Things I Have Learned This Week...

.....in no particular order:

***

1. if you get into just the right position, you can stand and gawp at the sight of a butterfly busily feeding from a mere inch or two away without it being the slightest bit aware of your existence.

2. cheese before bed does not give me nightmares (I have known this for years), but it turns out that a ton of sugary sweets will. And bad ones at that
     (The nightmares, that is. Not the sweets. They were lovely.)

3. The phenomenon of a 'double rainbow' is caused by a trick of the light. When you think you are seeing TWO rainbows for the price of one, what you are actually seeing is ONE rainbow and its reflection.
     I found this out yesterday after years of ignorance.
     (Boy, was I disappointed.)

4. You can lead my dog to baked beans, but you cannot make him eat them.

5. The difference between a "severe allergic reaction" and a "near-fatal allergic reaction" is simply the amount of time it takes to progress. Without proper treatment, the end result (death) is exactly the same in either case.
     Thanks to The Grandmama, by the way, for making this discovery possible.
     (And for scaring the bloody pants off of us.)

6. The amount of time it takes for the house to progress from reasonably OK to oh-my-God-awful is three days.

7. You can try desperately to resist the urge to buy childish things from here to eternity, but sooner or later despite best intentions you will crack and a new addition will arrive - or as in my case, be smuggled - into the household.
     (For those interested; he is a cuddly elephant. I have named him Sidney.)

8. With regards to That Special Time of the Month, no matter how - for lack of a better term - 'regular' you think you are, sooner or later your body will throw you a horribly unexpected sucker punch and knock you flat on your back.
     Unfair, I know. But there you are. That's life (and hormones) for you.

9. You can buy a pack of 30 "mixed sized alkaline button batteries" for the princely sum of £1.
     Thanks for PoundLand for that. My beloved pendant watch now works again. Hooray!
     .....Of course, now I have 29 mixed sized alkaline button batteries in my possession that I am not sure what to do with. And only 4 of those are watch batteries and therefore likely to be of any use to me in the distant future. But still. T'was a good buy.

***

So! There you go. That is what I have learned (...learnt? Which is correct?) this week.
     Interesting, no?
     I thought so.

Anyway, t'is all, for now... Ooh; Except for the announcement that this morning due to a mixture of perseverance, luck and prayer, I managed to get a damselfly to land on my right index finger and sit there for a minute or so, so that I could get a good look at it.
     Thanks to the beautifully fascinating damselfly (and God, of course) for that.

Alice x