News from this end. Well none, I have had a busy week at work and I mean busy. I worked 4.5 days having booked a half day holiday and arranged things for it. So that means I have to take an extra days leave next week but next week is short already. Monday is a bank holiday, Friday is definitely my day off. Its going to be difficult deciding which day and a half I am actually going to be in work. Not helped by the fact that I should take a days study leave in that time as part of my writing weekend.
Work has been getting Information Commons figures for their annual report. The problem was I underestimate the effect 6,000,000 records would have on my computers processing speed. Fine for most things I wanted to do, but not for reading in or drawing graphs. When I needed to do that it was make a cup of coffee time or more accurately go for a leisurely lunch time. It is as well I started working with computers at the end of the days of sending programmes remotely from terminals, finding something to do for several hours, then getting a print out back that said you had made an error on line 10 and the job had not run. You learnt time saving techniques just to get small jobs run and I was using those techniques to finish handling the data I was using. However long hours churning numbers don't make interesting topics to write about.
Stuart can now photocopy the service sheets without me or Judith being there. I think in some ways the breakthrough was when I had to pass him onto Judith. Stuart's attitude when it was me I think was that it was a pleasant way to spend some time with me!!! My attitude was that it was a job I had given up to have time to do my thesis and it was not something I therefore wanted to be doing with someone else. The problem was as long as I did come it fulfilled Stuarts idea of what should happen. It was only when I was not there that he actually started to make the effort to learn how to do things. He did not even take in that there were clear instructions in the room on how to do it. With a person who wanted to do it, you could give them the keys and they could sort it out for themselves without any instruction. With Judith Stuart was not getting the reward so he actually set about learning. The result was last night I handed him the keys and he did the photocopying.
Yesterday I did shopping basically because I needed to. I really need to get more skilled with money off tokens. I could have saved ten pounds yesterday if I had just done! Now I have £15 in money off tokens to be spent by the 13th September. I also spent money on work clothes. My computer seems to have taken a dislike to putting in card numbers and the result is that I end up having to do them over the phone. So I purchased just ordinary trousers, tops and a fleece from Landsend, only for them having to ring me this morning to check. Oh well hopefully I will be smarter in work this autumn than I have been of late. Oh I am also struggling to find wool free walking socks. I also got a multi-tool, I was hoping it would replace both the screwdriver (which is quite bulky) and the penknife in my handbag but I decided that the pen knife had to stay, as it had a bottle opener on it. I think it has only been used once but I can think of at least one other occasion when it would have been useful. Oh anybody who thinks that either is going to be any use in a violent attack better think again. They are always bottom of the bag and they need careful attention when openning. If I wanted an offensive weapon my tiny nail scissors are a better weapon than these.
Today I went to Chesterfield for the service. It was quiet as are most congregations over the bank holiday. The magazine was going out and they have a couple of articles about the process of finding a new minister. Aparently East Midlands moderator has already met with the elders and they need to produce a profile and should be getting on with it.
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