I am going to go for the highlights rather than the tell the time as it is, simply because my memory is not that clear. I have had to try and remember back and things have happened since and things slip off the top of the pile.
Right lets see. I managed writing group a fortnight ago, for the second week running. What is more I was worrying over missing them last monday when I remembered that it was half term, so there was not a meeting. Its a group of about twelve which meets regularly, most of the others are writing novels, there is one specialist poet and then there are a handful like myself who are still exploring mediums or would that be better described as unsettled. Anyway we are planning to have a whole day next week on plotting a novel, should be interesting as one of the reasons I don't write anything longer is I am not confident that I could plot it out. I am pretty sure if I had a plot I could write the story around it because the plot itself would provide the way to divide the story into writable bits. Anyway I have a PhD thesis to plot eventually.
I don't think anything particularly happened on tuesday or wednesday but thursday I was out interviewing for my PhD again only this time I decided that the headache on my right hand side was not serious enough to be a migraine. Actually I was fine driving out, but the interview was less satisfactory, whether because I had not given the information packs in advance, natural reserve or my migraine meaning that I was not communicating as well as I normally do. However the clear sign I was not functioning properly was I had the recording all set up but did I think paused it right at the start. A typical under the weather mistake for me. So I only have recorded the last question of the interview. The journey back was scary as I realised that my brain was now decidely showing signs of migraine and I did not feel safe (I am not sure what the other options were).
Friday was a writing day although I spent a good deal of it analysing the interviews I had. Saturday was also a writing day. Sunday I used most of the day to write with but went to the Just Desserts in the evening as much because I enjoy Just Desserts as any other reason. The session theme was what do we mean by Lord when we use it of Jesus. Started off by us trying to find common phrases meaning "Lord". Had an argument over whether it mattered to God when we sinned. The person was saying it did not because God would love us anyway. I was saying that it did matter precisely because he loves us. Then again a talk afterwards with David when we said that to see the call to discipleship as that to obedience is really too weak, the call, or invitation is more similar to falling in love with God. Perhaps not a bad thought on the day after valentines day. Mind you I think I had the best valentines greeting I could have got that evening. David and Trisha's son is mildly autistic. He came up to me an said "I like you" and walked off. No agenda just the bald statement. He is actually very good when with the congregation, just like a minister he will work a room and greet and talk to everyone individually.
Monday I finished the essay. Actually spent a long time putting in sign posts and when I got it back for proof reading I was still up the creek without a paddle in places. Those are the very hard bits to edit as I have to suss what I meant from the gibberish that I wrote and sometimes the two are so intertwined in my brain that I have great difficulty doing so.
Tuesday was Mum's eigtieth birthday. So the whole family apart from Adrian came over to Sheffield. It at least started out as a sunny day with a hint of spring in it. So much so that the kids were quite happy putting their hands into various fountains and Mum and Dad when we first stopped for coffee decided to try sitting outside. I think we counted five on our route up to the Peace Gardens. That was including the big one in the Peace Gardens. We gave the poor waiter a terrible time as there were six of us all wanting hot drinks, with five different types, I ordered decaffienated Lattes Mum and Dad, Sam was a Hot Chocolate with whipped cream, Hannah was a decaf-cappucino with whipped cream, my sister a milano hot chocolate, and me a decaf soya latte. Being by the Peace Gardens Hannah and Sam (provided they stayed within view) could run around while the adults drank and chatted. When Mum and Dad decided to go to the loo I took Hannah to go on a fairground ride that was in the Peace Gardens. Cathy waited to gather up the rest. Then we went for a stroll around Fargate. Cathy needed to get money out, I needed a couple of birthday cards and there were other rides which Sam might like to have a go on. Unfortunately Sam chose a ride where you always got a prize. This seemed unfair to Hannah whose ride did not have prizes and she burst into tears. Also Mum and Dad were then taking Sam to Blacks to get a late birthday present, I could not see how if he got his birthday present we would not have a bigger and greater squall. So I took Hannah into Boots opposite to get something specially for her. This had a double effect. Firstly she got something, secondly she did not see Sam getting even more. We then walked down to the No1 Chinese Buffet . This is a favourite with Sam and Hannah and as both Mum and Dad like Chinese food we thought it would be a good place to have lunch. We were the first group in although it was half fall by the time we left. It is help yourself and somehow Dad managed to not just get on his plate small dark red chillies but eat one which then lodged between his teeth. He tried drinking water and such, to little avail until I went and got him ice-cream, I bought him a very small helping but was sent back for seconds!!
After dinner we then caught the tram up to the University and walked up to Weston Park Museum which was pretty full but not packed. Early on mum and dad decided they were tired so went and sat down and waited for the rest of us to go around. The RSPB had a competition on the go and Sam wanted to enter it. Hannah and Cathy went hunting for animals in the next room but did not find either a weasel or a mouse of some sort. When they came back to the table, Hannah found they also had colouring in so we went to look for the weasel and the mouse but only found the weasel. Then went rather quickly through the rest of the displays. So we then walked down via the Hallamshire Hospital to my flat. I forgot that most of the way was rather steep down hill and we regularly had to wait for Mum and Dad to catch us up. In the flat we had afternoon tea which was bog standard for Cathy, coffee for Hannah, Green Tea for Mum and Dad, Lemonade for Sam and Lime and Ginger tea for me. However Hannah was worried by this time that they'd miss the train. This was silly as we knew that there was well over an hour before the train. However she managed to get my Mum worried so we ended up setting off for the station about an hour before the train. Unless a tram breaks down there is no difficulty in getting to the station in an hour. Mum and Dad chose to wait on the platform while Hannah by far the smallest of us, demanded that she had her sandwich on the way home, so we went to Marks and Spencers. Cathy thought this was due to the fact she had been told that was what they were doing so there was NO WAY she was going to not have her sandwich.
I had a migraine Wednesday and Thursday. I think due to a lot of small accumulations during the day before which had just tipped me over the balance. Friday was a normal working day.
Saturday I at last had my post Christmas pleasure shop. So went and spent some Boots tokens on make up and went and spent the book tokens I had got for Christmas in Waterstones (the Sheffield branch do take book tokens). So now have a good selection of lighter reading to get through. I also bought the wool to make an amigurumi tortoise for my Mother and also to make a cat for myself.
Today I went to Chesterfield in the morning and then did some plant care this afternoon. So all my pot plants and my heather and looking as if they have had a bit of a haircut and have been fed and watered. It has been the sort of day where I was begining to worry that if I did not deal with them soon they would start to have this years growth on them and it would be too late.
Next week I am down to Birmingham again and I have a busy week work wise.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Snow weeks stories
Right news this week. Weather stopped play or meant I spent more time at home than I would have otherwise. At the start of the week I was going to be out Monday evening, Wednesday morning, Wednesday evening and Thursday evening. I went to none of the events, they were all cancelled. Actually only Monday evening and Thursday evening due to the weather. Wednesday morning due to the people I was going to interview being hassled with events and Wednesday evening house-group was cancelled due to the father of the leader being seriously ill in Huddersfield. I think I started Thursday evening being cancelled. I was watching cars skid up Hounsfield road (or rather slide down it) and saw that more snow was forecast so in a hired car if I went out for an elders training and then got into difficulties there would be rather a lot of explaining to do. So I wrote sending apologies for the meeting and within an hour it was cancelled.
Have I told people about David and Mike Yaconelli's book Dangerous Wonder. Well David happened to ask me before Christmas what I thought of when I thought of father-son relationships, brainstorming for that evenings service basically and my mind went immediately to a story in that book. Well I brought it to church the next week as David wanted to use the story, when I picked it up I thought, "hum David might end up reading this" so I mentioned that he might like to read it. David looked at me askance, I think expecting it to be a serious doctrinal tome and as dull as ditch water apart from the story. He makes no bones about not being the greatest reader among ministers, actually he makes too much of a fuss, he is still reads new books, and his office is full of books but I think the idea of extra reading was not very attractive to him. I came back after Christmas to David saying "So you want your book back or may I finish reading it", the following time I saw him he said "May I have it another week so I can finish it" and "I recommend we have a copy for the church library". This week he is saying "I will return your book next week, WHEN my copy has come." Yes I do read books that to people like David would be as dull as ditch water, but I know the difference between a book that is likely to be like that and something that is an easy read even if it has spiritual depth to it and I think that book has. I also happened to think that it had a message David needed to hear.
Oh picking up the cooking rice from last week. It worked, I have four portions of rice in my freezer and have eaten one, which takes two minutes in the microwave to reheat. Now just so other people don't get in a mess may I point out that cooked rice if cooled slowly or kept for more than 24 hours in a fridge can cause food poisoning I both knew this before I started and was warned, but as Cathy also warned me I thought I better put this up. I personally first cooled by running cold water through it, then put in the fridge for an hour to get rid of any remaining heat before I froze it. I think there is less chance of me getting food poisoning from it than if I ate a rice salad from the supermarket. This weeks experiment has been spicy sweet potato and butternut squash soup. I bought a ready prepared packet of sweet potato and butternut squash. Two reasons, it gave me about the quantity I wanted and a butternut squash would be too much and I find preparing butternut squash difficult with its hard skin. I then also bought a potato which I chopped up fine. I then put these in the slow cooker with about 700ml (1 pint) of vegetable stock and added ginger, cardamom pods, black pepper and I think ground coriander but all I was really doing was testing for spices that smelt warm. I know chilli would have done but did not want it. The result was pleasant though I think I will go a bit lighter on the ginger next time and I still have a box in the freezer to eat some time. I ate it with garlic dough balls. I bought them this time but I think I am going to try and make those so I can make them with wholemeal flour rather than strong plain or at least a wholemeal/strong plain mix.
On thursday in work I managed to get in for 8:00 am. Actually with very little difficulty, that I admit was partly because I was worrying over the course I was giving that day and how prepared I was. However six months ago even with that level of worry I would have struggled to get in like that. This is the second time in a fortnight I have been in work extra early. This time admittedly I was exhausted by 3:00 pm and came home and went into a deep sleep.
Actually think I have made another little breakthrough with migraine. That is to try and discipline myself that whenever I get home the one thing I must do is stop. That may be as simple as sitting in a chair for quarter of an hour or if I am feeling over wrought I will actually go to bed. That is not really to sleep but to shut out the world for a while, while I get me bearings again. The only thing is I am not the sort of person who likes to do that, so the discipline is hard for me to keep. At present I am managing it, but I wonder for how long. My soul seems to need time to catch up with my body.
A nice touch today at church. Iona the girl who is adopted, put up on the prayer board "Please pray for my little sister". Iona's Mum Fiona has been cleared to adopt another girl and Iona is delighted.
Have I told people about David and Mike Yaconelli's book Dangerous Wonder. Well David happened to ask me before Christmas what I thought of when I thought of father-son relationships, brainstorming for that evenings service basically and my mind went immediately to a story in that book. Well I brought it to church the next week as David wanted to use the story, when I picked it up I thought, "hum David might end up reading this" so I mentioned that he might like to read it. David looked at me askance, I think expecting it to be a serious doctrinal tome and as dull as ditch water apart from the story. He makes no bones about not being the greatest reader among ministers, actually he makes too much of a fuss, he is still reads new books, and his office is full of books but I think the idea of extra reading was not very attractive to him. I came back after Christmas to David saying "So you want your book back or may I finish reading it", the following time I saw him he said "May I have it another week so I can finish it" and "I recommend we have a copy for the church library". This week he is saying "I will return your book next week, WHEN my copy has come." Yes I do read books that to people like David would be as dull as ditch water, but I know the difference between a book that is likely to be like that and something that is an easy read even if it has spiritual depth to it and I think that book has. I also happened to think that it had a message David needed to hear.
Oh picking up the cooking rice from last week. It worked, I have four portions of rice in my freezer and have eaten one, which takes two minutes in the microwave to reheat. Now just so other people don't get in a mess may I point out that cooked rice if cooled slowly or kept for more than 24 hours in a fridge can cause food poisoning I both knew this before I started and was warned, but as Cathy also warned me I thought I better put this up. I personally first cooled by running cold water through it, then put in the fridge for an hour to get rid of any remaining heat before I froze it. I think there is less chance of me getting food poisoning from it than if I ate a rice salad from the supermarket. This weeks experiment has been spicy sweet potato and butternut squash soup. I bought a ready prepared packet of sweet potato and butternut squash. Two reasons, it gave me about the quantity I wanted and a butternut squash would be too much and I find preparing butternut squash difficult with its hard skin. I then also bought a potato which I chopped up fine. I then put these in the slow cooker with about 700ml (1 pint) of vegetable stock and added ginger, cardamom pods, black pepper and I think ground coriander but all I was really doing was testing for spices that smelt warm. I know chilli would have done but did not want it. The result was pleasant though I think I will go a bit lighter on the ginger next time and I still have a box in the freezer to eat some time. I ate it with garlic dough balls. I bought them this time but I think I am going to try and make those so I can make them with wholemeal flour rather than strong plain or at least a wholemeal/strong plain mix.
On thursday in work I managed to get in for 8:00 am. Actually with very little difficulty, that I admit was partly because I was worrying over the course I was giving that day and how prepared I was. However six months ago even with that level of worry I would have struggled to get in like that. This is the second time in a fortnight I have been in work extra early. This time admittedly I was exhausted by 3:00 pm and came home and went into a deep sleep.
Actually think I have made another little breakthrough with migraine. That is to try and discipline myself that whenever I get home the one thing I must do is stop. That may be as simple as sitting in a chair for quarter of an hour or if I am feeling over wrought I will actually go to bed. That is not really to sleep but to shut out the world for a while, while I get me bearings again. The only thing is I am not the sort of person who likes to do that, so the discipline is hard for me to keep. At present I am managing it, but I wonder for how long. My soul seems to need time to catch up with my body.
A nice touch today at church. Iona the girl who is adopted, put up on the prayer board "Please pray for my little sister". Iona's Mum Fiona has been cleared to adopt another girl and Iona is delighted.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Of normal days and fixing computers
Monday last week I at last got to writers group. I am suspicious that there is some angst over one of the people who left last term. This is coming through in suggestions of ways to do things differently. The thing is the suggestions at present are pushing it more the direction that caused the person to leave. Her reason for leaving was that she was a poet and it was getting too novel orientated. This is not nearly as crucial for me who mixes short stories and poetry. I have ideas for novels but never the time to write them nor actually the confidence to give myself that much to the writing. Also on Monday I again taught the NVivo course, there were about eight there. Only problem I had was that the files I asked to be converted to Word 2003 were not. This means I had to teach the class how to convert which just takes time. The room is designed on a talk and do basis but people today seem to insist on doing as I talk.
Tuesday and Wednesday were a normal days, nothing special happened, I went into work and I worked. Actually for the first time in months this last week I got to do development work in work. Mainly putting a piece of software on my computer and sitting down and working through the introduction. I think I next must ask for a text book on the software and work through the exercises in it. Statistics software is expensive, the average price for a package at commercial rates is around £500. The one I have installed on my machine is probably the one I would buy if I ever went into freelancing. It has a good reputation, is sophisticated and does statistics well. It does not have the nice user interface of the main one I support and there are other little quirks that I find annoying. For instance its menus are really code generators and its help system is non-standard. However so far I have got on with it fine.
Thursday Stuart came around. I think because he wanted someone to listen. His friend Simon who lived in the same house as he did had died I think from lung cancer but I am not sure. Stuart when Simon was in the Hallamshire (one of the big hospitals in Sheffield) had been next of kin and he had continued to visit Simon while in St Lukes Hospice. At one stage shortly after Simon's death he ended up talking about it to his mum. His mum had sent Simon a get well card just before he died so Stuart was somewhat uncomfortable with this. Stuart's sister rang him no more than six times the following day, Stuart felt to give him earache over upsetting his mum.
Friday I went to breakfast at church. I was slightly earlier in than usual but there was a big turn out from the alcoholic community that day. Not quite sure why this friday they decided to see if we were open. We get both drug community and alcoholic community but quite often they will not turn up together or to be more exact the alcoholics avoid the drug users. There has been a crack down on drug users in that there are now notices saying that drug using is not permitted on the premises. This may well be encouraging the alcoholic fraternity to see it as a more friendly place. I have quite a bit of time for the alcoholic community when they are reasonably sober. That is not sober but it is close enough to it to be amenable to normal control measures and making sense when they talk. I ended up on a table with John, Sarah and James. Initially there was a homeless couple where the woman was heavily pregnant. I think they were really struggling but seem to have found a church that would support them including buying what they needed for the baby. Sarah is still going to see her parents every fortnight which must be draining for her as they live down in Poole and the Rail Network in its wisdom has taken this time to stop direct trains, I think due to major building works at Reading Station. The works appear at least as big as Stockports so I would expect at least a couple of years of disruption. If people could remember her and this travelling in your prayers. I got cold going to the breakfast so went and curled up in bed afterwards for about an hour.
On the evening I went to Dicksons for dinner. I went early as James wanted me to fix his computer so that it would read Word 2007 files. I did it, but exactly how I am not sure. I also introduced him to Zamzar as a way to get other office documents into Word 2003 formats. It is annoying that microsoft have not made their 2007 Office products backward compatible so if you get a file from a newer one then you have to find out how to read it. The approach I took and tried on James' was to download the converter for Office 2007. This works fine on my machine but James' version of Office had not had the patches mine had and it did not seem to take. I put another converter on that just did Word and I am suspicious that this must have somehow interfaced with Office but that surprised me.
Yesterday was quiet, did an extra Waitrose shop and bought a pie for my main meal. This seems to be a good idea for Saturday, which is a mixed sort of day. Did some sorting of files and some reading. Oh I cooked and froze rice. I loke to eat brown basmati rice, especially as I buy it from Traidcraft, but cooking it on an evening takes 40 minutes in the microwave. I find that too long as I am getting out of work later. I cannot buy already cooked rice in that form. So I decided to have a go at cooking it ahead and then freezing. I will have to see if I can get the reheating process right.
Today went to Chesterfield, came back in a slight snow storm. They were very welcoming but there were fewer people there this week I think due to illness and the weather. Coffee was served after worship and Helen and Patrick Lidgett were doing it. Rosehill's Burns Night has led to a second invite to the church on 15th when Rosehill will have the Palm Court Trio to play with a tea. This has been taken up by a number of St Andrew's members after the Burn's night. I am pretty sure Rosehill invited St Andrews to the Burn's Night as it needed the expertise in the congregation and then when there was a good response, have started to ask them to other events.
Tuesday and Wednesday were a normal days, nothing special happened, I went into work and I worked. Actually for the first time in months this last week I got to do development work in work. Mainly putting a piece of software on my computer and sitting down and working through the introduction. I think I next must ask for a text book on the software and work through the exercises in it. Statistics software is expensive, the average price for a package at commercial rates is around £500. The one I have installed on my machine is probably the one I would buy if I ever went into freelancing. It has a good reputation, is sophisticated and does statistics well. It does not have the nice user interface of the main one I support and there are other little quirks that I find annoying. For instance its menus are really code generators and its help system is non-standard. However so far I have got on with it fine.
Thursday Stuart came around. I think because he wanted someone to listen. His friend Simon who lived in the same house as he did had died I think from lung cancer but I am not sure. Stuart when Simon was in the Hallamshire (one of the big hospitals in Sheffield) had been next of kin and he had continued to visit Simon while in St Lukes Hospice. At one stage shortly after Simon's death he ended up talking about it to his mum. His mum had sent Simon a get well card just before he died so Stuart was somewhat uncomfortable with this. Stuart's sister rang him no more than six times the following day, Stuart felt to give him earache over upsetting his mum.
Friday I went to breakfast at church. I was slightly earlier in than usual but there was a big turn out from the alcoholic community that day. Not quite sure why this friday they decided to see if we were open. We get both drug community and alcoholic community but quite often they will not turn up together or to be more exact the alcoholics avoid the drug users. There has been a crack down on drug users in that there are now notices saying that drug using is not permitted on the premises. This may well be encouraging the alcoholic fraternity to see it as a more friendly place. I have quite a bit of time for the alcoholic community when they are reasonably sober. That is not sober but it is close enough to it to be amenable to normal control measures and making sense when they talk. I ended up on a table with John, Sarah and James. Initially there was a homeless couple where the woman was heavily pregnant. I think they were really struggling but seem to have found a church that would support them including buying what they needed for the baby. Sarah is still going to see her parents every fortnight which must be draining for her as they live down in Poole and the Rail Network in its wisdom has taken this time to stop direct trains, I think due to major building works at Reading Station. The works appear at least as big as Stockports so I would expect at least a couple of years of disruption. If people could remember her and this travelling in your prayers. I got cold going to the breakfast so went and curled up in bed afterwards for about an hour.
On the evening I went to Dicksons for dinner. I went early as James wanted me to fix his computer so that it would read Word 2007 files. I did it, but exactly how I am not sure. I also introduced him to Zamzar as a way to get other office documents into Word 2003 formats. It is annoying that microsoft have not made their 2007 Office products backward compatible so if you get a file from a newer one then you have to find out how to read it. The approach I took and tried on James' was to download the converter for Office 2007. This works fine on my machine but James' version of Office had not had the patches mine had and it did not seem to take. I put another converter on that just did Word and I am suspicious that this must have somehow interfaced with Office but that surprised me.
Yesterday was quiet, did an extra Waitrose shop and bought a pie for my main meal. This seems to be a good idea for Saturday, which is a mixed sort of day. Did some sorting of files and some reading. Oh I cooked and froze rice. I loke to eat brown basmati rice, especially as I buy it from Traidcraft, but cooking it on an evening takes 40 minutes in the microwave. I find that too long as I am getting out of work later. I cannot buy already cooked rice in that form. So I decided to have a go at cooking it ahead and then freezing. I will have to see if I can get the reheating process right.
Today went to Chesterfield, came back in a slight snow storm. They were very welcoming but there were fewer people there this week I think due to illness and the weather. Coffee was served after worship and Helen and Patrick Lidgett were doing it. Rosehill's Burns Night has led to a second invite to the church on 15th when Rosehill will have the Palm Court Trio to play with a tea. This has been taken up by a number of St Andrew's members after the Burn's night. I am pretty sure Rosehill invited St Andrews to the Burn's Night as it needed the expertise in the congregation and then when there was a good response, have started to ask them to other events.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)