As it is late I will give highlight rather than a full run down. The first big date was Wednesday 3rd, I first went on a priority course, which turned out to be more useful that I expected. I realised that certainly when compared with my sister I am not an organised in the way she is. Don't get me wrong, I can organise, I do it all the time and I do it well. Most people assume it is natural too me, or do until they see the mess lurking in odd places. I don't think you could grow up in the environment I did without getting an ability to be organised. All things are relative, a child of my mother, who is superb at organising (not my opinion but that of Sally Hare), who is mathematically gifted so in a very systematic culture and is single, is going to be good at organising. However, I was always the one doing homework at the last minute, my sister had hers done before she finished school for the day, I tend to surround myself with clutter in my private space, public is tidy and at eighteen my Aunt bought me a card which said "my final answer is 'maybe'". What I am trying to say is my base preference is different from my cultural preference. That is I can be organised and am very good at getting myself to be but I also need to acknowledge that I have to balance that with disorganisation on other areas or the organisation becomes unstable. This is actually quite freeing. For a start I have stopped hassling myself over why I don't do things. Not taken them off the number of issues that I have to tackle but acknowledged that even if I do get them sorted then I will need to put the word "temporarily" as I am always likely to backslide into disorganisation. Certain areas I probably need to be organised in, with others I actually need to relax and let myself be disorganised. Now all I need is the wisdom to know the difference.
Secondly on that Wednesday I went to a book launch at Waterstones. A former member of my writers group had just got her first book published, Northern Soul Revival. The book launch happened despite it snowing and Sheffield going into its usual snow neurosis (somehow, even though if everyone had driven home normally they would have got home, drivers panic, rush home and clog the roads up so badly that they end up getting home later than normal) I have part read the book, it is partly set in Sheffield, partly Tasmania and partly in Seeley a fictional North Yorkshire town. Its a romance in the genre "boy falls for girl next door, girl not so keen"; and yes I have got the genders the right way around. Only as it is modern its more complicated than the traditional one. It is not the normal sort of fiction I read, actually I don't think I would even try and read it if Claire had not been part of my writers group but as she was, I am making the effort. In my estimation not great literature but perhaps a bit closer to reality than your average Mills and Boon. We went onto Bears and Bungalows for a meal out afterwards, the meal was good, Lincolnshire sausages and mash (I'll ignore the onion gravy except to say I ate the onion but ignored the straight gravy). There is at least another one novel being incubated in the group which in my estimation is both publishable and better than this one but if you like a romance and know Sheffield or Tasmania, why not give it a go.
Thursday I had a back to work interview. For some reason the sorting out of how I functioned I decided that what I needed to do was to actually write out for my return to work interview (due to time off with migraine) what I was doing. This was good in two ways, as I discovered later this is the sort of information the person demanding the interview is likely to quieten down with. Secondly it identified one thing I had dropped back on since just before Christmas and I was able to go and supplement that which seems to be working well at present. I have only had one migraine in the past fortnight. So lets see if this works.
The weekend was a writing weekend or at least I did write on Friday, Saturday and Monday but Sunday was taken up with a major church meeting at Herringthorpe. It was very useful from my perspective. Some of the differences became clear. They were very clear over who their parish-audience was, all right it is straightforward in a way St Andrews Chesterfield wasn't but I think they may have partly created it, where St Andrews Chesterfield had failed as in some ways their siting is very similar but whereas there is a failure for a community centre to happen at St Andrews Chesterfield, there very clearly is one at Rotherham. It looks like what was a roundabout with a church and a pub on has developed so now there is quite a shopping area and a doctors surgery. The doctors surgery at one time used the church but now have their own premises across the road from the church. They also are a caterpillar congregation. If you like they plant congregations where members are, then if members move on from the mother church, the mother church closes and moves in with a daughter church. So the congregation moves like a caterpillar.
Tuesday I went to bible study, I don't think there was as many there for Nicky Gumble's talk on sex. I wonder if it was the topic, the age range is certainly older than the congregation as a whole. However not much else to report about that. Wednesday I managed prayer group and then started dealing with writing a document on presenting data. Friday I worked at home. Partly as I had to get the essay I wrote the previous weekend into its final form and the papers sent off for my supervision but I also had a visit to the osteopath at which he discharged me. I actually he also "fixed" my shoulder that had been playing up since just before Christmas.
Then it was over to my parents for a weekend. It included finally getting the rest of daddy's bird feeder and setting it up. For some reason I had managed to put 9 Deneway Close instead of 8 when I ordered and we had to wait until the neighbours who lived in 9 got back from Australia. So Saturday's big event was putting up the feeder. It is now up, although leaning at a greater angle than I would like. This is despite getting a Spyra Base Ground Socket to hold it up. I suggested that Mum and Dad actually get someone who is a handy man and has a concrete hole saw to come and cut a hole in the paving as that way they can have the feeder where they want, and it will stand upright. Other than that we ate slept and read, oh and went for very short walks.
This week I am down to Birmingham on Wednesday, hopefully have a quiet weekend although there is another church meeting on Sunday and I must remember to photocopy the voting form so I can vote using the original. Yes all the forms are numbered and they know who has each number as they are technically having two ballots at once, an overall ballot of all people connected with the church and the church meeting ballot. Complicated or what.
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