Recently I shared some of the things that I saw on our recent trip to New York and Washington, and I mentioned that we had now seen all of the retired space shuttles. I thought I'd put together a post about where all the space shuttles can now be seen, as they are awesome to see in person! The best thing is that they are all displayed in different ways to showcase their various features and uses, so even though the shuttles themselves are similar you can learn new things about them as you see each one. Space Shuttle Atlantis Atlantis is on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and th ..read more

This Easter we finally managed the trip to New York and Washington that was originally planned for March 2020. We spent 6 nights in New York, 5 nights in Washington D.C. and travelled by train between the two. It was a brilliant holiday, with lots of walking and sightseeing. I feel like my head is full of all the amazing things that we saw!  Here are just some of them: On our first evening in New York we all booked a trial for the Apple Vision Pro at the shop in Grand Central Station. I've written before about how I was interested to see the technology in action, and we weren't disap ..read more

My current read is The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon (affiliate link). I discovered it a little while ago when I was reading a fiction book which quoted extracts at the beginning of chapters - My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki (affiliate link).  The Pillow Book was written during the 990s and early 1000s in Japan. It's collection of thoughts, lists, poems, anecdotes and other musings, recorded by Sei Shonagon about her daily life as a court lady to the empress. I've only just started but I'm really enjoying it so far, the translation is really easy to read and many of the sections are rea ..read more

I've been looking around the house recently and thinking that I'm well overdue for a good declutter. It's been ages since I last took part in a decluttering challenge, and things are starting to pile up a bit. My poor bookshelves in particular are looking a little overcrowded, and there are lots of random things lying about that need to be sorted. I've noticed so many things in the house that I really don't need but I just can't help keeping. They include: Scrap paper - I can't bear to throw away any piece of paper that might come in useful. Letters that are only printed on one side, spare pag ..read more

Recently I wrote about some of the things that I think about when I'm running, and one of them was wondering what the people I see out and about are listening to on their headphones. Is it just me, or are more and more people wearing headphones? I notice it more and more! Usually just the ear bud style, but also large over the head ones. If I'm running behind someone and want to overtake I never know if they can hear me coming, even if I try to let them know I'm behind them with an 'excuse me'. I have a decent pair of bone conduction headphone, but even though they leave my ears free I don't f ..read more

I recently upgraded my old Kindle to a Kindle Paperwhite 11th Generation model and I am very happy with it. This time I chose to buy a Kindle which doesn't display special offers and ads, and one feature that I was really looking forward to was the ability to display the cover of the book that I'm currently reading on the lock screen.  However when I was setting up the device, the options on my menus didn't match the ones that I found when searching for help, and I just couldn't work out how to do it. I spent an hour and a half talking to Amazon online trying to set it up which was very f ..read more

At the end of last year, Amazon Associates announced that it had decided to stop using the SiteStripe image feature which allowed Amazon Associates to link to products on Amazon using an image link. Although Amazon Associates isn't a huge source of income for me, I do get a small voucher from time to time which is always appreciated. I often include lists of craft supplies, as well as linking to books that I've enjoyed or products that I recommend. Text links to Amazon still work, but I always used an image link because I think readers find it easier and more appealing to see a picture. So I h ..read more

It's actually not as difficult as it sounds! Sometime before Christmas I read a nutrition article online that made an impression on me. I think it may have been this one - Forget five a day, 30 a week is the new rule you need to follow. It's behind a paywall, but if you don't have a Telegraph subscription you can find a similar article here with lots more advice - Why should you eat 30 plants a week? The premise behind eating 30 different types of plant in a week is that it can boost the diversity and health of your gut biome, which is also really important for other aspects of your health. Wh ..read more

This is a collaborative post All work can be risky given the right (or wrong) circumstances, but working alone comes with a unique risk profile simply because it involves working independently of others. As the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reminds us: "Lone workers face the same hazards at work as anyone else, but there is a greater risk of these hazards causing harm as they may not have anyone to help or support them if things go wrong." That being the case, health and safety managers must devise the policies and kit lone workers out with the right tech that gives them the best chan ..read more

For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive some lovely jigsaw puzzles, and so I thought I'd do a quick review of them all in case you are looking for some puzzling inspiration! They are 1000 piece puzzles with bright, colourful designs and all of them were quite quick and easy to put together - a nice change after my larger 3000 piece puzzle! Parkside View by Galison (1000 piece) This is a colourful view of a city park with skyscrapers in the background. At first I thought it was going to be a very tricky puzzle with all the different colours and shades, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Th ..read more