So some kind of order has been restored to life and work.
The e mail backlog is still around 150 but I’m getting there. But it gets harder to knock them off as the number reduces. I did a Thought for the Day on Rabbi Yosef - judging from my Inbox I can forget [...]

Well we jumped ship in Leith in the end - having gone most of the way round the British Isles in a sort of bubble of unreality. Many of you will know that my mother died just as we set out - after a short illness which progressed very rapidly. Thank you to [...]

We’re now reached Kirkwall in Orkney on this journey round the outside of the British Isles. As always with the passage of time, an amorphous group of passengers begins to become something more interesting - characters and distinctive personalities begin to emerge. The ship is known variously as the ‘English country house afloat’ [...]

Well this is great. We’ve fetched up in the Cruise Terminal in Greenock - not exactly the kind of travel which broadens the mind. But being on a ship does make things turn up in a slightly different order. We left Killybegs last night - went past Glencomcille and all the familiar [...]

I’m talking my way round the British Isles for a living – and for a holiday. This is the famous McCarthy’s Bar in Castletownbere. I happen to think that ‘Round Ireland with a fridge’ was far more entertaining and original – but there you are. Anyway it’s fascinating to visit your own [...]

There is of course a certain something about long journeys by train. You may not have met the Man in Seat 61 - take a look if you haven’t
So having taken almost 90 minutes to get from Perth to Edinburgh, things are improving a bit. And we’re going to try out the high [...]

Sorry about the break - I usually do better than that. But even without the excitement of being on University Challenge it’s been busy. An unplanned family visit to Cambridge was followed by the journey yesterday and today for Neal’s funeral in Portadown.
These events are of course extraordinary. I’ll remember many things [...]

And there I was - passing a quiet summer evening with the Vestry of St Mary’s, Kirriemuir, discussing matters of mutual interest like raised beds and compost. But when I got back to Blogstead, I met a blizzard of texts and phone calls from sad people who have nothing better to do than watch [...]

The news creeps up on you gradually. A text from our Mark – the edges of some news reports. Someone from Portadown has died in Afghanistan And gradually it becomes clear that it is Neal – one of the three killed by a renegade Afghan policeman whom they were training.
Neal took [...]

The loss of young men in car crashes has become a tragic commonplace of Donegal life – so much so that major initiatives have been taken to reduce the toll and they have been partially successful. But the whole community here has been devasted by an accident in which eight people died – seven [...]