My back pages

This has been my first week in my new role as a trainee archivist. I have become a trainee on a train, commuting into city centre Manchester. It's an early start, not least because of the hour change with British Summer time. No school traffic, but lots of dog walkers. It makes me realise that if I had acted on impulse a few months ago and got a dog,I would be up and out just as early! The week has taken me through some of my own back catalogue.I arranged to stay with a friend of a friend in Manchester at the beginning of the week. One of her close friends is the midwife who delivered my daughter at home all those years ago. She showed me her favourite handbag, bought from my former husband when we lived in Didsbury back in the day. The temporary city library is now housed in the building where we got married, and my familiarisation visit to the North West Film Archive reconnected me with one of our witnesses! I found photo albums on the archive shelves, labelled in my handwriting, credited to my maiden name when I worked for Manchester Studies. In the Manchester Collection I found my grandfather and great grandfather at their address on Mulberry St in the Cotton Exchange directories. I found bound copies of the New Manchester Review, though I didn't have time to find my pieces on food politics, written when I worked at On the 8th Day. Quite a week!