Hi folks, In a tale of two Tokyo Olympics, who would have thought I could be beaten by a woman! This Wednesday, while sitting on Criccieth beach I watched the final of the women’s 800m on my android with some interest. After all it was my event and as it happens I was considered for the squad for the 1972 Munich Olympics. While the front running of American Athing Mu was truly impressive, Wigan’s Keely Hodgkinson’s pace judgment and strong finish was equally outstanding.

Like a child with a new toy, I’m excited by a Christmas present, delayed by the pandemic, which Hermes delivered only yesterday. Yes, I'm referring to my Adidas SL20’s trainers, which I will be wearing for my 8k run as soon as I send this blog. Adidas and I go back a long way, well over 50 years. You will be surprised to learn that for a few wonderful months in the late 1960’s they provided me with free shoes, a precursor of today’s ‘influencers.’ Which was just as well

This Christmas is going to be outside. So I have bought, sadly from Amazon, our first outdoor projector lights to dazzle the neighbourhood. We realise that there is no way this year we can meet together as a whole family, all three generations, to celebrate the birth of Jesus. No all-hands-on-deck Christmas dinner, no present-opening ripping-fest and no hastily-posed family photo to show how we have all grown one year older for our Facebook friends. It’s not just th

“I know that the vision for this has been around for 18 years and the faithfulness with which you have kept this vision is an inspiration to the whole diocese of Liverpool and beyond.” Ten years ago to this very day Bishop James spoke these words as he opened our Ministry Centre, a significant event in the life and ministry of Christ Church where I was vicar. And yes, it was hard going, setback after setback and against some determined opposition. Looking back a decade l

“Love without risk is an impossibility, like war without death.” It’s not often that I quote contemporary left-bank French philosophers, especially those who write what is to me impenetrable prose. However, I have just come across the work of Alain Badiou, apparently considered the most important living French philosopher. The big surprise is that even though Badiou is most clearly an atheist (no surprise there) his understanding of the apostle Paul is astonishingly help

I have found the perfect hoe. Which is just as well as the current lockdown gives me the opportunity to spend time in our garden, not that I have any choice such is Jacqui’s vision for our particular patch of Aughton. The garden wasn’t in good shape anyway before the builders arrived – but with their grabs, skips and the like they managed to wreck our gardens front and back. Not that we minded – they did an excellent job on the house. So last year – you may remember t

“A.A. saved my life. Can it work online?” asks a contributor in this morning’s New York Times. You may be familiar with the work of the tremendously influential Alcoholics Anonymous, founded in 1935 in Ohio with the stated aim of enabling its members to "stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. Over the years I have become impressed with this mutual aid fellowship. Certainly one person I know became a disciple of Jesus through its ministry. He was totally co

The ice-cream consumers of Port Arthur, Texas, can sleep easy in their beds tonight, knowing that D'Adrien Anderson, 24, is behind bars. You may have seen in this morning’s news that Anderson who filmed himself licking ice cream and putting it back in the freezer of a Walmart supermarket has been jailed for 30 days. The whole point of this stunt, it would seem, is that it is performed for a watching world. Mea culpa. When I read yesterday that Spurs midfielder, Eric Dier