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Emigration Blog

Name:
Location: Norwich, United Kingdom

I'm one of those people that temp agencies, and ordinary employment interviewers, don't know what the heck to do with. I have a Ph.D. in biochemistry, which is still an interest, but I don't want to do the kind of work I did in that area ever again. Besides, I left it 15 years ago. I then worked in publishing as a production editor, and then freelance copy edited and proofread. But that was by hand, in the US (while I now live in England), and I don't yet know Quark. Then I got a degree in textile design and worked for a fashion company. None of these skills are apparently of any use in finding work in Norwich, UK, at the age of 57, so I'm working a very boring office job three days a week. Have a suggestion? Please speak up.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Oct. 17, and History Matters

Today I participated in a very cool UK thing. You've seen those collections of photographs: A Day in the Life of the USA or some such? Well, today there was a history project of a similar nature done as a surt of universal blog. Whoever wanted to could go to a website and blog what they did with their day. The total results will be held in perpetuity both in electronic and hard form as a record of what life was like for individuals in the UK on this particular date. I loved having that opportunity.

Other than that, I am particularly enjoying the leaves this autumn. I grew up in West Virginia where the leaves turn like crazy, but I never much got a kick out of those projects revolving around collecting autumn leaves. But UK leaves are different.

I know you don't believe me, but they are. US leaves turn some particular color, the whole leaf. UK leaves? I've seen leaves where the veins and the edges were one color and all the rest of the leaf another color. The multicolor leaves, each leaf in and of itself being multicolored, fascinate me. I wish I could figure out a way to preserve some of them permanently.

And then there is the Virginia creeper ivy. For all I know, from the name, it may be an import from the US. (Yes, I know the name of the state Virginia came from the UK.) What I do know is that it turns the most intense bright red, and it covers whole walls, or falls from the edge of a roof, or covers the side of a house. or creeps along a wall in graceful lines of shiny red red red leaves. Some houses, it blends into the bricks, as if the bricks themselves sprouted leaves. It is so beautiful.

On the other hand, it's beginning to get grayish, and coldish, and dark too early for my taste. I'm going to need a very warm holiday sometime this winter and I doubt that I'll get it. Working (at a "real" job) three days a week may save me because I can come out into the light on the other days. Actually, I probably work as many or more hours on the days I have off from that job, because on those days I do what I love, or at least things to do with what I love, such as updating and improving my website.

One of my necklaces sold at the Fringe Festival. Depending on what it sold for, I hope it was the Egyptian one, but I suspect that it was the amber colored one, because that's the one that I consider the best, one of my best for some time. I guess that's it for now.