Dear Diary,

I love movies.  I always have.

In the 1800s, if you wanted a combination of drama, music, choreography, visual design, you name it… it was to Opera you would go.  In the early 2000s, as with the 1900s, it’s still Cinema.

It’s still an extraordinarily powerful and concise way of communicating ideas and feelings.  And more than that, of exploring what it is to be human.

But I saw an interesting film not too long ago which explored what it was like to not be human.  The character doing the exploring was Alan Turing, and the film was The Imitation Game. Continue reading →

Dear Diary,

It was at a service station somewhere in the North West when I said to Hannah, “Are we going to Liverpool?”

And she said yes, that was the destination of our surprise weekend away.  And it made sense, because every once in a while I’d said “Yeah, I went to university there.  I really should go back sometime.  Did I ever mention that I seriously considered living there permanently?”

It turned out that I had.  Many times. Continue reading →

_{“Margaret Thatcher (1983)” by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo – Nationaal Archief}

Dear Diary,

My brother and I tried to explain to a throng of youngsters at band rehearsal on Monday.  But they didn’t understand!  How could they?  Sometimes I don’t understand it myself.  Sometimes I look back, and I think to myself: how could a thing like this happen?  In my lifetime?  In the UK?

Let me put things into context. Continue reading →