Following on from my last post, another nice thing about joining the choir was meeting someone that I’ve not seen for a long time. I used to know Sandra when I lived in Bannockburn – over 15 years ago – and it was really lovely to catch up with her again. While we were chatting, she said that she’d seen me on the telly a few years ago. She couldn’t remember what the programme was – and I initially couldn’t think either - but then it dawned on me; it was the news footage of Gemma returning from Space School!
Gemma had been awarded a place on the Scottish Space School programme; an incentive that took around 50 sixth year pupils to a course in NASA, Texas, for a week. She had a brilliant time and it was a fantastic once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it was made all the more exciting by the fact that they got caught up in Hurricane Ike while they were there! Fortunately for the students, the hurricane struck towards the end of their week, so the Space School programme wasn’t too disrupted, but it did mean that they were evacuated and re-located a few times and that they couldn’t fly home when they were supposed to. This was pretty trivial in comparison to the loss and devastation suffered by the people who lived and worked in the area and it was a huge life experience for all of the students and staff on the trip. They were all really well looked after and there was never any real danger of them being badly injured – but it was a pretty scary experience for them all the same. The hotel that they stayed in originally was completely wrecked by the hurricane and, consequently, was shown repeatedly by the national news programmes – which was pretty difficult for us parents back home to watch!
Sandra saw me on the telly because the news cameras were in attendance at Glasgow Airport when Gemma and the rest of the students eventually arrived back to a warm, and relieved, welcome from their parents. Gemma was the first student to be interviewed and, since I was standing beside her, they asked me a few questions too. The result: we were on the news that night and I had my 10 seconds of fame!
I hadn’t thought about it all for a while and, after speaking to Sandra, I wondered if the footage was still out there. I typed ‘Space School Hurricane Ike’ in to the YouTube search bar this morning – and there it was (and here it is if you'd like a look!) Gemma will probably kill me for posting this link, but hey-ho...it's my 10 Seconds of Fame and I'll post if I want to!
Hehe, that's fabulous! Thanks for sharing Jane! Glad Gemma had a great time in texas, and even more glad that she got home safe. So lovely that your 10 seconds of fame enabled you to catch up with a friend too :)
ReplyDeleteAhahahaha LOVE it :P xxx
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Glad you enjoyed it Nicky!
ReplyDeleteAnd glad I'm not in the bad books.....xxxx
Hi Jane that was great to see :-) it reminded me of our dramatic delay in returning from our School trip back in 77,when the bus broke down returning from a week at Ayr. Ayr - Houston ? no much difference there then ;-) The bus if you remember had a leak in its radiator and water had spewed out causing the engine to overheat.It was a beautiful day,really hot,in that respect a bit like Texas :-) We all had to wait about 3 hours on being rescued from the side of the road between Ayr and Glasgow,near a farm as I recall. The drama when we returned was chaotic, cameras press everywhere,I don't recall but was it your mum or mine that was interviewed by the noddy news about how the parents were coping with an extra 3 hours of peace and quiet :-)
ReplyDeleteI spent a few weeks in Houston back in 98 playing golf.It was a lovely place with many many great Golf courses :-)
Ahahaha - aw, that made me laugh out loud Billy (well, as loud as I could considering I've got no voice at the moment!). You're memory for detail never fails to amaze me ... though sometimes I wonder if the truth gets in the way of a good story...!
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