Exchanged

Oh happy day!

The Gang

Useless

OK - the time has come to say it - the entire system of organising the sale and purchase of residential property in the UK is well and truly broken.

Utterly useless, and a total shambles.

Now I'm really pissed off!

Mind reader

The BBC has been coming in for rather a lot of stick recently, with a DG who lasted less than two months as a combination of scandal and mistake snowballed around him.

And yet, for me, the BBC is still today what it was yesterday, and I remain confident in its ability to deliver what I expect, and to be our flagship national broadcaster, of which we can be proud all around the world.

Now, that's not to downplay in any way some of the awful things that have come to light in recent months. We've discovered that someone we thought was a national treasure was actually a despicable individual who conned and deceived us all for his entire life. Mistakes were made - obviously at the time when those terrible events took place, and also in the later investigations and reporting.

It would be nice to think that society and the world at large has changed in the last generation or so, and that it would be impossible for anyone to get away with it now. Maybe that's a naive view, but even if it is, hopefully lessons are being learnt.

Anyway, the BBC can still deliver remarkable broadcasting, and it did so tonight with Fergus Walsh's film "The Mind Reader: Unlocking My Voice" which told the story of a number of patients who have suffered brain injury, and who had been diagnosed as being in a vegetative state.

A new scanning technique has been developed to assess these patients, and for a minority of them, it is being discovered that despite all of the conclusions and diagnoses previously drawn, it is actually possible to communicate with them and for them to demonstrate consciousness and understanding of the world around them by asking them questions and gauging their responses through the patterns of their brain activity.

An awesome and inspiring story, told well. Thank you Fergus, and thank you BBC.

A summary of the story can be found here, and (presumably for a limited time only) the programme is on iplayer.

Beacon

A day in Crawley, dinner at the Beacon pub near Tunbridge Wells, and tonight at Myhotel.

A walk in the woods

Walking the dog in the Autumn sunshine:

Nearly there

I think it gets a mention each year when first spotted (in fact, having done a little blog rummaging, here is the 2011 reference!) but those Coca Cola lorries have been seen on the TV, and this can mean only one thing.

Holidays are coming!

(In fact for some of us, the holidays come in 5 weeks and 6 days from now!)

Nothing

And so another week comes to an end, and whilst it seems to have gone by fairly quickly, we don't feel like we've moved a whole lot forward either. No exchange, no sign of a completion date.

More Pooh

Blogging from the iPad this evening, and I've finally broken my duck in terms of reading books on the iPad.

Last week, after finishing The House of Silk I decided that I should be reading some Conan Doyle. Having read some of his stories before, but once again not remembering which ones, the best thing to do is to start again at the beginning, and so I downloaded A Study in Scarlet (for free) and read Holmes' first adventure.

Then this week, having been inspired by the Piglet quote a few days ago I decided I should really read Winnie the Pooh (possibly again, possibly not - not sure) and I remembered that there was an illustrated version on my iBooks bookshelf - I think it came free with the App.

And so today, traveling up and down on the Ebbsfleet train I've been reading of the bear of very little brain.

Don't panic

So the news today has been full of the outcome of the US election. Obama is being given a second term in the White House, as the fourth out of the last five presidents to do an eight year stint (clearly the US electorate go with a "better the devil you know" strategy most of the time).

But then at the end of the news there was another small item, and one from another era, as we say goodbye to Clive Dunn.

"Don't panic!"

Pooh

We all love Winnie the Pooh. After all, if nothing else, he gives big hugs to small children.


Winnie is looking pretty good for a fairly old bear. It won't be all that long until he is celebrating his 100th birthday, and the original bear now has pride of place (along with some of his most special friends) in a museum in New York. Check out their picture here.

It's been a long and impressive journey for a bear who was born not all that far from here, in stories told by A A Milne to his son, Christopher Robin. From the Ashdown Forest, all the way to Walt Disney World!

And what is it that's making me think of Winnie today. Well, I'm sure Nicky won't mind me reporting a text she sent to me this morning, in which she admitted to getting quite down and a little tearful about the lack of progress with our house move. I was reminded of another slightly tearful moment (I think all the stress is making us both a little emotional)! It happened to me just as I arrived at work today, when I heard a quote from Winnie the Pooh on the radio.

The key part of the quote is not actually from Pooh himself, it's from his good friend Piglet, and it goes like this:

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh?" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be sure of you."

Beautiful.

Fireworks

OK, let's be honest, going on holiday to Florida does rather spoil fireworks night back at home.

It just doesn't really compare!

Driving

Jake and my new weekend pastime - heading off to the driving range to bash a bucket of balls!

Barley beach

Took Barley for a run around on the beach at Minnis Bay. Certain members of the party were unconvinced that this would be a good idea, but once we got there and had a few lungfuls of sea air, all was well.

The sun was out and the skies were blue. Barley dashed around for a while, got soaking and sandy all over (and so had a bath when we got home).

Graffiti

One thing you can't help but notice when working in Brighton - you get a much better standard of graffiti!

50

In keeping with tradition, a countdown post, as today marks 7 weeks and one day until our next visit to WDW.

And Happy Birthday to anyone who has a birthday today!