This is How Stupid People Die (by sarah)

That moment when you've gone off to take one photograph and realise it is dusk, you are in a tumble down industrial area amongst broken glass and iron rods half exposed from crumbling concrete. You have £100 odd worth of camera around your neck, you've left your phone in the car along with you husband and kids, and worse you have no idea anymore which direction said car is in. Then just to add the icing to the cake a group of three 'youths' wonders into sight and you realise it was their shouting and the ring of a beer can football that pulled you out of the contemplative glaze of photo snapping bliss you had been in moments before.

You do not run as that is provocation, beside satistically you know that the middle aged man on his own that passed you at the beginning of this adventure is more likely to be a danger than three young men. Apart from some cat calls they are fine - you take another photo of graffiti and as you know they've seen the camera anyway and just keep walking, with confidence hoping it will come out to somewhere more populated by people. Maybe even somewhere you know.

And the monologue that is spinning in you brain is one of half remembered self defense techniques though you do not dwell on them as being afraid in the half light of urban decay is a sure way to draw attention to yourself in unwanted ways. Same goes for the crowded city streets and the apparently safe board room. You keep walking aware of your surroundings and potential escape routes, you do not avert your gaze nor do you linger.

You think, 'This is how stupid people die,' and then you snort with the realisation that you have nicked the quote from a TED talk you watched the night before. And that shunts your brain into thinking that it is thinking and what it is thinking about and the words Third Thoughts sneaks in and you're like damn! Now I am quoting Terry Pratchette in the almost fear - that fear you are not feeling, that fear you are keeping at bay.

The kids are gone, they went into a side alley and now you are in territory you recognise and daydreams of pirate days with real tall ships and Christmas Fayres with real snow filter in your brain and you think - I'm actually quiet a away from the car and the quickest way is back through those buildings that now seem to loom out of the dusk.

So you again consider how stupid people die, but now you have your bearings and know the way and this way is much shorter and there is an old couple out for a walk and they might be lost but they are walking into the corroded corridor of split wood and ripped metal.

You follow and storm your way home, reasoning that you are wearing big boots and a flappy coat and yes it's all purple and your over weight but it is probably dramatic or something.

And you still stop to take photos because things look different from this angle and hey wow that was a fantastic one of the birds flying away and it shall be called The Escape.

There is a world within worlds in this place you walk unwittingly, there are jungles and homes and hope.

And really it is only a few derilict buildings with seagulls roosting, slowly the industrial endevours of a previous centre are being consumed by the small of nature and you feel previlaged to see it all before it is ripped asunder and the new of this centery is put in it's place. Clicking the button on the camera you try and capture just a little bit of the awe.

Mine Craft Week 2 (by sarah)

Yep I am still playing and am getting more obsessed!

I built a bedroom and found iron ore in the process so could make shears and go and shear sheep to make myself a bed 🙂 I didn't like the idea of killing the sheep just for their wool 🙁

Then I dug myself a garden with a fence and gate - because of where the stairs are it acts as a one way valve for animals - if I leave the gate open at the top then animals wonder in, jump over the fence and then can't get back out! This was not genius just an accident but a fun one none the less!

But I quickly ended up with too many animals so had to expand - I dug an underground barn for them 🙂

I also mined sand and popped it in the furnace to produce glass blokes to use as windows.

I am hoping to collect stuff to make dye for the sheep and I want to put some sort of system in place to divid the sheep, cows, pigs and ducks (apparently they are chickens but they are lodged in my head as ducks!).

I have also been hunting cows and got enough leather to make a full set of leather armour.

And Alaric didn't realise you could put torches on the fences 🙂 So I taught him something 🙂

Painting the Body (by sarah)

So on the 15th of March I will be at Centre Arts in Cheltenham putting up bits of science-art that I and others have made/created.

Today I did some painting - I am not sure if the blood cell picture is finished (I think though I am not sure which way up it should go) and I am not feeling that happy with the liver - namely as it is in the wrong place so need to think about that. There are a few more Paintings of the Body but you will need to come to the exhibition to see them 🙂

We also have molecular jewellery, a sound panel, science knits, maths art and paleo-art.

Kenyan Jean (by sarah)

So Jean has run out of reading books to read at school so they are giving her factual books instead, so far she has brought home ones on photography, democracy, Egypt and this weeks one was Kenya. She got very excited about this as I had done a talk on my time in Kenya a few weeks previously for Al's cub pack.

She started asking me questions and then disappeared upstairs - there was a picture of typical Kenyan dress so she ferreted through stuff and produced a costume she announced to be Kenyan Jean.

It was: my mothers old belly dancing outfit or harem pants from the 60's, tights with rainbow wellies (she said it was too cold for no shoes and sandles), then she had on a t-shirt with a sparkly 2000 on it covered in her victorian style red coat. On her head my hawaiian wrap around skirt - it was surprisingly effective though it looked more Ethiopian too me compared to what I saw in Kenya though I'm aware there were different styles of dress depending on Tribe etc...

She went to the park like it - initially I was worried that people might take it the wrong way but then I thought - you know she is not taking the micky she is interested in another culture and playing and as it was people only smiled.

Also I pointed out she looked a bit like my nan as she always used to wear a head scarf to stop the wind mucking up her hair! (think Mrs Figg out of Harry Potter!).

Astronomical Fun (by sarah)

The last few weeks have seen me going in to help with the scout group for their astronomy badge - I took in my old Astronomy Now mags and some old lab books and mission cloth badges I was given at the museum when I worked there and the stuff I won with Celestial Montage from ESA.

Oh and one antique telescope our lovely friends bought us as a wedding present - this is the fourth time it has had an outing to help infuse you people with the joys of space 🙂

I didn't have time to plan a talk so had to wing it - this was made extra interesting due to the meteorite air burst over Russia and the near miss asteroid which the kids were a little confused over. So I waffled at them and gave them stuff to look at and asked them questions which showed that some were confused over the difference between America and Russia but that they have brains enough to deduce impact behaviour which was interesting.

The some of the girls meticulously pawed over my old note book and I explained abit about blasting rocks with lasers to see what they are made of. One boy shyly asked to keep an Astronomy Now and I think he would have taken more if he could have 🙂

Then they all toddled off to look at the night sky as it had cleared up nicely.

Yesterday I bought in stuff for them to make little models of the Hubble Telescope out of loo roll middles and serial packets - this seemed to go down really well and ended up in interesting conversations about space probe design.

I really enjoyed it 🙂