Natural History Museum

Investigate Centre at the Natural History Museum





Darwin Centre:




Nelson Mandela at the Southbank:



Chocolate Festival at the Southbank. It wasn't much of a Festival really.




I bought C a piggy chocolate:



At least it was lovely walking over the Thames admiring the city in sunshine. We then headed home such that C could play with Megan for a bit and I could have a cup of tea with Trish before taking the girls to Badgers. T very kindly did pick up so I hit the wine a little earlier than I could have otherwise done :-).

Monday

Swimming first thing followed by history - starting the Romans today so she was happy. She loves the Romans :-).

Tennis was cancelled as her coach is in Rome doing the marathon. She didn't want to go out to Club Night. So she made a little fabric horse and stuffed it;



We then played a French game a few times before we decided we were both tired so slumped in front of the television to watch a programme about rats. The four legged variety.

I'd decided too long a break from guitar has been had so have booked a lesson for next week to galvanise practice. She did consequently do some.

Tuesday

She got a Bond Maths paper finished and did guitar practice. Not altogether happily :-(. Too long between practices so it's frustrating.

Then the day improved immeasurably as we visited Merry for the day. I oohed and aahed over lots of fabulous Djeco stuff, drank tea and chatted all day long. Children did their usual disappearing act. Some lovely Djeco mosaic type craft kits were employed - made me laugh when I went in at one point to see they'd turned the art into a production line with each child doing a different colour square. Appealed to my desire of ensuring time is used to maximum efficiency :-).

They then spent all afternoon playing some convoluted game in the sunshine. C never wants to leave, so it is much easier that they have to leave the house to get to their evening things.

Wednesday

Latinetc. Chloe didn't want to do French so she read a book and then was floating in that irritating way until I told her to get her needlework out as I think the sampler work should be used as a filler activity rather than the loitering she was doing. Or she could be using the time to reinforce music theory as we'll attempt grade two next term (whether she's passed grade one or not).

Science was excellent. Helen had brought some rather fancy flowers for putting in dyed water. I usually use celery as cheaper and Katy said she normally uses daffodils for the same fiscal reason so these were very pretty :-). After observing the white flowers turning pink or green as the morning progressed, Helen then put segments of the stems on the microscope to look at the stained cell structure.

The Beans had been growing a bean maze that they brought along to show us, demonstrating how the plant will twist and turn to access the sunlight only entering the box through a small hole in the top. We will recreate that.

Also in science the children finished bacteriology, looking at the bacteria growth or mould in their petri dishes (those which had had nitrofurantoin on them had grown bacteria. those with amoxycillin had grown a mould - discussed again antibiotics and effectiveness on different bugs), and then each child made their own slide from what they'd grown (bacteria slides easily off the agar whereas the mould was more difficult as it grows into the agar)to look at in detail under the microscope.











Chloe and I then got home and had 20 minutes for a quick pick up and vacuum before Rachel arrived to give us our first Yoga session. Was good. Have booked a series of 6. Am hoping for C's posture to improve - it was when looking at Rachel's daughter at maypole dancing that I noticed how lovely her posture was compared to the other children. I can only put it down to having done lots of yoga with her mum.

We then headed down to attend an IoP Faraday lecture;

"The lecture on the life and work of Michael Faraday will be given by Frank James.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) is one of the major scientific figures of all time. His discoveries, made in the basement of the Royal Institution, of electro-magnetic rotations and induction laid the foundations for electrical engineering. His discoveries of the magneto-optical effect and diamagnetism paved the way for his enunciation of the field theory of electro-magnetism which became and remains one of the cornerstones of modern physics.

But Faraday was also heavily involved with the practical application of science and in communicating science to a wide audience.

This illustrated talk, with a couple of demonstrations of his key discoveries, will examine all these aspects of Faraday's life and how they relate to each other.

Frank James is Professor of the History of Science at the Royal Institution and editor of the Correspondence of Michael Faraday."

Was very good, we all enjoyed it. Nice to see lots of home edders there. C then spent ages talking with the chap from a local astronomers club.

Thursday

Ruby arrived nice and early as she and Beccy were brought in by someone who lives on their slip that has a daughter at our village school. The girls played with the musical bells set, then did a piggy line up, uploaded photos and started printing them out. During the printing process, a mum who is newly HEing her 8yo son arrived for coffee. C took the opportunity to ask to make polymers so the borax was got out again and all three children were very happily occupied. They stayed for lunch too and I was given more school horror stories for my collection, this featuring a school that I have not heard bad things about before, so a bit of a surprise there. She is also taking her 13yo out at Easter from his school (for completely different reasons). Was very interesting chatting to her. I have a project for her 13yo that I hope he wants to drive and run with. It's a make your own film box that M wanted to do but quite frankly he just hasn't got the time and the box has been sat in the dining room for over two years, so if the 13yo is keen, I think it will be a good project all round. To mollify M I have said he will be needed as camera assistant and tech support, so he still will have involvement in the bits he wanted to do the most.

After they left, C&R continued to play with their silly putty, cutting it into shapes, pressing it through kitchen tools. They also did some of a Makit and Bakit Jewelry set. I followed instructions but the pieces did not melt and turn glass like as in the picture, I upped the temperature a little and kept putting them back in, eventually I ignored the instructions and shoved the tins in the roasting oven where the beads melted to perfection.

Took R to Spanish, then C&I went to Morrisons where things were more expensive than Waitrose. I was buying Taut glucose drinks that Waitrose were selling for 99p and Morrisons sell for £1.11!!! Don't anyone tell me Morrisons is much cheaper now!

We then went to Lidl as the man from the astronomy club C spent so long talking to the night before had said a large number of people in his club had bought the £15 binoculars from Lidl for star gazing as they were excellent magnification for an excellent price. Sadly however there were no binoculars in stock - they are onto garden related items and motorcycle gear.

This short shopping trip took far longer than it should have so we got home driving through rush hour traffic and were very tired when getting in. C immediately started watching one of the two DVDs she'd bought Adam Sandler's Bedtime Stories by Disney. She laughed a lot. It's lovely hearing her belly laugh :-).

Cambridge Science Festival - "Daring Diversity Walking Tour", "IMAGINARY: through the eyes of mathematics" and "Burning Issues"

"Daring Diversity" Walking Tour. As part of the Science Festival a number of days had specially devised 2 hr guided walking tours available free of charge. So we booked :-).

It was excellent taking in so much I cannot possibly retell here. Notable moments were:

Sidney Sussex College where Oliver Cromwell attended (continuing the Cromwell "project" Chloe seems to be following ;-), she had a fine opportunity to demonstrate what she knew and take an active role in the tour.).

This is Chapel Court:



This is Hall Court:



Whilst standing in Chapel Court, there was a bang and a pigeon hurtled down to earth, landing on the shoulder of one of the other people in the group. Was definitely a startling moment! We think it flew into the flagpole and rebounded to earth. Was not a pleasant experience but quite a bonding one for the group!

The rooms of fictitious residents such as Sherlock Holmes were highlighted too:



We paused outside St John's College, of which we had explored the library on Saturday.

We then went into Trinity College, were told how the sceptre was stolen many years ago and replaced by a chair leg.



Told about the Great Court Run, to complete a full circuit before the clock finishes chiming 12, and spent quite a long time in the Chapel area talking about famous Trinity students - in particular Isaac Newton.



Rather liked finding the stone set amongst the cobbles outside the gate in memory of a past Senior Bursar, T. C. Nicholas, who was a Fellow of Trinity from before the First World War until he died in 1992 aged 101:



We stood awhile outside Gonville & Caius College, where we were given an extensive history and alumni talk, including; Sir James Chadwick - Nobel prize-winning nuclear physicist, discoverer of the neutron and Master of the College; Francis Crick - Nobel prize winner for discovery of the structure of DNA; Stephen Hawking - though no one in the group had read his Brief History of Time . . .

Finally to King's College where our guide largely talked about Alan Turing, mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. We remembered seeing a fantastic slate statue to Turing at Bletchley Park over 2 years ago! Where does the time go?

We had all three really enjoyed the walk but by now were very hungry so went over the road to a cafe and ordered food. Unfortunately C's order was mixed up so she had a long wait for them to sort out the correct food order. She was told she could have a free piece of cake as compensation but she didn't like anything so I had to have lemon meringue pie instead. The hardships I have to endure.

We then decided to walk to Magdalen College to see Pepys Diary but it shut on Saturday and won't open again for a little while. So walked along the river a bit amongst the rather gorgeous Magdalen College buildings and consulted our Science Festival guide, deciding to walk over to the Isaac Newton Institute to see "IMAGINARY: through the eyes of mathematics - A travelling exhibition of beautiful mathematical images and artwork taken from algebraic geometry and differential geometry in which visitors are able to create their own mathematical art. This is the first time that the exhibition will be shown in the UK." [Imaginary-exhibition.com]

This was a series of initial shapes and their formulas, you could change the formula to see what changes you'd made to the shape. Clo spent ages on this, printing out some of her mathematical art to bring home and some to enter in the competition they were running. "The interactive SURFER program allows playful contact with geometry, i.e. it encourages the users to create formulas themselves or to change already existing ones in a creative manner. It is surprising to see how amusing it is and how you begin after some time and pondering to understand how formulas and forms, i.e. algebra and geometry, are connected.". You can download SURFER from their website to manipulate at home.:



This was the first time any of us had been able to explore the functionality of a 3D mouse. You could dive down through the shapes - was fun.



Playing with a Mobius Strip:



The Festival guide did not mention they were also screening the truly exceptional film - "MESH A Journey Through Discrete Geometry" at the Isaac Newton Institute. It was about 40 minutes long, had lots of humour interwoven in such that C happily sat through the whole film, even if a lot of it went over her head.

Blurb from the back of the DVD case; "Mesh is a groundbreaking computer animation that explores the advancement of discrete geometry from the Ancient Greeks to contemporary research topics that have never previously been visualised. With its synthesis of cutting edge visualisation, breathtaking artistry, storytelling and humor, Mesh presents complex ideas in a way that is palpable and relevant to even a novice audience. Along the journey, we encounter applications ranging from crystals and computer graphics to wine barrels and soap bubbles, and bring to life concepts such as the Schwarz lantern, Gauss curvature, surface optimisation and engineering, and minimal surfaces."

Was excellent.

We hotfooted it back into the town centre to have a rapid but delicious Chinese dinner. I am grateful we don't pay council tax in Feb or March as this month is proving much more expensive than usual.

We then walked past the time eating clock - always makes me smile, to the Chemistry School for Dr Peter Wothers' demonstration presentation; "Burning Issues - Fire and Flame". We had cut timings a little fine so were seated quite high, a bit disappointing until later when the lower half of the auditorium were coughing with the smoke produced :-). A Home Ed family we know then very kindly drove C and me to the park and ride carpark (I think we saw the last bus go past so very grateful for their offer as it's a long, long walk back otherwise!). C and I collected the car and drove back to collect M before heading home.

Another Manorborn long but excellent day :-).

Cambridge Science Festival - Robots, Cornflakes, Maths Fair, F1 Car, Astrolabe and Pixelh8

Up and out very early. So early we were able to catch the first park and ride bus of the day :-).

This gave us enough time to find a cafe for a full English breakfast (M&I) and chocolate croissant (C).

We then even had time to buy M some new walking/street shoes - his Timberlands had cracked across the soles and let in water. They also look horrible and always have reminded me of how M got us into such horrendous debt a few years back, buying things because he had money to spend on the credit card, without thinking about how it could ever be repaid. This was one of the last purchases made before he finally confessed. I clearly remember him asking if he should buy them and my response being if he's got the money and he wants them then of course he should. Obviously there was an interpretation problem in "having the money".

So bought new shoes that C spotted and he liked and finally disposed of those leaky, bad associated memory Timberlands.

Then time for the commencement of Cambridge Science Festival ;-).

We had thoroughly enjoyed the festival last year and had been eagerly anticipating this year's. It didn't seem to be as big as last year so I was concerned about crowds. Fortunately I'd got some sessions booked so knew we'd be able to do a couple of things at least. I'm glad we did as the queues for some events were apparently snaking around buildings and we would have not enjoyed getting caught up in all that, no matter how tremendously exciting the event sounded.

We started off with a Robotics Workshop. C says this was her favourite event. As the children entered the room they were handed a paper bag with all the components they needed to build their JiggleBot. At each workstation table there was a tray with everything tool-wise they needed (such as screwdriver, pens, sellotape, glue, scissors) except the glu guns which were at the front. There were lots of robots to look at including an impressive robotic arm (working) and the presentation was engaging, interesting and most importantly, not too long as the kids just wanted to get constructing!

The presentation covered Artificial Intelligence, Movement of robots and howHonda's ASIMO is the nearest robot to mimic human movement and Nano robotics.

Then it was onto "JiggleBot" making and decorating:



Once our time was up and C had carefully gathered all the remaining bits of coloured card to finish off at home, we went off to investigate lunch opportunities, a process that left me ruing my failure to prepare a packed lunch. Eventually, after C dismissing options in both the restaurant and bistro in John Lewis and also rejecting Starbucks, me removing the batteries from the Jigglebot as it accidentally started up in the bag, surprising her, and me saying let's look at the bed department as I'm angling for a new bed, for M to have heart failure at £11,000 for a bed (it was divinely comfortable!), we eventually stopped at an AMT cart that had plain paninis. They weren't that nice but I think people were aware they had to like them and eat them as my tolerance was thin. I chose porridge that was disgusting - far too liquidy and so another was made but it was still revolting.

So we then headed off to the Pitt Building. I've never been in the Pitt Building before. It was commissioned in honour of William Pitt the Younger and is newly converted from its CUP past into a modern conference centre, including blu-ray capabilities.

We had some spare time to explore some of the for the Hands On Maths Fair before her booked session at HNR Food Factory.






"HNR Food Factory - where you're the chef" was misrepresented. We were expecting "Grab your lab coat and goggles and follow scientists from MRC Human Nutrition Research in an exciting lesson in cookery. Find out what really goes into processed food and have a go at designing your own food from scratch." In reality we got a make your own cereal box by cutting out and sticking on their preprinted data sheets, filling in product name and picture where appropriate, before going upstairs to the Percival Room to make cornflakes.

In the Percival room, there is a plaque informing you about Spencer Percival;

"Spencer Perceval was born in London in 1762 and was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. Trained as a barrister, his friendship with William Pitt introduced him to political life and he became MP for Northampton in 1796. After Pitt's death he held various senior positions in the Tory cabinet before becoming Prime Minister in October 1809. His leadership was strong but turbulent, coinciding with the Peninsular Wars, King George III's descent into madness and the Luddite riots. He was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons on 11th May 1812 by John Bellingham and is the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated."

Howver impressive the conference centre is, their attempt to get anyone to recreate cornflakes in half an hour was doomed to failure.

Stage 1. Separation. Remove the bran and germ layers from the kernal. What is left is known as a corn grit. They had bags of preprepared ones as doing this by hand is timeconsuming so each child only needed to do one or two.



Stage 2. Adding malt syrup in solution with the salt and sugar.



Stage 3. Cooking and Drying - using a hairdryer. The assistant even said you need to make sure it is all dry and when C pointed out hers wasn't yet, she was told it was okay and hurried along to the next stage.



Stage 4. Using a rolling pin to roll out the flakes, or rather pound the grits into submission.



Stage 5. Should have been toasting but she was told to spray the B vitamins and iron fortification on before toasting as they found doing it afterwards made them too soggy.



Stage 6 (that should have been stage 5). After toasting we tried some. They were revolting.



Fortunately they had a couple of crates of Kelloggs Cornflakes for people to use to fill up their boxes they'd made.

So not a successful session in terms of end product but I suppose if you look at it in terms of knowledge gained, then all three of us learnt a lot about the cornflake manufacturing process.

After that, we had a quick look at the Formula 1 racing car,



then C wanted to go back into the maths fair:





Along to St John's College next for a mooch around their library and then a booked session to make an astrolabe. This was starting out to be an excellent session, the leader was enthusiastic and clear - very informative, C was very engaged. Unfortunately M had a low blood sugar and we had no glucose so we all had to leave. I was highly annoyed as although he cannot help having diabetes, he can help coming out unprepared for low blood sugar. I think it is irresponsible to come out without things he may need to raise a low blood sugar. I grabbed a couple of bottles of juice that we realised afterwards were warm and so may not have been very good to drink. M wasn't much help as he just responded it was a flavour he's not familiar with so how could he know whether it was off or not? I was suggested off juice would have a fizzy sensation but he still couldn't say. So when he felt ill later on, we put it down to the off juice.

Blood sugars restored, we wandered back up to the New Museums site to find everything had packed up promptly, but was very pleased to bump into Em and family and WF and family, so we all decamped to a pizza place to have dinner together - which was lovely and just about compensated for missing the astrolabe session. (except M's order was messed up - he was not having a good time of things!).

We then also all took the bus to the park and ride car park, to move cars to the Institute of Astronomy for the Pixelh8 performance. I was pleased to see Mimi and A there - having talked to Mimi about it during the week, she hadn't confirmed she would be able to come so was very surprised to see them there. The performance was OBSERVATIONS, using sounds from the Institute - people, lens caps, scope motors and such like. Very clever interpretation - you definitely need to listen to the presentation explaining how it was pulled together to fully appreciate it.

A good day - slightly marred by M being ill from the not good juice.

The bits I can remember or can see from diary that we did them!

Monday

Clo had history in the morning. We had been told it would be Romans but instead it was American Indians. It was also a rather noisy session and although I'm sure it wasn't chaotic - she felt it was out of control and she didn't like it. Then her tennis coach failed to show for her 1:1 as he'd put it into the wrong date. She didn't want to do Club Night.

So we came home earlier than usual and decided to use the time to watch the excellent "Empire of the Sun" programme, part of the "Wonders of the Solar System" series presented by Prof Brian Cox that we'd recorded the previous night.

Tuesday

Took C and Megan for a long promised trip to a pottery painting studio. I'd promised this 6 months ago when Meg couldn't attend C's swimming party due to breaking her arm. Finally fulfilled this promise :-). Was good although getting to the school to pick her up - AND NOT BE LATE - was particularly stressful. We ended up running for the last bit then she was one of the last out anyway.

Wednesday

Latinetc. Went well. More bacteria growing stuff in science, C joined the French class as there wasn't anywhere else to go as J&M are not here and SB was having an extra recorder session as she had an exam that afternoon. Usually, C would have been doing music in that group of four. C did say she enjoyed doing the French so she wasn't unhappy about it.

C and I then met my Dad to enjoy a 10 mile bike ride.



I hired a bike so I was driven to pedal hard by the desire not to end up having to pay extra because of exceeding the agreed 2 hour rental period.

Did the distance in plenty of time - I think 1 hr 45mins. Was good.

Cafe was shut for refurbishment. Not good.

Dad came back to our house and we had tea and hot cross buns at home instead. Was very good. :-).

Thursday

Italian - not much washing up for me to do this week. They took a gas camping heater we'd bought so we could camp non hookup in colder weather and didn't like, deciding electric heaters far less scary than anything gas related. So we'd never used it. So no charge for the lesson.

Stitch and Sew. Turned out unexpectedly to be the last session. The ladies who run it have been noticeably less enthusiastic in recent terms and think they just didn't want to spend their time doing our session any more but didn't have the courtesy to just say so, making excuse after excuse. We used to get print outs of dates and plans for the term and what the girls would be making but that all dropped off after a while and we'd received no communication, not even being told until the day before this term started that the session would be running. It's always been a bit odd as they want 6 children - having 3 attending, but they (the ladies who run the session) don't both need to be there and indeed, regularly only one turns up. They don't have to pay to use the rooms so are saving on costs there and taking £18 for the three children. They said it wasn't viable. I dunno £18 for an hour and 15 minutes ain't bad. So think there's some other reason. They gave B lots of excuses about it not fitting in with school (we could bring it earlier so they come straight after school drop off), not enough children (yet they refused to accept some who would have come as they didn't want them there) and essentially I think they see other avenues more interesting to pursue, not wanting to run the group for HE any more. They owed both B and myself money but said they'd send a cheque rather than having the money ready to return there and then. Would have been more professional to have been able to provide that at the time.

B asked them to explain to the girls as otherwise they would have just left without even saying goodbye - even ruder.

Then I received an email (as I hadn't been there for pick up) which annoyed me so much I decided not to respond as if you can't say anything nice then you shouldn't say anything at all. (blogging it here to the world instead ;-) - not that many people read here anyway).

To crown it, the cheque (when it arrived 2 days later) was accompanied by a "with our complements from X and Y" (sic) compliments slip. So I really can't respond as I would feel obliged to point that out too. I know typos get through here a lot but this is written quickly and difficult/time consuming to edit so I don't worry about it. It is not a professional piece of communication.

Just annoyed by lack of honesty and mixed messages. X sent an email saying they would expect C, R and new girl at start of term. Then at the first session they said "oh we weren't expecting you" to new girl and her mum.

However, has to be said - I think it is the activity that has always given the poorest return on investment, so I'm not sorry it's stopped, just think the situation could have been handled a lot better.

C was with B&R all afternoon, collecting her at R's Spanish time. C and I then bought a mirror to go in the back of the wardrobe. This will bounce some light around to make it easier to see in there as M couldn't be bothered to run lighting into it when he rewired the room. It will also prove to be a useful full length mirror. Once it gets put up . . .

C got very upset at my suggestion of watching Lambing Live slightly delayed by 20 minutes to enable her to eat our still not near being ready to serve out dinner with us before watching. "But then it wouldn't be Lambing Live!" went the wail. So she had a microwaved up pot of leftovers as that was quicker, managing to eat that before the 8pm start of the programme.

She's really enjoyed seeing that series, watching every episode live. (Handily enabling her to maintain her late bedtime choice).

Friday

Lazy morning. Lunch all together as for once we are all working from home (nice). C had tennis with Alex and then tried club night again as A had said he'd spoken to the people who run the club night sessions to try and stop the bullying. This made me nervous as I think intervention can make things worse. In the end club night only had children she likes in it so there were no issues anyway.

To T's then took girls to Badgers. I didn't have to collect :-).


Maths - she's done a couple of Bond papers this week. I do want to try getting into a little bit more regular practice on doing maths as we've let it slip again - as we have also with the guitar practice. Once the Science Festival is out of the way I think we'll do some reviewing of how to get to where we want to be.

Putty in your Hands

Italian first - I'm still doing washing up (their dishwasher broke) in exchange for the Italian lessons. Still don't think it's equitable but she's insistent and I'm very grateful. I'll buy her a coffee sometime :-).

Stitch and Sew was good. We have a new child starting who has been HE-d since Jan. Unfortunately we have lost one of the original girls who has re-started school this term, though it seems to have been a bit of a sudden decision so I have a feeling she'll be out again. And yes, the new girl is another 9yo only child. Must be something in the water around here. Need more children who want to learn to sew!

New girl and her mum came back to mine for lunch - we had Ruby today and all 3 girls had fun with pva glue, hot water, food colouring and glitter. With the addition of recently banned household cleaner Borax. As acquired in bulk by another Home Edder and split ten ways :-).





We reviewed what we remembered from Mad Science where the children had been in lines and then holding hands to become a polymer and less fluid.

New girl and her mum had to leave and Chloe and Ruby did nothing but play with their putty until it was time to get C to Chatterbooks and R to Spanish.

C was only able to enjoy half her Chatterbooks session as she was having her Grade 1 Music Theory exam at 5pm. The exam is taken at a large imposing brick Victorian school building perched on the top of a hill. I've not been there before and as we walked up to the front door we felt as if we were shrinking! C held my hand very tight, we found toilets and she then settled in - she was the only one doing Grade 1 and she was looked after okay. She says her bottom lip was trembling all the way through and the lady kept asking her if she was okay - she was but she couldn't stop her lip trembling!

She came out after 40 minutes when they said you could leave if you were finished (though an hour and a half is allowed), she felt even littler afterwards and needed cuddles. She won't commit to whether she enjoyed the experience or not - I'm guessing she's holding back on making an opinion until she knows whether she's passed or not. A 6 week wait for results.

Alexander Fleming Museum followed by Flight and Paper Planes

We've been intending to visit The Alexander Fleming Museum ever since we watched and enjoyed BBC4's "Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin" last year. The opening hours are limited though, so finding the right opportunity has not been easy. Today was finally a day where I thought we had a good chance as I'd booked an afternoon lecture at the RI, leaving the morning free, with just enough time to visit a small museum.

Then Marcus wanted us to get a couple of geocaches in as he can't find them and then C wanted time to visit the Paddington Bear stand at Paddington Mainline Station, so time all of a sudden seemed in short supply.

We didn't get a chance to do the geocaches.

FLEMING MUSEUM



Part of the group of London Museums of Health and Medicine, The Fleming Museum blurb says:

"St Mary's Hospital is home to the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum. Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin at St Mary's Hospital in 1928, a breakthrough that revolutionised medicine and earned him a Nobel Prize.

Visitors to the Museum can see Fleming's laboratory, restored to its 1928 condition, and explore the story of Fleming and the discovery and development of penicillin through displays and video."

It is not easy to find. I didn't find a St Mary's map that showed the location of the museum and at street level, none of the hospital maps marked it either. Eventually we spotted a rusting Fleming museum sign hanging above a very worn and ill-used looking door, with a worn sign affixed to the side of the door telling us that the museum entrance was further along to the right. This brought us to a main hospital entrance, that did not indicate museum, but entering the lobby we did spot a directional sign indicating that we should take the corridor to the left. Walking past people visiting the hospital for its main purpose we turned left at the end of that corridor, passing through doors that did not indicate a main thoroughfare. At the end of which, with door wide open to allow easy view, we came to the toilets and ablution rooms. Didn't quite feel right! Felt as if we were heading to some long forgotten corner of the warren like hospital. Turning right and into a stairwell, we could see a room with Fleming information panels. So you have to go beyond the toilets to get to it. A little less than auspicious approach! Not a soul to be seen too which was really odd! I started reading the panels, thinking the room was on CCTV and we would be seen remotely somewhere, bringing a friendly museum curator to us. It was silent and rather unnerving so I started reading the panels aloud. C then noticed a buzzer with a sign beside it telling us to press for attention. She did.

A young man came down (how old do I feel writing that!), his English was not confident so I guess he was there on some sort of placement. He brought us up to the Museum shop and counter where two very friendly volunteers stood. Handed coats over whilst Chloe went through the usual "Aren't you at school", "No I'm home educated" routine. With a new twist after that as the other lady then interjected "Oh" (to me), "There was something about that on the radio last week." To which I responded, "Yes. You're probably talking about the tragic Khyra Ishak case but that had nothing at all to do with home education.". Maybe there was something in my tone or maybe she had also read some of the more informed reporting as she just agreed with me that it wasn't. In any event I really didn't want to spend precious time discussing HE when we were there to visit the museum.

That lady then took us up to the recreated laboratory.



She was excellent. Gave us a full history from his birth at Lochfield farm near Darvel, Ayrshire, to his discovering penicillin in that very room, now reconstructed. Prior to the reconstruction it was a bedroom used by medics having to stay overnight (the maternity wards are at this end of the hospital), including overnight stays by his son when he was practicing there.

The museum is closing for the next three weeks for repainting, after which, if you wish to visit I recommend you contact in advance to see if it is possible Kevin Brown, trust archivist and Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum curator, will be there as apparently he is the key Fleming expert and has lots of very funny stories he can weave into Fleming's story. Our volunteer said he is marvellously entertaining and informative. He unveiled a monument to Fleming in Darvel town square (near Fleming's birthplace) last year.

After the laboratory, we were taken up another floor to a film and exhibition area. Very well put together and I read all the panels, reading aloud the ones C was particularly interested in. You need to shut the door to see the last panel showing a photograph and information on the amazing stained glass window to Fleming at St James' Church. C now wants to make a trip there to see it in situ. See how one trip leads us on to another? And who knows where that will lead us next. How could I possibly know for a 12 month what we will be learning?

C now was getting jittery about not having time to visit Paddington. So we signed the visitor book (to be part of history as it will always remain in the archives - with C's spelling mistakes lol! Still, she was wonderfully enthusiastic), expressed our gratitude, collected our coats and departed, back past the ablution rooms still with the door open. Really think they should rethink the signage and access to and from the museum. Most odd.

Bumped into my ex-step-mother outside the entrance to Paddington mainline station. She apparently works nearby and was just popping out for lunch. I've not seen her for about 8 and a half years. C was a bit spooked as she had no idea who she was, yet e-s-m clearly knew exactly who she is. Was a total surprise. Verging into shock territory.

J directed us to the Paddington store where C bought herself a new CD and we took yet another obligatory C by the statue photograph:



Then hopped onto the underground to get to Oxford Circus and walk down to the RI using the mapping IPhone feature. An excellent app that has made moving around London so much more enjoyable. You select your destination and it uses its inbuilt GPS to direct you from where you are to where you want to go. Walking has become so much simpler :-).

Hamleys windows were a bit disappointing - Thomas the Tank Engine and Transformers iirc.

Arrived at the Royal Institution with enough time for tea (me) and chocolate brownie (C). Chatted to WF and family, sorry to have missed Portico's but I had suspected we would.

RI for "Flight and Paper Planes: Why do Aircraft Fly?" by Dr Eric Webster

"This talk will explain with the aid of simple demonstrations why aircraft fly. The talk begins with demonstrations explaining Bernoulli's theorem with the aid of sheets of A4 paper. The levitation of balls in jets of air is demonstrated and hence an explanation of how footballs and golf balls can be made to curve in flight is given. The flight of aircraft is then discussed considering the balancing of lift and gravitational forces and the requirement that they do not cause rotation. The latter part of the session will give children the opportunity to apply these principles in the construction of paper planes. The children can then make their own paper plane for a mass flight experiment across the lecture theatre. In the final part of the lecture children are shown how to make a small helicopter and watch the flight of a hot air balloon."

The lecture was very good. Not the bells and whistles of some but delivering far more knowledge somehow. He steadily took us through understanding Bernoulli's Theorem of "Where air flows fast the pressure of the air is lowered". So, take two pieces of paper (he had given these out at the beginning) and hold them slightly apart and blow down between them. What would you expect to happen? Most said (me included) that the papers would move further apart but in fact they seemed attracted to each other. no matter how hard you blow they just cling, because hte air pressure on the outer surfaces of the paper is higher than in between the sheets, where you are blowing and consequently moving the air faster. He then progressed to spinning balls and how sports professionals apply that theorem to their sports, specifically football, golf and tennis. Once all that had been covered off he moved onto aeroplanes and how they fly and why their wings are curved on top and flat on bottom (same theorem again). We then all made paper aeroplanes and lobbed them forwards into the auditorium. Of course Chloe got hit on the head by one so she wailed a little (silent wailing but wailing nonetheless).

Ball floating in the airstream was as popular as ever.

With ball using expelled air through a washvax type machine (I think):



With pingpong ball using expelled air through an airbed pump:



With pingpong ball using expelled air through a straw:



Good stuff.

Chloe and I had agreed to come directly home after this so that we could work on her Music Theory in preparation for her exam the following day - when I knew that we had no time AT ALL spare for prep on Thursday. SO we came home, doing some terms and spellings on the tube, then she didn't want to do prep, I got grumpy, dinner was served way too late when we'd been promised an early dinner (he got all fancy with preparing rack of lamb and shaped potato cakes - I don't understand why a simple midweek supper won't suffice) and I was rather unpleasant to people, sending myself to bed with just a bowl of cereal as I knew I wasn't in a mood to be pleasant to either of them.

Still, up to that point it was an ace day.