Eclipsed

(above picture courtesy of the European Space Agency)

You would have to reside on Mars not to have known that this morning, there was a total or partial solar eclipse going on, depending on which part of Northern Europe you were either (a) residing in or (b) spent wads of cash to go on holiday to sleep in a tent in the snow.  Svalbard and the Faroe Islands were seemingly the place to be; however there was to be disappointment in some parts of the UK due to cloudy skies.  

Up here in Scotland meantime, the skies darkened in more of a dusky rather than a 'totality' kind of way, despite Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" apparently trending on Twitter - she hasn't had this much attention since her Eurovision appearance! - and the whole experience turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, mainly due to the unavailability of those all-important glasses.  Despite a few enthusiastic colleagues trying to jolly us all into going outside for the big event, I decided to give it a miss this time round.  Getting in touch with my 'health and safety' side (a rarity!!) I didn't think it was worth the risk to look up at the sky!

Of course it was probably the missed opportunity of missed opportunities, as there won't be another one for another 75 years and we'll all be long gone by then. 

Meanwhile I am quite happy to keep my memories of the last solar eclipse which took place in 1999. We had only been in our new office for a few months when the big event took place.  In those more carefree times it was also easier to get your hands on the eclipse glasses, as magazines and newspapers were giving them away more readily in those days.  So I was well equipped for the eclipse on that August morning, and it didn't disappoint.  There are very few people left in my office who were there on that fateful day, and even less who remember it.  But I do, and that memory will be sufficient for me.