I originally came to La Palma to work at the astronomical observatory here. Almost as soon as I heard I’d got the job, my parents went to a travel agent to find out how much it would cost to visit. The girl at the desk said, “Las Palmas de Gran Canaris? Certainly Sir. I’ll just look it up for you.” “No,” explained my father. “The island of La Palma. My…
Poverty
Ever since we lived in caves, people have gazed up at the night sky and wondered where the heck it all came from. It’s one of the things that makes us different from animals. Britain has produced famous astronomers since Charles II founded the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1675. That’s why the international meridian goes through Greenwich. We’ve built wonderful telescopes ever since Isaac Newton. And now we’re going to…
GUD magazine
I got a freebie from GUD magazine. GUD stands for Greatest Uncommon Denominator, “a print/pdf magazine with two hundred pages of literary and genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles”. I love freebies – don’t we all. In this case the freebie was a story, “Baby Edward”, and it was weird. I like weird. The baby is kipt locked up in a VW Bus in the yard, but he’s growing –…
Plastic bags
I came across an interesting fact today. The average plastic bag is used for about 20 minutes, and takes 400 years to completely decompose. I have a couple of cotton tote bags that I take to the supermarket. I don’t make a religious duty out of it or anything. If I forget them, or I need a third bag, I get a plastic one. Even so, I calculate that I’m…
Lard neutral
I went to see my friend Norma for a delicious, full English breakfast. Since I had to climb up the hill, I hope I burned almost as many calories as I ate. We talked about my novel-in-progress and her CD-in-progress, and Ruido magazine. And then, as per usual, I started taking photos. There’s something about the light at her house that sets me off. That and her amazing tolerance as…
