Unboxed

Having unpacked the seventy or so boxes from our move (despite the slowing down nature of Covid for both of us) it’s good to see some semblance of normality gradually returning. Some stability in this time of change. Moving house is a very good analogy to different aspects of life. Read more…

Stability

Stability. It’s become the watch word of the current economic and political crisis. We’ve had the whole Brexit palaver. The pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy and cost of living crises. Inflation and strikes on a level not seen since the 70s. The death of the Queen. Economic turmoil from Read more…

Two new books

I first wrote a book over 30 years ago. Called All God’s Work it reflected on the nature of work being not just paid employment but also tasks done in voluntary,  community and domestic roles. It also explored the experiences of being unemployed. After numerous rejections it was finally accepted. Read more…

Seaside rock

The beginning of a holiday can sometimes feel like being in a badly landing plane. Whether ‘piloted’ by day to day work, family or other responsibilities, it can take a while to adjust to the change of pace and other aspects of being on holiday. Whether or not we like Read more…

From one Queen to another

Under pressure? Want somebody to love? Or just to ride your bicycle? Recently, I went to see Queen with Adam Lambert. A presence in the music industry for over five decades, most of Queen’s songs are over 30 years old – and yes, I knew every single one of them.  Read more…

Coping with loss

‘We’re in the funeral generation now,’ I said as we walked away from having said goodbye to Elizabeth. A kinder person you couldn’t have wished to have known. Jane and I have been to more funerals in the last three months than in the past three years (and that’s without Read more…

Coping with change

‘Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, Turn and face the strange’. In my last job I was (and knew I was) very fortunate to work alongside people who were supportive, encouraging and had a default answer of ‘yes’. The last three years have been a stark reminder that not everyone else is like that! Coping Read more…

Into the valley

Into the valley of Death    Rode the six hundred. It seems somewhat foolish to being calling it ‘Freedom Day’. With a third Covid wave charging onward, Tennyson’s famous lines have for me found a very uncomfortable echo in the lifting of restrictions in England on 19 July. Not though Read more…