Really, really finished at last

The files for "Una ventana espectacular al universo" have been sent off to the printers. At last. They should be on sale in 10 - 14 days.

Finished at last! Sort of.

On Thursday I sent the final corrections for the Spanish edition of the observatory book off for layout, and then we celebrated.

I spent the first half of Friday morning nursing a hangover, and then I went to the water mine to collect water. It's not really worth doing economically, but it's a nice little trip. There's something very relaxing about standing around in the woods filling up 5 litre bottles.

I only got back at 2:30, and the kitchen was still in a mess, so I took my son to the village kiosk for a leisurely lunch.

And I got home to an email pointing out some errors still in the book.

Not so finished after all then.

A nice surprise

The Daily Telegraph travel section have a rather good article about La Palma, and they mention my book, right at the end.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/sunandsea/9867981/La-Palma-guide-the-forgotten-Canary-Island.html

Rainbow clouds

Last week I posted someone else's pictures of rainbow clouds on Facebook.  Today I stumbled across the pictures I took of the same effect on La Palma, coming down from the observatory in January 2012. The only thing I changed with photoshop was the size of the picture - no other tweaks, I promise.

Trusting the driver

Today I showed a group of people from a conference round the MAGIC and GTC telescopes. I left my car at the residencia and got on their bus so that I could chat to them via the microphone as we drove along, which worked very well.  Then as we left GTC I realised that a) they were probably going to the Roque and b) my car was still at the residencia, about a kilometre away.

Oh well, I thought.  The exercise will do me good.  Then I thought it would be more fun to go to the Roque, since it's stunning and I haven't been up there for a while.

As it turned out, they hadn't planned to go there, but liked the idea. After all, it's almost a sin to go up as far as GTC ( 2,300 m and 200 or more hairpin bends) without going the extra half-kilometre to the Roque itself. So up we went.

Now the bus park at the Roque is rather interesting.  The bus backs in, with a decidedly attention grabbing drop to the left and behind the bus. You can hear the punters react, every time.

I now have a new bit of patter for these occasions. "Lady's and gentlemen, I have every confidence in our driver. He's done this several hundred times before, and I know for a fact that he's planning on going home tonight because he's got a family and everything."

It worked.  I heard nervous laughter coming from the back of the bus instead of the usual gasps and small screams. I think I'll be using it again.