22nd Sept 07

I am writing a day early in an attempt to get this out after a long period (about a month) of not writing. The reason has been essay preparation followed by a holiday that although only 10 days long manage to include two Sundays, the first through travelling up, the second because I was there and my internet connection was limited. Yes I still had wireless broadband, but at Morag's not where we were staying. That meant it was the time I could nab between demands from Jenny and Cait. The fact that my parents also wanted to read any family epistles, meant that there was a reduction even in that time.

Lets see if I can update people. First thing I can recall is worshipping at St. Andrew's Chesterfield for the first time. Problem one is how to make clear to the minister that the one thing I am definitely not there to do is to check how REFORMED it is!! I might be interested in how it embodies its Reformed position or even how it rejects it, but I will not make any judgement on whether it is making the grade as a REFORMED church. I am interested in "how" not "what". Of course you have to look at "what" to understand "how" but you are looking relationally. I am jokingly-serious thinking at present that I should get a t-shirt with "I am not the Spanish Inquisition" on the front and "nor have I any dealing with section O". Section O being the URC national disciplinary procedure which we seem to have inherited from the Congregationalists at least on my father's account. It rather functions in the same manner as the "men in grey suits" do in the Conservative Party, i.e. quietly efficient when necessary.

Then I have moved offices (again, and I doubt I will get through this year without a second move). Although I am technically in an open plan office, I have got a good space almost private surrounded with 5'6"(plus) screens and two windows (I am the only non-section person with two windows to myself! I may as well make myself comfy, as living in packing cases is miserable and the last time I did that I stayed put for three years. They told me it was temporary and then did not succeed in moving us out. The only worse experience of office space I can remember is when I basically had a open office to myself (technically I was sharing with a very part time guy). The rest of the space was huge and housed junk! So I am not a fan of big offices, I just like offices with plenty of bookshelves. At present am succeeding in keeping it tidy. I still would like my white board up and to put up a couple of photos.

We have also got as far as I think I can take St. Andrew's sound system. In that we have now put permanent supports for both the lectern microphone and a back up pulpit microphone. Both of these are wired. It now means I need to get the instructions re-written for doing the sound on a Sunday. Cliff has also shortened one of the leads for use in the pulpit.

Then there was holiday. Driving up was good, I am slowly finding a good place to stop at on the way up. I went to suss out Caerlaverock WWT site. It looks good and I am hoping to see a Barnacle Goose at Christmas time. For those who have not known me long, my M.Sc project was on Barnacle Geese. I wonder what would have happened if I had decided when I finished that that I really wanted to do was to do the job I had trained for and become an Ecological Statistician. Certainly I would have had a very different but interesting life. Not grumbling, my present life is interesting enough but it is one of those paths not taken that I am semi curious about. I don't think it occurred to me that it was a serious possibility at the time, there is really only entry for about one person per year into that field and something that was that exotic just felt totally out of my reach. If I had, I probably would have worked abroad for several years and even my jobs in the United Kingdom may well have been in out of the way places.

Well by going there I have discovered there is also a National Nature Reserve and a RSPB site at Mersehead. If you add in the cross at Ruthwell it should be easy to spend a day there and break the journey up. Coming down I think will need to be a single journey with lots of stops. There comes a time when getting home to your own bed out weighs the length of journey left. Of course choosing a date is important.

We did many of the things that a week up in the South Rhins includes. That means at least one visit to the RSPB Site on the Mull with a stop at the Gallie Craig from something to eat, a trip to Port Logan Botanical Gardens (my parents also managed to visit the Port Logan Fish Pond which is a rock-pool that was converted to house fish indefinitely. Originally this was so the laird could have fresh fish when he wanted it, but now is used rather as an aquarium for North Atlantic species although I do not think they have either whales or dolphins. We went also to Ardwell Gardens (because I got them mixed with Logan Botanical and thought we could get lunch there) and also saw the Kirkmadrine Stones .

The Saturday was my birthday and Morag and the girls had gone to town making a birthday cake in the shape of a church. As Morag says it was a bit high for me. The service was at 8:00 a.m. and signs of stained glass. However there was a goodly sized congregation of Jelly Babies including one of the doing the sound system! Some photos of the tripe are on Flickr.

I think the highlight was the "folk" concert we went to. Not because it was good. In many ways the event was just totally wrong for us. Three people with hearing aids and the fourth having to put her hands over her ears because the music was so loud. The main reason others seemed to have come was for a change in drinking venue. However we spent the whole of the first half sending messages to each other using pen and paper! A waitress came around to ask us if we wanted any more drinks, we said no but some more paper would be nice! Other people were trying to talk regardless of the performance but I think ours was the only conversation where every word was "heard" by all participants. In the Irish sense the crack was good even though we would not have chosen either the event or the venue if we had known more about it. The music was not bad being a person performing pop classic ballads, just loud (it was getting distortion from the speakers so even those with good hearing could not hear the words). Yes I knew some of them so I am pretty sure of my classification.

Another find was getting a Zen Stone plus and an Audiax FM Transmitter, means I can have music on to lower thought distraction when driving (almost essential on Motorways). I find that CDs need changing and radios have talk which actually is too distracting. Having the random selection playing from a good portion of my music collection (I have not put on my Christmas and Easter specifics) means that I get flow of music while I am driving without problems. The one thing I have discovered is I am eclectic in my music choices. Anything from pop balladeers (Chris de Burgh, Bruce Springsteen), some Jazz, through Celtic pop (Clannad, Runrig, Iona), Christian Praise, classics (both Mozart and moderns including Part) to world music particularly Indian and Jewish. Very little is particularly mainstream but it does cover a wide range.

I got back on Tuesday and since then have been trying to sort out precisely where I am supposed to be (with things going on it is nearly three weeks out of general circulation). I spent Thursday in Birmingham at a meeting of my supervisor's research students. My Supervisor has just been promoted to chair of liturgical and congregational studies! I am glad for him after a tough year in which he has lost both his parents. He is also deputy head of school and moved back to Edgebaston campus!

I think that is largely everyone up-to-date with what is going on, I will need to send a couple of notes to subgroups of you tomorrow with specific news (as I am at St. Andrew's Sheffield tomorrow it will have to wait until then), by the way we are having harvest at St. Andrew's tomorrow, I think global warming has brought the Scottish harvest forward to September from One World Week in October!! Does anyone with curiousity out there know what the theologising* behind "He was a master builder" is