This is a tale of the sky. Look at it, above. Just a simple shot shot as Girlahead pounded the 12th deck of SS Splendor, doing ten laps as was her wont every day before breakfast. In past years she would have run but now she walks, and meditates. One of the multitude of memories from this last Regent cruise was walking the deck, with Raylene overtaking her every third lap.
And that is the way she likes it. Look AT the sky. Not so her peer Jon Goodwin, who paid $250,000 several years ago to go UP to the sky, on Virgin Galactic. This is one of Richard Branson’s babies and the Branson branding genii have cleverly chosen a suitably-inclusive trio to rise this August. 80 year old Goodwin is going to be partnering a coloured mum and daughter.
But kudos to Jon Goodwin. Look at the guy. He represented Britain in the 1972 Olympics (the one with a shootout). His canoe did not win but this is one determined gentleman. He did win a six-day race in the Arctic Circle. He has canoed between the peaks of Annapurna, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He bought his Virgin Galactic ticket long before he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014. As he now says. ‘I was determined not to let it stand in the way of me living life to the fullest’.
On which tack, let us switch for a minute from Up to Down. We all know that tragically Titan exploded while attempting to go down to the ill-fated Titanic. It looks increasingly likely that Titan’s owners, OceanGate, cut lots of costs in the design and construction of their submersible. An unproven and untested carbon shape was considerably less expensive than a titanium alternative, for instance. Well, Girlahead’s good friend Arnie Weissmann, Editor of the highly influential Travel Weekly, was supposed to be on an earlier Titan descent. Fortunately, as it turned out, the weather was so bad he spent eight days on the mother ship and never did an under-water trip.
Girlahead prefers to look up – to the heavens.
