River Cottage

Here's a challenging lot all over again ... thinks ... 

1. If you could do any job in any period of history what would it be and why? I would have liked to be an assistant at Howard Carter's dig in the Valley of the Kings

2. Which moment in time would you love to have witnessed? - well going from the above ... the moment he drew back in awe at what he had seen and everyone else clamoured forward.

3. If you were allowed to change one moment in time, would you and what change would you make? - Not sure i hold with altering the past - things happen for a reason and if they don't then all manner of other things may never have happened..

4. There have been many amazing inventions , can you name five things that the world would have been better without? Not really, for every bad use something is put to it probably has a good use ... so a bit too deep for me I am afraid ...

5. If you could go back and meet one of your ancestors for a good natter , who would you choose? Probably the one who was transported as a convict, to see what she felt about her experiences later in life. Or alternately the one who talked his way onto Samuel Marsden's mission to the Maori but was disgraced for leading dusky maidens along a path that did not involve righteousness, lol.

Very thought provoking Hermit.

1. A farmers wife in the early 17th century. See if the things I know really would work in real life.

2. Several I think. The Great Exhibition would have been amazing, the Coronation of Charles II after the Commonwealth period and the sudden disappearance of troops on D-day are three that spring to mind. Seeing our current Queen crowned would have been amazing too, and remembering seeing her when she carried out the Spithead Review.

3. I don't think I would.

4. Marmite, fast food, splitting the atom (?), microwave cookers, instant food (can never get it to work properly).

5. Either my grandmother, her father, or an ancestor from the 17th/18th centuries who lived to be 95. My great grandfather was a pharmacist, but we can't find out easily if he was ever qualified. He was born on St. Helena of Britsh parents and sounds quite interesting.

Happy weekend everyone.  Thanks for stepping in to the breach Hermit. 

Blimey Hermit. Some thought provoking stuff there. Thanks again.

Gonna be -4 or more at the weekend so I hear, so wrap up people.

Crumbs Hermit.

I've had 3 goes at this but keep drawing a blank or changing my mind.

Gonna think about them as I work and then post my answers later. Really GOOD ff's; thought provoking stuff is right!

Wow good questions

1. If you could do any job in any period of history what would it be and why? One of Da Vinci's assistants, would love to have seen him in action and witness all those inventions being worked through, what a mind!

2. Which moment in time would you love to have witnessed? mankind discovering how to make fire.

3. If you were allowed to change one moment in time, would you and what change would you make?  no don't think I would either

4. There have been many amazing inventions , can you name five things that the world would have been better without? bombs, rubix cube, tank tops and flairs in the 70's and ready meals

5. If you could go back and meet one of your ancestors for a good natter , who would you choose?  A great great great uncle shot himself because he worked in a mill and developed a lung disease so couldn't work and refused the rely on charity, I go back and take him something valuable to sell so he could be treated, poor soul!

Have a fab weekend all

VPB

1. A BBC wildlife cameraman, when they were making "Life On Earth"

2. Fangio winning at the Nurburgring in 1957 - the greatest racing driver who ever lived, winning his finest race ever.

3. No, I wouldn't want to start tampering with history

4. Alcopops, Techno music, "street food" (there is nothing worse than seeing someone eating on the pavement ), syncronised swimming (just what is that all about?!!!), The X factor and all other TV "talent" shows of that genre

5. I know nothing of my ancestors, and have to confess that I am not really interested at all in my family tree. As a person, I have always been more excited about the future than the past.

1 - Assistant to Capability Brown, helping design the great landscape gardens.

2 - July 1938, watching Mallard on Stoke Bank taking the all time speed record for a steam engine (126mph, never beaten).

3 - Not sure if interfering with history would help anything long term, imagine if Harold had not lost the Battle of Hastings, there is just one exception.      However, if I could have stopped the Holocaust I would. I couldn't live with myself if I could do something and just sat back.

4 - Atom bombs would be on my list, plastic bags, fast food restaurants, reality television, and mobile phones. I hate mobile phones, even though they do have limited uses for emergencies, nothing more annoying when walking about quietly and someone is having a loud conversation about some inane subject into a tiny plastic box.........

5 - My gt gt gt gt gt gt grandfather, I cannot find his birth anywhere in 1665. It was at a time after the civil war when church records were not always kept properly. I would love to find out how the family got through the war and ended up with enough money to buy the farmland and build a house!

Have a nice weekend everybody, wrap up warm

1. I would have loved to have been a farmers wife on a large Victorian farm, outside working when nice and inside a cosy warm kitchen in the winter. Seems ideal but I bet life was very hard.

2. I would love to have there when WW2 ended. What a party!

3. To stop the holocaust must be the top of my list as well.  But on a personal level to stop my Grandad going on that bl**dy roof!!!

4. Atom bombs again , Computer Games, credit cards, cosmetics and fast cars( sorry Nick but cant see the point of them other than on a race track)

5.The relative I would like to have known would have been my GGT Grandad on my fathers side, he started the family business and built the Victorian family home and named it after himself. It is still in Sowerby Bridge and is still called Clarence House. I have an old album from then with neighbours and relatives adding poems and sketches. I would love to sit with him and go through all the names in it. He was one for gettin everyone photographed but never put any names on the backs so many of the family photos are a mystery, he could tell me who all those faces belong to as well. A grand old chap he was.

Crikey those were hard and I thought of them