Weird Science...

I was reading my free issue of Stylist this week when I came across a small box containing 'random science facts'.  My curiosity piqued, I read on to discover:

a) there are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the Earth (what, there are other human beings below the surface??)

b) the microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket (what was it doing in his pocket - chocolate is for eating?)

c) an inflated balloon contains about a hundred billion trillion air molecules (I can't even imagine this number but that's quite a lot, isn't it?)

and

d) our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing (I don't know whether to be worried about all the little porkies I've told or to try and measure my eyes!)

These facts (and some other ones too) were all courtesy of the Science Museum promoting something called Who Am I? which apparently opens on June 26th.  Which all sounded very erstwhile and count-on-able (and maybe even worth a visit) until I re-read fact number one in the box:

Scientists don't know what makes up 90% of the Universe!

Might just stay at home....

I Get No Kick From Champagne....

It's been a busy week following last Sunday's blog and there have been a number of highlights not the least of which was seeing Jamie Cullum live at the London Palladium on Sunday night.  This was my Christmas present to the lovely J so after much anticipation (about 5 months in fact), 7.30pm found us in our stalls seats brimming with excitement.

As with all shows, there's a support act that you don't really know much about which can be delightfully surprising or something that's just getting in the way of the main act.  Lucky for us Eliza Doolittle (yes that is her name) was the former - her uber-understated image made us really focus on her amazing voice and her songs had something of a Lily-Allen-esque quality which we both loved.

But we were there for Jamie and the show was amazing.  How can someone play the piano like that and leap about and sing...and still have the energy to have a 'little chat' at the mike every so often. I was exhausted just watching him!  'Gran Torino' is one of our favourite songs (the movie is a must-see!) and this ended the show nicely after an absolute rollercoaster ride of tunes. But my favourite for the entire evening was this amazing duet between Jamie and the guy playing the Double Bass (Chris?) - a rendition of 'I Get A Kick Outta You'.  It was so very very very cool...I didn't want it to end...I can still see and hear it now...and in fact, I couldn't sleep Sunday night for thinking about it all.

And being the sensible girl that I am, I am hereby ending this post before I get myself all worked up again...these days it doesn't take much!

Negotiation...Alfie-style...

I haven't written anything about Alfie Bear for a little while and I've been meaning to share another of his little adventures with you for some time now...his first bath!

This was not entirely enjoyable experience for young Alfie and it was with considerable trepidation (me) and squirming (him) that I managed to get him into the tub...

(Note the blurred pic...that bear is a wriggler!)

 I thought I had convinced him to be good, that it really wasn't so bad (basically to stop being such a big girl which he did not like a all) and it would all be over in a flash if he would just stay still.  But I turned my back for an instant and he was off - on a mission to get as far away as possible and completely undeterred by the steep drop from the bench-top to the kitchen floor...

...but quick as a flash, he was back in the tub, soaped up, rinsed off and wrapped up all nice and warm again...

Drying such a furry little thing in all his cuteness takes quite some time and although he protested to begin with, I think Alfie rather liked his post-on-high atop the drying rack!

And soon we had a sparkling clean (in a furry kind of way), honey-sticky-paws-less Alfie...

He is not, however, convinced that bathing is at all necessary and bath number 2 remains to be negotiated.

An e-Mother's Day...

So we've arrived at my second Mother's Day for 2010 (in my schizophrenic UK-Oz life) and my Mum is on a plane right now, wing-ing her way to the West Coast of the States, then to France...and then to me here in the UK! 

That's right, in just 17 sleeps, I will be at Heathrow Airport waiting to see my Mum for the first time in 3 years...

So in honour of this year's second Mother's Day, I thought I'd tell you about one of Mum's very special skills...something very few people actually know about my Mum (particularly since she stopped doing my hair ooooh about 35 years ago!)...RINGLETS!

I figured the best way to showcase this awesome talent was in a old family pic of Mum, me and my little sister (fondly known as Lil Chicky)...

...and yes, that is me in the ringlet pigtails.

I could go into a litany of trauma experienced under the auspices of said ringlets (but there weren't any) or trot out some other juicy tidbits that most people would not know about Mum.  But I do have other things to be getting on with today and I've just remembered that it's supposed to be a day to honour thy mother, not give her a complete (if gentle) roasting.

So here's to Mums everywhere (Mark 2) and especially to mine somewhere States-side...

Only 17 sleeps to go...


BTW, I thought that my Mother's Day e-card might make it before she left for the airport. But any hope of that disappeared upon opening Facebook and being reliably informed by Lil Chicky in her latest post that she had in fact been up since 4.45am Oz time to take said parent and travelling partner to the airport. Buggar! Best laid plans eh? But I figure the e-card is still out there in the ether and will hopefully provide a little e-surprise when Mum visits an internet cafe somewhere on her travels...