This has been a full week, or at least it feels like that at this point.
Monday was supervision, which feels a long time ago now. My supervisor had warned me he might be late, so when I wandered up five minutes early expecting to make myself comfortable in front of his office, I was rather surprised to see him walking down the corridor. Admittedly in the opposite direction, but that is also the way to the local departmental office and his secretaries office. However by that stage it was also obvious that a mild migraine was happening. Although there was a headache,the main effect was that my thought was disjointed. I think I got the main points but am not sure I got the nuances. Fortunately the other symptom was my eyes feeling as if I had been looking at a computer screen too long, which as all the students in Birmingham were desperately trying to finish work before the Easter break, I did not stand a chance of doing. I was also supposed to go to writers group but given the migraine and such I just did not want to press myself and went for an early night instead.
Tuesday I was in work if a slight bit post migraine but otherwise a fairly good day, same Wednesday, Thursday and Friday work wise. I have spent most of the week revising course notes for SPSS as we are splitting the course in two. I also sent a note out to see if there was anyone else interested in Prayer Group along with who to contact. We are down to four members and with the turn out is quite haphazard. Some of that is because of my migraines but it is not only that. Oh my middle boss, has decided to get all his team together next Monday morning. He has made two mistakes which have not chuffed people. Firstly he did this a short notice, I presume because he had not finalised things but that is also problematic as at least two of the sub teams have to organise cover and they normally cover for each other. Lets call them team A and Team B. If team A are needed in a meeting then people in team B cover and visa versa. Secondly timing, I object because it is Holy Week and he as a good Catholic should know better than to schedule major meetings in Holy Week. Others are of the view that a two and a half hour meeting would have made things much more workable than a three hour one.
Friday evening I went around to the Dicksons for a meal. They were good company and the meal was delicious. Them having me around for a meal is a real sanity stop in my life, even as this time, we do not have much to talk about other than small talk about church business.
Saturday I was involved in the URC Webinars about identity, it was an interesting experience. All the training sessions had been during the working week and as I was in work and my computer at work has no microphone attached and I was not going to organise to take one in, I could not do any of the trainings. Were they expecting everyone to either be ministers or retired. So it was very much a suck it and see situation. Actually I would not have got to a training anyway as my email asking for an invite went to a spam folder so I did not get an invite until Friday. I looked at the list and by chance chose the one with least attenders, I think twelve in total apart from staff. The two morning seminars had about thirty in each, I was the noon and the afternoon one was supposed to have around thirty as well. The technology worked okay even on my relatively old pc (it is coming up for five years old) although I did find that I undid the link to the earphone and relied on my computers speakers for comfort. Not something I could have done for comfort. The major problem was that we could hear all the background noise from the interviewing session including the typing on the keypad. They ran a survey and asked us to talk about it. Quite often the feedback was criticism of the design of the survey. Probably the survey would have worked better if there had been a preliminary attempt, that was unless this was a preliminary attempt. I also think they would have got better more indepth responses if they had run some questions in front of us before hand so we knew the themes of the discussion.
They said the last one was a reporting back session so I signed up for that as well but it was far more a discussion generally on the theme of "God is still speaking". I am quite sure that the key to success of that is whether it is sold as heading in an attractive direction. If it is sold as the latest management idea for growing our churches it will be seen to be just another layer of paperwork. Major challenges are to get a sign up rate so that local URC is likely to be signed up and to get a training rate so that everyone, not just those who come to trainings is in on the act. To do that it is not persuading the people doing the webinars it is going further. I think people need to think a lot more about what we mean by welcoming. Seriously we have welcoming sussed. If people walk through the doors the reports are that they are welcomed. The problems are prior to that, which is giving people the confidence to walk through the doors and after that, which is supporting people over the first two years with a congregation. It is very easy for a person to be welcomed the first week but ignored the third week they attend. Shall we say the problems are inviting and integrating.
Another problem is that we talked about URC as a diverse denomination, we are as a rule theologically diverse but culturally similar. There is not the same range of worship there is in the Church of England in the URC, we draw our membership from a specific cultural groups, largely middle class, often very wordy, in fact you could almost say we have a bit of a love affair with words. We are good administrators. In England we attract people of Scottish or Irish descent, this is true in former Congregationalist Churches. In fact English non-conformist culture shows strong Scottish cultural norms. It is often easier to make sense of the over arching culture if you take a Scottish rather than an English perspective. We like to be close to the bible.
Oh having finished that I was on an adrenaline high. Decided that maybe not working on anything was a good idea so got a bottle of Crabbies Alcoholic Ginger Beer and having tried it, I am still unsure whether to class it as a ginger beer with alcohol added or what I suspect is more likely a fairly flavourless lager with lots of ginger added. It is clear golden in colour, has a head, maybe too much of a head, there is a mild taste I associate with hops but it predominantly tastes of ginger although not as sweet as most ginger beers. Acceptable but nothing to rave about. Now I am debating on whether to have a go at making ginger schnapps.
Today I went to Herringthorpe, Pauline was at a family wedding so they had a speaker from Wycliffe Bible Translators, actually one of their workers in Bangladesh who works with the literacy teams there. This meant that the already overloaded sunday technically was more overloaded. The result was that Palm Sunday and Good Friday got little mention. The church does have mid week services this week but I will be surprised if lots of people attend. They also are at liturgical odd times. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have short meditations and Friday EVENING is the major mid week service. There seems to be an ecumenical event on Thursday evening but that is at Broom Methodist. They did give out palm crosses but that and a couple of hymns were all the references to this weeks liturgical events.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Catching up after absense due to Writing
Lets see if I can recall what has happened. I think I actually got some work done just before I sent the last letter, then there was all the difficulties of getting diaries to coalesce on a suitable date to review. On the Monday when we could have made it, they did not respond to my email until after lunch time and I went on a late lunch so did not pick up their email until too late. The result was that we could not meet until Thursday afternoon, which was not a good day for me as I was a lot more busy then than on Monday but all worked out.
Thursday also was my back to work interview. It looks as if I have at last found something that reduces "migraines", I checked through what had changed that might have led to the sudden rise and looking back wondered if I had accidentally cut down on my intake of magnesium, not something that I recalled having any effect on migraine but when I googled I found pages like this one about magnesium. Decided to see if supplementing with that would work and they have dropped to about one a fortnight I think. This is better than it was prior to Christmas, not perfect but a lot better and with not getting as many colds and the weather improving I hope my attendance at work will rise from even this level. The making pancakes on a Saturday for breakfast also seems to work in that I become then better at eating properly. I have still to sort out an appropriate filling suggestions welcome as I don't think cinnamon and sugar is quite right. I find it particularly good if I prepare the batter on Friday night so I know I have it in the fridge when I get up Saturday morning. I think having discovered that the batter keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge I will try making it up on Friday night and having pancakes on Saturday and Sunday as I find I am having to make more than I actually want to eat at present.
The weekend was writing. Unfortunately I went down with a cold on the Friday. I rang in sick, got back into bed and crawled out around 2 pm feeling decidedly off colour. I had hoped I'd still be able to write on the afternoon but my brain was not functioning even for reading novels. On the Saturday I was struggling until I decided to split writing out ideas and structuring the essay into two different tasks. A programme called Pagefour is good for this in that you can have a document divided into lots of different tabs (pages) and then you can write on a specific idea or topic in each page. Then later you can integrated them into a single document in word, I use a combination of copy and paste and re-writing.
This week work wise has been boring in many ways, I had few deadlines and it was time of the month, so that although I was in work I had very little useful concentration for the first three days. I did some reading of a book called "First things First" which claims it is fourth generation organising. Its okay, most of the new stuff is stuff I automatically have done already although writing out the things I would like to be thought of as in the key roles in my life was useful. It made me realise that certain roles are really the same role as I would want to have the same results. I other words I want to be the same focus as a person even though the people I am interacting with may be different. That meant I had a role free so I asked what would I want to add to these and found one that I normally count more as a technique than a role and thought about that.
Bible Studies are still going at Herringthorpe. We are still working through Nicky Gumbles take on the sermon on the mount. I am surprised at the way people are smug at some things and at others think they are impossible if God does not enable it. In may be a generational thing, but I am wondering why they think forgiving those who wronged you and living generously is so difficult while being honest and sexually pure is easy. It just seems a bit arbitrary to me.
On Friday ended up making Dhal and today have cooked rice. Saturday my parents were over. They seem to be keeping well although their lock broke the night before as they came in from a meeting with the local Methodist Church. They put it on the chain and put a stool behind it. Dad was all worried about how long it would take the locksmith to mend it. They rang at 8:00 a.m. the lock smith was their before 9:00 and had completed the work by 9:30 a.m.. Locksmiths appear to be a very different trade from some other groups you call in an emergency. The day was damp (not wet) and as they were late doing two things was not possible so we went and got a light meal at PJ Taste. Dad had a burger while Mum and I had bacon sandwiches. The burger was a venison burger so not Dad acting totally out of character.
Today to Herringthorpe and commented on how noisy coffee is. I am fast coming to the conclusions I must find something else to do during the early part of coffee. I am not bothered what but the noisy is such that I find I cannot hear anything at all. Otherwise the service was pretty decent call age worship and such.
Thursday also was my back to work interview. It looks as if I have at last found something that reduces "migraines", I checked through what had changed that might have led to the sudden rise and looking back wondered if I had accidentally cut down on my intake of magnesium, not something that I recalled having any effect on migraine but when I googled I found pages like this one about magnesium. Decided to see if supplementing with that would work and they have dropped to about one a fortnight I think. This is better than it was prior to Christmas, not perfect but a lot better and with not getting as many colds and the weather improving I hope my attendance at work will rise from even this level. The making pancakes on a Saturday for breakfast also seems to work in that I become then better at eating properly. I have still to sort out an appropriate filling suggestions welcome as I don't think cinnamon and sugar is quite right. I find it particularly good if I prepare the batter on Friday night so I know I have it in the fridge when I get up Saturday morning. I think having discovered that the batter keeps for 2-3 days in the fridge I will try making it up on Friday night and having pancakes on Saturday and Sunday as I find I am having to make more than I actually want to eat at present.
The weekend was writing. Unfortunately I went down with a cold on the Friday. I rang in sick, got back into bed and crawled out around 2 pm feeling decidedly off colour. I had hoped I'd still be able to write on the afternoon but my brain was not functioning even for reading novels. On the Saturday I was struggling until I decided to split writing out ideas and structuring the essay into two different tasks. A programme called Pagefour is good for this in that you can have a document divided into lots of different tabs (pages) and then you can write on a specific idea or topic in each page. Then later you can integrated them into a single document in word, I use a combination of copy and paste and re-writing.
This week work wise has been boring in many ways, I had few deadlines and it was time of the month, so that although I was in work I had very little useful concentration for the first three days. I did some reading of a book called "First things First" which claims it is fourth generation organising. Its okay, most of the new stuff is stuff I automatically have done already although writing out the things I would like to be thought of as in the key roles in my life was useful. It made me realise that certain roles are really the same role as I would want to have the same results. I other words I want to be the same focus as a person even though the people I am interacting with may be different. That meant I had a role free so I asked what would I want to add to these and found one that I normally count more as a technique than a role and thought about that.
Bible Studies are still going at Herringthorpe. We are still working through Nicky Gumbles take on the sermon on the mount. I am surprised at the way people are smug at some things and at others think they are impossible if God does not enable it. In may be a generational thing, but I am wondering why they think forgiving those who wronged you and living generously is so difficult while being honest and sexually pure is easy. It just seems a bit arbitrary to me.
On Friday ended up making Dhal and today have cooked rice. Saturday my parents were over. They seem to be keeping well although their lock broke the night before as they came in from a meeting with the local Methodist Church. They put it on the chain and put a stool behind it. Dad was all worried about how long it would take the locksmith to mend it. They rang at 8:00 a.m. the lock smith was their before 9:00 and had completed the work by 9:30 a.m.. Locksmiths appear to be a very different trade from some other groups you call in an emergency. The day was damp (not wet) and as they were late doing two things was not possible so we went and got a light meal at PJ Taste. Dad had a burger while Mum and I had bacon sandwiches. The burger was a venison burger so not Dad acting totally out of character.
Today to Herringthorpe and commented on how noisy coffee is. I am fast coming to the conclusions I must find something else to do during the early part of coffee. I am not bothered what but the noisy is such that I find I cannot hear anything at all. Otherwise the service was pretty decent call age worship and such.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Transcription, Womens Bowling and Pancakes
Lets see, This past week did not get off to a good start with a migraine, which I think was due to my normal bad behaviour on a Saturday over eating (I eat when I feel like it and what I feel like although it is not all fruit and ginger chocolate biscuits) By the way that reminds me I have found something so tempting that it is doing well if it lasts in my store cabinet a day and that is Buderim Naked Ginger which is similar to a strong crystallised ginger (think Humdinger not Waitrose) but does not have the sugar coating. The problem I have with the sugar coating is that it feels uncomfortably rough in my mouth, the same reason as I tend to pass on backed crunchy muesli. Then I went to Fairtrade Breakfast which was cereal, toast and fruit at Herringthorpe, which basically added to my bad behaviour and all my attempts to then getback on track were too late, and not helped by buying a fair trade dark chocolate bar. Actually I should have been suspicious when I ate that bar in one sitting.
Tuesday I was back in business and got on with things. I went to the bible study on forgiveness, which was interesting because it was not nearly as self satisfied, indeed I had the strange feeling that it was a topic which I might know more about than people there. It felt very much as if they had never faced a single big issue to forgive, which certainly for me was the experience that formed my own understanding of the necessity. I forgave then firstly because the bible said I should and secondly because I did not want that to rule my life. I suppose I had some awareness of how this would effect me if I allowed it to, but that is just me being me and I would not claim any merit and I have to watch that the small stuff does not catch me out, just because I once did it for a big one. Actually I wonder if there is a Screwtape style idea there about the way the habit of being unforgiving is built up in the small stuff, not the big stuff. Now I would distinguish forgiveness from reconciliation, which is the final stage after forgiving and repentance but forgiving itself is worthwhile doing.
Wednesday was my day off work, I actually got a fair bit done. The transcription is coming along slowly but I am managing to sit down regularly to do this this month and as I get more done every time I sit down (i.e. 5 min in the first session, 8 min in the second session, 12 min in the third session and so on) I will get hopefully get through it more quickly. I also got my notes almost up to date from Herringthorpe. I also did a shop at Waitrose and on the evening Stuart came around. I am pretty sure he came around because he wanted to talk to somebody due to having the day off and not therefore having anyone to talk to. I wonder whether I should have sent him onto the Network meeting at St Andrews, oh well at least he bought me ginger biscuits. He is off to see his Mum this week (too much leave again, I think due to the fact that they often give him time in lieu when he does overtime and he never thinks to take it).
Thursday was a quiet day I seem to recall. That is not to say I didn't get things done, just that it was quiet, I think I am finding ways to be more productive at work. It helps a lot to realise that though I can be organised I am not naturally organised. That means I need to create methods of working that don't build huge structural keep ups into them. Things like normal to do lists are no good as I need to keep putting things on them and marking off when I have done them but if I do a daily one and bin it at the end of the day, I cope, after all I have let tomorrow decide for itself. If anything is not done by the end of the day, it just sits on the do sometime board. I also find that keeping notes of ideas stops me from being distracted from what I am doing at the present. So if I get a good idea, I just make a note of it and get on with what I am doing after all then I can come back when I have time and review the idea.
Friday started with the breakfast and I was up in time for that, actually would have been earlier but spent ten minutes hunting for my church keys only to find them already in my coat pocket. Work was quiet allowing me to get on, although I find coming home for lunch makes a huge difference to how tired I am at the end of day. I realised just as I was about to pack up that I had to prepare for a meeting on Monday, so I did that. Then did the turn around to get to the younger women's Wii bowling night at Herringthorpe. I had made a mistake and thought it started at 7:30 not 8:00 p.m. which meant I had also booked the car for return to early. This is the first church I have known where regular events have different starting times and there isn't a lot of questions asked about those times. So Bible study starts at 7:00 after the church meal and Younger Women's meeting starts at 8:00 pm. One of the interesting things I found was that I can bowl better on a wii than in real life. I also confused everybody by saying I was right handed which I am but then picking up the hand piece and bowling left handed. I am definitely right handed but when learning something new I often use my left as well as my right, I think because my left is better at putting the whole thing together while my right tends to do the correct things but not necessarily in a coordinated way.
Yesterday was a quiet Saturday, however after last week I decided that one thing I would have to be fussy about and that is to make sure that I get something other than toast and fruit. So this week I tried making egg rich pancakes with blueberries. It worked fine but I need something more mushy than blueberries as a filler as they just rolled out. However having done that I ate properly the rest of the day rather than snacking on carbohydrate rich snacks and coffee. Hopefully this will mean less migraines after the weekends but we shall see. Otherwise transcription, shopping in town, and so on.
Today back to Herringthorpe. The car windscreen was covered with ice when I picked it up this morning and I had forgotten my de-icer at home so it was turn on the car heating an weight for the windscreens to clear which they did surprisingly quickly, less than five minutes. Pauline was back and preached on forgiveness. The communion was largely standard, I am begining to find a way of relating while I am there. It helped I think that the congregation was lighter today. I think I actually find the crowded crush hall too noisy and I cannot participate in conversations until later on and most people have left. I am slowly waking up to the fact that Herringthorp like the majority of churches I have been in, actually has people fighting over the music for worship. It is an intriguing one, in that I characterised it as Moody and Sankey vs Graham Kendrick. My father said this afternoon given that choice he'd go with Graham Kendrick. Actually I find I like a lot of the real modern worship songs, they seem less trying to be a rock star than those of our generation.
Tuesday I was back in business and got on with things. I went to the bible study on forgiveness, which was interesting because it was not nearly as self satisfied, indeed I had the strange feeling that it was a topic which I might know more about than people there. It felt very much as if they had never faced a single big issue to forgive, which certainly for me was the experience that formed my own understanding of the necessity. I forgave then firstly because the bible said I should and secondly because I did not want that to rule my life. I suppose I had some awareness of how this would effect me if I allowed it to, but that is just me being me and I would not claim any merit and I have to watch that the small stuff does not catch me out, just because I once did it for a big one. Actually I wonder if there is a Screwtape style idea there about the way the habit of being unforgiving is built up in the small stuff, not the big stuff. Now I would distinguish forgiveness from reconciliation, which is the final stage after forgiving and repentance but forgiving itself is worthwhile doing.
Wednesday was my day off work, I actually got a fair bit done. The transcription is coming along slowly but I am managing to sit down regularly to do this this month and as I get more done every time I sit down (i.e. 5 min in the first session, 8 min in the second session, 12 min in the third session and so on) I will get hopefully get through it more quickly. I also got my notes almost up to date from Herringthorpe. I also did a shop at Waitrose and on the evening Stuart came around. I am pretty sure he came around because he wanted to talk to somebody due to having the day off and not therefore having anyone to talk to. I wonder whether I should have sent him onto the Network meeting at St Andrews, oh well at least he bought me ginger biscuits. He is off to see his Mum this week (too much leave again, I think due to the fact that they often give him time in lieu when he does overtime and he never thinks to take it).
Thursday was a quiet day I seem to recall. That is not to say I didn't get things done, just that it was quiet, I think I am finding ways to be more productive at work. It helps a lot to realise that though I can be organised I am not naturally organised. That means I need to create methods of working that don't build huge structural keep ups into them. Things like normal to do lists are no good as I need to keep putting things on them and marking off when I have done them but if I do a daily one and bin it at the end of the day, I cope, after all I have let tomorrow decide for itself. If anything is not done by the end of the day, it just sits on the do sometime board. I also find that keeping notes of ideas stops me from being distracted from what I am doing at the present. So if I get a good idea, I just make a note of it and get on with what I am doing after all then I can come back when I have time and review the idea.
Friday started with the breakfast and I was up in time for that, actually would have been earlier but spent ten minutes hunting for my church keys only to find them already in my coat pocket. Work was quiet allowing me to get on, although I find coming home for lunch makes a huge difference to how tired I am at the end of day. I realised just as I was about to pack up that I had to prepare for a meeting on Monday, so I did that. Then did the turn around to get to the younger women's Wii bowling night at Herringthorpe. I had made a mistake and thought it started at 7:30 not 8:00 p.m. which meant I had also booked the car for return to early. This is the first church I have known where regular events have different starting times and there isn't a lot of questions asked about those times. So Bible study starts at 7:00 after the church meal and Younger Women's meeting starts at 8:00 pm. One of the interesting things I found was that I can bowl better on a wii than in real life. I also confused everybody by saying I was right handed which I am but then picking up the hand piece and bowling left handed. I am definitely right handed but when learning something new I often use my left as well as my right, I think because my left is better at putting the whole thing together while my right tends to do the correct things but not necessarily in a coordinated way.
Yesterday was a quiet Saturday, however after last week I decided that one thing I would have to be fussy about and that is to make sure that I get something other than toast and fruit. So this week I tried making egg rich pancakes with blueberries. It worked fine but I need something more mushy than blueberries as a filler as they just rolled out. However having done that I ate properly the rest of the day rather than snacking on carbohydrate rich snacks and coffee. Hopefully this will mean less migraines after the weekends but we shall see. Otherwise transcription, shopping in town, and so on.
Today back to Herringthorpe. The car windscreen was covered with ice when I picked it up this morning and I had forgotten my de-icer at home so it was turn on the car heating an weight for the windscreens to clear which they did surprisingly quickly, less than five minutes. Pauline was back and preached on forgiveness. The communion was largely standard, I am begining to find a way of relating while I am there. It helped I think that the congregation was lighter today. I think I actually find the crowded crush hall too noisy and I cannot participate in conversations until later on and most people have left. I am slowly waking up to the fact that Herringthorp like the majority of churches I have been in, actually has people fighting over the music for worship. It is an intriguing one, in that I characterised it as Moody and Sankey vs Graham Kendrick. My father said this afternoon given that choice he'd go with Graham Kendrick. Actually I find I like a lot of the real modern worship songs, they seem less trying to be a rock star than those of our generation.
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