I have a piece of the Moon! (by sarah)

Erm I think that I forgot to mention that even though I have not yet paid my top up fee and therefore do not have libary access etc... I have been given a small sliver of moon rock to blast with lasers 🙂

I have been staring at the moon lots since they gave it to me two weeks ago and am also petrofied I'll screw something up!

I got to take the carbon coat off of it and so have a quick peek under a reflected light microscope. It does seem to be an interesting sample - its from a lunar meteorite that fell to earth which is interesting in itself.

After my disappointment over the mini projects I was so startled to get this sample I have been sort of shell shock reading - I know very little about lunar geology so I am having to do some heavy reading. Fortunatly I seem to be able to apply stuff I learnt whilst doing the Carbonado essay and the moon formation essay last term.

I really feel I need to get to grips with this as it is such a blindingly fantastic sample (they have the meteorite as well) that I have jumped ship and will be doing this meteorite as my main project as well - this masters has just dragged on too long now and I don't want anything logistically complicated.

However I do still want to do the astrobiology - impact lithology stuff but when I was looking at it before I found huge issues in talking to microbiologist and isotope chemists who didn't understand one and other and having to translate stuff to each of them that I barely understood myself.

I was recommended to get my hands on some undergraduate texts for the micro-organism thing and the chem I'm picking up from the papers I'm reading and hopefully from the machines I'm going to be using. My origonal project was drawn up with the idea of it being a PhD anyway so this I think is the best course of action.

Business and Art (by sarah)

To a certain extent I feel that my business stuff with the website building etc... is not going to well - I came up with the plan pre-flood and was working on then and back then it was a needed service and would have probalby taken off but now isn't then and things have changed.

Basically I missed the boat but am still vaguelly paddling in a lifeboat, there is a chance still that things could take off and I hope they do. So far this year I've earn't a grand total of £350 and $300 for the company - this is just not enough and I am sad.

Also £100 of that is not yet paid and the $300 we are having issues getting it from google.

On the plus through sending out business stuff to do with making websites and the cross over of science and art etc... I have had people ask about computer case modes - this is making your own case for the computer.

Now I am not going to flit from one project to another so the webstuff is still on but I do alot of creative crafty stuff anyway so I thought I might have ago at making a nice case for one of our computers. Then I will have something I can show people on the off chance of getting some custom for it - randomly there is more interest being shown in this potential project than in what I'm actually trying to establish as a business.

I am feeling a bit low that my blogs are earning more money through adds than my ability to make nice websites is. So then I start to think maybe I should use my art for business more but then I reign myself in fearing stretching myself even further than I already am.

I also have a business questonaire I shall post soon - if people could possibly fill it in and send it back that would be great.

Also what do people think about having personalised computer cases and the such like? I'm currently looking at it as a fun project but Al seems to think there is some proper potential there.

Wiggly Pets are Back (by sarah)

As some of you may know I make Wiggly Pets which are friendly little creatures and who have been woefully neglected by me since the flood in 2007. There blog has lain forlorn and un-updated since the end of that fatefull summer.

This was mainly as I had helped them get a few weeks ahead in their stories and then the chaos broke and I just had no time, no internet and no house but we got back into the house halve way through last year and I still somehow failed to help them start blogging again though the stories where there! They have been blogging off-line waiting for me to get my act together.

So I am back dating their posts and will be putting them up at a rate of one or two stories a week (hopefully).

So at long last the second part to Mystery is there and waiting to be read!

Valentines Day (by sarah)

For Valentines day Jean had made some things at Pre-school which I have put up over on Salaric Craft. We also made lots of hearts which we put up everywhere that is also over on Salaric Craft.

We decorated the house and made princess cakes which will soon be up on the cooking blog. When Al came home we made a lovely dinner with heart shaped pastries which was fun - they are already up on Salaric Cooking.

London in the Snow (by sarah)

It was still snowing this morning and things are set to continue - I was panicked as Jean is in the office with us and I had work plus college planned for today but as it turns out college is now closed becuase of the snow.

Dad was going to come over and help out with Jean so that I could get some work done but all the trains he needs are closed :/

The local shop here had its deliveries this morning but are pretty much sold out of things like milk as no one can get to a super market.

Still me and Jean have had a pleasant day.

She slept in and then played in the bedroom for most of the morning, we read Aladine (which apparently every one else could hear including all of the funny voices I was doing for each character!), she then had a bath and a story that I have written her called Baa Baa Blue Sheep - she actually joins in with this one which is something I haven't seen with any other story yet. Then we had some food - pesto with pasta which is one of her favourites.

It was then time to go outside and play. Of course not having planned this we have no snow boots, gloves, hats etc... so we had to do Daddy sock glubs - both me and Jean sported these lovely fashion accessories.

Unfortunatly this did leave daddy with no thick socks to wear whilst helping build a baby snow man or snow jean and in the consequent snowball fight he and Jean had.

He went back in to work and me and Jean made a giant snowball. I only stopped as my back was starting to hurt.

We then turned it into a Daddy snowman.

We considered making snow angles but decided it was too cold and wet - Jean annouced it would make her bumbum cold wet.

Instead we wrote JEAN in the snow with foot prints and Jean played snow football lots.

It started snowing again so we went in for hot chocolate and watched a film together. We then went for a walk to take pictures and get Jean a treat piece of cake for having to be quiet in the office and becuase she has a bloody noise from falling over at the weekend and becuase she is missing home and wanted to play in the snow with Barbara - I was thinking about this too, thinking about the sledge and stuff - but never mind.

On route we found icicles on the traffic lights

Here are some other photos we took on our walk - I tried to get Jean to pose for a lovely Narnia shot but she got scared of the slippery slop and worried about a dog eating the snow!

Jean vetoed all the cafes on the way up the road saying she wanted different cake shops and then vetoed them all on the way back down the hill until we got back to the origonal one I had suggested which she decided was acceptable.

They didn't didn't have any chocolate cake left only apple pie - Jean was dispondant until she tasted the apple pie which she shared with me. The cafe hadn't recieved its dialy order and so was out of quiet a few things.

It was then I heared that all the buses were stopped too.

Here are some of the arty shots we took:

By the time mummy and Tigger had 'ice-skated' home, the trains home to Gloucestershire were turning around at Reading and me and Al discuessed weather to attempt the roads - the roads around here are under a blanket of snow until you reach the A1 and checking out possible routes home we decided it was safest to stay here again. Barbara informed us that if we did come home not to drive into our valley but to park in the village and walk down.

My main concern is that there is no heating on in the house and the cats are outside - I left a message asking Barbara to turn a heater on downstairs and rescue my seedlings from the window sills and let the cats in.

Jean got very excited about the snow - there are more pictures but I feel that this post is getting a bit picture heavey so will do another post!