Music & Memories

If there's one thing that takes me out of the current world and transports me back in time to relive distant locked-away memories, it's a music compilation. I stumbled across such a compilation only the other day - a folder full of MP3 files, most dated from the mid to late 90's. A lot of it is 'techno', a type of music I was oddly enough quite into. Some is electronic trance and the rest can't really be adequately described. One or two are in German and date back to my visit to Germany in 1995. The fact that they are in German is no handicap to their enjoyment. It's the tune that brings back the memories and unlocks the images of fondly remembered times. For anyone who knows me, it would be hard to imagine that I once hankered after the latest downloads of Torley Wong, Blumchen, Das Modul and Scatman John to name just a few, but I did.
A lot of the music I collected I heard for the first time on MTV's Most Wanted - a programme hosted by Ray Cokes from 1993-1995 gaining cult status among its loyal fans throughout Europe on what was then the first pan-European satellite network. I was pleased to see that Ray Cokes is still broadcasting at 55 and can be found on a small radio station in Belgium.
Each track carries with it its own set of memories, whether sat at my desk in the IT department of Churchill Insurance trying to look busy whilst secretly downloading masses of MP3 files over their super-fast Internet connection, driving my Volvo 760 Estate with newly installed CD auto-changer or hurtling down an autobahn in Germany or touring Berlin in my pen-pal's Volkswagon Golf MKI. These are cherished memories of good times and each MP3 tells its own story with it's own unique set of feelings, images and events from a time gone by.
I imagine there are many who can relate to this and have records, tapes, CD's and MP3's that when played unlock fond memories or perhaps still have the power to produce feelings deep inside - the butterflies, the tingling sensation and the heart-skipping elation. Of course this is all very personal and entirely unique to the person concerned and their own mental libraries of memories and images, images that the camera missed.
Maybe one day we'll be able to retrieve these memories... or perhaps they should stay where they are and remain forever personal.

Germany and Bank Holiday blues

Looking out of the window, I see a grey sky and rain. It's the kind of weather I hate, really hate. That blanket grey with no breaks in it at all and the constant rain. Horrible... but typically BBH (British Bank Holiday) weather. I've remarked previously about the effect weather can have on mood. I'm a firm believer in this and my lack of enthusiasm today I'm sure is linked to the damp grey outdoors.

Good news from our friends in Germany though.... they have decided to dispense completely with nuclear power. Now, I am actually against nuclear power - well the way we play with it anyway. I do think it has potential as being a clean energy but there are two fundamental aspects of its use that we don't understand. The first is safety and the second is spent fuel. Nuclear safety is something we don't take seriously enough. Fukushima has taught us that and Germany have conceded that because we can't do it safely then it's best to not to it at all. After all, the nuclear industry is unable to get any organisation to insure its sites - the risk being so high.

The by-products and waste fuel are things we simply do not know what to do with. We prefer the 'out of sight, out of mind option' so bury it underground, hoping it will go away. The truth is of course that it won't - it'll be there in thousands of years from now, assuming it hasn't already leaked into the soil around it.

I do think Germany have made the right decision, but in doing so, they have set themselves enormous challenges to generate energy from conventional and renewable sources. They must be confident in their ability to do this and I don't think the decision to scrap nuclear energy has been just a knee-jerk reaction to Fukushima, though I do think it was influenced strongly by it.

Something I would like to see discussed is 'Thorium Energy'. It's probably something many have never heard of but if you Google the word 'thorium', you'll find a wealth of information relating to it. There are it appears several groups dotted all over the world already playing with it and a few who claim it to be the energy source of the future - clean, plentiful and above all, safe. I won't write much about it here, I'd rather prefer for others to make up their own minds as to the merits of Thorium Energy. It does all sound very exciting though...

Back to Germany and there is no doubt the decision they have made is a huge one - politically motivated or not. I wonder how many others will follow? I suspect very few...