The content of this post is an adaptation of an original text written by Guy Laliberté.

On Monday, September 28, I was up at 5:00 a.m. so I went on the Internet and read the comments readers had left me on my mission log. Then, I had the usual quiet day: breakfast at 10:00 a.m., a signing session, a tilt-table test with Max and so on.

At around 7:00 that morning, my guests attended the rollout of the Soyuz and sent me text messages on how spectacular it was. I was happy for them since the main crew couldn’t assist (but the backup team did!).

During the evening, my guests called me again while they were taking part in a typically Kazakh event. Their comments made me laugh and I rapidly caught on that the vodka was having quite an effect on them! It was great fun getting phone calls from my gang all day, describing their activities and everything they were living.

At 6:30 p.m., I spent 30 minutes with Claudia and my brother Jean in the garden. Then my 3 oldest sons and Julie Payette joined us, along with the Max’s wife, Jeff’s wife, and the kids. And guess what we ate? Delicious shashlik, of course! An army of mosquitoes attacked us once again but this time, we were well equipped with the right products… under our doctors’ strict surveillance! We had a wonderful evening, all thanks to them by the way.

At 8:30 p.m., the kids went back to their hotel with Jean, and I was allowed another 30 minutes with Claudia. What a great day this was.