Well I'll Go to the Foot of our Stairs!

I won the contest at GUD, so I have a free magazine to look forward to.

Just for a change, life's been a bit too busy. This week, on top of the usual translating and housework, I'll be tour guiding at the Roque on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; giving free English classes for my nieces on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; holding my son's birthday party on Friday, and going on holiday on Sunday afternoon. Yes, we're off to El Hierro for six days, which is good because I feel ready for some downtime! We're going by ferry - €98 for three of us and the car - which is so much cheaper than three flights to the UK that we're going to stay in the Parador. (For those who don't know, Paradors are a chain of posh, state-run hotels in Spain.)

So next week should be really relaxing.

This week isn't. It would be easier if I didn't feel I had to give the house a really good clean to make it welcoming for the burglars.

Another Free Contest

GUD magazine are having another contest for issue 3. Since the prize is a copy of a rather good spec fic magazine, check it out at: http://www.gudmagazine.com/blog/archive/2008/7/18/issue-3-pre-launch-buzz-contest/
(One of these days they'll buy one of my stories. One day.)

Sunset on top of the world

GranTeCan (Grand Telescopio Canario / Big Canarian Telescope) at sunset.

Some six weeks ago I got permission to take sunset photos at the observatory. But one way and another, there was always something that stopped me going: I was ill, or my husband got home late, or the the air was full of Sahara dust and the sunset would be lousy. Yesterday I finally got up to the Roque at sunset. I was pretty happy with the photos I got.

I wanted to put a human being in for scale, and since I was on my own, I used the delay timer and ran into the shot.

I'm not at all fit. I'm not used to sprinting, and up at the Roque, there's only 75% of the usual oxygen.

I pulled a muscle in my rear. It hurts.

And this is NOT FUNNY!

I wonder where the week went?

I know I gave my nieces English classes on Monday and Tuesday. But that's only an hour a go - it hardly fills up the day. And I did some work on the translation - again that would account for perhaps another hour.

I know where Wednesday went. One of my friends in Franceses needed to go to the doctor, so I went along to translate. It's just over an hour's drive to get there, and of course we had to wait quite a while. So we stayed for lunch, and they we went for a swim at the Fajana, where they have salt-water swimming pools. It was very nice.

And on Thursday I was guiding up at the Roque again.

So I suppose it's only two days that vanished. But I'd love to get them back!

The Battle of Lepanto

Sunday was busy.

I left home with my son at 10 am to go to Puntagorda, so he could have a go on the Karts. Sadly, it turned out to be a demonstration of Karts, and he couldn't have a go himself. So I took one very disappointed kid off to lunch at my friend's house on the edge of the village.

It was a nice lunch, with better company.

We popped into Puntagorda's farmer's market, right at the last minute. I only just had time to grab some freshly squeezed sugar-cane juice and a bottle of wine before the place shut, which was a pity, because it's a great place for veg.

Then we drove to our friends in Franceses, where my son got a brief video game fix, before the four of us headed off to see the Battle of Lepanto in Barlovento. By the tie that had finished, we were tired and hungry, so we had a quick plate of soup in the local restaurant and went home.

Stop the World, I Wanna Get Off!

I was looking forward to a relaxing summer, but I seem to have been rushed off my feet the whole time. There's the blog about La Palma, of course, and tour guiding, and helping my nieces practise English, and the current translation, and trying to photograph the fiestas, and the website for Ruido fanzine. Not to mention the housework and paying my son some attention now and then!

I got really stressed this afternoon, so I went out for a walk along Cancajos sea front, and then the beach.

Sand between my toes was just what I needed.

And on the way back to the car, I saw a charter flight leaving the island. In my usual mature way, I thought, "Nyer, nyer, na nyer, nyer."

OK, so I'm overloaded and rather stressed, and I've hardly written fiction for months, but at least I live on La Palma.

A new story at last

For months now, I've scarcely touched fiction. I've done lots of blogging and translation, and just a smidgen of fiction editing, but no new fiction.

Last night I found a website that was asking for 6 word stories. Before I knew it, I'd written one of my own.

But by then it was late, and I couldn't face the rigmarole of registering at the site in order to post the story. So here it is:

(Drum roll please.)

He said goodbye. My life began.

(Did I say it was a good story? Nope, just a finished one.)