coffee break and conundrum

Current work: yeehah, back to work! (that deserves a screamer)
Listening to: Bach (nice, calm, regular - ahhhh)
Reading: Louise Allen, The Piratical Miss Ravenhurst (finished and enjoyed. Now have to hunt down my TBR stash because lovely husband moved it. Wouldn’t be so bad, but no painting has been done in our bedroom, so his excuse for moving my books doesn’t actually hold water…)

Back to school today. Well, daughter goes first thing, and son goes mid-morning – so this means today’s schedule is going to switch round to minimise disruption. I am in major work mode until revisions are done, so I’m going to leave you with a little conundrum (courtesy of Michelle, who knows I love this sort of thing). Sit in a chair and move your right foot in clockwise circles. Now draw a number six with your right hand (NB start at the top of the six, not the middle) while still moving your right foot in a clockwise circle.

Some people can do it, with a bit of effort – but most people find their foot moving in an anticlockwise direction, i.e. the way their hand goes (this is why I said start at the top - if you start at the middle you're going clockwise). According to psychologist David Rosenbaum, this is because your brain is programmed to work best with isodirectional movements (i.e. both movements going the same way) rather than non-isodirectional movements; both the left and right hemispheres of the brain are needed for co-ordinated muscle movements.

And now a little something for your coffee break – test your reactions with the BBC sheep. (Thanks to Maggie Kingsley for that one.)

I was supposed to be working on Saturday, but it was so nice to have the house to myself and proper thinking space for the first time in weeks that... OK, I was a bad puppy. I did the BBC’s quiz re ‘what kind of thinker are you?’. I didn’t know what the categories were before I did the quiz (which is a good thing because it means my answers weren’t affected by what I thought the likely outcome would be), and I was slightly surprised to discover that I’m a musical thinker. Then again, I do use music as a soundtrack to my work, so maybe it’s not so odd. I’d be fascinated to know – what kind of thinker are you? Do come back and share.