Thanks for the add! Gros bisous :-)

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Yuri and the girl with the mousy hair

Is space the final frontier? In another life I could of course ask Yuri, what a guy, eh! Makes me dream of the days when I used to get into one of these and the world was mine for about 3 minutes. What a thrill, especially when you got to the top!
I was a bit too young when Yuri Gagarin became the first person to enter space, and any way we did not have TV, but I sure did not miss the landing on the moon, AND I am so looking forward to men going to Mars. The suspense is killing me. Will it be the Chinese or the Americans? All I know is that by 2030, guys, we are there! So I really look forward to seeing a rerun of the landing on the moon, but this time on Mars. 
Plus seemingly they are using the same capsule design, for ORION, and they will be landing in the desert somewhere. I remember so well when the astronauts would lose contact with NASA once they went through the atmosphere, and then you did not know whether they made it or not, the impending sense of possible tragedy, and the relief to see them come out of the capsule alive.
Testing, testing, yes we have landing...
And then to top it all, I go to my dentist who tells me that in his lifetime (and he 40ish) we will be able to regrow teeth. A true marvel. Hurrah for the human race!

So many questions in my head... when we go to Mars, is there going to be passport controls, who is going to be in charge once there, once we get there, could we actually end up living in space rather than on planets, see we only have been settled for about 1% of our time on this Earth. Wanderers we were before, wanderers we may be once again. If we fuck up too much down here we may just not have the choice anyway. What will be the spaceports like? What will it be called a spaceport, a rocketport, a Marsport? Which kind of money will they operate on Mars....

Meanwhile I love airports, hence all these questions I guess. I love airports and plane journeys, long plane journeys in particular, because you enter in a bubble where time almost stops. Once on the plane they bring you stuff, you can watch movies you would never dream of watching in ordinary circumstances. Airports are modern-day cathedrals, by the sheer scale of them. Airports are intrinsically children of the 1960's, you wont find an "old" airport that looks old, say like Grand Central, or Gare de Lyon. I love discovering new airports. Each airport has a story to tell.

Recently I had to travel to Philadephia via Frankfurt, long story. Philadelphia airport is a rather crummy airport, BUT, they decided that the International Arrivals Hall was possibly the face of Philadelphia and by extension the face of America... so when you get into Philly, this very airy space "The American Dream", designed by Robert Fisher is there to greet you.
 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

“Declaration” is a ten-foot high artwork of illuminated glass, creatively divided into thirteen segments representing the original colonies. “This artwork,” says Fisher, "presents an image of the entire Declaration of Independence, enabling a visitor to read its phrases and understand why our country declared itself free." Rendered like parchment, the glass has the text sandblasted into its surface. Fisher chose to produce this aspect of the artwork at Franz Mayer of Munich, Germany, an internationally renowned stained glass atelier. (same souce as above).

On the other hand, land in Frankfurt, and it is your nose thats get the first whiff of this airport which reeks of cigarette! Yes you read this right cigarettes! YOU CAN SMOKE IN FRANKFURT AIRPORT, I thought for a minute that I was transported back to the 20th century.
Look at these people in that little booth, smoking their lungs away, and let me tell you it's not as if these were sufficient to contain the lovely smell of cigarettes. Ah the good old days when I was a smoker!
And in case you don't believe me (because it is quite difficult to conceive that you could be allowed smoke in an airport nowadays) here is the monorail platform that says Frankfurt (if you care to read backwards).
Frankfurt airport is a den of sin and turpitudes. The next thing is that you can also gamble there, see below. I was slightly pressed for time, otherwise I had in mind to look for the "SexZentrum"next, just to see if they have one in the airport, you for busy people who don't have time to get to town.
Vorsprung Durch Teknik, isn't it what they say?
Back home in Dublin, I had the pleasure to discover Dublin new Terminal 2. Oh wait, its not me! Anyway it is "boooootiful", but it also deserves a whole post to itself.

And to celebrate Yuri's day, and the likelihood of man/woman going to Mars, there was only one song, and one song only....

15 comments:

Pinupmania said...

Le petit avion bleu du manège, j'ai connu le même, il y a quelques décennies...
Bisous

Danièle said...

Olivier, I was so scared when the thing would lift off. Still scared of rollercoasters, j'en frémis de peur!
XXX

Alisa said...

Yay to the Cosmonautics day! Yay to Yuri Gagarin! :) you're the only person I know (aside from me) who remembered- it's nice!
And, Russians will be the first to go to Mars, if you really want to know ;P wait and see...
But 2030 is a very long time to wait... I'll be, hmm... in my 40's!!
But the re-growth of teeth sounds very promising... and useful, considering mine are all sweet.

Danièle said...

Ahahahah. I so wish you get there first! Is it on the cards? Gagarin is such a great hero of mine, and generally speaking all things Russian :-) One day I will travel there for sure
And by 2030 well I and you dont really wanna know what age I will be.

Anonymous said...

Je crois bien que I wasn't born quand Yuri a tâté du cratère lunaire...

Et j'ai jamais vraiment aimé les manèges. J'ai dû en faire 2 fois dans mon existence de pas encore 20 ans. (presque)

Et puis, l'avion, s'était réservé pour les mecs... Ouais, ouais. Discrimination au manège.

Donc, on se voit sur Mars?

Danièle said...

Jespère bien avant ma belle, car en 2030 je serai sacrément décrépite!

Deborah Lawrenson said...

I'm with you on the space programme, Daniele! Watching the moon landings on TV were some of the most exciting sights of my childhood.

What in earth are they doing, not zooming off to Mars asap?!

Kitschmoog said...

Great pots :)) Nice come back on my childhood memories! When I was young, My favorite carussell was the Capsule style like a flying saucer ! Perhaps I am a E.T. man ?

Annushka said...

Thank you, you remember such a big date, the topic of space exploration inspires people to great achievements, as you inspire me to this post, thank you !!!))

Danièle said...

@ Deborah Also although these programmes generate much competition, maybe I am naive but I tend to think that they also rally humankind around something other than dishwashers or disasters.

@ Dan, on est vraiment de la même génération :-)

@ Annushka, you guys rock, you are monsters of culture and science in Russia.

Justine of SewCountryChick said...

If we ever do go to Mars I hope they improve our airport here in Los Angeles or just build a new one entirely for space travelers. There is nothing more depressing than zooming around the world with it's bright shiny new airports like you have pictured and coming back to Los Amgeles and it's decrepit heap that passes for our airport! Well I guess the Frankfurt one comes close. How funny to have to stand in a weird little cubicle just to smoke! It's enough to make someone quit. The first time I went to Europe I was 14 and an Indian guy was smoking a cigar on the plane!

Su said...

Dani, perdona, perdona, perdona... siento no haber venido antes. No volverá a pasar, ando un poco liada y no he tenido tiempo. Pero ya estoy aquííí jjajaja. Un beso ;)

Anonymous said...

♥ Oh. Nice post.) Love your blog.)) ♥

Anonymous said...
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