30 January 2012 (Silver Spring, MD)

I don’t want to say the movie was a complete wash, Meryl Streep gave an amazing performance in portraying Thatcher. Honestly, one of her best performances, but I felt that the movie let down Streep by not enabling Streep to really focus on a set period of time in Thatcher’s life.

The flashbacks serve to only give you glimpse in to all the different events that made up Thatcher’s journey in becoming the ‘Iron Lady.’ I would love to see a PBS Masterpiece-like series done on Thatcher’s life as there is soo much there to be explored. You could easily have a 6 part series just on Thatcher surviving WWII and going on to university and through to marrying her husband. Another 6 part series on her political history with entry in to the Conservative (Tory party) to her rise to head of the Party. You would probably need an 8 part series to go over her time as Prime Minister. Finally a 2 to 3 part series on Thatcher’s life after stepping down as Prime Minister.

The movie, for me, was a first attempt to do a movie on Thatcher. No doubt, others will try. I had high hopes for “The Iron Lady” which were dashed. A swing and a miss.

As for onemanflying.com, a similar fate. I was able to go invest in flight training personally and professionally prior to 2009. But since 2009, I briefly pursued my instrument rating but as the economy become more shaky, really could no longer justify the costs of flight training. Flying remains a true passion in my life, but it is one that, for now, I have had to stop my flight training and really stop flying as a whole.

There are other contributing factors as things in my life have been in flux in the last two years which have contributed to me no longer really able to regularly generate new material for my various, specially focused web sites. Going forward, I will have and maintain only two web sites – arushton.com and rushtonphotography.com.

So, the sun sets on my web site…. for those that checked in a onemanflying.com and globetrotting.com, thank you for checking them out.

Alex Rushton

It was a great weekend get away from the chaos that is life in Washington. Returning to Roanoke to me out of the urban jungle and into a softer, kinder, slowly pace of life that one can never find in urban jungles like Washington, NYC or London, all three cities that I have lived in. For me, Roanoke will always hold a special place in my life as it was where I would go through the bulk of my schooling, starting with 4th grade at Crystal Spring Elementary School through what was James Madison Junior High (now a middle school) and Patrick Henry High School.

The images below show how things are today from my old stomping grounds around Roanoke. A lot hasn’t changed, although, it was sad to see Lipes Pharmacy empty and closed. It was a South Roanoke institution. Lipes used to have a lunch bar and soda stand that I recall going to after school to get a bite to eat.