I am back in town after my WORLD TOUR
New-York, Moscow, Hong-Kong, Berlin, Burton on Trent, Derby, Stoke on Trent.
The first four venues I decided to skip but spent an exciting time at Drum Hill Scout Camp in Derbyshire - sleeping in a bunk bed dorm - not done that for years!
In that place and other venues I was amongst the humans I love to be with.
Walking out of my sessions.
Challenged by the concept of listening,
a few reluctant to say a word -
or do anything.
BUT it was great to be amongst those whose lives have been a challenge from birth, in some cases, which has meant that all of them have found themselves living in a Hostel, with multiple others, as they work through essential life skills and pushing their boundaries of learning ......... against all odds.
I admire the staff who work day in - day out with challenging behaviour. It cannot be done half hearted - the live their life on the frontiers of challenge and change.
Most did participate and we had the greatest of times.
Some who were hard on the exterior,
eventually softened and began to give - not only receive.
I blessed human I am.
I am home and delighted to watch my team win in the Rugby League playoffs. Tough. Hard. Skillful stuff.
I woke up this morning reliving in my head - the try scored by my hero Keiron Cunningham.
He retires at 33 in a couple of matches time.
He will have a bronze statue outside our new Rugby Stadium in a year or so's time.
What a man.
One team for 15 years.
A star all that time.
I have grown up watching him play.
The old ground will be demolished very soon.
That place where Grandfathers, Fathers, Sons over 120 years have stood and supported my team.
As ingrained into my soul like Lancashire Hot-Pot.
I delighted last night to see all the St Helens supporters,
Grandmothers, Mums, Daughters
all STANDING in the rain in a crappy stadium,
wet to their knickers,
cheering for the game and team I love so much.
Thank you for doing that/and for me as I watched from a comfy chair
from 300 miles away in Kent.
Love it all all........
The Independent Newspaper says::
League finally scores a moral victory over union in the age-old battle of the oval ball
The last word
Rugby league fans can be an incorrigibly chippy lot, raging against the tendency of effete London-based journalists to overlook their sport in favour of the plainly inferior 15-man game, and sometimes berating those who blithely refer, ignorant beggars, to rugby union as rugby. Having grown up among diehard league enthusiasts in the north-west of England I have some sympathy with this view, however, and it is surely unarguable that in general the media's oval-ball coverage is disproportionately weighted against rugby league, a victim even now of the north-south divide, and even the class divide.
