I met an astronaut today! It was awesome!

There are 4 institutes that are carry out (partly or entirely) astronomy research in Heidelberg and we have a joint astronomy colloquium every week in term time. The topics are very varied, as it can be on anything that falls under the astronomy/cosmology umbrella, and the speakers are usually senior people with tons of experience in their field.

This weeks colloquium was a little different. The speaker was Claude Nicollier - he was one of the first three ESA astronauts and the first ESA astronaut to be trained as a mission specialist for NASA. He did four space shuttle flights in his career, two were for tethered satellites and two were for HST service missions. It was the latter that he was talking about today: HST servicing from an astronaut's point of view. And before the colloquium, there was also another, more informal meeting where we could ask more questions. (And at which I got an autograph :) Truly hilarious, a bunch of astronomers all queuing up for autographs like most people would mob celebrities. Geeks all!)

He was fascinating. He was an excellent speaker for a start: entertaining and good at explaining things. He had some great stories! And he was really good at explaining what the experience was like. He also really genuinely loved his job (who wouldn't, that wasn't too much of a surprise) but also loved talking about it and sharing it with people who hadn't been so fortunate as to do what he has done.

Also good was that he started off life as an astronomer, so he had a really good handle on the science side of things too, and was excited about the things we were most excited about, and understood why we thought they were so awesome. And because we all have a physics background (regardless of the particular field we ended up specialising in) he could be a little bit more technical with some of his descriptions than I suspect he is usually able - just the right amount to be interesting but not so much as to be huh what. And he had lots of very pretty pictures to share.

On days like this, I love my job :)

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SHERLOCK IS BACK!

Oh god, 2012 is better than 2011 already. True fact.

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Mum and I just caught up on the Downton Abbey Christmas special....

( spoilers )

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We're opening gifts later, but I seem to already have one from my father: yes, he's given me his cold! I don't wish to sound ungrateful in the face of such generosity but... I could have done without that! But it's not too bad, plenty of lemon and ginger tea seems to be helping.

It's lovely to be back in the UK. What's especially nice this year is that my brother is here too! Last year he was in NZ, and the year before in Australia; so it's been a while since he's been around for Christmas. It's nice to be all four of us, instead of just three.

For those that celebrate: Happy Christmas to you and yours! I hope everyone has a great day. And if you don't celebrate - have an awesome sunday!

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So NASA are looking for new astronauts. I've seen the link in a bunch of places and clicked through because I was interested to know what kind of people would be qualified, never expecting it to be me. Only it turns out that I am qualified! I check all their boxes..... except for one. The one about being a US citizen. DAMNIT.

I mean, I'm pretty sure that if I were eligible and applied, I would not ultimately be accepted, because while I check their boxes, I'm sure there are plenty of people who will check them better than I do. But if it weren't for the citizenship thing, I would totally apply just because I could.

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I have a new obsession show! I was chatting with Mum on skype a couple of months ago and she asked if I was watching Downton Abbey. No, I said, tell me more. So she told me what it was about (for those who don't know it: it's a period drama set before/during/after the first world war, set in a grand house that follows the lives of those both above and below stairs) and I thought it sounded interesting and definitely like something I would like. I finally managed to get my hands on it a couple of weeks ago. Well. I watched season one in a day, which probably tells you what I thought of the show! Unfortunately my weekend was then over and I had to do that whole work thing through the week and I was busy most evenings, so I couldn't get cracking on season two straight away but I managed to squeeze in an episode or two nevertheless, watched a few more over the weekend, and finally watched the last episode tonight.

The show is AMAZING. I am totally hooked now. Only I've now reached the end of what currently exists and have no more to watch! (Perhaps I shall have to watch them again. What a shame.) Apparently a third season has been confirmed, to which I can only say OH THANK GOD FOR THAT. Because a) there needs to be more of this show in my life and b) if they left it on the cliffhanger they have with no more ever again.... heads would roll.

The whole show is beautifully put together. The writing is excellent, the sets are beautiful (and I love the house they're using for Downton Abbey), the costumes are gorgeous. The level of detail is impressive. But the cast is what really makes it. The whole cast is awesome, but Maggie Smith.... there are not words enough to describe the awesomeness of her. She is absolutely perfect. She is a Dowager Countess, she gets all the best lines and Maggie Smith does such a fantastic job with what she's given. Love love love.

( happy ramblings, some spoilers )

I am utterly in love with this show and I want more and I want more now, damnit. It is brilliant.

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So it seems that many people are saying that FPTP throws up a hung parliament every 40-50 years whereas AV and PR would gives us a hung parliament after every election. So all of the coalition negotiations that we've got going on now would happen every time.

Surely this puts a lot of pressure on the Lib Dems to Get This Right (and preferably help to form a stable coalition government). Because if all of these coalition talks go to hell and we end up with something unstable or a minority government that cannot govern effectively, then there's going to be a lot of finger-pointing along the lines of "you want us to go through this every time but you just screwed it up, how is this going to be helpful in the future". Whereas, if a degree of stability is reached and everyone plays nicely, then they can turn around and say "look, the talks weren't so bad, we all behaved like adults, and now we're working together for the good of the country, isn't this great".

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Just had a bit of a tidy up and removed friends from LJ that I am now reading on DW. If you think I've defriended in error then please tell me - it was certainly an oversight and not deliberate.

I'm continuing to use DW as my main home, but I will keep crossposting everything (not that I've been posting much of late) and comments can be left on either DW or LJ as takes your fancy.

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