Hanny’s Voorwerp | Official website of discoverer Hanny van Arkel

Sunday morning I woke up early at Geoff’s and so did Geoff. We had left messages on Twitter saying we’re looking forward to the picnic in Greenwich and headed for the Marks & Spencer. I love English supermarkets, even though I can’t pay with Euros. I bought strawberries – which Tom and I had missed in our rowing boat the day before – and some other nice things, before we walked up to the park. I concluded I actually recognised corners and (mostly) pubs, which is not strange considering it’s the third time we’re doing this.

‘This’ being the yearly Royal Astronomical Society picnic, which we (the amateurs from Galaxy Zoo) visited for three years now. We call ourselves the ‘party crashers’, although they make us feel very welcome on ‘their’ spot on this hill, sharing a crazy-sized bottle of champagne. Among the party-crashers was Jo and Andrew, new-to-the-family David, Els from Belgium (of course), Rona (just as lovely without her well-known banana bread) and fortunately Annie could make it again too! When Tommy finally arrived with his blanky, I stuck a strawberry on the side of my glass of champagne and gave it to him.

The last three years, I’ve explained some times that I’m not really famous, just known in places like these, and today we found out there actually are still people in Astronomy Land who have never heard of Hanny’s Voorwerp too! I was quickly asked to come over again and do a lecture, to which I said ‘yes’ of course, even though their calendar was already filled till 2013 or something. Anyway, we sat on the field chatting some more, when Geoff and Annie decided to head to ‘our’ pub – the Union – a little earlier. After all the wine was gone (of which I had no part in – really), we realised none of us left actually knew how to find the Union without our pub expert Geoff.

We followed our noses though, as they say, which often reminds me of a school class travelling – only with me being one of the students as well – and we actually did end up in the familiar street again. We found Geoff and Annie at our spot in the garden and ordered some more drinks to go with the sunshine, until we were left with four of us around dinner time. Realising this is not our record (we once stayed from 11am till 11pm), we ordered something to eat. After that, Tommy and I decided we didn’t have had enough ice cream yet and asked the menu back.

The guy who had said he felt intimidated with Tom’s 3,5-incher (even though we all concluded that’s kind of small for a telescope) advised us not to go for the dessert with the one small scoop of ice cream, as it’s – and I quote – “pathetic”. Instead this nice and funny waiter made sure we got a special coupe put together for us, with one of the best chocolate ice creams you’ve ever tasted completed with raspberries and fruity sauce. We went back to the bar especially to thank them for it, before the evening had us deciding to go to bed.

Geoff, Els, Tom and I walked to Greenwich station when Els and I sang Dutch lullabies arm-in-arm, before her hotel came our way first. I don’t know how it happens, but whenever I end up walking (especially abroad) with drunk people, I end up looking the most drunk even though I am just being silly without one sip of alcohol. We came past a commercial sign saying “YOU ARE HERE” and I suddenly found that phrase very funny. I mean, think about it, you are ALWAYS “here”, aren’t you? Anyway, the guys and I took a ride on the Mickey Mouse Train, as I gathered the DLR is frequently called as well, so I started singing “It’s a small world”, before kissing goodbye another lovely day.

The picnic view.