Wednesday 30th October

 30/10/24

I started my working day on Wednesday by beginning full excavation of the first cleaned section of our basalt rock feature, that we interpret as a wall. The first task was to remove these surface stones but as I got towards the middle of the section they got deeper, larger and more compact, making them harder to remove. This find so far supports the idea that this feature was a wall because the centre would likely be the base of the wall, where the larger foundation stones would lie. Sarah continued excavating the other quarter section of my previous feature and continued to get deeper, finding more large rocks, and proving the feature to be more inconsistent than previously thought. Whilst we did this a quarry worker came with a digger to remove bedrock from the flint mine in area 1A. This is the bedrock above one of mine shafts that were excavated earlier, it is being removed as the shaft was deemed too deep to fully excavate. With the removal of a 1m layer of bedrock above means we can further excavate the shaft by at least another metre. This will happen with all the shafts that were not fully excavated, it is exciting as if the shafts continue to dive under the bedrock it will be easily the most complex Neolithic flint mine in Ireland. The diggers involvement resulted in a bit of a mess, so when it had done the job Naomi got us all over to start the clear up. This took the rest of the day and up to lunch time on Thursday the 31st. Seeing the exposed white surface was pretty satisfying. I ended the working day on Thursday by continuing my excavation of the 'wall' section.

On Wednesday evening, the 30th, I went to my first ever ice hockey game with Mark and Sarah. It was The Belfast Giants vs The Glasgow Clan, we got to sit at the very top of stadium where Mark and Sarah have their season tickets. The Giants won 3-0, scoring all goals in the last third. Honestly, I couldn't exactly follow what was going on but Mark attempted to teach me as we went along. Even so the atmosphere was great and I had a really fun time, I will definitely be returning. Call me a Giants fan through and through!

Friday the 1st of November was my CSR health and safety training. This was a death by powerpoint day with a multiple choice test at the end, it was pretty boring but our trainer, Damian, was jokes. At least now I have the qualification for 4 years. I needed to go through town to get home so stopped of for a couple pints and some food which was really nice, I went back to the first pub I went in Fibber Magee, a great Guinness and good vibes as usual. 

Saturday is Newcastle vs Arsenal in the league, its an important game to stay up with City and Liverpool. Other than that I'm gonna catch up on some work and have a quiet weekend in.