Lottie Stride - Girls Miscellany

Written by Lottie Stride

Illustrated by Stefano Tambellini

Cover illustrations by Agnese Baruzzi

Edited by Sophie Schrey

Designed by Barbara Ward

Cover designed by Angie Allison

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Buster Books,
an imprint of Michael OMara Books Limited,
9 Lion Yard, Tremadoc Road, London SW4 7NQ

www.busterbooks.co.uk

DISCLAIMER
The publisher and author disclaim, as far as is legally permissible, all liability for accidents, or injuries or loss that may occur as a result of information or instructions given in this book. Use your best common sense at all times, always wear appropriate safety gear, stay within the law and local rules, and be considerate of other people. Always remember to ask a responsible adult for assistance and take their advice whenever necessary.

Copyright Buster Books 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The Sphinx is by Simon Ecob
The image is by Ann Kronheimer

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-78055-041-1
ISBN: 978-1-78055-149-4 in Epub format
ISBN: 978-1-78055-150-0 in Mobipocket format

None of the following things are enjoyable if they happen, but if you had to choose, which situation would be worse?

An ice-cream headache

(also know as brain freeze)

OR

grazing on popcorn and chewing unexpectedly on a kernel

(unpopped corn)

OR

stubbing your toe

OR

a top bunk and a low ceiling

OR

biting your tongue

OR

finding half a maggot in your apple.

The Titanic set off on its fateful last voyage with 40,000 eggs, 36,000 oranges and 16,000 lemons on board.

Forget a simple face wash and a good nights sleep, some people will go to much greater lengths in the name of beauty, even if the treatments do sound a bit weird and gross.

Beer bathing

A long soak in a bath of mineral water and foaming beer purifies your skin.

Carp pedicure

In a tank of water, tiny carp known as doctor fish nibble away dead skin on your feet.

Chocolate facial

A gooey cocoa-based mixture is spread on your face. This treatment has a double benefit because you can eat it afterwards!

Seaweed wrap

A thick layer of seaweed is applied head to toe, covered in clingfilm, and then left for half an hour to help smooth skin.

Snail slime moisturizer

This is applied to help heal scars, blemishes and acne.

Snake massage

Small snakes slither over skin to help soothe sore muscles. Not very relaxing if you have a fear of snakes!

The skin covering your whole body has tiny sensors, called receptors, that register touch. In one square centimetre (0.4 square inches) of skin you have around 200 pain receptors, 15 pressure receptors, 6 receptors for cold and one receptor for warmth. Your tongue is very quick to feel pain, which is why biting it hurts so much, but strangely enough its not as good at sensing hot or cold.

Forced to wear real fur.

They have to wait more than 30,000 years for electricity to be discovered meaning no hair straighteners.

Unattractively large front teeth, a weak chin, and a significant amount of body hair.

Goat and mammoth are on the dinner menu far too often.

Forced to share a cave with their whole family and, quite possibly, whole tribe urghh!

A high risk of breaking fingernails when using stone tools.

Hunting skills are top of the curriculum.

Faced with limited jewellery options.

Short and stocky build makes career as a supermodel out of the question.

No chocolate.

The Roman numeral system uses letters of the alphabet to represent numbers. Roman numerals are still used today, for example, to show dates on monuments and the hours on some watch or clock faces.