Would you be happy if your dreams came true? | Open thread

Posted on March 31, 2011 - by Venik

Would you be happy if your dreams came true? | Open thread

News from Britain

Kim Philby turned to drink after defecting to the Soviet Union. Tell us if achieving your dreams lived up to your expectations

At the end of the 1971 movie, Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka asks chocolate factory heir-apparent Charlie Bucket if he’d heard the story of the man who got everything he wanted? “He lived happily ever after.”

Meanwhile, in Moscow, the spy Kim Philby was still adjusting to life under the Soviet regime he had spent most of his adult years secretly working for while in the heart of the British establishment. His wife has now revealed that far from finding utopia after his defection, he had been bitterly disappointed and turned to drink.

Some say it’s better to travel than arrive. So, if and when your dreams – of a new job, success, place to live – came true, did you find happiness? Is fulfilment that easy to find? Or is the grass not always greener? Are you with Wonka or Philby?

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2011 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions |

Popularity: 1% [?]

Spy Kim Philby died disillusioned with communism
Mozambique’s food riots – the true face of global warming | Raj Patel
Russia's European Dreams
Response: Russia has changed. It is now open about the Stalin era
Global warming to open up north-east Arctic tanker route

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 31st, 2011 at 11:20 am and is filed under News from Britain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

1 Comment

We'd love to hear yours!

Visit My Website

April 2, 2011

Permalink

kvs said:

Brits will turn to drink in Russia, while Russians will turn to drink in the UK. This is not necessarily related to Soviet communism.

Reply

Here's your chance to speak.

Battle of Bordino

Photos of the Battle of Borodino reenactment by photographer Anton Agarkov
Get the Flash Player to see the slideshow.
Sukhoi Su-30 & Superjet-100

Sukhoi's promotional video from the 2009 MAKS airshow showing the latest versions of the Su-30 fighter-bomber and the Superjet-100 medium-range airliner.
Latest News
Recent Comments
- kvs: Does this bimbo care about the dozens of people killed by Khodorkovsky’s henchmen during his takeover of...
- Luca: Well, I’ve always been a big supporter for the French, Canadians, British, and the Americans and these...
- kvs: Brits will turn to drink in Russia, while Russians will turn to drink in the UK. This is not necessarily related...
- kvs: Selective political BS and scaremongering. The issue is that these 1950s water moderated designs are dangerous...
- if only: I knew how to write comments correctly? love your writing style venik you have a certain ‘cool’...
Abkhazia assange Black Sea Bush Defense department of state European Union Georgia Gordon Brown interview julian assange kremlin Lavrov leak London Medvedev missile Moscow NATO obama Putin Rice Russia russian air force russians Saakashvili SAM Sarkozy soldiers South Ossetia sukhoi t-50 tanks Tbilisi Timoshenko troops Tskhinvali Ukraine US us department of state war Washington WikiLeaks Yanukovich Yushchenko

WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
- May 27, 2011
  MOSCOW – Two convicted murderers kidnapped six staff members at a maximum security prison in Russia on Friday, but police attacked the men as they tried to escape and freed the hostages. The two inmates in their 20s, both serving prison sentences until 2025, took the female staff members hostage at a hospital within the No. 4 prison in the northwestern city […]
- May 27, 2011
  MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia has signed a contract with the US Army to deliver 21 MI-17 helicopters to Afghanistan, new agencies quoted the defence ministry's arms oversight service as saying Friday. The contract includes new helicopters, along with "delivery of spare parts, on-ground service, and material-technical support," RIA Novosti quoted the F […]
- May 27, 2011
  MOSCOW – Russia's state-controlled oil company Rosneft could team up and swap shares with Royal Dutch Shell in an Arctic offshore deal similar to one that fell through with BP Plc this month, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday. The $16 billion share swap would have seen BP and Rosneft jointly develop Russia's sector of the Arctic shelf, but […]
- May 27, 2011
  WARSAW (Reuters) – The United States believes Russia can help resolve the Libya crisis and will liaise with Moscow on the issue, a White House official said on Friday, shortly after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered to mediate. President Barack Obama and Medvedev discussed the Libya crisis on Thursday on the sidelines of a summit of Group of Eight na […]
- May 27, 2011
  DEAUVILLE, France (Reuters) – G8 leaders meeting in France for their annual summit this week kept their discussions on the IMF succession strictly in the corridors and avoided any joint endorsement of France's Christine Lagarde as a candidate. Lagarde, France's finance minister, is the clear frontrunner to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn as IMF mana […]

Server Info

Server:        box468.bluehost.com
OS:             Red Hat 4.1.2-48
Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-29.1.BHsmp
Arch:   64-bit OS running on 64-bit hardware 
CPU(s): 8 x 4-core Intel Xeon CPU E5420@ 2.50GHz
RAM:    16Gb (98% used), 16 x 1Gb DIMMs
Swap:   16Gb (3% used), paging in/out: 0/0
Uptime: 61 days
Load:   .65, .58, .51
CPU %:  32 CPU cores at 51% combined utilization
Apps:   MySQL 5.1.56, Perl 5.8.8
Issues: occasional RAM shortages

Posted on March 31, 2011 - by Venik