Where it all began...Part 1

I have always loved English...heck(is that even a word?), even one of my more interesting speeches in highschool was "English is a crazy language". I am pretty sure that I got the idea from my sister who got the idea from her teacher who got the idea from the Reader's Digest.
I was too clever for my own good, and recycled a speech which I am sure that the English teacher had heard before. We both went to the same school. Not the same teachers, but if there is one thing I do know: teachers talk...a lot. I guess I must have got a pretty low grade for that one.

Essay writing progressed to diary writing...dangerous stuff really...can get you into all sorts of trouble...to a few pages penned in Taiwan, the plot to some international thriller which is long lost and long forgotten I'm sure. Fastforward a few years...I entered a competition in the Metro. You had to write a mini-story via text and it got published in the paper. What a thrill to see my name in print!

Believe it or Not

Now I have seen it all...fish with fur, the lizard man, the man with crocodile teeth...believe it or not...seriously what would possess a person to do the last two is still beyond me. My trip to Ripley's Believe it or Not-London beggars belief for some of the things I have seen, or more so, that which Mr Robert Ripley saw all those years ago, and decided to preserve it for the world. His legacy lives on as you go on a journey that is a pleasant surprise at most turns.
Initially, you get to the fifth floor and after pottering around there to see some artefacts from around the world; animal freaks of nature, the biggest rocking chair I have ever sat on and a replica of a megladon jaw, amongst others!  I remember thinking how disappointly small the area was...was that it? Did we come all this way to find out that Buckingham Palace is home to forty thousand light bulbs?
 Of course, there were four levels to go, so we were bound to see more unbelievable things! On our way to the elevator, we nearly missed the opening to embark on a gallery that showed the life and times of its founder. Luckily we didn't though, because once you turn the corner, you discover a wonderful art gallery that  fascinates. The things people use to create art is amazing; sweets, tape from 1980's cassettes (remember those...I am sure I still have some lying somewhere), burnt toast, butterflies, keyboard keys, cigarette ash, and lipstick kisses transform into portraits you can recognise. There was even a bubblegum sculpture of the Fab Four...the Beatles I mean.
I especially liked the virtual wall with the virtual spray can...inspiration abounded..take a look...the beginnings of which...well that is a whole other story...

62-Gun Salute

Welcome to the world, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana...here is your 62-gun salute! I am sure the latest addition to the Royal family was thankfully tucked quite far away so as not to go tone-deaf, but this is an age-old tradition...wish I had went now. I was just wondering why it was a 62 gun-salute, and not a 21-gun one, at the Tower of London and Hyde Park. Here is the recipe for the gun salute:  apparently 21 is basic, add another 20 because the Tower is a palace and a fort and Hyde Park is a Royal Park, and add another 21 for the City of London.

Erm...this is embarrassing...I can't recall her surname, but I am pretty sure her title would be Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge! I think Diana was a nice way to keep the little princess's  late grandmother's memory alive...