Under The Counter was pleased to see that astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are safely back on terra firma after their planned eight-day mission on the International Space Station got stretched out to nine months because of technical issues with their lift home.
The Auld Boy feels their pain; he once had to spend an uncomfortable six hours in Ibiza airport when a Boeing 737 burst a tyre. Technically this wasn’t the stuff of Star Trek, but he does recall a fair few rockets and space cadets rattling around the terminal.
Staving off boredom in an airport is bad enough, so UTC couldn’t begin to imagine what two adults would do to while away nine months stuck together in zero gravity. Practise some docking manoeuvres, perhaps?
Anyway, the intrepid pair has finally splashed down, successfully managing to hit the 41 million square mile expanse of the Atlantic Ocean bang on. An enthralled Under The Counter was glued to his computer screen (not literally – that’s a different story) watching as events, and eventually four huge parachutes, unfolded.
It was at this point, for some reason he couldn’t quite put a bony finger on, that the Auld Boy was overcome with an intense desire to rush out and purchase a box of Tunnock’s Tea Cakes. What’s that all about?
