Sick Again

Well guess what?

I have come down with another bug this one started yesterday afternoon with aches and the shivers, last night was a full blown fever. I feel a bit better today but still very achy. One the house front things still haven't moved much but we now expect to sign next week

Tasteing the Talc

Here in the Canaries for 51 weeks of the year everything is slow, sleepy and all together normal. Then Carnival hits and the place goes nuts. The biggest night of Carnival in La Palma is known as Los Indianos. This is a celebration of all the people who left La Palma to make there fortune in the new world. When they came back they were stinking rich and one thing they had was Talc which was very expensive at the time. So on Monday night people take to the streets of Santa Cruz to dance the night away, drink rum, and throw talc at each other. This generally goes on until about 4 in the morning.

So that's where I was last night. I can still taste the talc.

More pictures on my friend Sheila's page.

Feeling Better

Just a little note to say that I'm feeling a little better. Things have been going slowly here, still waiting for the house to go through. On a better note I have brought the parts for the scope mount once I have built the observatory. I have brought a EQ6 top and an adaptor plate from Epsilon Telescopes, this is part of there modular pier system.

Ah Thats Better

All

Just a quick update to say that things are a little better here. Went to the Doctor yesterday and have a tonne of pain killers and antibiotics to take each day, but I am starting to feel a little better and most of the time can at least get a good night's sleep.

On the house hunting side things are also looking up. I don't want to spoil things to much so I will just say at this point that it is good news. EDIT: OK I can now reveal things.... WE HAVE A HOUSE!! .... See here for details

Having been here in the Canaries now for 2 weeks I am starting to relax a little. It has been tough for the last week or so with looking at houses and not feeling to well for the latter part of last week. There has been a few times when I have either been very depressed about the whole thing of moving here or I have been very ratty and angry at people for not real reason.

Estoy Enferma. Tengo un infcción de mi garganta

As the title says here I am in the Canary Islands with the most stinking sore throat I have ever had. It seems to be going round the island and almost everybody here has had it. On the plus side we went to look a house yesterday that we really like, the only trouble with it apart from all the work that needs doing, is the price. The agency has it listed at 60,000€ but when we went round the place the owner said he wanted 65,000€. My big worry is that he has just upped the price because he saw to foreigners coming and thought

hmmmmm rich foreigners.....

So now I have a bit of a dilemma do I pay the 65,000€ and buy the house or try to negotiate which he didn't seem to be interested in yesterday.

An Exercise in Frustration

Well here I am in the canaries to look for a house. I have been here almost one week and how many houses have I seen.... ONE. Yep one and only one, We should have been to see some others but the estate agents haven't been back to us yet. One of the places we wanted to see we think has been sold already. The place we did see wasn't to bad but does have a few problems, See my other blog http://casa-estrellas.blogspot.com/ for details.

Today we went for a drive to go look at a few estate agents and to talk to them only to find that they are all only open from 10 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon..

Going to the Chapel

From a sad occasion to a very happy one.

Today was the day when me and my partner Helen put our relationship on a formal footing by registering our Civil Partnership. The setting was Lambeth town hall registry office in Brixton. While not the most glamorous of locations it was just right for the number of people we were inviting.

While the service was short and fairly full of legalese I was very happy to finally have some substance to the relationship. Part of the reason why we are doing it is because were are moving out to La Palma in a few months time and having the legal grounding to the relationship might make somethings easier in the long term.

I will have some photos of the event at some point but for now try these ones from one of the guests:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47422705@N00

Goodbye.....

Today was a very sad day for me.

This morning my Smart ForTwo was picked up for its return to Smart. I have had the car for 2 years now. It was sad to see the car go we have had lots of adventures and met lots of people just as crazy about the cars as I was. Some of these people have been very good friends and I shall also miss them as much as that car. My partner has prommised me that we will get another but in the canaries they may be hard to find.

Lazy Days

If only the above was true. Since I finished work on Friday I haven't had a chance to stop. I have been rushing backwards and forwards getting things ready for us to move permanently to the Canary Islands in March. This time next week we are going over to La Palma for 6 weeks house hunting. I am hoping that after the initial rush is over and we have a house purchase going through I will be able to relax and de-stress a little.

The End

Today is the end of an era.

I am leaving the telegraph after 6 years. While my time here has not always been the best I am sad to be leaving. As to what the future holds well the is a different matter. We will shortly be leaving the UK to go and live in the Canary Islands. We are going to live on the island of La Palma. You can follow our adventure on our other blog at http://casa-estrellas.blogspot.com/

Winding Down

Well, Things are starting to wind down at work now as it is my last week before I am made redundant. While I am looking forward to having the freedoms of working for myself and the challenge of going to live in another country, there is a little bit of me that is scared stiff. We at least I have managed to stay of the cigarettes.

The long and winding road

Well having not had a cigarette or worn a patch for the last week or so things are going well. There are odd occasions still when I think to myself "Oh I'll go and have a cigarette" and then I remember and feel bad for a while. But after a while the feeling passes. I fact writing this now is giving me some pangs of withdrawal.

I am also getting a little down about the fact that in 21 days time I am being made redundant. Now I know that it will enable me to fulfill the dream of going to live in the canaries, but also I will miss a lot of the people I work with here.

I am a little scared about what the future will bring, but also excited about the opportunities ahead.

Possible Future Home

So Far So Good

Well I have not had a cigarette since last Thursday night. It has not been easy the last few days, I have found the worst times to be the mornings and evenings. Saturday night was particularly bad with some minor financial worries and being up late packing boxes.

This morning I had an incident that almost made be buy some cigarettes, I was walking down to the station in the wind and the rain when my foot slipped and I twisted my ankle badly. This was very painful and I struggled to walk for about a hundred meters, While limping down the road my thoughts returned to smoking again, luckily by the time I got to the shop by the station the pain had eased and I was able to control the urge to smoke again.

Starting Again - Continued

Well I have decided that as of tomorrow I will again start to give up smoking. I know that it is not exactly the right time to be giving up smoking at present with everything that is going on. I'm going to try the patches again as they seemed to work last time.

Starting Again

As some of you may remember it started this blog a while ago when I was just starting to give up smoking. Well as I have mentioned earlier I fell off the wagon recently and have been smoking again since August. Well I am just about to start again.

Now life at the moment is still pretty stressful, my partner is still battling depression, I get made redundant in January and then we are planning to emigrate to the Canary Islands. So while now might not seem to be the ideal time I would like to be able to stop before we go off house hunting in January.

Busy Week

Well the last week has been very busy.

On Wednesday last week I discovered that both my partner an I have been made redundant.

My Partner was made rudundant from friday and I will be made redundant on the 12th January 2007.

With this and the sale of the house that went through on Friday aswell, it gives us enough money to go ahead with our plans of moving to the Canary Islands next year. But there is a big down side to all this , there is a ton of paperwork and arranging that will need to be done before we can move.

Then there is the problem of what to do with the rest of my life, I'm not sure that I wish to remain in IT, but I will probaly end updoing something to do with IT but not in a massive comercial sense.

An Admission

OK I have an admission to make. I have recently started to smoke again after nearly a year. OK there it is I've said it. Now I know it's not good for me and all that, But at the moment it gets me through.

What started me off again, well it was my partner going into hospital after episodes of self-harm and suicide attempts.

Now I do intend to stop again but it's going to take a little while until I can get there.

The Herstmonceux Science Centre Astronomy Festival 2006

The Herstmonceux Science Centre Astronomy Festival 2006

THE BIGGEST ASTRONOMY WEEKEND IN THE UK!

September 29th, 30th & 1st October

Main event days Saturday and Sunday

To include:
Friday & Saturday evening - Viewing through the historic telescopes (weather permitting), visits to the Space Geodesy Facility & radio Shack plus prize astronomy quiz on Saturday.
Saturday - 5 lectures, tours around the telescopes, visits to the Space Geodesy Facility & radio shack
Sunday - Family fun day with rocket making and launching, desk top rocket demonstrations, Storm Troopers, Pluto treasure hunt, visits to the radio shack

All this plus trade stalls, viewing through solar telescopes, over 90 hands-on science exhibits, astronomy societies, Beer tent & refreshments, an opportunity to visit the grounds of Herstmonceux castle, Raffle & much more!

Great raffle prizes and treasure hunt prizes have been donated by the sponsors

Many amateur astronomers will be camping over the weekend under the backdrop of the telescope domes at the UK?'s home of astronomy

For further information contact the Observatory Science Centre (details below) or visit our website www.the-observatory.org

Prices: camping £10 per pitch per night (max 4 people per pitch), weekend registration £30 per adult, £28 senior, £25 child (includes entry into the centre on Friday evening, Saturday day and evening, Sunday until 6pm, ticket to the gardens and grounds of Herstmonceux castle, souvenir and identification lanyard).

Alternatively turn up on the day (usual entrance fee applies) or evening (£8.50 per adult, £6.50 per child)

Herstmonceux
Hailsham
East Sussex
BN27 1RN
Tel: 01323 832731
fax: 01323 832741
email: info@the-observatory.org www.the-observatory.org
Registered Charity Number 298542

Annular Eclipse from South London

This morning was an Annular eclipse of the sun. So off we went Telescopes in hand up to the top of streatham common where we set up to record the event from the corner of the car park. After a few technical issues we managed to capature some reasonable images.

View the gallery Here

Also these images were used by www.telegraph.co.uk

The Autumn Equinox Sky Camp - Kelling Heath, Norfolk

Extract from Philips Dark Sky Map for Kelling Heath

This weekend we were in the far flung reaches of north Norfolk. Why? You may ask, The reason is we were escaping the incessant sky-glow of London with the hope of glimpsing the night sky in all it's glory. We arrived on Friday just as the rain stopped for a short while put up the tent and settled down. As it got dark we soon realised why we were there, the full Milky Way stretching across the sky, But as all so often the cloud rolled in. However when I got up in the morning around 5am to answer the call on nature I was able to view Saturn and Mars through the telescopes of those able to get up at such an early time. Saturday was much the same only the rain was even heaver. Then before you know it Sunday arrives and it's time to mop the water from the tent and pack up.