Fly me to the moon

I went to a talk with Buzz Aldrin on Saturday night in London. The applause he received on entering the room was quite moving, people just love the idea of someone who's been to the moon it seems and the crowd were a mixture of all types of people but mostly wizened old men and fathers and sons.

Buzz was promoting his new book, Magnificent Desolation, which he mentioned quite a few times, but it was all in good jest or fair promotion, and I've no doubt it's a fascinating read. He's 79 and so rambled a bit on some questions, but only in a way that you could sense he was remembering details as he went, feeling them necessary to back track on to drop in and add. It only took a sentence such as 'looking at the earth from the moon is just wonderful', to suddenly make you realise quite how unique an experience he has had and why the entire auditorium was packed out.

The audience questions, submitted earlier in the day via slips of paper, were more interesting than the hosts, who asked a couple of rather banal questions, or at least, the more obvious questions, but then I suppose they had to make sure they covered the basics. His mother's maiden surname was Moon (Marion). Weird eh?

At the end of it though, when you're listening to a talk from one of 12 men who have walked on the moon, it's just enough to be in the same room of them and have them talk about some of the experiences they have been through, to keep you enraptured.