1152 - SHORE

ChristophER was an eccentric scientist who was obsessed with a big project. Occasionally his brother would pay him a visit, but as soon as Christopher started talking, his brother would fall into a deep sleep, inevitably producing the odd snore. Christopher's project involved growing some mushrooms in the airing cupboard with the aim of capturing every spore that one mushroom produced. So far two mushrooms had produced their spores but Christopher wasn't ready to harvest them. He was so determined to catch the third mushroom producing its spores that he swore an oath on his great grandfather's tombstone that he would not sleep until he had achieved his aim. By the third day Christopher was desperate for sleep, but he persisted and at last was able witness the moment when the third mushroom ejected its spores and he was able to capture them all. He slept for two days after that, but was then went back to the task. The next job was to keep a score of how many of the single-celled spores he could count. This proved very tricky and he had many false starts. After one failed attempt he decided to treat himself to a hot chocolate on which he put some whipped cream that his brother provides every week when he whips up some cream he buys in the local market. This seemed to do the trick because the next time he did his count he was confident that he'd got it right - 15,428,175,423 in all! It was time for a break, so he put his wet-suit and paddle board equipment into his SUV and headed to the shore to forget about his project and enjoy the sea.

At last the third mushroom produced its spores