It was twenty years ago today...

I had a ranty post all written up and shiny-new ready for today, featuring in no particular order; PMT, shouty walks with pre-schoolers, unwashed cereal bowls, PMT, sneaky donuts, PMT, and gloves that look like fishes. But I'm afraid you'll have to wait to read that little belter as I realised this morning that today it is 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell.

This resulted in two thoughts; firstly, god, am I really that old..? And secondly; what would my life be like if it were still standing?

You might think it would be pretty much the same (with the exception perhaps of the fact that I would be unlikely to be moving to Moscow in the next 2 months). But I think this is a perfect example of the butterfly effect. Although admittedly, given the impact this event has had world-wide on not just the people of Germany but of the whole previously Soviet Bloc and ultimately, the world, the butterfly in this instance would be more like a planet sized insect than a fluttery tortoise-shell (now there's an image to give you nightmares)

I remember exactly where I was when the Wall started to come down. An ex-boyfriend and I were in the middle of a very badly-planned hitch-hiking trip to northern France (Hitch-Hiking? In Normandy in November? For Pete's sake, why???), and I was sporting a very fetching black eye from having tripped over in the dark as we arrived on the night ferry to Cherbourg. (Poor Ex-Boyfriend - previously referred to in this post as Sporty Boy - spent the next 4 days being given very suspicious looks by everyone we encountered. At the time I thought that was in part deserved for having convinced me a trip hitch-hiking in Northern Europe in late Autumn was a good idea). Obviously the hitch-hiking thing didn't really work out - no shxt, Sherlock - so we found ourselves on a train to Mont St Michel where we chatted to a perky American girl, travelling solo, who was hoping to head East to watch 'the show' as she so fetchingly called it.

Now, I don't really buy into the whole fame / infamy by association thing. It's not important to me to rush to be in Trafalgar Square when London is awarded the 2012 Olympics, or stand outside the Big Brother house cheering or booing the latest unfortunate to arrive or be booted out. But I can't help feeling that not travelling to Berlin when this incredible event - that would ultimately result in the fall of the Soviet Communist state - was taking place was particuarly short-sighted of me. I should have just stayed on that train with Perky American Chick and gone as far as I could go in that direction. It's a sign of how much my horizons have broadened that I realise now that getting there would have been achievable with actually not very much effort. It's one of the few regrets I have in life that I didn't do it.

As for how the Berlin Wall's demise has impacted directly on my life, well that's easy. I would never have met a tall skinny Dutch guy temporarily working in London in transit to a job in Moscow, for a start. Everything from that point on - for me - would have been different. Not necessarily better or worse, but certainly different.

And, most probably, a great deal more boring.

How about you? Did it affect your life?