The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

In which I meet a man on a cliff... (Admittedly Bournemouth does not look like this) It was a sunny June day and I was walking along Bournemouth's East Cliff. Suddenly a man appeared in front of me and asked if anyone had already stopped me. "No" I replied and inexplicably I still found myself stood there. I have a blanket policy of not stopping for people on the street. They usually want to sell you something or more often give money to charity and I am not going to part with my hard-earned money to some person who is interrupting my day.  For some reason I didn't immediately dismiss the man. Perhaps it was because he seemed genuinely friendly, perhaps I was in an unusually tolerant mood due to the sun or perhaps I'd already walked five miles and my oxygen level was depleted. I had stopped and despite myself I now was now committed to the conversation.  "Do you agree that the bible is the word of God?" asked the man. Ah. This man didn't want my mone...

In which I do one wild thing a day... The Wildlife Trusts run an event called  30 Days Wild  in June. The idea is to do one wild thing every day in the month and if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have seen that I am taking part this year. In this blog post I'm going to share what I did for the first fifteen days, going into a bit more detail about some things than I have done in my social media stories.  Day 1: I did a few jobs in my backyard, the most significant being building a new planter designed for climbing plants. Since I've moved in I've wanted to get some greenery on the large fence panel at the back of the yard and now I've finally got a new fence I've been able to do it. I'm on year two of my gradual mission to add some greenery and life to my small yard and have managed to add loads of flowers this year.  Day 2: I had arranged to visit my friend, her husband and their kids at a local country park. Before they arrived I spent some tim...

Previously on The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan: I began an odyssey through film history ( See the 1920s post here ) I'm deep into a big project to watch my way through the book  1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die . I'm pleased to say I've now watched every film in the book that was released in the 1930s! It's been a fascinating journey so far, watching cinema develop in front of my very eyes and observing the world itself change too. Whilst Charlie Chaplin was still making silent films throughout the 1930s, everyone else was now making sound films. Chaplin remained famous but the decade saw the rise of the comedy group. The Marx Brothers have both Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera  on the list and I struggled with them. I enjoyed Laurel and Hardy in Sons of the Desert a lot more and the pair exist as a middle ground between the verbal gags of the Marx Brothers and the pratfalls of the silent era. Many of the genres of film we know and love today were refined in...

In which I recall a celebrity experience... I've previously written here about my celebrity encounters including accidentally giving celebrity gardener Alan Titchmarsh a pen and bumping elbows with the Archbishop of Canterbury. But there was one celebrity encounter which wasn't awkward at all and turned out to be really inspiring.  I was about eleven or twelve I think and most weeks a magazine or newsletter would arrive in the post for me from one environmental organisation or another, be it from the RSPB or in this case the local Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. Their quarterly newsletter for kids included a writing competition where you had to write a five hundred word short story on about the environment.  This was very much in my wheelhouse and I barely had to think about it before an idea developed in my head. A quick bit of research later- well not that quick because this was still the days of dial-up internet- and I'd identified the star of my story. Withi...

In which I discuss loneliness for Mental Health Awareness Week... It's been a good few weeks since I last wrote here and the main reason for that is I was feeling a bit down for in the last few weeks of April. It's perhaps appropriate then that this week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme this year is loneliness.  Loneliness feels like a really important theme as the pandemic has reduced our contact with each other. Due to isolation periods, not being allowed to cross bubbles and only meeting on Zoom, I have regularly felt cut off from the world over the last few years.  I have never considered myself a particularly outgoing or sociable person, indeed I am generally something of an introvert, but I've come to recognise the value of interacting with other people. Humans have evolved to be together and every human brain needs interaction with other human brains to really function properly. If I spend a day on my own I start to feel an emptiness, a sense that my bra...

In which I lament the loss of a childhood haunt... The words 'closing down' can be fraught with emotion. There are some places that feel eternal and there's something comforting about the idea that when you need their services, the place is just there waiting for you. But inevitably time marches on and everything must come to an end.  I was sad to learn recently that the Toy shop, imaginatively named 'Toys', in my home town is closing down. The shop opened in the same year I was born so in my eyes it's always been there. After thirty years of trading the owners are retiring but I will mourn the loss of that shop.  There are a handful of places that meant so much to me in childhood and Toys was one of them. Whilst you could go to Toys R Us for a much wider selection and probably better prices, Toys felt much quieter and calmer. It felt old-fashioned in the best of ways, it was comforting in the same way a grandparent is. As long as I can remember it's always ...

In which I discuss this year's Oscar contenders... It's become something of a tradition for me to write about the year's Best Picture nominees. Usually what happens is that I see about 80% of the nominees and one of the films I hasn't seen goes on to win the award. I'm pleased to say that's not the case this year as I've seen all ten nominees! As usual I'm going to give a brief rundown of each film and it's chances of winning.  Belfast This is a story about growing up in Belfast in the 60s and 70s inspired by director Kenneth Branagh's own childhood. It touches on the Troubles as nine-year old Buddy doesn't really understand the conflict and his Pa is pressurised to join the Protestant action. It's also just a lovely story about childhood taking in everything from a first crush to the popular culture of the time. It's not totally dissimilar to Roma which won the award a few years back and personally I loved the film and it's my to...