I go to church. Yeah, so what? Now there’s an understandable response because for most, even church goers, ‘going to church’ (said through pursed lips and clenching ones fingers together) doesn’t mean much. My school days were impregnated with traditional church activities. School assembly every weekday morning and trips to the on-site chapel twice on …
Nature shows us that at a specified time a new season is heralded in and we see visible evidence of this in the world around us. The arrival of daffodils suggest that leaves will soon populate the trees telling us that Spring will soon be here. But can this be applied to human sphere? Speaking as someone …
Travelling has always been a love/hate experience for me, providing both delight and frustration in equal measures. I love exploring a new and different culture. Those in my own country, but more so, those of a distant land. After all that is why I decided on a career in overseas development. However, getting to my …
Read more “Travelling mercies: But only if you follow the rules”
The day I received an anonymous note scrawled on a job advert was the day that was to change my life. I wasn’t actively looking for another job because I was gainfully employed at a community media project in Hammersmith working with young media wannabes. But there it was, scribbled on a Guardian job ad looking for …
Whenever I go on an overseas programme visit I can usually find a spare day (although there aren’t many) to see something I wouldn’t normally see if I was on a regular holiday. I wouldn’t call it sightseeing because in my line of work most of the places I tend to visit aren’t exactly on the tourist …
The place where I grew up doesn’t exist anymore. It was bulldozed in the early 2000s and on its foundations is sprouting a new configuration of bricks and mortar that I’m not entirely comfortable with, but watched with interest as it developed into a multi-functioning residential complex for the older generation. In 1968 when I …
Again apologies for the silence. Where have you been my vast army of Blog Followers have asked (they have said it, honest, just not in the comment box). Writer’s block. Really, it is… and it isn’t just about not knowing what to write next. It’s about not knowing what to write at all. How disastrous …
First published on 5 March 2017 One of the truly disheartening things about being displaced is that you start to believe that you will never find a place to settle and resume normal life. Most people in the UK have an image of a refugee living in squalid camps and dependand on handouts from benevolent charities. …
I’m not a natural writer. English never came easily when I was a school as it required far too much sitting around staring at a blank page. Well it did in my case anyway. But I didn’t let that small detail stop me from writing my first book Road to Damascus, which as many of you …
It isn’t often that I get political in these blogs but I feel the need to vent. Not satisfied with wreaking havoc on disabled people resident here with its welfare and independent living reforms, the UK Government are going back on its protection commitments to disabled people elsewhere – namely Syria. Under David Cameron’s leadership, …