Another dull grey cold day. I woke up in time to listen to 'Thought for the Day', then went back to sleep for another hour. Over a late breakfast, I listened to Melvyn Bragg's 'In our time' programme exploring the complexities of the interdisciplinary scientific search for signs of life beyond earth. A branch of astronomy which has come into its own in the past twenty years with the development of huge terrestrial telescopes, and those mounted on satellites dispatched to the furthest reaches of the solar system and beyond. It's quite unlike the extra terrestrial beings portrayed in science fiction.
Sustainable life as we understand it depends on suitable conditions existing for basic chemical elements to develop into self sustaining evolving organisms. The right environmental conditions associated with the emergence of primitive life forms and their timing in the history of the universe can be expressed in a typical chemical signature that can be searched for. It's what the Mars Rover is doing, collecting rock samples and examining them in robotic mini-laboratory on board. Telescopes look for evidence pointing to the same chemical signature in different wavelengths of light. These are technological marvels some sci-fi writers dreamed of in my youth, but the reality at which we marvel today, could only happen thanks to the innovation in engineering and digital computing. It's amazing to have lived to see fiction turned into fact in so many areas of modern life through human creative imagination.
I walked to the retail park on Western Avenue to buy a Christmas gift at Halfords. I was offered a fifteen per cent discount if I subscribed to the store's promotional email list. I declined, as I could see no reason to add to the number of promotional messages I have no interest in and have to deal with. On my way back I saw three male goosanders shadowing one female up-river from Blackweir Bridge. I guess they were busy competing for her attention as the time arrives for mating.
Clare cooked lunch while I was out. When we'd eaten, I continued assembling the Christmas card mailing and then took them to the Post Office to buy stamps and post them - four destined for Switzerland, and thirty three for Britain. Cards and postage cost ninety pounds this year. The number of cards posted is half the number sent a few years ago. Next to do, our digital greeting, going out to twice the number of card recipients. But that can wait until tomorrow.
I spent the evening watching the final episode in the current series of 'Shetland', a couple of episodes of Lykkeland, and discovered an new Irish language crimmie with subtitles filmed in County Donegal that's going to be an interesting series to watch when I get around to it.
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