» Faking it

curl up and dye...
I used to be a very convincing bottle blonde - courtesy of a very good hairdresser and naturally curly hair, and claimed to be a natural blonde.

Work and social friends had not seen my true mousey colours, and the lie persisted to the extent that when I dyed my hair dark brown, I had several female friends bemoan my neglection of "such a lovely natural colour".

I still haven't admitted the truth, and have a pathological fear of communal nudity as a consequence...
(Thu 10th Jul 2008, 16:20, More)

» Pointless Experiments

Snail Graffitti
A B3ta newsletter post about a London artist who decorates snails with classical paintings reminded me of my misspent youth...

At the age of 9, I desperately wanted to be David Attenborough and I would conduct experiments upon the local wildlife and fill notebooks with "observations".

I decided to discover the migratory habits of snails by raiding my mothers multitude of brightly coloured nail varnishes, collecting a collective of snails, painting their shells with varnish and releasing them at specific colour-co-ordinated distances away.

Suprisingly, many of them came back or were found by my mother and our neighbors for several years afterwards. I still do not know those polka dotted shelly beasts survived predation...
(Mon 28th Jul 2008, 20:54, More)

» Things we do to fit in

Calmer chameleon...
I think a more apt question would be "What don't we do to fit in?".

I frequently had to undergo an overnight metamorphosis from colourful and be-pierced to plain and conventional for the sake of career and academic progression, as a young Janitor Sinister.

I think I'm growing old as I've realised that looking normal permanently, might work to my advantage...
(Thu 15th Jan 2009, 15:31, More)

» Guilty Pleasures, part 2

Medicated and fine...
When I'm unwell, instead of reaching for the paracetamol I prefer kids 6-12 Calpol at adult dosage. The taste is pure nostalgia. And yes, I am a good decade over 12...
(Thu 13th Mar 2008, 21:45, More)

» How nerdy are you?

My first post- and maybe not my last...
They say palaeontology is one of the few things beloved by both 6 year old boys and hairy old academics.

Sadly, I'm an otherwise "girly" girl in my early twenties so don't fit the steriotype.

I currently have 6 crates of fossils that I've collected from various sites, stored in my parents attic. The collection shows no signs of shrinkage as I normally have a new and exciting "find" to add to it each time I return home from uni. All the fossils are identified and labelled, complete with highly detailed index cards.

I am unashamed.




Length? Well, I couldn't tell if it was a belemnite in his pocket or if he was just pleased to see me...
(Tue 11th Mar 2008, 17:02, More)