How to Make your Heart Beat Faster

We went to the Science Museum in London today. Once again Apollo 12 captured the imagination.

The Museum has collections covering scientific, technological and medical change since the eighteenth century.

Apollo 12 carried the second manned crew to land on the moon. We can only wonder at the bravery and courage of the men who flew the mission. We do know that the men prepared very carefully. We know they had vast recourses as backup crew. But what did their parents feel when they heard they had passed the selection tests to become the final crew on the mission?

Surely pride must have been foremost - then worry that they would survive. Think how the hearts beats of the different parents must have risen as the time for blast off grew nearer.

The tension would be rather like how parents feel as their children enter grammar school for the first time. Think ahead. Your child will leap out of the car without a backward look. He or she will grow smaller and smaller and then finally disappear through a door. You will be left with your feelings of pride and concern. Your heartbeat will have risen. As you sit there you will try to visualise your child’s reactions to the various lessons.

Thoughts will flash through your mind. Sports equipment, pens and pencils, tissue - did you pack enough drink - little details will concern you.

As you start the car and drive off you will know, deep in your heart, that this is another big step for your child. Your child will never be the same again. What have you done? As you drive away from the school some idiot will cut you up.

You now have a car with no children. You are free. This is your chance to relieve your feelings. You can say the words that spring to your lips - without fear of a bright Year Seven child repeating them to the wrong person at the most inappropriate time. Just vent your anger. Pull a face. Shout loudly.

Think how you will be feeling as the school day comes to an end. Once again you will be sitting in the car. Once again you will feel a modicum of anxiety. This is where you know you will have an everlasting bond with the parents of the Apollo 12 Mission.