Sunday February 1st 2009. Launch -74 days.

 

More good news: I got a really good night’s sleep last night. Sometimes when I get really wound up it can be hard to relax, although normally when I sleep it is deeply and without interruption, like last night. Today though, a new problem has appeared: it was snowing hard when I opened the blinds and, after a while, the temperature had dropped just enough to let it settle. It is my third winter here and this has been the heaviest snow fall that I have seen here by a considerable distance. By mid-afternoon, a slight rise in temperature had converted the snow into rain, but there must be a real danger that the snow could come back during the night. For people who live at slightly higher altitude this becomes a worry as they may have difficulty getting to work tomorrow. For me, it’s a matter of deciding if the conditions are safe to cycle into work in the morning; mind you, if it’s not safe for a bicycle, will a car actually be any safer??? The most worrying part will be the effectiveness of my brakes on some steep downhill sections: the last hill down to the entrance sees me reaching velocities close to 50km/h and at that speed you don’t want to discover that you can’t stop at the bottom!

 

Today, one of my colleagues and I went shopping together. In the end, more things went into my basket than I had ever intended, including a speedometer/mile-o-meter and a bell for the bike. I also invested in a new high visibility jacket – as he did too – as there may be more maniacs around (see last Friday’s entry). Finally, with this long wet winter seemingly likely to continue for a long time yet, we both invested in a lightweight, impermeable jacket for the bicycle that had been reduced by 40% and was a real bargain. Now I am almost looking forward to cycling to work in the rain!

 

As today will be my last weekend day at home for a few weeks the afternoon got taken up with some odd jobs. And, bearing in mind that we are all facing some hard work over the next few weeks preparing for launch, I’ve just stoked-up with a spinach salad… if it works for Popeye it should work for me! Early signs are good: I’ve just beaten my personal best again for 20 minutes on the stepper… 3787 steps (despite a final sprint, I couldn’t quite break the 3800 mark).

 

The simulations start tomorrow. Let’s hope for a quiet and successful first week. If the first week goes well we can really feel optimistic that our part of the Herschel system is ready for launch.