Random

While coffee is amazing, green tea is awesome too!

experiment

We don’t always know why we do things, and often we do stupid things, without ever knowing why. Being the knowledgeable child that I am, I, sadly, quite often know why I do stupid things; mostly I do stupid things out of boredom and curiosity, and stupidity, of course. Anyway,yesterday while writing my note ‘squiggles’, my feet were covering the program bar, meaning I didn’t notice that the few people who were on MSN were talking to me and hence I appeared to ignore them. This offended them, leading them to be grumpy at me, which sucked, so I left. Not wanting to go back to work, and too lazy to do anything useful, I decided to do an experiment I had dreamt up since kayaking on Tuesday. I will open brackets for a brief explanation… (Explanation: I’m doing my 2 star and part of the theory needing to be learnt for this is how to deal with Hypothermia. I knew most of it from PLG, but a few things were revelations to me.) Anyway, all this knowledge I had accumulated about hypothermia was solely theoretical (as, unlike hyperthermia- more commonly known as heat exhaustion- I’d never had to deal with it, or anything even close as far as I knew). As the house was empty and I had nothing better to do (this is a lie- I had plenty of better things to do, I just chose not to do them), I decided to go ahead with my experiment, which I originally called the Cold Bath Experiment. It’s pretty self-explanatory. There was one bath filled with cold water, a stopwatch, a thermometer and a results table already drawn up. Oh, and me. (I did say it was a stupid thing!)
So I took my temperature and jotted it down, then hopped into the bath. It was cold. (This was the first thing that struck me.) While in the bath (for a full 90 minutes) I sang DofE songs, recited my French Oral (because we all know Antonin Artaud is a complete dude and highly appropriate for the bathtub…ew) and shivered quite a bit. I was resolved not to allow my core temp to drop below 36ºC, as 35ºC is the hypothermic onset and I didn’t want to be dealing with that. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the body’s ability to reserve and create heat.

Sitting up to my armpits in cold water, my core temperature went up by over 0.5ºC in the first twenty minutes, and it actually took an hour for my body to drop to the temperature it was before I got into the cold water. I was wholly impressed and decided to stay in for another half hour to see if the rate I was cooling changed. Within 15 minutes I had dropped to the lowest I was prepared to go, but I stayed in out of curiosity and was again surprised to find that I was shivering enough to remain around 36ºC. Having been submerged in cold water for an hour and a half, very bemused, but with teeth chattering so bad I’d had to stop informing the bathroom about other theatre in 1930s Paris, I got out, drained the water and preceded to carefully dry myself and dress. I had assumed that upon being dry and clothed I would warm up pretty quickly, but taking a measurement 10 minutes after getting out I found my core temperature had actually dropped to 35.4ºC. This (and there is no other way of putting it) pissed me off. Why, when I had so artfully managed to maintain heat in the water, did I suddenly lose it when dressed in warm clothes (well trousers and a t-shirt)? Being annoyed I donned my cool black and white cow socks and my PLG hoodie (which is just so damn warm I hate to part from it), and hoped for an improvement in heat. I ate high energy food and made some hot chocolate. For a while heat came slowly, then the sugar kicked in and I warmed up.

So, what lessons did I learn from this stupid thing?
It’s true that shivering keeps you warm. (I had been told in the past that shivering actually increases the amount of heat the body can generate from about 70watts to 400! This meant absolutely NOTHING to me (‘cause I’m bad at physics) but now I see the power of shivering (pun not intended, but shamefully amusing to me (I am very very very bored!))).
Water is a better insulator than air. (I’m not sure about the scientific truth behind this finding- it might be utter crap. If you’re a scientist, help me out.)
But the lesson I’m gonna use most in my day-to-day life is that even when you feel absolutely fucking freezing, chances are you’re ok. I mean, during my time in the water my feet went white, I shivered uncontrollably at times, and I got incredibly sleepy (although that might have been down to Artaud- he isn’t the most interesting guy. I mean, he was great two terms ago but really I could be happier moving on to other things to think about…) BUT I was fine. I didn’t get cold enough for hypothermia to ‘set in’, and really it was just a joke.

Conclusion- that was a stupid experiment and should never be repeated. No benefit will come from it and you’ll just get bloody bored. My only regret is that I didn’t measure my pulse throughout, as it would have been nice to be able to compare pulse rate to increase/decrease in temperature. The human body is awesome. As you will appreciate, I was re-he-he-he-he-he-hearly bored! (I love Dr Cox! Scrubs forever!) Please don’t judge me. I know it was a stupid thing to do (as I said at the beginning) and could have been dangerous, but I had it all under control (and I was really bored!) The moral is- don’t let me get bored. In fact, really, this wouldn’t have happened if I had been sitting like a normal person 3 hours ago and had seen people talking to me on MSN… But (as Akin kindly, noted about me) I hate sitting normally. Now I’m going to do a sensible thing and have some tea- once I’ve told Vodka off for trying to eat my necklace!

Yours as ever,
Titch xxxx (because we’re in a frenchy mood, down here… ‘we’ being me and my hamster… who is, in fact, ignoring me in favour of a cardboard box… why am I still talking!?! Au revoir…)

erm... hi

Just thought I'd pop in to say hi and reassure people that I am still alive- just more quietly than before. Life is busy. No coffee. Um, yeah- it's BAD. Seriously kids, don't give up coffee. It hurts. Really, really hurts. Physical pain. Glad I told you that. Hopefully it will persuade you never to give up coffee (or better, never to start drinking coffee). While I'm on the subject of addictions (which I vaguely am) PLEASE don't abuse your bodies with evil drugs/alcohol/smoking. It's bad! It is. You don't wanna go there. Ok, that's it. I'll try to blog better soon. (By soon I mean within the next month.)
Be good. (And if you're not good be safe ;D)
x

camping

It is thanks to the great Facebook that I am sitting here with a glazed look on my face and a deep desire to go camping. (Well, it could also partly be thanks to the yummy wine I'm drinking... but I blame Facebook!)
As a child I spent the year dreaming of camping, except for the summer when I was camping. As a not-child I still spend a lot of the year dreaming of camping. Over the years the Durdle Door campsite (my childhood campsite) has changed and adapted... it is now a caravan site with just three camping fields, as opposed to the six or seven that once existed. But I still think fondly of it far too often. I miss camping. I love camping. Ever been camping? Tell me your camping stories....

A Stupid Idea If Ever I Heard One

The Little Coffee Freak has had many a stupid idea in her time, but this, I believe, is her most stupid.

The 2007 Manifesto of a Little Coffee Freak
From the 1st January until the 31st December no coffee will be drunk, no coffee beans will be consumed. The reason for this is that I might be chosen to go to Romania to help in an orphanage for a couple of weeks over the summer and IF I do get chosen then I will need to raise £1000. If I don't get chosen then I have decided I will bite back my pride and donate the money to the project anyway. As the project is in the summer I will only be able to donate half the sponsorship money to it this summer- and I will be evil and demand half the money raised at summer. (I have NO doubt in my mind that I won't manage this.) The other half would either go to Cancer Research, to the same Romanian Project next year (it's an annual project) or to university-and-gap-year-funds.

Woah, now I have to go. Byebye. If you want to sponsor me please email! x

Snapshots of Emmieland

Hello children. As I cannot remember, and cannot be bothered to tell you about, my last few weeks I thought I'd offer a beautifully illustrated post, providing literal snapshots of my life...
Before the holidays, Helen came to see me in school! It was superyayful and very nice of her to come. :) Extending her niceness, she brought chocolates with her! We ate chocolates and I drank some coffee. Then we both went off to choir practise where she was treated like a famous superstar.
She sat in the back with me (where we both struggled to see the conducter but meh) and we whispered while we were not singing. Then, when we got to the little-break for juice and cookies the conducter ambushed her and they had a very cheery conversation. Once everyone was seated, a small speech was made about Helen and how fantabulous she is. We might even make a choral trip over to ol' Cambridge to see her sing! WOO YAY! Helen rocks! After the small speech Helen hurried off to the pub (to work, of course).

Wow, right, another lovely snapshot of life in Emmieland- a cocktail party was held chez Tessa. I went there straight from a DofE training session so was slightly late, and I didn't actually drink a drop of alcohol all night, so it was an odd cocktail party on my part but still highly enjoyable. I ate a lot of fruit and then some breadsticks. Music was played and singing occured. No windows were broken, which meant nobody cut their feet this time. :) As it was a cocktail party there were guys in tuxedos and girls in pretty dresses (myself included, but I'm afraid there are no pictures of that). Examples shown below are Gabie (whose 'boyfriend' I am) and Jamie (whose covers I tried to steal during the night and failed because he was awake and said boo, making me yelp and fall over backwards in fright).


The final snapshot I'm offering from my life is of a hamster, Luke's hamster, whose name I believe is Fudge, but I might be wrong about that. This snapshot is to say- LOOK! Hamsters are cute! That's about the entire point of it...


In other news, I went to Camden today and had fun doodling around there. Tomorrow, I am seeing Toby for coffee, art and sushi (because that's what we do in winter). I'm very excited because I'm going to a sushi place I've never been to before- YAY! The only downside I can see is that I will have to spend the entire day next to the Thames without going on it (or in it) once! (On Sunday, I was trying to learn a new skill, so capsized on purpose at least 10 times, then proceeded to capsize spectacularly while practising a skill I should have mastered by now! Luckily the instructer Albert saved me (interestingly under Albert bridge) by physically pulling me onto his boat. It was a mite bit chilly! Afterwards we had a Kayakers' Christmas Party which included party games, loads of food, tea (because it's important) and Christmas music. Ah, good times...) Anyway, if I don't blog before Christmas, MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Bye bye....

Glory Days

Bruce Springsteen is a dude. He wrote (actually I'm not sure he wrote it but he sang it and it's a damned good song) a song called Glory Days.

I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you
Make you look like a fool boy
Saw him the other night at this roadsidebar
I was walking in and he was walking out
We went back inside sat down,
had a few drinks but all he kept talking about was
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

There's a girl that lives up the block
Back in school she could turn all the boys' head
Sometimes an a Friday I'll stop by and have a few drinks
after she put her kids to bed
Her and her husband Bobby well they split up
I guess it's two years gone by now
We just sit around talking about the old times,
She says when she feels like crying she starts laughing thinking about
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

Think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probablywill
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of,
but time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of glory days
Glory days well they'll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days

This song has been in my head all day long and it made me think lots and it made me very determined to appreciate the here and now for all it gives me. I know I say this all the time ("A sinner's life is filled with all these good intentions.") but it's better to try and fail than not bother at all, no? Part of this appreciating stuff involves getting to school on time (it made sense when I thought it) so tomorrow I am going to be good and get to school on time and also take a camera to school so I can take lots of prettiful pictures of prettiful things (this is a way of appreiciating them).

In other news: my bus crashed this morning, which was.... interesting. Anyway, I'd best be off. Hugs and kisses.