What has gone wrong in your life?

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

I was speaking to a young lady who had found herself homeless and was living in a hostel. She opened up a little about her life and very articulately told me about her schooling and how she did well at school. Then she said looking down at the floor, ‘Something went wrong!’ she didn’t divulge what and I wasn’t going to ask! 

'Something went wrong’, is an adage that we may well be able to apply to some aspect of our lives. Many people look back at something that went wrong, and they have moved on or corrected it and it no longer is evident in their lives, just a distant memory that may just pop up in their thinking from time to time. But for many people the incident or circumstances that impacted on them so badly have implications for the rest of their life. 

The Liver Building, Liverpool Waterfront

Digital Storage - will it survive?

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

In a day when many people carry at least two cameras with them wherever they go in the form of a forward and a rearward facing camera on their smartphone, we might hardly know that first digital camera was only invented in 1975. The first camera phone went on sale as recently as the year 2000 but that was only capable of photographs with a resolution of just over a 10th of a megapixel. 

Some people have concerns that due to the pace of advancement in technology, information stored digitally could be lost altogether resulting in a digital black hole. Who knows where we might be in terms of data storage in just 100 years time. I’m about old enough to remember CD’s overtaking cassette tapes in the 90’s but I’m sure that some will be able to go further back than that.

Do you feel like the QE2? - left to rot

All photos courtesy of Unsplash 

The QE2 – the longest, widest, tallest, fastest and most expensive passenger liner when it was built – made 26 circumnavigations of the world and took more than three million passengers a staggering 5,875,264 nautical miles in glittering surroundings that were the epitome of luxury. 

Today, however, more than 55 years after she was launched, the once magnificent QE2 is a discarded shell taking on rainwater and slowly gathering rust alongside a spartan dockside in Dubai’s commercial harbour, Port Rashid. At a distance – and that’s how the security guards like to keep inquisitive tourists – the former Cunard flagship looks as if she is ready to cast off at any moment, full steam ahead on what would be her 1,375th voyage. Close up the reality is tragically different. Gone are the glorious days of pre-dinner cocktails in the Chart Room, formal meals at the captain’s table or late nights over liqueurs in the Yacht Club. No longer do bronzed couples on 80-day world cruises spend lazy hours on sunbeds or enjoy unhurried moonlit strolls around the teak deck.