Liquid nitrogen demonstration

Husband and I took a couple of grandchildren to a demonstration of lovely liquid nitrogen at http://www.scienceoxfordlive.com/

The young demonstrator showed how some strange things happen to everyday objects when they get really cold. He experimented with shrinking balloons, shattering yellow chrysanthemeums and blu tac as hard as nails.

Liquid nitrogen is so exciting. but you can't put your hand in it, not even a finger because it's minus 200 degrees C and your finger will drop off, but you can pour it over your hand, because by the time it's reached your hand, it's boiling off into gas and there's only a tiny drop at a time, just don't wear rings where it might get trapped and damage you.

He used tongs to put a bit of blutac in the nitrogen, then it was as hard as a nail, so hard that he could hammer it into a piece of wood.

He demonstrated smashing rubber when it was normal temperature and then after he'd dunked it in the nitrogen, when it was all hard and brittle and flew into lots of pieces.

His last trick was to make icecream with nitrogen, and all the children lined up to taste it.

In the meantime, husband's trick was to leave the car lights on, so the battery was flat when we got back to the car, in the rain.

• First husband pushed.
• Then a friendly Iranian man helped us push.
• Then we gave up.

So they pushed the car (me reversing) into a spot then friendly Iranian man tried his jump leads but they didn't make good contact, so we left G'pa in the rain waiting for the rescue man.

We paddled thro the puddles to Cafe Toscano and had coke and hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream.

I've got leaky boots, so I got wet feet, and husband was a little stressed. The g'children were happy with the day, and thanked us unprompted. They're really nice children.