Selfish

Today at the eleventh hour no one in my office that I could see stopped to mark the armistice.

What can you say about this?

Wall to wall

It was twenty years ago today (sounds like the opening to a song) that the Berlin Wall fell and a new post Communist world arrived. I remember recently discussing this with my brother. For use eastern Europe still has this fascinating 'otherness' about it. We were, I believe, the last cold war kids.

As young children the world then was black and white without shades of grey. We were the 'goodies', they were the 'baddies'. They were Eastern, we were Western. When my brother and I fly into Poland they is still that feeling of crossing an imaginary, but once very deadly line.

Now we are all European, I suppose (not in the political sense, but cultural at least). I'm sure our children's children will find the whole thing as utterly mad and our views and outlook quaint at best.

Meanwhile, I'm currently obsessed with the immediate pre-Beatles world of early 60s music. While full of dross, there are some musical gems that can still amaze, particularly some of the work by Joe Meek. For those who don't know who he is, Meek wrote and created the weird, but ahead-of-its-time tune called Telstar.

I love the suits of this period, really sharp. I'm too much of messy person to wear them, but I would if I could.

I really, really recommend the film Telstar, which while a little rough and ready, really conveys the feeling and originality of the era.

Ticking along

Our thank-you cards have finally arrived and we will be busy sending them out over the next few days. It would have been faster were it not for the Royal Mail strike, which has left the London postal system in a complete state.

We had a picture party on Saturday and celebrated the glorious tradition of Canadian thanksgiving, which is (don't say this too loudly in case my wife hears) a sort of glorified Harvest Festival. Do you even remember Harvest Festival in England. When was that last celebrated - 1856!

Meanwhile, I forgot to report that my article on the Polish paratroopers at Arnhem is out in this month's Military Illustrated. I'm really happy with the results and hope the people who helped me will get their copies of the magazine shortly. I must head up to Kingston to get some extra copies.

Hopefully I will be meeting my Polish friends next week for a name day celebration. It will be great to see them again, it feels far to long since I was last down there chatting to the old boys. I'll also have a toast to Roman.

So funny and so wrong