RIP Michael Collins, astronaut and unsung hero. The one who stayed in the rocket while the other two played golf on the moon.
You'd have thought having gone all that way the other two would have at least let him climb down the steps and write 'Michael woz ere' in the moon dust. Or was he agoraphobic? RIP anyway to someone who was brave enough to trust pioneer mechanics and go to the moon.
Of course, the two astronauts in the landing module must have had real worries that they would not be going home at all. If something had gone wrong with the launch mechanism (never tried in real conditions before) Armstrong and Aldrin would still be on the moon now, as dessicated corpses. Collins in the orbiting command module would have been forced to abandon them and return to Earth alone. Those guys really had the right stuff
RIP Eric Carle, author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I don't know who has got more pleasure out of this book, the parents or the children.
RIP Sebastian Eubank (son of Chris) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57828270 Died of a heart attack a few days ago, not quite 30 years old. Leaves a wife and one child, just a few weeks old. Very sad, but he did provide a secure financial future for them. Feel for them, and all his grieving family.
RIP Dusty Hill of ZZ Top https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58006978 Great beard. Some great tunes and '80's memories
RIP Nanci Griffith, American Blue Grass singer/songwriter. Lovely singer, I was watching a you-tube recording of her on Transatlantic Sessions earlier this week. Voice of an angel.
RIP Don Everly. One half of the greatest singing duo ever. After they had their first major hit (can't remember what it was), their manager told them he had a follow-up song ready which was just like the first. They refused, and insisted on doing something completely different, so that people would know what they were all about. A wise decision.
Seems she was a victim of pandemic fears as much as anything else. The number of people who know there is something amiss with their health, but are fearful of contacting their doctor, is now reckoned well into the millions. Maybe one in ten of us. The NHS says its open for business and that worried people should contact it, but in reality the only option for many people is to go and sit for 12 hours in their nearest A&E reception area - which (these days) could be 10 miles away from home. People who fear the worst about conditions they might have don't need much excuse to put off getting themselves examined. The lockdowns and the current state of the NHS gives them about 100 times the necessary discouragement. I'm speaking from experience. RIP Sarah Harding. I wasn't a fan, but nobody deserves to be taken with so much of their life left to live.
Absolutely right. These E-consultations could be here to stay. The hoops you have to jump through to try and see your GP, and no-one actually reads through the tortuous forms you have to fill in. It's partly Covid, partly the cuts to NHS funding under Cameron/Osborne. I don't know whether practices are making unilateral decisions about these wretched E-consults or whether it's government policy. At my own GP surgery you can't make an appointment by phone any more.