CuppaTea

The pageview statistics leapt suddenly beyond the ability to do any more historical posts - at least for the AD timeline. In this last post I thought I might speculate about the future. What might happen in 29 years' time? As my interests tend more towards fantasy fiction than science fiction, I am not as familiar with this sort of speculation - so expect it to lack a scientific edge! I would love to hear your thoughts as well! I may have a wedding to attend - for a niece or nephew. Or celebrate the birth of a great niece or nephew - making me feel old in anticipation! They are all under three years old at the moment! I have a few friends who write and hope to publish novels (and some who already have published) - so one of them could potentially win the Nobel Prize for Literature! That would be great! There will be a king on the throne of England - possibly William V or maybe even George VII (I doubt that Charles will still be alive, but who knows? It could be Charles III)...

This will be the second to last post in this historical series. Although, the last one won't exactly be historical... Come back next week to see what I mean! This was so recent, yet I wonder how many of you can think of anything significant that happened that year off the top of your head. What follows is a list of events, with one event or incident from each month included, from my usual sorce . US Airways Flight 1549 from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina, was hit by a flock of geese, which caused a loss of thrust in both engines. Captain and First Officer safely ditched the plane in the Hudson, and all 155 passengers and crew survived. The Black Saturday bushfires, the deadliest in Australian history, killed 173, injured 500, and left 7000 homeless. Most of the fires were ignited by fallen or clashing power lines or were deliberately lit. NASA's Kepler Mission launched from Cape Carnaveral, a space photometer to search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way...

 Languages change over time - some more than others. It is easier to talk about how languages develop and change and influence each other once they have been written down. If you have ever wondered about the complications of English spelling, the amount of variety in how it is used, and why it is spoken in so many places, check this video out! Similar processes have been involved in other languages as well, although I haven't seen clips that are quite as cool for any others. Spanish, for example, was more influenced by Latin than English was, but was then influenced by Arabic when the Moors invaded and ruled over a significant amount of the Iberian Peninsular (from about 700-1500AD), and was also inlfuenced by American Indian languages from South and Central America. And they had a translation of the Bible in Spanish about 50 years before the English received the King James Version. On the literature side I am not sure about whether there is anyone significant who created ne...

Have you ever found yourself crying for no discernible reason? If not, you should know that this is one of the strangest experiences I've ever had. To be overwhelmed when you know there is no reason behind it, nothing specific that triggered it, and no hormonal cause, is to be rendered completely powerless until it stops. And then there is the fear that it will start again. Because it sometimes does. I have had a week of tears.

A very significant year! My year! But what happened? I wonder what you know about that year. I wonder if any of the following will surprise you.  The beginning of one of the worst droughts in Australia, part of the lead up to the Ash Wednesday fires the following year. In Australian film and television: The Man From Snowy River was released; Sons and Daughters premiered; and channels Nine, Seven and the ABC conducted stereo test transmission. Ian Thorpe was born. And one of the Melbourne Aussie Rules teams moved to Sydney, becoming the Sydney Swans. And the Commonwealth Games were held in Brisbane. And in the rest of the world... This was also the year Prince William was born. Canada gained full political independence from the United Kingdom (while remaining part of the Commonwealth), and patriated its constitution, which included a bill of rights. Nicole won Eurovision for Germany with Ein Bisschen Frieden . Chariots of Fire won Best Picture and three other Academy Award...

I have recently found myself doing two things I never expected to do. And enjoying them. One is so unexpected it never even occurred to me as a possibility. The other is something that I've deliberately avoided for several years with the expectation that I would not enjoy it. I wonder if you have found yourself enjoying unexpected things recently? I'd love to hear some of them if you have!

Some random facts selected from Wikipedia . Western Samoa became independent from New Zealand. The Beatles auditioned for Decca Records. They record their first single, 'Love Me Do'. Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro. Coups and counter-coups and communist alliances... Wars and alliances... NASA launched Ranger 3 to study the moon. It missed the moon by 22,000 miles... Ranger 4 crashed on the moon... They don't seem to have much more luck with the Mariner program later in the year either... During a new moon and solar eclipse an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurred (that is, the five which can be seen with the naked eye). The French entry wins the seventh Eurovision Song Contest. (For those of you unfamiliar with this event, check it out next year. It is bizarre and fascinating and draws a huge Australian audience - we even got a video link message this year! There should be plenty on YouTube from it!) A plane chartered...

Most of my posts recently have been about history or my studies, and not so much about any baking and cooking I've been doing. That doesn't mean I haven't been trying new things, so I thought I'd share a few.