Prepare for Re-entry...

Drawing rockets, spacemen and all that sort of stuff is always fun, so it was nice last week to get some copy from The Guardian comparing returning to work after a holiday to re-entry from space.

I have to admit to always having a geeky interest in space and space travel.  Had things have been different, I think I would have quiet fancied being a space explorer (or RocketGirl if I had my way).   But I'm a realist and earlier this year on my 30th birthday, I finally had to accept the cold hard fact that I was never going to be an astronaut and that I was probably never going get that call from NASA.

As a kid I always wanted to go to Space Camp... in fact, if there was an adult version, I'd probably still want to.  Sadly, as a child in Scotland spending the summer pretending to be an actual astronaut  just wasn't an option.   My parents were never going to send me abroad alone, at least not until I was 18 when my dear mum rather recklessly allowed me to go live and study in Boston, but thats another story altogether.  So instead of Space camp, I had to settle for Brownie Camp - A less exciting version which involved sleeping in a bunkhouse an adventurous 30 mins drive from my own home. 

I always thought that girl guiding was about making knots and camp fires, but this rather streetwise version had none of that.  Urban highlights of  Glasgow Brownie Camp included a trip to the airport where you got to sit inside an actual British Airways airplane - albeit while it sat on the tarmac - and later a trip on the Glasgow Underground which involved sitting in the drivers box and pressing a few buttons.  This was the 80s and I suppose in light of recent terrorist events either of these activities would be deemed plain crazy.

Anyways, perhaps one of those life changing jobs may come my way and I could reserve a seat with Virgin Galactic - a snip at $200,000 - and maybe one day be a space tourist.  I'm keeping it bookmarked.  In the meantime, I'll just have to settle for drawing spacemen...