Club thrilled by Space Race
For our September meeting we had originally scheduled a talk from Adie Hess on the mysterious bohemian aristocrat Luisa Casati, but sadly Adie had to go to a funeral so her talk has been postponed until January. But we were very lucky that "Chuckles" Younghusband was able to step in at short notice and deliver a rousing address on Yuri Gagarin and the voyage of Vostok 1. Famous as the first man in space, Yuri was from humble origins and worked initially as a foundryman before deciding to join the Soviet air force. After his successful orbit of the earth (and intact return to it) he began an endless round of parades and publicity tours, and in fact never made it back into space, though any suggestion that he was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time is unfair: Chuckles read us a report from a superior outlining all of Yuri's qualities suiting him to the task, from mental acuity, sound judgement, calm under duress and philosophical maturity. Mind you, he wasn't immune to the perks of celebrity: Chuckles pointed out that photos taken after a certain point show a scar on his head, which was acquired when Yuri was caught by his wife in a hotel room with a groupie, and his response was to jump out of the window. Many thanks to Chuckles for a fascinating talk. You can see a video of it at https://youtu.be/KKT_f08-La8, and you can see more photos in this album on Flickr.
The meeting took place during an unseasonal September heatwave. As you can see, some members rather let the side down sartorially…
