Dinosaur Days

Good evening!

Thank you so much for your kind words and lovely comments about my new job! I am thankful beyond words, and can't wait to share my adventures with you once I get started!

On Saturday, Carl and I spent the day in London at the Natural History Museum, as I wanted to see the dinosaurs. I had never been before, and reading Rattle His Bones, a Daisy Dalrymple mystery which was set in the Natural History Museum in the twenties made me really want to go. I was overwhelmed by the building itself; it is really magnificent, very decorative, and you could spend an entire day just studying the architecture. It seems that every surface is carved or painted or decorated, and I cannot imagine the work that must have gone into it.

In the central hall is a cast of a skeleton of a Diplodocus, whom the museum have nicknamed Dippy. He is really quite magnificent, and we lined up straight away to go and see the rest of the dinosaurs. To be honest, there was a part of me that wished the museum was as it was in the twenties. It is very much set up to appeal to families and children, which I understand, but is quite bright and gimmicky in places. However there is enough of the old museum there for me to be able to squint my eyes slightly and pretend! We also visited the mineral rooms and the vault to see the precious stones, as that was another area of the museum featured in the story. We enjoyed a much needed pot of tea, as looking at so many wonders and treasures really takes it out of you! I think we are so lucky...I know that not everyone has easy access to London, but for anyone who can make their way there, all the wonders of the museum are free, as are most of our museums. It is something you almost end up taking for granted, but when you go, you are reminded of how lucky you are.

(Although, on an aside, the food is very expensive. Yes, they have to make their money somehow, but I think I would almost rather pay and admission fee than over £20 for lunch for two! Lunch of the filled baguette, cake and tea variety! So if you plan a visit, go prepared!)

I am thinking of dinosaurs again this evening....I feel like one! It has been on my mind for a while to download the photographs from my mobile phone, and to better organize the folders I have on my laptop. I have also been planning to sign up to flickr or picasa or a similar website, as I would like to be able to share my photographs more easily, and to have them stored somewhere other than my laptop, so should the worst ever happen, I have not lost them all. Well I have been at it for over an hour, and have got all of my photographs onto the computer, in folders that are really a bit jumbly. I have been vexed as some photographs seem to belong in more than one folder...I know I can copy them, but that takes time. Tagging them is the best option as far as I can see, but the best time to do that would be online. So, I signed up to flickr, but then Carl said I would get more storage with Picasa. So I signed up there...and that is where my troubles started!

Somehow, it recognised me, and had already started albums for me with photographs from my blog. Now I don't want to have that, I want to start from scratch and organize things for myself. So I was going to delete them, but then Carl said that would delete them from my blog! Most, most vexing! So then I thought I would go back to flickr but that seemed to want to link itself to a separate account elsewhere. Now I can see that technology that is so far advanced may be very useful, but there really should be a great big 'leave me alone, I don't want you deciding things for me!' button!

Don't I sound grumpy? Technology makes me grumpy! I like to be good at things and good straight away, and I have very little tolerance for not getting to grips with things (for myself, I am willing to give everyone else leeway!). Sigh. I think I need a cup of tea!

Luckily, I just so happen to have a cup of tea that dear lovely Carl has just come and left at my side. I also have some teacakes that I baked today for the first time. I used the Hairy Bikers Recipe, which you can find at the BBC Food website. Two things I would change; firstly, I think a good tea cake really needs some dried fruit in it, so I will be adding some next time. The other thing is, I could only get wholemeal bread flour, so I used that, and found them a little bit on the dry side. So next time I will either add some more liquid, or better still, use white bread flour!

Right, back to the computer for a while...I think I am going to have earned my bubble bath later on this evening! I hope this photograph thing gets easier...you see, I want to be able to make those pretty mosaic photos-of-the-month that blogs such as The Quince Tree and Attic 24 do so well. I want to be able to look back at my thirties in a way that I can't really at my twenties, because we didn't really take and download photographs regularly. The plan is to download and organize weekly, and print off a selection to go in a scrapbook or album. I am sure it will get better! There is nothing like technology for making me feel like a dinosaur, and a grumpy old lady!

Love
Mimi
xxx