Discumknockerated

Wow what a week!

I worked as a tour guide on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

I spent most of Wednesday morning on paperwork for a friend's car (the car was taken off the road in 2006, and they're still demanding road tax. But I finally have proof that the car's long gone.)

On Thursday evening, Friday evening to 2 am and all day Saturday (8:30 am- 7 pm) I was in a seminar about astro-tourism on La Palma.  We have these wonderful, starry skies that not many people know about - how do we work as a group to get the word out and give the tourists a good time?

It was great.  I got to meet interesting people, many of whom are interested in buying my Guide to the Observatory when it's ready, and to find out what they'd want from a Starlight Guide.  And I got to do fun things like drink the new "star quality" wine which should be on the market in time for Christmas.

But I spent most of Sunday doing very, very little.

Feeling better

I spent most of yesterday feeling really down, and feeling that I wasn't getting anywhere.  I wasn't sure whether I felt down because I STILL hadn't finished a short section of the book about the Roque after three days, or whether I wasn't finishing the section because I felt down.

Well I'd tried bashing on for three days, so today I tried something different.  I asked permission to get inside the Jacobus Kapteyn telescope to take photos - if I couldn't write, maybe I could sort out a couple of missing illustrations.

Well it took a bit of waiting about - after all THEY were doing ME the favour - but I got inside and got my photos, and I got it done before showing a group around GTC at 12.
Even better on the way down, I stopped for a walk near Pico de la Nieve, and I found this:

Now that really made me feel better.

Writing again

It's been a productive weekend.  I've been working on an ebook of my SF stories.  The stories themselves have each been published at least once, but I still had to produce things like a foreword, biography and acknowledgements, which took much longer than expected since I've never done it before.  Then there was the problem of where to put information like, "This story was first published in Jackhammer ezine in 1998".  After waltzing it around the contents page, foreword and toying with the idea of a separate page, I produced a preamble for each story.

I've sent it off to a friend for comments, but I think I might have finished.

This doesn't mean the ebook will be out this week - there's still layout to do, and I have to learn how to market it.  But my part as author is pretty much done.

Flu

Well, maybe it was the cold at Acropark, and maybe not, but I just spent a week achieving approximately nothing.

Well yes, I went and helped friends as an interpreter at the unemployment office on the morning before and the morning after the lurgy, and I sort-of kept up with laundry and minimal housework, but I didn't do any writing.  So I hope the weekend will be better.

But today I actually had some sort of social life.  As I was helping one friend at the unemployment office, we met another and had a coffee and a talk.  Wow.  And in the evening I actually went out for a quick drink with friends for about 90 minutes.

I ought to have fun more often.  I really ought to.

Acropark

There's a new adventure playground in Breña Alta called Acropark, and we finally got there today.   In spite of the mist, I loved it.  They give you a proper safety harness and show you how to use it.  You've got two clips, so you've always got at least one clipped onto the lifeline.  That meant that I felt safe using both hands for the camera.

We went on the rope walks for about an hour.  I want to get fitter and do the big circuit, 7m above the ground.

It cost a bit more than I expected, but really, they have trained staff and a large investment, so I didn't feel robbed.  And the whole thing is designed not to damage the trees.  No motors or anything.  Just fresh air and good, clean fun.

Great!