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…
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…
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Merry Whatever-you-celebrate to the rest. On La Palma they have really elaborate nativity scenes, often showing a whole Canarian village. This picture is from one just down the road, last year. I’m cooking turkey today for the first time in twelve years. You see in Spain the big party is Christmas Eve. So the first Christmas we were married we went to…
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 Los Llanos launch party for Ruido 4. This time they held it in the street at midday. I didn’t really have time, what with the tourist office job and the state of the house, but I went anyway.I was glad I did. We had music from local musicians, Jonny Acosta, Tomimoto and Aida, followed by a jam session. And I even found a good birthday present for…