On Jan 6th the kings ride in on their camels and bring presents to baby Jesus and good Spanish children. Bad children get coal. I must have been very good; look at the boat they brought me! (Actually it’s the cruise ship, Ventura. I was the guide for an excursion). I tweeted about it, and my favourite comment came from my friend Nikki, “Those poor camels carrying that!” I also…
My Busy Week
I’m not sure what I was thinking of when I agreed to work from Monday to Friday this week. I let myself slip way behind with paperwork and now I have to catch up. Besides, I’m self employed and the new year means setting up new spreadsheets. It’s not as if any of these jobs are particularly long or difficult, just that there’s a lot of them. Also my cleaner…
Vera Rubin
Among all the more famous deaths of 2016, I want to mention Vera Rubin. She was the only person graduating with an Astronomy degree from her class in 1948. She wanted to do her PhD at Princeton, but they didn’t accept women for post grad studies at the time, so she went to Cornell. That’s where she discovered that galaxies didn’t seem to be flying straight out after the Big…
An unusual Nativity
Most churches on La Palma have nativity scenes. The custom here is to put baby Jesus in at midnight on Christmas Eve, during midnight mass. (I think this is a general Catholic custom). On Christmas Eve I was guiding an excursion from a cruise ship which included the lovely church at Las Nieves. And there was a kitten keeping the spot warm for Jesus. If I remember rightly, nativity scenes…
Merry Christmas
I hope you have a great time. I probably won’t be blogging for a few days.