Far above the clouds

A plane travelling to somewhere. Outside, the air is around -70 ºC. Althought I´m comfortably seated looking through the window, I can feel the cold by touching the glass. When I realise that I have never experimented such a low temperature, I say to myself that it will be better to avoid it. (Today, I´m not carrying my cup and winter gloves!)

I´m getting bored, and I have to be still one more hour inside. If I could sleep, I would, so time´d get evaporated, the plane´d arrive and I would be happy. But today, a little one year girl, doesn´t want to get asleep. She is very curious, and looks at me constantly. I tried reading a newspaper, and she wanted too. I suppose that she must be some kind of genious, because althought she didn´t speak, she seemed to be reading it!

I was thinking about that, when the mother asked me to take care of her while she went to the bathroom. Ok, I said. (Without having a remote idea that a storm was near.) I picked her in my arms, but at the moment the baby realised that her mother had left, and started to cry.

She wasn´t heard by the pilot, but the rest of the passengers did. She thought that mom had vanished, and feared not to see her again.

I did my best to stop her crying. At first, I explained her that mummy wasn´t lost. Then, I rocked her. After that, improvised a song. But my efforts had no reward. She continued shouting more and more loudly. And finally, after five endless minutes, mom came back, picked her, and calmly, she said:

And the man in the rain picked up his bag of secrets, and journeyed up the mountainside, far above the clouds, and nothing was ever heard from him again, except for the sound of Tubular Bells."

Mike Oldfield - Far above the clouds.

And the little girl (and I), felt asleep.

Car Failure

Autumm arrived some days ago. Season for rains, flus and vaccines. People can get vaccinated, but not cars. And my car cought a cold! Therefore, something had been broken inside. It was kind enough to warn me, ligthing this little signal. But I didn´t know exactly what was wrong.

Well, there were other signs: It didn´t accelerate well (fastly) and it gave jerks. Neither the CO2 emissions were appropiate (as the people at the ITV told me.)

So, here is a little quiz, for those of you who would like to find out what happened to my car. An extra clue: The problem was solved by replacing only one part.

Have you thought a little about it? Let´s have a look to a little explanation:

• The engine needs mainly two things to work: Fuel and air. But the proportion between them is very important. It has to be an exact rate depending on the requirements, to achieve good fuel consumptions, low CO2 emissions and an appropiate performance.
• In modern cars, the device that informs the engine about the quantity of oxygen needed is the "oxigen sensor" or also called "lambda sond". This part was the origin of the misfunction.

I carried the car to the garage. The mechanic used a hand-held tester to figure out the problem. It told him that two different parts could be wrong. After checking the spark plugs (they were in order), he concluded that the oxygen sensor was the cause of the failure. They hadn´t the spare part there. Then, we ordered other and the next day he changed it.

Althougt it is a little gadget, it´s expensive. In my case, it lasted for about 140.000 Km without being replaced. That seems to me a good average. I hope that the new one would last for other 140.000 more!

Now, the perfomance has come back to the usual rate. Finally, I can trust on it to overtake with guarantees.

Learning how to...

... fly a traction kite.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to experiment with the kite that you see on the photo. My cousin have bought it recently, and we went to a park and tried it.

This is a four-meter drag kite. And what does this mean?

• It is called a foil kite or parafoil. Here is a good definition: "a soft kite , consisting of a number of cells running fore to aft, some or all of which are open at the front to allow air to inflate the kite." (Thanks to wikipedia TM) :)
  
• This kind of "flying element" is big. It is easily seen in the distance. There are bigger ones, but its size is enough to pull you.
• Pull you? Yes! That is its main purpose. People use them to jump, carry them (with skies, snowboards, skateboards and this type of stuff) "Due to the amount of power that these kites can generate, they can be used for a number of different activities including kitesurfing, kiteboarding on land, snowkiting, kite bugging and recreational kiting."
• It carries four lines or wires. Two of them are the main controls. The other two are the brakes.
• A great advantage is that, it hasn´t rigid stuff, so although during the fligth is a four meter long thing, it easily fits in a small bag. Moreover, the assembly and disassembly is very fast.
  

It was my first time with this kind of kite. I had "piloted" acrobatic smaller ones, but the sensations were totally different. When you begin flying it, it seems that it wants to "take you off". But once that I realised how to dominate the force (and the brakes), the fun started.

There is an angle range where it really shows the force (between 45 to 70 degrees from the horizontal) that it can develop. If you maintain it at this position for long, your arms will get tired quickly. So its better to combine it with the "top position". This is the highest point that the kite can reach, and it keeps more or less stabilized, without pulling you much.

So I learnt the basis, and I started spinning it. First to one side, then to other. At this point, I was losing the initial fear. The kite started pulling me with force, and I was carried about twenty meters from the initial point. (I have to say that we were on a grass ground, so it was as if you did some kind of grass-skying.) ;)
The wind wasn´t blowing at high speed, but I could made a couple of short jumps. I felt that it is a short bite of the sensations of flying. And I want more!

In conclusion: I had such a great time, so I´m now considering to buy my own one. Maybe this weekend. I will keep you informed... What about trying it at "El Médano"?

Full Moon

I´ve just gone to put the rubbish out, and I have realised that tonight there is a splendid moon in the sky (tomorrow it will be full).

It illuminates all around: some clouds above, the sea and the shapes of the mountains. This kind of nocturnal landscape makes me think in walking in the countryside and taking photos.
When you look at it directly, the light that arrives to you eyes comes to be almost unbearable. In contrast, it has something that deeply attracts me. Am I under a moon´s spell?

Tomorrow, I´ll have to get up early, otherwise, I would try a short walk near my house. Maybe other day.

Where am I?

Between water and earth, between ligth and darkness, in the middle of nowhere, inside the deepest blue
outside outer space...

Travelling fast, dreaming,
just woken up, singing,
Landscapes passing,
pick my camera.

Try to capture the new day, but I can´t.
I have failed one more time, and then,
I will realise that I don´t want to arrive.
I will prefer to stay in a train, watching an endless dawn.

Trip´s journal, chapter III, Finland