Hello and welcome to the next adventure in our series of life adventures!
This is a quick one day trip into London as I had booked us tickets a while ago to an exhibition on sea creatures that have been plasticised. Plus we got treated to a night out at the Theatre by Ham & Cat! :)
So lets go!
When I was in grade 11 or 12 I went with the school to see a body exhibition where they had also plasticised human bodies to show different aspects of our organs and the effects of things like smoking on the body.
***It was called Body Worlds, for more info see their web site***
It was a very cool exhibit so when I saw them advertising that there was a similar thing that had been done but on sharks and whales etc. I though that we should definitely go and see it.
The Exhibition was called the 'Sea Creatures Tour' - They do not seem to have a website but you can just google 'Sea Creatures Tour' and you will be able to see some of what they are all about. Otherwise keep reading and you will hear all about it from our point of view.
The Sea Creatures Tour was cool from the very moment that you walk in.
The entrance had an artificial smoke machine that was blowing down a curtain of smoke with a projector displaying a variety of sea creatures so that the children, and adults could try to touch and walk through the animal (see above and below).
Once past the curtain of smoke you are straight into the displays! First up a shark!
Then a Whale! (Above)
Then a manta ray!
Then a giant Sun fish! or two..
There were all these little side displays that had smaller sharks and rays. They had them displayed so that you could see the brains and muscles etc.
FUN FACT: Sharks do not have 'bones' they are all cartilage! ***I called BS on this, but apparently it is true so lets go down the rabbit hole together shall we!
Here is a copy paste:
Cartilage is thin, avascular, flexible and resistant to compressive forces.
Bone is highly vascularised, and its calcified matrix makes it very strong.
https://www.histology.leeds.ac.uk/bone/index.php
So lets see if I can simplify this a bit!
Cartilage: Doesn't have any blood vessels, cartilage is flexible and made from something called chondrin which is a gelatin like substance that basically forms a matrix that the cells live in.
Bones: Has heaps of blood vessels and is made up of collagen. Collagen is a protein that provides a soft framework, and calcium phosphate is a mineral that adds strength and hardens the framework. This combination of collagen and calcium makes bone strong and flexible enough to withstand stress. More than 99 percent of the body's calcium is contained in the bones and teeth. The remaining 1 percent is found in the blood.
I hope that is clear as mud for you!
*I don't claim to be an expert so make sure to do your research boys and girls.
Soooo... further to that fun fact Cartilage is much lighter then bone which allows for some of the larger cartilaginous fish to be so big while still remaining boyant in water. ie the Whale Shark. If they were heavier bones, they'd always sink and would need huge swim bladders (or equivalent)
Anyways lets keep going with the exhibit!
Above: Is a photo of me with a thinly sliced Penguin, like penguin chips (Crisps) .... mmm now i'm hungry....
Actually this is a King Penguin, the second biggest penguin after the Emperor penguin and can dive as deep as 300 meters!
The exhibit was also very interactive encouraging all the photos that you want to take, little social media booths, and even cooler was an app that you download before you get to the exhibit and then the kids can run around and scan codes. While scanning the code, when you hover over it with your phone camera within the app an animated octopus throws you a card that has facts about the display that you are seeing.
Below are three screen shots that I took from left to right:
All the information cards that I collected, then just a little information about the scanning functionality and right, the other things that the kids (and adults) could do with the app.
Ok! well I think that is enough about the display it was a great thing to see. I was realistically a half day activity which was great for us as we had also last-minute booked to go to the theatre that night so that gave us time to relax, get some food and wander in the direction of the theatre.
So here are some photos from our wandering around the streets of London. Note the Pizza has Vegan cheese on them!
There was this one shop that had the door open and all these wasps were flying in and I guess they were eating the sugar from the pastries.
Then we managed to have to walk through the Queen's front lawn at Buckingham Palace to get where we were going, so we took a quick selfie or two on the way through.
Then we stumbled upon Piccadilly Circus another quick selfie there as well for good measure.
Then we finally got to our destination, The theatre! the Prince of Wales Theatre, specifically. The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. Wikipedia
The theatre was a present for looking after our little nephew a few times so when it was offered to us, we took the opportunity! The show that we were going to see was called 'The book of Mormon'.
I had heard good thing about it, mainly that it was funny and even that the Mormon church endorsed it.
[MY REVIEW]
It was a little disappointing really. There was one or two good songs at the beginning but it quickly started disrespecting God and the plight of poor people in Africa. The show made light of raping babies and maggots in scrotums. By mid-show I was ready to leave. But as good money had been spent, I never get to go to the theatre and Kyran didn't appear to be quite as offended as me, I held my tongue and focused on the orchestral performance who were a reminder to me of "screw being a doctor or a lawyer when you grow up" - there are plenty of musicians and dancers out there that have done well for themselves.
Well I am sorry to end on that negative note but that does bring us to the end of this little adventure.
Kyran do you have any comments or feedback that you would like to add?
Uhh.. yeah. Was a great day. Thanks darling! :) Thanks Cat & Ham for the theatre night as well, 'twas a great performance and was entertaining and certainly brought up a lot of troubling concepts which is good for people to be reminded of.
Until next time thank you for reading our blog!
Here is a copy paste:
Cartilage is thin, avascular, flexible and resistant to compressive forces.
Bone is highly vascularised, and its calcified matrix makes it very strong.
https://www.histology.leeds.ac.uk/bone/index.php
So lets see if I can simplify this a bit!
Cartilage: Doesn't have any blood vessels, cartilage is flexible and made from something called chondrin which is a gelatin like substance that basically forms a matrix that the cells live in.
Bones: Has heaps of blood vessels and is made up of collagen. Collagen is a protein that provides a soft framework, and calcium phosphate is a mineral that adds strength and hardens the framework. This combination of collagen and calcium makes bone strong and flexible enough to withstand stress. More than 99 percent of the body's calcium is contained in the bones and teeth. The remaining 1 percent is found in the blood.
I hope that is clear as mud for you!
*I don't claim to be an expert so make sure to do your research boys and girls.
Soooo... further to that fun fact Cartilage is much lighter then bone which allows for some of the larger cartilaginous fish to be so big while still remaining boyant in water. ie the Whale Shark. If they were heavier bones, they'd always sink and would need huge swim bladders (or equivalent)
Anyways lets keep going with the exhibit!
Above: Is a photo of me with a thinly sliced Penguin, like penguin chips (Crisps) .... mmm now i'm hungry....
Actually this is a King Penguin, the second biggest penguin after the Emperor penguin and can dive as deep as 300 meters!
The exhibit was also very interactive encouraging all the photos that you want to take, little social media booths, and even cooler was an app that you download before you get to the exhibit and then the kids can run around and scan codes. While scanning the code, when you hover over it with your phone camera within the app an animated octopus throws you a card that has facts about the display that you are seeing. Below are three screen shots that I took from left to right:
All the information cards that I collected, then just a little information about the scanning functionality and right, the other things that the kids (and adults) could do with the app.
Ok! well I think that is enough about the display it was a great thing to see. I was realistically a half day activity which was great for us as we had also last-minute booked to go to the theatre that night so that gave us time to relax, get some food and wander in the direction of the theatre.
So here are some photos from our wandering around the streets of London. Note the Pizza has Vegan cheese on them!
There was this one shop that had the door open and all these wasps were flying in and I guess they were eating the sugar from the pastries.
Then we managed to have to walk through the Queen's front lawn at Buckingham Palace to get where we were going, so we took a quick selfie or two on the way through.
Then we stumbled upon Piccadilly Circus another quick selfie there as well for good measure.
Then we finally got to our destination, The theatre! the Prince of Wales Theatre, specifically. The Prince of Wales Theatre is a West End theatre in Coventry Street, near Leicester Square in London. It was established in 1884 and rebuilt in 1937, and extensively refurbished in 2004 by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, its current owner. Wikipedia
The theatre was a present for looking after our little nephew a few times so when it was offered to us, we took the opportunity! The show that we were going to see was called 'The book of Mormon'.
I had heard good thing about it, mainly that it was funny and even that the Mormon church endorsed it.
[MY REVIEW]
It was a little disappointing really. There was one or two good songs at the beginning but it quickly started disrespecting God and the plight of poor people in Africa. The show made light of raping babies and maggots in scrotums. By mid-show I was ready to leave. But as good money had been spent, I never get to go to the theatre and Kyran didn't appear to be quite as offended as me, I held my tongue and focused on the orchestral performance who were a reminder to me of "screw being a doctor or a lawyer when you grow up" - there are plenty of musicians and dancers out there that have done well for themselves.
Well I am sorry to end on that negative note but that does bring us to the end of this little adventure.
Kyran do you have any comments or feedback that you would like to add?
Uhh.. yeah. Was a great day. Thanks darling! :) Thanks Cat & Ham for the theatre night as well, 'twas a great performance and was entertaining and certainly brought up a lot of troubling concepts which is good for people to be reminded of.
Until next time thank you for reading our blog!
***
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