"Back Home...."

"....they'll be thinking about us, in every game we play...." (1970 England World Cup Squad record, if you hadn't worked that one out...)

 

I was back in the UK last week...fresh air, a decent cup of tea, family, friends, a comfy bed, dog vomit (en mass) and vet bills totalling over 300 quid...nothing has changed (thank goodness)

 

We went to the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, which was fab. Don't think "sounds boring" because it wasn't / isn't and saying that means you're an ignorant, ungrateful cretin who should be dragged there by the scruff of your neck by Nazis & nasty soldiers and terrorists from around the world so you get an idea of what sacrifices have been made so that you can have such freedom of speech (and thought) - even me to type this now (albeit looking over my shoulder in China!!)

 

Visually it was spectacular - not just the life-size aircraft & tanks etc, but a single pair of glasses or pathetic cap from the concentration camps....a doorway made from suitcases....or a giant chunk of twisted girder from the remains of the twin towers - war has more faces than we think : don't just think of Hitler and entire Nations fighting with a cost of millions of lives - a bomb in a bin (or a plane flying into a building) is an act of war on a smaller scale and reflects exactly the same attitude and objective....

 

There are fab audio/visual presentations throughout the day - the lights dim in the main hall and massive projections on the walls and surround sound tell different 'stories' and reflect various aspects of war - the history, the loss...

 

It's a sobering yet strangely uplifting experience.

 

Everyone should go.