Nostalgia at the Oxford University Museum

Hello there!

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) in Oxford – a place that I hadn’t seen since I was a child, and there were several reasons why I felt like I wanted to write about it.
It was a nice trip out. The weather was warm and sunny with a slight breeze, and it was fun to spend some time with my Dad and Brother. However, there are some things about the museum which didn’t quite compare to what my memory had conjured of my visits to the place in the past.

First off, I have to admire the structural beauty of the place. If you have never been to Oxford, you may be unaware that a lot of the buildings remain true to the era in which they were created. With big stone pillars flanking carved, wooden doors. Being someone who loves antiques and the architecture of the past, I am constantly in awe in how well-built it is. It puts my home town to shame.

The museum, in this respect, does not disappoint. You first enter through tall double doors, (free of charge, though donations are welcome) into the small hall. Climbing a few steps brings you into the main room.
The ceiling has glass panels, allowing natural light to filter in, giving the open space a bright and airy atmosphere. As usual, pillars adorn the place – though some of these (as pictured) are made from different materials and add a nice charm and something extra to look at. Arches are created by intricate leaf sculptures, and everything about the place seems to be pleasing to the eye. In fact, I think the grandeur of the museum is, maybe quite pathetically, one of my favourite things about it!

The OUMNH is mainly archaeological, with everything from fossils, crystals and weird and wonderful creatures on display. For families with young children, there are plenty of stalls offering educational but fun activities, such as colouring in pictures of dinosaurs and creating masks. When I was young, I distinctively remember visiting with my cousins whom spent time making a snitch from the relatively new film series of the time, Harry Potter.
It wasn’t long until my brother got sucked into the displays detailing prehistoric creatures, from sky-soaring pterodactyls to the sea monster ichthyosaurs. My Dad, on the other hand, preferred to look at the crystals and fossilised remains of millions of years old sea creatures. Personally, I liked to study everything, trying not to pause too long in one spot as to not hold up everyone else.

Some of the displays can shock you, especially when you find out that they were found less than a few miles from the museum itself. A bit like this creepy Eledone cirrhosa from British waters that I just had to take a picture of.

Something that was slightly disappointing is that on the upper floor, (and some sections of the ground floor), there were long aisles of empty glass cases. There were notices saying that the exhibits were moving and would be on display again soon.
Although I’m sure this will be a temporary measure, and we may have just have gone on a weekend where it was being moved around – it made certain areas of the museum look bare.

Another downside is the parking. Mainly because there is none.
The heart of Oxford is almost completely pedestrianised now. You can drive through certain areas, to pick-up or drop-off, but there is no parking available. This could make visiting for some disabled individuals difficult, especially due to the large staircase to the upper floor. As I said, the architecture is not exactly modern.
For those that are full-bodied though, the lack of parking is not always such a bad thing, as it is a nice place to walk around when the weather is decent. Particularly due to the fact that people make a day of visiting Oxford, rather than just going for the museum. Plus, you can get a bus to ferry you around – under £10.00 for returns for the three of us.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is accessible through the OUMNH, and personally this is my favourite part of the old, beautiful building. Unfortunately we didn’t visit this section during the recent visit, though it has supposedly been remodelled.

This part of the museum holds a lot of history regarding old tribes and age-old cultures. I remember being fascinated by the shrunken heads, and jewellery that had been used to elongate the women’s necks.
From old pottery to stone weaponry and crude jewellery to human remains. It is like a room of treasures for those that find alternative cultures and old relics fascinating.

Though I may be generalising here, I find that the excitement we hold over the small things slowly fades with age. I think we appreciate the small things more as we grow, but the rose-tinted glasses come off after childhood, leaving everything a bit less… magical. I think that this is the main reason why I was a little let down coming back to this museum. Nothing much had changed, but yet it didn’t feel as interactive and fun-filled as when I was young. I had even wandered into a side room to find it packed with adults and young children holding owls and taking part in activities. I envied them in some ways.
However, this did not take anything away from the fact that the museum offers something interesting for all ages – from the exhibits, to interactive stalls and even the little shop and cafe.

I am always on the lookout for good museums, and although I haven’t quite come across any that stands out (in my books) more than the Natural History Museum in London, this is a lovely little getaway not too far from home. I would definitely recommend it for a few hours of entertainment if you happen to be in the Oxfordshire area.

So, if you have read this far, (many thanks if you have), spare a thought that this is could be one relaxed, welcoming and cheap way to spend some time!

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Credit to http://www.show.me.uk for the picture at Pitts Rivers and BBC News for the title picture of the Museum building!

Earth Day 2015

Hi All!

This’ll probably be a short entry, though I wanted to write something for Earth Day, as I’m passionate of the outdoors and also an Environmental Studies student, it rings true to me how we need to appreciate our world and look after it better, even help it get back on its feet.

So today, April 22nd, is Earth Day, a day to celebrate the world environment and to raise awareness of environmental issues. It happens to fall at a time when our household is seriously considering getting an electric car, which would reduce our costs for getting around in Sheffield considerably, mostly on the fuel consumption, even though fuel prices have been down for a while, electric costs very little to run.

For me right now, it costs me £10 pound less to fill my car up than it did before the oil prices dropped, that’s a quarter of my refill costs gone, yet I’m using the same amount of fuel. The electric cars on the other hand cost mere pence to recharge, and while there are few recharging points currently available in towns and cities, truth is that an electric car is more than capable of getting you to work and back within the same city, so I guess lack of charge points isn’t too bad so long as you live in or near the same town/city/area you need to get around.

Of course electric cars are limited, long distance driving is not going to be as practical in an electric car as they have a rather limited range and charging them takes an eternity. In those cases a normal fuel based car is probably going to more effectively get you to where you’re going. That said, even if we just cut out our emissions from city driving, imagine not only how much fuel we would save, but also the money and the quality of the air, especially as diesel fumes are being blamed for potentially being cancer-causing now. The cleaner the air the more likely we are to live longer and healthier lives, so it is pretty beneficial to avoid using fossil fuel-based engines as much as possible.

So that is my contribution to Earth Day, I only wish I had more time today to write some more. I highly encourage everyone to think of a way they can reduce not only their fuel usage but also energy use in the house. The great thing about reducing our usage of course is that it has the positive side effect of saving us money as well, so its always worth the time!

Credit to NASA for the featured image.

Meta Culture: The Unspoken Social Contract

Howdy all!

So today I’ve decided to explore the mystical world a bit, partly for my own benefit as putting thoughts to words has never been a strong point of mine, but partly due to that, for the first time ever, I have a feeling of certainty that I’m finally onto something regarding my confidence around other people. I just hope this all makes sense to you all!

It might seem a strange title, and trust me I’ve been forming this theory in my head since about a month ago and it still gives me headaches to try and put it into words. For a while now I’ve been trying to make a mental object of the difficulties I have understanding social interactions, as I do inevitably spend most my time fretting over interactions with others. For those who read my entry about vowing to be more confident in my interactions with others, I can say that since I did that it has been helpful, yet I don’t feel my understanding of others is good enough, and I want to improve.

To begin, I’d like to throw some situations into the ring where I feel this concept applies, from my own experiences but also a couple that I’ve had less experience with overall;

• In a nightclub with friends, a guy starts bothering a female friend. I clearly hear her say no numerous times and see try to ignore him. I calmly intervene and encourage the guy to leave her be, only to later find out she felt able to handle it and I needn’t have done anything.
• Knowing when its okay to suggest spending more time with a person after you’ve first met, and following on from that, how to know where you stand in other people’s hearts as to what kind of relationship they feel they have with you.
• How well should you know a person if you offer a compliment, or if that’s not a factor as such, how does one know what is best to compliment about apart from it being genuinely intended?
• In what way is it best to let people know you’re well intentioned, or I suppose more accurately, that you’re not intending to do wrong by them if they don’t know you well?
• The touch barrier, when and how is it best to cross that line?
• I’ll make this the last one, how to know when your interaction with a person is wanted, whatever that interaction may be?

All these situations, from my observations, seem to be things that people can do well at without actually explicitly having to raise them in conversation. I envy that hugely, especially when people can do it without knowing someone all that well. It leaves me feeling like there was a lesson my soul was supposed to have attended before I was born, must have slept through the entire thing!

So, why Meta Culture?

Meta basically means ‘Above and Beyond’ in simple terms. In more pronounced and topic appropriate terms, I’m essentially trying to describe the way we interact with and understand each other on an instinctive level, even if we’ve only met or known the person for a short period of time.

Culture I chose because I feel that a persons beliefs, feelings, personality and ideas almost ring of being a culture in their own right, which is going to be influenced by the environment you grew up in, or another culture. Also, the kind of interaction I’m describing is affected by the collective social expectations of everyone, so it only felt right, at least for now, to use the term culture.

So in order to be able to enjoy that instinctive interaction with others, its as if you need to have that understanding of the meta culture of both the individual and the wider world to be able to easily interact with others. It’s essentially my attempt to put into words what I’m struggling to understand.

Anyone getting the impression I spend too long thinking about things? I certainly didn’t call the site Raving Over Sweet Nothings for, well, nothing!

Why Does It Matter?

I’m sure for a lot of people this won’t cross their minds as something that is worth the kind of effort I put into it, and I understand that. As someone who has never found social interaction easy and is hell-bent on self-improvement, this sticks out as the biggest challenge I have, and others see different things to aim for in life. If I was to ever be in a position where I felt relaxed inside during the majority of social interactions instead of the minority, I’d call that a worthwhile outcome.

In this case, I initially had no real tangible idea of a collective term to describe the way in which we indirectly communicate and understand each other, when the direct ways such as writing, speech and years of knowing someone aren’t how an intention is communicated. Body language, facial expressions, the eyes and also an understanding of others beyond those with empathy, deeper initial understanding and being able to on a basic level, read what the other person is thinking. By making a tangible collective idea of this it made it easier to think about what this means to me.

The consistent way I’ve found of getting over a problem when pure effort alone isn’t enough has been to try to break it down in a logical manner to try and figure out what I’m missing. Once I’ve made a foundation in my mind of where the problem lies and it makes sense, I can acknowledge it and use that as a springboard to help find the solution.

… and have you found the solution?

Short answer, kind of. Writing all this down was a step towards that, by putting it all into words that make sense. I have so much going on in my head even trying to get my thoughts out in spoken words fairly frequently results in my tongue getting tied and having to take a moment to attempt to say it again. That’s the wonderful thing about computers, you can keep adjusting words until it rings right.

Anyway coming back off that slight tangent, one thing I’ve come to appreciate is that there isn’t really a definitive answer, and in some ways I’m glad because that would mean social interactions were predictable. Thing is, body language isn’t always a good indicator as some people use more than others, while I’m not convinced that just being confident and hoping for the best is the right approach either, as a friend said to me while I was writing this “The most confident people that are amazing with people are probably rejected and knocked down the most purely because they take so many chances” which rang a bell as it instantly reminded me of a few people who’d had that happen, so made me think confidence isn’t entirely the answer either.

One thought that has occurred to me while I was writing this however, is that maybe I need to be more honest with myself. Perhaps I’m just not as good at reading this meta cultural thing like others can, so maybe I should just be verbal, but more than I was expecting. It was one thing to be more confident about interacting with others in the first place, but maybe voicing more of what I’m thinking could be the way to interact in a way that works for me. So to make an example, instead of being able to tell someone needs a hug if it isn’t clear, ask if they need one.

So having written all that I’m feeling a couple of things. One, is that maybe I’ve tried to understand how others approach social situations with the assumption I’m doing something wrong, whereas really how one approaches a situation is more likely unique to their personality. Second, while I don’t doubt this unspoken way of interacting with others quite awesome if you can do that, it doesn’t need to be the be all and end all of social interaction.

On that note I’m going to leave it at that, so thank you for sticking with this, I appreciate it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea!

Have a great day all!

Dealing with Stress

Ahoy,

Welcome to my second post!

As you are most likely aware, Easter has recently passed, providing some workers and students with a much-needed break. However, this doesn’t always mean that on return to their hectic schedule that all will be sunshine and puppies. For some, the return is even more stressful, having to readjust to a strict routine.

Stress is something that affects everyone, and some more than others. I therefore wanted to share how I deal with it and give some tips that might even help you! Even if they can provide short-term relief, then that is better than nothing!

One of my biggest hobbies is singing. It has become such a natural thing for me now that I barely realise I’m doing it – a bit like a habit I suppose! This helps me with both stress and anxiety, which is something I struggle with more. I notice that I sing when I’m happy; I also whistle along to songs at work when situations are tense, and even belt out a few rock songs when I’m angry. Music helps many people through hard times, and singing for me is a great way to express myself.
Before my interviews, where I gained both my current and previous job, I sang along to music on the journey and I can safely say that it helped calm my nerves for at least the last few minutes before taking the first few steps from the car and into the building.

Exercise is also known to help with built up emotion, but I personally find that it’s the gentler forms that help me with general stress and anxiety. Yoga focuses on deep breathing and stretches that both strengthen your muscles and relax them, soothing aches and pains. I can honestly say that my usually over-thinking, busy mind is completely focused on trying to perfect the moves and breathing when practicing yoga, especially in the evening before bed. It leaves me feeling tranquil yet alert, and gives my brain a rest, if only for 30 minutes. The NHS itself even lists it as a good way to relieve tension.
All body sizes and abilities can take part and it is a nicely paced alternative that can be done at home for those that usually shy away from sports or exercise within groups.

“Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

However, if you are a considerably active person, I would even recommend a more physical, fast paced exercise like boxing so that you can blow off some steam, focusing on something other than what was troubling you in the first place. Plus, the endorphins released during the training will give you a euphoric glow which is an added bonus!

In my experience, doing something that you are passionate about in stressful situations helps distract you from the cause. I don’t want to encourage always shying away from your problems, but a lot of stress and anxiety is down to low self-esteem and can be helped. For example, if you enjoy reading, carry a small book around with you. If things start to get to you just take a small break and get lost in a story. It will soon ease your mind if you let it.
After all, more mistakes are made when you make crass decisions due to pressure, so any small respite can make a huge difference.

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James

I hope some of the above relates to your own experiences if you are an individual that struggles with strong emotions. If you haven’t tried them, then feel free to give them a go – or even feel free to suggest other ideas if you have any unique ways to deal with everyday struggles!

Until next time,

Stay awesome!

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Many thanks to rushfitness.co.uk where I found the boxing image for my banner, and the awesome online editor PiZap where I do nearly all my editing!

Fitness Fever

Hey all, I hope you all had a great Easter!

Before I begin, I’d like to welcome Becky to the blog, I hope you enjoy her entries and that she enjoys her time here! Its going to be educational for both of us, and inevitably we’ll both improve from each others input, so cheers to another productive and, most importantly, fun month of blogging!

Its now one of those times of year our minds are acutely aware of the calories we’re consuming, whether it’s Christmas where we consume calories from both savoury and sweet foods, or Easter which has a focus on purely sweet foods thanks to good old commercialisation (not……..). Anyway, what better time than this to talk about burning those calories and getting some exercise!

Today will be my first day of gym since Easter, yet I started going to the gym about July last year. It’s something I’d been anticipating for a long time, as I wanted to improve as a person, and part of that involved getting fitter and to do that effectively a gym membership felt the way to go. Since then I’ve not only learnt a lot about it but also events that have transpired that I wasn’t aware of when I first joined have given me a healthy dose of childlike excitement for the year to come, but before I get carried away this soon into writing, I think we shall begin at the beginning.

Firstly, physical education lessons at school achieved little more than kicking a ball about in some manner, I never felt inspired to continue with it as the lack of challenge and practical understanding of the fundamentals of fitness made it easy for me to focus on more academic subjects at school during my GCSE’s. I did want to get fitter however, so last year I paid for a years membership and got on with it. It has been a heck of a learning curve, and as I like to do the job properly I’m trying to teach myself all the muscle groups and also how to eat more healthily.

Secondly, for me I do love a physical challenge, the feeling of adrenaline, that combination of emotions that drives you to outdo yourself each and every time, pushing yourself to the point where you can no longer do that exercise as you’re simply too exhausted to physically finish it. Its also refreshing, as I find academia a chore and often physical challenges are something you have to go to find, so having regular visits to the gym can also act as stress relief on days when you don’t feel entirely great. For me, its actually become a bit addictive, I’m genuinely yearning for the next session!

A few things I’ve learnt since I’ve been going, which some of you might find helpful if you’re thinking of incorporating some exercise into your routines as well:

• I made a point of getting exercise gloves to make the weight machines more comfortable to use.
• My approach with the repetitions (a repetition being the amount of lifts of weight you do in one set, so say I lift a dumbbell 10 times, that means I’ve done 10 repetitions for a set, and I may do 3 sets for a total of 30 repetitions) is to keep going until I cannot physically do any more, that way after the session I don’t leave feeling I could have done more. I don’t do the same with cardio. I do 20 minutes on each machine, gradually putting the difficulty up as I get better at any of them.
• Take a drink, you might be surprised how quick you’ll get through it. It also gives you an excuse to stand and relax for a moment which can make all the difference early on.
• Don’t fret over diets, going to the gym doesn’t mean you have to do that, and honestly so long as you eat healthily you’ll probably be fine. My only suggestion is to cut out any unnecessary things like crisps, biscuits, sweet foods and such out of your intake, I have cut down and I can’t say I miss them. If anything I appreciate them more the fewer times I eat them.
• Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help! The gym staff are there to help you, and lets be honest they probably get bored standing around there, so if anything you’ll be giving them something to do!

Now, the reason I’m a excited about the year to come is due to the future of the gym. It’s recently changed operator and is going to be completely revamped to give us better facilities and brand new ones for an increased number of activities. Its also going to form part of a National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, with facilities to treat injuries caused by exercise of lack of exercise. I’m really excited for this and might even consider taking a job there if possible.

The great thing about exercise though and fitness in general is what it allows you to do. Even in everyday life it has eliminated my lower back pain when I’ve been sitting, I can run for longer and my leg joints feel sturdier. Not bad considering I’ve not scratched the surface of what I could do yet.

I would encourage anyone to do exercise, and learn how to do it well because it makes such a difference. If you choose to, I wish you well and hope you do well with it!

Elements of header image by clipartpanda.com.

An Author Joins the Raving

Howdy All,

My name is Becky, Rebecca or Bex. Whichever you prefer really. After a very kind (and somewhat courageous) offer from Alister to share his blog, I have happily accepted!

Much like the man himself, I will likely be writing about a varied range of topics depending on where the proverbial wind takes me. However, to enable you a better insight of what I might be offering, I have included a small list of things I am likely to write about.

• Reviews – Most Likely of Films, Games and Food (as who doesn’t like food?)
• Life Experiences – And Lessons Learned by These
• The Paranormal – Star Signs, Ghosts and Otherworldly Life
• General Fitness – Primarily Yoga Based
• Travel – And Advice When Doing So

Still interested? I sure hope so.

I will try and keep my posts light-hearted and reserve any in-depth stuff for my own blog. Don’t get too excited though, as I haven’t even decided on a name for it yet. Though I was thinking of ‘Sitting on Fences’ due to my inability to make decisions. You may have already noticed.

The above being said, there’s the slight issue that I haven’t really done much travelling yet. But I aim to go to Japan either this year or the next – so that should provide some interesting content if you are willing to wait that long! All I can promise you is that I will provide a well-balanced, open minded view on the topics that I post about. If you happen to join me on this journey, then I very much hope that you enjoy the ride as much as I intend to do.

And once again, a big thank you to Alister for encouraging me to write and allowing me to express my thoughts on his blog!

A New Month: April 2015

Happy April Fool’s Day!

So, today I’m finding myself looking out over April, wondering to myself what I could be writing about this time round. It’s quite possible there’ll be a notable update to the Lynx story, and as I’m rather fascinated with that I don’t think I’ll be able to resist giving that more attention. It’s also possible I’ll talk about more of my personal life, maybe the gym and how I make it work or even an entry on formation dancing if that works out. As for anything else, well lets see what pops up.

The big thing about April for me personally will be trying to think up what kind of side project I would be interested in doing. I mentioned in my End of Month Review yesterday that I might consider writing a story or journal. Since then the idea of a section for a bit of poetry has come to mind, as I’ve wondered about trying for a while. That said I’m going to give it more thought before jumping into anything, and of course I could have more than one side project in the long run, but for the time being one will be enough I think!

Finally, I’m going to get some more of the design elements of the site done. The static front page is now under way and will hopefully be done in the next two weeks or so. I’m starting the tiny little favicon today as well as it is bothering me still! Oh details details…….

Anyway, that’s all for now, I hope you all have a great day!