Catching up in the Chemist’s Kitchen

The Kitchen Chemist has just returned from New Zealand. It took a couple of years to get there as they closed the borders during the pandemic. I was there on an Erskine Fellowship to teach at the University of Canterbury The slideshow below shows some of the places I managed to visit and sights we saw. These include the West Coast of the South Island, Lake Tekapo from the Mount John Observatory and a Wharanui near Akeroa on the coast near Christchurch. There’s also a view of the Alps from the office I was using at the University.

Apart from teaching undergraduates I was destined to do some Kitchen Chemistry shows. These were mainly in schools in the local Christchurch area. In addition to four shows a day in schools I did a Kitchen Chemistry show at the very first Lyttleton Fire Festival. This was outside at night so the flames of the whoosh bottle and flaming custard were particularly impressive. The rest of the Fire Festival was provided by the physics outreach team from the university. As you can imagine, they managed to produce some impressive bangs and sparks of their own.

On the way back home I stopped off in South Africa for my annual visit to Scifest Africa. I was kept busy with Science Shows both on the main stage in the Guy Butler Theatre in Settlers’ National Monument and at Nolathandu Hall in Joza. The latter is to take Scifest to the local communities that can’t normally get to Scifest. In addition there were workshops where we made slime and sorted out the fake pharmaceuticals from a series of white powders.

It turned out to be a very busy week for me, and jet-lag was no joke! I also managed to smash my phone screen just before I left, but fortunately there was a shop that could fix it so that I could take it on my travels. Scifest has been virtual for a couple of years now, and it was lovely to have the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.

The next tour will be in the local area in January courtesy of a grant from the Local Section of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Then I’ll be off to Brunei. We are already working with educators and science communicators with online workshops.