Partial Lunar eclipses are quite common. Photos like this aren’t. It was taken by Ana Garcia of AstroLaPalma.com, who offer observations (tours or private), telescope rental, the “Los Indianos” tour in Santa Cruz de La Palma and tailored astronomy travel packages.
I got a rather mysterious phone call from one of the bookshops which sells my book. The owner said that she’d sold one, and the other was stained, but I had to come and see what stained it. “It’s a surprise. And I must say, the customer’s attitude surprised me.” Obviously that roused my curiosity, and I went. My best guess was that the stain was from something like an…
It’s World Book Day, the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and Cervantes’s death. And as usual, La Palma is celebrating. There will be kiosks selling books all along the Calle Real in Santa Cruz (the main street, parallel to the sea front). I’m happy to say that a couple of them have my own book. The Cabildo (island government) will be leaving books scattered over the island for anyone to pick…
The European Space Agency have released this lovely video of the Horsehead Nebula in visible and infrared wavelengths. The Horsehead Nebula is in Orion’s Belt. It’s an area of dust and gas in space where stars are being born.
One of my friends is hugely pregnant. She also has a very cute one-year-old. Today it was almost 30 ºC, and the last day to get the paperwork done for quarterly tax returns (mandatory for all freelancers in Spain, including my friend.) And the tax office has lots and lots of steps. And her partner had to go out. In other words, she needed a little help. So we went…
So I finally got my quarterly tax declaration in. This year, for the first time, I have to pay I.G.I.C. (Canarian VAT). After about 5 hours of extra paperwork (done by me) the government has netted an extra 17€. That’s 3.40€ per hour. Does anyone think that 17€ will fix Spain’s economy?