Dan McNeil's Blog

OK.  So it's not that late.  It's only half past eleven.  But it's late for me.  It's certainly later that I'm usually on the tube.  I know that London has a second "rush hour" around 11pm at night, but it's not something I experience all that often. But tonight I was out with some work people over in West London and I headed off at a sensible time to make my way across town.  One of the joys of living relatively centrally is that cabs don't break the bank. In all honesty I'm not out that often, and so getting a cab home from the centre of town is so rare it's affordable.  But not tonight.  Not all the way from Shepherd's Bush. So I plodded my way through West London, Google Maps guiding the way, and ended up at White City.  I jumped onto the Central Line and grabbed myself a seat.  The carriage was mostly full of people lying along the seats, half asleep.  But opposite me was a guy with a funky hair cut eating a bar of chocolat...

The company I work for (well sort of) has been sending out emails recently with the subject "Expect the Unexpected" and just containing a photo of something supposedly unexpected. One of the photos, for instance, was a young girl standing next to a tin of blue paint having daubed the walls.  Unfortunate, perhaps - but certainly not unexpected, surely? Life is full of unexpected things.  Almost every day contains something you didn't know was going to happen. And that's what makes life great.  Well one of the things.  Béarnaise Sauce is another thing which makes life great.  Anyway, I digress. The other morning I was on the tube on the way to work and there was a guy opposite me.  Probably around 40 years old, he was a portly chap with stubble and a mess of unkempt hair. He was wearing earphones which were leaking sound so I could hear the tinny distant sound of a voice.  That voice was Susan Boyle.  Singing "I Dreamed A Dream".  The guy...

It's nearly two years since the UK General Election result which left much of the country scratching their heads, thinking "what now?".  For the living memory of most of the people watching the results come in, UK General Elections delivered a clear winner.  Either the Tories or Labour would win the election and plod away with their own brand of policy for four or five years and then the whole process would be repeated.  An election which didn't give such a clear winner felt, to many people, unsatisfactory.  It felt as though there was unfinished business. That business unravelled over the following few days.  The Tories had won both the most votes and the most seats, followed by Labour and then the Lib Dems a way behind them.  The maths was such that Tories plus Lib Dems would be enough for a majority in the house; Labour and Lib Dems would give a total greater than the Tories but not enough for an overall majority. Just under a week after the electio...

What a nihilistic title for a post.  Of course, I don't mean it generally; I'm being very specific with it. There are things in my life I care about and have always cared about.  I care about the well-being of my friends.  I care about having an interesting career.  I care about the latest scientific developments.  And I care about the health of our guinea pigs. There are things I have never cared about.  Football, for instance. And then there are the things I used to care about, but really don't raise any interest anymore.  Things which I used to actively seek out information about and take an active interest in, but which now pass me by.  It's not that I've gone from "liking" them to "disliking" them - it's simply that I don't really care anymore. Firstly on the list is Madonna.  Back when she put out "Ray Of Light", I used to listen to every single and follow when the next album was coming out.  We even went to see h...

I've been accused of wearing my "never seen many films" badge with honour.  I wouldn't say I wear such a badge with honour, but it's certainly something I talk about often.   It's interesting to talk about for two reasons. When talking about how few films I've seen, it's interesting to hear people tell me how much I'm missing out on.  Even the most banal of film can turn into a cinematic masterpiece when people are telling me how much better than the book it is.  Secondly, and more interestingly, people often say "you should definitely watch this " and then recommend the films I should watch. The other weekend, we had a couple of friends over for an evening in, and I saw True Lies.  It was honestly the first time I'd ever seen it, and by my rough counting, I think it was the 19th film I've ever seen all the way through.  Yes, nineteen.    It was fun; I did enjoy it. I've no moral objection to film.  I don't see it as a...

It's an oft-asked question - "What would be your super power if you could have one?" It's not a question I've pondered much, but if you were to ask me right this second, my answer wouldn't be anything to do with solving world hunger or being invisible so I could creep around the place unseen - right now, I'd like to be able to ironing clothes whilst sitting on the sofa using only the power of my mind. But whilst on the subject of mundane super powers, I once saw Laurence Llewellyn Bowen by the side of the road.  It was back when I worked near Paddington and he was standing on Eastbourne Terrace.   Suddenly, he flung his arm out and performed what can only be described as a "dandy-ish gesture" with his hand.  Right at that second, a Mercedes pulled up alongside him - seemingly appearing from nowhere - and he climbed in and was whisked away.   Now that's a super power I wouldn't mind - gesture your hand in a slightly camp way and a Merc...

I do love a good ghost story.  I don't believe for a second that ghosts actually exist, but a well-written ghost story is a great thing to read. Even for someone who doesn't believe in ghosts, a well-written ghost story can create enough tension to get the hairs on the back of my neck standing up.  Even though I know there's not going to be anything staring back at me, a well-written ghost story can cause me to stare nervously out of the window into the darkness, for a moment hoping that there won't be a figure looking back at me. So, I bought "The Woman In Black" at the weekend.  I don't ever go to the cinema (*) but I am aware enough to know that the film's out at the moment and I'm aware of the stage play, too.  I guess that's why the book was so prominent in Waterstones when I was in there. Anyway, I'd heard that it was genuinely quite scary, so I thought I'd pick it up and give it a read.  It's a short book, so I got thro...