Upstairs Downstairs

Today at work I have literally been running up and down the stairs doing the odd jobs that I should have done before Christmas. Today there was also an interview that I had to take care of which meant running upstairs to take candidates to the right room make them tea and generally act like servant. This afternoon I have been down in the basement with a friend going through some old government papers that go right back to 1942. The job that we ‘volunteered’ is essentially to throw everything away that has a letter ‘D’ on it (d=destroy, a word that I find too harsh for such a simple action). The building I work in is an old 1960/1970s building that looks like it belongs to East Germany. Anyway the basement is even worse. Its almost like being in a war museum where you can experience what it was like to walk around Churchill’s war rooms however the reality is that this is where they keep all the old government documents-that me and Harry have to DESTROY. Its dark, quiet and rat droppings everywhere and now (after having a break) wonder why I volunteered to do this job. On the other hand its pretty cool. You get to read all the hand written documents from the war right through to the 1980s on Council tax payments, town planning and employees lives. Apart from the documents there are all sorts of miscellaneous junk all over the place. In particular (and my favourite) is a picture of the queen. There is a picture of the Queen on the 4th floor, but this painting (real painting) is massive and I imagine that it was in the entrance of the old land registry building. These kinds of things fascinate me no end. There’s also some cool ashtrays from the days when you could smoke in the offices, some old quality street tins and another of my favourites-old newspapers! It’s a shame to throw them all away but that’s what we’ve been told. Boo.