jealous, BB! I hope you get to Florence sooner than that - I'm sure you'll love it!

[burlingtonbertram]

I hope so too, but at least I will one day get there. Just spent all afternoon sawing branches off an Elder in the garden; it's beaten me, four branches still to go. When I get home I think I might put 'A Room With A View' on (make a nice change from 'The Sopranos' DVD marathon I've been on this past fortnight).