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!

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.

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 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:)