Experiment, week 7. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.
- Royal Institution Lectures. Every year for almost 200 years London’s Royal Institution has put on a series of Christmas science lectures for children. And every year for the last 30 at least they have been televised. I won’t say I have watched them every year because there have been some awful series recently, especially when they were covered by commercial television. But thankfully they’re now back on BBC TV. This year there were only three lectures; there used to be five or six. And while I won’t say they’ve been dumbed down (though they probably have) they are certainly less imaginative and with fewer useful demonstrations than they were in years gone by when people like Sir David Attenborough and Prof. Eric Laithwaite were the lecturers. But they are still worth watching, even for me as a scientist. This year’s lectures, given by Prof Bruce Hood, were all about how our mind works; they’re still available on BBC iPlayer if you want to catch them.
- Parrots. I’ve written before about the Ring-Neck Parakeets which regularly visit our garden. I continue to find them an attractive, delightful and somewhat comic addition to our fauna.
- Lamb Curry. Last night I cooked a nicely hot (well I did use a good quantity of Vindaloo Curry Paste!) Lamb Curry with Cauliflower; Noreen did the Lemon Rice. It was consumed with a couple of bottles of my favourite Adnams beer. I’m getting better about not over-eating and always having a second helping, but curry remains one of the things which I cannot resist overindulging in. What could be better for New Year’s Eve?
- Sensible Consultants. Last Thursday I had my annual (joke — it slips by 3 months every year!) check-up at the Royal Brompton Hospital for my Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Although I know there isn’t too much they’re ever going to do, I never look for ward to it. I’m clearly on their “stable and we don’t need to do anything” list as for the last few years I’ve been seen by a very nice Malaysian consultant nurse; but I realised she wasn’t on duty this year and wasn’t looking forward to an interview with a young know-it-all male Registrar with poor English. But I actually had a very pleasant ten minute chat with a sensible (and not unattractive) female Consultant. I do wish all consultants listened as well as she did and were as sensible and measured in their approach. Thanks, Michelle!
- High Street Kensington Christmas Lights. On the way home from the Brompton Hospital on Thursday I detoured via High Street Kensington to pick up Noreen who had been shopping (for my birthday present!). And along High Street Ken there are what I think are some delightful, if subtle, Christmas lights. They’re small clusters of yellowish fairy lights hanging in the trees, for all the world looking like mistletoe growing on the trees. They would have looked even better after dark. The photo isn’t good as it was a grab shot taken through the car windscreen in failing light, but hopefully you get the rough idea. If nothing else they’re imaginatively different, and they worked for me! I also like lights in trees.
