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.
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