Today turned out to be busier than expected at work. Last minute bookings meant a 200% increase in bookings from what it had looked like on the sheet yesterday morning. However, I was pleased to find that nobody was either booked or turned up around 11am so I could take a couple of minutes of respectful silence to mark Remembrance Day.

The two world wars are another year further away but peace has not yet set in around the globe. Having had my chainsaw accident earlier this year also gave it another, unexpected resonance. Not everyone comes back from war and many that do bear scars. My scar was from a different cause and turns out to have been a blessedly minor injury in the scheme of things but the hours I spent when it wasn’t clear if that was going to be the case, and the mark that I will probably carry on my arm for the rest of my days, made this year’s quiet reflection particularly poignant to me.