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Mon, 01 May 2006
[12:08] The Whirlwind Weekend Of Fun
Yet another weekend off! This weekend is Microsoft patch weekend so I've been kicked outta the building for the duration (don't want too many changes occuring at once). So, it's been another weekend of crossing off things on the "Things to do in London" list. First up, on Friday night, we went to the Blue Man Group production (for want of a better word) at the New London Theatre in Drury Lane. The walk there was an entertaining experience as we negotiated the hordes of brawling pre-teens screaming obscenities and traffic cones at each other, interesting neighbourhood. The outside of the theater was pretty un-preposessing but the inside was nice enough and the seats were pretty comfy. Our seats were in the fourth row but, since we booked so late, were on the far right-hand side of the stage. In the end we were actually able to see nearly everything. Because of the nature of the show and our proximity to the stage our seats had disposable ponchos waiting for us - they came in handy!
I don't know how to describe the show really. I guess in the simplest terms it's a (semi-?)scripted combination of comedy and percussion. They describe themselves as:
"...a creative organization dedicated to creating excitement-generating experiences for our audience and ourselves."
which pretty much sums it up. I highly recommend that you go and see this show if you get a chance.
On Saturday we headed off to the London Butterfly House which, as the name suggests, is the premier spot for butterfly watching in London. It wasn't as spectacular as the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda but, given the location and complete lack of funding they're doing pretty well. There was no shortage of butterflies and there was also a really cool leaf-cutting-ant house. I also saw the biggest bodied butterfly I've ever seen anywhere, being ported around by a 6 year old touting for pictures. I was greatly amused when the butterfly voided itself down his leg (it was a seriously large butterfly). We lay outside in the sun for a while because it was a GREAT weekend (sunny and clear) before adjourning to the attached nursery refectory for lunch. The lady we were with ordered a coffee with her lunch and received a rahter odd setup: a ceramic cup with a second, plastic cup perched on top. This turned out to be a coffee filtration system - the boiled water percolates through a wad of coffee in the bottom of the plastic cup providing freshly filtered coffee. Upon closed inspection this filter turned out to be disposable! I've included some pictures so you can see just how large this thing is, I was (and still am) incredulous that someone's made this thing to be thrown away:
Sunday brought Bodies...the Exhibition. I first heard of the concept behind this a few years ago and I've been dying to check it out since then. If you've not heard of this then essentially what it is is human specimens with all of the water removed and replaced:
"A human specimen is first preserved according to standard mortuary science. The specimen is then dissected to show whatever it is that someone wants to display. Once dissected, the specimen is immersed in acetone, which eliminates all body water. The specimen is then placed in a large bath of silicone, or polymer, and sealed in a vacuum chamber. Under vacuum, acetone leaves the body in the form of gas and the polymer replaces it, entering each cell and body tissue. A catalyst is then applied to the specimen, hardening it and completing the process.
This leads to a somewhat macabre exhibition where you're basically looking at and ,in some cases, handling real dead people, or pieces thereof. The highlights for me:
- Probably the freakiest bit was the cabinet containg a "skin suit" basically one of the bodies skins had been removed in one piece and put in a case - very odd to look at
- The nervous system exhibit was quite bizzare looking as well - it consisted of the brain, eyes and the major nerves all in one unit - as Shona pointed out, somewhat reminiscent of the aliens from "Mars Attacks"!
- There was a skeleton leaning back, arms outstretched supported by a muscle-suit in a similar pose leaning the other way. The skeleton was actually removed from inside of the muscles before they were put into position!
- The variety of circulatory system exhibits was probably the most technically challenging and beautiful to look at. They basically pumped blue liquid into the veinous system and red into the arteries, let the liquid cool into a solid and then ate away the body with acid. They did this to various things ranging from kidneys, hearts and lungs all the way up to an entire body. This leaves you with a thing shaped structure made up of the blood vessels - the whole body display was simply berath-taking.
After that we went to see Scary Movie 4 - I wouldn't if I were you.
Finally, Monday, May the 1st was a Bank Holiday and a day for relaxing. It was also my brothers birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!!!) and the day that I've recived my worst unicycle injuries to date. I was passing on my birthday best wishes and attempting to practice my unicylce mounting techniques in the bedroom when disaster struck. Due to the split concentration I ended up face-planting into the clothes hanging thing, hanging up on my brother and ripping great gouges out of my shin with the pedals.
[Posted at 01/05/2006 20:08]
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