ten years on

from the Paddington rail crash - even His Master's Voice gets in on it here. We heard plenty at the time in Reading - Messrs Salter and Howarth standing up at Labour Party meetings saying "John Prescott's days are numbered " (hi John!) and Salter telling the press "My girlfriend won't travel by train any more", striking a blow for gender equality as ever. Channel 4 did a special programme soon afterwards from Reading, which featured the appalling Trot cow "lawyer" Louise Christian saying she was "campaigning for justice" for the victims of the crash. Hah. Did they have justice? As someone once said, "Justice? There's no f***ing justice!" More people from the southern hemisphere died in that crash than Reading people. I appeared on a local radio programme a couple of weeks later, doing a kind of "Desert Island Discs". I had chosen my records before the crash happened on 5th October and did not look at my list again before the broadcast - with hindsight perhaps "This Wheel's On Fire" was not the best choice. Great song though.

I'm not usually very personal on this blog, but I will just say here that following the death from cancer of a close friend on 9th September I have had two sessions of bereavement counselling (thanks, French health service!), and cannot recommend this more highly. Organisations like Cruse provide an excellent service in the UK as I know from people who have benefited from it. But I firmly believe now that professional bereavement counselling should be provided, within a month of a death, to those close to the person who died, whether they ask for it or not (I didn't). Productivity in personal and professional life plummets at a time of bereavement, and those two sessions gave me the opportunity to get it back and move on, which is fair to others close to me and lets me grieve (which everyone must do, whatever the circumstances of a death) without unnecessary baggage.

OK, back to the usual ramblings and musings now (Good, that last bit was dashed un-British. Ed.)