Skip to main content

I <3 the BBC

I've listened to that much BBC Radio 4 over the last few weeks that I thought I'd finished it.

But then it came up with another nostalgic gem, Alan Bennet reading Winnie the Pooh. I don't have the same level of affection for Pooh Bear as I do for Roald Dahl or Paddington but the works of AA Milne were still an important part of my childhood. I curled up with a cup of tea, knitted the hood of the Totoro Jacket I'm making for my friends two year old boy and listed to Bennett's consolingly doleful voice tell me about the goings on in the One Hundred Acre Wood. I wonder what whimsical wonders my friends boy will look back on with fondness when he's grown up. Or will he be scarred by me dressing him up like an animee character?



If you haven't seen My Neighbour Totoro I'd highly recommend it, even if you don't have small children. It's a very sweet film from the makers of Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki whose animations have an ethereal quality I adore. I visited the Studio Ghibli Museum on my last trip to Japan and have various Totoros in nooks and crannies around my flat. Kawaiiiiii (Japanese for cute, heard several times while visiting Studio Ghibli).

Another win from the BBC is on tonight. I'm calling it David does Ida but I know that's wrong on several levels. Ida is another missing gap in the evolutionary record of primate development and is a very exciting discovery. Evolutionary biology is one of my hobbies so I'll be watching Sir David explain the importance of this fascinating treasure.

Labels:

Comments

Katherine said…
A Totoro hoodie for a toddler? Sounds fantastic! Our friends kids are just starting to reach the age when we can give them copies of the DVD.

I love the pistol line from Revloting Rhymes too, it's definitely stayed in my head.
15 June 2009 at 19:46
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We have a winner...

Check out my pea seedling, how intact and un-nibbled it is. My mysterious object, as correctly guessed by Madmurdock and Montyknits, is a gastropod guard. It seems to be working. I'd heard that slugs and snails don't like slithering over hair. I tried using hair clippings a few years ago as a barrier. It worked for a few days, til I found chewed, leafless stems and on further inspection a guilty slug covered in ginger hair. Hopefully the fleecy barrier will stay in place and mean I get a good late crop of peas. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who took part.
4 comments
Read more

Unravelling the NHS

If you follow me on twitter you'll already know I have a healthy interest in politics. Our current government is slowly and steadily dismantling our beloved NHS (National Health Service) from one with full public accountability to one which is more dependent on profit margins rather than evidence based medicine. THIS MAKES ME VERY ANGRY. There's a lot of despair at the moment, many of us feel our government is not listening to us, the people, or experts in the field such as the British Medical Association or the Royal College of Nurses. Yesterday our unelected second house, the house of Lords, voted through the government's ill-advised health reform bill. We all felt hopeless, then I read this blog post . You should read it too. Many of us are working out what to do. How can we reverse this disastrous decision when essentially the democratic process is failing us. "The NHS reforms did not appear in either the Conservative or Liberal ...
4 comments
Read more

TOTOROOOOOOOO!

I finally handed over the Totoro hooded top to it's two year old recipient today. It also fits his four year old sister which is good as she likes Totoro too. They both looked very cute in it. We met up at the Wellcome Collection which has a lovely airy cafe and free exhibitions. The Totoro kids mum is a fellow scientist so we went round the Exquisite Bodies exhibition explaining why calves are sometimes born with two heads, how babies are made (the four year olds current interest) and lots of other science fun to the kids. If you visit the Wellcome centre with kids ask about their young investigators pack. It's really cool (I was disappointed I didn't get one) and it's free. Brilliant. The staff were really helpful and pleasantly surprised at seeing young kids enjoying a strange exhibition, rather than being freaked out by it. Personally, I did enough human dissection as part of my degree to make me not want to see another cadaver ever again, although the models wer...
4 comments
Read more