In our time

I/we’ve just watched For Sama, on catch up. It was shown on C4 last night and my Twitter feed said it was a must see.

I’m not going to review it – it is beyond comment. It’s an hour and a half’s journey of a female reporter and her doctor husband living in Aleppo, Syria. From the start of the uprising until, eventually five years later, the city fell to Syrian regime/Russian advance. It is an extraordinary film and you must watch it. In fact every school in the UK should show it to their students.

If a truck-load of dead Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants didn’t horrify you enough, then this film will. And, for anyone out there who – even in the slightest – feels that we shouldn’t be helping refugees from these war-torn and poverty-stricken countries, I would hope that this film and the refrigerated truck melts your hearts. I don’t want to hear: well, they shouldn’t have made the journey. I don’t want to hear it. We are infinitely lucky. We have been born somewhere unblighted by war and massive poverty. And every day we should be thankful for that.

And Trump’s glorification – almost computer game description – of the death of Abu Bakt al-Baghdadi and his three children hasn’t helped my mood. I am in no doubt that ISIS’s leader needed to be removed. But to detail the operation and the many deaths as he did (in almost an hour’s press conference), where there was no reverence, no humility, is as shocking as anything I have heard recently. For a man who bowed out of Vietnam when others, less fortunate, were fighting – and dying – on his behalf.

Shocking.

Moving on.

For the record we had Richard and Andrea round for lunch on Friday – lovely to see them. And yesterday, having watched the rugby (yippee), we popped up to Jen’s for the day. Today C and I have both run, I’ve written another 1500 words (pretty close to 40/120k words now and still loving it) and Mrs Sun – who has been warming another planet – came an said hello.

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(I look drunk) The paperback proof of Unsuspecting Hero edition 2 has arrived – and its now published – hurrah”

I understand she’ll be around for a bit this week. That’s fabulous news!