The ministers from the East Anglia Methodist District are invited to attend a retreat each year and we have been spending a couple of days at the wonderful Sizewell Hall on the Suffolk coast. We were introduced to the concept of visio divina which is a process of contemplative prayer, the leader of the retreat…
For six and a half years of my life around the turn of the millennium I worked for the menswear retailer Greenwoods Menswear. I joined the company in 1998 as an agency warehouseman following one of the most difficult periods in my career and by the time I left in 2005 to become a minister…
Over the years I have enjoyed completing jigsaw puzzles, there was a time when I would tackle a 1000 piece on a drawing board and would sit there patiently over several days working on my challenge. Unlike a lot of people who will start with assembling the edge pieces first, my style was to pick…
For many years now, I have travelled from Lofthouse in Upper Nidderdale over the moors and down to Masham in Wensleydale, firstly with my parents in our trusty little three-wheeler Reliant Regal then, in more recent years, I have driven my own family. Looking up to my right on the descent towards Leighton Reservoir I…
The last time we experienced a solar eclipse was back in 1999 and when Karen (my wife) mentioned that to one of her carers the young carer replied “I hadn’t even been born in 1999” – talk about making you feel your age! I remember well that day 27 years ago, Karen was a Registered…
My auntie and uncle ran the Moor Grocer’s shop in Killinghall Road, Undercliffe, Bradford for many years. Their day started early with the bacon being delivered to be boned and rolled, they had two big lumps of lard and butter that would be weighed out and it was a typical grocer’s shop of the day…
Having lived in East Anglia for almost 21 years now, we have built up a love-hate relationship with the A47, the main trunk road linking all points west to the beautiful east coast. This particular stretch was built on the railway bed just west of Dereham and boasts a delightful three miles of ruler-straight road…
The Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 made it unlawful to discriminate against people living with disabilities. 30 years on we have made great strides, but we are still not quite there. As somebody who regularly pushes a wheelchair, I have come to be a bit of an expert on just how inaccessible some “accessible” toilets…
It’s amazing how quickly we forget. One of the churches I worked with in 2020 decided to distribute daffodils to church folk as a small gesture to show that the church family remembered them. I thought that this was a lovely idea, so each time we went to the supermarket, we bought some small pot…
A friend of mine gave me this little chap as gift; I believe that he comes from Zimbabwe and he sits on the book shelf over my desk. I was told when I received the gift that the piece it titled “The Thinker” and I love him, whenever I sit pondering over how to word…