to be gutted that the Balloon Man's re-creation of the Up trip has failed?

[Hassled]

Ok - so he wasn't going to South America. And he wasn't nearly grumpy enough. And I don't think there was an overweight cub scout in the lifeboat. But even so - it was Up!

Anyway, he's been forced to quit. What he needed (aside from the cub scout) was some evil talking dogs. And maybe a tragic love story as motivation.

I'm truly devastated.

I seem to remember a priest trying this somewhere in America only he was never seen again. Very foolhardy and definitely tempting fate.

YABU to be "truly devastated" and "gutted".

Yes he had a great spirit of adventure, though it seems quite a foolish thing to do personally, and you can be disappointed on his behalf, but devastated?? Really??

Poppadom - I wasn't being entirely serious.

Oh no! Very sad.

Gah, second time in two days I've wrongly interpreted the sentiment. Sorry OP, continue with your angst!

:o at balloon angst!

It's my own fault for not asking the real question, which is AIBU to think that the mission would have succeeded if his destination had been Paradise Falls AND if he'd had a cub scout with him?

Oh no! Yanbu.

I'm kind of glad it failed as ds1 and I were talking about it and I know he'd like to give it a go.
He's 7 and was seriously wondering how much helium he would need and how much it would cost.

Wiki tells me that a technical director on the film worked out that in order to make Carl's house fly, he would require 23 million balloons. Real balloon man only had 370. I reckon that's a clue as to why it failed.

HIBU and so are you. Helium is a finite and very precious resource. If I don't get an MRI when I need one because this irresponsible, balloon-loving jerk off used my helium allocation, I will be very mad.

Joking but not really joking.

Yanbu!

I only heard about it on the news this morning, thought it sounded great, and was looking forward to showing the pictures to ds's and following his progress.

Then it was all over before ds2 was even awake! Gutted. He definitely needed a scout.

I think Popadoms sense of humour went pop.

I had no idea whatsoever about the helium shortage, or what helium is used for other than balloons . Blimey.

< twirls moustache and laughs evilly >

Oh NO! DS absolutely loved the pic on the front of the paper today and I was looking forward to keeping him updated. Now I'm seriously sad too.

We couldn't have helium balloons at our village fete because of the helium shortage. Poxy world running out of finite supplies :0(

at BalloonSlayer.

Well! I had no idea that helium was used for anything else other than filling party balloons

You learn something new everyday on mumsnet.

Heliums balloons at fetes - particularly the sort where you deliberately release them in the hope that you find out which went furthest is also a bad idea as animals, especially marine ones such as turtles, can fatally mistake them for a tasty snack.

I guess as the 'pilot' is safe and well that means he's failed in his bid to win a Darwin Award?