What a week!

On Sunday, I met INTO’s US/ICOMOS intern at Heathrow Airport.   Katie is studying for a Masters in Historic Preservation and will be spending ten weeks with INTO learning more about international heritage conservation and helping us with knowledge management.   She will be writing her own blog sharing some of her experiences so I don’t want to pre-empt that, but I did want to just share a few thoughts.

I had been rather nervous of introducing Katie to our home and family.  Even though she’s a heritage ‘bod’, I did wonder what a young post-grad from Florida would make of our rustic life amid the faded Capability Brown landscape of the Grange at Northington, our slightly feral children and simple ways.   Would she be terrified by the lack of obvious entertainment in the British countryside?   What would she think about the wild bees living in the wall cavity of her bedroom, the concrete trench running across the floor of the kitchen, the damp patches and general dilapidation of the house my parents had loved for forty something years?

Luckily, Katie is a huge fan of Harry Potter so is already well in with our Hogwarts-obsessed offspring.   A girl friend of her’s back home wants to be a beekeeper and is dead jealous of the wildlife outside her window.    And of course Katie has embraced the whole bucolic landscape and somewhat disorganised lifestyle with enthusiasm and good grace.

Seeing your world through the eyes of a stranger can be very enriching.   But it can also be quite alarming.  I was taken aback at how many meetings we have.  And how protracted and inessential some of them seem to be.   Suddenly I’m hit by a real doubting feeling, ‘what’s she going to learn from us?’ and I need reminding of what we’re good at.

Oftentimes we’re so involved in the doing that it’s hard to have the clarity of vision to think about the bigger picture.  It is definitely something I’m trying to move away from but looking back at this week, what do I see?   A long day of meetings, meetings, meetings in the office on Monday.   A discussion about finances and banking arrangements on Tuesday.   A great encounter with David Bond (the film maker behind Project Wild Thing) in London on Wednesday (and other useful and informal meetings).  Talks about the International Conference of National Trusts in Cambridge on Thursday (in an office with a magnificent view of Kings College, one of the main venues next year).    And in between all the meetings?   Final arrangements for INTO representation at the European Conference on Industrial Tourism in Spain next week.  Working with the Czech National Trust on their London launch on 18th June.  Making plans for things to do with Katie over the coming 10 weeks (volunteering at the Stonehenge Solstice, involvement in a Fit for the Future event about energy efficiency in heritage buildings, joining a workshop about the 2015 Magna Carta celebrations). Planning INTO’s involvement in the Global Heritage Forum in September.   Translating a Russian article into English for publication in the next edition of Views, blogging, facebooking …

Seeing things anew through youthful eyes, I feel that I too have a lot to learn (particularly about diary management and being more strategic!) but I’m feeling inspired and invigorated.  

Rather than rushing home after meetings in London on Wednesday, we took the time to explore – not something I do these days unless I’m with the children – and we came across the Royal Marines Beating Retreat on Horse Guards Parade (they tell me the Queen and the Duke were there but it was impossible to tell from where we were!), a lovely artisan bakery in Clapham, even the joys of watching/hearing Big Ben strike seemed somehow fresh.    I think it’s going to be a good ten weeks!