Remembrance Day

The Cenotaph, Bristol

Instead of the usual Friday, this weeks blog is being released at 11:00am on 11/11/21.

The war memorial in Bristol has now been stripped of its poppies from last years Remembrance Day services and cleaned in preparation for this Sundays service.

The memorial is surrounded by a paved area which is popular with skateboarders. Given that the memorial remembers people who have died in wars it remembers a lot of young men. Men typically aged 16-25.

I think that these young men, if they could talk, would say that they enjoy being surrounded by people of their age enjoying the freedom that they lost their lives defending, in the fresh air and being healthy and active just as they once were. it’s certainly nicer than being surrounded by middle aged people only concerned with house prices.

And separate to this, in 2013 I took the kids on holiday to France. Irresponsibility I had let them both watch Saving Private Ryan!!!

School were doing their WW2 history so I decided to break the journey up wth a visit to Bayeux to see the Bayeux Tapestry, Omaha Beach in Normandy and the American War Cemetery.

I wrote an itinerary and a story to try and bring it alive. And given the kids Japanese heritage I wanted to link that into the story.

Plus I wanted to try and remind us of the lessons from the war.

The story I wrote is now on the site here.