The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day which is a memorial day which doesn’t seem to get the attention it deserves it despite it being probably more important than any other.   It can be hard to process the sheer number of people that were murdered in the Holocaust. As a huge number it’s fairly meaningless but it’s individual stories to bring home the true atrocity. Take the story of Vilma Grünwald who was 39 years old. She had been held at Auschwitz for seven months along with her husband and two sons (though they were held separately). SS doctor Josef Mengele spotted her son John walking with a limp and directed him towards the gas chamber. Vilma couldn’t let her son go alone so she immediately followed him. She managed to get a note to her husband who survived the death camp which is how we know this story. When you read very human stories like this it feels horrifically more real.  Back when I was 18 I visited Auschwitz and it was an experience that forever changed me. It taught ...

I’m not going to lie to you: this week has been a tough one. Whilst there wasn’t a massive surprise in the government announcing Lockdown 3 ( Lockdown: The Last Stand ? Lockdown 3: Hell on Earth ?) it hit me quite hard and I wasn’t really expecting that to happen. In the first lockdown I was glad for a break from work and happy to have the time spent at home, which was what I needed at the time. But that was nearly a year ago and things have changed. What was good for me then is not good for me now. I wanted to be at work which has been so fulfilling this academic year and instead I found myself alone in my flat. Perhaps my biggest worry about moving out to live on my own was the potential to feel a bit isolated from the world. When you’re at work it’s not quite the same but suddenly I had the prospect of potentially no work at all. The other issues was that I still don’t have internet access which further adds to the isolated feeling. It was quite stressful waiting for six hours for a...

Previously on The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan : I bought a flat and began a new life... Hello and happy New Year to you all. It's always an odd time that week between Christmas and New Year but for me it's felt especially strange. It's the first full week I've spent in my new flat and I'm started to get used to the idea of living on my own.  Having a completely new start adds all sorts of complications. It meant that whenever I went to do anything I'd have to grapple with how to work it, from the front door to the heating to the oven to the TV. I'm drowning in a sea of instruction manuals. Then there was the sea of admin to organise various utilities bills. I spent an hour one day trying to find my gas meter because when you live in a house that has been converted into two flats things just end up in random places.  After a while though things I began to feel a familiarity and it started to feel like my home rather than simply the place I was sleeping. I...