Tuesday 31 August 2010

Saturday 28 August 2010

Bletchley Park

"War veteran" - sculpture atBletchley Park

Near Milton Keynes. Hub of wartime code-breaking activity, where early computers were developed and shifts of staff worked round the clock to keep up with messages being
transmitted, intercepted and sent to Bletchley.
Estimates are that the work here shortened the war by 18 months to 2 years. How many lives the Bletchley staff saved in this way, who can tell. I could wonder if it meant my German father-in-law, for example, pushed into the Wehrmacht, would have been in greater risk or would anyway have been rescued by being captured by the French, who knows. That he, and others, survived, in turn meant that ...
My own father wasn't, as far as I know, in danger with his duties with RAF plane instruments.

Would either have been surprised, back then, by the peace and, much later, their offspring marrying someone from the 'other side?


Bletchley Park website for more details about the site and visits today.

Sunday 22 August 2010

More dance at the MAC - Motionhouse Dance Co.


Terrific modern dance around a stage set of a slanting roof, great agility from the dancers to dramatic music.

Behind the scenes at the Museum ... 's collection centre




and Felix Mendelssohn





Thursday 19 August 2010

Meanwhile ...


Back in Brum, there's light at the end of the tunnel -

A Day in the 'Pool



A transformed centre at least, and the Albert Docks -








Far from the poverty of the '80s I remember, though maybe it's just out of sight, out of mind.

Friday 13 August 2010

Tuesday 3 August 2010

View to a boat


Another kind of home, another life ...