After being assured that I was more likely to get struck by lightening, I won the lottery on Saturday. Well, I won £10, at least.
It got me thinking about the likelihood of things.
In probability theory the birthday problem, or birthday paradox (more…)
I’ve promised my boyfriend after two months of grumbling, stumbling, grimaces that I will no longer be really grumpy on a Monday morning, so it came as a blow when two minutes out of the door we started having an argument about whether or not cardigans are really only for girls. (more…)
This week has mostly been a lonely time for working at The Laundry, at least one of us has been away the whole time. So today I thought I’d write about games to play by oneself . (Not that I would be playing games at work. Or that I would have time to with the absence of my esteemed colleagues 
Perhaps you have some ideas to add to my lonely-busting list? (more…)
To get to know our Rachel and Harry a bit better we thought this week we’d quiz ourselves on some of life’s important quandaries… (more…)
We are having our BioRegional (that’s the charity that The Laundry is a part of) staff day out this Monday. We are going are going on a nature walk by the Thames, which sounds quite exciting- bit worried by mention of ‘waders’s- apparently it’s when the tide is out so we can see all sorts of mud-loving creatures, like those Chinese crabs that have managed to travel all the way here as stowaways. Apparently this is not a good thing, the crabs, much like the grey squirrel before them, seem to be causing havoc with native populations and habitats, and are therefore not welcome. They sound s bit scary- fully grown they are almost the size of a dinner plate and with furry hands (claws?)!
In contrast my friend (who doesn’t work for an environmental charity) has just been flown off to Denmark with her work for some paint balling and drinking of Buff
“The most revolting liquor the world has ever see or tasted. Even I could only manage 1 shot”. And that is saying something.
It must to be the time of year for team building. My friend Gemma is headed off to my home town this week with her company to stay in the hotel I used to work at! The hotel’s gimmick is peacocks wandering around the grounds, they make these awful noises like someone being strangled. My bro also used to work there in the bar and would get propositioned by rich lady guests of a more mature disposition, dangling their room keys at him. I’m not implying this is what’s going to happen to Gem. I’m sure she’ll be fine.
Seems to me employers have very different ideas about team building. But did you know the concept of team building comes from a study by Professor Elton Mayo (what a name) in the 20s and 30s of workers in a factory in Chicago? The basic gist of his study was to find out what affects the relationship between productivity and work conditions. One of the things he discovered was that if people are made to feel involved and part of a team rather than dictated to, they will perform better and productivity will increase. As you can imagine this is something employers care about and has lead many companies treating team building seriously.
Have you any tales of staff trips or team building adventures to share with us ladies down at The Laundry?
This week is all about the best compliments, so please excuse the back handed compliment above. Cymbal please, bud dum tschhhhh.
Jo told me over lunch that Men’s Health has done a survey to find out the top 10 compliments that their readers love to hear. According to science (yes science can be sociological) 90% of men would like to be complimented more by their partner.
Here they are:
“Your arms are definitely looking bigger.” (more…)
We are a creative bunch; must be all the rainy days, but hobbies are a curious pursuit. I don’t mean things like yoga or book-club, but fiddly pernickety things like model-making, building ships in bottles and creating tens of metres of track for teeny-weeny trains. (more…)
I know this might be old news but did you hear about the New Zealand man who was with assaulting a boy - with a hedgehog. (more…)
Just a quickie from me today. (Phew! I hear you cry). I’m thinking sounds, I’m thinking radio plays and imaginative producers, I’m feeling inspired by a conversation about apples…One of our colleagues here at BioRegional was involved in a live audience recording of apple-crunching at the Barbican. This sound then became part of a tune by a musician called Matthew Herbert. That reminded me of the Star Wars exhibition I went to see in
Have you got any secrets about sound?
Love from Steph and The laundry
I have been trying to learn how to knit recently and have been mainly constructing small squares of striped material. Although useless in more ways than you can imagine, the dream that one day that I might actually make something beautiful keeps me going. Some of the stuff I indulge my imagination in are tales of yore - women weaving their life stories into stunning silk whose gleam and (woolly?) perfection make the sun itself envious…Anyhoo, then I remembered the tale of Rumplestiltskin and thought I’d share it with you. A good fairy tale can remind us all that dwarves, pixies and goblins can be ruthless in their business and mustn’t be messed with. (more…)
After getting a rather touching blog comment from a certain Blarg who’s cat is (incidentally) called Laundry (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/blargblarg/2285206534/ for a pic) it got us Laundrettes thinking about other people and animals in our lives with funny names by coincidence. (more…)
Greetings! With this email I am going to introduce myself, Steph – new member of the Launderettes, to you, our lovely and supportive Laundry customers (your reputations precede you, it seems!), with a certain panache, verve and jingle jangle of accompaniment, so here we go… (more…)
Last week we had a flurry of pigness. First, Philippa’s pink milkshake bottle pig, then told us about the Pig of Happiness (how apt), then I remembered Apple Pigs, one of my fav children’s books. (more…)
Leap years are there because our calendar is squiffy. Years aren’t actually 365 days long, but rather 365.2422 and so if we didn’t insert the odd day here and there throughout the years, over time we’d end up out of sink with the seasons and eventually might be able barbeque Christmas dinner. I think I might have over simplified this a bit, but I want to get on to the interesting leap year facts… (more…)
I have always, always wondered about how bread and butter got invented, but never really discussed it with anyone, it just remained this magical, impossible problem that archaeology forgot, that is until the weekend when I found out the ANSWER! There is an answer. (more…)