My name is Penelope Wallace. I am a white, middle-aged, middle-class, able-bodied Christian British woman, living in England but with Scottish roots. This isn’t everything I am, but it’s a start. On 10th June 2020 the author JK Rowling posted a blog on trans and gender issues...
(NB Far wiser people than I are writing everywhere about the political, social and spiritual ramifications of the current pandemic and isolation. For the time being, I shall endeavour to make this blog a nearly corona-free zone.) We recently watched again the very first Ninth Doctor...
I hereby offer to you probably the twentieth set of thoughts you’re read on the sudden appearance into our lives of the coronavirus. Be aware that I know nothing about medicine, or indeed statistics. My attitude is coloured by my good fortune in having spent almost...
On Thursday President Donald Trump (not the "heavy-weight" of my title) was acquitted by the US Senate. The day before, he gave his State of the Union address, with supporters cheering “Four more years.” Those who, like the Blogger, find this depressing, may wish to be...
I am not really capable of a proper film review, as I know so little of the process of film-making… but my friend Clint is busy, and this blog isn’t going to let the final Star Wars film pass without acknowledgement. I’m also not as good...
This post, like a football match, comes in two halves. A week today, we leave the European Union for a period of transition out. As readers of this blog know, I think this is a foolish and sad decision, but I may be wrong. But even...
Like many high streets, ours is struggling. Although we have a wonderful greengrocer/fishmonger that has been a family business for over 100 years, and two butchers, it sometimes seems that most of the premises are charity shops, nail bars, coffee shops, estate agents… or empty...
It may be otherwise with you (and we can still be friends if it is) but the three days following close of polling on 12th December were a depressing time in the Blogger’s household. It appeared that the country had looked at the various alternative...
As I said, "We spent a few days in the town of Ibanda, accommodated in church-leaders’ homes. We then spent two days in a game park, being wide-eyed tourists. Then some of the team went north to the large town of Lira." The object of visiting...
Our vicar has a longstanding association with East Africa, which is shared by his wife and his father-in-law. So when a newly-formed diocese of the Church of Uganda started looking for international links (and the school he’d taught at just happened to be within this...