Blogging full time is hard

 So I think I may need to restart the count on the Writer Badge as I haven't been able to frequently add to this. I know I could update on my phone but I found it a bit too hard and I forgot that I have my mum's old tablet I could attempt to use. Hey ho.

I've just worked on the last few points of my Codebreaker badge this evening as far as research goes. I just need to read my choose your own adventure book which will be later. Whether I can stay awake is another matter, I'm exhausted. Pretty sure I'm coming down with a cold.

The Classic Substitution, or Caesar cipher, is very simple. Each letter is replaced by the letter 3 positions after it alphabetically so A B C becomes D E F. X Y and Z become A B and C being at the end.

The Homophonic Cipher is possibly the most complex I've looked up, even though it seems sort of easy to explain. Each letter is given a certain number of symbols (letters and numbers, or just numbers) based on their frequency in language. E is the most common in English and so often has the most substitutions. The substitutions themselves, however, are random, making it one of the hardest to crack.

This week my mum hopefully is going in for the surgery she had postponed last month due to having covid. Because of that, we're going into isolation tomorrow so I'll have a lot more time to do more.

Yesterday I tried calligraphy with not too bad results. Will be having another go as I have more templates to try.

I also organised my file to display the certificate cards that come with the badges too which I'm quite proud of.

But now I'm utterly exhausted so I'm gonna turn in, despite it being so early. Definitely feel that cold coming on.

Gratitude diary:

1. Being able to take my Cubs out to the lake for the first time in a long time to do kayaking and paddleboarding.
2. Not being at work when I feel meh
3. A break in the rain to take my dog for a walk (after getting soaked right through at the lake!)
4. Yummy food
5. Coffee! I've needed it today

Critic Badge - Book review: Percy Jackson / Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan

 The only reason I started reading these books is because I saw the first Percy Jackson film and spotted the credit "Based on the novel by Rick Riordan". I'm so glad I investigated this book series. The film was good but the book was a million times better!

The second film was so loosely based on the second book, "The Sea of Monsters", that I'm not surprised there were no more films despite five books in the Percy Jackson series then a further five in the following Heroes of Olympus series in which the world we've learned about so far, the world of modern day Greek demigods, is expanded to include their Roman counterparts.

It's all about, at the beginning, 12 year old Percy Jackson discovering he's the son of a Greek god, none other than Poseidon. The series follows his adventures fighting monsters and trying to complete difficult quests with his friends Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, and Grover Underwood the Satyr. The five books of this series follow on from the previous as Percy grows up and learns more about his destiny.

The Heroes of Olympus series follows on after a life or death battle in Manhattan and the gods recognise mistakes have been made in the past. New demigods are introduced, both Greek and Roman, to the storyline through the first two books who then have to learn to work together, a task normally so impossible that their godly parents have kept them from knowing the others exist to prevent wars.

The writing style is fantastic. Where it's aimed at adolescents, it's really easy to read. Riordan doesn't try to overcomplicate anything or use tricky words.

These series are a must for any mythology fan.

For more information, click here for Rick Riordan's website.

Critic Badge - Concert review: Stand By For Action at B:Music Symphony Hall, Birmingham

 16th April 2022

The hype for this concert was increased significantly due to the VIP portion of the event beforehand.

It was incredible to be able to meet and have photos with Wayne Forester, Nicholas Briggs, Richard James, Richard Harvey, Lee Sullivan, Jon Culshaw and of course, the legend that is Jamie Anderson, son of the late, great Gerry Anderson who was involved in creating the iconic series whose themes were played at the concert.

We were gifted a carboard forage cap to wear for the show, a print of Thunderbird One or FAB1 (I chose TB1) and a Souvenir Programme which I used for everyone to sign.

The concert itself was out of this world! It started, naturally, with the Thunderbirds March before Jamie Anderson introduced the event and handed over to impressionist Jon Culshaw to host the night.

The music was presented in chronological order, starting with Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy from the 50's, right up to the CGI New Captain Scarlet of 2005. The only exception to the order was Thunderbirds as there was an entire montage from the first episode, Trapped in the Sky, including the piano solo Virgil played at the end of the episode. The projector screen, which up until that point had been showing clips from the shows, now showed a slideshow of photos from Gerry Anderson's life. I was gone, it was so emotional!

The whole atmosphere was fantastic, the music was all incredible and I loved every minute. I especially liked the orchestra who were all dressed as characters from the shows.

Critic Badge - Exhibition review: Brick Wonders at the Novium, Winchester

 22nd January 2022

I didn't know I was going to this exhibition. A friend of mine surprised me and it was lovely.

The exhibits, as ever with big Leg displays, were incredibly well made and were so varied.

The first section was a trip around the world with displays like an underwater scene with a turtle similar in size to, well, a real full grown turtle, a colourful depiction of the Internet, the Aurora Australis and various famous landmarks like Easter Island and Hoover Dam.

Next there were Lego representations of things like the pandemic (tablets and syringes) and social media logos.

I was excited to spot a Lego model of the Mole from Thunderbirds on a screen. The guy involved in creating the display was being interviewed and he had it behind him. I was disappointed though that this model hadn't been included anywhere in the exhibition.

The next section of the display was about technology so there was an enormous model of the International Space Station as well as a small one, and things like a container ship.

The final part was depictions of the Seven Wonders of the World. These were the Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes, the Lighthouse at Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.

The exhibition was a temporary one within a museum about Winchester built around a Roman archaeological dig site which is incorporated into their exhibits.

19th April - Well that didn't last long!

 I was doing so well! Writing a post every night. Then the Easter break started and the exhaustion level rocketed! My first school holiday since I returned to work so I'm impressed I managed during the day. They were all really good.

So, in that time, we had the two days of falconry and the daily trail the rest of the week. It was so quiet at the beginning of the week though, possibly because of the big weekend. We would normally have had a big event of some description all week, usually fully booked before we get to lunch time. But this year we had a trail which was really well received, giving the children the focus to look at the guns and try and spot the details they may normally overlook, like the tiny eagle on the Cherbourg gun outside the first gallery, or the acorns on Le Fameux in the Artillery Hall.

This weekend though, wow! Action packed! I drove straight from work at 4pm to Oxford which was about 1½hr on the road. Not bad going for a bank holiday Friday, almost spot on what was estimated on the Sat Nav.

Saturday was a chilled morning which was nice because we went for lunch then drove to Birmingham for the Stand By For Action concert at the B:Music Symphony Hall. It was unbelievable! I loved every minute of it! Especially as my friend, Jo, insisted we get the VIP tickets. Am I glad she insisted on that! I got to meet some of the big wigs including Jamie Anderson, son of the late, great Gerry Anderson.

Wayne Forester, voice actor for New Captain Scarlet and actor in Space Precinct

Nicholas Briggs, part of the Big Finish team, involved with creating the new audio adventures

Richard James, actor in Space Precinct

Richard Harvey on the left, composer of the Terrahawks theme and Jamie Anderson

An amazing cosplayer by the name of Willow

Host for the evening, Jon Culshaw who has been lending his vocal talents as Jeff Tracy in the audio books

Lee Sullivan, comic artist

Sunday was another busy one with the Horseboarding UK event. I'll admit I did get a bit overwhelmed. I was under the impression I was there just to take photos and then they were like so if you could go over to the other side of the field and be in charge of telling people if the riders or boarders foul. Yeah, way too much for me. Tipped me over a bit. They were really kind though. Lisa took pity on me and let me go with her to the pit gate where I could take the photos still but also get involved as I felt confident to.

All I can say is thank goodness for sport mode! I took over 2000 photos and I spent a lot of today going through the first 1000 deleting the rubbish ones and cropping the ones that are too far out. I'll do the rest later.

Yesterday we went out for lunch which was nice and I spent some time doing some origami for my Craft badge.

I also completed my first official badge today! Finished enough reviews to earn my Critic badge! Technically I already have one in the form of Community Service but I didn't have to do anything new to that as I've been scouting for 12 years.

So I'll type up my reviews for you now!

Oh yeah, I'm a bit behind on my gratitude diary.

1. My friends, especially Jo. Encouraging me to go to those events this weekend had given me some epic memories
2. Making new friends at the Horseboarding event and at the concert!
3. Kind people who are happy to share things
4. Time off. I might have had a very long time off and I'm so glad to be back, but time off is nice, especially when it's so busy!
5. Sunshine! The weekend could have been so different if it had been cold or wet or both!

9th April - Birbs!

Today was really full on but I had a fantastic time. Stints outside on the car park, on the admissions desk and a bit of wandering the site too.

I was able to go out to see the final falconry display of the day and took a load of photos for them.

I don't really have too much of an update short of the fact that the day went really well and I loved it!

After work, we walked Misty around the park and let her have a bit of a run with her ball too.

But yeah, not really much to share really, aside from a few of my favourite photos.

Today I'm grateful for...

1. My bosses. Again. The rota was arranged really well and the duty manager rearranged it for me to go out to the event as I wasn't due to see it today. I suspect I would have been on it tomorrow but I'm grateful to them for letting me see it today
2. My colleagues. I honestly don't think I'd enjoy my job even a fraction of how much I do if not for my colleagues. They make the day more fun.
3. Sunshine. The weather today was dry and mostly bright, though it did get cold. But being sunny meant the event felt like it went even better.
4. Booking a table for my birthday meal with my friends.
5. Seeing the birds today.

8th April - Getting back to 'normal'

 Today I did an opening shift at work. First one since returning. So now I've done all of the different regular shifts again. Finally feel like things are getting back to normal. Well, aside from the fact that tomorrow is the start of Easter break activities and the falconry! School breaks are anything but normal!

My bosses were kind enough to give me an extra half hour to get the opening procedure completed in case I felt the need to go slower than normal. And to top that off, I was allowed home a half hour earlier too.

It was a good day though. When I wasn't on the admissions desk, I was helping set up for the break by replacing some of our table adverts with new ones for the fun fair, the Falklands 40 exhibition, the Fort Talks, the May Half Term and a general what's on leaflet. Those and the A4 posters on the backs of bathroom doors. I also helped put out boards to advise children where to find hidden flora and fauna around the galleries.

After work, I had a quick sit down with a coffee with Dad before we took Misty for her walk. Had dinner, had a shower, then started to do the Indoor Gardener badge work I was going to do yesterday before I remembered the Leaders Meeting.

The research I did was for the miniature rose and the Purple Shamrock I already had before I bought the rest recently.

So here we go. This is what I learned this evening.

Oxalis Triangularis (False or Purple Shamrock) (Info taken from wikipedia)

• Perennial, meaning it'll live for more than 2 years (We've had ours for maybe 4 so far?)
• Leaves and petals close at night, when the plant is disturbed or if it is kept in harsh sunlight. Ours lives on the bathroom windowsill where it gets sunlight in the afternoon so it tends to stay open all day but really wakes up with a water.
• On the note of light, they prefer bright indirect sunlight and cool indoor temperatures, around 15ºc. Our bathroom is usually around that, though obviously the shower does tend to make it a bit humid. Hmm, maybe I should put my orchid in there...
• Can grow up to 50cm tall (ours has remained a compact small size but has plenty of leaves and some lovely small flowers)
• Thrives in average potting soil with good drainage.
• Only needs watering when the topsoil looks dry and doesn't need water in the winter.
• Needs fertilising every 2-3 weeks. Diluted houseplant liquid fertiliser is good.

Miniature Rose, unknown variety. (Info taken from Masterclass website)

• May need extra mulch or protection in winter as the roots of a miniature rose are closer to the surface than regular roses
• They need to be in an area where they can receive 6-8 hours of sunlight. Our poor rose has lived on the bathroom windowsill since I got it for Christmas. I didn't trim it back as much as I should have and it's been reduced to three little stumps. 2 of them now have shoots on them again so I haven't killed it entirely. I think it gets enough sunlight and it'll certainly get more as the days lengthen.
• The pot needs to have drainage holes.
• Well-draining, loamy soil (I had to look that up. Means fertile soil of clay or sand containing humus, which I also had to look up, means dark organic material that forms in soil when plant and animal matter decay. Look at all this learning!! Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, soil) Peat moss can be added to keep the soil light and to assist with root growth.
• The soil needs to be kept evenly moist. Overwatering can lead to root rot. Pale yellow leaves indicates the plant may have had too much water.
• Requires fertilising monthly during growing season, early spring to autumn. Organic or inorganic fertilisers are effective. Start once the plant stops producing new growth in the spring and apply every 2-3 weeks until early August.
• Needs deadheading (clipping of dead flowers and leaves) weekly to encourage new blooms, and needs pruning annually.

Orchid watering (Info from WikiHow)

• Best water to use is collected rainwater.
• Only need to be watered when they begin to dry out but before they're fully dry.
• It needs it less frequently when it's cool than when it's warm.
• If the potting mix  looks dusty and dry, it's a sign it might need watering.
• If the pot feels light upon lifting it, that's another sign it might need watering. The pot will feel heavier when it has sufficient water.
• Using a finger is another good way to determine how dry it is.
• The best pots to use for an orchid is a terracotta one with holes.
• A temporary method for watering is to put 3 standard sized ice cubes onto the soil, making sure they don't touch the leaves. As they melt, they'll water the plant but it's not ideal for long term plant health.
• Run the pot under a tap for about a minute and let it all seep through the holes.
• It's best to water it in the morning or afternoon in order for any excess to evaporate before it gets dark. An orchid will start rotting if water sits on the plant over night.
• Orchids are used to a humid environment so misting is a good method. Spritzing the plant a few times a day will mimic the dampness it likes. Drier environments need more than warmer. If the plant feels dry it may need more misting but don't let water collect on the leaves. Dry them if necessary.

Ok, so there's today's research. Hopefully this covers aspects 2 and 3 of the badge.

And now, my five

• Understanding bosses. Giving me an early start might have meant a really early morning for the first time in a long time, but it meant I had more time to unlock the site on my first time back and it meant I could go home earlier. Which is always nice.
• Hearing a woodpecker drilling for the first time in real life. That's so awesome! I associate the sound with Midsomer Murders though.
• Keeping busy preparing for the Easter festivities at work.
• A nice hot shower with Premier Praise on my speaker.
• A quiet lunchbreak so I can play my Switch!

Catch you later!