Recently at work a clear desk policy was introduced to ensure that all ‘commercial in confidence’ material was locked up overnight. This meant we needed somewhere to store the keys, so we received several key cabinets to keep them all safe. One was placed over the Donkey (whose picture featured yesterday), and I am sure some of you may remember that he has a secret admirer.
The cabinet was not very secure, it wobbled ominously every time I touched it. We all thought it was only a matter of time before it became parted from the wall. Today was that day and luckily I didn’t have anything to do with it *Phew*.
I am sure you have guessed by now that it landed on the poor old Donkey, who landed up flat on his face (I didn’t take a picture people think I am mad enough already). He wasn’t quite a dead donkey but he had to have emergency back surgery to enable him to stand again! I left him greedily eating his carrots to regain some strength.
Then we inspected the wall where the cabinet had been fixed. The wall did have the required Rawlplug in situ, but it appeared that the screw had actually been fitted straight into the wall underneath. When we found the screw that had been used to fix the cabinet to the wall it was only 8mm long… I think somebody needs some lessons in DIY.
This is silly enough for a Man in the Shed SillyWeek post.
Tags: #SillyWeek, Fun, Life, Work
A Man in the Shed SillyWeek post:
One fine day in the middle of the night,
Two dead boys got up to fight,
Back to back they faced each other,
Drew their swords and shot each other,
One was blind and the other couldn’t, see
So they chose a dummy for a referee.
A blind man went to see fair play,
A dumb man went to shout “hooray!”
A paralysed donkey passing by,
Kicked the blind man in the eye,
Knocked him through a nine inch wall,
Into a dry ditch and drowned them all,
A deaf policeman heard the noise,
And came to arrest the two dead boys,
If you don’t believe this story’s true,
Ask the blind man he saw it too!
Tags: #SillyWeek, Fun, Poetry
I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.
Leo Rosten
Tags: Abbey House Garden, Cherie's Place Thought, Malmesbury, Roses, Weekend away
Recently James blogged about the male brain which inevitably led to a discussion on whether or not there is a difference between male and female brains. Very soon we may have another type of brain to worry about because scientists are currently working on trying to build an artificial brain.
Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project says it is not impossible to build a human brain and that it can be done within the next 10 years.
They are hoping the project will help them understand brain diseases and disorders which may lead to new treatments.
The Blue Brain project at Swizerland’s EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) was launched in 2005 and aims to reverse engineer the mammalian brain from laboratory data.
In particular, his team has focused on the neocortical column – repetitive units of the mammalian brain known as the neocortex.
“It’s a new brain,” he explained. “The mammals needed it because they had to cope with parenthood, social interactions complex cognitive functions.
“It was so successful an evolution from mouse to man it expanded about a thousand fold in terms of the numbers of units to produce this almost frightening organ.”
And that evolution continues, he said. “It is evolving at an enormous speed.”
Tags: Brain, Science, Technology
For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.
Tags: Eating Out, Food, Malmesbury, PhotoHunt, The Old Bell, Weekend away
The day started off well, I got up in plenty of time which is unusual for me. I was ready far too soon but decided to walk down to the station early to get cash and pay some money in at the bank.
It turns out that was the right decision because there was a bit of a Tadoo when I purchased my train ticket. The card machine got stuck half way through the payment and refused to print of the card holder receipt etc This meant that the transaction had to be completed manually. Remember those old slidey card machines, with the carbon copy papers? Take one twenty your old who had never even seen the machine before and me who sadly was old enough to remember them but had never used the machine!
I managed to help her place the card in the right place in the machine, but could we get the papers lined up so that the details printed in the blank space? You have guessed it… NO!!! She gave up in the end and wrote my card details down instead. I think maybe there is a lesson in this somewhere.
Despite all of this I was in plenty of time for the train and met up with my colleagues along the way. Apart from the mix up over venues (I was one step ahead on that one 
) the meetings went well, although the second one was a little bit repetitive for those who had been at the first one.
Tags: Meeting, PCS, Technology, Trade Union, Train Journey
I saw a proud mysterious cat
Too proud to catch a mouse or rat -
But catnip she would eat and purr.
And goldfish she did much prefer.
I saw a cat – ’twas but a dream
Who scorned the slave that brought her cream -
Unless the slave were dressed in style
And knelt before her all the while.
Did you ever hear of a thing like that?
Oh, what a proud mysterious cat.
Vachel Lindsay
Tags: Cat, Flowers, National Trust, Poetry, Snowshill Manor, Weekend away
