Battlestar Galactica ends

Possibly my favourite show in TV right now, and one of my favourites for the past few years ended last night, with the last ever episode on British TV. Battlestar Galactica was created in the late 1970’s, but actually only ran for one season back then. (I should probably say this might get really geeky!) I don’t remember it in 1978 (I was 3), but I did really enjoy watching it as a child. I loved the premise of it being more real than Star Wars despite the kitchness of having been made in the 1970’s.

Since that there have been various projects on the go, but none came to fruition until 2003. Looking back on this now that was probably a good thing as the re-imagining as it was described has become one of the best TV dramas that has aired. The new Galactica takes the basic premise of the original show, that humans on far off worlds are attacked by robots (Cylons) they created and then go on the run to try and find the 13th ‘colony’ of humans on Earth while being chased by the robots, and tweaks it to improve it. What has been created is a very real looking series that in some ways mirrors our society. In the new series people are flawed, it’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad, things break, the humans don’t always win and the whole story is a rollercoaster ride of emotion. Some critical elements were rewritten to mark it out as different from the original, such as two of the key fighter pilot characters now being women rather than men, and one of those being a robot (it turns out). This caused a storm of debate online, but I thought it was pretty cool actually.

The re-imagined series first aired in 2003 and I came across the pilot of the show by accident. I was hooked again immediately. I think initially because the storytelling was very good, and the way it was shot was very real. It contrasted markedly with programmes like Star Trek which were big at the time as they portrayed everyone getting on, everything being neat and tidy and the good guys always winning. I’m not criticising that at all, and I used to enjoy Star Trek, but it was cosy TV without being too challenging. I think it also appealed to me as it took me back to my childhood and I could connect with the memories of enjoying the original series back then. Back in 2003 I didn’t have access to the TV channels it was broadcast on so I used to wait eagerly for the series to be released on DVD and I would then watch the whole series every evening for 3-4 weeks in my flat. I would limit myself to one episode per night so that I could enjoy the feeling of looking forward to the next episode. I remember being so tempted to watch another one when an episode ended on a cliffhanger, but I always resisted. Before Season 2 started I was in a position to watch the show on TV and each Thursday evening (as it was then) I would get my Galactica fix. When Theresa moved in with me she even started to watch and got into the series as well.

From the start the re-imagined series was written as a complete story stretching over 4 seasons, with a definite start and end to it. Over the years there was pressure on the writers to make it more accessible by producing just stand alone episodes, but I am pleased and grateful that they resisted and continued the story arc. While this made it harder for people to join the show in later series, it gave those of us who’d followed it from the start a real treat and really allowed us to connect to the characters. Over time it built up more than a cult following and has been recognised as being one of the best written dramas on TV.

The final series began airing last year with the survivors still battling to survive and escape the Cylon enemy. The line between the good guys and the bad had blurred as we now had humans and Cylons fighting alongside one another against other Cylons. They were desperately trying to find this mythical world called Earth that written into their legends, but no-one had ever found. As Season 4 reached it’s mid-series break they found Earth, but it had been decimated in a nuclear holocaust. We then had to wait four months for the final eleven episodes to come on TV. And agonising four months, fuelled by rumours that due to the writers strike in Hollywood the whole series may end on that note. Luckily sense prevailed and the remaining episodes were completed and became a Tuesday night treat from January onwards. The remaining survivors left Earth as it was not inhabitable and continued to try and escape the Cylons and find a habitable planet. Through various permutations and a minor civil war within the humans, we ended up at the final episode last night. I’ve read online that people thought one or two bits were confusing, and Theresa the cynic questioned one bit in particular. But I thought it was great and a good ending for the story. It tied up most of the loose ends, but left enough threads for you to still be able to imagine your own follow on story for some of the characters. It didn’t leave too much open that there would have to be another series in the future which I thought was particularly good.

As I was watching it I did feel sad that this was all coming to an end. It hadn’t taken over my life or anything like that, but it was something I would look forward to watching and seeing how the story developed. I enjoyed reading other fans views on what was happening and enjoyed the reflection on the show of life in the real world. I guess I enjoyed being part of the fan community. The show had been part of my life for about six years and I think that is significant. I watched a show called Babylon 5 during the 1990’s and really enjoyed that. When that ended I had a kind of sci-fi hiatus for a few years and the Battlestar Galactica came long. Now that has finished I wonder what will come next and how long I will have to wait? There is a prequel of Galactica called Caprica which is being done by the same people and due on air at the end of this year. Maybe that will turn out to be great too, as there is a talented team behind the project. Who knows …

All I can say though is that the last six years of being involved in Galactica have been wonderful and it’s a series that I think will stand the test of time. I have a huge amount of respect for Ron D Moore and his team for what they achieved. And I thank you for giving a big kid back some cherished memories of youth through your show.

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our third wedding anniversary. Has it really been three years already? And has it only been three years? It feels like we have both done and changed so much in such a short time. We have had a child, been round the world, significantly changed our house, seen some big changes with members of our family, among other things. I am really glad that we got married when we did and I feel so committed to Theresa. I feel sad when I leave in the mornings and really happy when I get home in the evenings. And I cherish our week-ends together.

To you Theresa I say thank you for sticking with me and I love you more than anything. It’s been the best three years of my life and I am so looking forward to the rest of our lives together. I love you.

Our new shed

Our old shed was rotting, being held together with dead Ivy, and attracted the elements in rather than keeping them out. And it was red. So we decided enough was enough and knocked it down. Last week the replacement arrived and we built it on Saturday.

At 1430 it looked like this:



By 1630 it was like this:




And then by 18.30 it was complete and the ground was cleared. Four hours - DONE!

All that remains now is cleaning off three years of crap from when the old shed started to fall appart and let everything known to man in.

Google Streetview hits London

Google Maps/Street View has arrived in the UK after a few months of debatting the privacy issues surrounding it. With faces and number plates obscured I'm not sure how much of a risk people are really at. And there is so much information about people on the Net already, that I'm not sure a picture of their house really makes much difference. And I think it's cool that I can go online and look at my sisters house in Australia, or find a restaurant that Theresa and I ate in while in Rome.


And here is Casa de Stancombe, complete with knackered pavement and cute window nets!

Spring family pics 08/09

The bottom photo is from Feb 24th 2008, and this one is from March 14th 2009. It’s taken in the same gardens in Wimbledon. It’s interesting how the faces have changed during that time. And also how everything is flowering 2-3 weeks later this year than last. I’m not speculating on the why’s and wherefores of this.

My birthday

I am now officially 34 years old. Or 3 + 4 = 7 which is a lucky number apparently, and that’s not happened for 8 years!!

I digress (or just confuse – not sure which). There are a stack of things to be done around the house, or more specifically, the garden, but we decided to not do any of them this week-end and just spend the days doing stuff as a family. As a bonus the weather was fantastic. There’s nothing like a bit of sunshine to brighten the mood.

I got a book with loads of walks around the villages on the edge of London. It includes one for our village which we did recently which was fascinating. So on Saturday we went for a historical walk around Wimbledon Village which was great. We walked all round the village, discovered an old Iron Age camp on Wimbledon Common (of Wombles fame), and discovered the oldest building in the village which is about 450 years old. We were out slightly longer than planned and got home pretty weary after having been walking for about 7 hours!

Then on Sunday we drove into town and explored 18th century London around Buckingham Palace/St James. The highlight for me was probably the oldest wine merchant in London, with 250,000 bottles of booze in the cellars. But the parks looked incredible, we saw some soldiers on horses and Meg pooed into a bag in the afternoon. Our only consternation was when looking at some guard huts outside St James Palace which had what looked like light switches in them – one labelled ‘wet weather’, and another mysteriously labelled ‘black button (with a strip of black tape underneath for dunces). It was another long day, but with such lovely weather it seems a shame not to make the most of it.

After the trials and tribulations of the last few days it was wonderful to be able to spend some time as a three. The weather definitely plays a part, but I feel so enriched to be exploring and learning new things with my girls. I also still get a tingly feeling when I stand in or on a really old place and just pause and think ‘this was built 500 years ago’. I also go off on tangents and wonder what the surroundings would have looked like back then, and who were the people who built it? London is such a fantastic city and doing walks like these really makes me appreciate it more than when stuck in commuter hell during the week.

Company anniversary

It's been three years today since I joined my current company JCDecaux Airport. Not quite the longest job I've had so far, but only about 7 months shy of it now. It's been a pretty life changing three years, some of which has been work related. In that time I've got married, had a child, been round the world, bought a second house, lost two of the elder members of the family and potentially the youngest.

At work I've travelled a bit, managed to miss both of the Christmas parties, hired 6 people, seen plenty of other colleagues come and go, and got to know Heathrow Airport intimately.

It's been fun and I'm pleased to still be here in the current climate. Not sure if I'll still be here in three years, but who knows...

Goodbye

A few years ago we weren’t too bothered about having children, and then Meg came along. She has considerably and positively added to our lives and we love her to bits. But we thought that she would be enough and we would continue to be a team of three. Then a few weeks ago Theresa and I started to think that maybe a second child would be lovely, and it would complete us as a family. There were many factors in deciding this, but it was partly that we didn’t want Meg to end up as a single child – I think that despite the battles siblings have they are far more rounded if they grow up learning to share and interact with others of their age. Also Theresa and I are both getting older and we thought that if we didn’t try soon then we might not be able to. And lots of our parent friends who’d had their first children when Meg came along were now having more kids. So we decided to try for a second child.

In early February Theresa suspected she was pregnant, and we did a test while at my parents. It came back positive and the whole family were so chuffed. We were ecstatic that it had happened so soon as well. We started making plans for the child, started thinking about names, stopped drinking so much wine, and so on. We never even considered that there might be any complications. Looking back on it now there were signs such as Theresa getting bad headaches and looking very pale, but we just put it down to early pregnancy.

Unfortunately on Thursday Theresa noticed some fresh blood when she went to the loo. We were concerned, but still thought things would be OK. But things got worse and Theresa went to a clinic to get checked, where we received the worst news that our unborn child had died at about 5 weeks. I’m writing this now to try and deal with the emotions, but it’s incredibly hard to put into words. We didn’t even know if it was a boy or a girl. Although the child hadn’t been born we had already started bonding with it. I always previously thought that any child that young was not a life yet, but having this happen to your own flesh and blood changes that perspective. This was a life, part of Theresa and I, and it had died. As I sit here writing calling it ‘it’, even that seems unfair. But giving the child a name somehow makes it even more painful.

I have been trying to rationalise the situation by saying it is not unusual and it happens to lots of people. We will move on from this and we will try again for another child. Sometimes these things happen and it was not through anything we did, sometimes things just don’t quite click properly. And it shows how fragile and miraculous life is, and how we should never assume anything or take anything for granted.

Being rational and staying busy helps to ease the pain, but I think it is masking it rather than solving it. Theresa and I have cried together and talked through how we feel. At the moment the whole situation is very raw and it will take time to deal with, and I think we will never forget it. Throughout this we have spent time with Meg and we appreciate even more what we have in this fantastic little girl. Luckily she didn’t really know what was going on, because I think she is too young to have to deal with this kind of situation.

So I write this to my wonderful and incredible wife, who I love more than anything. I am here for you and I always will be.