The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

I always get so much benefit from spending time in nature and every so often something truly magical happens... It was a Sunday morning and I'd arranged to meet my parents after they'd finished what they were doing in Christchurch by late morning. It suddenly occurred to me that we would be meeting quite close to one of my favourite nature reserves, a place called Stanpit Marsh, and the timing meant I could easily have a few hours wandering around there before the meet.  I was up and out the house unusually early for the school holidays and found myself parked up with my shiny new walking boots adorning my feet. Off I went and shortly after I began walking the sun broke through the clouds, which was much needed after a gloomy week.  Butterflies and bees flew between flowers in the hedgerows as I headed to the entrance of the nature reserve. Many people overlook the smaller side of nature but I have a special fascination with invertebrates. You only have to stop and look a sunn...

This time last year I stole the format of one of my favourite podcasts to be used as a blog post . Each week on 'Films to Be Buried With' host Brett Goldstein tells a guest they've died and then gets them to talk about their life in film. Since then Brett has added a new format that allows him to have returning guests subtitled 'The Resurrection' and so this week I'm stealing the new format!  You died by tripping over an uneven paving slab, falling into the road and getting hit by a lorry but good news, you've been brought back to life! Excellent. I've had a very busy year given I've been dead all this time! Everyone wants to know all about your life but they want to know about your life through film. What was the last film you saw? At the time of writing that was French lesbian drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire . I'm going through a phase of more arty films right now and this critically-acclaimed film was one of them. It's so brilliantly well...

Scars- we all have them. There's nothing metaphorical going on here, I'm literally talking about scars, i.e. a mark on the body where a wound has not healed completely and fibrous connective tissue has developed. With every scar telling a story, I thought today I would take you on a journey through time and my scars- a sort of scar trek if you will. (I am not saying I have written that post entirely because of that pun I'm very pleased with but must admit that it played a significant factor.) Most people don't realise that I actually have quite a decent scar on my face and that's because it's hidden under my left eyebrow. It's not that difficult to find though and would be very obvious if I were to shave my eyebrow off. This occurred when I was round about three years old and was having an excellent time using my Mum and Dad's bed as a trampoline. Somewhat inevitably after a little while this went wrong and I ended up falling off the bed, catching my hea...