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A tourist has claimed the ninth sighting of the Loch Ness Monster this year: ‘Colin Veacock scanned the water with his binoculars and said he spotted something around 2ft high and up to 12ft long.’ Apparently Gary Campbell is the ‘keeper of the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register…. The experience was that Colin sawContinue reading “Part of the Bigger Picture”

On the Lowestoft prom is a telescope looking out to sea. Beneath it says in big letters: ‘Can you see the sea?’ Then in smaller letters beneath: ‘Monster’. By adding a word the meaning changes! When I was a boy my chemistry teacher, Oily Wakefield, used to say ‘Go and sit on the fire…(dramatic pause)…Continue reading “Sea Monsters and Fire Buckets”

Musing… Humpty Dumpty was an fragile egg; perhaps I’m a fragile Humpty. I live in a fragile world – demonstrated by climate change and pollution. I’m reminded that  my health is fragile – covid, cancer… I’m surrounded by fragile confidence, fragile relationships, fragile hope… Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Fragile eggs should be inContinue reading “Humpty Dumpty”

No more turning awayFrom the weak and the wearyNo more turning away from the coldness insideJust a world that we all must shareIt’s not enough just to stand and stareIs it only a dream that there’ll beNo more turning away? Chris often sends me random songs. I hadn’t met Pink Floyd’s ‘On the Turning Away’Continue reading “Turning Away Or Facing Up”

One of the good things about the TV coverage of the Olympics has been the interviews with family and friends back in Britain – medal winning athletes are seen as ordinary people like us. Last night it was gymnast Max Whitlock. At his gymnastics club in Basildon children, teenagers and adults, ordinary people from allContinue reading “Those Who Aren’t Like Me”

You can tell you’re getting old when you start sentences with, ‘In my day…’ or ‘When I was a boy/girl…’ or ‘Do you remember when…’, and you compare today with something from your past. The sentence then continues with something about phones, television programmes, music, the price of things, schools, clothes and fashion, food, computers,Continue reading “Handkerchiefs and Tissues”

There is a dayThat all creation’s waiting for,A day of freedom and liberation for the earth. Last week Simone Biles, the world’s best female gymnast withdraw from the Olympics for the sake of her mental health. We remembered Naomi Osaka, world number 2 tennis player speaking of her bouts of depression. Then Ben Stokes, EnglandContinue reading “There is a Day”

It’s an old joke. A panda walks into a pub and orders a sandwich. When he’s finished he pulls out a gun and shoots the barman. The manager asks the panda ‘Why did you do that?’ The panda replies, ‘I’m a panda. Look it up,’ and walks away. The manager looks up ‘panda’ on hisContinue reading “Sagah… and Pandas”

Musing on words that we usually read at Christmas:: ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.’ Starlight Express is a long running West End musical in which the actors perform the entire show on roller skates: Rusty,Continue reading “Light at the End of the Tunnel”

Yesterday we went to Mark and Lisa’s house. It was a ‘little do’ for their son Levi. He’s about to go to Bristol for four years. He’ll be a trainee construction supervisor at Skanska… Taking the next step isn’t always easy. For Levi it’s stepping from the known to the unknown, moving away from homeContinue reading “Taking The Next Step”