Balloons at the Brandenburg Gate

I make no apologies for blipping a photo of the screen of my iPad, because for me THE event of the day was the start of the celebrations in Berlin to mark the 25th anniversary of the pulling down of the Wall. This was followed, shortly afterwards, by the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czechoslovakia, and by a thousand other aftershocks, mostly positive, in all other former Iron Curtain countries.

It must be difficult for children in Germany today to imagine what life was like in the former DDR, with all the attendant travel restrictions and watching one's back. I was surprised when my niece Christina came home from school a few years ago and said she'd been learning about 1960s protest in history lessons, as well as the Cold War. For my university mates and I, the four-minute warning was something we discussed endlessly. It was as real a prospect as, say, the fire alarm going off. And there'd be no point in panic or regret when it did sound. Just no time for all of that!

At the time of the ground-breaking events, I was watching on a fuzzy black and and white TV in East London. Everything had a dreamlike quality, because I'd just been discharged from hospital, having had all my wisdom teeth out that morning. Next morning I got up with a face like a hamster's, and went shopping in Islington. Little did I realise that within a couple of years I'd set off to live in a shoe manufacturing town in South Moravia, Czechoslovakia. How I got to be there is a long story that involved a pre-revolutionary visit to Latvia, then part of the USSR.

This isn't the write up I want to write. My ideal one is much more global and has nothing to do with Upper Street or wisdom teeeth. It's about freedom, and openness, and democracy, and improving the lives of many, many millions of people. This picture is for them, and for those I know who grew up in the DDR, Czechoslovakia, or Latvia. My third and final link is in honour of my friend, and all my friends in the Czech Republic.

And let's not forget to mention the people of Ukraine, whichever side of the conflict they find themselves caught in.

Tonight's image shows the white balloons which have been lit up to line the route of the former Berlin wall. How amazing it would be to stand there at dusk and watch them spring into sudden brightness.