Thursday 28 June 2007

Yesterday I saw a dead hedge hog and a dead squirrel. What are the chances of that? Not very good at probability, but do you think it increases your chances of seeing one after seeing the other? Or was it just a bad day for animals? Just think how many I didn't see that were under bushes or in the gutter, sufficiently decomposed as to be unrecognisable.

Today, the two marmalades went head to head on my ryvita. Josh wins on the 'slimness of the shred', and the 'bittersweet taste' awards. Rachel wins on the 'colour' and 'best newcomer' awards. Both are to be awarded my crest, to display on their produce. They are permitted to write:

Old Pa Crandon/Old Ma Taylor, supplier of fine quality marmalade to the Bowen household.

on all their jars. It must be engraved into the glass of each pot they make from now on.

I find it ironic at best, that after forcing my children to walk and banishing the pushchair from our lives as they approached about 8 weeks, I have found myself pushing A around in a buggy as she has been suffering from sickness viral thing. She is not light to push and I have had to relearn that bus buggy etiquette, where people all shuffle around to make room for each other without making eye contact.

We did Bitterne in style today. We did a big shop in Iceland, which is fabulous because you leave it all with them and they deliver it later - for free! There is a new bargain bookstore next to Iceland. But generally I prefer the library, although maybe not for presents. Giving someone a library book is probably not normal behaviour in present giving. Bought A a hat for 30p in a charity shop, and purchased some wheat free pasta in the health food shop. Its on buy one get one free, so if you have a wheat allergy move along fast to Bitterne. Also purchased some more herbal remedies to add to the stack of pills I take each morning to make my brain, hormones and joints stay in synch with each other. I am on antiobiotics at the mo as well, so I need one of those pill dispensers that the elderly ill have, with the days of the week on little boxes. Anyone got one spare?

Yesterday I had a splendid day with a year 4 class who were wonderful. We met Terence Blacker, who is an author for those of you who are not up on him. He came across as very charming and took the children's questions seriously, and gave advice to budding authors. T B writes the Ms Wizz books, if you have heard of her. He (TB) came into school on purpose, btw, as part of book week they have authors in all week for the children to meet. Just in case you thought I stumbled across a man in the street, and asking his name, found out he was a famous author. Well, clearly not very famous, as you had not heard of him.

Last night we watched the Hot Fuzz DVD. Thank you Josh. It had a few more guns and a teeny bit more blood in than the usual genre I view, but it was so tongue in cheek and funny that I adored it. It was very silly and clever.

2 comments:

niddler said...

The probability of seeing the a dead animal is not altered once you have seen the first, however the probability of seeing two within a given trip is much lower than the probability of just seeing one.

This sounds obtuse, but you can apply it like this: You see dead animal #1, you are not at liberty to say "ooh we're very unlikely to see another one today" (as that implies a 'quota' whereas the chances remain the same), on discovery of the second you CAN say "this is most unusual - two in one day".

UNLESS of course there is some factor that may have affected both - for example there being something in the environment that poisoned them, or that you were wandering up the hard shoulder of a motorway where (I presume) there's a fair amount of roadkill.

niddler said...

...which is why although my dad has been in a (very serious) plane crash many years ago, and the probability of him being in two crashes is very small... his presence on an aeroplane does not (if you think about it) actually affect that particular plane's chances of crashing.

...Unless you think he's 'jinxed', but he's been on lots of planes since and I've been on plenty of planes with him and I can tell you the long stories are unlikely to make the wings drop off, just your ears ;-).