Calm before the BrexiTrump storms. Soyuz and Gliding.

Whilst President Trump's tweets have gradually lost their interest factor due to the almost predictable Good Guys - Bad Guys rhetoric, critical changes could be in the air this week. The accumulation of court cases and investigations is set to reach at least one litmus test in the immediate future. Will Paul Manafort, his onetime campaign chairman, be sentenced to a life in prison or will he walk free, after a case investigating apparently shady financial dealings with Ukraine politicians and fraud charges.

In the UK, senior cabinet members have been beavering away over the Summer, attempting to sweet talk a range of EU leaders into agreeing that the Prime Minister's Chequers deal is a reasonable option, especially when compared to the looming prospect of a No Deal Brexit. With the latter now having a 50:50 chance of occurring, the government has promised to release a whole range of papers this Thursday, advising how different sectors and presumably the general population should prepare for a hard Brexit, just in case.

Meanwhile the pound meanders slowly downwards against the Euro (at €1.11 today), and financially troubled Turkey becomes a desirable holiday destination as holidays there are still cheap.

As ever, life still goes on. We traveled to Peterborough on Thursday to see the Soyuz capsule that returned UK Astronaut Tim Peake home. It was displayed in the left wing of Peterborough Cathedral and drew a steady crown of the curious. The fire scarred exterior, ancient and robust wiring and cramped inner space brought home the perils of spaceflight, at a fatality rate of 1% to date.

Yesterday evening, after the rain had cleared the air, you could apparently see the reflections from London's Shard, 60 miles away up in a glider. I missed that view as I was concentrating on trying to keep the glider nose at the right trim whilst conducting straight-line flight and simple left and right turns under the watchful eyes of experienced pilots. I flew in two different two-seaters with dual controls. The first was a modern design, with the pilot sitting behind the passenger. The glide ratio was about 46:1. The second glider was a 1950s open cockpit, wooden model, the Bluebell, with a glide ratio of around 20:1. Pilot and passenger sat side by side. Even to an inexperienced passenger, the flight characteristics were very different when allowed to handle the joy stick. Despite the disconcerting element of having to wear a parachute, gliding is relatively safe, with a probability of fatality of 0.7 per 100,000 flights. This is a lot safer than driving in the UK, where the number of fatalities is about 5.1 per 100,000. The flights themselves were much safer than the drive to and from the airport!