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Rachel has a theory… one that I cannot discredit nor confirm to be true (for risk of revealling a male manipulation strategy)! Shhhh lads.

Last week i suggested buying two Nabaztags, one for our flat and one for the control room in Paranal.

For those preferring to stay in their burrows rather than dig deep, Nabaztags are wifi rabbits, which connect to your home wireless network and read/sing/move/flash (their lights…) to provide you with live RSS feed blogs/comments/news/weather/time/planetary readings. You can send messages to the rabbit and schedule them, so the recipient can have a morning greeting or a song played to them. Touching.

“Even better than that!”, the rabbits have ears which move! This allows them to do their daily tai-chi or to wave at you in the morning. Or the first signs of Myxomatosis.

So, given that Rachel is working away up to 10 days every month, but works in a control room with more connections than you’re average rabbit warren, you can understand why my suggestion might have been carefully considered.

Her response? “No, absolutely not. What a silly idea! FHM are right” (see title)

But i’ll let you know the result of my next suggestion to Rachel… “how about an integrated tent and mudguards for the LandRover darling?”.

A man’s world, contrived and expensive as it may be, is reassuringly comprehensible to the opposite sex when compared with with a talking rabbit. Phew.

We finally managed to escape Santiago at the weekend! Thanks to a lot of very efficient leg work by Douglas, we have negociated most of the mountain of paperwork required to drive our car here, and can now finally hit the road.

We spent the weekend at Los Molles, a village on the coast north of Santiago, accompanied by two random Aussies (whom Doug had met 4 days before) and a slightly less random Austrian. We had a great time walking, barbequeing, and we went to an olive oil plantation and learnt that warmed olive oil should smell like tomato leaves.

We also saw seals and sealions getting home by waiting for a massive wave to wash them half way up the rock and then climbing the rest of the way. Sometimes another wave would wash them back down again. The rock face was almost vertical, and they looked like giant slugs.

We were joined for the second night by our friends David and Anne, accompanied by the Landrover Club of Chile, who were great, enthusiastic, and excellent barbequers. Photos of landrovers will follow soon………….

I heard today that Cath Townsend, a faithful friend and fine flatmate from St. Andrews got engaged on her return from a 9 week nursing placement trip to Uganda!

Great news “Foxy Lady”! Hope we can speak to you soon by copper wire phone or Skype!

Sorry mate, while you’re sunning yourself on a beach in Brazil, we’ve drunk all your fine Australian beer.

But don’t worry, we’ve replaced it…with Cristal, our favourite.

Love Douglas, Gaaitzen, Ian, Matt and Mia

This knife-wielding maniac window popped up this morning as I logged into my computer.

It strikes me that this number is fairly unrealistic don’t you think? Given that the computer is off for at least 8 hours a night, this would imply virus threats are upon me 75 times per minute, or, just over one a second. Or maybe thats why my internet connection seems so slow sometimes?!

Stranger still… I haven’t activated or updated my free trial of Norton Internet Security since it came pre-packaged on my computer! So, I’ve avoided the hassle of updating my virus definition files every week and the program has remained remarkably quiet until now.

I’m sure they’re rubbing their hands with delight at my gullibility. Because I might just click yes and pay the $49 to remain protected against what must be one of the greatest threats i’ve encountered in a long time! Its the equivalent of buying house insurance for a volcano in Scotland! Maybe I should pay to avoid being disturbed for another year? Or maybe they just want to con me into feeling safe and secure while I (and the computer) sleeps soundly every night!