About five years ago we were with my sister at a cortijo in a remote part of Andalucía in southern Spain. The night sky was gin-clear and the temperature never went below 25C. Mrs Steve couldn't take the pace and had retired to bed after our night at the bar in the local village, but my sister and I (she's 14 years younger than me) got the deckchairs out flat, opened a bottle each of the local red and watched the Perseids until four in the morning. We saw many a shooting star and they were of many hues. Of course, it could be, considering the wine, that we saw twice as many as there actually were...

Good times! Though me sis and I spent the next day in fairly quiet mode...