Royal Observatory

Another day, another workshop. Subscribe to those home ed lists, and there's no end to the opportunities those parents are creating.

Mind you, sometimes it is difficult to get on a list: you might need to know someone who knows someone. A bit like an eighteenth century letter of introduction. I am still not allowed in some places. I may carry disrepute. Hope so. But I'm not booking so many workshops next year - enjoy them now, mini Grits!

This one, about moons and planets and suns. I forget. The young man leading the workshop was quite handsome and I became distracted, silently cursing time, experience, and bodily decay while he is all light years and infinity.

I have become Hettie. Remember her?

Interviewer: Excuse me, madam.
Hettie: Miss!
Interviewer: Miss. May I ask, do you think one should help one's neighbours?
Hettie: Oh yes. I live next door to the rugby club. Their dressing room burnt down last month so I let all those big beastly men use my bedroom to change in.
Interviewer: That's very kind of you. I expect you'll miss them once their changing room has been rebuilt?
Hettie: Not for long. I'm going to burn it down again.

Anyway. Here are three children dividing up the Prime Meridian.

Read the book, see the film, gaze at the clocks. Which are beautiful, symmetrical, perfectly balanced and exquisitely crafted.

A fine day out for studying mapping, geography, history, astronomy or you simply like gazing at young men holding the moon on a stick. Royal Observatory information here. Workshops are well organised, relevant, and the staff all helpful.