Life seems to have got in the way this month, so I am a couple of weeks late this time. Not anything in particular, just ‘life’! I have been emailing a friend recently about the problems of not actually having a ‘reason’ to get things done. I spent 10 years or so, since I started with the Open University until I finished my MA, studying and chasing deadlines. I am one of those people who need a deadline. Otherwise it is far too easy to say to myself ‘that can wait until tomorrow’, which we all know ‘never comes!’ The OU is a brilliant organisation which gives late starters like me the opportunity to ‘get an education’, and open up areas of interest we didn’t know we had. For me it was ancient history, especially the Romans.
I just love the sheer energy of them, the pragmatic way they went about things. The Greeks were interesting, and unsurpassed in certain areas, like art and drama, and the obvious Athenian gift of ‘democracy’, but the Romans had this wonderful attitude of ‘if it’s not broke don’t fix it.’ I now have a pretty large library of books about many aspects of the Roman world – not as necessarily ‘intellectual’ as some of my friends, but covering my peculiar interests, a great many of which are still waiting to be read. It’s very odd, but, when I was studying, and had assignments to finish and exams to take, time spent ‘just reading’ was time well spent. Now, I feel I have to justify any time in the middle of the day when I just want to sit and read. The back of the mind keeps saying ‘ shouldn’t you be doing some housework? making a cake? doing some ironing…..?’ All the thinks that were quite happily put on the back burner while I was studying. It has been suggested I start on another OU course – there are so many interesting ones still out there, with other organisations as well – but they are just soooo expensive now. An unfortunate side effect of the recent hike in university fees. A real shame because it disenfranchises a whole swathe of OU students – the retired who are living on pensions, but still trying to keep their brains more than just ticking over.
Thanks to my interest in all things Roman, I am still involved in the Roman Museum in my home town of Alcester. We celebrate our 10th anniversary in July next year, and a programme of events is even now being planned by ‘the committee!’ The main 
attraction is going to be a talk by the always fascinating, and brilliant speaker (I know, I’ve heard her speak several times!) Lindsey Davis. I love the way her mind works. Being an ex- civil servant myself, as she is, I can follow her ‘methodology’. But the thing I really, really, like about her work is that it is accurate. She does her homework, and Falco’s world of Vespasian Rome is a world that existed. She is not an ‘academic’ as most of the speakers we have had at the museum have been, but she is well-known to the wider populace in Alcester, and the museum celebrations are designed to be opened up to the whole.town, not just the aficionados.
Talking of speakers, I have booked tickets to see the always splendid Mary Beard at the Cheltenham Lit/Fest next month. Happily she seems to come every year, and is always entertaining and educational. For one session she will be reading Ovid with Llewellyn Morgan and Peter Stothard. They have done this a few times, and it is always a delight.
Reading back over this I have come to the conclusion I am not entirely sitting around doing nothing intellectual! And I have missed one thing – on Monday afternoon I am at the museum, pot washing! There was a big dig in Alcester a couple of years ago, and we have finally got hold of some of the results. According to some of the people already involved there are some really splendid examples of Samian ware!
