Another sunny day in the History Room with one couple coming in to do family history research and who spent rather a large amount of money doing so. She was a pest with a butterfly mind that had her talking about the next three items on her list while i was still looking for her first request. He wandered off to look at the museum and sent her off when he got back. So he and I had a good chat about managing volunteers and the difficulties of recruiting younger and more useful ones, as well as security and the pros and cons of security cameras.

They shuffled off and I sat in solitary splendour till three when Joan popped in for a visit. We discussed her health issues, the pros and cons of frozen dinners, the effect of salt on one's water retention and then she wandered off to leave me to shut up shop.

I am eating pizza for dinner - one of the fresh ones from the local shop.

After yesterday's icy blast, today's sunshine was a surprise. Still freezing, still breezy, but at least sunny, so the washing went out and is now largely dry.

I had a call from my employers late last week to tell me that CBA has decided to go chemical free and that we must in future achieve all cleanliness with the application of plain hot water and a microfibre cloth. The problem with this instruction is that the cloths currently use are already soaked in chemicals as I have used them several times. It also results in smears on the glass. To address this today I used one of their teatowels, which is also now clean and dry and ready to be returned to them. I have worked out an alternate strategy for Monday but there are obvious flaws in this approach. I will address them in an email to my employers after I have had another go on Monday night.

Spotted Brad at the Supreme Court Building today and called in for a chat about a closer working relationship between his heritage team and the History Room to which I gained general in principle agreement. I will have to pursue it with them once I have a clearer idea of our needs and assets. He also passed on the news that my former Boss at Heritage Tasmania has suffered an aneurysm of the brain. While it is not something I would wish on my worst enemy, if it did have to happen it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. The only mystery is that he had a brain to be affected.

sigh. I managed to label the boxes and shelves that we sorted the other day, but otherwise got not terribly far today as the breakfast wrap I bought reduced me to the loo for some time, and recovery afterward. Between all this I had visits from various committee members either checking up on me or wanting to talk about things of concern that have not been progressed in the past. So I now have to write to Council and give them a rev up about a few things they have been going to do but have not.

Ron, our 80++ handyman called in also to discuss his present work in progress and we resolved that particular problem so he went off happy. I dropped his lawnmower into the Servo as he has complained it is hard to start with the pull cord. I suspect it is Ron who is failing rather than the lawn mower but I have asked the servo to have a look and if not something they can improve, then to suggest alternatives (second hand flymo for example). I will call back later in the week to find out what they have come up with.

Well done George Brandis - pity the Speaker did not throw her out for a breach of Parliamentary rules.

A bit blooming chilly here today - cold winds off higher snow I think. The sun was out, but it was the wind that won. As a consequence I remained indoors, venturing out only to seek some lunch and go to the chemist for some Senega and Ammonia (the local shop having apparently decided to no longer stock it).

Not a single thing done, not even a scrap. Though I am involved in a long debate about the date of Australia Day on a FB group dedicated to the over-sixties who have apparently got very conservative views and a fundamentally flawed understanding of Australian History.

My first act as President has been to go through several shelves of crap and throw out two wheely bins full. I mean, how many past-used by empty folders and picture frames do we need? In self-protection I had Steph on board and working with me. I also contacted DPI and managed to convince them they needed the discarded office documents from Graeme's office (in fact they were a bit peeved they did not already have it). Having said that, we have appropriated a large number of rubber stamps with the names of local towns and/or properties on them, and some various 1080 poison laid documents. There were so many I doubt DPI will notice!

We found three boxes containing some pretty valuable stuff that has yet to be accessioned, and some that has, but has never gone anywhere since then. We now have sufficient space to move stuff from the other side of the room onto those empty shelves as we sort through that lot. Some stuff, the material from Graeme's house, has been set aside as it is clearly of some value but apparently he and his sister had no close relatives, so finding a home for it is problematic. It seems he had a girlfriend (sneaky bugger) but she refused things when the house was cleared out. But I suspect she will want the charm bracelet if found inscribed with both their names.

So I am now exhausted and planning an early night.

Hooohooo - naughty Barnaby! It will be interesting to see how the High Court views this one!

The AGM of the Oatlands District Historical Society was held today. I attended to avoid being nominated for positions on the Committee, but came out as President for all that. Oh well. There are worse fates and I get along with most of them. We are at least agreed that there is a need to make a job list to guide our grant application process, so that is something.

Other than that, I got home to discover psycho-neighbour carrying out a not-so-controlled burn in her back yard. Fortunately the relatively strong breezes were blowing away from my place, but for all that I spotted her frantically throwing water onto my side of the fence. I remained indoors with the fire brigade on speed dial, haha.

Tomorrow at the History Room Steph and I will be sorting through the contents of the shelves out the back and getting rid of superfluous stuff, inherited from Graham and the contents of which are unknown to anyone and unlikely to be of interest (he was DPI officer here for years and we seem to have inherited the contents of his office. This will clear off some shelf space and allow us breathing space to sort the remaining boxes. Two large plastic bins of Christmas decorations seems excessive, for example, when our window display area is fairly small.

So, all good here at present.

The rain produced the grand total of 8 mm which is not terribly impressive, and the hot water remains hot. So that's all good.
Today in the History Room I had a lovely elegant old woman and her country grandson from Yass (the grandson, that is, she is from Launceston). Keen spinner on her part, and keen wool producer on his part - a marriage made in heaven. She was wanting a fleece to blend with the merino the grandson produces, but corriedale is not in stock in Oatlands - too early for this shearing too late for that last one.

Then came a party of 12 people who had had a family get together to clear around graves in a cemetery in Jericho. Two stayed on to do some family research and have a chat. As a consequence I dropped several stitches and had to unpick several rows of the sock before resuming. For all that it is now almost 3 inches long, so not all is lost.

A mild night forecast for tonight, but it is jolly chilly right now so I have stirred up the fire and settled in for some tagine and couscous for dinner.