Take your time.

Even if it's just for a minute.


I constantly get the feeling that I've got no time for things, especially the things that matter to me, things that should get more of my time.
So today I decided to make the effort and take some time.
I finished work early and went to watch the new Jonathan Glazer film, Under The Skin, at The Cornerhouse in Manchester.
Very unsettling film that offers no explanation for what you see; the sound made it feel almost claustrophobic at times.
I then had some time to wander round the recently restored and reopened Central Library. It looks bloody lovely, and it also now has a great archive and resource centre that has oodles of Manchester history.

And then, I met my dad for a coffee - just like last Thursday.
Last Thursday I posted a photo of my dad, and a few words about him. And the response I got from all you lovely people was....well, lovely. I didn't expect it at all. Thank you.
My relationship with my dad has been difficult for a number of years, but I decided recently to try to build some bridges and share some memories.
Today my dad told me that although he was a small child during World War 2, he was never scared by the air raid warnings, or the sound of planes flying over. It was just how life was.
He told me how he remembers that just after the war, there were some German prisoners of war who worked on farms close to where he grew up in Widnes. Some of the prisoners would have their Sunday dinners with his family. One was very reserved, the other was quite honest that he didn't want to fight in any war but got conscripted. After being released, the second POW regularly sent postcards from close to Munich where he returned to say thank you to my dad's family for their hospitality.
The conversation then jumped forward almost twenty years to my dad's time as a travel agent in the mid 1960s. He was regularly rewarded with foreign trips for his hard work and never realised that it was because he was so good at his job.
In 1965, my dad travelled to Japan and got to travel on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the Japanese Bullet Train that had its debut in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
He didn't stay working there for much longer as life got in the way, which I think is a shame.
We didn't get the chance to talk about much more tonight, but there's always next week. I will make the time.

(I posted some of today's photos to flickr. There's a few of Central Library if you're interested.)