Saturday, December 14, 2002
After a busy week, Erika was in dire need of a kid break, so I offered to whisk Vanessa away for the afternoon to the Science Centre.
We had a late start as Erika ran a few errands that ran until noon. So I had to play with the kids for a couple of hours, Darn. ;-)
When we got to the Science Centre, I was surprised at how few people were there. I figured that there would be plenty of families entertaining their kids here, but I guess they were heading to more Xmas-relating things instead.
They had a new "Candy Unwrapped" exhibit there, and that's where we probably spent the most time. She especially loved jumping up and down on a giant tongue, which would say "sour", "sweet", "salty" or "bitter" when she landed on a coloured "taste-bud". While that was just sheer fun, I was struck by how interested and intent she was on listening to a particular exhibit that talked about the medicinal properties of honey in treating a wound. This was not my prompting -- she drove the show and seemed genuinely interested in what was being said. A similar experience happened later when we lucked into a chemistry demonstration, and she watched intently as the demonstrator (who was good) shrunk balloons and pieces of rubber tubing in liquid nitrogen. My favourite bit was when the presenter asked what possible uses liquid nitrogen could be used for and little Vanessa shot up her hand, and said "Fish!". The presenter smiled and recovered well, talking about how it can be used to keep fish frozen without the boxes they are in getting wet (there's a reason it's called "dry ice"). I almost had to pull her away from the demo in order to see the IMAX movie we had already got tickets for. (Space -- too many astronauts, not enough shots of the Earth).
I was looking forward to seeing the "Dream Machine" exhibit of Rowland Emett's -- the fellow best known for making all of the whimsical machines for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang -- but was disappointed because not everything had been fully set up.
From the science store bookshelves there I bought myself a pocket-sized guide to the stars I'll bring down south with me to do some serious star-gazing with.
The end of the visit was marred as I went to get some cash from a local Royal Bank machine there, which promptly ate my client card. I got an error message ('01-020' I think it was) only a technician would understand, and as it spitted out the money I had requested some small shredded pieces of paper were mixed in with it. Kids. In the end I got that client card cancelled, and on Monday I'll have to go to the bank in order to get a new one. Ugh.
Still, we had a good time and Erika was much refreshed at having some non-kid time to herself (Annie slept much of the afternoon, so Erika ended up having a good long break).
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
