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Monday, June 16, 2008

Well today's the day. The final countdown has begun, and any aspiring moon monkeys out there need to blast their applications off to ESA in the next few hours. They've had weeks to apply, so you wouldn't think anyone would still be entering questions into Google on the last day. Obviously you'd be wrong...

Out of this world.
About a third of my visitors are coming from outer space. In addition to the six countries mentioned on Friday, I've now had interplanetary explorers from the UK, Ireland, USA, Spain, Belgium and Norway. With this kind of support I could probably win the Eurovision Song Contest.

Nicky Keig-Shevlin's proving more popular than ever, but that's because she's just announced that she's leaving Southern FM. Possibly to become an astronaut. I may have to start a book of condolence.

As for Big Sis, she'd set herself a final deadline of 3pm yesterday, UK time, by which to submit her application. So naturally she was still working on it at six-thirty. I don't know what time that was in Australia, but she sounded pretty tired in the five e-mails, three text messages and four phone calls I received from her yesterday afternoon.

Anyhoo, the good news is that after a bit of debate and a quick visit to Dictionary.com, Sis has officially become the first European ever to use the word 'iterative' on a job application form. Which is not bad for someone who can't spell 'sentence'. And at 7pm last night I received a text message confirming that she'd finally passed the point of no return, clicked 'Submit', and was within touching distance of a rocketship ride to Mars. Personally I was on a bus at the time, on my way to the Brighton Centre, but not everyone can live with the kind of excitement I do.

Anyway, good luck Sis. I didn't realise what a star you are until I read your application. If anyone deserves to be over the moon come results day, it's you.

1 comments:

Phil said...

Dave Are you also filling-in applications for Julie Reinger?

I'm sure you'd like to see her launched into space. In a bikini.

16 June 2008, 10:57:42Big Sis
Awww.. fanks lil 'bro. Not that you're biased or anything. I did just about finish it by 3am (Aus time) which is only 2 letters away from my planned deadline. Anyway, no time to rest... gotta flight test to plan for, some scuba diving lessons tomorrow and 3 written flying exams to revise for.. But at least none of them have a 750 character limit (with or without spaces).16 June 2008, 11:33:46Big Sis
John & Colin: Tell me, when you submitted your application did you get a lil' email confirmation from ESA? I haven't had mine yet...16 June 2008, 11:55:35Dave
How is 3am (Aus time) only two letters away from 3pm (UK time)?

If you're just thinking about the difference between am and pm, there's only one letter different. If you add in the bits in parenthesis, there are another two letters. So either one or three letters different.

It's this sort of loose thinking that lead to Apollo 13.16 June 2008, 12:34:55Dave
Phil, Phil, Phil!!!! Shock news about Julie - over at my place.16 June 2008, 17:01:29Phil's Mum
Big Sis, Colin had already complained (yesterday, but on an older blog!) that he got no email confirmation when he submitted his application! I just hope there's somebody out there in space!16 June 2008, 21:53:07Phil's Mum
And, Dave, that is indeed shock news! (You can see the bridegroom's hair standing on end with the shock!)16 June 2008, 22:00:38Colin McNulty
I didn't get the confirmation email straight away, but it did arrive finally on the 17th. There's a copy on my blog.19 June 2008, 06:45:13