Last night I submitted a story to Escape Velocity, and this morning there was an email waiting for me, accepting it. I think this is a new record for a high-speed acceptance. And since the story features the Sardine’s Funeral in Santa Cruz de la Palma, which ends Carnival every year here, I put up a photo essay on my main web site. I feel like Father Christmas came early.
Today was the biggest lottery of the year in Spain, “the fat one”, with a first prize of 3,000,000€ and loads and loads of minor prizes. I didn’t win spit. This is probably because I didn’t buy any tickets, because I prefer to make my own luck. I also know enough about probability mathematics to know that the house always wins. My brother-in-law thinks he’s won about 250€. But then…
Today my husband got a Christmas card from the union, togather with a letter dated 10th December, 2008. As a Terry Pratchett fan I instantly concluded that Santa Cruz has bought Bloody Stupid Johnson’s postal sorting enginer from Ankh Morpork. If you haven’t a clue what I’m talking about, you need to go and read “Going Postal”. Like all of Pratchetts books, it’s hilarious.
Friends of Helen and Theresa decided to send them one big Christmas parcel instead of lots of small ones. They sent it via courier, thinking that it would be cheaper, and I agreed to do all the phone conversations. The first time the courier company phoned, it was to say that there was a charge of 50€ to clear customs. “What???” Consumer tax here is 4%, and I really didn’t…
Today was the Ruido 4 launch party for Santa Cruz. Again, I didn’t really have time, but I went – and anyway it was a lot closer to home this time.The first act had to cancel at the eleventh hour, which left my friend Norma with a mad scramble to sort out the sound equipment. She managed.And then the students from the Mareando Association did us proud.
I’m getting there. I’ve finished both jobs for the Tourist Office, and got the bills in. I caught up with critiques in time to get my own story critiqued. And the house is a whole lot less grubby, although it’s still very disorganised. I even got some Christmas cards in the post, and made a good start on updating the Ruido website. We had a weather alert yesterday, but all…