Total Eclipse
14 August
So, the big event of the week was the total eclipse of the Net. Every single news site and all the special extra sites were jammed to overloading as people crowded in to catch an off position glimpse of Totality.
Back on Planet Earth, things were a little more restrained. My parents, up on Merseyside, thought it was a little over-rated. Nothing much happened for them at something like 90% coverage. Roland, in a similar geographical location, again reported little to get excited about apart from a drop in temperature.
Here in London, at 97%, there was a little more to notice. It did get noticeably darker as well as colder - as though it were suddenly nine in the evening. Linda took some video footage of Mary in the darkening. This will, no doubt, come back to haunt her in later years like the photographs every parent takes of their child in the bath.
In Central London, we had fun with pin hole cameras up until about 11am and then, right on cue, the clouds rolled in so the final stages of coverage were mostly obscured from view. It did get noticeably darker. It did get noticeably colder. There was an eerie silence. Right at the moment of maximum coverage, some seagulls got terribly excited and squawked their way overhead. Otherwise, it was good for being a social event.
Elsewhere, our correspondent on the spot, one Colin from Lowestoft, sent us this report...
The trip down South was worth it. Although cloud did obscure the sun for most of the time, there were sufficient breaks in it to see everything right up to Totality.
We all sat on the banks of a bay just round from Torbay; Meadford, I think. The best bit was seeing the shadow come flooding over the other parts of the bay before enveloping us. It went totally dark before your eyes, then it got light and that was that. :-)
The hotel was nice. I would recommend it if you want a few days on the coast. The gay guys that run it are very friendly and the rates are good.
What a lot of totty!!! There were bits of male strumpet all over the place. Most straight, I would imagine, but still pleasing on the eye. :-)
It took 7.5 hours to get there but it wasn't as bad as it sounds. The M5, M4 and M25 were just slow moving with the weight of traffic.
Now for someone who prides themselves on their no-nonsense attitude to life, with
a dash of "I'm just an uncultured heathen" thrown in for good measure, I'd call
that almost poetic in its succinct encapsulation of the moment. Perhaps something
of me has rubbed off onto him. Hem!!
Mind you, why he would want to go all of that way in order to watch Patrick Moore get in the way of the sun, I do not know.
A few other things happened this week. Had an evening meal with a colleague, Chris, and his partner, Gavin, which was very pleasant. Linda had her birthday. Jonathan, the chunky hunk at work, finally left. We managed a friendly hug and I resisted the temptation to cup his buttocks in a moment of valedictory madness despite fancying him rotten. And Hilary, another colleague, resigned and left. Pretty ordinary week really.