In which there is Science and Ice Cream

I am trying to make September a frugal month. After weddings and parties and holidays for August (good times) it was/is really necessary to be a good person who stays in and watches videos on the internet for a month. So after that well-meaning resolution, yesterday I had a day out in London! Woop Woop. Well. This is the joy of living near London me and Andy had an Amazing Day and spent less that £30 –including travel and snackerals. I call that a win. It was one of those perfect days when you can push aside all the things you are worrying about (aaah jobs/money/reallyneedtogetthatmarriageliscense/whyareotherpeoplesoawesomeandiamnot) and just go Look At the Science, the Views and the Ice Cream.

It’s also a silly detail but before we left we tidied the whole house so it meant that I was in a really calm frame of mind. It’s a funny thing because our house is often cluttered, but whenever it is tidy I find myself just feeling better about the world.

We took a train into London and went to the Science Museum. It’s surprising, but I had never been there before. I have been to the V & A more times than I can remember and seen the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery and all the other major art galleries about a dozen, but I thought it would be fun to do something non-arty.

 Ironically the part I enjoyed the most was the history of drawing instruments and mathematical designs. I learnt about Klein Vases – inspired by the Mobius strip (and shown below).  Beautiful twisting glass shapes. They are explained with the concept of an ant walking along the surface, it will return to the starting point having covered the whole surface area without ever crossing an edge. Amazing. I mean we spent hours there and read lots, especially in the space section where I took no photos at all, but I know that most of the dates and names will be forgotten instantly so I am clinging on to these amazing shapes as the bit I am taking from it.

Klein Bottle.

Display of polyhedrons.

Beautiful

I took photos of the vehcles in the next section, but the display was actually on our changing relationship with machines, leading up to 'The Age of Ambivalence'. It was actually really interesting to read about how the way we think and react to new inventions has changed. 

Close up of traction engine

Original Ford

 We then headed up to the ice cream bar and it was like the Marble Slab in America. Tucked away inside the Science Museum, and mostly deserted was this amazing bar. They had tons of flavours with toppings and milkshakes and mini oreo buckets for sale.

My ice cream: Blueberry and Chcolate. Look at the scale of this!

Andy's ice cream: raspberry sorbet and rum and raisin

After ice creams and some card games in the cafe, we got a tube to Embankment just to watch the sunset over the Thames. After living near the sea for four years I miss large expanses of water and good views. This is the best I am going to get. 

What I wore. Long t-shirt, felt necklace, Andy's purple shirt, Polly's satchel and my turquoise usn hat.

London skyline

Beautiful blue skies

I call that a good Saturday. Plus there was Doctor Who to watch when we got in. What did you get up to? Enjoy the lingering summer?

In which it begins.

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The traditional way to start a story is at the beginning, although sometimes from the end with flashbacks works quite well (it did in Moulin Rouge). As I'm starting a blog it usually begins with more an explanation, a bio with a neat objective list to justify why I would be opening up to the realms of the internet anyway. So I am going to provide you with a neat mix of all of these.

I am superhero. (or heroine but let's not get into feminist semantics, yet.)

My name is Origami Girl.

It is a neat simple descriptive of my awesome powers.

I first discovered my powers at age 13 when my aunt gave my a book of origami folds for Christmas. I finished making my very first crane when it flew out of the window. From that point on I secretly experimented, finding that anything I made could become flesh and blood on completion with a little bit of will. I forged myself a sword (although back then I couldn't use it) and then a boat (much more fun) and then I went back to that original crane and worked on my powers. It took me a year to find the part of my mind that could expand these creatures on completion and soon I had the most beautiful form of transport imaginable: a giant crane who would obediently let me ride on her back. From there I absorbed every book of origami imaginable, created new folds and did the obligatory superhero thing –learnt martial arts. Come on, my fighting style is based on a Japanese craft so it was practically obligatory and I wasn't going to miss out on being a fully rounded superhero now. That sword I made at the beginning was now fully useable and could be collapsed into a single sheet of paper in the satchel at my side.

Costume time! I have to admit that I've always been fairly interested in fashion and I own far too many clothes so when I was inventing myself I wanted my superhero costume to be a little bit more stylish than the pants outside trousers combo with the cape that gets in the way. I admit I was fairly influenced by the style of Tekken so don't claim I'm plagiarising anyone.

My outfit, well you may have seen it on the news, is a lot of fun. I wear a short pink Japanese patterned dress for easy movement with a small square satchel filled with paper at my side. My hair is filled with origami crane hair slides I made myself. The joy of these is my escape route. If I am really corned or can't reach my paper they fly out of my hair into my opponent's eyes and one becomes my ride and I fly away.

So back to the blog. This is really a new escape route; a way to let off steam after defeating evil maniacs and the like. It is also a little side income for a superhero. I mean have you ever really given it some thought. How do superhero's get their food? Oh it's ok for Batman with daddy's inheritance and Superman at least kept a day job. The X-men? They have Xavier's money (though I'm suspicious of where his never-ending cash comes from)and Iron Man, again incredibly rich from the start. But what about those of us from ordinary backgrounds who just got blessed with superpowers. The obligation to save the world is pretty strong but it is hard to keep a job when you have to leap out of windows and save lives every so often. I think Spiderman understands.

I said I like fashion, well I have a little jewellery business. I started making my practical origami jewellery as an inconspicuous weapon (they don't pick up on scanners) with anything I wanted on a brooch or necklace. Then I just got into making jewellery and slowly built it up. My aim here is to make a new item, photograph, show it here and put it up for sale on eBay. Real heroic-made accessories, each one unique. I'll talk a bit about accessories and a bit about my day, Crafting ass and taking names as it were. I'll fill you in a little more on how I actually started fighting crime next time.

Yours,

Origami Girl.