No 16.

With, without.
And who’ll deny it’s what the fighting’s all about.
Song: Us and Them
Album: Dark Side Of The Moon

Exactly 85 years ago the armistice was signed ending at the end of the Great War, the bloodiest conflict in history. So it seems apt to use a couple of Pink Floyd lyrics to talk about war today.

War is seldom about noble causes. Rather, it has more to do with possessions, usually land. The Greeks went to war with Troy because they had kidnapped Helen. The Second World War was started because Hitler wanted more Lebensraum (living space) for the Germans. The Gulf War was over Saddam Hussein’s sudden possession of the Kuwaiti oilfields.

All of this is human nature. We more readily fight for something we own than over a high-minded ideal.

Which is why the reasons given for going to war with Iraq this year rang so false. The assertions that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was ready to launch them at any time is more laughable now than ever and it seems inconceivable that the US went to war solely to remove Hussein from power and free the Iraqi people from oppressive tyranny. That may well yet be one of the outcomes of the conflict but if turns out that America (and its allies) has not benefited commercially from it then I’ll eat my hat.

Assuming Bush wins the election in 12 months time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some form of agreement with Iraq to supply the US with oil at a cut-down price, something they desperately need to fuel the American obsession with the car. Add to that all of the money to be made by American companies now getting a foothold in the Middle East in the wake of the war and you get a pretty large and compelling reason for having fought in the first place.

No 15.

And far from flying high in clear blue skies
I’m spiralling down to the hole in the ground where I hide
Song: The Final Cut
Album: The Final Cut

Sometimes even an optimist like myself takes a bit of a nosedive into depression. I don't always see it coming - sometimes it seems like one minute I'm fine and the next I'm inexplicably feeling down. When that happens I can usually put it down to being tired or having had a bad day at work and I know I'll be out of it almost as quickly as I went in.

Every now and then, however, I can feel myself heading slowly downwards and know there's nothing I can do about it. Very often when this happens I'll come down with a heavy cold or something a few days later but sometimes it just can't be pinned on anything in particular.

Normally, I'm a very stable person so I never get very depressed. I just wallow around in the shallow waters of despair where others would take a dive into the depths. Conversely I also rarely get ecstatically happy, preferring instead to occupy a position of general contentment most of the time.

So I know when I'm heading into depression that I'm not going to be there for very long and that my optimistic nature will reassert itself soon enough.

No 14.

I've got a bike,
You can ride it if you like
It's got a basket, a bell that rings
And things to make it look good.
Song: Bike
Album: Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

This is from one of Pink Floyd's more bizarre songs, written by Syd Barrett way back in 1967.

A silly song deserves a silly post. So, if you had a bike, what things would you put on it to make it look good?

No 13.

After the service when you're walking slowly to the car
And the silver in her hair shines in the cold November air
You hear the tolling bell
And touch the silk in your lapel
Song: The Gunner's Dream
Album: The Final Cut

I had my first experiences of funerals at a very young age. My father's father died shortly before my sixth birthday. Grandad was a very austere man and at that young age I was far more afraid than fond of him so, even if had understood at the time what it all meant, I didn't really mourn his passing. Then, just two years and four days later, a week before I was eight, my other grandfather died.

Both died on a Sunday and both while we were staying with the same family friends in the Midlands but apart from that the contrast couldn't have been greater. Where I feared Grandad, I loved Poppa. I was his first grandchild (there were five before me on Dad's side of the family) and he doted on me. Many of my earliest memories involve him and it would be fair to say that his death devastated me.

Presumably because of my experience two years before, I knew exactly what it would mean, that I would never see this man I loved so much again, and it really hurt. I cried an awful lot. I only have vague memories about the funeral itself, mostly of me hanging onto Nan and trying not to cry, not entirely successfully.

What I will never forget, though is how I felt on that Sunday, almost nineteen years ago. I quietly mark the date every year and try to remember as much as I can.

No 12.

Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?
Song: Goodbye Blue Sky
Album: The Wall

The phrase 'brave new world' is a well-known one these days, usually signifying some form of marvellous technological innovation that will make the world a better place. At the same time, it usually carries a darker overtone, that this fabled innovation will actually do far more harm than good. Hence the running for shelter part of this lyric.

The phrase originates from the Aldous Huxley book, Brave New World, set in a supposedly utopian future. People are bred in laboratories and are biologically engineered to fit into their prescribed position in society. There are seven 'castes' of differing abilities ranging from the Alpha-Plus intellectual elite at the top to the Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons at the bottom, bred purely for menial labour.

I'm not going to go into full book review mode, here but I do recommend that you read it if you haven't already. It's an excellent book, written (as so many of the classics from the first half of the last century) as a social commentary but with a very good story to carry the message.

One of the reasons it resonates so well now is because of the promise (for that you may want to read threat - it depends how you see it, I suppose) of genetic engineering. Huxley wrote the book in 1932, twenty-three years before Crick and Watson discovered DNA. He could have had no idea then of the mechanism behind his biological engineering but now, seventy years later we know it only too well. How long will it be before scientists are able to change the genetic make-up of babies so they grow up to be stronger, taller, more beautiful, longer-living, more intelligent? 10 years? 20?

I suspect it will be earlier than most of us would like. And when that day comes will we be responsible enough not to be so taken with the promise of this brave new world that we disregard the potential dangers involved? I hope so, I really do.

No 11.

I could sail forever to strange sounding names
Song: The Gold It’s In The…
Album: Obscured By Clouds

I would like to find
Some peace of mind.
Sitting with you,
Gazing up at the blue
In Machu Picchu.

I would like to buy
A piece of the sky.
Standing with you,
Gazing into the blue,
On top of Uluru.

I would like to live
With nothing left to give.
Lying with you,
Gazing out through the blue,
On the ground in Timbuktu.

No 10.

Breathe, breathe in the air
Song: Breathe In The Air
Album: Dark Side Of The Moon

Just not too deeply if you're in the middle of London, eh? The air quality in the centre of town may have improved since dear old Ken's congestion charge kicked in but it's still not fantastic. However, the streets of London are like a walk in the country when compared to the air on the tube.

There's so much dust on the London Underground that it's hard to believe your eyes when you see the mice that live down there in the tunnels. They're all so black with the stuff that you can’t see how they can breathe any more - surely their lungs must be coated, too. If you blow your nose after a journey, especially after one where you had to wait a while at a subterranean station, you'll get a whole load of blackness in your tissue (my apologies to those faint-hearted among you and any of you who happen to be eating right now). It's truly disgusting.

It's no wonder that it's only in the last three years, since I started commuting into London to work, that I have begun to suffer from hay fever in the summer. I used to get the sniffles for maybe a week or so at the beginning of the season but now I'm sneezing and have runny eyes for a good couple of months with it.

Thankfully, the house we are buying is outside of London and just a couple of hundred yards away from open fields and the countryside. I can’t wait to drink in the fresh air. It'll be great. Maybe my hay fever will even die down a little. Just a couple of months to go, now.

No 9.

All movement is accomplished in six stages
And the seventh brings return.
Song: Chapter 24
Album: Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

This particular lyric has always confused me. It sounds particularly deep and meaningful, maybe even philosophical but despite being a mathematician (a discipline historically very closely related to philosophy) I can't work it out.

Maybe it's a reference to biblical creation or Shakespeare's seven stages of a man's life. Or maybe it's just something random spewed from a drug-addled mind. Any ideas? What does it mean to you?

No 8.

I'm creeping back to life
My nervous system all awry
I'm wearing the inside out
Song: Wearing The Inside Out
Album: The Division Bell

Do you ever woken up in the morning and find that you just can’t think straight? You know the sort of morning I’m talking about. When you get dressed you put your top on inside out and try putting your trousers on the wrong way round. You shuffle into the kitchen and put milk in the washing machine and fabric softener over your cornflakes before putting the kids out and getting the dog ready for school.

If you do feel that way, what’s your trick for putting yourself back together again? Coffee? Bacon sandwich? Pulling a sickie?

Usually I find that feeling like this is due to an over-generous consumption of alcohol the night before and the cure is a pint of water before I leave the house and a sausage and bacon baguette when I get to work, assuming I've survived the trip on the tube, of course. Then it’s just a case of hanging on to my desk for dear life as the office spins around me until lunchtime by which point I usually feel better.

No 7.

Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda
And Titania. Neptune, Titan
Stars can frighten…
Song: Astronomy Domine
Album: Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

If you could visit any planet or moon in the solar system, where would you go?

For me it would have to be Europa, the frozen moon of Jupiter, for several reasons. I’d like to stand on the surface and look at the Sun so much further away than usual and Jupiter so much closer. I’d also like to find out whether there is life there under the ice, as many people suspect. Looking at a truly alien form of life would be fantastic.