Cycling, swimming, books, playdough, other things

[ailbhe]

Last night we discovered that the playdough I made a couple of weeks ago had gone all runny. I heated it up again and added more flour and it's a lot better today but still quite sticky. We're not keeping it in a sealed container until it's considerably drier than it is now. I wonder what happened?

Also, yesterday I went to market to market and spent allllll our money on lovely food and invited people to dinner to help us eat it, so that's good. Various people were discussing the cost of food and I've basically decided that difficult though it is to believe, it is not a personal failing that I am getting less food for the same money I paid nine months ago. So I need to accept that and revise my personal berate-myself levels.

Today we were all up at five, though the children and I weren't actually all out of bed all the time after that, and Emer may even have slept a bit. I triked the girls to swimming, which went well, and Linnea needs to be booked in on a Stage 2 course next time, whatever that means. I'm not sure what stage she's at now. I think she's at Pre-Beginner Stage 2, but that tells me very little.

One thing it means is that all the classes are in the late afternoon, because of school hours.

Then we triked to the library, and collected a heap of reserved books, and read some, and the children waited AGES for a teenager to stop using the computer so that they could. And they were very well-behaved in the non-fiction adult part when I went up to look for biographies.

Then home for lunch and laundry, and general home stuff.

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

If it is as humid in Reading as it is over here, maybe it has absorbed water from the air.

[ailbhe]

It was in an almost totally full airtight container. Which added to the weirdness.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

...that is very odd. Kept in a cold place? Maybe water evaporated out, condensed on the lid and dripped down onto the playdough again?

[ellipunk.livejournal.com]

I prefer not to make my own playdough for this reason.. it always "goes off" after about a week or so. I presumed it was par for the course. That you had to constantly make fresh stuff?

[(Anonymous)]

I can't remember if you said what your recipe for playdough contained. I presume the usual flour, oil, salt - plenty of salt! - colouring, etc.? Some recipes use cream of tartar I think, altthough I can't remember ever using it when I made playdough! (But it was long time ago!)

I wondered if you have ever tried cornflour playdough? It doesn't keep, but it's great fun if you mix it right. It's simply cornflour and just enough water so it's a solid, but turns into a liquid when you pick it up, and runs out of your fingers! Hours of (messy!) fun and amusement!

Elaine

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a non-Newtonian fluid known as oobleck.

Here's a video of some guys playing with a swimming pool full of it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlAcASsf6U