Mummies Day x2 , Monday

Sunday
It was Mothers' Day and I was working at the Nicholson Museum where it was 'Mummies Day' - an interactive day for families and other visitors that was focused on Egypt.

On these open days at the museum, we set up an area where the kids can dig for 'artefacts' in our 'sand-pit', which actually contains shredded tyre rubber (being much easier to clean up). I was assigned on to keep an eye on this activity for a while. Having never done this before, I found it quite exhausting, as the novelty of finding buried items seems not to wear thin on the young ones. After they discovered the items, I had to rebury them for other children to have a go.

It was a bit draughty in that corner, so it was really nice to go into the museum and have a stint on the hands-on table. The table was full of Egyptian artefacts of course, so I had to dig into my memory for anecdotes and information about them. Still have trouble sorting out my canopic jars. It's always nice to chat to the visitors, with some of the kids knowing a lot more than I do about Egypt and a lot of adults being more fascinated than their children about the things we have to say about the objects.

Having let time slip away and forgetting to eat lunch, I went back out to the digging site to look for another guide who was in charge of the mummy wrapping session, so I had the pleasure of cleaning up the pits before the end of the day.

Afterwards, I took the train to Campsie, where I was supposed to meet my family (extended) for Mother's Day dinner. This time, we decided on Korean barbecue rather than the usual Chinese (thank the stars!). When I arrived, no one else had yet, so I wandered around a bit. There was a bit of reshuffling of furniture to fit us all (30 people in total). I hadn't seen some of my family for months, so a few of my cousins were unrecognisable to me, especially the little ones.

We were split into three tables, so we took care of our own orders. We've been to this restaurant a few times this year and the food is pretty good, if you know what to order. I really like the seaweed sidedish; not sure what it's called. The night finished pretty early for a dinner out, but having been out all day and dealing with kids everywhere, I was tired out.
Monday
Went in to uni to do some work on the microscope - still having trouble identifying what I'm looking for, but I'm getting better at setting up and using the microscope (focusing and scanning the slides). Hopefully, I'll be able to get some help from my supervisor who is returning next week.

Kendo training in the afternoon, which was wrist work and learning tenouchi, which I'm starting to do properly occasionally. My forearms are really sore from training though.