The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. I studied history for much of my academic career in one form or another and as part of this had the terrible privilege of visiting several sites deeply connecting with the worst point of human history. In a Berlin suburb lies villa Am Gro ß en Wannsee . It's a beautiful building with lovely grounds and views across a lake. In 1942 the Wannsee Conference was held there and it was at that conference that senior members of the Nazi party and the SS organised their so-called 'Final Solution'. Villa  Am Gro ß en Wannsee I found visiting this place deeply unsettling. It's undeniably beautiful yet the evil that was decided on here haunts it. What I find most disturbing is how this could really be anywhere. There is nothing especially Nazi about the place and it doesn't take a great deal of imagination to think this could have happened anywhere else- indeed, it has a feel not unlike the Prime Minister's country residence at Cheq...

If you've been on social media this week you'll likely have seen the trend #10yearchallenge where people are comparing photos of them ten years ago and now. I thought that it would be interesting to do something along the same lines, although thinking somewhat more deeply than the physical side of things. That said, let's begin with the photos... Look at the hair! I miss the hair! And that hoodie, I loved that hoodie! I do not miss the acne though. I think around this point my acne was beginning to improve after several years of having a face like a crater-filled moon. I'd tried every acne product on the market and nothing had an effect, not even medication prescribed by my doctor.  January 2009 was a wonderful point in my life. I was still in the early stage of my A-levels and at this point did not have a clue what my plans were career-wise. I was six months into the most serious relationship I've ever had and things were going well.  My prioritie...

Famous Scottish duo The Proclaimers once sang the words "I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your door". These lyrics are now part of my plan for 2019. Well, the falling down bit isn't part of the plan but with dyspraxia the likelihood of falling down at someone's door during the next twelve months is not out of the question. I have never tended to set traditional resolutions but I do love a challenge. # walk1000miles is a big challenge run by Country Walking  magazine. The rules are fairly flexible but the idea is simply to walk 1000 miles in a calendar year. 1000 miles is about the distance between the UK and Poland. Now I actually do a fair amount of walking and have hit my 10,000 daily step target every day for nearly three years now. Walking a total of 1000 miles would probably not be a huge challenge if I counted every bit of walking I did, including the many miles of chasing chi...

2018 has been a rough year in many ways. Much loved celebrities have turned out to be sexual predators, in the US Donald Trump is still somehow president and in the UK we've had endless talk of Brexit without any results whatsoever. The weather has been too cold and then too hot and then too wet. Personally too it's been a pretty bad year for one reason or another but thankfully we've reached the end of this depressing year. I thought it would be nice to end on something of a positive note and so I'm sharing some of the things I've enjoyed most this year (all items were released this year in the UK so far as I'm aware). Best TV Show: Killing Eve In any year with a Doctor Who series I expect that to be at the top of my list and as much as I enjoyed the new series with Jodie Whittaker's Doctor it didn't make the top spot. Other highlights include the BBC's two Agatha Christie adaptions ( Ordeal by Innocence and The ABC Murders ) and conspiracy-th...

One of the most familiar Christmas traditions is little children performing a nativity. The kids look cute in their costumes mostly made from towels whilst their parents sit on plastic chairs being either bored or tearful depending on their personality. Teachers work extremely hard to put it all together and one of their biggest challenges is trying to give all the children roles in a show where there are at best about ten human parts to play.  It's for this reason that modern nativities often have a range of obscure animals turning up to witness the birth of Jesus Christ. I suppose that just because the bible does mention some lobsters being present in the stable does not mean there weren't any. One of the most obvious choices to fill roles is sheep. The shepherds famously watched their flocks by night and the word 'flocks' is a useful to those casting a nativity as it allows many of the children to be present on stage covered in cotton wool and occasionally ma...

I was driving to work last Friday when it hit me. On this occasion I am not talking about an epiphany, I am talking about being physically struck. "It" can refer to any noun but this time it refers to an airbag. It was a gloomy morning with the sun still rising and failing to make much of impression through the December rain. 'Close to Me' by Ellie Goulding, Diplo and Swae Lee was playing on the radio as I turned the corner to join the dual carriageway as I do everyday. It seemed to be quite busy, probably due to the poor weather, and the headlights refracting off the rain made visibility poor. I had to really concentrate to confirm it was safe to pull onto the road and eventually I concluded it was. My foot pushed down on the pedal and the car began to accelerate. WHAM! "WHAM" is never a good noise to hear when you are in a car. I sat for a moment inspecting my surroundings. My car was now motionless on the edge of the dual carriageway with other vehicl...

You may have seen or heard about a video this week which shows a teenage boy bullying a Syrian refugee. This attack was clearly motivated by race but across the country and indeed the world there are people bullying others over any differences they might perceive. There were several reasons I think I was bullied as a child. I was fairly bright and enjoyed learning, something which inexplicably is not deemed as cool. Being dyspraxic, though I didn't know it at the time, meant I was generally awkward and useless at anything remotely practical. In films or TV shows the format is fairly clear. You are bullied by one person, sometimes with help from their friends, for years until eventually you crack or end up gaining superpowers. My experience was never quite like that. For me, it was more a series of disturbed personalities that sought me out as a way of making them better about themselves. Usually it would last until they got bored or the school would change the classes around....