It was an extraordinary thing to be at all four BBC Prom concerts this opening September weekend of 2025 — from Friday through to Sunday evening — first to stand in London’s Royal Albert Hall with Jutta, immersed in sound on a truly monumental scale, and then to listen to those same concerts again later … Read more …
Now back home after a cycle tour of Central Europe and an exploration of Hungarian learning that didn’t exactly unfold as planned – see previous posts – I’m looking forward in the coming months to going deeper into the other AI (as in Artificial Intelligence cf ai-EMDR, attachment-informed), and have again been blown away by … Read more …
Indeed, why on earth (in devil’s name, which is closer to the Hungarian above) am I – and have been for so long – learning Hungarian? Sitting in Budapest half way through a three-week (almost) sojourn in Hungary in the early summer of 2025 with the specific intention of getting to grips with this intense, … Read more …
Just – February 2025 – came across this account written 10 years ago of how Jutta and I got together again in 2013, and the journey thereto.. Braynes reunited A contribution from Mark and Jutta Brayne to commemorations of the CCPE’s 30th anniversary. It’s well known, of course, that training in psychotherapy can have a … Read more …
I probably don’t need to write this follow-up to my blog of March this year on being diagnosed, at 70, at last and rather late in life, with Aspergers aka High-Functioning Autism. Indeed, just thinking about starting this piece reminds me just how difficult I’ve always found writing to be, whether agonising over a poem or short … Read more …
I’m not quite sure how this post will unfold, other than to know that a) like my despatches from Beijing or the Cold War’s diplomatic frontline it will probably be too long, and that b) some old BBC friends and colleagues may already be sighing, “Oh dear, there he goes again.” Prompted by Fergal Keane … Read more …
My goodness me, that was one hilly, long, hard-working, but utterly brilliant cycling day. From Mangaweka on State Highway One with all its lorries, off east into deepest North Island back country along the official Tour Aotearoa route along which Katie and Mela and the other 300 registered riders will be coming in a few … Read more …
Two weeks today, and I’m off. Blimey. Moscow, Beijing and beyond beckon, and nerves both emotionally and physically seem to be charging up, as I bid farewell to my very-nearly-85-year-old Mum (on the right at Braunston last weekend having a go at the tiller of our narrowboat the Molly May), and both greet and also … Read more …
With a rapidly closing 26 days to go until I pedal into the sunrise (going East, after all), three things to muse about in this weekend’s blog: The ending (at least for now) of the work of therapy during this coming week with some 20 brave individuals who’ve sat in that green chair in the … Read more …
Cycling over to Stroud for my penultimate psychotherapy supervision session before heading off on (change of date) Wednesday April 4 prompted thoughts about a) the (at least temporary) ending of therapy for so many of my clients at once, and at a time not of their choosing, and b) the bike I’ll be using to … Read more …