This week isn't one full of news. I finished my SPSS course on Monday, but when I got back I noticed that I felt a bit odd, and that usually means I am going down with something. I was not necessarily sure what, but I sent apologies to writers group worried it was a migraine but feeling rather frustrated.
Anyway Tuesday came and it decided to declare itself as a cold, so yay for it not being a migraine, bah for it then being a cold. My suspect for handing it onto me seems to be a nine month year old child who had a foul one on the train. Mother was not managing her at all well, at least in part because she had a cold, was over stimulated having been out for the day, and tired. Of course her ability to keep germs to herself had not yet developed. Well it was one of these that landed me in bed the next day (well the majority of the day anyway) and although getting better towards the weekend has not been quick to clear. I still know it is there, just not all the time. Actually the extent of my creativity this time rose to wet weather pictures, and yes Fleur the yellow blob is Sandra and cleaning the fridge and the bath. The fridge should have been cleaned months ago but I just had not found the time.
Friday I got as far as doing a shop but that was really as much as I was up to and I had two things on on Saturday which were do not miss.
Well I made one of them on Saturday. I picked up the car fine on Saturday morning, had to fill with petrol that led to a detour, as there are no petrol stations on the way to Herringthorpe from my flat. Got to Herringthorpe early enough to get a parking space, even though I was only ten minutes before opening time. Ten minutes later there were none, and people wanted to be into the car park because the weather was bad. This led I think to triple parking. They have a morning Christmas fair which starts at 11:00 and goes onto 2:00 p.m.. It is is some ways very similar to those at Chesterfield. Most of the stalls could have been interchanged. However I managed to get onto the kitchen duties (yes I know that is not exactly difficult for me) which is something I never could have done at St Andrews Chesterfield. They booked me 11-12 but really needed me 11:30 to 1:30 unfortunately I had to leave in order to try and get to my second engagement of the day.
So at about 1:30 p.m. having vaguely sorted myself I set off to Nottingham to try and get to David Legge's induction at 3 p.m. that afternoon. I knew that Doncaster were away to Notts Forrest, kick off 3p.m. same time as the start of the ordination. I also knew that it was going to be easier to come in to Nottingham from a more northerly direction than the Motorway gives. So I had set my SatNav to go via Worksop and Mansfield. Unfortunately I did not realise this meant the centre of Worksop and the centre of Mansfield. The centre of Mansfield was fine the centre of Worksop was not. Particularly annoying as I did not realise until I was off the ring road. What I also did not realise was although it looked like the main A road on the way down, it was infact most 50 or 40 mile and hour speed limit. Just a couple of miles or so further east is I think the A618, which does not go through Mansfield, and is national speed limit most of the way. It would have been a far better bet. I know now having driven up it. I got into Nottingham and knew the church was on Edwards Lane. I was one piece of information shore. I had assumed that Edwards Lane was a relatively short road. Lanes normally are quite short. Its about two miles long and leads into another long road called Beckhamptom Road. Even worse still it has the Edgerton Road South, Edgerton Road North feel about it, in that there is a major junction splitting the road into two parts. I ended up on the wrong part. The result was that I drove up and down it several times and could not find the church. At about 3:30 pm I ended up deciding that even if I did find the church now I would not go in and drove home without the Sat Nav. Actually originally just heading out of the city inorder to find somewhere I could get something wet to drink. I was half way home before I found one but the drive had been a lot smoother. I went in an ordered a Coke and a pot of tea as I had not had anything to drink since just after 11:00 in the morning. Having got home know that it was probably for the best health wise, I was tired enough only having done what I did but still dispirited at having missed the induction service after making all that effort.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Supervision week with some sorting out of things
Right what has this week brought. Monday was washed out with a migraine. I just curled up and slept. In some ways it was worse than normal in that the whole time I was feeling rotten, in other ways better, as it only lasted one day.
Tuesday I awoke and realised not only had the migraine left, it had also left me in a state I would call anti-migraineous. If migraines make me feel rotten, not want to be bothered with anything and want to curl up in bed, then this made me feel as if I could tackle everything that I was okay, I was slightly more bothered than usual and that I was able to do what I needed to do. That was good in some ways. I had plenty of energy to go to Herringthorpe for a Bible Study. I even sorted out what to eat by getting a pasty from the student shop. Not so good in other ways, I had two Amazon parcels and was too much in attentive to check they actually had in them what they said they did. Herringthorpe does bible study differently. It may have started with an Alpha group. They have a fellowship meal at 6 p.m. in the church which people don't have to go to, then at present they split into an Alpha group and a bible study group. They Bible study group go through to the church, and Pauline gives them a talk on the passage of scripture they are looking at for about three quarters of an hour. The Alpha group I presume watch a video in the hall during this. Then everyone comes back for coffee. Then it is into small groups, the bible study dividing into two. Neither group is led by Pauline. What is noticeably is they have a lot of people who are happy leading groups like this.
Wednesday was officially my quiet day. Still busy but nothing major. So I did a shop and other regular chores.
Thursday was off to Birmingham for a supervision. I had booked myself on an earlier train having got muddled over times (my diary said 12 noon my brain said 2 p.m., my brain was right). It meant that I had plenty of time at Birmingham, time to search for leads and such, time to buy a Birmingham hoodie (I wore and old one on Tuesday and people just seemed more relaxed about me being there if I wore something that said which University I was at). I also was in the one place in the country that was not flooded. I don't think I even had to cope with a mild shower. A funny-peculiar of the day was I went for a Taxi on the way home. Being the law abiding sort, I let the person in front of me get into a taxi first, only for the taxi driver to ask me where I was going, and then ask her to get out and get the next taxi. It turned out he had kids to pick up so could not do the long journey she was asking for. There were plenty of taxis. Another is I picked up the book "Worship and Liturgy in Context: studies and case studies in theology and practice" printed by SCM. It sounds like a general book on worship. Now let me start giving you clues its editors are Duncan B Forrester and Doug Gay. It has two articles by David Fergusson. Other names I recognise include John Bell and Norman Shanks. The chapter titles are clearly all based in Scotland. There really should be a hint, other than the editors names, on the cover that its perspective is definitely Scottish.
Friday was a bitty day, just never seemed to settle. I know this probably was partly coming in from Birmingham, partly that I had reason to take my lunch very early and partly just my brain working over time the day before.
Saturday I went to St Andrews Sheffield and spent a couple of hours just fiddling around with bits of equipment around the audio desk. Nothing much really, just testing every microphone, sorting out stuff that had just been stuffed into boxes and so on. We seem to have equipment breeding. I know its breeding, they had the box to put an electric guitar output straight into the mixing desk. I can not imagine that on any occasion St Andrews has regularly had someone playing the electric guitar. It might just have had someone playing the acoustic guitar on a handful of occasions, and the person would normally have been a guest preacher. I wonder what pieces of equipment have to breed to create one of those and why by natural selection it survived where something more useful, such as a phantom power supply box has not. Mind you I did find no less than 3 electrical extension leads of which one was of unknown origin. Otherwise wrote up last Sunday's notes.
Today I got to Herringthorpe. They were celebrating Bible Sunday, so they had Gideons in to present and they also gave Bibles to the children. They give bibles to children in Junior Church who are in years 2,7 & 12 of school. Children who already have Bibles are allowed to choose books as an alternative. What was clear was that they were giving them age related Bibles. They claimed they did not give kids new bibles if they already had them, but I would be rather concerned for any lad who in year 12 was still using the Bible he was given in year 2, I think I would want him to have something more adult although something aimed more at the year 7 might be more appropriate. The links are just to examples. Oh the other thing is that I have discovered Herringthorpe has its contingent with Pauline who thing "she's not Elizabeth Caswell is she" and tend to stay away. What is more this group appears to include at least one older person (I'd guess about eighty). If as I suspect, Pauline has actually moved the church to more mainstream URC in ethos then maybe I am going to have to revise my ideas that older people and Charismatic praise band led worship do not mix easily unless the older person is a long time charismatic. I suspect in fact what it was is they like Elizabeth's charisma and Pauline does not have that.
This week will finish the SPSS course. Now what dramatic thing do we expect this time, having had a burning building on the previous session for this course. Next Saturday is both Herringthorpe's Christmas fair and David Legge's induction at Sherwood. Otherwise a pretty normal week.
Tuesday I awoke and realised not only had the migraine left, it had also left me in a state I would call anti-migraineous. If migraines make me feel rotten, not want to be bothered with anything and want to curl up in bed, then this made me feel as if I could tackle everything that I was okay, I was slightly more bothered than usual and that I was able to do what I needed to do. That was good in some ways. I had plenty of energy to go to Herringthorpe for a Bible Study. I even sorted out what to eat by getting a pasty from the student shop. Not so good in other ways, I had two Amazon parcels and was too much in attentive to check they actually had in them what they said they did. Herringthorpe does bible study differently. It may have started with an Alpha group. They have a fellowship meal at 6 p.m. in the church which people don't have to go to, then at present they split into an Alpha group and a bible study group. They Bible study group go through to the church, and Pauline gives them a talk on the passage of scripture they are looking at for about three quarters of an hour. The Alpha group I presume watch a video in the hall during this. Then everyone comes back for coffee. Then it is into small groups, the bible study dividing into two. Neither group is led by Pauline. What is noticeably is they have a lot of people who are happy leading groups like this.
Wednesday was officially my quiet day. Still busy but nothing major. So I did a shop and other regular chores.
Thursday was off to Birmingham for a supervision. I had booked myself on an earlier train having got muddled over times (my diary said 12 noon my brain said 2 p.m., my brain was right). It meant that I had plenty of time at Birmingham, time to search for leads and such, time to buy a Birmingham hoodie (I wore and old one on Tuesday and people just seemed more relaxed about me being there if I wore something that said which University I was at). I also was in the one place in the country that was not flooded. I don't think I even had to cope with a mild shower. A funny-peculiar of the day was I went for a Taxi on the way home. Being the law abiding sort, I let the person in front of me get into a taxi first, only for the taxi driver to ask me where I was going, and then ask her to get out and get the next taxi. It turned out he had kids to pick up so could not do the long journey she was asking for. There were plenty of taxis. Another is I picked up the book "Worship and Liturgy in Context: studies and case studies in theology and practice" printed by SCM. It sounds like a general book on worship. Now let me start giving you clues its editors are Duncan B Forrester and Doug Gay. It has two articles by David Fergusson. Other names I recognise include John Bell and Norman Shanks. The chapter titles are clearly all based in Scotland. There really should be a hint, other than the editors names, on the cover that its perspective is definitely Scottish.
Friday was a bitty day, just never seemed to settle. I know this probably was partly coming in from Birmingham, partly that I had reason to take my lunch very early and partly just my brain working over time the day before.
Saturday I went to St Andrews Sheffield and spent a couple of hours just fiddling around with bits of equipment around the audio desk. Nothing much really, just testing every microphone, sorting out stuff that had just been stuffed into boxes and so on. We seem to have equipment breeding. I know its breeding, they had the box to put an electric guitar output straight into the mixing desk. I can not imagine that on any occasion St Andrews has regularly had someone playing the electric guitar. It might just have had someone playing the acoustic guitar on a handful of occasions, and the person would normally have been a guest preacher. I wonder what pieces of equipment have to breed to create one of those and why by natural selection it survived where something more useful, such as a phantom power supply box has not. Mind you I did find no less than 3 electrical extension leads of which one was of unknown origin. Otherwise wrote up last Sunday's notes.
Today I got to Herringthorpe. They were celebrating Bible Sunday, so they had Gideons in to present and they also gave Bibles to the children. They give bibles to children in Junior Church who are in years 2,7 & 12 of school. Children who already have Bibles are allowed to choose books as an alternative. What was clear was that they were giving them age related Bibles. They claimed they did not give kids new bibles if they already had them, but I would be rather concerned for any lad who in year 12 was still using the Bible he was given in year 2, I think I would want him to have something more adult although something aimed more at the year 7 might be more appropriate. The links are just to examples. Oh the other thing is that I have discovered Herringthorpe has its contingent with Pauline who thing "she's not Elizabeth Caswell is she" and tend to stay away. What is more this group appears to include at least one older person (I'd guess about eighty). If as I suspect, Pauline has actually moved the church to more mainstream URC in ethos then maybe I am going to have to revise my ideas that older people and Charismatic praise band led worship do not mix easily unless the older person is a long time charismatic. I suspect in fact what it was is they like Elizabeth's charisma and Pauline does not have that.
This week will finish the SPSS course. Now what dramatic thing do we expect this time, having had a burning building on the previous session for this course. Next Saturday is both Herringthorpe's Christmas fair and David Legge's induction at Sherwood. Otherwise a pretty normal week.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Evacuating buildings and meals out and that's just Tuesday!
There was slightly more happening this week as I did not sleep through a couple of days of it. Monday was largely uneventful although I got to my writing group and thoroughly enjoyed that. However I may well have to go this week without anything written, or bring one from a couple of weeks back which is in my opinion really weak.
Tuesday morning I was organising for the middle of my three SPSS classes having missed last week. I got up there and only four of the class remained. I am not sure whether this was because they forgot, life intruded or they all fell foul of a dreaded lurgy. However this time we had a fire. Oh not in the room we were in, just one in the building but it was the Hicks Building and we were on the top floor. It is a long story of why my department's teaching room is on the top floor of the Hicks Building, partly it is history and partly it is inertia. There was no real panic, first assumption was that it was someone testing the alarms, second one was that it was either a practice or a false alarm and it was only when I went back in to tidy the room after getting the all clear, I overheard porters talking of the smell of acrid smoke. So there must have been a fire somewhere in the building. Fortunately I had finished teaching for the day but the building catching fire is yet another new one on me. I had to create an evacuation plan on the spot and I may have sent people to the wrong fire exit as I sent them automatically to the main stairs rather than the set of stairs at the other end of the building which is possibly nearer. In the Hicks they have installed a lift for use in case of fire by the disabled, but it is so poor that Derek Collins has been recommended to come down after all the rest down the flight of stairs. Part of me wonders if it is due to some students trying to use it when they are able bodied.
In the evening I went out with CICS Prayer Group to Las Iguanas to mark Lynn and Cliff's retirement. We all made it except Mike who had managed to get his wires crossed with his wife and was needed at home to look after their children. The set menu was not as good as a few years back, when you could get several course that were imaginative for a very reasonable price, the set menu was largely standards that you can get at a lot of other places. They also had cut their fresh fruit options to one but then as I had taken a lactase tablet I could have IPANEMA MESS: Layers of sweet guava, creamy mascarpone & crushed meringue, I might even have got away with it without the tablet, but it would have been pushing it. Malcolm a former member of the group who retired about a year ago was there and looking well despite battling quite serious stomach cancer.
Wednesday was the first meeting of the NVivo users group, a group which I have thought of as necessary for the University for years but which I did not know any way of setting up. I started teaching it last April and it just seems to have attracted people. I will run at least three courses this academic year (1 run, 2 booked) and from one of the courses last year, someone decided something needed doing and got onto someone who knew who to contact. So the group has started. I have since created a mail list for them and need to get started on updating the course.
However by thursday a query I had been given by Patrice had started to bear fruit. Many years ago I wrote reports on the data from Petrmetr. Then people stopped using them (licensing software got better and the techie boys decided that immediate reports were better for their part). The result was that I dropped it. There is no point in doing a report if no one is going to look at it. Only we are back needing to have the reports again. Fortunately the software is still there. However I no longer have the ability to easily access the data. So another member of staff writes a report to extract the data, then I do some wizardry on the data and produce the graphics and measures we actually need for people to make sensible decisions. Meanwhile on the morning my cleaner was doing her fortnightly clean (or the family was as both her sister and mum came to help). The mum has the same attitude to my bath mat as my mum and asked permission to put it out.
Friday was a fairly normal day. I went to the Breakfast first thing, and had bacon and mushrooms on toast. It looked fairly busy although on later inspection people had just chosen to spread themselves around the room. Sarah was having a conversation with Phil on one table, on another Janet and Jean Dickson and a couple of others were talking. Legend/Peter was on the third and decided to call me over to talk to him. So all the tables were in use but people were spread out. Got back and did some more transcribing. I hope I can finish a second interview this month by transcribing on Monday and Wednesday. Then I must really look to getting them out. Went into work, and even though I had only one thing planned for the afternoon I ended up jumping in a number of different directions. So it was after five before I left.
I got in did a quick turn around and went back out again as the Dicksons had invited me for dinner. The traffic was awful even though it was approaching 6 p.m. when I got to the bus stop. It was not helped that it decided to rain, not a full scale Sheffield downpour but it was still pretty wet. So there was a wait for the bus. I think if I had known how soon the next would be I would have got it, but the traffic did not seem to clearing, although it cleared within minutes of getting on the bus, and the idea of being somewhere dry was rather tempting even if it was crowded. I was damp by the time I got to the Dicksons. It was pleasant after the business of the week to sit down with friends. Although when Jean decided to send me home around 9p.m. I was more than willing to go.
Saturday my parents came over. Mum had been struggling with sewing up the cardigan she had knitted me and had wanted during the week for me to help her with exactly how the pieces fitted together. The problem was that she'd lay them out in from of her and say something like does this go so to this. As I had no idea what either "this" was nor what shape they were it was very difficult to answer. She had asked my sister about it during the week but Cathy had been racing around keeping her household on track, she did not feel as if she had had a proper conversation about it. However she had sorted it by the time she had got here and I just had to try it on. She still needs to knit the collar and the facings for the jersey and I got a button for it while they were over. We also went down town, partly to get me a replacement bath mat, which dad decided was to be the surprise part of my Christmas present.
Today I went to Herringthorpe for both the service and the following church meeting. The thing that struck me once again is how much new stuff they are taking on. It is a very "can do" and "go ahead" congregation. This included voting to support the setting up of Street Pastors in Rotherham, voting new elders, choosing a charity to support as well as quite a debate about how to charge for use of the buildings to charities. The congregation got really quite involved in the deciding how to charge charities. It was one of those cases where church meeting over turned the decisions of elders. I came in and went to bed and slept for another couple of hours.
This coming week, I am going to try going to their bible study on Tuesday and also have a trip down to Birmingham on Thursday plus the two mornings typing up transcripts. Then next weekend hopefully a quiet weekend in.
Tuesday morning I was organising for the middle of my three SPSS classes having missed last week. I got up there and only four of the class remained. I am not sure whether this was because they forgot, life intruded or they all fell foul of a dreaded lurgy. However this time we had a fire. Oh not in the room we were in, just one in the building but it was the Hicks Building and we were on the top floor. It is a long story of why my department's teaching room is on the top floor of the Hicks Building, partly it is history and partly it is inertia. There was no real panic, first assumption was that it was someone testing the alarms, second one was that it was either a practice or a false alarm and it was only when I went back in to tidy the room after getting the all clear, I overheard porters talking of the smell of acrid smoke. So there must have been a fire somewhere in the building. Fortunately I had finished teaching for the day but the building catching fire is yet another new one on me. I had to create an evacuation plan on the spot and I may have sent people to the wrong fire exit as I sent them automatically to the main stairs rather than the set of stairs at the other end of the building which is possibly nearer. In the Hicks they have installed a lift for use in case of fire by the disabled, but it is so poor that Derek Collins has been recommended to come down after all the rest down the flight of stairs. Part of me wonders if it is due to some students trying to use it when they are able bodied.
In the evening I went out with CICS Prayer Group to Las Iguanas to mark Lynn and Cliff's retirement. We all made it except Mike who had managed to get his wires crossed with his wife and was needed at home to look after their children. The set menu was not as good as a few years back, when you could get several course that were imaginative for a very reasonable price, the set menu was largely standards that you can get at a lot of other places. They also had cut their fresh fruit options to one but then as I had taken a lactase tablet I could have IPANEMA MESS: Layers of sweet guava, creamy mascarpone & crushed meringue, I might even have got away with it without the tablet, but it would have been pushing it. Malcolm a former member of the group who retired about a year ago was there and looking well despite battling quite serious stomach cancer.
Wednesday was the first meeting of the NVivo users group, a group which I have thought of as necessary for the University for years but which I did not know any way of setting up. I started teaching it last April and it just seems to have attracted people. I will run at least three courses this academic year (1 run, 2 booked) and from one of the courses last year, someone decided something needed doing and got onto someone who knew who to contact. So the group has started. I have since created a mail list for them and need to get started on updating the course.
However by thursday a query I had been given by Patrice had started to bear fruit. Many years ago I wrote reports on the data from Petrmetr. Then people stopped using them (licensing software got better and the techie boys decided that immediate reports were better for their part). The result was that I dropped it. There is no point in doing a report if no one is going to look at it. Only we are back needing to have the reports again. Fortunately the software is still there. However I no longer have the ability to easily access the data. So another member of staff writes a report to extract the data, then I do some wizardry on the data and produce the graphics and measures we actually need for people to make sensible decisions. Meanwhile on the morning my cleaner was doing her fortnightly clean (or the family was as both her sister and mum came to help). The mum has the same attitude to my bath mat as my mum and asked permission to put it out.
Friday was a fairly normal day. I went to the Breakfast first thing, and had bacon and mushrooms on toast. It looked fairly busy although on later inspection people had just chosen to spread themselves around the room. Sarah was having a conversation with Phil on one table, on another Janet and Jean Dickson and a couple of others were talking. Legend/Peter was on the third and decided to call me over to talk to him. So all the tables were in use but people were spread out. Got back and did some more transcribing. I hope I can finish a second interview this month by transcribing on Monday and Wednesday. Then I must really look to getting them out. Went into work, and even though I had only one thing planned for the afternoon I ended up jumping in a number of different directions. So it was after five before I left.
I got in did a quick turn around and went back out again as the Dicksons had invited me for dinner. The traffic was awful even though it was approaching 6 p.m. when I got to the bus stop. It was not helped that it decided to rain, not a full scale Sheffield downpour but it was still pretty wet. So there was a wait for the bus. I think if I had known how soon the next would be I would have got it, but the traffic did not seem to clearing, although it cleared within minutes of getting on the bus, and the idea of being somewhere dry was rather tempting even if it was crowded. I was damp by the time I got to the Dicksons. It was pleasant after the business of the week to sit down with friends. Although when Jean decided to send me home around 9p.m. I was more than willing to go.
Saturday my parents came over. Mum had been struggling with sewing up the cardigan she had knitted me and had wanted during the week for me to help her with exactly how the pieces fitted together. The problem was that she'd lay them out in from of her and say something like does this go so to this. As I had no idea what either "this" was nor what shape they were it was very difficult to answer. She had asked my sister about it during the week but Cathy had been racing around keeping her household on track, she did not feel as if she had had a proper conversation about it. However she had sorted it by the time she had got here and I just had to try it on. She still needs to knit the collar and the facings for the jersey and I got a button for it while they were over. We also went down town, partly to get me a replacement bath mat, which dad decided was to be the surprise part of my Christmas present.
Today I went to Herringthorpe for both the service and the following church meeting. The thing that struck me once again is how much new stuff they are taking on. It is a very "can do" and "go ahead" congregation. This included voting to support the setting up of Street Pastors in Rotherham, voting new elders, choosing a charity to support as well as quite a debate about how to charge for use of the buildings to charities. The congregation got really quite involved in the deciding how to charge charities. It was one of those cases where church meeting over turned the decisions of elders. I came in and went to bed and slept for another couple of hours.
This coming week, I am going to try going to their bible study on Tuesday and also have a trip down to Birmingham on Thursday plus the two mornings typing up transcripts. Then next weekend hopefully a quiet weekend in.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Making the most of a cold
For those who want to see the rain pictures from last week then the best two are posted here.
The wet one from my bedroom window works better as you get the feeling of a really wet day. However as I said last week it would have been even better if I had managed to get myself up earlier so that you got the lights spread through Sheffield in the wet half light of dawn, that would have given the buildings some more shape and form. The evening one really falls down because simply it was not wet enough so I was searching for raindrops on the window. I got a few but not nearly as many as required for the image. Oh well something to try again on another day when it is wet and I am stuck indoors.
My news, is pretty scarce this week as the strange mix of illness last Sunday decided to develop into a cold. Well a cough, tiredness and occasional (at most twice a day) bouts of sneezing. I am not quite sure how it did it but last Sunday and again on Thursday it seemed to manage to mix migraine symptoms in with the cold ones. Mum originally suggested this might be due to flu but as my temperature did not go above 37°C, I somewhat doubt this. This meant that for the first time in all the years I have been in Sheffield I cancelled a course I was teaching. I have taught it before when I have been this ill but with this course and the spacing I have learnt that if I do teach it when ill, I may as well cancel the next one as so many others are off with the cold, plus I do not teach the course particularly well when I am off colour so cancelling and rearranging seemed sensible. Monday and Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping and when I was up I felt very tired. I find if I keep myself inside my flat when I have a cold the symptoms are less severe but I seem to be very tired.
Wednesday I felt a bit better and decided to spend the day up and see how I coped. Quite a bit of the time I spent crocheting a duckling for Lynn who was a secretary at work until she retired recently, granddaughter Hannah. Hannah was born back in September and I got the orange wool for the beak and feet soon after. The yellow was bought for my nieces bee, which I do not have a picture of. It is somewhat bigger than the usual crochet amigurumis that I do. No the background was not pale blue, it was white, but if I took the picture with the the background white then the duckling looked positively orange and given that his actual colour is very yellow that would be problematic. It took quite a bit of fixing of the colour transitions for the camera for the picture to come out this well. I also on Wednesday finished another transcript for my thesis. So even though I was at home, it was quite a productive day.
Thursday I got the comeback of trying to be up all day on Wednesday and needed to sleep in the morning. That said I did manage to finish the duckling off. I am not quite sure whether it is a toy or an ornament. The eyes are put on with washers that go over the stem that goes through the crocheting. The washers are funnel shaped so pushing them off actually tightens their grip on the stem and the stem had ridges on to grip them. So as far as I can see about as sturdily on as you can get apart from just using embroidery for the eyes and I am no good at getting that right. Yes I have tried. Certainly they are better on than the using Fimo or Sculpey polymer modelling clay and then sticking them on, which is a technique I have seen recommended.
Friday I did some transcription on another recording. I still need to catch up a lot, but I got one interview sent out on Saturday and another sent back for checking. I just hope the postal strike does not go on too long. I now have five done, one in progress and another eight to do. I would ideally like them done before Christmas (Hah!) so will need to get a move on especially as I am back to making full notes on my placement. The weather has also got much colder so this week I got out my winter duvet. I am enjoying the fact it is down filled and not polyester so it hugs closer to your body and you do not need to warm as much cold air.
Today I made it to Herringthorpe and I got introduced to the congregation. The nice thing is that I did not have any pressure to take the service, which is why I actually did not get introduced at St Andrew's Chesterfield. David thought that it would be a good idea if I took a service. I don't take main Sunday morning services, and simply my thesis was not the sort of one where I can take a service and tell people about it before I have been with them. The congregation keep telling me repeatedly that they are a welcoming congregation, I have not seen anything to contradict that, but they are in danger of in my mums words "over egging the pudding". My one conclusion to date is that growth is not directly related to how welcoming a congregation is, despite what the denomination has stressed for years. Welcome is one of the things that stops you driving people away, but does not draw people in. Two more groups of members I have come across, the ex Pentecostal and the Scots who mistook the CofE for a sister church for the CofS and wondered why they did not find it friendly (I suspect more to do with wrong expectations of friendship than not being friendly). Oh the first indication of the dominant female name at Herringthorpe, someone said "There are lots of Jeans here", although if I had guessed I would have said Val. Maybe the Jeanery actually covers the whole of South Yorkshire and not just St Andrews Sheffield.
Next week I am giving the course I should have the week before, with the one for this date moving a fortnight later, having a meal out with Cliff, Lynn and others from prayer group and also the first meeting of the University of Sheffield's NVivo users group, so another busy week.
Hoping that this week brings you joys from unexpected places, times of good friendship and opportunities to relax and appreciate life
The wet one from my bedroom window works better as you get the feeling of a really wet day. However as I said last week it would have been even better if I had managed to get myself up earlier so that you got the lights spread through Sheffield in the wet half light of dawn, that would have given the buildings some more shape and form. The evening one really falls down because simply it was not wet enough so I was searching for raindrops on the window. I got a few but not nearly as many as required for the image. Oh well something to try again on another day when it is wet and I am stuck indoors.
My news, is pretty scarce this week as the strange mix of illness last Sunday decided to develop into a cold. Well a cough, tiredness and occasional (at most twice a day) bouts of sneezing. I am not quite sure how it did it but last Sunday and again on Thursday it seemed to manage to mix migraine symptoms in with the cold ones. Mum originally suggested this might be due to flu but as my temperature did not go above 37°C, I somewhat doubt this. This meant that for the first time in all the years I have been in Sheffield I cancelled a course I was teaching. I have taught it before when I have been this ill but with this course and the spacing I have learnt that if I do teach it when ill, I may as well cancel the next one as so many others are off with the cold, plus I do not teach the course particularly well when I am off colour so cancelling and rearranging seemed sensible. Monday and Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping and when I was up I felt very tired. I find if I keep myself inside my flat when I have a cold the symptoms are less severe but I seem to be very tired.
Thursday I got the comeback of trying to be up all day on Wednesday and needed to sleep in the morning. That said I did manage to finish the duckling off. I am not quite sure whether it is a toy or an ornament. The eyes are put on with washers that go over the stem that goes through the crocheting. The washers are funnel shaped so pushing them off actually tightens their grip on the stem and the stem had ridges on to grip them. So as far as I can see about as sturdily on as you can get apart from just using embroidery for the eyes and I am no good at getting that right. Yes I have tried. Certainly they are better on than the using Fimo or Sculpey polymer modelling clay and then sticking them on, which is a technique I have seen recommended.
Friday I did some transcription on another recording. I still need to catch up a lot, but I got one interview sent out on Saturday and another sent back for checking. I just hope the postal strike does not go on too long. I now have five done, one in progress and another eight to do. I would ideally like them done before Christmas (Hah!) so will need to get a move on especially as I am back to making full notes on my placement. The weather has also got much colder so this week I got out my winter duvet. I am enjoying the fact it is down filled and not polyester so it hugs closer to your body and you do not need to warm as much cold air.
Today I made it to Herringthorpe and I got introduced to the congregation. The nice thing is that I did not have any pressure to take the service, which is why I actually did not get introduced at St Andrew's Chesterfield. David thought that it would be a good idea if I took a service. I don't take main Sunday morning services, and simply my thesis was not the sort of one where I can take a service and tell people about it before I have been with them. The congregation keep telling me repeatedly that they are a welcoming congregation, I have not seen anything to contradict that, but they are in danger of in my mums words "over egging the pudding". My one conclusion to date is that growth is not directly related to how welcoming a congregation is, despite what the denomination has stressed for years. Welcome is one of the things that stops you driving people away, but does not draw people in. Two more groups of members I have come across, the ex Pentecostal and the Scots who mistook the CofE for a sister church for the CofS and wondered why they did not find it friendly (I suspect more to do with wrong expectations of friendship than not being friendly). Oh the first indication of the dominant female name at Herringthorpe, someone said "There are lots of Jeans here", although if I had guessed I would have said Val. Maybe the Jeanery actually covers the whole of South Yorkshire and not just St Andrews Sheffield.
Next week I am giving the course I should have the week before, with the one for this date moving a fortnight later, having a meal out with Cliff, Lynn and others from prayer group and also the first meeting of the University of Sheffield's NVivo users group, so another busy week.
Hoping that this week brings you joys from unexpected places, times of good friendship and opportunities to relax and appreciate life
Monday, November 2, 2009
In which nothing very much happens
Not sure there is much news this week.
I taught the start of a class on SPSS this week, and during my session on NVivo last week it suddenly trigged that what I miss is my ability to sense when a class is getting baffled. So I made little flip cards, which if I have time on Monday I will finish with piece of card and some blu-tac. Simply if I am going to fast and they are lost they flip it over, if it is just one or two then I can wait to the next work session but if it is more then I need to stop and replay. This does not stop the class from asking questions but means I can have some sort of clue to how they are following. The other thing was despite reminders the last couple of weeks, the person updating the notes forgot. So I ended up teaching with half of the documents and then I went up and the software I was using, which I thought was 16 turned out to be 15! So the old notes would have been fine. I ended up teaching until 4:30 and did not get down until after 5:00 p.m.. Which meant I missed completely Cliff Woodcrafts leaving do.
Wednesday was fairly normal only as I am trying to transcribe interviews at present it was my other half day off on the morning. Went in at lunch time firstly to prayer meeting (the microphone for the hall is back and working, I checked it on Thursday when I put it in). Then got on with my work. Same with thursday and friday, being the other half day I was supposed to get more transcription done. I did about half a minute. I really need to make better progress.
Saturday I went to town, I bought myself a tripod. I bought it so I can take photographs that require a longer exposure than I can hold the camera still for, but since getting it I also find I can relax more when I am setting up a photograph, I have the time to check the settings and make sure I am getting things right without wondering about how I going to continue holding it. Slower yes, but I think for me it is better. Maybe I should have got a full sized tripod earlier. I have still to discover whether I will be un-selfconcious enough to use it properly but have enjoyed the photographs I have done today at home. I tried manual focussing something I'd never dare try if hand holding. So I got photos of the rain drops on the glass of my windows. Admittedly I should have got myself up and out of bed earlier so I could have got the deep blue of a wet dawn but I didn't.
Today has not been successful and I am wondering why. I alternate between time of month exhaustion, a cold or maybe a migraine. I got up but partly lost track of time (something typical for me during time of the month), got to the car and things didn't quite come together, including me not looking at the clock, then ran into road works plus there was torrential rain. At the end I was just too late for the service, if I was further on in my placement I would have gone in, but I just felt as if it would cause panic upon panic, as first I would not be there and then I would. So I turned around and came home which as soon as I did it I knew was the right decision as there was enough wrong for me to be aware of it. I got home and went to bed and slept for three hours straight off. Since then have felt as if something isn't quite right, but not sure what. After talked with my parents have decided that at present should assume it is a bug and see what tomorrow brings.
I taught the start of a class on SPSS this week, and during my session on NVivo last week it suddenly trigged that what I miss is my ability to sense when a class is getting baffled. So I made little flip cards, which if I have time on Monday I will finish with piece of card and some blu-tac. Simply if I am going to fast and they are lost they flip it over, if it is just one or two then I can wait to the next work session but if it is more then I need to stop and replay. This does not stop the class from asking questions but means I can have some sort of clue to how they are following. The other thing was despite reminders the last couple of weeks, the person updating the notes forgot. So I ended up teaching with half of the documents and then I went up and the software I was using, which I thought was 16 turned out to be 15! So the old notes would have been fine. I ended up teaching until 4:30 and did not get down until after 5:00 p.m.. Which meant I missed completely Cliff Woodcrafts leaving do.
Wednesday was fairly normal only as I am trying to transcribe interviews at present it was my other half day off on the morning. Went in at lunch time firstly to prayer meeting (the microphone for the hall is back and working, I checked it on Thursday when I put it in). Then got on with my work. Same with thursday and friday, being the other half day I was supposed to get more transcription done. I did about half a minute. I really need to make better progress.
Saturday I went to town, I bought myself a tripod. I bought it so I can take photographs that require a longer exposure than I can hold the camera still for, but since getting it I also find I can relax more when I am setting up a photograph, I have the time to check the settings and make sure I am getting things right without wondering about how I going to continue holding it. Slower yes, but I think for me it is better. Maybe I should have got a full sized tripod earlier. I have still to discover whether I will be un-selfconcious enough to use it properly but have enjoyed the photographs I have done today at home. I tried manual focussing something I'd never dare try if hand holding. So I got photos of the rain drops on the glass of my windows. Admittedly I should have got myself up and out of bed earlier so I could have got the deep blue of a wet dawn but I didn't.
Today has not been successful and I am wondering why. I alternate between time of month exhaustion, a cold or maybe a migraine. I got up but partly lost track of time (something typical for me during time of the month), got to the car and things didn't quite come together, including me not looking at the clock, then ran into road works plus there was torrential rain. At the end I was just too late for the service, if I was further on in my placement I would have gone in, but I just felt as if it would cause panic upon panic, as first I would not be there and then I would. So I turned around and came home which as soon as I did it I knew was the right decision as there was enough wrong for me to be aware of it. I got home and went to bed and slept for three hours straight off. Since then have felt as if something isn't quite right, but not sure what. After talked with my parents have decided that at present should assume it is a bug and see what tomorrow brings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)