Birthday eclipsed by hippies

It's my birthday today and my 61st circuit around the Sun. 

I don't share it with many famous people and some of them weren't always the best people. There's Enid Blyton, for example, who may have created Noddy and The Famous Five but whose work remains controversial. This isn't because of modern 'wokism' - even in her lifetime, it was criticised for overt racism and xenophobia. In 1966 a Guardian article criticised her newly published The Little Black Doll, in which the doll of the title, named Sambo, is only accepted by his owner once his ‘ugly black face’ is washed ‘clean’ by magic rain. Okay, so she was of her time and it's problematic to view the past through the social lenses of today. But no such excuses can be made for WWE wrestler Hulk Hogan, also born on August 11th, and whose career went down the pan after he was secretly recorded making offensive racist comments. 

However, there are other famous people who share my birthday. There's Chris Hemsworth, best known for playing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And Ian McDiarmid who plays Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars saga. Then there are singer/songwriters Joe Jackson and Jah Wobble, actress Anna Massey, comedian Isy Suttie and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. 

But for every Yin there's a Yang and August 11th is also the date on which we said goodbye to action painter and abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, comedian and actor Robin Williams and the wonderful Peter Cushing. Sigh.

Hey, but it is Independence Day in Chad. Have a great day guys and gals!

One of my more memorable birthdays took place in 1999 when I drove down to my home county of Cornwall to share it with my family and to enjoy the spectacle of a full solar eclipse. 

These happen when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. Coincidentally, our Sun is approximately 400 times bigger than our Moon and also 400 times further away, which means that they are the same size in the sky. Consequently, our planet may be unique in the universe in that our Moon covers the Sun precisely during a solar eclipse. How cool is that? They occur every 18 months or so but where you live on the ever-spinning Earth has to be facing the right way and be at the right angle to get the full effect, so it's not often we get to see one in the UK. 

However, this was one such occasion and, although everyone in Britain would see it, only viewers in Cornwall and the Scilly Isles would get to see the 100% full eclipse. So, a few family members and I headed out to Gwithian Towans near Godrevy at the appropriate time and expectantly looked out over the waters of St Ives Bay and waited ...

And then, at the appointed time - 11.11am on the 11th, bizarrely - things began to happen. The sky got suddenly darker. The birds stopped singing. The temperature seemed to to drop and even the sea looked as if it had suddenly become calmer, although that was probably my imagination. 

But then it went dark. Properly dark. We were far away from any street lighting. We could see the lights come on across the sea in St Ives and Carbis Bay. Frustratingly, the clouds obscured the spectacle for much of the time but then we got one quick 30 second glimpse of the eclipse during which I ignored all safety advice and used my big telephoto lens to snap a couple of shots.

I have no idea why all the photos I took appear to be sepia tinted but you can tell it's low light as the Godrevy lighthouse beacon became visible. 

And then, as if someone had flicked a switch, the lights came back on, the birds started singing again and the New Age travellers who had set up camp next to us began blasting out Pink Floyd's The Great Gig in the Sky on a ghetto blaster. 

We cracked open a few beers and ate our Philp's pasties while listening to Clare Torry's extraordinary vocal performance. And then one of the travellers saw my birthday cake and I experienced the rare treat of being vigorously hugged and rubbed for good luck by a gaggle of happy hippies. I smelled of patchouli oil for days afterwards. They then ran joyously down onto the beach and made some marks in the sand, some more intelligent than others.

Apparently, Mars was at its closest position to the Earth in eight years.   

On the way home I spotted these two teddies taking appropriate safety precautions.

Or watching out for 'aliuns' perhaps.
 

The eclipse was a sight to remember. And a good way to spend a birthday. 

Now bring me cake.

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P.S. There has long been an urban myth that Pink Floyd's 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon has a hidden meaning and that if you listen to it while watching the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the two experience some kind of extraordinary synchronicity. 

If you fancy trying it, check out this feature on the Goldmine website that walks you through the whole thing.

Wikipedia even has a page on the subject.

It's all coincidence of course.

But what do you think?