So it goes: Pride: Marvellous

Well that's it, the people have spoken and no independence no more, or at least for a while. Maybe the Catalans will do it before us. I'm not too surprised we lost so I wasn't too depressed at the result but I feel for all those activists who put so much into their campaign. It will take them some time to get over it but hopefully they won't give up on the activism. It's good for the soul. And God knows there's plenty to be active about. You may have noticed we're off to war again to kill a few more innocents. Will these people ever learn? I guess not. And what a pitiful sight Miliband makes.

My recovery continues at a slow but steady pace. I wish things would move faster but I'm glad to be feeling stronger by the day. My next appointment at the hospital will be on 12 November when I should be told the result of the scan they plan to give me to see if my body is clear of cancer. I can't say that I'm looking forward to it but at the same time I want it over and done with. I'm quietly confident that I will be able to live a more or less normal life after that. Let's hope all the treatment they've put me through over the past eighteen months has destroyed all the cancer cells in my lymph nodes and blood vessels and wherever else the little bastards were lurking.

I went to see a movie yesterday for the first time for a very long time and it felt good to be back in a cinema again. I saw a film called Pride with my good friend Emer. It was her birthday a few days ago so happy birthday, again, Emer. The film was excellent, funny, moving and in the end triumphant despite the final outcome of the miners' strike which is the historical setting for it. Some of you may know the background but if not it's based on a true story about how a group of young gays set up Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners and then proceeded to raise money for them and eventually made there way to South Wales to hand over their collections. Then it's all about what happened once they got there. It's a bit like Full Monty or Billy Elliott and just as good as both these films. I must admit I had a tear in my eye once or twice, especially when the miners' wives got up and sang Bread and Roses. Terrific. The soundtrack is worth a listen for those of you who were around at the time or even if you weren't. It brought back many memories of doing collections for the miners in and outside Argyle House, where I worked in those long off days, and then going out to various miners' clubs to deliver the proceeds.

I still remember some of the miners we met, but I can't seem to remember who came with me on those trips. If you were one of them let me know please. That year was also the year my father died and I spent some time back on The Isle of Lewis looking after him as he died. So it was quite an emotional movie for me one way or the other.

I hope you all managed to watch Marvellous which was on BBC 2 last week. It's what TV was made for. I've rarely seen a better made for TV movie. It's based on the true story of Neil Baldwin, played beautifully by Toby Jones, and set in and around Stoke on Trent, where I spent some very happy, memorable years in the sixties. If you haven't seen it I can highly recommend it and it should still be on iPlayer. If you're not in the country that's a shame, so go and see Pride instead. in fact see both if you can...

"So it goes" as Kurt Vonnegut said more than once in his novel Slaughterhouse Five. I think he used the phrase after every death of which there were many. He saw some terrible things in Dresden in 1945.

He also warned against the use of semicolons, calling them "transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing". So better be careful with my semicolons I think.