I had two days of fun work with the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation. They’re making a program on Gamma Ray Bursts, but while they were here they wanted some historical stuff too. We filmed at the INT and WHT but also at an archeological site that marks the summer solstice and behind the JKT where the first British site testers mounted a telescope. As I say, it was fun. They…
I had a fun job today, helping a German company called “Bewegte Zeiten Filmproduktion” film a couple visiting the Roque. I met them in the port and we drove up together. Of course what you see on screen doesn’t just happen. The cameraman sat beside the driver and turned around to photograph the couple. That meant that the producer had to duck out of the shot. Then we got out…
I spent much of the week helping out with a peer review of La Palma’s dark skies and astrotourism, run by Interreg Europe. A group of two people from each place visits each place in turn to look at what local people are doing and to suggest improvements. My role was translating and tour guiding. It was fun, but tiring. On Tuesday the group finished up at El jardin de…
I can’t believe I never posted this. Back in April I was surprised to find a TV crew joining one of my groups at the observatory. This is the program – only n Spanish, but there’s some good footage of the big telescope and of the observatory. I’m not so sure about the redhead with the terrible accent, though. The gastronomy at the end is from Hacienda de Abajo. If…
Yesterday I left home at 8 am for the observatory. The first group was routine, including overrunning by 10 minutes so I only just had time to eat a banana before the next group. I’d just started the second group when a car pulled up and the driver said, “We’re the crew from Canary TV that the island council organised.” Excuse me, WHAT? One frantic phone call later, I did…
I’m not really over the flu, but the incoming travel agents were short of guides so I did a 3-hour excursion. On the way back it got interesting. La Palma’s roads tend to be narrow and twisty, and they’re usually widening and straightening one somewhere. Of course, while the work’s going on, the road is usually narrower than ever. In this case, we found a crane on the back of…