Ponderings

Every so often, my brain presents me with a problem that I must do my very best to solve. About a week ago, when I was in Halifax, I woke up with one thought on my mind: Could you give a goldfish a helium balloon for its birthday without the goldfish floating away?

I don't know why the thought appeared, but it did. And since then, I've been questioning others to see what they think. But the opinions of my friends, as lovely as they are, are nothing compared to the power of GOOGLE.

So, a quick search on t'internet provided me with this:
"A mole of air at STP, (for the sake of argument say it's all Nitrogen) will displace ~22.4 L (assuming it's close to ideal gas behavior) and have a mass of 28g. A mole of He will have a mass of 4g. This mass will be somewhat larger as you increase the pressure above atmosphere to fill the balloon. So you can lift ~ 1g/L, including the mass of the balloon; larger balloons should be more efficient if you can maintain a constant wall thickness because the balloon mass will increase like the area, and the lift increases with volume."


Jolly good! It sounds quite sciencey and believeable, and the result is about what other places suggest. So, I have 1 gram of lift per litre of helium. Apparently an averageish helium balloon has a diameter of 10 - 12 inches, which equates to around 10L of helium, give or take. So I can have 10 grams of goldfish, just, if I want it to be able to have its balloon and not float away. Which is sort of like having your cake and eating it, only not.

So, now for the weight of a goldfish.

Bless the google gods (or the 'goodles', if you will). They have given me this.

An averageish goldfish, I am informed, will be about 4 - 5 inches after its first year of life. Which, if we go to the magical calculator, means that it will just be able to be given a balloon for its first birthday as long as it's not an overinflated balloon or a small goldfish, and you have a weighty (but not too weighty!) ribbon to attach the two together. Hurrah!


I'm yet to find rates of goldfish growth, because everywhere is like "it depends". But once I find out, you can bet I won't make a silly mistake like giving a goldfish so many balloons for its birthday that I ensure its early demise.

Take THAT, science!

Incidentally, my googling also told me that a goldfish brain weighs 0.097 grams (size of goldfish was not specified - what type of scientists are these?!). So one helium balloon can lift about 100 goldfish brains. Innnnnteresting....

Dear Universe,

It has not escaped my attention that you recently sent me a letter from my bank, who never normally send me letters.

I was delighted to learn that you've decided to charge me £40 for being £1.67 short of the £9.99 I needed to pay my phone bill for the phone that is, rather comically, somewhere in Cambodia.

It gave me a right old giggle.

Thanks for that!

Scotland, ho!

The time has come, the walrus said, to escort my wee-est sister up to Scotland for her to start the versity of uni. We had a very super train ride up with lots of lovely views:

 

Jo clearly can't control her excitement and glee:

While I, on the other hand, am still sufficiently jet-lagged and missing far away places to convince myself that just sleeping in the sun seems like the best idea:

But we took some time out from our busy schedules for a quick photo opportunity:

Before finally arriving and getting to spend some time with my lovely family. This is the very cute Ryan, my cousin's son:

More soon, and some writey posts upcoming too. Be most excited!

La la la la la la life is wonderful

I can't get the chorus of this song out of my head. Love it!

My mistake!

I forgot to add this yesterday! Today's not been super, and finding this when I'd forgotten it existed brought me a little bit of shine. This is me with a fish head. It didn't help to catch any crabs, and so would have failed its purpose had I not changed its purpose to be involved in a (rather sad) kissing theme. Especially lovely is the blood dripping down my hand onto the candy watch I was sporting. Eat it up, YUM!

Kisses

Whilst in Nha Trang in Vietnam, Steph and I visited a very lovely aquarium. It just so happened that this was the location that this lovely picture came into being:

Shortly afterwards on a night out, these two lovely snaps were taken:

After reviewing the pictures a few days later, we decided that it might be rather fun to make the kisses 'a bit of a thing'. Which thereby resulted in a number of pictures which seemed like a good idea at the time.

Kissing piglets in southern Vietnam somewhere along the Mekong Delta.

Not quite a kiss, but spreading the saliva with a snake that protects a cave within a Temple near Chau Doc on the border between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Attempting to make out with an ancient artifact at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

(Picture of ladyboy in Camodia not inserted!)

I found love at a Wat in Bangkok, Thailand.

Making friends in Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

Returning to the sea theme on Koh Tao island, Thailand.

Sharing the love with Tim in Laos.

Kisses with a Wallaby in Brisbane.

My very favourite emu (also in Brisbane!)

And finally, the very last statue I kissed before leaving Sydney:

Very very very happy days! :)