The past 15 years

I have been reading about David Bain this evening in light of today's finding by a jury that he is not guilty of murdering his family 15 years ago. When reading the news about how he is now completely free after all that time (in the legal sense at least, I imagine he will never be free from gossip and sideways glances), I started thinking about just how long 15 years actually is. Since mid-1994, David Bain has been in prison. Since mid-1994, in contrast, I have been to 31 countries, received 2 degrees, been shopping countless times, as well as eaten out, gone to parties, and had an average of a good laugh a day (so about 5,400 then), climbed 3 mountains and run one half marathon, dam dropped, gone both black water and white water rafting, gotten married, learnt to speak Italian well and Spanish, Maori and Arabic badly, and have discovered the joys of sushi, mee goring, Coke Zero and pasta while also learning that coloured jeans, blonde highlights and two minute noodles are not for me.

15 years really is a long time when thought about like that. Whether he did it or not, David Bain must be feeling more than a little overwhelmed right now. It also makes me sad for his brother, Stephen Bain, who was only a month older than me when he was killed. If things hadn't happened as they did (I am being deliberately ambiguous as I still can't decide what happened) I imagine he would have been able to rack up quite a list as well.