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It's been a while…

…and a lot of things have happened over the last month and a half.

Firstly, the biggy, I’ve moved house, and was the first time I’d moved with stuff I couldn’t fit all in my car. Not moved far though, just nearer the town centre, for a little less money with a little less space (and unfortunately a lot more noise…)

Secondly, I never finsihed my November story, but had very little time with all the moving.

Thirdly, went to amsterdam for a long weekend with Sharon was very enjoyable. Ann Frank’s house is certainly worth a trip, just be prepared to get a little emotional.

Fourthly, today I should get my results for the OU course I’ve been doing… but not had courage to look yet.

Fifth, just got a new Phone, it was the N93 I think I’ve mentioned before – got a cool Wi-fi connection on it which means I can surf the web for free in any open wi-fi access point. (But unfortunately not at home because I can’t transfer my web access as my new place has NTL and not BT, so I have no broadband access… I think I’m having withdrawel symptons!)

And there’s probably some other things I haven’t mentioned yet, but hopefully I’ll have time to write later and expand on the things I’ve mentioned above.

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Mallorca Astronomy Week

Its been quite a holiday, if I can call it that.

I spent a week in Mallorca studying astronomy and planetary science with the Open University.

Sharon kindly drove me to the airport early in the morning and I caught the plane on to Mallorca. (Actually I only just made it to the plane as I was queing through security for an hour and a quater, I actually arrived at the plane five minutes after it had flown… or at least should have…)

The flight was uneventful apart from quite a lot of stomach turning drops as we flew over the Mallorca mountians, then over an hour wait for my luggage but after that a half hour trip to “Hotel Horizonte“

Just time for a quick walk into the centre to have a look around and get some essentials (Snickers and coke…) before the first coach ride into the heart of Mallorca and towards the “domes of knowledge” (telescope domes…). The coaches follow an ever narrowing road, eventually bearly much wider than the bus itself. (And we learned days later that the coach company uses the run as a “initiation test” and actually there’s a perfectly good motorway just up the road.)

After about an hour drive into the centre of the island we arrived at the observatory, I was expecting a panarama view of the island, but even though we were pretty high up the observatory was completely surrounded by trees, a problem we encoutered as some times the telescopes had to look right through the branches. (Apparently, this was all part of planning permission, to be able to build the observatories a certain number of rare and local plants had to be planted – unfortunately plants grow and had begun to crowd over the telescopes)

Check out some of my photo’s here

#flag: “Open University”, Mallorca, SXR208, Astronomy, “Planetary Science”, links

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The Producers

So I’ve got a week off next week – looking forward to the break very much.

Just booked a couple of days in London, hotel and show. Sharon and I are off to see “The Producers”, I’ve heard its good – can’t wait to see it. Also going round the sites in London – actually staying in the centre of London not far from Big ben and House of commons – looks like a really nice hotel, hope they let us in!

Anyway, I’ll give some details next week.

#Flag: London, hotel, break, “The Producers”