At work

Work today was very, well, uhm... cool? (although a colleague preferred to call it "Well have you ever!")

My supervisor more or less gave me a box of fossiles (nautili, ammonites, some ichthyosaur vertebrae, and the like), a table, lamps and an awesome camera on (idem) tripod* and simply told me to provide records for the archive.

You can imagine the fun I had messing around with focus, distance, composition and, especially, light (because I don't normally get this kind of "studio"-setting when I take pictures). If you follow the ichthyosaur-link above you also get a nice idea what the photos I took look like.

There are also some more observations about the English I would like to share with you:

• Strangely, there seem to be two very distinct groups of civil servants, shop assistants, merchants, bureaucrats and other people that sit/stand behind tills and are there to help you. The first few I met were incredibly rude, didn't even smile or say hello/hia and were not being very helpful. Examples: National Rail, National Express, University IT Reception. But then I encountered more and more of the second kind, which soon outnumbered the first: they are extremely kind, helpful, concerned, etc., much more than would be considered necesary in the Netherlands (and maybe by some even a bit out of proportion), but I like it. These are to be found at Sainsbury's, the University Payment Office, the University Guild Shop, and many other shops. Sitting on the fence are Tesco and Woolworths: I guess these just don't have a very consistent staff management. Now a question arises on this division: how come? I thought of three possible answers: 1) the English are just a very nice people; 2) only people who are nice get a job in England; 3) other people get a job, too, but are drilled to smile and say "hia" and wrap your groceries for you. Option 3 might work. Option 2 is out of the question, as the people without a job are very nice here as well (as everywhere b.t.w., but there are people that didn't know this). However, I choose to believe option 1.
• I remember noticing something negative as well, but it forgot what it was. We'll save that for later. Or I'll just forget about it completely, which would be no bad sign either.
• Something that's without doubt splendidly organised here are the public toilets. They are 1) present (in the Netherlands they are a rare phenomenon, or they take the shape of phone boots); 2) genuinely public, which means that for the better part of the week they are indeed accessible and not locked or something (except on thursdays in Exmouth); 3) free (impossible in the Netherlands, or France, or Belgium. An important exception here must be made for Germany); 4) clean. Which together leads to the impossibility coming true of trying to visit a public toilet on a SUNDAY AFTERNOON and finding your way blocked BY SOMEONE CLEANING IT, apologising and hastily making room for you to enter. You won't find that in Amsterdam Experience: no, sir!

*for the other freaks among you: sorry, forgot the type/number, but basically a digital slr, fitting on a microscope, with some extra lenses that are nice to have for a museum - once again this shows how little I know about technology; however, once I just get to handle the thing it works out fine.