The most enjoyable things about preparing these blogs is to find an appropriate photo and a relevant prayer. A recent blog was accompanied by a donkey and an old rhinocerous, with the question, which one was I? Once upon a time, in a former I was very definitely a rhino, a charging rhino. I'd been... Continue Reading →
I had to make an early (for me) start today to get to a hospital in Portsmouth. People anxious about me having rather too much iron in my blood; me worrying that I was slowly turning into a giant magnet. Never having been there before I allowed an hour for the trip. Coat on, ready... Continue Reading →
Last week, right out of the blue, someone told me I was a cheapskate, with a ‘very different set of values to theirs’. Cheapskate: a miserly or stingy person, especially one who tries to avoid paying a fair share of costs or expenses. Etymology: skate - an old horse not worth much, (at least one up... Continue Reading →
I’ve finally come to an end of a challenging assignment. My toughest so far by a long long way. I mentioned in my last blog that I'd been invited to join the board of a local food bank, saying 'this would be like a walk in the park'. ‘You wish’, responded the CEO. I hope... Continue Reading →
I’m coming to the end (hopefully) to what has been toughest assignment of all my years as a charity consultant. For a bit of light relief I’ve offered myself to a local foodbank. It’ll be a walk in the park after my recent experiences. I notice that food banks are gearing themselves up to what’s... Continue Reading →
As I stood at the till to pay, the barber who’d come all the way from Estonia to cut my hair asked me if I was a patient. ‘Sorry’ I replied. ‘Are you a patient?’ Aware I’d put my hearing aids into a pocket and everything was a bit muffled, I looked at him helplessly.... Continue Reading →
There’s been a sea change in my life. It started in the lockdown; you remember that time of madness when the politicians gave into public demand and we all had to stay home, destroying the economy and thousands of small businesses in the process. The politicians never believed in it, hence Barnard Castle, and ‘partygate’... Continue Reading →
It must be ten years ago; I was rooting around in a junk shop in Broadstairs when I came across a wooden framed prayer that resonated with me. It was about someone who started out well in their journey of faith, but stuff happened and it all fell away. I paid a couple of pounds... Continue Reading →
“As we journey through life, discarding baggage along the way, we should keep an iron grip, to the very end, on the capacity for silliness. It preserves the soul from desiccation.” (Humphrey Littleton, quoted in The Times.) Right now we’re all trying hard to make sense of things. Danger threatens from different directions; serious hardship or... Continue Reading →
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