Hands up, I was distracted.

Saturday, 10 March 2012

We were able to pick up from where we missed off last week and managed to make it to an open/presentation day as part of the Oxford Science Festival 2012.  And I’m so pleased with the achievement.  This time we headed to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH), to marvel and be engaged by some really into their subject volunteers.  It was so great.  Compromising of a selection of stalls, scattered around the permanent exhibits – with these providing a whole spectrum of fun/learning/hands on experience.  Though, we couldn’t take it all on –what we did -was really diverse and so good. We managed to learn a little tomography, make slime, play with custard balls, communicate in Morse code, see ice being made from liquid nitrogen, chat about ammonites, undertake some brain trick games (small chap’s definition) and be distracted – very much so -by top drawer.

Top Drawer was everywhere – in the Pitt Rivers (PRM), not the OUMNH. (PRM =The museum which is separate, though connected to the OUMNH)

A little confused?  What’s Top Drawer? Just return now and take a re-look at the above image.  Basically, the kind of stuff you find at the bottom of your backpack or handbag, that you purchased (because ‘it was unusual’ and you liked it on some level); or bartered for; or even created yourself, whilst waiting (really waiting) for a bus, ferry, train or friend. Once home, you aren’t ready to position it on the Mantle-piece, though by no means could you part with it, so you forward it to Top Drawer.  I have a couple, for they can easily exist in the plural. As the ‘recycling’ display cases on level two of the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) clearly testify.

Further too, my top drawers tend to be overstuffed and I know that I’m guilty of occasionally supplementing them with a few additional and non-essential items, such as broken CD covers, keys that don’t have locks anymore and ribbons. I think that’s OK though, for I don’t have the heart to chuck them and I have a tendency to squirrel.