Always fancied a shabti of my very own.

You know - a shabti is the small figurine buried with the dead in ancient Egypt, which came to life and became an eternal servant? Pharoahs were buried with boxes of them, to be brought to life by a special spell. Never mind waiting until I am dead, and needing servants in the afterlife... I'd like a few in the kitchen, please, and I'd like to know the spell right now!

If you fancy a shabti, you can make your own in one of the many activities being organised as part of the Festival of British Archaeology. There's lots going on in and around Berkshire. Plenty of details about what you can do, where to go etc are on the BBC Berkshire website.

I'm determined to get down to the dig going on at Silchester.

According to my guest this morning, you can go there and walk around while the archaeologists are digging away right in front of you. You could be there for one of their Eureka moments when they actually find something fabulous!

I asked Professor Michael Fulford, who's in charge of the whole project, what it's like when you actually discover a real "find".

He said he recently held a lump of crud (his word, very descriptive) in his hand and knew it was something brilliant. He said it was too heavy to be just mud, or clay. It turned out to be a first century AD statuette. Fantastic! But, according to archaeologists, the 80/20 rule applies to their everyday work. It's 80% hard slog, in the wet and cold and dirt, just digging away with nothing to show for it. 20% of the time, though, it's worth it!

It's probably like that for most people, isn't it?