My First Time

Wonders of the Universe

First time at Hay and started with the big bang media superstar that is Brian Cox.  He is even more personable and engaging live than he is on TV.  Just the shot in the arm that science needs but it may be a too little too late for the complacent kids of the UK.  Science is hard work and keeping up with the flow of conversation (dumbed down for ordinary folk) was a feat of concentration.






From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

The other event on our first trip was the two person show of Sandy Toksvig and Sue Perkins.  We were not sure what to expect and it would appear that neither did they.  Apparently the show they had planned takes up to 2 hours - an hour or so to gather info from the audience, 20 mins to sort it out and then deliver a lecture on the info gathered.  But each of the Hay sessions is only 60 minutes so they had to dispense with the planning bit in the middle and condense the other bits.  It was remarkably well executed and by far the best piece of info from the audience (and winner of a case of Cava) was one lady's knowledge of the weight of 1inch of rain per acre (113.31 tons - I Googled it).