A really long day; from the beach in Waikiki to George Square in Edinburgh: I

How long can long be? That was something I really wasn't thinking about by the time the longest day in my life was over. Not only because time itself is clearly relative (you would probably agree with this; even if Einstein's relativity is nothing more than a set of odd-chinese symbols which you really don't understand - or even want to), but mostly because after being awake for almost 50 hours (rest-frame!), all you want is to finally collapse in your bed and sleep. This is particularly true if those 50 hours included getting up early (after coming down from a week of telescope fun at 4 km) for a nice run along the beaches of Waikiki followed by an entire day of competitive volleyball and ended with 2 tutorials in Edinburgh.

Apparently, I take the "experimental" approach quite seriously (ok, not as seriously as Newton; at least I don't plan to stick needles into my eyes like he used to!), especially to prove that a lot of things that we take for granted are either wrong or nonsense. Yes, we are sort of "cultural" beings, and apparently mankind is addicted to routines, prescriptions and recipes, but that doesn't mean things are the way they are because they have to; it simply means they are the way they are because we do it like that. Surely things can work as well - or better - if we take a completely different approach. Further developments on these issues will probably be addressed later in 2010, exploring similar topics, from food to the way we live in society (so stay tuned if you want to know how to bake awesome cakes without any fat or eggs - or even without sugar; or if you want to find out how many calories the so-called "light" drinks really have, among many other things). For now, lets get back to the really, really (really) long day; or, rather, what happened just before that.


It was the beginning of March 2009, and my longest observing run had come to an end (9 nights in Mauna Kea). For many people, that would have been the end of a nightmare, but for me (maybe because I like the felling of being different?), it was actually just the end of another great time. Sure it was cold up there - it even rained and I got snowed on there for the first time - and more than half of the nights were lost due to weather (but hey, at least I got to take and "make" the pretty pictures shown here through a really thick cloud layer!); but being up there for 9 nights and feeling great after it was quite a nice thing to take with me. That was probably because of how peaceful and dry (humidifier: off) Mauna Kea is - perfect sleeping conditions I reckon (although the brits would say otherwise), but that is probably just a result of being Portuguese (not genes, environment!).



Of course, by the time I left Mauna Kea the sky was looking great (it didn't the night before when I was trying to get some nice data... but hey, I blame Murphy!), almost perfect blue skies, and impeccable visibility - you could see all the way down to the hawaiian-well-behaved-volcano and the smoke caused by the lava falling into the Pacific ocean and doing its daily-job of making the Big Island of Hawaii larger and larger. It was probably the first time I actually saw some nice sun shinning in Hilo (although, of course, that probably didn't last...), which made the flight to Honolulu a really pleasant journey, at least as far as the amazing views were concerned. That and the fact that I had 3 days planned in Waikiki before coming back to the giant fridge called Edinburgh, of course; and yes, the last of those days was the one that actually lasted for quite a long time, and became the longest day of my life.

(Stay tuned for the next "episode", starting with a nice run along the beach to a full afternoon of non-stop volleyball, an evening flight to New York with an entire afternoon to kill - allowing you to walk around "the city" for more than 5 hours, flying back to Edinburgh, getting your bags home, hit the gym, then go to work, where you mark more than 50 assignments, go on and teach for 2 hours, and only then get home and say "this day is no more"!).