Laughing with the Universe

My Crazy Life Part 2

OK, so after all the strangeness of the summer, things have finally started to turn around.  The future is looking quite interesting and just like the global economy there do seem to be small signs of a return to stability.

I’m going to ask you all to cross your fingers that an application I’ve made to the Arts Council is successful, because it’s for a really fabulous project where I’m going to work with Jenny Wren Productions to produce a play about John Nevil Maskelyne.  Haven’t heard of him?  Well he was an amazing Victorian inventor and magician who started his career in Cheltenham by exposing the fraudulent performance of a couple of spiritualists before going on to create incredible lifelike automata, and developing some illusions that are still stunning audiences today.

On top of that my other half and me have been invited out to Qatar to present workshops at their first ever Science Festival.  This would be our first international Science Festival and a huge opportunity for us – all will be confirmed by October, so cross fingers for that one too.

I’ve also signed up to do a distance learning course with Harvard University through edx.  I’m studying Greek Heroes and will hopefully gain a certificate of mastery by the end of the year.  If you don’t know about edx courses they’re absolutely free and the standard is exceptionally high.  They’re mostly science and technology courses, but a few humanities ones are appearing on their list so take a look if you fancy a mind stretch.

Talking of Science, despite having spent the past couple of decades as a Science Presenter my high school was rubbish and gave no encouragement to girls who were shoved towards studying shorthand, typing and home economics.  So my other half bought me a chemistry set for Christmas, and I’m working my way through it then searching the internet for extension projects I can do.  I’ll share more about my copper plating fun on our Timezones Facebook page next week.

And finally, after more than ten years with no telly I’ve discovered Netflix, where for just £5.99 per month I can watch as much telly as I want, which is fab.  The terrestrial channels are all full of dreadful pap, but I’m loving seeing smart US comedies and sharp US dramas such as ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and ‘Hemlock Grove’ – I’ll start on ‘Breaking Bad’ once I’ve finished ‘Orange/Black’.

So with all of this going on it feels like me and Andy have woken up from comas and are now feeling that life is fun and full of wonder again.