The Purls of Wisdom romped home to another victory, even with a depleted team tonight! Some of the stumpers we grappled with:
It’s been nearly six years exactly since I met Dr. Linda McIver from the Australian Data Science Education Institute, and I’ve been a fan of her work ever since. Now I’m proud to share that I’ve joined ADSEI’s Governance Board, and I’m excited to help Linda with her mission to build problem solving, critical thinking, data literacy, and STEM skills in Australian students. Expect to hear more from me about this topic in the future!
For the record, I’ve been watching and sharing about the Swedish moose migration for four years now (courtesy of a recommendation from my Swedish colleague Gunnar)! This year it appears to be going viral, with stories on the BBC, New York Times, The Sizzle, and more. Can I take credit for popularising it? 😂🫎
I was shocked to see there have already been 16 moose crossings in the first three days this year. In the past I had to wait weeks to see a moose! Today I was really surprised to see a BEAR, which motivated me to learn about Swedish Brown Bears. (As Rodd pointed out, Björn means “bear” so I really should have expected it.)
Having a brandy and soda while reading Jeeves/Wooster fanfic. I’m not sure Jeeves would approve of these pajamas… #toodlepip #jooster
On this day twenty-three years ago, Rodd and I both got rejected for jobs with the same company in Sydney. Who would it have been? We have no clue, but we’re having fun trying to remember. It would have been a tech company. I would have been applying for frontend or PHP developer at that time, and Rodd was mostly applying for Unix sysadmin jobs. Anybody want to guess?
Today was my first shift in the Farmyard Nursery, aka the petting zoo. Fortunately it didn’t start until 9:30 so I got in some quality lamb time before then. 🐑❤️
By 9:30 we had a massive queue waiting to get in. Our team leader gave us a great orientation and kept us rotating through stations through the day. I started outside, making sure people knew where to go and to finish their food before they got inside. (I got to yell a lot!) Then I helped out in the pram parking, making sure people knew where to park their baby strollers. We had an hour lunch break, and then I had a turn at the entrance gate for the animal enclosure. Mostly that was just controlling the traffic flow to make sure we didn’t have too many people in there, and reminding people to wash their hands when they left. I only had one occasion to shut the gate as a cheeky goat tried to escape. No loose animals on my watch!
After my shift finished I walked through the Sheep & Goats Pavilion, and I managed to catch a judging for some class of sheep.
For today’s food-on-a-stick, the initial plan was to go for the 2 foot Super Dagwood Dog. But when I got to the stand, my attention was arrested by something unexpected on the sign – PICKLE DOG. It said something about being “infused” with pickles? Available for the first time in Australia? SIGN. ME. UP.
I was munching along happily when I had a surprise. There were also chunks of pickle in there, like a shish kebab! I’m not actually sure the pickles added much though. The overall flavour wasn’t especially sour or pickley. The batter was nice though; better than the mass-produced corn dog I was expecting. It was $14 though, which is pretty expensive. I reckon Twisty Potato is still #1, followed by #2 Pickle Dog and #3 Cheese on a Stick.
I was back again at the Show today, directing folks to the Quiet Room and helping visitors find their way around. And how cute is this? These amazing folks at the Face Painting booth offered to put a sunflower on my cheek!
Me: Oh, glitter too?!
The artist: You HAVE to have glitter. ✨
It was a lot cooler today—which was nice!—but in the afternoon the wind kicked up and it started spitting rain. Fortunately I had a poncho, and it didn’t last long
And for today’s food-on-a-stick, I went with another classic: Cheese on a Stick! I liked the crunchiness of the batter, but this didn’t quite feel like enough value for $8. Twisty Potato is still winning…
I’ll be standing near the Quiet Room with a big sunflower 🌻 sign if you are visiting today. #eastershow
Happiness is… having a florist neighbour who sells you their leftover bouquets at a discount!
My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.
No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.
Congrats and to many more 🙌🏽
My home economics teacher taught us to use “J cloths” as press cloths. (Cellulose cleaning cloths). The upside of using…
We have the Harold McGee book, v interesting and often useful. Right up his alley I reckon!
Special thanks to Matt Hinrichs for the site logo!
