Colourful Dreamer

Tuesday I trained off to Lytham. This is where Helen, our house guest during the first COVID lockdown and now friend comes from, and she and Dave have come back for awhile. Bonnie and I listen to Ruth Galloway murder mysteries by Elly Griffiths. In one of the books we read around that time she described Lytham as boring. I don't know she has ever been there. Helen and Dave are running an AirBnB and they are so busy catering for all the big events happening nearly every weekend over the summer.   It is a grand place. A small village. It has a lovely feel. It has a windmill, lovely walks, Lytham Hall, and a beer cafe. What more could you want. And it is close to Blackpool and Lancaster, and pretty close to Manchester and more importantly Liverpool.   Wednesday I was left to my own devices, so I caught the bus to Blackpool. I hadn't planned to do this, but the train I caught to Lytham was going to Blackpool, and I thought, why not. Blackpool! Famous for its own version of th...

On the Monday I headed off to Great Malvern Station from London. Actually I had only bought a ticket to Malvern Link. I really don't know how that happened. So my friend Jacky was waiting for me at Malvern Link. Thank goodness for cellphones and roaming. Jacky has lived and taught in Hereford for the last 8 years, and is in the process of moving back to Aotearoa. I was her last visitor. I have tried before but it never worked. But this time it did. Wonderful. So over the next 24 hours she showed me some wonderful sites, some of her treasures. We began with Great Malvern Priory Church, which Henry VIII put up for sale during the dissolution and the towns people were able raise the money for pay for it. It has an interesting history, which you can read here . Great Malvern Priory has the largest collection of English 15th century stained glass of any parish church in England. It includes the wonderful "Magnificat window" in the north transept, and the Millennium windows win...

On August 10 I flew out of Tauranga, to London, via Auckland and New York. My three month pilgrimage (sabbatical) had begun. Begun in style with an upgrade to premiere economy on the leg to New York. Once in London I found my way to where I was staying, showered, snoozed, and then set off to meet Rebekah. Rebekah is our youngest daughter and moved to London in May to experience life away from Aotearoa. Life has not been as great as she hoped. Jobs are hard to get. Accommodation is also hard to get. So it was great to see here again. We met at a pub that sells Timothy Taylors Landlord. A great beer. And then we set off for several days of fun, including fancy dinners, the London Eye, A Strange Loop, visiting my aunt, and pizza watching a move. We found old Roman walls, the COVID memorial wall, Buckingham Palace, New Zealand War Memorial, and so much more. Saturday remains my biggest day so far with nearly 16km walked, according to Samsung. Some days have come close. It was so nice to se...

Our daughter, Rebekah, is current.y living in London, and is a great fan of musical theatre. As she is poor, I offered to take her to any musical she might want to see. So we went to see A Strange Loop.  A Strange Loop is the story of Usher. He’s a black gay man… writing a musical about a black gay man… writing a musical about a black gay man… surrounded by his chorus of six larger than life ‘Thoughts’ playing the characters in Usher’s mind, from self-berating entities like ‘Daily Self Loathing’ to caricatured depictions of Usher’s parents, to six-packed fantasy men, all while Usher tries to write the musical that we’re watching." (https://strangeloopmusical.com/about/) What a musical. And what an experience as a straight white guy in a theatre where I may have been the minority, with so many gay men around me identifying with the experience of Usher. And yet I am sure also challenged by Usher. Usher offers the same critique of white gay men that womanist writers offer of fe...

For our St George's Day celebration I wrote this little play about St George, the Serpent (no dragons in this play thank-you!) and the Empress Alexandra (no damsels in this play either - enough of that nonsense.) You can listen to it here. George and the Serpent! Today we are going to act out the story of St George who do we need? -         George -         Serpent -         Empress Alexandria -         Emperor Diocletian -         Sub-emperor -         Christian commanders -         Non-Christian commanders and torturers   Along time ago (around 300CE) there was an emperor called Diocletian. He ruled all the Roman Empire from Britain all the way to Persia and down to North Africa He was tough He made Rome great agai...