My parents are moving from our family home soon. Thirteen years of history have been crammed in under one roof, and now we have the unenviable task of uncramming it, sorting through it, and packing it up ready to take to a new house, and a new chapter in the family history.
A big chunk of that sorting was done yesterday, and it was quite bittersweet. I felt energised because I finally threw out so much junk I’d been hoarding since school, stuff I was only keeping because I’m a sentimental girly-woman rather than because I would ever use it or look at it again. On the other hand, however, I felt hopelessly nostalgic, and by the middle of the afternoon work had slowed up quite a bit because I spent hours cooing and oohing over every second thing I found.
To combat this sense of wonderment at everyday items, I thought I’d share three videos found in the last twenty-four hours on Twitter – three videos that actually deserve the attention I was giving to the heaps of junk around my house yesterday.
1. World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion (thanks to @Rhodri)
I don’t know if this is fake or not, and I don’t really care. It’s still pretty fantastic.
2. Einstein the talking parrot (thanks to inspiration from @qikipedia)
I first saw this years ago but forgot about it until yesterday. I don’t care what any of you say, when he says “Superstar!” I fall off my chair. EVERY TIME.
3. Space Shuttle Launch Viewed from an Airplane (thanks to @bpdobson)
Saved the best til last, obviously. This needs no introduction, it just blew my mind. (Although: the actual launch itself is mildly outshone by the pilot’s quip: “If you’re sitting on the right side of the aircraft you can see the space shuttle, if you’re sitting on the left side of the aircraft you can probably just see the people on the right side of the aircraft looking at the space shuttle.”)
Cake, Prattle & Soul 