Majorca II

An encounter with the sea should always be mysterious, wonderful, infinite. It was in the cove beside our hotel in Majorca. Usually only a few people or none at all were there as one strode up to the demarcation between land and sea, getting that old sense of the infinite. Contemplations on the mystery of how Earth is not a water planet or a one-plate wonder like Venus. Curious that only this planet has plate tectonics that sub-ducts harmful surpluses of greenhouse gasses, prevent Venus greenhouse effect, or other substances not congenial to the well-being of Gaia.

Then there was the walk over rocks (children’s’ preferred route) or the path that led out to the headland where the entrance to Dumbledore’s or Voldemort’s cave became gradually visible – you could imagine D and Harry swimming into that stalactite hung entrance, which fed the Caves del Drac, which we later saw from the inside – quite impressive in their own right.

It’s been a rather nice time here in Mallorca for Easter. We fell into the gentle rhythm of the gigantic tourist machine here - my daughter calling them terrorists instead of tourists rang a bell when we drove through Algaida - give or take a g one could see references to dodgy stuff. Whatever. We had a great time swimming in the cold sea and hotel pool and enjoying the sumptuous breakfasts and evening meals, with nice warm weather compared to the eternal winter of Germany. Yes, it was good to get away from the old rut for a while and luxuriate in the joy of pure being. The visit to the cave was fine – the descent into the bowels of the earth for a sun et lumiere amid the stalactites. Subtle differences compared to Tenerife, the only other package holiday we were on – e.g. no giant volcano in centre. But here too the hotel was indeed family oriented, in a secluded cove far from the madding crown of the honky-tonk side of tourism.

Then the daughters had a great time and D1 made friends with another 12-yr old – we may meet up later, in the time honoured tradition of holiday friendships. It was almost synchronicities that we kept meeting up wit that other family, whose agenda matched ours to an uncanny degree – they took a horse & carriage trip, and we did. We went to C&A just as they were there – we just missed them in the cave etc.

Venus Express hooray!

Yes, I’ve become very enthused about Venus Express. I work at ESOC and some of my colleagues are controlling that wonderful spaceship. As I remarked to Shamal at lunch today, there are so many mysteries still outstanding on that sister planet. Read all about it at http://www.esa.int

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM2GQNFGLE_index_0.html

or

http://www-atm.physics.ox.ac.uk/project/virtis/home.html

Wow! So many fascinating things about it – for so long it had been neglected, lolling there ‘twixt Earth and Sol…

spring clean-out

A quick dip into blog-space and then I was backtracking back to the original Google search.
It had been an exhausting weekend with 5 wild 12yr old girls in tow at Ice-age-2… multiple car trips, restaurants… Then next day , a spring clean-out of heavy old junk for a rubbish collection. Needed to recover by some surfing. But Spring is in the air at last, so life is more bearable than under the harsh winter that stretched eternally as Earth rounded the solar corner to lean toward that celestial furnace anew.