My weighing machine made me smile this morning, with fireworks on the screen at my feet and a ‘Happy Birthday!’ message. A small but nice start to my 70th. birthday and amongst my first thoughts: back in my university days did I think I would reach this age? And, since I have always wanted to live in the future I would try to imagine what 2026 might be like. I have a vivid imagination, as well as being something of a dreamer. Sadly I did not write these thoughts into my diary at the time, but I followed the NASA space program closely and I thought there might be a chance I would visit Mars on my 70th birthday – or thereabouts.

That space program was prematurely shut down, so space stations between Earth and Moon never happened and moonbase was never built. The idea at the time was that spacecraft would be assembled and launched in space, with none of the fuel needed to escape Earth’s gravity, making a trip to Mars viable. It was also known that one nation alone would not be able to do it: plans existed for two spacecraft, one American and the other Soviet, to travel to Mars simultaneously, able to support each other should something go wrong. These ideas filled my hopes and dreams as a teenager.

So, in one sense at least, the future I envisaged back then did not come to pass, although perhaps it will in the second half of the 21st. century. I shall not be here and I am gutted. But at least Apple TV has come to the rescue – up to a point – with the storyline of For All Mankind. The downside of that TV series, which is now reflected in reality, is the involvement of private companies and billionaires, out to colonise, strip-mine, exploit and become even wealthier than they already are. Whatever happened to human endeavour and ingenuity, the spirit of wonder and exploration, the thirst for discovery and knowledge, the advancement of science and our understanding of how the universe works?

But, back here on Earth I have a birthday to enjoy, quietly and slowly in the Saracens pub, and I am rather looking forward to it.