Back from the Dead

I am sat in the only free space of my bedroom, surrounded by boxes comprising of all I have accumulated over a year. I've moved out. For a month. It was sad leaving as I really enjoyed living in that house with my housemates. Oh well. I'll only be moving round the corner.

Now I am sat with what looks to be the second draft of my dissertation, complete with pictures and references! Its still way off completetion yet, as some of my sentences are a bit too wordy and a couple of references need to be completed, but it is a dissertation nonetheless. I've been very lucky in comparison to that of some of my friends as this is all I've had to do since I finished with the Shakespeare. Some of my friends are true machines, working part time and writing a dissertation, which is something that I will need to get used to for the next 3 years. The only setback I had occurred a few nights ago, when my computer was hit with 3 viruses which knocked it into a coma. Fortunately I had backed everything up, but it was slightly annoying having to trek to the library or the department to work on it. However, last night, I restored it to its factory settings, and its back in the dissertation game.

What else have I done? Ah I went to France for 4 days which was nice. Although I spent alot of it on the diss (I always seem to panic when I leave Exeter). I popped into my old job for a day and got to work with my sister which was pretty cool. It was great seeing everyone again, and what made it special was that some of the kids from last year were there.

Today, I was supposed to be working on my introduction, but Mum, Loz and me got sidetracked by some documents that belonged to my Grandad. There dated in the 1650s and are connected to the English Civil War. Basically, it seems that we might be connected to Guy Fawkes in some way, which is pretty cool and might explain why I like V for Vendetta so much. Anyways, I scanned them into the computer and brought out the details to make them legible. The title is that of 'A Perfect Djurnal of Passages in Parliament' (written in ye olde english) which was the title of one of the earliest newspapers in Britain. This specimen however, is even rarer and looks to be notations made by a journalist for the newspaper. We still havn't deciphered all of it yet, but we are going to contact the British History Museum - who have a large collection of similar artifacts - for help.

Mum and I are fascinated by the history, my brother wants to know how much it's worth. Bless his capitalistic cotton socks.

Update: The signature of the document seems to be that of Thomas Winter who was...
"Sir Thomas Winter, 2nd Baronet of Huddington Court, was born in 1620, the only son of Robert Winter and Ann Faulks, who was of Flemish descent. His father Robert, was the youngest son of Robert Wintour the gunpowder plotter."