Cold stops play

Right onto News this week. The only problem is what news, the cold (it wasn't 'flu it just a sore throat, coughing, plenty of phlegm and an occasional bout of sneezing, but still very tiring) has kept me largely indoors. On Tuesday there was an event welcoming Research Students and there were desks with information which needed staffing. As one of the few specialist research staff I felt I should be in. Coped fairly well that day, but the next day realised I was in work but just staring at a screen and when I talked I quickly started coughing my head off. So I went home and slept all afternoon.

So apart from that what have I done. Well I have read two and a bit books. The two books read are by Fannie Flagg (she wrote Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle stop Cafe) the first Standing in the Rainbow was enjoyable, largely American nostalgia but actually quite a good story about women and politics hidden amongst the rest. The second Can't Wait to Get to Heaven I cannot recommend, the nostalgia has upper hand in the book and it shows. Heaven is portrayed as the home of 1950s radio host "Neighbour Dorothy" and it is Universalist in the extreme. She gets around how do you deal with bad behaviour in heaven by largely not having anybody who is likely to behave badly. Can battered wives still be beaten up by their husbands? Can people still be treated unfairly and allowed to starve? I am not necessarily strong on judgement but a portrayal of heaven where everyone gets in, that does not deal with the problem of evil doesn't seem to me to be healthy.

The book I have not finished is The Book of Chameleons by Jose Eduardo Agualusa and I highly recommend it. It is written from the perspective of an iguana and is set in Angola but the book does not get its title from him, I am not going to tell you as it will spoil the story. The Iguana watches the human life that goes on in the house of Felix Ventura, a second hand book dealer, who also creates pasts for people. It is fairly short, well written and the story has enough twists and turns to keep you reading through it.

Other than that, yesterday I put together the handout for my talk to church meeting at St Andrew's Chesterfield, have done some transcription and slept a lot. Oh I also made an arch out of plasticine (it is for the presentation to St Andrew's Chesterfield)

The result of the cold meant that I did not get over to Manchester. I was probably infectious, the cold is exhausting and I had to back for today as I was starting at Herringthorpe. So it was just not going to work. However I went to Herringthorpe. I think I have just about sorted the turnings on the round-a-bouts but I may keep using the SatNav for the number of times it gives me totally impossible advice when driving through Sheffield city centre. I keep being told to go straight on, when I can only turn left or right, or to go right and right again when all I can do is go straight on. For those that are wondering there is a nice cut through the city centre that gets me out from having to sort out how to cope with the awkward part of the ring road. If it had not worked I think I would have taken to doing the ring road in the other direction. Today however I sussed coming back. I left the parkway at the right place and also managed to go back up behind the law courts. Now all I have to do is suss how best to get to where I have to park the car. It may still turn out that going to Western Bank roundabout and turning in is the best idea! Got in and went to sleep for a couple of hours.

I doubt that I will find time to write next weekend as I will be both presenting to St Andrews Chesterfield's church meeting and writing for my next supervision. Once I finish that then I will need to prepare to present a "the experiences of a Novice ethnographer"