My high-school history teacher taught me two things: firstly you cannot consider historic moments in isolation “you can’t put history in boxes lad!” and secondly tackle hard, low and don’t let go until the other guy hits the floor. Mr Jones was also the PE coach and an ex-rugby international for Wales.!
I haven’t used that second bit of advice since I was 18 and I’m not overly sure it worked then, I have memories of being dragged along by a guy twice my size as I clung onto his ankles, my chin ploughing the field as I went! But unpacking history and getting rid of those boxes was a fine lesson. As we travel around Europe we come across many towns that form part of a chain; what happened there was inspired by events elsewhere and in turn impacted further down the road. Some are relatively small scale and locally inspiring, others play a significant role in events which span 800 years or so.
Continue reading "More from the cutting room floor" »
This is a paragraph I've just cut from the book I'm writing, I know I've expressed these thoughts here before but its always nice to remind yourself what you're doing and why...
The chapter is on the 'wandering saint' Brendan who according to legend 'discovered' North America...
Continue reading "Cutting room floor" »
We've been making the most of our time in the UK so far to have friends and family to come and stay. It helps of course that we've been lent 2 wonderful houses to live in.
Its been great to see them and hopefully many more of you will invite yourselves to stay for a couple of days before we leave the country again.
Continue reading "Visiting Friends" »
Last week I spent a few days in the Netherlands. I'm not quite sure where, somewhere in the South I think! the town sounded like it was called Hells Fort, which is of course an ideal place to hold a national conference of professional christian youth workers! And a splendid setting for the monastery it was held in :)
Continue reading "Innov8" »
