h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I first encountered Wand'rin Star in 2000.

I joined h2g2 on 1 September 2000, and posted a comment in the Peer Review conversation of her Old British Money entry on the 5th (F50012?thread=72345&skip=4). I subsequently talked with her quite a bit on the British English and British English Sequel conversations.

I'm going to meet her tomorrow! We're planning on a trip around the Archaeology Museum.

I hope you both had a great time

Hi Gnoman and Wandring'star.

Have a wonderful time wandering around the Archaelogy Museum.
Wanterin' star is also a friend of mine. To the best of my memory I think she has just returned from H.K. which I visited when two of my children were living there. I hope that she has settled down well on the Emerald Isle. I think she has family there.

Have a drink on me please!!. Trish Guiness and Champagne called "Black Velvet" by my Russian husband,(No. 2 of three!!) was a great favourtie of mine in the days when I could drink. !!

With affection

Christiane
AlsoRan80

Do have a lovely time and let us know what happened. I've known you both so long, too - I wish I could join you!

What a good idea Trillians Child.

We have also known one another a long time. !!

Have just been to your home page. You do a lot of writing.
Wonderful

Have a good evening.

Christiane
Also Ran80

Gnomon is absolutely the right person to go round an Irish museum with as he knows lots of stuff that isn't on the exhibit labels. I was amazed at how far back Irish history goes and how pretty some of the very old jewelry is.Gold that is thousands of years old looks new

Hi wanderin star.

I must agree gnoman must be the ideal guide.

Is it Irish gold or where did they import the gold from for the jewellery?

I thought of you today and hoped you were having agood time.

Wit all good wishes


christiane AR80

All Irish gold. Masses of it. I'm surprised the Romans left it alone. I suppose they needed to subdue the rest of us first.

I arranged to meet Wand'rin Star at 2 at the museum. I was travelling in on the tram (the 'Luas'), and a woman sat down opposite me and smiled very warmly at me; I smiled back. Then as the tram proceeded, she kept catching my eye. Then I thought, I don't know exactly what Wand'rin Star looks like, but she is probably about the same age as this woman. It will be really odd if we both walk from the tram to the museum and then it turns out that this is her. Given that Wand'rin Star is a grammar teacher, it might even be she.

It wasn't.

I was 10 minutes late - people who know me well know that this doesn't happen often. I apologise. Wand'rin Star was standing on the steps, waiting, peering at all the tall bearded men going past. We quickly made our acquaintance. It really is strange to meet someone you know quite well for the first time. She is exactly as I expected, but now I can picture her and her voice.

So we proceeded into the museum, which as Star has already said has an amazing collection of gold. It used to be thought that there was very little gold in Ireland, and what little there was was not worth mining. But recently they've changed their minds and think that most of the gold actually came from Ireland. The ancient people did not mine for gold, but they knew how to pan for it in the rivers. The Bronze Age people who lived in Ireland from 2000 BC to 500 BC used to collect golden jewelry and bury it in the bog, apparently never intending to retrieve it, so it must have been intended as an offering to some god or other. We know nothing about their gods because they never wrote anything down. But we've got loads of the gold, looking as good as new despite being between 2,500 and 4,000 years old.

There is also a good exhibition of the intricate "Celtic Christian" decorated goldwork with the celtic knotwork panels. This is much more recent being from the 8th and 9th Centuries. The best examples are the Cross of Cong, the Tara Brooch, the Ardagh Chalice and the Derrynaflan Chalice.

The rest of the museum is fairly standard stuff, with a nice little Egyptian section, lots of Viking artefacts and a Mediaeval section. Eventually we both felt the need for a nice cup of coffee and a bun.

What with the chatting, the ancient artefacts and the coffee, three very enjoyable hours had gone by. The time had come to part, and we went our separate ways.

It was great to see you, Star!

I still haven't looked up "crotals". I'll let you know what I find.

Dear wanderin star** and gnoman,

Your tram ride into the museum made me laugh. Do you go about smiling at strange ladies on public transport Gnoman ? Didn't you arrange to have either a boutonniere or an umbrella furled up under the right arm or something easily recognisable like that.? I do not think I could recommend either of you for training as potential spies in the secrtet service!!

Poor wanderin star** - How could you be late for the meeting? I know what I would have done - walked off!! It must have made her very worried. I have a picture in my mind of her. And of course I have seen you. But to the best of my memory you were tall and cleanshaven
!!
Anyway, thahk you for the details about the gold. It seems incredible that they there was so much gold in Ireland. In South Africa they had to dig thousands of feet deep for the gold. In California they found it in the rivers. Do they have extra special protection for all these valuables? Are there any pictures which you can show us.? Does it look like modern jerwellery?

Sorry lots of questions. I am amazed that so long ago gold already had such intrinsic value. I wonder why,.

Thanks again fro sharing your lovely day at the Archeological Mseum with us.

Christiane.
AlsoRan80

Christiane, I have not been clean-shaven in 30 years!

I'm sure if Star had been worried about my non-arrival, she could have rung me. We had of course exchanged mobile phone numbers, and if I had been a few minutes more late I would have rung her.

Here's one of the Celtic Christian chalices:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Derrynaflan_chalice.jpg

Note the little panels of celtick knotwork made from gold.

This is a brooch from the Celtic CHristian period:

http://www.haverford.edu/engl/faculty/Sherman/Irish/brooch.htm

Now for some of the Bronze Age Jewellery:

http://www.museum.ie/en/exhibition/gallery/irelands-gold-photo-gallery.aspx

And here's an interesting one. This item is for putting in a hole in a chieftain's earlobe:

http://www.dublinks.com/index.cfm/loc/9/pt/0/spid/C657F0EE-36EB-4474-A58C4CA283DD3039.htm

It's about 10 cm across, so the earlobes had to be stretched over years by starting with small ones and gradually increasing the size.

The one thing I DID know about Gnomon was that he had a beard. So do a surprising number of his countrymen. Ireland is probably one of the few places where it is still possible to accost people you don't know and I've had many pleasant conversations over the years on buses, trains or in pubs with people I'll never see again. An American colleague was horrified when a complete stranger bought me a drink in a city centre pub -not Black Velvet, but a hot whisky on a cold day.

Dear Gnoman,

Oh dear!!

Bottom of the class.

Do you kno when I was writing about y9u being clean shaven, I suddenly"saw" you with a beard. !
Really, I do apologise. !!

I shall look at those lovely things tomorrow mjorning.

Ear lobes
When I read that I suddenly remembered that there is a particular trive in Southern Africa who have their ear lobes piecerced and slowly insert a round of something into them. The diameter of the circle inseert eventually must be at least 2 inches. I hope I remember more about it tomorrow morning.

In the meantime my profuse embarassed apologies.
When, and if we ever meet again, - No but you see you have a great advantage because of the wheelchair. !!Mine!!

Go well both of you.

Glad the hot whisky was bought for you. ~But I still love black Velvets M|mmmmm.

Christiane. AlsoRan80