Its been a while… no.2
Sorry we’ve not managed regular blogging recently…. its been a bit hectic.
Rachel had a 10 day shift in September followed by a conference in Germany and a visit to London for 5 days. On her return, we had a short break, resting at home, taking a day trip to nearby Los Andes and to a beautiful nature reserve just NE of Santiago called Yerba Loca (“Mad herbs”).
Then Rachel left for another shift, where she was trained on a second telescope, met the European government sponsors of ESO and got to track comets…. lots of fun!
She returned two weeks ago to the news that our Land Rover had cleared the last few bureaucratic hurdles. “Liberate the Landie” is a new game, to be released by DG productions in Chile and the UK next year.
Doug spent a few days sorting out the Chilean equivalent of an MOT, which included “Grand Theft Landie: Chile edition” (leaving it overnight with an emissions testing location), before we played “Cover a Landie in dust and dirt”, followed by “Fill a Landie with a Family” (at our Church Retreat) and finally, “Wash a Landie in the gutter” (see below).
Last week we had a visit from an astronomer friend from Edinburgh, Olivia Newton-Johnson (ok… without the Newton bit though physicists ought to appreciate that), who brought the scottish dreeeeeeeeich weather with her; it poured with rain for two days, which shocked the chileans but didn’t stop us from going out and going off-road on the poor chilean roads (aka rivers). Still, we had a great time visiting the house of Pablo Neruda, the former Chilean diplomat who later became a writer, commentator, poet and finally, a Nobel prize winner (under Allende). His house contained a fascinating collection of strange and not-so-strange artefacts from Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Chile and the sea.
So, back to the office this week for us both. The Gilmour Clan are pitching up at the end of the month for a 3 week holiday which we’re really looking forward to. We can hardly believe we’ve been here almost 11 months now! We feel like we’re finally settling down… just in time for another holiday! More details to follow on the above events…