Our modern world is so complex isn't it! And it's essential to keep a clear head if you possibly can - that's what Lois and I say anyway - call us crazy if you like haha!
And for nobody does "keeping a clear head" represent as much of a challenge as it does for today's NASA astronauts and other employees, with all the many complex tasks they have to perform to keep the US space programme moving forward.
Did you read about those NASA maintenance women who got "caught out" the other day, mixing up two very basic English words, "lunch" and "launch"?
HOUSTON—The international
aerospace community was shocked Monday when the experimental new Phoebus 3
Space Shuttle rocketed into space prematurely, manned only with two absent-minded,
bungling, NASA maintenance staff as pilot and crew.
As of press time, it is
believed that an error in the pre-launch foodstuffs loading procedure is to
blame. The mishap is thought to have sprung from the word “lunch” being
mistaken for the lift-off command “launch.”
“According to on-board video footage of the incident, it
appears that what we scientists call a “zany mix-up” may have occurred,” said
Dr. Heilegge Danzino, chairperson of NASA’s special investigative committee.
According to Danzino, the footage shows the two
NASA maintenance staff —names given only as Dora and Kitty —cleaning the spacecraft's bathrooms and loading and checking the ship’s mealtime
nutrient packets. Upon loading the first nutrient parcel, Dora called out to Kitty,
“Breakfast,” and received in turn the reply, “Check.” After the second parcel
was loaded, Dora said “Lunch,” at which
point the ship’s rocket boosters ignited.
In the ensuing chaos of lift-off, it is difficult to
determine exactly what is taking place. However, can Dora clearly be heard
booming out to Kitty, “I said lunch, not launch!,” leading NASA researchers to
the “zany mix-up” conclusion.
Other officials assert the mishap may have been the
result of what aeronautics experts term “wacky antics.”
Officials stress that the bungling duo is not in danger at
present. “Normally, we’d just radio up re-entry instructions to the
capsule and have the whole thing back on the ground in a few hours,” said
Corbin Bursar, a NASA flight control worker. “But due to the particularly bumbling nature of these two,
we’ve only been able to open a one-way radio channel with them, as they haven’t
been able to figure out how to turn their helmet radios on.”
What a story! And for Lois and me there's a high risk this morning of a similar mix-up that could compromise our reputation with neighbours on this new-build housing estate in Malvern, to put it mildly!
flashback to November 2022: me with our eldest daughter
Alison and granddaughter Rosalind, who've come to
"check out" the new-build home in Malvern Lois and I
had just "downsized" into
To put your mind at ease, there's only a very small risk of our being catapulted into space today, but there IS a high risk of a "clash" of visitors and possible a brace of whacky NASA-style misunderstandings today, all of which have their amusing side, it has to be said!
Joanne, a.k.a. "Footwoman" is coming at 10:15 a.m. to give us our 8-weekly feet treatment, or "featment" as we call it, and, confusingly, also at some time this morning one of Persimmon's plumbing team is due to be coming to fix the leak in the pipes under the kitchen sink in our new-build home.
the potential time-bomb of a mix-up risk
that faces Lois and me this morning
We've got to be on our toes, and remember who is who. The plumber will hopefully be instantly recognisable, with his high-viz jacket, low-hung jeans, and his "tool-belt" round his waist, while Joanne just has her little "bag of tricks", as she calls it, that she keeps her foot-tools in.
All in all, I'm confident that we'll manage to differentiate the two and not embarrass ourselves by asking the plumber for information about any hard bits of skin, or corns that we may want to "get off our chests" - not that we've got corns on our chest (I THINK!!!!) , just speaking figuratively!
And I can now exclusively reveal that all goes well today and our earlier "whacky mix-up" fears prove groundless, which is nice.
Joanne comes at 10:15 as promised and gives us lovely feet to put our bed-socks on in bed tonight, and she's even gone before the plumber comes, which makes things much more straightforward for us, to put it mildly! We are 77 you know! [Yes, yes, get on with it! - Ed]
Joanne, a.k.a. "Footwoman", sees to
Lois's feet before tackling mine
After she's gone, the Persimmon Customer Care plumber guy arrives, and he fixes our leak-problem under the sink, which is nice.
Lois's toys, her Mir Jafah (left) and the teddy bear she misguidedly
tried to submerge in bathwater when she was a toddler, look on
approvingly as two Persimmon Customer Care vans draw up outside
Our "leak" turns out to be to do with the outlet hose for our washing-machine, so it's strictly not covered by builder Persimmon's generous "new-home 2-year guarantee", but we hand over a cash payment to the plumber guy for the materials (new hose) and he gives us his labour for free, so everybody's happy apart from Persimmon, and they've got "loadsamoney" anyway, haven't they.
Be fair !!!!
flashback to Saturday: I showcase the place under the sink
where there's a leak: the picture spotlights the plastic tub we use
to collect this water, which would otherwise be wasted.
16:00 And after a late lunch and a nap, Lois and I have time today to get out of bed, have a cup of tea and work out what's going on in Hungary at the moment. Tünde, my Hungarian penfriend, tries to keep us up to date with her wonderful in-depth English-language commentaries on the volatile political situation in that country.
Lois and I have a special interest in events in Hungary and we have always tried to keep an eye on it - we speak a bit of the language and we've visited the country several times.
flashback to 1998: Lois and I stay in a self-catering
flat in central Budapest... the lovely bed.....
...the nice kitchen...
.. and the view from our bedroom
Thank goodness we've got a "royal" as our head-of-state in Britain! In most countries the head of state is a political figure, so they don't get that "above-politics style" of leadership that we're so lucky enough to enjoy over here, leadership that serves the whole people, no matter what their political views are.
Did you see that picture I posted the other day of the Hungarian president, Katalin Novák, wearing her far-right Fidesz Party earrings?
As president, Katalin has the power to pardon criminals, which is not unusual for heads of state - Queen Elizabeth issued a few pardons during her reign, but they were pretty rare, and normally given posthumously in order to right uncontroversial historical wrongs, and punishments widely perceived as being inhumane by current standards.
For example there was the posthumous pardon for Alan Turing, the code-breaker who was prosecuted and chemically castrated in 1952 for having a same-sex relationship, something which hasn't even been a crime for over 50 years.
Presidential pardons under Hungarian law may be quite numerous, but we don't know for sure because they don't even have to be made public, which seems astonishing. They often leak out of course.
And surprise surprise, the recipients of President Katalin's pardons usually turn out to be members of, or supporters of, the far-right governing Fidesz party: like György Budaházy who was pardoned last year, a Fidesz party-member who threw Molotov cocktails into government ministers' houses when Fidesz were in opposition.
convicted terrorist and Fidesz party supporter György Budaházy,
leaving jail on horseback after a pardon from the President
The President's latest pardon - for a Fidesz supporter who tried to cover up a paedophile scandal at a Hungarian children's home - leaked out, of course, and she's had to resign. Pardoning a paedophile was okay when it was secret, apparently, but after it became public, it's been judged to sit awkwardly with the Government's stern moral stand against sexual deviancy.
Even now, many Hungarians are unaware of the news, Tünde writes, because the press and media are largely in Fidesz hands.
A journalist from the independent news website telex.hu sent a journalist to interview members of the public in a Hungarian village, asking the question, "Have you heard that the President has resigned?", and found that many were completely unaware, or only vaguely aware. Some merely responded, "I don't know, but there's always some trouble or other going on with the gays!" ["Nem tudom, de mindig van valami baj a buzikkal!"] or "It's only the left-wing blowing a story up again!" [Ezt csak a baloldal fújta fel!"]
President Katalin Novák, making her resignation speech
And don't worry about Katalin, now that she's lost her presidential position, Tünde says. She'll be okay, it seems.
Katalin is still only 46 and she'll keep her presidential salary of 5.25 million forints a month (£11,350), for life, without doing any work. Like all Hungarian Fidesz government bigwigs she's amassed a huge private fortune since coming into office, including 8 houses in 3 different cities. On resigning, she'll also get a new mansion plus car, chauffeur, meals, top-rated heath services and first class airline tickets if she wants to take a holiday.
Lois and I feel incredibly sorry for the Hungarians, even if many of them wouldn't want us to! I always think back to the very first time I visited Hungary, in the 1990's, when communism was crumbling, and the Fidesz Party at that time was the "great white hope" for democracy in the country.
And I so vividly remember standing in front of one of the party's posters, so that my friend "Magyar" Mike could take a picture of me showcasing this wonderful blossoming of freedom, then happening so incredibly in Hungary, a country that had suffered so much since the Russians had so brutally suppressed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
flashback to 1994 and my first visit to Hungary, made as communism was dying on its feet.
The lively advert on the left was a cheeky poster promoting the Fidesz Party.
with the slogan "Ha unod a banánt, válaszd a narancsot" (if you're tired of bananas,
why not try an orange!): orange being, even today, the symbol of Fidesz,
and the joke being a typical example of Hungarian women's prison humour.
Finally, after 30 years, why don't you "let your people go", Fidesz Party!!!!
flashback to March 15th 1994: my friend Magyar Mike and I
mingle with the joyful crowds celebrating Hungary's National Day
in a square in the middle of the provincial city of Pécs.
20:00 Lois and I, by now fired up by the plight of Hungarians, decide, unusually, to watch a Panorama special tonight on BBC1, a programme asking the question "Trump: the Sequel?"
Just as Lois and I can't understand why the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is so popular with most Hungarians, we can't understand, either, why Donald Trump is so popular with so many Americans. Both Orbán and Trump seem to have FLAT ZERO (Trump-style capitals) when it comes to plus-points, and lots, REALLY LOTS - like - a billion or
more lots
, even! - minus points.
It's obviously us that must be wrong, as I tell Lois. But what madness !!!!
Lois and me, wrong yet again, as per usual !!!!
I guess that in a lot of countries a lot of ordinary people are routinely angry day and night, thinking that other people are doing very nicely, thank you, at their expense, and this is what politicians like Trump and Orbán have set out to exploit. And all these very angry voters just don't seem to have noticed that the people making the really big money are their own, their very own, highly esteemed "leaders", Trump, Orbán, you name them!
Luckily tonight's Panorama Special, which is very fair and shows all viewpoints in the finest BBC traditions, also includes a few voices that Lois and I can agree with, which is nice!
The BBC's Justin Webb attends a campaign event in Iowa for Nikki Haley, Trump's main rival for the Republican Party nomination. Lois and I observe that Haley is careful not to criticise Trump's policies or presidential record in front of Iowa Republicans. She just contents herself with pointing out that he is always "surrounded by chaos", which is probably the best tactic.
And BBC reporter Justin Webb concludes his report with a glowing description of the informality with which this Nikki Haley campaign event is being staged.
And Trump's legal difficulties - all the felonies etc he's been charged, don't seem to be hurting him. Quite the opposite because his supporters see him as a martyr, and just send him more and more of their hard-earned money.
He has told his supporters, "In the end, they're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and I'm just standing in their way. Here I am, standing in their way, and I always will be."
Tonight the BBC's Marianna Spring interviews David Becker, author of "The Big Truth".
"....no precedent in American history..."
Enough said!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!
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