Tuesday, June 05, 2012
A lucky bus and the Transit of Venus
As luck would have it, there is no bus at 6.30am from Coatepec to Mexico City. I thought they ran daily at that time, but only Saturdays and Mondays it transpires.
So I booked myself onto the bus that leaves at half past midnight and got everything finished up here in time to have a bit of an evening rest before the bus ride.
I logged onto an Australian online newspaper to check how the transit of Venus was going and they had a live stream of the event -- an event which, as one New Zealand wag put it, is like watching paint dry.
I watched it for 4 and a half hours, and it has just completed. Seeing the last little edge of Venus disappearing and thinking "that won't come around again for another 117 years" was pretty special. Having watched paint dry earlier in the day I was well primed for watching the Venus marathon.
I'm so glad I saw it. Meanwhile, there is a bus to catch and I am right up against the time. But I would not have missed that transit for anything. In this case it takes a transit to catch a transit.
So I booked myself onto the bus that leaves at half past midnight and got everything finished up here in time to have a bit of an evening rest before the bus ride.
I logged onto an Australian online newspaper to check how the transit of Venus was going and they had a live stream of the event -- an event which, as one New Zealand wag put it, is like watching paint dry.
I watched it for 4 and a half hours, and it has just completed. Seeing the last little edge of Venus disappearing and thinking "that won't come around again for another 117 years" was pretty special. Having watched paint dry earlier in the day I was well primed for watching the Venus marathon.
I'm so glad I saw it. Meanwhile, there is a bus to catch and I am right up against the time. But I would not have missed that transit for anything. In this case it takes a transit to catch a transit.
