All About a Doctor and a Dog

An unexpected but very welcome benefit of my trip to London, is how much closer Duncan has grown to Gordon. He is even more excited than usual to see him return form work. He calls out for him often when he's frustrated or needs help. Yesterday, he came to me and announced, "Daddy is a doctor - helps sick people - makes them feel better."
Yes darling, he does!

Gordon was delighted when I told him later. He said he'd talked to Duncan about what he does when he's away almost every day, trying to explain to him why he has to leave home. Duncan obviously got it.

Yesterday I took the children to the animal rescue centre. One of the staff thought that a Collie dog might be good for us. I'd explained that Duncan, who was at the time making a lot of noise, is autistic, and though he's loud, he's gentle. She asked me, "what kind of autism does he have?" leaving me sort of stumped and stammering something like, " he's just um, very autistic!"
What are you supposed to say to that?!

The children were able to play with this beautiful dog for a while. Duncan kept telling me to take it home; "put it in the boot."

On reading about the breed further, I know we'd not be able to meet the demands of such am energetic, intelligent dog. We need something lazier and dumber! But Duncan enjoyed telling Gordon about our day. I prompted him to explain what we'd done and he readily told where we'd been and what we'd done;

Played with a dog. Throw the ball.

What was the dog's name?
Dog - Chep!

Yes! It's called Shep! What colour was the dog?
White and black - and grey.

I didn't notice any grey, but if Duncan says he was partly grey, then it was so!

3 go to London

It was only to be expected, but we had a fantastic time visiting C. in London.

When we arrived, we took the tube out of Liverpool Street, and sort of on a whim, got out at Holborn. We still had our bags with us so we headed off to the British Museum to use the cloakroom there. Having discarded the bags we were able to dander around the museum for a while. I used to live in university residences not far from there (it's where Gordon and I first met) so had been in the museum before, but not since the refurbishment. It looks wonderful. Lady was particularly keen to see the Chinese items so we looked around that section first, marvelling at what these people were achieving while the people where I'm from were busy bashing each other with clubs...or something. Thomas wasn't very interested, though he did call my attention to some of the stuff. We looked at the Egyptian area next. Lady explained to C. the process of mummification. There were plenty of examples, including mummified cats and crocodiles.

We didn't want to overdo the whole culture thing, and we all needed to eat to we went to the Pizza Express across the road. It's somewhere we used to go as students to treat ourselves. My friend D. and me were there once when a couple sitting next to us walked out leaving their deserts almost untouched. D. noticed my look of horror at such waste (we would have been sharing one pizza and drinking tap water) and assured me that one day, I too would be able to afford to order desert and leave it, but I'm still too tight to waste food just to make a statement!

The next day we went to the London Aquarium. I'd bought our tickets online in advance thus saving about 25% on the cost of entry. This also meant we were able to bypass the enormous queue and go straight inside, whew! This is a great place. Thomas however was less than impressed. Thomas is happier when jumping, running, climbing or when watching TV or playing computer games. Looking at lots of pretty fish didn't do much for him. He told me he was bored after only 20 minutes or so, "they're just fish, just animals, what's so interesting about that?" Delightful eh? Did I complain to him about being ungrateful, did I mention how much I would have given to be flown off to London as a child, and taken to restaurants and activities? Well obviously! Anyway, Lady loved it. One of her occasional ideas for her future career, is a marine biologist.

When we left we walked across Waterloo Bridge, keeping an eye out for a bus to take us up towards Leicester Square. For some reason we didn't pass a bus stop for ages, and it was so very cold and windy. When we did get a bus, it was a single decker, causing Thomas to huff again for a while. But not to mind because we were soon at China town and in the Harbour City for dim sum. C. doesn't eat fish so I didn't order my favourites. Thomas only ate the spare ribs, but Lady had everything. It was very good.

As promised, we then went to Hamleys. This was one of the highlights for the children. In the computer games section, there are a few Wii games set up for customers to try. There were around 20 people gathered around this sofa in front of a huge TV and console, where a couple of teenage boys were playing Mario Kart. When they finished another boy took up one of the controls, and Thomas decided to take the other. (No-one else was volunteering.) He sat and played the game, totally unfazed by the watching crowd. At the end I congratulated him for playing what was to him a new game, and doing quite well at it. He replied, "I didn't do that well, I didn't win!"

Lady choose a toy dog that can jump and bark. She has called it Master Harry, the jujitsu-shihtzu. Thomas picked a Simpson's torch and lucky bag. I had bought a gift for Duncan before I left home, to be sure of getting exactly what he wanted.

We took a trip on a double-decker bus to kill some time, and because it was what Thomas really wanted. Later we went to Planet Hollywood for dinner, since I had some Tesco vouchers. I'm glad I didn't have to pay, it was awful.

On Saturday, I had arranged to take the children out to stay for a night with Lady's best friends in the whole world. They both loved their time there. They went to a really cool playground and the maze in Hampton Court palace. For them both, it was the best part of the trip. I enjoyed catching up with my friends too, and in the evening, my sister and I met another of my oldest and best-est friends. We went to a lovely Thai place across from Centre Court in Wimbledon (I can't remember its name). Then since my sister was so incredulous that in all my time living in London, I had never been inside an O'Neill's pub (it's a chain of Irish themed pubs) we went to one for a while. It was a dive, but at least we had somewhere to sit, and to be honest, we were only interested in our conversation.

I lay in the next day, enjoying being child free for a while. My sister and I had lunch then went to a crepe place for desert. The crepes were OK, but Thomas can make pancakes just as good. I wondered if I should buy one of those crepe burners, and put the children out to work in the summer! They'd make a fortune!

We collected Lady and Thomas again then for once, had a quiet night at home. The next day we were leaving, so we packed up and headed to Waterloo station, and walked along the embankment to the Tate Modern, stopping for lunch at Wagamama on the way. We choose the smaller, lunch meals but these aren't as good as the food from the standard menu.

We hung out at the Tate Modern (leaving our bags in the cloakroom again for a while) and watched Thomas sprint and roll all over the polished floor in the Turbine Hall. Well, the main floor was closed; they're repairing that artful crack and installing a new item, but he was able to run over a smaller, raised floor. We didn't look at any of the art, but we enjoyed the big, open, ugly splendour of the building.

We crossed the Millennium Bridge (after passing the Globe Theatre, famous in our family for its inclusion in a Doctor Who episode) and caught a bus to Liverpool Street station. Our train was delayed for half an hour and I worried we'd miss the flight, but although we had to run to the security check, we were just on time to get to our gate and line up to board right away.

Once back, Gordon and Duncan came to meet us. It was so good to see them. Duncan was grinning and hugging us all. He was happy with his promised gift; the remote control Brum. They had both got along just great. Duncan was happy to be with his dad, and knew we were only away for a short time.

All in, it turned out to be a great trip for everyone. Now I have to finalise my plans for Disneyland Paris. We go in just 5 days!

London bound

I'm going to London tomorrow for a long weekend with Lady and Thomas. We'll be staying in my sister's new flat, and meeting up with other friends. Duncan and his dad will have some man time together. They are both looking forward to that. I've promised Duncan that I'll buy him a toy he has coveted on the Ebay listings for a long time; a "remocon troll Brum" aka Remote Control Brum. (I actually bought it months ago but kept it hidden until a time of need.)

I dare say I'll post about all our adventures when we return.

Be good enough!

Our gallery

Duncan usually makes his pictures on the computer these days, but sometimes he produces a drawing on paper. Last week he created this Noddy puppet, entirely by himself.

He also enjoys little books, that he draws and writes on, and that he sometimes asks me to illustrate too. These books have such a combination of his favorite things. He has one with the title, "Enid Blyton's Noddy's Toyland Adventure, by Dr Suess" and another called "Atari Tarzan" showing a picture of Disneyland's Space Mountain coaster. This one has an interesting story too;


It wose a chilet day in toyland
was a roket

Jafr and Tarzan and Lady Noddll

The range wose Noddy

(And the writing on the page shown)

Now Alice trap
Tarzan posh Clayton
angry
It wose Tarzan poshe Clayton.

Well, it's clear to see poor Alice is indeed trapped, and that's Clayton looking angry at the bottom on the right, where Tarzan must have pushed him. You will also notice the many deadly looking arrows shooting all over the place, as well as the sword. It's all very exciting!










Lady draws too. For a long time she produced mainly pictures of the 5 of us, embellished with hearts and flowers and her name in Chinese characters. This picture of the 3 children in a paddling pool (drawn a few years ago) is typical, and the duck-billed platypus is a more recent creation. She has been drawing lots of animals lately.

One of her - stranger - pictures is this one, created 3 years ago, and apparently showing the birth of Thomas!
That's the newborn Thomas at the bottom of the bed, and some hospital equipment to the right. Gordon, Duncan and Lady are all looking very pleased with the new arrival, while I'm saying ouch, as it hurts a bit when you have a baby.


I've no idea what the purpose of the number line is, and by the way, the children were not around while I gave birth!


Thomas is not very interested in drawing, so it's something I'm trying to encourage him to try to enjoy more. He sometimes copies Lady's work, coming up with pictures like this monkey.

Yesterday I photographed many of their pictures drawn throughout the years. It'll help ensure I can enjoy these images for a long time to come.

The week that was

My sister spent a few days with us, so we had a few outings together. One was to W5, which was busier than it usually is on a school day. There was one school group there and many of the children were acting up, while their teachers ignored them. I had to keep Duncan away from them as they buck-lepped (that's west Tyrone speak for jumped wildly) around at his favourite exhibit; the weather camera. Lady and Thomas enjoyed showing their aunt around all the cool stuff. They ended the day with Duncan and Lady arranging furniture in the doll's house.

My personal favourite time didn't involve my beloved children. I'd arranged baby sitting, and myself, Gordon and my lil' sis took public transport into Belfast where we meet my dad and step-mum for a fantastic Thai meal washed down with much wine.

The children didn't want C. to leave, but eventually she'd had enough of us (or had to go back to work or something). On Saturday, the children spent an hour at their Grandma's house while Gordon and I went for a run. We were totally out-done by my brother though, he ran about 21.2 miles further than us on Sunday in London, along with about 34 thousand others. You go bro!

Yesterday we piled into the car intending to drive to local park, but decided instead to drive up to the north Antrim coast. It was perfect driving weather and the road from Larne to Carnlough (where we stopped) is spectacularly beautiful. Thanks to my Blueprint inspired new interest in local geology, I noted the chalk cliffs topped with basalt. The locale provided the backdrop for some of the scenes from that programme too.

It was my first time along that part of the coast; I'd always been coming from west to east before and never made it past Bushmills or thereabouts. We had chips (good) and ice-cream (poor) in Carnlough and the children burned off some of their vast quantities of energy in a playground before we headed for home.

And just so you know, Duncan was not wearing a Santa hat, despite how it appeared to the several people who smilingly remarked on how out of season he was. He was, in fact, dressed as Noddy, which should be obvious when you note the blue shorts, red top and yellow scarf! Also, it's perfectly acceptable to carry the case of a Thomas the Tank CD Rom around with you in a playground!


Instead of driving back along the coast, we headed south towards Belfast, taking us into some lovely countryside. We passed a mountain and I looked at the map for its name. It was Slemish, which I obviously know (as a good wee girl I'd absorbed all this information) as the place where the captured Briton later known as St Patrick, was sent to watch sheep and where he did a whole heap of praying. It was nice to see it for the first time. Again, thanks to Blueprint, Lady reckoned it was once a volcano. We looked it up later, and yes indeed it is the plug of erosion-resistant hardened lava from the inside of a dead volcano.

Oh and that reminds me, another family tradition for all but Duncan (who finds it too scary and watches familiar videos instead) we enjoyed the Pompeii episode of Doctor Who, in which the volcano was far from dead.

Right, I do believe I'm all caught up again.

No measles here

For all my bluster here, I recently realised something worrying; Duncan never had the second MMR vaccine, probably due to an oversight when we changed from a London GP to our local one several years ago. I was looking through the children's health records when I made the discovery, so I contacted the health centre, spoke to a GP, and arranged a time for him to catch up on this important vaccine.

My sister was spending a few days with us, so she stayed with Lady and Thomas while I took Duncan to the doctor. He ran into the health centre quite happily, but wanted to go back to the consulting room he'd been in the week before, so I had to hold him back while waiting to check in with the receptionist. He was shouting various angry/worried film lines. I kept asking him what film what he was saying comes from, then he'd calm down just long enough to tell me, and perhaps a few minutes more, then he was off again.

The health visitor came put to ask me how we could best approach the mechanics of the vaccination for Duncan, and I asked that it all be done as quickly as possible. The GP was wonderfully considerate. Duncan yelped in pain and surprise as the needle went in, but wasn't half as bothered by it as I'd worried he would be. He had to have a look at his bottom to check he wasn't bleeding later (he worries that he's bleeding after every little knock or bump, and if a kiss doesn't cure his pain, a plaster is almost sure to do it), but there was only a tiny mark.

To reward him, I said he could buy a new toy. He choose to go to the charity shop rather than the standard toy shop. He has been collecting old videos recently, mostly to examine their cases and the idents shown before the films. On that day, I found him a really old BBC video of a cartoon called "Ivor the Engine" and he was so happy later to see it had one of his favourite idents; the BBC stars. He has invited me to snuggle beside him to watch it many times since, and I've obliged for the sheer joy on his face.

He also found a toy Big Ears (friend to Noddy) which has had lots of play this week, while he dressed himself as Noddy.

So anyway, he's caught up on his vaccinations. I just didn't want to risk exposing him to measles. One MMR dose wasn't enough, and there are far too many cases of measles among children these days. I was particularly worried about the possible risk of infection when we go to Disneyland later this month.

Kathleen Subpoenaed - Video

I am gratified to see the extent of the outcry on Kathleen's behalf. Clifford Shoemaker must rue the day he decided to take a shot at that particular lady. There are few bloggers who are as revered and respected and who are capable of enlisting so much support. However, this incident has demonstrated that even the lesser bloggers could count on the support of their blogging peers if they came under this kind of unwarranted attack. The principle still stands.

The follow video summarises the issues.



Edited 8th April to add another a video by Autism Diva:



See another video by S.L. at Stop. Think. Autism.

And finally, from dkmnow, there's this;

Neurodiversity Blogger Unfairly Subpoenaed

Kathleen Seidel, owner of the Neurodiversity website and blog, has been served with a subpoena in what appears to be a craven attempt at intimidation.

The website is one of the best, most extensive online resources on autism and more general disability issues. The blog provides a masterclass on what the very best bloggers can achieve. I choose Kathleen for the Thinking Blogger Award last year, and as I wrote then, "She is clever, dogged, unfailingly polite, thorough, fair, compassionate, dedicated and whatever the highest award available to bloggers is, she should get one. She writes about autistic advocacy and anti-scientific theories of autism causation and 'treatment'."

Kathleen Seidel has blogged about the activities of the Rev. Lisa Sykes and her husband Seth Sykes, who continue to claim, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that their son's autism was caused by mercury poisoning via vaccines. Sykes is suing a several pharmaceutical companies, alleging her son was damaged by their vaccines. Among the lawyers representing Sykes, is Clifford Shoemaker, about whose earning from vaccine litigation Kathleen wrote just before she was served with a subpoena, (issued by Shoemaker) to produce extensive, personal documents and records for the Sykes' suit.

Kathleen has written (what looks to my ignorant-of-law eyes) a great reply to quash the subpoena, detailing the many reasons against it's validity. Among these she writes;

I am not a party to Sykes v. Bayer, and have had no personal acquaintance or contact with any of the parties to it.
...
http://www.neurodiversity.com is not a legal entity, an organization or a business; rather, it is an Internet domain name that I own. My website is a one-woman labor of love, creativity, conviction and conscience.
...
I have not otherwise been paid by any person or organization for developing or maintaining the website, for writing, or for my political advocacy or charitable work.
...
Even if the subpoena were not unconstitutional, illegal and barred by the journalist’s privilege, it is excessively intrusive in its terms. Plaintiffs and their counsel seek not only to rummage through records that they suspect pertain to themselves, but also through my family’s bank records, tax returns, autism-related medical and educational records, and every communication concerning all of the issues to which I have devoted my attention and energy in recent years. I have a reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to this material. It would be wholly inappropriate for the court to compel me, a nonparty to this civil action, to subject myself, my family, friends and acquaintances to the hostile scrutiny of plaintiffs in order to enable them to argue some point that would not even help to prove their case.
...
WHEREFORE, Kathleen Seidel prays her motion to quash this unconstitutional, unreasonable, irrelevant, excessive, invasive, burdensome, frivolous, and clearly retaliatory subpoena be ALLOWED.

I have glanced over the subpoena, and there is no indication that Kathleen is being accused of having done or written anything in any way illegal. It does ask for all correspondence between Kathleen and “religious groups (Muslim or otherwise), or individuals with religious affiliations,” as well as most of the people whose blogs are on her blogroll, including this one! What purpose could all this possibly serve? And what on earth is that bit about religious groups supposed to mean?!

I find this action against someone who has always been so fair and scrupulous in her activities to be reprehensible. I also think, like every previous attempt to persecute a blogger without just cause, this will go badly against Sykes and Shoemaker. Haven't they heard of the Streisand effect? Why would they want a judge (or whomever is responsible for deciding on these matters) to read all of Kathleen's work which shows their claim for what it truly is. She also details Sykes' involvement in the Griers IRB which approved their "research" on chemical castration agent, Lupron, as one of the cornucopia of supposed treatments foisted on autistic children, among them, the son of Rev. Sykes.

As someone in the comments section of Kathleen's blog wrote, as far as this goes, and in the tone of Kubrick's famous film, when someone goes picking on one of our own, I am Kathleen.

All these others are Kathleen too ;-) Let me know if I've missed anyone out.

1. (There are comprehensive lists at I Speak of Dreams and Holford Watch too; they've most likely got links I missed.)
2. Autism cranks attempt to intimidate blogger by subpoena from Pure Pedantry
3. Autism cranks going after bloggers from Denialism Blog
4. Evidence of Slime from GreyMatter/White Matter
5. Kathleen Seidel Slapped With unconstitutional, illegal, barred by the journalist’s privilege, and needlessly invasive subpoena from I Speak of Dreams
6. Vaccine lawyer subpoenas Kathleen Seidel from Overlawyered
7. Clifford J. Shoemaker and Lisa Sykes: Putrid Lawyering from Whose Planet is it Anyway
8. Kathleen Seidel's Blog: Influence Means You Get Subpoened
9. and Olson's Trumpet - Blogosphere Unites Behind Kathleen Seidel from Law and More
10. Rediculous from Autista
11. Attempted suppression of Seidel from Pharyngula
12. More legal thuggery, this time against Neurodiversity.com from Respectful Insolence
    
13. An open letter to David Kirby and Dan Olmsted about the Kathleen Seidel subpoena from Respectful Insolence
14. We are all Kathleen Seidel from Letting Off Steam
15. Sandy: Blogger on autism hit with subpoena ** from Jack's Newswatch
16. Blogger on autism hit with subpoena ** from Crux of the Matter
17. Trusted MD
18. Another day, another gasket from Poohflingers Anonymous
19. I am Kathleen from Autism Street
20. Kathleen Seidel Has Received a Sub-Poena: Streisand, Spartacus, Shoemaker, They Start with S and End the Same Way from Holford Watch
21. JREF discussion
22. Anti-Vaccination Parents stoop to new lows from Rev. BigDumbChimp
23. Aspies for Freedom discussion
24. Vaccine-Litigant Thuggery: Subpoenaed For Blogging from Popehat
    
25. We are Kathleen too from Runman
26. Kathleen Seidel: "Subpoenaed" from Homo Autistic
27. Blogger Troubles - SLAPP from Left in Alabama
28. Kathleen Slapped-Blogs Slap Back from Club166
29. All for one and one for all from Normal is Overated
30. Shoemaker’s Witch-Hunt: An Open Letter from dkmnow
31. How to Treat a Bully from One Dad's Opinion
32. Rallying the Blogosphere Again from Mythusmage Opines
33. The Plane! The Plane! from Dr.J's House Calls
34. Blogger ensared in hotly contested autism-vaccine lawsuit from Strategic Thinking and Execution
35. Welcome to the "I am Kathleen" Scavenger Hunt from Asperger Square 8
36. Neurodiversity blogger subpoenaed in "vaccine-autism link" lawsuit from Women's Bioethics Blog
37. We are Kathleen from The Rettdevil's Rants
38. Quash this unconstitutional, unreasonable, irrelevant, excessive, invasive, burdensome, frivolous, and clearly retaliatory subpoena from Swiftspeech!
39. Abuse of Process: Blogger, Unrelated to Action, Hit With Subpoena from New York Personal Injury Law Blog
40. Neurodiversity blog intimidated by lawyers from Bad Science Forum
41. Clifford Shoemaker, What a Dick, Plus Other Views from Natural Variation
42. The Mozlems Want You to Have Autistic Babies from Victoria's Corner
43. Autism-Vaccine / Neurodiversity War Getting UGLY from Axinar
44. Blogger ensnared in hotly contested autism-vaccinne lawsuit from Ars Technica
45. Can I Play Sykes Google Hit Too? from Liv's Journey
46. Shoemaker’s subpoena is a load of cobblers from Action for Autism
47. Open Letter to Kirby and Olmstead from Action for Autism
48. Bloggers On The Seidel Subpoena from Autism Street
49. Autism Lawsuit from Galactic Poolhall
50. Seidel subpoena a threat to citizen journalism from Junkfood Science
51. Seidel subpoena a threat to citizen journalism from Kitchen Table Math
52. Misbehaviour of Behaviorists Discussion Board
53. Conflicts of interest disclosure from Natural Variation
54. Flippin' heck, bloody hell, stone the crows! from Incorrect Pleasures
55. HealthBlawg
56. Attorney Clifford Shoemaker v. bloggers from Autism News Beat
57. Bullying Attorney Thug from Skeptico
58. Legal Thuggery Against Neurodiversity.com from Daylight Atheism
59. Lawsuits and Autism: A Back-Door Effort to Suppress Facts from Odd times signitures
60. Emotion and irrationality run amok from A life less ordinary?
61. Implication by Association? from ASD :Commentary
62. I am Kathleen from Stranger than you can imagine
63. You gotta fight for your right to blog from Clotted Cognition
64. Kathleen Seidel from Left Brain/Right Brain
65. In Support of Kathleen Seidel And Her Work from The Joy of Autism
66. Autism, Clifford Shoemaker, and Kathleen Seidel from Autism Street
    
67. Thoughts on an absurd subpoena from Women Scientist
68. Subpoena the Blogger from The Washington Independent
    
69. Another Attack on Free Speech and a Science Blogger from Neurologica Blog
70. What’s is all about, Clifford J. Shoemaker? from Grey Matter/White Matter
71. In the matter of Shoemaker v. Seidel; Court of public opinion; The Hon. Bugs Bunny Presiding from Graphictruth
72. Autism Blogger Subpoenaed from Adjunct Law Prof Blog
73. I am also Kathleen from Stop. Think. Autism.
74. Because someone had to do it from dkmnow

Blueprint

I watched the new BBC NI programme Blueprint last night. I rarely make an effort to watch TV as it happens now, preferring instead to watch the few shows I like online via the BBCi player or something. But this I wanted to see properly, and it was well worth it.

The show described how the land we live on has changed over millions of years, how it's position on the globe has changed, how 2 sections of the island were formed from land masses that were once thousands of miles apart. I was fascinated to learn about the Caledonian mountain range stretching across North America, Ireland, Scotland and Scandinavia, and which in these parts, now comprises the rolling hills of the Sperrins near where I lived. I never knew this land was once a baking desert, or covered by a tropical ocean. See what a good school education can leave out.

It was great to see such a well made, local science programme. The special effects looked good. I liked the sand world map on a Sligo beach to demonstrate plate tectonics. William Crawley is an engaging presenter, though I did wonder why he was wearing pale coloured trousers as he kept having to tramp through mud.

But guess what, there have been complaints to the BBC about the programme. I was reading the presenter's blog and came across a comment I assumed was a parody; "I, along with many others are disgusted that the BBC is using license payers money to spew out this filth over the airwaves. It is evolutionary nonsense, which is in complete opposition to the Biblical account of Creation."

Eh?! That can't be for real...can it?
Unfortunately I soon saw a link to a group criticising the programme (I've broken the link) and its makers for not covering their notion that somehow, the bible should be accepted as a literal interpretation of the earth's formation;

In it [Blueprint] they will teach the theoretical 600 million year history of the island of Ireland. No reference will be made to a Creator or Intelligent Designer and no reference will be made to important biblical events such as God's 6-day creation or the worldwide flood of Noah's days as recorded in the book of Genesis.
...
I am very angry that the BBC, yet again, is siding with evolution in the debate about the origins of the world. These programmes are about to launch a massive attack on the Christian values of our country and I hope Christians can be persuaded to make their voices heard with the BBC. I think this is the most dangerous TV series in NI for years. If possible, I would like to see Christians gather in prayer outside Broadcasting House in protest at this insidious attack on our society's foundational values.

They even suggest a form of letter to use in complaining to the BBC about this "massive/insidious attack";

Dear Mr Crawley,
In relation to the upcoming series of BLUEPRINT programmes I wish to register my protest to the BBC NI about this offensive abuse of the licence fee money of the many Christians in Northern Ireland who accept God's account of His own Creation as recorded in His Word in the book of Genesis.
I would ask, for the sake of balance, that BBC NI expend a similar amount of finance and give a platform to Scientists, who are Christians and 'Biblical Creationists' to explain the visible scientific evidence that concurs with their beliefs on the origins of the island of Ireland.

Dear oh dear.

But, thankfully, sense and science have prevailed. Many people, theist and not, will enjoy this series and learn from it. I'll be watching again with Lady later. What a bonus for our home-education!

1st April

I was just watching BBC Breakfast with Gordon when they showed a film clip from a new natural history programme called "Miracles of Evolution." The clip was said to show penguins as never seen before.



Tery Jones was not in the short clip shown on the news nor was the story about their "migration" to the tropics, so it took me that bit longer to twig onto what was happening, but once the birds were swooping over the water it was obvious. Nicely done though!