Episode 16: Hobbit Feet

Seeing as I’m currently enjoying the best 28.6% of the week known as ‘the weekend’ I thought I’d post you another little update. Nothing in particular, just life. Life is never boring!

It’s one of those wonderful Saturdays where you have a lie in, leisurely eat your breakfast and drink your tea in your dressing gown and read your book. Then sit wistfully think of ways to pass a pleasant afternoon and decide what to wear for your plans in the evening.

Well I haven’t gotten as far as deciding what I’m wearing out to dinner yet with a fellow Scientista (meaning a fabulous female scientist) but I did manage to make myself some nice wheaten bread and pate and a nice cup of tea in my Snow White mug to have alongside this week’s New Scientist. Feeding the brain and the belly. Today’s a win so far!

 A better day than it was night anyway, my 7kg Miniature Daschund Belle ate two 200g bars of dark chocolate and a bag of marshmallows she stole out of a cupboard which was left open. It’s not just a rumour, chocolate at certain doses is extremely poisonous to dogs, symptoms leading from vomiting to coma and death.

Plain cooking chocolate is the absolute worst, Belle had some Bournville which isn’t great either though, milk chocolate is a lot safer as it has less cocoa. The toxic effects are actually due to Theobromine poisoning. Cocoa beans contain about 1.2% theobromine by weight, so darker chocolates with higher percentages of cocoa solids contain higher concentrations. Humans metabolise theobromine much faster than dogs so would have to eat an unimaginable amount before reaching any levels of toxicity.  However, levels as low as 20mg/kg can harm dogs. The caffeine content is also a problem and can lead to increased heart rate as well as lowering blood pressure.

So not a great night was had by all, staying up on the phone to the vet making sure our fat sausage dog didn’t die, it was like watching a drunk person, hoping they don’t boke on themselves. By some unknown miracle/mystery she is completely fine but we are eyeballing her constantly to make sure she doesn’t end up with pancreatitis from sugar overdose either. I can only think that by eating the whole bag of marshmallows first she has somehow avoided the effects. It’s been about 24 hours now though and she’s running around trying to scrounge food off everyone who is eating so I’m optimistic and the vet said the symptoms would onset quite rapidly. See, life is never boring, if you think your life is boring then get a sneaky sausage dog. Just don’t feed it chocolate, ever, just to be safe.

 

To amuse myself during the evening and night I started reading a new book. I’ve just started a new book series – Game of Thrones – after recovering from the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) hangover. I have heard great things and am enjoying it already so I’ll post an update on here on how it goes if you’re curious.

In other news, I thought I looked acceptable today in a relaxed sort of Saturday afternoon-esqe style...

 

... until mummy said ‘your feet are creepy, you look like a hobbit’. And worse, the sausage looks like she agrees.

 

I’m quite delighted actually, I love Lord of the Rings, I’m glad I could make a subtle tribute with my hobbit sandals. As for Belle's opinion, I'm not going to take fashion advice from someone who has no shame about stealing and eating basically their own bodyweight in sweets.

Episode 15: Face of an Angel

Before I do some backtracking on exciting things that have been happening while I’ve been absent from the blogosphere, I have to have a rant about something that annoyed me today because I’m in the mood for a rant as I have to go back to work tomorrow after 2 weeks off. *sigh* Anyway, I’ve seen so many great beauty campaigns at the minute from companies like Dove Natural Beauty Campaign etc. I feel I need to put my two cents in; everyone is beautiful. Yes I agree, and I would prefer if people didn’t pretend they looked like Beyoncé all the time.  Even Beyoncé doesn’t look like Beyoncé all the time. For example, around 7pm on a Saturday night you start to see these popping up on your Facebook new feed;

  Exhibit A - “LAWL I’m such a mess just getting ready here, Haha state of me...”  

A process known as fishing for compliments. You did not look like that starting to get ready, you looked like this;

Exhibit B - A creature from the blue lagoon. No bra, Christmas jammies on in August, no tan, face mask and straggly wet hair.

So now instead of using all the products available to enhance your beauty as you see fit, girls are now pretending it takes absolutely zero effort to look like a beauty queen either. If you really wake up with a perfect sparkling St. Tropez glow, an Estee Lauder face and Cheryl Cole hair then you need to let us humans know how this feat is accomplished on your home planet.

Like when politicians say the science sector won’t be affected by budget cuts, you know it’s lies.

For all those poor men and young impressionable females getting the idea that some girls ‘just look like that’, you need to know;

a) Beautifying for females is harder on maintenance and upkeep than a 1998 Ford Fiesta

b) Girls rooms look like the crash scene on the meteor from Armageddon after getting ready for a night out

c) Any girls actually can look stereotypically “beautiful” if they wanted to, it’s just time and products (watch any reality ‘Makeover’ show on TV – ref. Everything by Gok Wan)

d) Face masks do exist; they aren’t just from chick flicks and rom-coms.

You might think this isn’t about science but it is because it has a psychological effect on women and sometimes men, which is where these beauty campaigns are coming from, they are aimed at women themselves to change this outlook on beauty.

We’ve turned into such masters of camouflage that most straight men have no idea what an unprocessed female in her natural habitat even looks like until they move in together. Don’t get me wrong, I love camouflage, I love fake tan (done correctly), fake eyelashes (done correctly) and all the rest but I don’t pretend I’m not wearing it, or pretend it doesn’t take a long time to get dolled up for a big occasion. There is no point in that; women know its lies and men don’t care.

Seriously though, when you start going out with a guy and they see you for the first time with your hair in a topknot, no makeup, no ‘sucky-in in pants’, no chicken fillets and your old school tracksuit bottoms, do they run away screaming into the distance? In fact do they even blink an eye?? No. Don’t care. Don’t even notice. The good ones appreciate when you make the effort and don't mind when you don't.

Of course, if you did any science in school you will know that teachers always say ‘right, learn this rule it covers everything on the subject’... ‘Oh except for; this, this and this’. Then those things that don’t fit into the logical rule are what you spend the rest of the year trying to learn. Well obviously there are men that don’t fit this general consensus I’ve created;

A recent study asked men what ‘look’ they preferred on women and a few responded ‘Natural – like Kim Kardashian’. I’ll just let that sink in for a minute. Yes, natural and Kim Kardashian were used in the same sentence. These are the men I was talking about that have been bamboozled beyond help by the media and girls pretending they look like the cover of a fashion magazine without making any effort.  As a matter of fact, Kimi K has been estimated to spend between $80000 to over $200000 a year on beauty and reportedly took nearly 5 hours just to get her hair done for a recent magazine shoot, done by professionals may I add, not by herself.

Back to the stupid photo, basically most men aren’t bothered if you looked like exhibit A or B getting ready, they fancy you both ways or not at all. So don’t aim it at men for real compliments and don’t aim it at women because they know it’s staged.

In order to be entirely fair, I’m not judging girls just because they put a lot of effort into their appearance. Everybody should be appreciated no matter how much effort they want to put into their image. I like the tanned look, some are pale and glowing, that’s just fine. Enhancing your assets isn’t a modern phenomenon, ancient Egyptians used black eyeliner to make their eyes look bigger like their Goddess Hathor, who was represented as a cow. People use make up to make their face seem more symmetrical, a trait we subconsciously associate with beauty.

Look however you want, whether that’s a cow or an isosceles triangle. Just don’t pretend you’re a made up fantasy. Unless you’re at Comic-Con then knock yourself out.

Finally, if you see pictures such as these and they make you sad, just remember, even if they did look that perfect in real life (unlikely), its ok to have a healthy hatred of these people. Just help yourself get over it by realising that no one can be that genetically lucky, they probably have something wrong with them that you can’t see. Like really long nostril hairs they have to trim before going out in public.

To conclude, here is an accurate representation of my face when I see people posting things like this and misrepresenting natural beauty;

The face of a Angel... albeit a mighty unimpressed one. 

 

Episode 14: Lonely Nights No More

Picture the scene; it’s a dreary Friday evening before payday, nothing on TV, everyone’s busy and your wardrobe and shoes are already ordered and colour coded... what could you possibly occupy your time with?

 Think of a dorky way to amuse yourself.

 ANYWAY being stuck in a book hangover* I couldn’t delve in my normal direction for solitary entertainment. This never happens to children. Ever. They always think of some way of having fun because they are so much more in tune with their imaginations than adults.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
~Albert Einstein

What would say an 8-year old budding young geek do? Make a mess first and foremost! So here are my ingredients;

If you have never tried any of these experiments when you were younger then clear your plans for next Friday because it’s fun AND tasty AND magical;

Chubby Gummy Bears

Well that’s lies, it’s not magic it’s just science J. EVEN better I'm sure you’ll agree. This is pretty basic science but I like to see things in action for myself, never take anything for granted!

Equation: Gummy bear + Glass of water + 12 hours = One chubby chewy bear

 

Procedure:  Put chosen gummy bear in a glass of water and leave overnight.

ITS ALIVE!! Nah, it’s just swollen because of Osmosis. Gummy bears are just sugar, water and gelatine. The sugar content means the concentration of water inside the gummy bear is lower than outside, the molecules of water then move in to try and balance this out and create an equilibrium. Normally you would expect this to dissolve in the water but the gelatine keeps it all together so we get giant sweeties! You actually don’t technically have any more gummy bear than when you started but at least you get your money’s worth in entertainment.

Starburst Gobstoppers

In my day these were opal fruits gobstoppers but sure we’ll just move with the times...

Equation: 4 starburst + rolling + freezer = homemade fruity gobstopper

 

Procedure: Squish up as many starburst sweeties as you like (I used 4, one of each flavour), roll them into a ball and leave overnight in the freezer.

Freezing stuff is always fun. Unless you’re one of those creeps that keeps their dead pet in the freezer, but we certainly aren’t doing that here. It’s pretty clear what’s going on, the yummy sweeties are warmed in your hands so they get soft enough to squish together into a nice ball. The freezer then cools them enough to go hard so they turn into a hard gobstopper. If you leave them to come back up to room temperature they return to their original state of molecular integrity. This works because your hands reach the right place between solid and before melting point to make them soft and the freezer temperature (~-20degrees Celsius) is cold enough to make the gobstopper hard but not brittle. 

This wouldn’t work with fruit pastilles for example because you would need to heat them to melt enough to combine into a ball, although maybe that’s an option for future! One of my favourite things was to make homemade ice lollies in ice cube trays with lemonade J.  

Coke Fountain

This is self explanatory. Fountain of Coke.

Equation: Diet Coke + Mint Mentos = *mini volcano*

Procedure: drop 3 mint mentos into a bottle of diet coke. (also prepare for mess)

I’m sure a lot of people have actually heard of this but never done it. It’s actually more impressive than my pictures make it look, its difficult to drop the mentos in, get away and take a picture. As I mentioned I was by myself or clearly I wouldn’t even have been doing it! I also bought a small bottle of Diet coke, rookie mistake BUT that’s what experimenting is about.

Luckily for me other people have studied this more extensively, although it does work with other drinks, Diet Coke gives the most impressive spurt of foam. I’ve read the optimum materials for this are a 2ltr bottle of Diet Coke and 6 mentos. DO THIS OUTSIDE, its eruption is more impressive than you probably imagine!

My scaled down version follows the same principle though.

The television show Mythbusters (A-MAZING) was actually the first team to really investigate what components caused this. The rapid formation of foam is caused by the potassium benzoate, aspartame, and CO₂ in the liquid and gelatine and gum Arabic in the sweets. Specifically the mint mentos are integral to the reaction as their surface area is porous therefore giving a bigger surface area for the reaction to take place quickly.

After this, a physicist at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, Tonya Coffey had a team of scientists there investigate it. They found that the speed at which the sweets fell through the liquid also contributed to the jet of foam. All of the original theories like basic acid reactions or caffeine components were de-bunked.

Read the details of the study here in an article from New Scientist Magazine (aka The-Greatest-Magazine- Available-In-The-World-Ever.)

And you’ll have lonely nights no-more with science in your lifeJ.

(*Book Hangover: Inability to start a new book because you’re still living in the last book’s world)

Episode 13: Flat as a Pancake

Unless you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia I hope you’re ok reading episode 13? Not scared of the number 13? Good, please continue.

Hopefully it’s a lucky one? Well for me it’s an unlucky incident I'm afraid. Don’t mess with gravity; it’ll get you down...

“You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care”

~Clayton Christensen

Long story short, there was this big fold up chair leaning against a wall, I was shuffling past, it dumped itself on my right foot. The only reason I knew I wasn’t dead was because I could still feel the pain.

I did however survive to tell the tale, it’s not even broken, as you can see in the picture above that dark shadowy patch on the side of my right foot isn’t a fake tan incident but is evidence of an impact which damaged my underlying blood vessels – a contusion, i.e. a bruise.

Bruises are areas of discoloured skin which are the result of trauma which has ruptured blood vessels (capillaries, or in worse cases venules) which in turn seep blood (haemorrhage) into the surrounding tissues. The seriousness of a bruise actually has a scale;

Harm score	Severity level	Notes
0	Light bruise	No damage
1	Mild bruise	Little damage
2	Moderate bruise	Some damage
3	Serious bruise	Dangerous
4	Extremely serious bruise	Dangerous
5	Critical bruise	Risk of death

I thought mine was a 5 but upon reflection perhaps in the grand scheme of things I would only score a 1. I say 1 and not 0 because although there was no underlying fracture to bones or organs it was painful enough to prevent me wearing heels to work all week.

Thus the photo above, thank goodness there are only 5 days in a work week because I only have 5 pairs of flat shoes that aren’t stinky trainers that could run out the door by themselves. These 5 are my Monday to Friday line up; lady brogues, dalmatian print, cream, gold glittery and appliqué flowers. All bases covered. I quite enjoyed having to make more of an effort with the rest of my outfit to still look professional but am definitely looking forward to sliding back into black stilettos next week!

It has brought to my attention the need to further define the scale of bruises that are specifically found in the foot/leg area;

Harm score	Severity level	Notes
0	Light bruise	The sky is the limit
1	Mild bruise	Platforms possible
2	Moderate bruise	Mummy Heels
3	Serious bruise	Stick to wedges/flats
4	Extremely serious bruise	Trainers/flip flops
5	Critical bruise	Stay in your slippers

This is how I will define my injuries to people in future;

“I hurt my leg”

“Was it bad?”

“It was like a 3, I had to wear wedges out to lunch”

If you fall victim to an impact injury remember the treatment; RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation). Luckily (unlike number 13) your body deal with bruises almost immediately as as soon as the endothelium of the capillaries is damaged, endothelin is released which causes the blood vessel to narrow and stem the blood flow to minimise bleeding. Von Willebrand Factor is also released which begins the coagulation (blood clotting process) to block the site of the wound until your tissue and be mended.

The entertaining colour change of bruises is actually due to the breakdown of the component of blood - haemoglobin which is gradually cleared from the area by phagocytosis.

 

Haemoglobin – Biliverdin – Bilirubin – Hemosiderin

Red/blue – green – yellow – golden brown

There you go, next time you see someone with a bruise you can a) inform them what stage it is at depending on the colour or b) recommend what shoe type to wear until recovery.

OR If I’ve disappointed you and you wanted to read about pancakes you can delight yourself with a peek back at Episode 4 for all your fluffy sweet sugary bread needs!

Episode 12: Geeks and Sweets - The Challenge

100% better than Alien vs. Predator; Nerds vs. Geek.

I was presented with a serious dilemma today.

Not in work, no no, that stuff is simple in comparison. Is your IL-6 high in patient sample 19 because of RF interference? Is my OXYC2 curve looking like a drunk trying to walk down a straight line because of ACE non-specific binding? Whatevs. I can deal with that, I can logically pick my way through the problem to the solution and experiment my way to success. This was an illogical dilemma with no 100% perfect solution yet known to mankind.

I found them. The favourite sweets you talk about from your childhood that you can’t get any more. They were there. In the shop. Being delicious and tooth-decaying-ly sugary. NERDS!! My homies in confectionary form. BUY THEM!

BUT

I was on the way to the dentist. Why life? Why? I mean obviously I bought them but now I have to feel bad about it. The sneaky sweeties challenged my brain into a ‘what do I dooooo?’ moment in the middle of the shop! 17 years of education did not prepare me for that. The age old questions of life aren’t ‘what is the meaning of life’ and ‘what is my purpose here’ but the stuff that challenges your inner logic every day;

·         What speed do you put the window wipers on at?

·         Do I put my monochrome dress in a white wash or a black one?

·         What do you clean a bog brush with?

I am yet to hear concrete satisfying responses to the above. I deal with them by;

·         Making someone else drive in the rain and complain when the wipers are too fast/slow.

·         Giving it to Mummy to wash.

·         1. Never touch the bog brush anyway

2. Buy a new one if it looks in any way shape or form smelly/scruffy/discoloured.

The grapple with my conscience paid off though because here on the back of the box is a lovely quote which I am putting on my desk immediately;

 

My favourite part and my new ethos for life “Mystic and Marvellous surprises that will Entrance, intrigue and delight you beyond measure... Feed your imagination”. Oh you sneaky dog Willy Wonka, you’re talking about science aren’t you? *Brain Food*

Oh I just thought of another one.

Do you indicate when you are taking the last exit on a roundabout in the right hand lane but geographically it is actually straight in front of you??

I’m not even going to try to answer that because even the sweets nearly beat me already.

Why can’t I ever resist them anyway? Sweetie, Fatty goodies? Oh yes thank you human body for being a hunter gatherer and loving everything that’s bad for me.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good and is released after eating sweet food. That means that you actually really do feel less stressed and tired after eating it. 4pm pick me up, thank you!

 I think I won the sweet challenge J. Just not the whole box of Nerds maybe? I’ll try.

Episode 11: The Truth About Hangovers

You may or may not have noticed I’ve been AWOL for quite a few days. Let me discuss with you something that has been close to my heart during that time.

“hang·o·ver

n.

1. Unpleasant physical effects following the heavy use of alcohol.

2. A letdown, as after a period of excitement.

3. A vestige; a holdover: hangovers from pre-war legislation.”

~Dictionary

Clearly I am referring to point 1. Now I’m not divulging whether the hangover which was the muse for this post was my own or if I was a witness to another’s grief. Whoever the owner of that particular hangover was though, I'm sure you will be glad to know, has made a full recovery.

Let’s look at that definition though.

“Unpleasant”- understatement of the century

“Physical” – you forgot psychologically harrowing and mentally destructive

“Effects” – symptoms of abuse would be more descriptive here

“Heavy Use” – now that really depends upon your age/sex/body/dinner/mental state

Here is my broader definition – The mini death experienced from 2-24 hours after drinking alcohol without having your dinner.

We all know the ‘rules’. Like the breaking of the school rules leads to detention, breaking of the drinking rules leads to hangover central.

The Rules

1.       Don’t mix grape and grain. Or ‘Beer after liquor makes you sicker’. Beer or Wine plus spirits = no.

 

2.       Eatin’ is Cheatin’ – Eating is cheating except what you are actually cheating is yourself out of a hangover. Cheat away and laugh at the apocalyptic zombies you have the pleasure of being friends with the next day. The greasier the better (the food, not your friends) as this will line your stomach better and slow down alcohol absorption.

 

3.       Every glass of water taken the night before saves you drinking two the next day. Hydration is KEY.

The actual rules s designated by UK government are; 21 units per week for men, including 2 alcohol free days and no more than 4 units in one day. For women it’s 14 units per week, no more than 3 a day and 2 free days per week.

Horrify yourself about the details of units here.

Recent studies have shown massive variations in guidelines though, even within Europe. Some countries make no differentiation between men and women and debate whether alcohol free days are required. I think my rules above are far more helpful, I’ll consider submitting them as internationally agreed consumption guidelines.
 

The Facts

1.       The Hypothalamus is a sneakily small part of the brain; its size is not relative to its role. It’s like the chief housekeeper of the body and drives Homeostasis (regulating and maintaining the internal conditions e.g. temperature,). Alcohol seriously upsets its delicate balance and this is displayed by increased blood pressure, hunger, thirst and urge to pee. Body and temperature and heart rate decrease.

 

2.       The pituitary gland, controlled by the hypothalamus, secretes ADH (anti-diuretic hormone). ADH acts on the kidneys to reabsorb water. Alcohol consumption leads to the inhibition of ADH which in turn leads to decreased absorption of water in the kidneys meaning you pee more often and become severely dehydrated. This is the main culprit for the hangover.

3.       Alcohol is broken down by an enzyme called Alcohol dehydrogenase into Acetaldehyde. A variant in the gene for this enzyme, found commonly in Asian people, leads to increased metabolism of alcohol. However many also have a variant in the gene for acetaldehyde dehydrogenase which breaks the acetaldehyde down which means that although they don’t feel as much of the ‘buzz’ from alcohol consumption, they have increased side effects due to toxic build up. This is called Alcohol Flush Reaction.

4.       Do not take paracetemol (acetaminophen). Paracetamol and ethanol are detoxified by the same pathway in your liver, the cytochrome P450 oxygenase pathway. Taking them both together can lead to critical shutdown by overloading the pathway. This dramatically increases chances liver cirrhosis, failure and death.

5.       The Hippocampus is a part of the brain involved in memory. Alcohol reaching here leads to the age old question ‘What happened last night?.

The Cure

Here it is!

 The scientifically proven antidote to all hangovers!

1.       Water

2.       H₂O

3.       Liquid dihydrogen monoxide (that’s just water too babes)

 was going to do a whole section on The Myths, but it’s much easier to say everything except water is a myth. Raw eggs, black coffee, having another drink etc only help either by delivering you their water content or delaying the effects.

It’s not really all that surprising, water is the basis for life on earth, and in this case can revive you from apparent death. I apologise for not giving you a matrix style pill that reverses the night’s damage and has you dancing around doing the housework and singing to mice Cinderella style. Or did you do that last night?

“Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as Hydrogen and Oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.”

~Dave Barry

Option 1 - If you have become unexpectedly inebriated the only way to avoid a hangover is to continue consuming alcohol until you die.

Option 2 - Option 1 is not a real option and I strongly recommend putting the jaegerbomb down, drinking some lucozade and going to bed. Followed upon awakening by a full Ulster fry and approximately an Olympic sized pool amount of water.

Option 3 – Stay sober? Or just follow up on your progress by paying better heed to The Rules next time and attempt to “drink responsibly”. https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/

So really the truth about all hangovers is, they’re like paper cuts. You feel like you’re going to die and yet receive not one button of sympathy.  

Episode 10: Books or Looks?

I restrained myself last week.

 7^th March 2013 was World Book Day, but I waited.

I waited in order to give everyone a fresh slap in the chops with the wonders of literary genius.

I waited, but with a plan, to wait until a week later when you may have ‘forgotten’ to pick up that book you bought or ‘forgotten’ to read that new novel someone lent to you or maybe you even ‘forgot’ to go and sign up at the library?

NEVER FEAR! I am here to remind you to take that trip to the library, have a browse on Amazon or maybe even purchase the sequel to the book you decided to read last Thursday, all because of the encouragement provided from World Book Day.

People should be encouraged to follow a more book filled life. Books have always been a part of my life, as my mummy likes to tell people about my childhood; ‘Ruthie would just sit there in the corner with her wee book, no trouble at all’. Thanks mummy, so I’ve been a total geek my entire life then? She just kills any social credibility I may have mustered. But it was, and still is, true;

Here we have le bookcase bottom right, these shelves are dedicated to books I read for pleasure, academic books and textbooks etc. have another bookcase, on the top is my sausage dog book bookmark (see episode 7 for explanation) and the bottom left shows my little bookie beauties all lined up and waiting for my literary consumption, like a book to do list on the top shelf, yet to be explored.
It makes me happy just thinking about sitting down and reading them all.

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
~Jane Austen

I love listening to people reasoning out why they don’t read;

1.       I don’t have time to read. Do you not have time to eat, have a bath, travel to work or go to bed? Unlikely.

2.       I can’t afford books. Library?

3.       I have no space to put them. Although it isn’t my personal preferred method – eReader?

4.       I don’t like books. Well see you in hell blasphemer.

Saying you don’t like ANY books is an extremely loaded claim as you are implying that you have read every book and didn’t enjoy a single sentence. Have you read every book in the world?

No you haven’t, and your hypothesis on not liking ANY books is therefore null and void. It’s also very narrow-minded, like saying I don’t like ANY fruit because you didn’t like a plum you had once when you were sixteen.

Everyone likes something, unless you’re Eeyore, and in fact even he likes eating thistles. So you see Eeyore might enjoy reading a nice book about the best thistle species for summer and where to find them?

‘Having time’ to read is also an easily solved issue, most people these days spend their evenings watching TV. Mind-numbing, thought burning, intelligence annihilating TV. For HOURS on end. Everything in moderation, there’s nothing wrong with catching up with some of your favourite programmes and enjoying cuddling up with a movie. But just think on the fact that you burn more calories sleeping than watching TV. That is how much of nothingness TV is. Your brain is more active sleeping and you aren’t even conscious.

The benefits of reading;

·         It makes you smarter. Obviously! Not only are you keeping your brain active and improving your memory but you are gathering more information whether that’s learning real facts or dissecting moral dilemmas.

·         Reading improves your vocabulary, grammar and spelling which also benefits your own creativity and writing skills.

·         It’s a stress buster. I find this exceptionally potent myself, which is why I very often delve into fiction. Escaping from reality makes it much easier to step back and deal with issues.

·         It’s fun! You know what you could read which is regularly updated with interesting short reads? A blog ;).

The benefits of reading with a cup of tea;

·         Above list plus you also now have a nice cup of tea.

The benefits of reading with a cup of tea and biscuits;

·         Now you have tea AND 2 milk chocolate digestives. Win for life already and you haven’t even opened the book yet! It’s all about preparation, settle down somewhere quiet and comfortable and prepare to enjoy yourself.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
~ C.S. Lewis

As highlighted in the movie Matilda by her somewhat simple-minded mother, Mrs Wormwood, some girls are led to believe you have to set your life down a path based on either books or looks. As if being academic means you couldn’t possibly groom yourself.

I mean sometimes you stay up late to just finish the end of the chapter, and then just the next chapter and then the next, and just a few more pages... and you know what? There’s not that much left to just finish the book! You probably look like you’ve suffered from a lifetime of insomnia the next morning because you were too tired to get up and brush your hair but wasn’t it satisfying finding out what happened to Harry and Voldemort??

Less of your old fashioned opinions Mrs Wormwood, smart women are sexy! Even with bags under their eyes...

 Everybody has their place of solace, a thing you do just for you that relaxes and refreshes and lets you escape problems and worries. Books do that for me,

and sometimes there’s even a snuggly sausage dog hiding between the pillows and blankets on your reading chair!

I have my book, my sausage dog, fluffy blankets, a cup of tea and 2 biscuits. If the fiancé comes around with a crème egg now I’ll just have to die because my life will have already hit its peak.

 

A few of my own recommendations for Geeks to get started;

 For a little Geek;

Tony Robinson’s Weird World of Wonders: Funny Inventions – Tony Robinson and Del Thorpe

For a Chic Geek;

How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl’s Guide to Everything – Camilla Morton

For a History Geek;

Fall of Giants – Ken Follett

For a Fantasy Geek;

The Eye of the World – Robert Jordan