Tonight Channel 4 screened an interesting documentary - "1983: The Brink of Apocalypse". It was an powerful look over the events of November 1983, when a series of mis-reported events regarding a NATO training exercise were interpreted by the Soviet Union as a genuine threat.

It tells the story of how the training exercise, 'Able Archer' - a ten-day campaign, simulating a nuclear strike on the USSR - was believed to be real by senior Russian figures.

The USSR's paranoia mirrored the USA's belligerence, and the program documented well the continuing process of 'winning' the Cold War by stockpiling the most weapons and technology. It's completely crazy to think that this actually really happened, and only 25 years ago.

Of course, being a spritely 29.6-year-old (I am not thirty, yet!), I don't remember much of the Cold War itself - I was too little to really remember the Government's 'Protect and Survive' scheme, and I don't recall hearing the tests of the 4 minute warning sirens that people just a few years older than me remember well.

I recall very well the Berlin Wall falling, and I remember all the fanfare, news coverage, and the unforgettable photos and film-footage of East and West Germans taking pick-axes and sledgehammers to the wall, but, being 11, I was probably more interested at the time as to why Thundercats wasn't on, and just exactly was this silly 'wall' business all over my telly!

Of course, older and wiser, I well understand the significance of the end of the Cold War. Watching movies like 'Threads' - showing the destruction of Sheffield and the devolution of society to pre-mediaeval levels following a nuclear strike - brings home the gravity of the situation the world found itself in, particularly during the late 70's and early 80's, when the Cold War was at its height.

Not long after I first met Emma, she told me that her dad had been in the Royal Observer Corps (of course, I only found that out later - she described it as something along the lines of; "Well, he went into underground bunkers, or something, I don't know what he did, he doesn't talk about it much").

The ROC operated a number of underground monitoring posts all over the country - over a thousand at its height - which were staffed by people just like Emma's dad. In the event of an imminent attack, these people were to drop everything, and go directly to their posts, where they would monitor the outside world from their cramped underground post.

The data they produced would be sent up the chain giving likely fallout and radiation levels in their location. Of course, what the chaps that staffed these posts were expected to do when their three-day food ration had expired is left as an exercise for the reader. It was the Cold War equivalent of "Dad's Army", only with far, far more dire consequences of being 'called out'.

I find the Cold War quite fascinating - that as an allegeldy 'civilized' world we were so frighteningly close to total destruction, and so recently. Going back to the documentary - it did a pretty good job of simulating the collective melancholy of the times, complete with moody synthy-New Romantic soundtrack. It's just a bloody pity they spoiled it all, in one fell swoop in one scene.

The documentary explains how double-agents on both sides, East and West, would pass intelligence to the UK and the USSR, and one former spy recounted his methods - showing us his tiny Bond-esque camera, and his more interesting device - a calculator, which was actually a recording (and apparantly encoding) device of sorts. He claimed to use this to record data, which was then transmitted down a regular phone line - modem style. Sure, it's all James Bond spy stuff, but what threw it all out the window was the reconstruction, showing the spy using the device, and typing the immortal sequence 55378008 into the calculator! Blam! Cold War suspense...erm....suspended!

Speaking of Colds. Mine appears to be returning. Cough and sore throat back, and now it's coupled with a distinct feeling of nausea, making me feel like throwing up. However, I've succeeded so far in not doing so. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

We went to Meadowhall today, and Emma's great idea of going at 10am appeared to be a winner. It was regular Meadowhall, but, without the hordes. Which was nice. I wheeled Aimee around the centre a couple of times whilst Emma got her hair styled, primped, preemed, straightened, curled, blown dry, held, cut - you name it, they did it!

Also of note is the Argos filing cabinet which I assembled late last night. It was of typical Argos construction, with exceptionally fiddly screws and nuts to fit, but it appears to be fairly sturdy, which makes a change for Argos stuff. However, the A4 files which Emma bought for the thing don't appear to fit - they're too wide, which is a bit of a pain. I hope it's the files which are 'wrong', and not the unit, not least because taking the bastard thing apart again to send back will probably be much, much harder than putting it together in the first place. Ho hum.