Today is the start of “Simplify your life” week. Great idea. But how? I suppose we could all become nudists, so I’d have less ironing to do. I did all the easy simplification years ago, like always putting the car keys down in the same place so I can find them when I want them. Actually I did the best bit simplification when I stopped worrying about being cool. It…
Today was busy. This morning I went to El Paso with my friend Helen to collect the paperwork from the technical inspection of their van, and then take it to the agency in Santa Cruz. When we got to the agency, the door was open and nobody was there. So we went for a coffee and cameback. Still nobody there. We went to the bank. I’ve had people phoning me,…
The Roque’s been in a state of some excitement lately. This is GranTeCan (Gran Telescopio Canario), the new Spanish telescope on the mountain top. The photo doesn’t really give you a sense of scale, but it’s huge, with a main mirror 10 metres (33ft) in diameter. Look for the door at the base to get an idea. On July 15th, they had the first light ceremony for it, with the…
Well, we’re home again. But I feel I haven’t stopped since we got up at 4 am to go to Manchester airport. We got home at 5pm on Thursday. Helen and Theresa, friends from Franceses had cleaned the place up, sorted out the laptop, and left some fresh food, bless them, so I didn’t have to dash out shopping. My husband went to fetch the cats, our son made a…
We’re still having a good time, and haven’t got seriously wet yet. We’ve seen rather more scenery than Julio cares for, and also been to a farm with loads of baby animals to pick up and cuddle. This morning we went to Tralee museum, which has a reconstruction of several Norman streets – complete with open sewer down the middle. Thankfully, they didn’t reconstruct the smell. Today we head off…
We spent a day admiring Conemara, then the next day we weent down past the Burran, also called the Upside-down land. From a distance it looks like bare limestone, but when you get up close you can see that it’s full of cracks, with plants growing in them – so the plants are beneath the rock – upside down, see? We found several naturally bonsai-ed trees, and an orchid. Then…