From a Distant archive, far, far away. 18.

All this month of July the editorial staff of Bitsnbobs have shut themselves away in the distant archives. They hope to turn up a few gems, but whatever they find THERE will appear HERE.

'What was that? It sounded like a phone. But we don’t have a phone.'

This conversation took place in The Archives the other night and is now, of course, archived itself.

It’s become part of the whole.

This happens in The Archives – to artefacts and people alike. They become part of the whole.

That ........ or they wholly fall apart.

We looked around at each other – all asking the same unspoken question (did you smuggle a mobile phone past Mrs Penny ?– she’ll kill you!).

We hadn’t.

We know better.

Then we started searching.

The ringing continued and we tracked it down to behind a wall in the 1980’s (remember that the rooms that hold most, we think, of The Archives are in fact caves).

The walls were pretty thick but the ringing was insistent – ‘it sounds like 1986’, said someone.

Long-distance.

The investigation continues…….




You in the van?
You too sweet d...
We've arrived!
No we are in the...
Ooh it's ok i will r...
Ah me no xx tha...
Very good! You c...
Marks An der flo...
Did you get my s....
So tired today i....
Please call me ba...
Well done i just p...
Have a good trip...
Pound! Did you y...
Isn't that treaso...
Watching top ha...
N


editors note - something happened here, fire broke out in the archives, there are no sprinklers and most of this list was lost, this is all that remains. Shame, it was a good one too.