Family history

I have been watching a programme where someone has been tracking his family history - Matthew Broderick in the US version of Who Do You Think You Are.  He has been tracking his great grandfather through the Civil War and did eventually find the grave.  To get there though he went through the usual census records,  military records and got to a mass grave.

There he met a chap who has spent years doing research on Civil War burials, who cross checked all the known burial with the lists of all the people who were also known to  have died, and ended up with a grave marker which almost certainly  marks the grave of Matthew Broderick's great grandfather.

There are a few interesting things in story.

There is the fascination of knowing one's roots, finding where you came from, which the series explores - very successfully as it has been going for years now.  It's something you don't think about as much when you are young, but as you get older, have children yourself, you can see that you are not only unique, but also part of a pattern.  A thread in a tapestry.  Matthew Broderick was clearly very moved by finding that grave, and I can see him bringing his children back to visit.

The other thing is the amount of time and effort the historian put  into the research.  He must spend his life at it.  In one way that sort of dedication is awesome, but it is also a bit obsessive.  But without people like  him there would be no information on some of these things.  There is a local studies group in the Vale of Glamorgan which has gone round photographing and deciphering all the inscriptions on graves in all the graveyards in the county.  We have bought them as little leaflets as well as on   micofiche because you can look at a lot of memorial inscriptions while sitting comfortably in a library instead of crawling round the gravestones.

It is a fine instance where the single mindedness of a person or group works for the benefit of others. 

Lots of Dagger books

I have lots of Dagger in the library books to read.  If you look at the books read list, you will see them.  A whole pile of new authors got added to the list, so the race is on to at least try to read one of each of the authors on the list. 

We are shortlisting in 2 weeks, so we need to get at least a passing acquaintance with all the authors.  Then we will have time before the final judging in May to read more of the long list, which will be good.  Previously we used to do the short listing and final judgement  on the same day, because we need to have a representative from the Crime Writers Association.  The trouble with that was that you didn't have time to go away and think long and hard about the long list and read more of those authors.  We are doing the long listing by email this year - with a CWA representative taking part. 

We already have a few starting to edge out in front, but not all favour the same writers, which is good, because it makes the decision fairer if we have different tastes.

Westonbirt

To cheer me up yesterday we went to Westonbirt Arboretum yesterday.  We have been driving past the sign on the M4 for years, and we kept saying we should go, so yesterday we went.

It is the Forestry Commission's tree collection, and there are lots to look at.  We were probably a few weeks early because even the spring trees were  not as in in bloom as they will be.  Even so there were lots of beautiful trees.  It is a lovely place, having been set up as an arboretum by a  rich family in the nineteenth century and was taken over by the Forestry Commission. 

They recommended 2 spring walks so we followed those, each took about an hour, but you could take as long or short a walk as you liked.  Dogs are allowed in some areas but not others, so you can avoid dogs if you   want to.  It was busy with lots of people there but not crowded, and we had a lovely, lovely day.

Good news then less good

My salary has stayed the same, and I am at the bottom of an increment scale so I have somewhere to go and will get more money every year for the next few years.  I was quite relieved when I opened the envelope and found out.

However as news trickled in over the course of the day I felt less happy.  I am the only professional librarian who has stayed on the same salary.  All the others have gone up one, two or even three scales - ie jumps of £2, 4, 6 thousand a year.  While I am still relieved at not having gone down, I am feeling upset about the results.

I feel belittled.    I feel that what I do has not been seen as having value, and that my role is much less significant than that of the other professional staff.  I am trying not to take this personally because the job evaluation people have not talked to me, just looked at the job, but it is easier said than done.  It is especially galling that someone who was on the same salary as me before has gone up two scales (ie £4k) and he is really not very good at his job.  I feel that I work beyond my job description while he works below his, and I do find it hard not to take it personally.

It could be much worse.  The scale 1 staff - who we all expected to do well out of this, everyone thought they would go up - have gone down, so they have gone from being badly paid for what they do to being really badly paid.  That is disgraceful.  I am sure we will appeal that, and I hope we will succeed.  It is going to make life in the branches difficult for a while.

Job evaluation

All public sector organisations have had a legal obligation to rationalise their salaries and conditions of employment. This was to even out unfairness which has built up over the decades and makes perfect sense overall.  It was supposed to come into effect in 2007 but it took much longer and the Vale of Glamorgan, where I work, is just now getting to the point of rolling it out.

It has been a mammoth task.  Every post has been looked at, a very long questionnaire filled in which looked at every post with regard to a variety of criteria.  Lots of posts are what are termed generic eg all care workers on the same grade have the same criteria and will end up the same, while others are analysed individually.     It has had to be cost neutral so the pot for salaries has not increased. 

This  morning I went to a meeting describing the details of what the results will be, and how the process will work.  We will all get letters on Friday to tell us if we go up, go down or stay the same.  So everyone is in a state of anxiety.  They say that 80% of staff will be neutral, neither up nor down, so 20% could be up or could be down.  Pay is supported for one year after the new system comes in but after that if your salary has gone down, you will go down to what that drop in salary is.

Needless to say everyone is quite worried about it.  I think we are all hoping to stay the same, but we are all worried about going down.   As we are on a final salary pension scheme this could affect my pension if I go down, so in that case I would have to think about job hunting.  Not a good thought in the public sector in a depression.

I am hoping to stay where I am.  If I do it will actually be a benefit because I will get more increments as the scale is wider than my current salary scale, so I will get increments again.

Fingers crossed.

I love the internet

My car is making funny noises.

I took it to the garage and they said that it was the gearbox.

What!!

It is only 6 years old.  It has only done 58,000 miles.  The gearbox is not something that should go in a modern car.

That - I realised after the shock had passed - was going to be very expensive.  My car is only worth about £2500, so spending £1000  on a new gearbox made no sense.  So I thought that if it was going to be that expensive I would need to think about changing the car instead.  That wasn't something I wanted to do either. 

Then I looked up gearbox problems with Honda Jazz and found a site which said that it was a recognised fault and that if you met certain criteria then Honda would replace the gearbox under an extended warranty.   I am taking the car to be looked at on Friday and I have my fingers firmly crossed that they say they will fix it.  I love the internet for finding me this.

Honda don't advertise this though.  Some of the entries on the internet had people who had to fight to get their car fixed so .... watch this space.

Cordoba

Last week we had a short holiday in Cordoba.  We wanted to see the Mezquita and wanted some warm sun in March so Cordoba was the place.  We did ponder about whether or not to try to see Seville as well, but decided to have a more leisurely holiday than a frantic one and I am very glad we did.

We caught the train from Llantwit to get the plane from Cardiff airport which was so easy!  The travelling went fine, though finding the actual hotel when we got to Cordoba was a bit of a challenge as it is narrow lanes, one way streets and not car friendly at all.  The flat we had rented was fine and brilliantly positioned, though it had the worst equipped kitchen ever and it took them 2 days to find us a corkscrew.  We saw the Mezquita which cannot be done justice with photos because it is so huge, and so varied.  The history of the city is fascinating because I don't know much about the history of the Arabic empires.  It was lovely to see a very different architecure from that in northern Europe.  We also saw the Alcazar, went out to see Madinat al Zahra (a ruined city just outside Cordoba), the Jewish area and a beautiful little synagogue.  Here are a few pics