a penny in the foundations

 As I reach the point in my sabbatical when I must recognise that it is coming to an end, I reflect on three glorious months during which I have experienced so much, learned things about me and the world which shaped me, and slightly unexpectedly discovered new worlds of possibility, filled with exciting visions of a world constantly reshaping and renewing. I signed off at Easter in the Circuit newsletter by describing some of my hopes and activities that would come together in my search for the 'pennies', the significant places, people and experiences, that have been the foundation of my life. I have done some of all the things I planned, as well as finding many unexpected delights along the way. The way in which the significance in each of the elements has balanced out has surprised me. This is what I wrote before I started. Our ministry can be an intensely lonely experience in which we are too often seen as ‘different’ and put on a pedestal, from which we spend our time cari...

 Bikes, scooters, e-bikes, e-scooters, cargo bikes, bikes carrying 3 children, a cargo bike carrying 3 traditional bikes, mopeds and e-mopeds, roller skates, skateboards and even an electric unicycle;  the roads (and more worryingly the pavements) of Hackney sometimes feel like a battle ground for space, and that's before factoring in buses, cars and vans. As a cyclist, pedestrian and occasional driver amidst all the mayhem, I sometimes wonder how to avoid all the hazards. So a day discussing 'perceptions of self driving vehicles' had a special fascination. Part of a government funded study a small group of us gathered in engineering workshops at Imperial College London. We heard about the technology which will eventually lead to fully autonomous vehicles taking to our roads. A timeline of 10 years was suggested to get to the point where human intervention in the journey can be completely eliminated, but the progress will be rapid and we can expect the rapid introduction of...