A Don’s Life

Saturday Live

I had a great gig on Saturday morning -- as I was a guest on Saturday Live, 9.00 am on Radio Four presented by Fi Glover.

I have listened to this programme for a long time on and off. It took over from the John Peel, "Home Truths" spot . . .  and I listen partly because, in our house (as in millions of others), Radio Four tends to be on at nine on a Saturday. So how could you not?

You can judge how I did yourselves. (You can listen to the whole programme here.) But I have become even more of a convert to this show that I ever was  before -- partly, of course, because  I was dead flattered to be asked to come on. But there is more to it than that.

First of all, any time you do a Radio Programme of this kind on the BBC, you discover they really have done their homework. Fi -- who did Classical Studies plus Philosophy at Kent -- had actually read quite a lot of what I had written. You don't get that on most commercial stations, I can assure you -- more likely, they will phone you up in advance and say, "Can you tell me all you know about Roman Sex . . . and no, I've not read anything about it ." This is what the Licence Fee is all about (and never mind J Ross's salary, it really is well worth it).

Second, it is great to go and talk about Classics, and other things, on a programme that isn't overtly didactic or dead serious (as Fi said, "Saturday Live" isn't the same as "In Our Time", great as IOT is - I hasten to say). Otherwise, people like me do tend to get pigeonholed into the "this is the austerely serious/good for you" spot. Actually Classics is FUN too.

Greek love and museum labels

I am currently a small part of a small team, engaged in re-displaying the Greco-Roman collections in the Fitzwilliam Museum. Most of the hard work is being done by the Museum Curators (guided by the Curator of Greek and Roman, Lucilla Burn - of the Fitzwilliam and Newnham). But we have a substantial AHRC grant to get a dialogue going between the local academic classicts and the museum professionals (including conservators) ... the idea being to inform" the new display. You can find out more about the people and the project here.

Anyway, we have a regular meetings to talk about the philosophy lying behind the new galleries -- and to get get down to real practical details. What is going to go on the labels?How many words are going to be on the information panels? (We are a university museum -- so can we escape the usual modern museum Stalinism.... nothing over 75 words, reading age of 11 and no more than three syllables . . . ?)

As so often, actually getting round the table and thinking about how you are going to describe a pot (say) turns out to expose the tricky issues, and to bring up all kinds of questions about how we know what we know, and what we want to say to visitors about these objects.

Today we had fun with one particular Athenian pot -- which appears to show a load of sexually predatory blokes, moving in on a desirable boy. Greek love, in other words.

The Source of the Nile

I should have gone directly from Cairo (offspring number 2) to Kampala (offspring number 1). But instead I came back to the UK, and out again. That's because I had bought an unchangeable ticket London - Cairo before I decided to go to Uganda (so explaining the large carbon footprint, for which I ask forgiveness).

Anyway, this weekend the mission was to hook up with the daughter in Uganda and to go to the source of the (White) Nile, in Jinja just 80 kilometres from Kampala.

The drive from Kampala to Jinja was extremely lush and green, a bit like Gloucestershire (plus bananas and pineapples). But the entrance to the source of the Nile "area" was not promising. The daughter was, to start with, puzzled -- you walked down to a river bank, but it wasn't obviously a "source". It was just a river bank. 

A fellow blogger wondered, prosaically but realistically, if it wasn't actually reminiscent of a Co-op car park. Yes, in a way it was -- Uganda style. That is to say, at first look, there were a lot of "craft stalls" and not much else. But better was to come.

10 things you shouldn't believe about A levels

 It's the A level season again, and everyone feels they have a right to pontificate on the state of the nation's youth, the failings/successes of education etc etc. That includes me.

Here is my self-opinionated top ten of what not to believe:

1. A levels are getting easier. No, they are not. They are different from what we used to do and they dont test some of the skills that I personally value highly ('open ended' essay writing, for example). But the hard work required is just as it ever was.

2. More students get A grades because they are now better taught. No, I'm not saying teaching isn't better now (I honestly dont know). But I strongly suspect tar more students are getting A's because today's A levels have much clearer criteria, towards which it is easier to work (contrary to open ended essays).

Wadi Natrun. Was Curzon right?

We are in Egypt, just for a couple of days, to visit the son who is taking an Arabic course in Cairo. Our big day out was to Alexandria and -- en route -- to the Coptic monastery "of the Syrians" at Wadi Natrun, an hour and a half's drive from Cairo.

It was here that Lord (Robert) Curzon came in the 1830s and bought up a load of valuables manuscripts. Part of his excuse for doing so was the slovenly condition of the place. Manuscripts were lying around the floor, and were being used a jar covers, terribly "begrimed". The husband (who knows much more about this that i do) has always been suspicious of this account. For is sounds like a much too convenient alibi for walking off with the monks' prize possessions.

Anyway, on Saturday we went to see the place for ourselves.

Let me say straightway, it was a great -- and instructive -- day. There were plenty of Coptic Egyptian pilgrims there (the main religious attraction being the cell of St Bishoi). And as always such places make you rethink any simple approach to religious devotion. Here it was nice to see the paraphernalia of modern life conscripted to religious purpose: I watched many people come along, kiss the icons, leave a prayer and then take a quick photo on their mobile phones. Meanwhile (as you can see in the pictures) the fun the kids were having in the church helped you understand the fine line between holiday, a trip out to the countryside and the piety of pilgrimage.

This much have been true for all sorts of religious experience in the ancient world too. I bet consulting the Delphic oracle was just as mixed an experience.

But another striking feature of the place was that it was filthy.

Disappearing comments

This is just to say that I have received all your recent comments -- but for some strange reason I have not been able to make them appear on the blog, for the last day or so. I'm sure that normal service will be resumed soon So keep em coming.

I've had great advice (get some travellers cheques says Erika), some sympathy and lots of wonderful examples of much the same thing happening to others (a great story from Betty about the mother's credit card getting stopped as she did her pre-university purchases, and from Kathz about trying to buy a washing machine, and from Claire_M on being regularly stopped at the Rome supermarket checkout). Meanwhile Brian Ogilvie says that he has to notify his US bank every time he goes abroad -- and Boo is a bit dubious about telling anonymous people exactly when you'll be away). But you will get to see all this soon I hope. And more (including A Alcock on what to read on senatorial housing).

As an update on the fraud on my account: so far (cross fingers) there has been only that one withdrawal (though Anna's story about them trying a small amount first, then cleaning you out was a bit scary). I stopped the card first thing this morning, and in a belt and braces approach moved most of the money to my savings account... up to within just short of my overdraft limit. It'll cost me in overdraft interest, but if the money ain't in the account, it can't be removed is my logic.

On the plus side for the banking industry (credit where it is due), everyone I have spoken to at HSBC has been great. Indeed, when I asked to talk to my "relationship manager" (aka the excellent Karen T) ... I was phoned back within an hour by her colleague to say that she was off until tomorrow...and later (believe it ir not) the telephone banking service rang me to say that they understood that Karen was not in today and woud contact me tomorrow. Full marks.

I should say that my fraud at a mere 250 euros is a long way from the top of the HSBC queue.. and will be dealt with in due course (fair enough). I'm very glad, in retrospect, that I used the card as soon as I got to Heathrow on Sunday...as it proves beyond a shadow of doubt that I couldnt have been withdrawing cash in some Rome back street on Monday.

Who is fraud protection meant to protect? You or your bank?

Try to use your debit or credit card abroad this summer and the chances are you will find it blocked. That's the bank stopping it -- "for your protection", they say. In fact it's for their protection.

Last weekend in Rome, I put my card into a bank machine, entered my pin,  and it was returned. The husband tried and the same thing happened to him. I rang my bank, HSBC, and the first person I spoke to said that it had indeed been stopped. The second person said it hadn't. But, she asked, had I informed them that I would be in Rome? No, I hadn't. So at some length and expense I went through my up-coming trips, and the card didn't have any problems after that (though see below!). The husband tried to ring his bank, but couldn't remember his telephone banking code, so decided to leave it.

A couple of hours later, of course, he got a call asking him to ring the fraud protection department of Lloyds TSB. Now, a few weeks earlier, his card had been blocked in Cairo and he had asked if he could notify them in advance when he was away (like I can with the HSBC), No, they said. but this Cairo incident was just a random check, and was very unlikely to happen. Well it did happen again. And so he had a ten minute plus phone call to Lloyds from the Palatine Museum, at his expense, convincing them that it was he who had tried to withdraw 200 euros.

Annoying and irritating, and -- despite the line that it is all in your interest -- this is simply trying to save the banks' money (for they are liable for fraudulent transactions) at the cost of your mobile phone bill. We reckoned we had spent 10 to 15 pounds on our mobiles to get all this sorted.

But worse was to come.

On Monday Lloyds TSB rang up home for the son, as his card had been used in Cairo (where he is, doing an Arabic course).

Vespasian's villa? Don't you believe it

Just an interim bulletin -- from Rome.

The news here, and in the UK, is full of the discovery of the villa of the emperor Vespasian (who ruled 69 - 79 AD) at Falacrina, a town north of Rome.

As usual a combination of fantasy and wishful thinking has driven this non-story. Even the excavator, Filippo Coarelli, who 'has form' with a whole series of over-optimistic 'identifications', admits that there isn't exactly any evidence for this. It's just a large Roman house of roughly the right date in roughly the right place.

The talk among British and US archaeologists in Rome (where I have come to say goodbye to Andrew Wallace--Hadrill  who is leaving the British School at Rome) is rueful. After all the 'advances' in archaeology, and what it can tell us about the ancient world, are we still looking for a 'Vespasian lived here' spot?

There was of course much other gossip -- which I am under ban of reporting. As if I would. Wallace Hadrill by the way is coming to be il capo of Sidney Sussex in Cambridge, while Jo W-H will become a colleague of mine at Newnham.  So instead of gossip, here is a blurry picture.

Can the Roman Forum get any worse?

The last time I went to the Roman Forum was two years or so ago when I went for an intensive two days of Forum study with a friend who was writing a book (now out) on the place for my "Wonders of the World" series.

David’s main point (for the friend was David Watkin) was that the archaeological site itself was pretty disappointing – too many archaeological holes, too much concern with the ancient Roman past at the expense of the glorious renaissance and later history of the Forum (like all those wonderful churches which line it, for example).

Yesterday, I went back for the first time since then, and must report that the experience is yet worse than it was two years ago.

For a start, it used to be free – which was some mitigation for the frankly disappointing state of the centre of the Roman empire. Now , since early 2008, you have had to buy a ticket  -- full price of 12 euros giving entrance to the Palatine, Colosseum and Forum combined (no-one would have the nerve to charge for the Forum alone).

What computers do to handwriting

I've noted before that one of the consequences of computer literacy is that you never recognise a student's handwriting when you mark an exam. You've actually never seen their writing before -- because they have submitted  every piece of work by email, or at least in nicely word processed hard copy.

This seems to me wholly good. You really do mark exams blind, without that awful realisation that you are marking "Jenny" -- who has either done much better or worse than you thought she would. Heaven know what it is like for the students. After years of typing, how on earth do they write by hand for three hours? (Answer I fear is that some of them write dreadfully -- and they would be well advised to get some practice.)

That said, there is a downside to not seeing anyone's handwriting any more. All your best friends communicate by email. So what happens when you get a great present and an almost illegible -- and certainly non identifiable -- card?