Songs: Bulletproof

This is my new favorite karaoke song!  It's so easy to sing and everyone sounds good singing it.   I first came across it in Pitch Perfect, and have subsequently has it stuck in my head a lot.   A LOT.   It's great.   Really simple, but effective.

  

Fossils: Trilobite and ammonite

Seeing as how I'm a massive nerd, I love fossils.   They're awesome!   Here are some cool recent fossil purchases.   This little guy is a trilobite.   Trilobites are sadly extinct, but were very succesful in their day.   They were marine arthropods, and one of the awesome things about trilobites is that their eyes had CRYSTAL LENSES!  Yes, crystal!   The lenses of their eyes were crystal prisms, not at all like the round squishy lenses we've got.   Nature is amazing.   Evolution is amazing.   And I love my trilobite fossil.   It's so well preserved and perfect!

And this is my ammonite.   They're another pretty common type of fossil.   Here's what I know about ammonites:   They were an octopus and squid relative, and looked a bit like a modern day nautilus.   They lived in the outermost compartment of their shell, and as they grew they added on an extra compartment and moved next door, with their head and tentacles protruding.   The smaller vacated chambers were then used to help control buoyancy.   They were free-swimming animals.   I love my ammonite fossil because it's so pretty.   The inside is full of nice crystals and the outside has a lovely pearly sheen.   No wonder so many people use them as mantlepiece decorations.

Songs: Lillian, Egypt

Josh Ritter is one of my favorites ever!   I've seen him live twice and I just love him.   He's so cute and cuddly and his songs are so full of emotion.   He's a master performer too.   Well worth the chance if you ever get to see him.   This is one of my favorites of his songs at the moment:

Photography: Roma Night Photos

Taking night photos in Rome was my first attempt at HDR night photos.  I really like the effect.   The way you can have a lot more stuff correctly exposed with HDR is really accentuated with night photos.   They look really bright and vibrant.  I'll definitely be doing this again.  

 The Typewriter by night.   The blue streaks were caused by a police car passing in front of it.   The flashing of the light makes interruptions in the streak.  Pretty!

 And again.   Photomatix has a default setting that removes "ghosts", or parts of the photo that appear in one exposure, but not the rest.   This is very useful for automatically removing things like passers-by that wander in front of the camera and traffic and objects moving in the wind.   By turning this setting off I got a lot more streaks of light from passing cars than I otherwise would have.

Fontana di Trevi.   A very famous fountain in Rome.   It's surrounded by tourists day and night.   If you throw a coin in over your shoulder with your back to it it's meant to mean that you'll come back to Rome someday.

Songs: Seabed

I have some very talented friends who are in a band called Ulysses Jones.   They're without doubt one of my favorite local bands.   Their stuff is folksy, but also quite funky.   They have a violin, a tin whistle and an accordion!   This is my favorite song of theirs:

http://ulyssesjonesuk.bandcamp.com/track/seabed

Product Reviews: Lush

We have a Lush store here in Edinburgh, but I'd never gone in because of the strong smell emanating from it, and the garish window displays.   But then I read this review by the lovely Rachel, and it really got me interested.   She talked about solid shampoo and conditioner bars from Lush and how good they are.   My first thought was how useful they'd be for traveling.   Yes, as she mentions, it's a great way to get round the stupid no liquids in hand baggage rule, but even if you are traveling with hold luggage, shampoo, conditioner and moisturiser bottles contribute so much to the weight, and spillages are annoying too.   So I went into Lush, and was quite surprised.   It's really not garish and hideous once you're inside.   It's actually quite nice and Earth-mothery, and the staff are an absolute delight.   Seriously, every time I've been in they have, without exception, been lovely.   Really friendly and helpful, and they obviously really like their job.   So, I got myself some solid shampoo and conditioner.   The first solid shampoo bar I got was this one:

   Squeaky green.

https://www.lush.co.uk/products/squeaky-green

It had a nice subtle smell, unlike some of the others, and lathered up really well.   I couldn't believe how well it worked!   I've used this bar on and off for almost a year now.   It's lasted and lasted and there's still loads left!   I really like it.

To go with it, I bought Jungle solid conditioner.   I love the smell!   As Rachel said, it is a bit trickier to use.   You're supposed to rub it between your hands and work what comes off the bar into your hair.   I tend to get impatient and rub the whole bar over my head, which works fine, bit does mean that it doesn't last as long as it should.   It does work well though.   My hair feels really healthy.   

      https://www.lush.co.uk/products/jungle

I tried their other solid conditioner too, Big Solid Conditioner.   It was good too.   It was softer, which made it slightly easier to use, and left more product in my hair.   The price tag is pretty hefty though, so I might just stick to Jungle in future. 

    https://www.lush.co.uk/products/big-solid-conditioner

Deciding I didn't really fancy taking ages with the solid conditioner in camp showers, I decided to try Godiva, which is shampoo and conditioner in one.   The smell is a little stronger than I'd like, to be honest.   It's jasmine and a little overpowering.   At first I was doubtful as to how well it would work as a shampoo, seeing as it had big lumps of cocoa butter in it, but I really couldn't tell the difference between its efficiency Squeaky Green's.   The conditioning part of it seems to work well too.   Unfortunately, travel did take its toll on the bar, and it turned to mush, seeing as I didn't dry it out properly.   It still works fine in a mush state though.   

https://www.lush.co.uk/products/godiva

The solid moisturiser bar I bought is great too.   I tried Each Peach, which smells of lemon (obviously).   When you rub the bar over your skin your body heat turns it into oil, which moisturises your skin.   It is a little oily, but I think it's worth it for the convenience.   

https://www.lush.co.uk/products/each-peach-and-twos-pair

The last product I want to talk about is a face mask.   I discovered it at Spa in the City.   It's a day where different retailers have stalls and give out free treatments and freebies.   I went to the Lush tent and had a free facial.   I absolutely loved the face mask they used on me!   It was Catastrophe Cosmetic and it made my face so nice and soft!    The effect lasted for days as well, and I've been a regular user ever since.   It's a miracle worker!   It's silky smooth with lots of lovely blueberries in it.   I always have a shower straight after I use it to make sure I get all the stray bits of blueberry out of my hair though! 

https://www.lush.co.uk/products/catastrophe-cosmetic

So there you go.   With all this great stuff, I am now definitely a Lush fan, and I'm sure they've still got plenty of great products for me to discover.

  

Songs: Real Gone Kid

This week's song is a catchy 80s tune with lots of high-pitched "oooh-oooh"s which are fun to sing along to in 80s clubs:

Work: What would you study if you were a scientist?

We asked a group of children what they would study if they were scientists.  These are some of my favorite answers (see if you can spot a few from cheeky adults too!):

 Can't argue with that!

 This one wasn't a child, it was Sam, who worked Front of House.  He didn't seem the least bit abashed when I pointed out he meant daddy long legses, not dandelions.

I love kids!

Photography: Rome, Day 3

The photos from the third day of my Rome trip are also from Tivoli.   This time I went to Villa d'Este, a big renaissance villa.   The house itself is pretty forgettable, but the gardens are amazing!   There are stupid numbers of water features.  It's absolutely gorgeous.   Well-worth a visit!   Again, most of the are HDR, but the last two are just ordinary photos.