Wondered how far I got, having realised that the pace I was going up to Easter day probably meant migraine I took Tuesday as my day off last week hoping I'd get it over with. It struck on Tuesday night and went Thursday evening. Actually it needed something to trigger it and got that with water spilt on the train. So that wiped wednesday and Thursday out. Although on thursday I got my papers off for this months supervision.
What has this last few days been like. Well weather wise it has been cold mornings but sunny afternoons with a spring chill to them. Friday I was in work and going pretty well. Finally got all last years forms in for the Churches' Work with Elderly People about a thousand (over 950 but I cannot recall the exact number. Unfortunately I have lost some of the code from last year so am having to recreate it. I think there are definite types of task the Church's worker does that can be picked out. There is the one to one visit which may just be befriending but may require her special skills, there is the routine visiting either to residential homes, sheltered accommodation or for a few in their own home, there is hospital visiting, there is community activity and there are public meetings. It all builds up into quite a complex picture. Hopefully on Monday I will get an annual report out. This year hopefully Janet can put them straight onto computer and it will just be a matter of sending them across to me by email which should mean that the report can be done in a couple of days.
Went shopping at Waitrose in the evening basically as I had not done any household shopping since I think the 7th April and everything was getting low. I was rather relieved when my shopping only came to just over £50. Admittedly I did have to top up with things yesterday at the Station Marks and Spencer.
Yesterday I went with St Andrews Chesterfield on a BENDA. That stands for Bible Exploration North East Derbyshire Area (I think). It shouldn't be "area" it should be "cluster" as that is what they are officially called in East Midlands synod. The day was being led by John Proctor who I knew would be good so it was pleasant to go. In actual fact it was better from my thesis point of view than the East Midlands day last summer. I think because we did not have separate sessions but were altogether and also I think people were more relaxed. When the church is going somewhere and they hire a coach (actually shared with Rosehill and Holymoorside) then I get an early train across and walk up to the church. Yes I know it is more sensible to walk to Rosehill but not that much and certainly not enough to avoid any chatter while the coach comes. I always panic over train connections, the result of which mean that I was sitting outside the church for twenty minutes or more when there was quite definitely a chill in the air. The church at Matlock is a combined Methodist-URC with a distinctly Methodist flavour although they meet in the former URC building or I assume they do as there is a building slightly higher up the road with "The Old Methodist Church" above the door. I am not sure how they managed to get that above the door, or is their a segement of Methodists called "Old Methodists" . John was on form, we looked first at approaches to Bible Study, then a view of Marks gospel and finally onto two Corinthians. Two things of note happened. One was that John asked people to pick out sensory and emotional information from 2 Corinthians 4 and people gave him the ideas in the passage. Yes I kept silent for quite a while, my job is to listen really. Now I am an ideas person but I could easily find six or eigth of them in the passage. The second came when John asked was there anything that people wanted to cover and it was clear that most of the questions were about the organisation side of study groups. This is despite the fact that I think I could count a maximum of five ministers there (including retired ones) so no where near a full attendance from clergy but what do you expect if you choose Low Sunday. This was a group of lay people who were seriously asking how do we do this in practice. I got back to Chesterfield about 5:00 p.m. and was given a lift back to the station.
Today has been a lazy day as mid way through last week my interviewees postponed their interview until next week. The man had got talked into driving a train which I don't suppose was very difficult. I have slept in, had an afternoon nap, written up two Sundays in my research diary and photographed some Bluebells which are at present out in Wilkinson Street. This always feels somewhat serendipitous as the reasons they seem to thrive is basically they are in the grounds of businesses that don't fuss too much about gardening. They are basically wild. As they are so far from any native population of bluebells I really could not care whether they are native, Spanish or hybrid. My own guess would be hybrid as in the two close ups one looks Spanish and one looks native. I would guess that without interference in about five to ten years time we will have bluebells in Gell Street Park as it is a nearby suitable site. I stumbled across them a couple of years back but this is the first time I have taken a camera to photograph them. Unfortunately I just picked up Dad's which I am borrowing and the battery was really low so I did not spend as long as I would like.
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