Short Story: Of Family

I was once on a plane, flying from America back to London. I didn't have much to occupy myself with for the flight, but fortunately was sat near to an old austrian man, and beside him was a well-dressed business woman. He introduced himself to her, and in a friendly and polite way asked her whether she was on an outgoing or return trip, and what she was looking forward to on the other end.

She answered, with a quiet and reserved voice, that she was returning home, and looked ahead to seeing her children. She suddenly seemed to open a barrier, and admitted to the old man that she had recently withheld help for her friend in order to spend more energy on her family. But although she regretted this, she had promised herself that she would help her friend later, when she had more to give, and believed this was the right thing to do. After all, she said, friends come and go- but family is special.

Picking your News

Most weekdays I check the BBC News website, to keep myself vaguely in the loop with what's happening outside of my bubble. I learned this habit by choice- I did not learn it from my parents, because my parents got their news from the TV.

Have you ever wondered at the differences between the two mediums, and what difference they make to each of our two generations, when it comes to our knowledge of the world?

Newspapers are a third gateway to this knowledge, but they seem to be increasingly replaced by the other two. A paper did not dictate what you got or when you got it like the television did, but the internet has provided the same freedom more effectively.

Short Story: A Vision and A View

Wisley hopped out of the shop, his stubby boyish hands almost dropping his new toy camera. But no, he would say, it wasn't a toy. It was how he was going to become famous, and no-one would be allowed to call him names! Just like the latop with which he created the world-renowned social website, and the spare parts with which he had invented a new kind of bicycle that became the latest must-have at the back of thousands of other kid's sheds. Except that this idea would work. And happen. In real life, not just in his daydreams.

It was going to happen because last night he had accidentally found- whilst not looking for anything other than innocent and appropriate television, by the way- a documentary about the amazing life of the celebrity photographer, Kent Kildroy.