Tanya's Memory Palace Begins

This is a Tanya and Janet project. We started last week, Sunday 12th July. But we've been thinking about it for a long time. Now all the school work is done, we are ready. 

We are starting with the Wikipedia list of countries by population. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population

And Lynne Kelly's / Medieval and Renaissance directions to group items in fives. 

Last week Tanya placed the first 20 countries and Janet placed 10 in her apartment. 

We each drew maps of our homes and started with China at the front door. Which is topical. 

Janet's focus is on terrible people. She's filled her apartment with Nemeses and Gods. 
Tanya is not too focussed. More with situations and puns. 

I broke some rules in the flow of the locations and those mistakes are a bit of a pain now. But I don't want to change them. I'll need to create a narrative to explain them. The 'line' of my trip doubles back and crosses itself a few times, as I was trying to use sets of '5' and windows for the 5th item. 

While I was planning it out, I changed my mind a few times, so my initial choices have been getting in the way. But I guess they will fade as I add texture to the locations. 

Just for fun, as Sam is a happy science student, we sat down and added the periodic table to the list, to see if it would work. See if it sticks. Calcium, 20 is an angry french man at the kitchen sink, pulling my cheese out of the fridge and shouting, 'Cheese? This is rubbish, who pasteurises cheese?' and throwing it into the sink. 

Ethiopia's essential oils cabinet is full of Silicon sand, Japan is using the Sodium to put MSG into noodles. The Indian tech experts in the bookshelf are talking in silly voices because they've been sucking helium. The Philippines is volatile like magnesium (Something an old school friend reminded me I stole from science class and kept in my pencil case for quite a bit of Year 8). Turkey needs to chill out and eat a banana. 

Because I've made loopy narrative lines, I'm going to need to practise the 5, 10, 15, 20 markers so I can get the numbers right. 

Some of my characters are really vivid and others are a bit weak, or more a concept. Indonesia is the piano, I imagine every piano key is an island, all spread out across the top of Australia. The piano keys are Beryllium, aquamarine. 

Others are awful, like out the window in the garden I see a member of the Taliban leap into a bus and shoot Malala in the head. He's a moron, because of the lack of Boron in Pakistan's soil for growing rice. 

When the image that leaps into my mind is just nasty, I breathe through it. It's memorable, so it stays. 

Some are funny. Like there are Nigerian scammers in one bookshelf which happens to be books I buy with good intentions to educate myself, then never read. It also contains the Nitrogen, like compost. 

1	China[b]	1,403,583,800	18.0%	Airballoon trying to get through doorway. Or Mr Creosote.	H ydrogen
2	India[c]	1,364,844,721	17.5%	Bookshelf	He lium
3	United States[d]	329,974,375	4.23%	Wine cupboard	Li
4	Indonesia	269,603,400	3.46%	Aquamarine Piano keys	Be
5	Pakistan[e]	220,892,331	2.83%	Window - boron deficiency in rice	B
6	Brazil	211,808,904	2.72%	Glass cupboard	C
7	Nigeria	206,139,587	2.64%	Aspirational bookshelf	Ni trogen
8	Bangladesh	168,973,902	2.17%	Under back stairs, lack Oxygen	O xygen
9	Russia[f]	146,748,590	1.88%	Big bookshelf	F lourine
10	Mexico	127,792,286	1.64%	Chimney	Ne on
11	Japan	125,930,000	1.61%	curtain MSG noodles soup	Na
12	Philippines	108,908,199	1.40%	craft closet, fiery	Mg
13	Egypt	100,632,467	1.29%	nail gun and glue gun and memory books	Alum
14	Ethiopia	98,665,000	1.26%	frankincense & myrrh & sand/computers	Si
15	Vietnam	96,208,984	1.23%	delicate mountains & firebombs	Phos
16	DR Congo	89,561,404	1.15%	harry potter cupboard hellish funes	Sul
17	Iran	83,622,981	1.07%	toilet & chlorine bleach	Chlorine
18	Germany	83,166,711	1.07%	deep freeze & lack of idleness 3rd frig	Ar gon
19	Turkey	83,154,997	1.07%	on kitchen table, need bananas & smiling	Potassium
20	France[g]	67,081,000	0.860%	kitchen sink and milk products	Ca (lcium)

Next Block:

21	United Kingdom[h]	66,796,807	0.856%	shoe rack	Sc andium
22	Thailand	66,530,067	0.853%	Pile of shoes/	Ti tanium
23	Italy	60,238,522	0.772%	wall of photos	V anadium
24	South Africa	59,622,350	0.764%	sitting step	Cr Chromium
25	Tanzania[i]	57,637,628	0.739%	Window or Olly's door	Mn Manganese
26	Myanmar	54,817,919	0.703%		Iron
27	South Korea	51,780,579	0.664%		Cobalt
28	Colombia	50,372,424	0.646%		Nickel
29	Kenya	47,564,296	0.610%		Copper
30	Spain	47,329,981	0.607%		Zinc
31	Argentina	45,376,763	0.582%		Gallium
32	Algeria	43,000,000	0.551%		Germanium
33	Sudan	42,675,085	0.547%		Arsenic
34	Ukraine[j]	41,806,221	0.536%		Selenium
35	Uganda	41,590,300	0.533%		Bromine
36	Iraq	40,150,200	0.515%		Krypton
37	Poland	38,379,000	0.492%		Rubidium
38	Canada	38,104,251	0.489%		Strontium
39	Morocco[k]	35,959,883	0.461%		Ytrium
40	Uzbekistan	34,302,662	0.440%		Zirconium