a very british picnic

as it's the jubilee today, and most of my friends aren't too fussed about/really don't like the monarchy, i thought i'd have a non-royal-related picnic. i did some research and found that the 5th of june is also the anniversary of the first hot air balloon flight (when i say 'i did some research' i mean i googled it and read the first hit, this is probably incorrect information). so to commemorate we had cucumber sernies, sat about in the university botanical gardens, and tried to make mini hot air balloons. we failed. also it was cold and rained a bit, but it was all good fun. here are some of the attempts:

so what did we learn? most plastic and card is flammable, as are crisp packets. birthday candles burn down faster than they heat the air in a 'balloon'. also, that we're not scientists, and we know very little about physics.