7 Quick Takes: 15th October

1. Whew! It's my birthday. Fifty today. Which is just a number, right? And Tevye has bought me an iPad, which makes it all good :).

2. Good except for my iPod Touch that is, which apparently had a fit of piqué at the idea of being supplanted in my affections. While I was lying in bed minding my own business it leapt out of my hands and thwacked me on the head. The lump on my forehead has gone down, but it is still a little tender. Bad iPod!

3. I meant to mention this incident when it happened a couple of weeks ago, but somehow didn't get round to it. I reversed my car without noticing that another car had just pulled up and parked to the side just by the top of our drive. We are at the bottom of a cul-de-sac and nobody ever parks there unless they are visiting us. The car wasn't there when I got into mine. And yes, I reversed into it. Totally my fault. There was no damage to our car beyond a small scratch, but the car I backed into had a couple of larger scratches, a minor dent in the front bumper, and the radiator grille had popped out of position. Now for the good bit, and the reason I didn't want the mishap to go without comment ... the man in the car I scrunched was so, so nice about it. I expected him to want to claim on our insurance for repairs, but he felt it probably wouldn't be worth it and said he would let us know if the bill was relatively small so we could avoid having to claim ... then in the evening he took the trouble to come and knock on the door to say he had fixed the grille, really didn't car about a small dent, and I was just to forget about it. He even apologised for parking in an odd place! What a kind, thoughtful gentleman to go out of his way to put my mind at rest and turn what would normally be a stressful incident into something heartwarming.

4. I read an interesting article at Bad Science this week on the effect the appearance of female musicians has on their audience, with controlled testing proving that what they wear (and even just the fact that they are women) affects a listener's perception of their musical skill. Apparently when auditions are held blind, the percentage of women in an orchestra rises dramatically.

5. Quote of the Week 1: "We spend so much time and effort planning ahead, or looking back at the past, and waiting, waiting for something to happen. For perfection. The right time. It never comes you know. Now is the only time we have. Right now." (Linds @ Rocking Chair Reflections)

6. Quote of the Week 2: "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." (G. K. Chesterton, HT: Someone on Facebook)

7. Cherub had her first run in with a stinging nettle this week, caught on the hand by one on her way home from school with Tevye. As she put it "I was prickled by a nettle!" In the version I heard it hurt a lot and there was much crying. According to Tevye, the distress grew in the telling and she was fairly calm about it at the time.

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