Keep Talking
This month, I found myself reflecting on the words of Stephen Hawking, whose distinctive voice once carried a simple but profound message across our screens in the 1990s British Telecom advert: “Keep talking.” It was a campaign about connection, about bridges built not with cables and signals alone, but with conversation — human to human, voice to voice. Decades…
What’s In a Name
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare asked — and then promptly answered his own question by suggesting a rose would smell as sweet by any other word. It’s a lovely sentiment — but in the modern world, it’s only partly true. Because today, a name carries enormous weight. It can open…
Time and …
January always feels like a pause between breaths. A turning of pages. A moment when we glance both backwards and forwards, measuring where we’ve been against where we might be heading. Appropriately, our thoughts this month revolve around Time and… well, almost everything. One of the oldest and most enduring…
The Human Touch
We live in a world obsessed with replacing the human touch. Everywhere we look, Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the way we work, shop, travel, and even think. Big business, government, retail, the health service — everyone seems intent on swapping real people for machines, robots, and chatbots. And yet, none…
Why We Still Love Trains (and Tolerate Technology)
There’s something about a steam engine that gets under the skin. It’s not just the hiss, the smell of oil and soot, or the rhythmic chug echoing across the countryside—it’s what they represent: a world we remember, or imagine, as simpler, steadier, somehow better. I was recently at The Greatest…
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It Will Be Done
When Mary and I started this little magazine enterprise in January 2012 there were those who scoffed, turned away, and looked upon us as if we were slightly deranged. I recall someone asking, “What do you want to do that for?” pointing out that our area was already well served…
As One Door Closes…
As One Door Closes…and Winter Turns into Spring The turning of the seasons always brings change, and this year is no different. As winter gives way to the fresh possibilities of spring, we find ourselves reflecting on the shifts within our own little magazine world. One of the biggest dilemmas…
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be!
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be! It was hinted at (by the indefatigable Alan Higgs , the ever present Sileby Parish Councillor, community fixer and mender) that I ought to change the theme of this letter, and choose another subject than seats. That one has run for 6 months,…
Where have all the benches gone?… Part 3 Not another one about those darned benches? No, read on!!
Where have all the benches gone The first weekend in October I undertook the longest car journey, actually the longest journey of any type, I have taken in the last five years. I attended the wedding of my youngest nephew, in West Wales. It was a whole weekend affair and…
Where have all the benches gone?…..
Part 2 A rather over-jubilant Ian celebrates as the new seat welcomes its first parishioners, Diego the Caverpoo and Linda Stevens of Sileby. Where have all the benches gone?….. Part 2 You may recall in the last Soar Valley Life magazine, the mysterious saga I put forward about the lost…
Where have all the benches gone?
Long time passing… With apologies and due deference to Pete Seeger who wrote the original “Where have all the flowers gone?” in 1955. The sentiment referred to throughout the song occurred to me the other morning as I walked through Sileby Memorial park… When Mary and I moved to Sileby,…
Use It or Lose It!
How often do we hear these words? More so as we get older and our health advisers, therapists, medical professionals et al are all at us day in day out to get out more, be more active, do more and so on and on.
