Odd Tweets...

I briefly discovered Twitter a while ago…and quickly decided that I didn’t like it. There are a few people who manage to tweet interesting and funny twitter, but most of it is advertisement (see me live here now!) dull (I’m gona update you on every little thing I do every moment of the day…) or just plain weird… So I quickly ran away again.

However a friend of mine is working very hard in ‘science communication’ and decided that for fun (and practice) she’d set up a blog with a few of us guest authoring posts (The Birds and the Bees…) and in addition there would also be…Twitter.

So after much deliberation I decided that just for her I would try again this evil thing they call ‘twitter’… I will post the occasional sciency tweet or bee update as ‘thesciencesays’ (look right, and down a bit...ok down a lot...then don’t click on the links ‘cos they try to open in the tiny window! Silly thing. Right click ‘open in new tab/window’ instead. Much better!)

I still don’t like twitter…but I have found a few people on there I like…Nick Baker for one:) He used to present The Really Wild Show a few years back and I may have had the biggest crush on him (well he was hot and had, to me, the perfect job in the world! He got to travel all over the place and see the most amazing animals ever and then tell the world about them! Brilliant!)


I’m sure there are many other people worth following too, it’s just a case of digging through the stuff you don’t like to find it…maybe later…for now Pav time. Very cheap alcohol and good company, what more could you ask for, chocolate you say? Well they have that too! Woo Hoo!

Facebook oddities...

Have you noticed these raising awareness things on facebook? ‘Cos I keep completely missing them. Yes my awareness has completely failed to be raised. Well not completely as I’m now writing this post...but I do keep missing them at the time.

The first one I missed was people posting odd colours...which turned out to be bra colours. This was somehow meant to be linked to breast cancer awareness. I’m not sure if I missed it because I don’t go on facebook enough, am generally unobservant or just simply expect people to post odd crud in that ‘message of the day’ section. But I completely failed to take part...and strangely I don’t really care.

Next they tried to repeat the above (which was I vaguely remember reported a lot on the news at the time...) by getting you to write about ‘where you like it’ nudge nudge wink wink...although what we’re really talking about is your handbag... This one I did know about if only because my little sis (or more accurately my middle sister who being younger than me I can call my little sis...who has incidentally just got engaged!!) sent me a message with all the details...but I don’t actually have a handbag...or if I do then it’s probably buried at the bottom of a cupboard somewhere...so I didn’t take part in that one either. That I’m not overly worried about either. I’m not sure I noticed anyone else getting involved either...

The one I am annoyed about is the most recent one (at least the most recent one I actually spotted) where people changed their profile pics to show their fav cartoon characters! Now that I would have liked to do. What better excuse for a fun nostalgic google search for cartoon oddities? I admit that I probably could still join in now, but I feel it may be a little late for all that.

The idea was to have a break from pictures of real people in the hopes of somehow raising awareness against child abuse...so I guess I’m already ahead of the game on that one. See I haven’t had a real picture of me as my profile pic for...ages. I hate having my pictures taken (although me and Miss Millie’s witchy photo shoot was hilarious fun!) but generally my facebook pictures tend towards odd animals instead. At the moment in fact it’s a bunny sat at a computer...

Which reminds me, look up and right, yep there’s another bunny. I’m not entirely sure why. It’s not like I have a thing for bunnies or anything. In fact blog bunny is actually a plot bunny (anyone who writes fanfic will know what that is) ’Plot bunnies lurk in the strangest places’ including apparently tea cups and my profile pictures... Maybe I should have a change... I mean I've picked up some odd icons over the years...

Odd Bob does Science...

I am doing proper science at work atm! Not that I don’t always do proper science; but normally it’s behavioural experiments (watch the bees completely fail to do what you expect them to do, or what you don’t expect them to do, or in fact anything interesting...then come back tomorrow and do it again!) Or the ‘fun’ job of writing everything up (if you can’t guess, that was sarcastic. I really don’t like writing reports)

Today however I was actually in the lab. I was even wearing a lab coat! I was doing stuff that involves acronyms that make no sense to most non-scientists (or me most of the time)! I feel strangely more scientific than normal, and in celebration of this I decided to find some odd science to blog about.

You can eat cloned meat!!

On the BBC news site the other day was the amazing news that we can eat cloned meat without becoming oddly mutated or dying of cancer or anything. (Damnit and I was looking forward to becoming a Marvel super hero!) This isn’t anything new. A pilot study back in 2005 came to exactly the same conclusion. Besides in the US many farmers breed from cloned animals to increase yields.

In the UK however we’re still a little freaked out about all this new science like GM and cloning. Then some cloned meat was accidentally sold and eaten this summer and I guess people wanted to do more checks. Besides the Soil Association were getting their knickers in a twist again. The point is that there is no significant difference between cloned and 'natural' cattle in terms of the milk and meat produced.

Will this report stop people freaking out about these 'novel foods'? Um...I doubt it. But the main argument against GM and cloning that I actually agree with is that we don't yet know enogh about the long term issues asociated with them, so I guess we have to start somewhere. Maybe one day cloned meat will be as normal to us as any other food. We cetainly have to find some way to feed our ever growing population.

I’ll probably write a fuller post about this on The Birds and the Bees at some point. It looks interesting...

In the mean time I’ll continue dreaming of some radiation/GM/other random experiment at work going horribly wrong so that I gain amazing new super powers...

Odd Bob's Good News...

So I’ve ‘won’ nano! Woo hoo!

That sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. All it really means is that I've writtn 50 000 words in under 30 days...It was very impressive but slightly overshadowed by some even bigger good news. News that I probably should have started this post with:

My little sister just got engaged!


(Yes that is her actual ring, innit perty! So shiny...)


I have two younger sisters and I can never remember how old they are! I’ve been getting it wrong all day by telling everyone that the newly engaged (middle) one is 21...actually she’s 20! That may be a little young for engagement you may say, but she’s been talking about settling down and having kids probably since before she was even interested in boys! She was always going to be the first of the three of us to get hitched and the lucky (or maybe unlucky) guy who proposed is perfect for her.

But whilst I knew that she would be the first of us down the aisle...I didn’t think that it would be quite so soon! Since I found out I’ve been sling shotting between ‘woo hoo! That’s brilliant!’ and ‘OMG that’s scary!’ and back again. It got worse when she said that I would have to be a bridesmaid and wear a pink dress!

Now you probably don’t know much about me yet if you’re one of those random people who have stumbled on this blog and decided to have a read...so here’s some quick details:

I hate dresses. I will occasionally dress up on very rare occasions but I prefer trousers if possible and jeans are best. If I ever get married I can so imagine strutting down the aisle in Jane Normal Jeans...Classy.

I’m not overly fond of pink either. The majority of my clothes tend towards the black end of the spectrum with occasional forays into red, blue and purple. There’s some white and grey too of course and I have some amazing turquoise cords...but not so much pink...

And yet she has decided that a pink dress is the way to go.

I’ve decided that if she wants me to wear a pink dress she will need to bride me with a lot of chocolate!

I have also decided that it is her special day so if I have to I would even wear this:


Just don’t tell her that!

Odd Bob's Train Curse...

I’ve been meaning to write up this one for a while...

I’m sure most people out there have their own train related stories of doom, falling asleep and winding up the other end of the country or losing luggage or something. I am slowly building up a nice collection of cursed tales of which these are just a couple...

So there was the Wales field trip at uni. All I had to do was get a train from Leicester to Pembroke and back again. Not too difficult right? Except on the way there someone threw themselves in front of the train which was therefore cancelled. I was at the station early, but not early enough to get the previous (uncancelled) which everyone else managed to get on so I had to get the later train and then they had to send the mini bus back to pick up me and the one other girl who had failed to be on the early train! (The minivan then waited in the car park whilst we were freezing on the platform! Lovely! But eventually we found each other).

Then on the way back we missed a change in Bristol I think, then one of the girls had her ticket in her bag which got moved to the luggage compartment so she then had a huge argument with the ticket collector and almost got us thrown off the train! (Thankfully being incredibly tired and stressed from the field trip she then proceeded to burst into tears and the lady felt so sorry for her she fetched tissues and water and let us stay!) Then, finally back in Leicester almost an hour later than planned...I got off the train only to realise that my wellies were still on board. I hopped back to get them and the door closed just as I was about to get off again. So I wound up in Melton Mowbray with an hour to wait for the next train back!
That one simple return journey to Pembroke took 8 hours to get there and 9 hours to get back! Fun!

Then there was the trip to York for a Student Forum meeting. I had my tickets in advance so that they were reasonably priced...then realised, once on the train, that my tickets were for a different time from everyone else. So I had to buy new tickets on the train. London to York at over £100! Eeek!

And then the other day I used the annoying little machine on the platform to get tickets up to Warwick where I have my second year report feedback meeting (argh!) I had to be up at 4am to get my train on time so was not quite awake when I went to get tickets (so should have got them in advance, but you saw how well that worked for York) I found the page of tickets for Leamington Spa, On the left was ‘Off Peak Single’ and ‘Anytime Single’, on the right ‘Off Peak Returns’ via London or Birmingham and then ‘Anytime...’ well I assumed return, bought it and then realised, nope, that was a single. A single that cost more than the off peak returns! I then realised that given that it was still 5am I could use off peak tickets anyway! The ticket office hadn’t opened yet so I couldn’t go change it so I had to pay for new off peak return tickets!

I have now filled out some annoying paper work in the hopes that they might give me some money back. I really hope that they do.

Oh well, it could always be worse:


It’s at time like these that I think I really should get on and learn to drive!

Alcohol induced oddness...

After some odd Chinese alcohol, vodka and cider...I decided that it was time to write. I’m not sure if this was a good or a bad idea, I will find out when I reread everything in the morning.

I started with nano (see last post) because I was a little behind on words today. I’m now caught up on words but I may need to rewrite in the morning...we will see.

I moved on to the forums (I may have mentioned this previously too) apparently one of my threads has become quite popular and I spent far too long replying to every single person who had commented...I’m not sure this was necessary but alcohol told me that it was!

Finally I have moved on to the blog so I apologise if this is nonsensical and/or odd. It’s now gone 3 in the morning and I am still wide awake and buzzing so I had to find something to do! I may now give up and go to sleep...but I will leave you with cute pictures:




Which make it all worth it!

Bob's odd November...

It’s November, which means a couple of things for me:

1. My room is flipping freezing! With no central heating and a single glazed window which moves in the wind 15’C is average to warm for this side of the year. Time to find out the blow heater, ski socks and start sleeping in a jumper again!

2. Second year report viva:S So the big report is written and handed in, but now I need to go and get feedback both here (Rothamsted) and up in Warwick. I’m just waiting for people to realise that I really should not be doing a PhD. I mean what were they thinking letting me loose on a research project?

3. and most importantly: NANO! Nanowrimo is short for ‘national novel writing month’ which is basically a month in which you are challenged to write 50 000 words in 30 days. It started in America but has slowly spread and last year my local library’s email told me all about the crazy challenge and I thought ‘hey what the hell?’


I mean I already write stuff all the time. Usually getting to about 8000 words and then getting bored and moving on to something new. How hard can it be to stick with something long enough to reach 50 000 words?

The answer is pretty Damned hard!

Somehow, through either luck or miracle, I got to 50K last year (go me!) then carried on to complete (the first draft) of an 80k novel (double go me!) It still needs a lot of work and probably a complete rewriting in places, but still I feel a huge sense of achievement just to have finally got from the start of something to the end.

So it’s not all that surprising that my brain went ‘the end you say? What is this strange thing? Nope we are not done yet, there is more...’
Which is why this year I’m back (as Elenelathuin if you are bored enough to go have a search) and writing the sequel.

In book 1 Con realised that his brother in law is a demon, his grandfather trained a Fairy to be a PI and he might be a little bit gay. (Well he did sell his Name to find the only woman he would ever love, and then she cheated in him!)

So now in book 2 Con gets kidnapped and it’s up to his ‘potential’ new boy friend (yeah they were just about to have that big moment where they work out whether they really do like each other or if it was just the whole near death experience thing when the goblin who sometimes looks like a clown broke in on them. Typical!) to go save him.

I’m over 30k in now and loving every minute. Although it is so easy to get distracted by ‘the forums’. Here there are games to play, questions to answer and people in serious plot hols in need of shovels. I could spend all day running round them...but I can’t. November remember: must write, must also do work, and insulate room...fun.

Oh and apparently I’m organising the Christmas party for my department...which may become the Christmas party for the whole of Rothamsted...O dear...Help!!!

Bob's Odd Sport...

I discovered a new odd sport yesterday. And by discovered I mean I went to a friend’s house to watch zombies and would up watching this strange new sport on Scottish TV.

The zombie thing was ‘The Walking Dead’, which I wasn’t overly impressed by. It was great at building suspense, but then completely failed to use it. The whole point of anything zombie related is either to gross you out with decaying, flesh eating madness. Or build up stupid levels of suspense then make you jump. The building up they managed, but I didn’t jump once! Oh well, maybe it’ll get better as the series progresses. And maybe the protagonist will learn some of the basic rules for zombie survival. Like to stop leaving his guns lying around right when he’s going to need them! He was a bit of an idiot.

But that’s not what I wanted to blog about. What I wanted to blog about is Shinty/Hurling.

Shinty is a Scottish sport not unlike Hockey. The players thwack a ball up and down a pitch using hockey-like sticks called camen and try to get it into a goal or hail. The main difference from Hockey that I can see is that it’s a little more violent. Sticks can be used to block and hit over head so other players have to work hard not to get brained!

Hurling is the Irish equivalent and is mostly similar from what I can tell although the sticks, or hurleys, are much broader and can be used to flick the ball up off the ground and even to carry it like an odd egg and spoon race! The goals are also different with Shinty goals being like a football net whilst Hurling goals are like rugby posts.

The fun comes when the two are combined! Scotland vs Irland. Shinty vs Hurling. The rules are modified a little so that they fit but it’s pretty much like a fast and violent hockey match with goals scored by thwacking the ball between the hurley posts or into the shinty net. The Irish players flick and carry the ball, the Scottish players dribble and thwack and everyone tries not to get hit around the head and often fails. I saw at least one player who needed a broken nose patching up. But being Scottish he was back on the pitch barely two minutes later! (Almost as good as the motoGP riders who carry on racing with broken bones!)


I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the most sporty of people. I mean I dislocated by elbow playing badminton of all things. The only sports I really do now are for the inter departmental league at work, which I only do because the rules state that each team requires at least one girl and I usually can’t find anyone else to bug into doing it. So there’s no way you’d ever see me playing this insane game...but watching it is another matter. The commentary was entirely in Gaelic; the players names the only bit I could understand except for a few brief translations from James. But that didn’t matter at all. It’s fast, often brutal and totally insane. I love it!

Bob's odd holiday

Yes I know I’ve not written anything here in ages. No I didn’t die; scarily I’ve actually been doing work! (Shock horror!) Then I finally got my summer holiday…at the end of October…so not so summery then. It was brilliant though. 10 days of doing nothing! (and making corrections to my second year report :( - yes even on holiday I couldn’t completely escape work)

So I was gona blog about the brilliant holiday but…it was mostly brilliant because I didn’t do anything exciting or blog worthy. I mean I saw some odd comedy and sang along to some class holiday entertainment acts, climbed a 9m climbing wall and abseiled back down, and made a voodoo fairy vanish. But other than that it was pretty much just relaxing. I did some knitting, read a few ‘fun new occult mystery novels’, watched prison break (why would someone call their kid Wentworth?) and planned for nano… not exactly blog worthy. But well needed.

I got back home on Monday and almost wished that I could go back and have another 10 day holiday…except there were 3 good things about coming home:

1. Nano has started: national novel writing month, the aim of which is to get 50 000 words worth of fiction written over 30 days (November). I did it last year so I’m having a go again.

2. I missed my snails! I’ve finally rehomed most of the babies I kept so now there’s just Nicky, Dovitz and 2 un-named not quite baby anymore snails waiting to be painted and named. I’ll post about that later me thinks.

3. My Shower!!!!

I feel the shower incident may require a whole post of its own but here goes. So we stayed in a caravan on a lovely camp site/holiday park type place with its own swimming pool and amusements and nightly entertainment (plus prize bingo which I’m reliably informed you have to dress up as a little old lady to win). There were also showers of the usual camp site standard. Always slightly too cold, you can’t move the shower head, pick one without mud walked into it and good luck keeping your clothes dry. So I usually look forward to escaping, but this time it was far worse…
There was a poo in the shower!!!


No not that Pooh, the other kind…ew.

Seriously! I mean it’s not as if the toilets aren’t right next door or anything…freaks. I feel so sorry for whichever cleaner got stuck clearing that up. Ew.

So anyhoo I am back now, back to the snails and nano and my lovely poo-free shower! And maybe back to getting some blogging done as well…although most of my free time may be taken up by blatting out 50 000 words of vaguely coherent fantasy.

Odd Bob Goes Camping...

Yes last weekend Odd Bob and Lil Miss Millie braved the freezing cold and random showers of rain to go camping! Lil Miss Millie, her cousin and ‘the guys’ turned up on Friday night when unfortunately I could not help with putting up the tent in a minor gale because I obviously had to work. Very unfortunate.


But somehow they managed it. Although I was warned, on arriving the next morning, that the tent might be ‘a little squiffy’! I don’t think the tent was all that bad, although the guy ropes were designed as an assault course of trip wires!


I was also warned that it would be freezing at night! The guys had wimped out and decided to sleep in the car and the cousin had been up at 5am, shivering too much to sleep, and gone for a hot shower to warm up! At least there wasn’t a queue at that time.


Then it rained! Luckily we had a nice little marquee to hide under with our Pimms and BBQ! Got mildly smoked out but other than that it was perfect. And not as cold that night as I’d been expecting. In fact I think everyone slept better (although for Lil Miss Millie this may have been down to the multiple layers, hat, gloves, 2 sleeping bags, and a double duvet!) I would have slept perfectly were it not for the poor lost drunk in the barbed wire fence!


Was just about to nod off when this tiny, pathetic voice starts up: ‘help…help!’ So I reluctantly go to see what’s happened and find a poor lost drunk tangled in the barb wire fence! His face was like a horror movie; half covered in blood! Naturally everyone else was snuggled up in their tents and either failed to hear me calling for help or just ignored me. (I’m told that Lil Miss’ bro and girlfriend did hear and were about to come to my rescue…just as I finally sorted the drunk out and sent him on his way!)


The joys of camping…

Odd days...

Was a brilliantly odd day yesterday. I faffed around all morning and completely failed to do anything useful other than feeding my bees, did surreptitiously watch strictly come dancing though, and the new guys did a paso just for me:) Then there was the seminar about the guy who threw random critters out of trees (‘ants, lizards, colleagues…’) the serious science was looking at the evolution of flight by studying the gliding behaviour of arboreal species…mostly just sounded like they spent an inordinate amount of time throwing random animals out of trees though.

Then the really exciting part of the day, skip the afternoon faff to head into Nodnol (London for those who haven’t seen Red Dwarf) and meet up with Lil Miss Millie and Mr Ro! Now Millie I know in the real world but Ro I had never met. To me he was just a load of words (admittedly interesting and rather witty words, but words none the less) on a screen. Now it’s like he’s a real person (not that he wasn’t real before, at least I hope he was real before…)

We also saw Emilia Fox (not quite as exciting I know) but she looked so normal, and pregnant, and kinda tired, and very pregnant, and did I mention pregnant? Was rather sureal given we'd just seen her looking not so pregnant in Merlin...


Anyhoo we decided not to go bug her for an autograph or anything annoying like that.

But that was yesterday, today I completely failed to get into work as early as planned, my experimental bees (who were fine when I fed them at 8am) have now decided to keel over and die for no apparent reason, and my snails have eaten through their temporary lid! (They haven’t escaped though, apparently they liked their cosy home and free food more than a life on the run!)

Oh well, could be worse…not quite sure I want to find out how though…

The Odd God debate...

So Hawkings may have made a few enemies with his new book basically stating that ‘There is no God’ which immediately sparked off a mildly drunken debate last night about God, the Universe and everything (42)...whilst dressed as cowboys and Indians...with a live band playing just over there...It was an interesting night.

The conclusion we came to was: ‘Um...let’s get back to this when we’re a bit more sober...and when people’s other halfs aren’t desperately trying to drag them home...and when bar staff aren’t stood tapping their feet waiting oh so patiently to tidy up.’

Not the best answer, but then I think the three of us each had our own conclusions and failed completely to sway the other two.

1. People need a God to believe in; society needs religion as a moral compass.
2. Religion has caused so much pain and war and discrimination; isn’t it better to look at things rationally and come to our own conclusions rather than taking the word of some guy who says that ‘God’ told him so...possibly several thousand years ago.
3. I am perfectly happy to let you believe whatever you want to believe so long as you don’t try to make me do the same...or kill me for not doing so...oh and I don’t need religion to tell me what’s right or wrong thank you very much.

Being one of the ‘There is no God’ crowd I should probably feel a little hypocritical for stumbling into a church this afternoon mildly hung over and in search of free tea and biscuits and an art exhibition. Then again I was there for the art rather than the religion.

Stumbling back home from a fruitless shopping trip in which I bought only 1 of the 3 things I really needed (but did find cheap cuttlefish bones for my snails, so could be worse) I was suddenly stopped by a strange (but very friendly) old man who told me I should draw on a random piece of board. Why? Um...why not seemed to be the answer. I think the idea was that this large piece of board could be doodled on by random passersby in the hopes of creating something resembling art. This was the bait to drag people into the church proper where the arts and crafts exhibition was taking place with some of the artists around to demonstrate and chat with.

Despite being half asleep, mildly hung over and really ready to just get home I actually quite enjoyed myself chatting with a cross-stitcher and nibbling on cake. I am now fully motivated to finish knitting the next sock...once I’ve had a nap...
Then back to the God debate...is there, isn’t there & does it even matter?

Wrestling, Wasps and war paint...

When two Mexican Wrestlers square off at the start of a fight can they tell, just by looking at the mask of their opponent, who is the better fighter?


Well wrestling paper wasps can. These wasps often have patterns on their faces comprised of one or two spots:


And apparently the wasps with the most spots tend to be the better fighters! What is really surprising though is that there don’t seem to be ‘cheats’ evolving. I mean you don’t get weak deer with the biggest antlers because antlers are costly to grow and maintain, but face spots don’t look that costly right? So why don’t you get weakling wasps pretending to be stronger with spotty faces?

Well it turns out that if a wasp gets into a fight with a faker (either a weak opponent with more spots or a strong opponent with less) then they are likely to attack much more ferociously than they would against a normal opponent. So the cost isn’t in getting the spots, it’s in getting caught!

And how did scientists find this out? Well that’s where the war paint comes in. Wasps were painted to look stronger (spottier) than they really were or were given hormones to make them stronger than they looked, and then sent off to wrestle. The painted or homonally stronger bees if caught out were punished! Poor things!

Find out more?

Odd knitters...

I’ve finally finished knitting my second sock! And after only six months!! Not much of an achievement I know, especially given the state of the knitting. I mean neither sock is perfect with one too short and one with a really odd heel…but I think I may just about have worked the kinks out of the ‘pattern’ (or bits and pieces of advice randomly worked into some form of knitting) so that next time may also not be perfect…but should definitely be better.

So 6 months from now is about Christmas right? Ok random family and friends of Odd Bob, if for Christmas you get a prezzies from me about the size and shape of a pair of badly knitted socks…just smile and pretend that you love them! I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually.


Until then I’ve decided to celebrate by hunting out photos of odd knitters, just look who I found:

Cary Grant:


I just love the look of concentration:P

Audrey Hepburn:


Looking a lot more elegant.

Franklin D Roosevelt:


Somehow I can’t imagine Bush or Obama knitting.

And my favourite, Dave Lister (aka Craig Charles):


Rewatched this episode vaguely recently and was amused to note that whilst he does seem to have half finished knitting in his hands throughout the scene he never actually does any knitting…

This may just have inspired me to get started on sock number 3…wish me luck:)

Baby Snails!

Just a month late... here's some pics of my baby snails:


And baby on daddy/mummy's shoulders:


As the snails are hermaphrodites they are kinda both male and female (hense they each got each other pregnant). I'm pretty sure that for the first lot of babies Dovi was the dad and Nicky the mum and vice versa for the second set (they had about 100 babies each!!)

The babies are now about a month old and a lot bigger, will have to get more pics!!

I also (finally) added some folliage to their tank including some basil and coriander (no I am not ready seasoning them for eating!!) but they do really like the herbs. Now just empty pots half burried in the tank...may need to get more.

MotoGP

So it’s welcome back to Rossi after his first major crash ever. The poor thing broke his tibia and was told he wouldn’t be able to race for 5 months! But being a crazy motoGP rider he was back again today after missing only 3 races! They’re all crazy, these motoGP riders, a couple of years back Lorenzo was riding with 2 broken ankles!


Unfortunately as soon as Rossi comes back, Randy is off, this time with both tibia and fibula broken! Poor puppy. And he was doing so well this season. He also had the most appropriate sponsors; Play Boy! (Don’t know why that’s appropriate? Look at his name!) It also means that the commentators love to go talk to him at the start of the race, his ‘brolly girl’ is always dressed up as a playboy bunny But alas, no more bunnies and no more Randy, at least until his leg is fixed up.


I know, no blogging in almost a month and then 2 in one day! Shocking.

Married and a Mummy...

Yes a lot has happened since the last time I blogged…

The world cup ended with the psychic octopus being right! Wimbledon finished without being rained off (although the one match I actually watched start to finish saw my puppy –favourite- being knocked out! I really do curse anyone I actually want to support:S) And I was forced to play volleyball and rounders as part of our inter-Departmental league at work. (I am truly awful at both.)

In other news Nicky and Dovitz were doing brilliant in the motoGP…then I missed a race in which neither of them did particularly well (so maybe I don’t even need to actively support people to curse them?) And their name sakes (the snails) became the proud parents of several hundred of the cutest little snail babies I have ever seen! (Yes that is the mummy bit of the title. There is no way I am EVER having kids. And don’t tell me I’ll change my mind in a few years, I might…but it’s highly unlikely.)

Anyway I fed Dovitz some broccoli the other day and he’s been a little lack lustre ever since and his eyes went all droopy and I thought ‘O no! I’ve killed him! Like maybe there was pesticide on the food or something… but I came in this morning and he seems fine again…as do his several hundred babies that I really wasn’t expecting to find. Have had a gooey excited new mother moment…and now realise that several hundred baby snails will not all live in the tank (no matter how gigantic it is). So if anyone wants baby Giant African land Snails (and lives in the UK) I have a few going spare! If not…the poor little guys may need to go into the freezer. (As a potentially invasive pest I am not allowed to let them go:( )

There are cute pictures of baby snails (and pics of the snails’ escape attempts) but unfortunately I can’t put them up yet…

I have killed the power adapter for my laptop and whilst new on is being delivered as we speak, for the moment I am laptopless:( This means no TV, no emails and no blogging at home! Also no getting photos from the camera! But hopefully replacement adapter should be here tomorrow…hopefully.

Now what else did I have to blog about? Oh yes, ‘married’…I got married…on frontierville. (Again there is no way I am getting married. I’m less sure on this one than the babies thing, but having watched my mum get divorced twice and the other complications of my fun family I’m not sure I ever want to put anyone else through that.) So only married in a computer game…which I am highly addicted to:S I have got to stop finding these stupid games and spend my time doing something a little more productive…like sorting out that pile of washing in the middle of my floor… maybe later, for now, I need to go find some groundhogs to clobber!

Odd Bob and Lil Miss Millie see the American idiots...

Yeah so on Saturday me and Millie and Hubby (hers not mine, I am so not married!) and birthday girl and birthday girl’s friend (hereafter BG and BGF) wandered down to Wembley Stadium to see Green Day! Woo hoo!!


Although, me being involved, things were not that simple…

So the plan was: Meet at Mill Hill Broadway (Me via train, everyone else by car)
Go from there to fav restaurant (and see if this time they might have raspberries…which of course they didn’t)
Then on to Wembley!

So naturally my train decided not to bother running on Saturday. And National Rail decided not to bother putting this on the internet. So I turn up at train station (having checked on net and bought tickets early) and…no trains!!

Luckily after some nifty texting it was all sorted and I met Millie et al and then…BG was a little car sick…all over her jeans:S Poor thing!! So quick pit stop to sort that out, dinner (with overly crispy chicken but very good Woo woo!!) off to buy clean jeans and then finally to the car park…in a school!

Sat nav then had great fun trying to direct us right through buildings, but eventually we found the right place, parked up, wandered down (just head towards the distinctive arch) bought Tshirts and found seats…just in time to miss both support acts!!


I generally wouldn’t be annoyed by this, I can never normally remember or afterwards find any support acts I’ve previously seen. But that day it was Frank Turner! Who I love! Saw him at reading a couple of years back and have been singing along to him ever since. I really enjoyed seeing him on a smaller scale where it feels friendly, intimate even I guess, but I was looking forward to seeing how he’d fare on the big stage!

O well, Green Day more than made up for it! They were brilliant. Did all their best tracks from the new album, all my favs from American Idiot and some old time ones I love! They also had a go at a few covers, annoyingly only singing snippits of each!! We wanted more!!

They were great at the whole 'audience participation' thign too, dragging people onto stage (and generally getting hugged and snogged int he process) and getting everyone to sing along (and I was surprised to fidn that I still know most of the lyrics!)

So now I’m still wandering around in my Green Day top signing along to Jesus of Suburbia …it’s a good job people here know I’m a little odd.

I survived!

Yes I survived the ‘incident’ or ‘Exercise Clover’ as it was officially named! Woo hoo!

Actually it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. Despite getting woken up at 5am by drunk and noisy people yelling and throwing stuff right outside my window and then having to be in work for 8am on a Sunday...

So it all starts with a nice briefing and no cup of tea as a fuse has blown and the inflatable tent deflated! Then we finally get started...by entering an abandon building and sitting around to wait for a while (that was pretty much the theme of the day: hurry up and wait, and wait, and wait some more...)


After a few unhelpful conversations with police officers (just wait there and help will be here soon...very soon...half an hour later...yep still on their way) we got bored and set the fire alarms off! Then found the library hidden away between abandoned offices and I read turn of the screw for a while...odd book.

Finally we were rescued from the fake chemical spill!! Admittedly by people who looked like they’d just stepped off of the set of some crappy sci fi movie, but it was a change to all the book reading and throwing buckets of sick (water) out of the window.


So then it was time for the dreaded decontamination showers...

Hidden under a giant orange poncho we all had to strip to swimwear. In a real emergency we’d have to strip fully:S Which wouldn’t be a problem under the stylish orange ponchos...but next it’s a hop into a shower tent with 4 other people and bye bye poncho! I would not have liked doing that without my bikini!


Shiny and cleaned and dressed in green scrubs and cheap-plastic-smelling water proofs we finally got free lunch (sandwiches etc) and got to go home...or in our case straight to the pub for a proper lunch. (unfortunately no pics of the lovely green scrubs and waterproofs:( )

All in all, not a bad day and I am now confident that should a major chemical spill endanger the staff at my institute...the emergency services will in no way be ready to deal with it:S From first symptoms and ambulance calling to decontamination we were waiting about 3 & 1/2 hours. Some 'casualties' were able to escape and potentially contaminate the police and anyone else near by. O and seriously injured casualties practically ignored throughout the exercise would probably have died had this been real. A little worrying.

But hopefully they should learn from this event...right? That was the whole point of the exercise.

In the mean time I think I’ll avoid too many potentially hazardous chemicals...

(PS I’m told I shouldn’t have taken any photos of this event...ooops)

What have I done?

I know I said I'd work Drew Fuller:


into the next post (Yes solely to work another 'fitty pic' into the blog, yes I know...) but something far more important has happened...

I got an email earlier this week asking for volunteers to act as casualties in, what was called, a weekend 'incident'... The idea is that all the regional fire departments, ambulances and other rescue services want to practice working together (in case of a real 'incident' requires a multi-agency response) To do this they need volunteers to play with.

I, being the wonderful person that I am (and having been bugged by my friend who couldn't do it herself but really wanted to know what would happen) signed up. O dear.

It turns out that what they want to simulate is a massive chemical spill requiring decontamination of all 'casualties'.

Which in short means that i have to turn up at work at 8am on a Sunday morning (feed my bees) then get ordered around by firemen/paramedics/random others, told to strip off my clothes (it is suggested that we wear a swimming costume for this bit) and then get shoved into a decontamination shower!

At this point I'm starting to regret having signed up...but it gets worse!

I just received a new email this morning stating that they don't have enough volunteers! This means that I may have to go through the whole process twice!!

Help!!


On the funny side (you have to look on the funny side after signing up for something like this) the 'incident' has been named 'Excercise Clover'! Which mostly just makes me think of walking a cow...

If a real emergency should transpire I get to shout 'Excercise Clover for real, for real!' he he. Not that I want there to be a real emergency, but if there is I feel I may be giggling too much to do anything useful.

Phones and chocolate do not mix!

I learnt this important (and in hind sight, obvious to anyone with half a brain cell) fact a few weeks ago. This is what happened:

Take one foil wrapped chocolate and place in pocket. Add mobile and heat gently over several hours. Remember to lean on and or sit on from time to time just to ensure that phone is liberally covered. Remove phone and swear!
Then I decided to wash the chocolate off (again not the best move; hind sight is an amazing thing...).

Surprisingly the phone still worked! Briefly. Until the battery died and I had no charger (long story). So I bought new charger, charged and...discovered that various buttons are now less than perfect. Specifically all the buttons down the right hand side and the big ‘ok’ button needed to unlock the phone! Very useful buttons in fact. Incredibly important for say entering the pin code...which I did wrong...three times.

Now I needed a PUK code! (Oooooh.) So I phoned up Orange who kindly provided a computerised voice telling me everything but what I needed to know (To hear your messages press 1, for billing information press 2, to hear plans for world domination press 3, if you are about ready to kill yourself press 4...) I tried every likely combination I could think of, (Yes I want to talk about my phone: 1. Yes I’m having trouble with my phone: 2, um now where’s the yes I need a PUK code option...?)

Finally I gave up and resorted to the internet...where I got the answer I needed 2 minutes later! Eventually forced my phone to type in the code (those buttons that didn’t work did, just about, with patient perseverance). Finally, miraculously, my phone worked again!

Currently it will do most things again (although I’ve taken the pin code off just in case). But vibrate has sadly died and half the buttons are still temperamental to say the least. But I have definitely learnt my lesson: phone + chocolate = bad combination!


And yes this was just a thinly veiled excuse for another Johnny Depp pic...I think I'll challenge myself next time to work Drew Fuller into a post...(and no I don't care if you don't know who that is, you soon will if I put him in the next post)

Odd Bob enjoys the rain...

Which is a good job considering I live in the UK where the summer consists of days of scorching sun interspersed with days of torrential rain. Pretty much like today then.

It started at 4am when the sun rose and I woke up. I think I may need new curtains:S Grumbling I rolled back over and dozed for a few hours until I could stand it no more and had to get up...or at least get lap top, which is almost like getting up.

When I finally did get up I had a quick check outside and saw someone in a jacket. Jacket weather then, I decided and dressed appropriately. I then promptly stepped outside and into an oven! I have no idea who the jacket person was but they must have been insane. It was not jacket weather. It was lather on sunscreen and search for the barest hint of a breeze kind of weather!

Admittedly this was quite enjoyable as I didn’t have to be bundled up in a bee suit and slowly cooking to death. But you’re probably wondering where the rain comes into this?

Well I had to head into work (feeding my bees and weighing out fungus...so much fun) On the way in I’m slowly cooking in the not-quite-summer heat. By the time I decide to head home it’s chucking it down with rain! Typical. And me being me I don’t have an umbrella, a coat or even a jacket.

I dive out the door and sprint down the road until, 30 s later, I realise that I am already soaked to the skin. Giggling like a 5 year old I decide, why bother? I think the people huddling under the brollies or dashing for their cars must have thought I was a little insane when I came strolling along the road grinning like an idiot and only failing to sing ‘singing in the rain’ because I’m humming along to some MGMT track that’s playing in my ears.

By the time I got home it looked like I’d hopped into a shower in my clothes (except that the middle of my back and my arse were almost perfectly dry!) But it was strangely fun:) Possibly more fun than the blazing hot sunshine of this morning.

I think I would have wandered around a bit longer enjoying the weather, but I had to get home and cook dinner for Sam, not this Sam:


Flat-mate Sam who isn't quite so kick ass, but I don't really care about that. I'm more interested in having a flat mate who can cook and fix the shower when it breaks than one who can fight ghosts and demons...although that might be more fun even than singing in the rain...and now I'm rambling on again so...TTFN.

Odd Bob visits Chelsea...

Yes, yesterday I went to Chelsea!! Although, when I got off the underground and had to ask for directions, I realised that I should probably add the ‘Flower Show’ to the end of that.
Chelsea = part of London.
Chelsea Flower Show = big plants and gardening event which happens in Chelsea each year.
Therefore asking for directs to ‘Chelsea’ when in Chelsea is not useful!


But I did eventually find my way (mostly be just following the crowds) and then the real fun started.

Yes Chelsea itself was fun. I was completely overwhelmed by the variety of plants and displays and general oddness... But I was actually there for another reason.


You see the place I work had a garden with the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) which was supposed to be promoting biodiversity in gardens. My supervisor was meant to be there yesterday to fill people in on the science behind the exhibit. But having just got married and what with the open weekend and all last weekend she had way too much work to do...so she sent me instead!


So, plus side, free trip to Chelsea!! Down side...I spend the whole afternoon having to explain to people that I didn’t actually know what the majority of the plants on our stand were, or whether they were perennial, or how long they flowered for, or...you know, anything else these keen gardeners actually wanted to know...


I could tell them all about bumble bees and how there are far more nesting and living in people’s gardens than out in the country side! Not really what they wanted to hear about but some people showed genuine (or well feigned) interest. And by the end of the afternoon I could name maybe 50% of the plants in our display! So not all bad.


And I got to have a look around the show in general and take some photos...unfortunately my camera spent the whole day flashing its red ‘I’m hungry’ please charge me light! So I had to be a bit fugal...but hopefully some of the ones I got were ok...I really like the giant snails, just a little bigger than mine!!

Snail update #2...

The snails are still alive!! Woo hoo!! I haven’t killed them yet!!


However, they still have not moved to their new digs :( Things have been so hectic here I haven’t had time to steal them some compost!! Hopefully by next week Nicky and Dovitz should be in their giant tank (180L for 2 snails!!)

For now though they are still pottering about in their small home and seem happy enough. I was worried that the weather over the weekend might bake them. Yes I know ‘giant AFRICAN land snails’ so they should be used to a little heat, but I still worry about them. For no reason apparently. They have been out happily wandering their tank again and munching their way through much cucumber, cabbage, lettuce, tomato, apple, courgette, banana, pine apple, peach, strawberry, melon…

I’m told I’m spoiling them! But it’s fun finding out what they like to eat and what they turn their noses up at (or would turn their noses up at; if they had noses). For instance banana they just left alone (so I was going to make banana bread out of it until some helpful person threw them away! Yes they were a little brown, but that’s perfect for making banana bread!) Cucumber however they love. Or at least they love the softer middle bit and tend to leave rings of cucumber skin.

And just for you Ro I’ll take a break from fitties, just snail pictures today. (And I’d find it really disturbing if anyone thinks they’re fit!)

Odd Socks for Odd Bob...

I have finally finished knitting my first sock!! So more accurately this should probably be odd sock for Odd Bob…but anyway. I am so proud. You see my creative talents are rather minimal (surprising given that I come from a family of graphic designers, carving experts and fashion designers - ok so my sister isn’t exactly a fashion designer right now…but one dress she designed was made and sold so I’m using only a little creative licence.) But now I can officially knit socks (or sock…)


Admittedly there were a few teething troubles, for instance I started with way too many stitches which then had to be sneakily decreased (you can’t really tell…except that it’s very loose at the top) and then I decreased too much after the heel (so it’s rather tight at the bottom) o and then I finished the toe a little bit early (so it’s a little on the small side).

But hopefully I’ll learn from these mistakes and the second one will be even better, although at the moment it’s less than an inch and a half long.


But soon I will have 2 (slightly mismatched, far from perfect) socks!! Woo hoo! And if you think knitting is something that should be reserved for little old ladies rather than fitties obsessed, snail wrangling, bee tamers…you are wrong. Knitting is fun for all the family, even kick ass world saving cops (see demolition man!)


So I’ve mastered scarfs, getting the hang of socks…what next? Maybe gloves, hats, jumpers…the possibilities are endless!

Today socks, tomorrow the world!!

Odd Bob and the anti-virus fiasco...

I’m not sure I’ve been doing this long enough for anyone to notice if I don’t post in a while…but I have been missing for almost a week!!

I’d like to say that that was because Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki turned up on my door step and kidnapped me to go fight ghosts and demons, stop Lucifer and generally prevent Armageddon…unfortunately this was not the case (but is a good excuse for more fitties pics…)


Instead I’ve sort of accidentally on purpose deleted the anti-virus software from my laptop!! (O no!) and to make matters worse things have been majorly hectic at work (Open weekend, we only do 1 every 4 years…I now know why. No one would be able to survive doing this more often!!) So no time for blogging:(

But how, I hear you ask, did I manage to accidentally on purpose delete my anti-virus software? Well it all started pretty simply by locking the annoying little pop up telling me it was time to update my software (seemed like a good idea at the time) only it turns out my anti-virus software was…um not quite legal shall we say…So Now it wants me to pay for it!

Instead I decide to be sneaky, delete the current version (now on a 30 day trial until I decide to pay for it) and reupload the version I have on a disc somewhere. (Yes I know I should have just paid for it! But I didn’t…don’t worry I’m paying for it now, literally and figuratively) see the disc I had turned out to be blank! So now I’ve deleted the trial version nd don’t have anything to replace it with!

I’ve decided this time I’d better choose the legal (and expensive) option. Hopefully this will all be in place in the next couple of days and I can get back to blogging normally again…until then I’d best get back to work before anyone notices…

An odd mini fitties board...

I should probably start by explaining what a fitties board actually is…but I won’t. I’m going to start with the revamp of our toilets. (Don’t worry it will all make sense eventually). It all started before Christmas last year when the men’s toilets were closed off for several weeks for refurbishments. I didn’t think much of it (not being a man I had no cause to) until a couple of month ago when the same thing happened to the lady’s. Good news: we would have shiny new toilets…bad news; whilst the refurbishments took place we’d have to walk across the road to find alternative toilets.



A few weeks later the new toilets reopened with a very pink ceremony (yes things get a little dull around here so even the smallest things like new toilets become a major event, complete with photos!) Unfortunately I was away and missed all the fun (how sad). When I finally returned and had my first chance to check out the new facilities, the first thing I noticed (after the streamers and pink balloons still hanging from the ceiling) was the picture on each toilet door. A mini ‘fitties board’!



Now I’d better explain what that is. When I was at school (an all girls affair full of teenagers and raging hormones) someone (I still have no idea who) set up the first fittie’s board. A collection of photos of ‘fitties’ (hot guys) that anyone could add to (and then get teased or congratulated depending on your choice-aren’t teenage girls lovely?)




So I’m sat on the loo staring at this thing and torn between happy nostalgia and mild confusion that anyone would set up such a thing in the toilets. Then I noticed something else. Along with the usual Hollywood hotties (Pitt, Clooney & Depp) and a smattering of Bonds, there were also a rather large number of cowboys with black and white images less chosen to save on coloured ink and more because that was all that was available. It suddenly struck me that this mini fitties board had to have been compiled by someone at least a generation ahead of me. These were the sort of people who would interest my mother or (if she would ever admit to it) my grandmother (but she was raised much better than that!)



It does rather get me thinking, if I were to go back to school and see the next incarnation of fitties board would it have changed. Would our fav tennis starts (Roddick sadly missing but that’s another story) and actors have been replaced by the latest teen icons? Would there now be space for Jonas Brothers or Twilight stars? Would this next group of teenagers, had they looked on our board, be questioning just who some of our choices even were? And on a more personal notes…why did I never have the courage to put up my own fitties pictures to be ogled or ridiculed?



You may be thinking that this whole post is just an excuse to have a go now, to fill a blog with photos of random hot actors…you may be right, but it certainly brightened up my day:)