Canadian Stargazers

I got a couple of day's work looking after some Canadian visitors to the island. (Actually they're Americans who've lived in Canada for a long time.)  Nice people. They run a hotel called Trout Point Lodge in Nova Scotia, and they're hoping to start astrotourism over there.

They were staying in a hotel I wasn't previously aware of, the Hacienda de Abajo in Tazacorte. It's gorgeous - it's a converted  16th century manor house, on an estate which used to produce sugar cane. It looks really nice, something like a National Trust property.

This made for rather long days, though.  On Saturday morning I distributed copies of my books to shops in Los Cancajos and Mazo, then in the afternoon, I drove over to Tazacorte, left my van near the hotel, and got a lift back to the airport where I met my clients.  I went around with them in their hire car for the rest of the day. We looked at one of the country cottages for rent, then went down to the astronomical viewpoint at Fuencaliente to see the sunset followed by dinner at Casa del Volcan, followed by stargazing.  I finally got to see comet PanSTARRS!

But that meant we got back to their hotel at midnight, so I didn't get home until 1 am.

I was quite glad that they didn't want an early start on the Sunday.  I got there for 9 and we had a brief look around Santa Cruz before heading up to the observatory. They were suitably impressed by GTC and the view from the Roque itself.

Then we went down the Garafía side and ate at El Bernegal.  (Yum!)  And back to Tazacorte.

They had a meeting in Santa Cruz on Monday, and in the rush on Sunday morning I hadn't shown them where it was. So I met them briefly on Monday and showed them to their meeting.

And then I had to leave rather fast because the meeting was beginning, which made for a rather rushed goodbye.

The Spanish books have arrived!

At last!

After literally missing the boat at Cadiz, 300 copies of the Spanish edition of my guide book to the observatory have arrived. Just when I'm really busy with guiding work at last.

So distributing it will be a bit of a challenge, but I'm delighted, obviously.

Car update.

The car is seriously ill and needs an engine transplant.  This is going to be slow and expensive.

Thank goodness we've got the van!  It's a bit slower, noisier and smellier, but it goes, and that's the main thing.

I'm a star of the silver screen!

Making me look glamorous

My next day's work didn't quite go to plan either.

I'd agreed to be interviewed at the Roque. I wasn't sure what they were filming, but I had a book to promote, and if I couldn't promote the book, maybe I could promote the island.  At worst, I'd get some practice in at being a media whore. So I dutifully set off with a selection of my working clothes, as ordered.

I was driving through Los Andennes (most of the way up there) when something under the bonnet went BANG!-clatter-clatter-clatter.

Of course I pulled over.

Luckily my boss was right behind me and he gave me a lift.  And I phoned my husband about the car, and he said he'd look after it if I could get a lift down with my boss.

It turned out that they were filming an advert for La Palma as a tourist destination. I could get right behind that!

I'd been expecting a team of about 4 people, but there must have been at least 12 of them. I even got professional make-up and a professional hair dresser fussing over me.  That was fun.  The only catch was the clothes.

It's always warm and sunny in the Canary Islands, at least according to the tourist board, never mind what the thermometer's actually saying at 8,000ft in March. So I wore a T shirt when the cameras were rolling, and I borrowed a jacket every time they stopped. And I answered questions and smiled and tried to look natural in spite of the cameras practically poking up my nose.

Actually it was rather fun. I'm a little too fond of being the centre of attention, really.

Two cameras and a microphone isn't intimidating, honest!

Once they'd finished filming me and my boss, we waited around and suggested other good bits to film around the Roque.  And then my boss had to be interviewed on a radio program, which meant that he had to be somewhere with mobile phone coverage, not halfway down the mountain.  So we waited for that, and he finally drove me home for about 8pm.  Which made for a long day, even though it was great fun.

Meanwhile, my husband had taken the car to a workshop and then walked home.

And before you ask, no I don't know when it'll be on the telly.  In any case, these were subcontractors working for the Canarian tourist board.  They seemed pretty pleased with my work, but in theory the tourist board might veto it and it'll never be shown at all.

Fingers crossed.

I don't like Mondays

Here's what was supposed to happen this morning:
I was going to sleep until about 8, have  a leisurely breakfast, and leave for the Roque at about 9 to show a group of students from Suffolk university around the observatory until about 4pm. I've enjoyed the group in previous years, and since it's all day the money's nice too.  Besides, this year I was rather hoping to sell them some books.

Here's what actually happened:
I woke up at 6:45 am when I heard a dull thud from my son's bedroom, followed by "Owwwwww!"

Oddly enough, I thought I'd better investigate.

The poor lad had been getting out of bed, still dozy, when the alarm clock went off and made him jump. Somehow that made him fall.  Result - one broken bedside lamp and a very sore wrist.

So I got dressed, gulped down a coffee, and took him to the emergency room. There was no queue at all, but we hit the shift change.  Anyway, the first doctor examined him, and sent him off for an X-ray.  Then we came back to the emergency room and waited for the result to come back. I thought I might just make it to the Roque anyway. Then I thought again, and called my boss, and explained the situation.  He said he'd be able to get up there in time.

So we waited for the X-ray results.  And waited and waited, and waited.

Eventually they came back, and he didn't have a fracture.  So they put on a bandage instead, and told us to keep it dry.  No biggie.

We left the hospital at 10 am, just slightly too late for me to have made it to work.  Ah well, my son's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more important.

By then, the rest of his school timetable for the day would have been two hours of English (unnecessary, because his English is better than the teacher's), PE (I don't think so!) and artistic drawing, which would have been very tricky.  So we went to the optician's instead, which we've been meaning to fit in for a month.

Again, it could have been a lot worse.