Goodbye to all that

Sorting through things between Christmas and New Year, I decided that I really did not want to hang onto the standard WWI British Campaign medals that belonged to my great-aunt’s husband. I had never met Harold and had no recollection of Grace (or was it Midge?). Either I gave them to a charity shop or I sold them.

I took them to the kind of shop that sells Pickelhaubes, just off Charing Cross Road. So goodbye Private/Sergeant Harold Wadley of the Army Service Corps, and I hope your medals will no longer languish in the back of a drawer.

Words fail me IV

The needle on my irony counter was already twitching as I deconstructed the TV schedules for tonight. I know that WWII films and Agatha Christie are as traditional as “Mary Poppins” or “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” when it comes to viewing in this season of peace and goodwill; nevertheless the words “Murder in Paradise Christmas Special” stood out, and deconstructing/re-arranging them gave me some mild amusement.

My irony counter went off the scale, though, at one of The Guardian’s suggested board games today: “Undaunted: Stalingrad”. Just the game to enjoy as you tuck into your Christmas leftovers.

Pebbles and ripples

Queen Elizabeth II wasn’t Franz Joseph and I’m not a character in a novel by Joseph Roth, but I have been wondering if I am touched by her death. Well, yes in the sense of “any man’s death diminishes me” – but also “yes” because her presence was a small way that I measure out my life.

On Thursday I cycled along Queensway in Bletchley; it was Bletchley Road until it was renamed in the mid-1960s to commemorate her visit. I was taken to witness it; I don’t know if I have a real memory of it or if a memory grew with subsequent mentions of it. I recall the day’s holiday that we had for the wedding of Princess Anne. I remember getting sucked into watching the CharlesandDianaweddingathon. At the death of Prince Philip I thought of how his life had dovetailed into a century of European history. Now the queen has gone, and I feel sad that the sense of duty that she personified has also gone and left behind those qualities – inequality, hunting, rank just for starters – that were always semi-hidden.

So this morning, when I noticed this pebble, I thought it symbolised what I feel: a small event that casts many ripples.