Happy St. Patrick's Day

Sadly there won't be any wild live Irish music sessions this St. Patricks Day in La Gomera and in Ireland.   Hope the above image I took in Ireland some time ago will cheer you up.  CHEERS... and don't stop having a laugh.

Novel solution to lack of tourists due to coronavirus

The recent panic pandemic aka pandemic panic caused by the coronavirus has led to the cancellation of nearly all flights to and from the Canary Islands and holiday makers are scarcer than gold dust in La Gomera. While some little relaxation of the lockdown is now granted, the usual stream of tourists and visitors is unlikely to return in the foreseeable future. 

As you can see in the above image, some ingenious or stone mad Gomeran artist, depending on your point of view, has come up with a novel idea to re-populate the deserted beaches with tourists by creating them from pebbles and rocks. Above sunbathers were modelled on the 'German nudist roasting in the sun for hours to achieve a complete dark tan' type of tourist, formerly always seen at Valle Gran Rey's Playa del Ingles.

...and no, this is not a belated April fool's post. I came across the above image on  a German La Gomera - Valle Gran Rey facebook page .

Season's greetings to all

Strangest of rituals must be practised tonight

The 'clock ritual' is the most widely-practised ceremonial procedure in many countries and also an integral if uncanny part of the Halloween season. Here's how it's done properly:

Well, the recommended procedure is to put all your clocks and watches UPSIDE DOWN in the very early hours of this Sunday morning - so don't forget to set your alarm clock to ring at 2 am, by when it will spookily be 1 am again, to do this. To avoid any complications and repercussions make sure you don't leave any clock unturned before you go back to bed after hours of searching and upturning in the dark. Most importantly, don't even think about getting up at all during Sunday, and don't check the time, to avoid disorientation and confusion. Then, after Sunday's bedrest, from Monday on keep asking people ''What time is it now'' as if nothing had happened, and keep doing that for about a week just to help get the discussions going amid the general confusion. Strangely many people will not know the correct time as most will have manipulated some clocks and watches around the same time as you did. But as not all know how to perform the ritual properly, some will have put their clocks and watches forward, some back, some sideways, but not all upside down. Some timepieces were forgotten in the chaos and still show the unadjusted time, some self-set a new time automatically, delicate ones will have been broken, and sun dials will have become unreliable. To make matters worse the sun itself rose only a couple of seconds later, largely ignoring the time change. After a further ten days of time-related discourse and debate chaos, a general consensus should have been arrived at and the correct new time agreed upon. Your internal clock will have adjusted a bit to things like disrupted sleep patterns, confused meal times, etc., while your digestive system is still struggling. However, surveys show that being an hour late for work repeatedly hasn't done employees any harm over the years and 'the clock' is widely accepted as an excuse by bosses.

After about 2-3 weeks the time has come to turn your clocks and watches back the right way up and set the new time - if they're still running that is. Should they have stopped you can just leave them upside down until the end of March next year. If turned back the right way at the right time then, the stopped clocks will miraculously show the correct time for about a minute TWICE every day until this time next year (or just once per day if it's a 24 hour system - still not bad, though). 

All the above constitutes a truly WEIRD ritual, but it is supposed to save the sun a lot of energy and a further benefit is that more time accumulates in your daylight savings account.  STOP THE CLOCK !!!

Seriously though, the EU has finally come to the conclusion to abolish the twice annual mandatory time change from summer to winter time and back again - probably in just a few years' time once all the bureaucratic procedures have been completed, of course. In a recent EU-wide survey an overwhelming majority of respondents in all member states wanted the time changes abolished. Russia has already done so, ahead of European time.

Greetings from hot and sunny Ireland

Greetings from very hot and sunny Ireland where the temperature at midday is already higher than in La Gomera and is expected to exceed 30ºC later today. Above image of a shop window display was taken in Youghal, Co. Cork, last week.

Flower power bicycle...

...spotted at Vueltas beach the other day.

Stop sign...

...seen in Valle Gran Rey

Santa's gone to the beach...

...after a busy night Santa came by bike to have rest on a  beach in La Gomera where dogs and reindeer aren't permitted

Buddha advertising global coffee brand

Spottend in La Playa, Valle Gran Rey, last night

Do not forget...

I spotted this table decoration in a bar and restaurant in the harbour of Valle Gran Rey. Hmmmm....

Job offer for the permanently female

Hermaphrodites need not apply !

I spotted the above job offer in La Playa, Valle Gran Rey, today (with many thanks for the tip-off to the man from Scotland). So, if you're of the fairer sex, have definitely made up your mind about staying female for good, and bring the necessary gender-confirming documentation you may apply to the shop named Calima (see shop sign below). And mind you, it is  called after LA Calima, the female dry, hot, dusty, blasting easterly wind.

The Canaria Dancers

I spotted these sunny 'Canaria Dancers' busking in the wind and rain in a town in the southwest of Ireland recently, and boy, can they move ! The music was Irish though and not Canarian.
They're probably collecting for a holiday in the sunny Canary Islands to recharge the batteries...

Can you spot the egg ?

There's an egg hiding in our stack of firewood.
HAPPY EASTER and happy egg hunting !

Carry a spare leg...

...and a spare wheel when you travel to La Gomera. German camper van with two unusual 'spares' spotted parked at a beach in La Gomera yesterday. But who knows,  maybe the hula hoop cut someone's leg off... ?