Wight Weirdos

The Gibson Family Blog

Happy

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Some days are more difficult than others. Two of the main things that seem come up again and again when you study happiness seem to be gratitude and being present in the current moment and activity. Even on a difficult day I really really want to stay happy. So these are some things that have made me happy today.

 

Walking to work with Martin and having some time to walk through town and sit by the sea, I am grateful for the time and the fact that I can walk to the sea.

 

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I love listening to the sea and I live so close to it and yet I don’t always take the time to head down there and just enjoy it!

I also found this lovely red chilli in our cold frame thingy, it’s our first and I was very excited, I am grateful for its vibrant colours and the anticipation of its spicy taste.

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And tonight there is music to be played with friends so what’s not to be happy about!

Church Camp

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Church camp with just 3 of us means we didn’t have to put up the awning so it was nice and easy in the campervan.

Music was good:

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With a reasonable sized congregation:

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Birthday cake was amazing:

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Jonathan enjoyed the pony rides:

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And the BBQing was well done:

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Great time, good company, very nice welcome 🙂

 

And Relax

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My last month has been manic – extra maths classes, festival outreach at church and Rebekah’s 18th birthday celebrations. By Wednesday I had finished all of that and could head off to Oxford for a day with Martin, Martin had a meeting to go to and Jonathan and I tagged along for the ride and I could spend a day with no agenda just chilling out.

We started with a trip to the Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museums – we did stuffed birds, skulls and shrunken heads, and weapons and armour. Jonathan was a little disturbed by some of the human models which were a bit to anatomically graphic for him!

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Then we waited for Martin to join us at the University Parks.

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When Martin caught up with us we had a wander around the parks and played a quick game of table tennis.

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We headed back to the covered market and shared some delicious Thai food, junmped back on the park and ride bus and headed back to Southampton somewhat earlier than expected. We managed to get on an early ferry and were back in time to head out to Freshwater Bay and a quick swim before bedtime!

 

Cycling in the Netherlands

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We had a fabulous time in The Netherlands and for me the highlight was definitely the cycling – I managed to get out on my bike everyday and sometimes two or three times.

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 We’re about to set off on an expedition apparently:

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I love how safe I feel cycling there and how the infrastructure and the attitude makes for such a pleasant experience.

Look at the size of these cycle paths:

 

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See the depression for the bicycle wheels to go alongside the steps for the underpass – what a simple and yet clever idea:

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Love the height and ease of use of the traffic light button:

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And easy to follow comprehensive signage:

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Science Circus

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It’s been ages since we had a “circus” in The Learning Zone so I thought I’d host one. Everyone brought an activity and we had fun trying out different things.

We had sherbet making (acids and bases) and paper chromatography:

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Various watery activities to do with things like surface tension:

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Psychological memory testing:

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The well known milk, food dye and washing up liquid demonstrations – we experimented with Ecover and cheap washing up liquid there was quite a difference:

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And balloon rockets and the ever fun to play with non Newtonian fluid which I didn’t manage to get a pic of.