Commas, Memory, Jorvik Vikings, and other Museums

Until this Friday, I would never have used a comma before an and when writing a list. But when we looked at commas by writing 'I like At-Ats, C3PO, R2D2, and Lando', Ferdy told me that there is a comma before the and. I should have learnt never to argue with him as we looked it up and he's right (although I pointed out to him that it's optional, so I'm right too). And I always wondered why Vampire Weekend went on about an Oxford Comma.

Billy had a client meeting in York today so we decided to go with him. Whilst getting ready, we played a quick Kim's memory game. Ferdy remembered 5/9 the first time and 9/9 the second.




York is famous for its Vikings so to prepare ourselves we looked up some videos of Vikings. Seeing as Ferdy is so engrossed in Greek Mythology at the moment, I thought listening to some Norse Mythology on the way to York might be a good introduction too.

Our first stop in York was the Jorvik Viking Centre. We were immediately transported back to 960 in a time capsule, and taken on a trip through a viking village.

View from our capsule

We met a blacksmith, fishermen, a leatherworker selling shoes and even a priest giving a lady her last rites. There were lots of animals, and the smells in places (especially the rotting meat) were a little unbearable. I think I would have preferred not to encounter the man on his outdoor toilet, who had clearly had too much ale and salted fish.

At the market

Over lunch we read some books about Vikings, the best was Viking Raiders. Both boys love an illustrated book with loads going on in each picture, especially if it contains gory battles and excessive amounts to read. Mum and Dad less so.

We then transported ourselves back 150 million years to the Yorkshire Museum's Jurassic World exhibition where there was loads of interactive stuff to get involved in.

I drew the line, however, at filling trousers and pants with the rubber bits used to cover the ichthyosaur fossils.

More reading about Mary Anning

Two museums in one day is perhaps too much for a 3 and 5 year old (and definitely for two 42 year olds) but luckily our day ended with ale for Mum, ale for Dad (the intention was to recreate the Viking village in our hotel room), and chips for the boys (notice the Oxford Comma before and). We even managed to go to another museum on Saturday, but that's another story.

A Ferdyosaur scares a Plesiosaur