. Writers met on Monday went smoothly, Tuesday I had a vile sore throat (actually it was obvious that I had it at writers the night before as I was coughing rather a lot) and I decided that a day in was called for. Not least because I was coughing so much conversation would be difficult. Also I needed to be in work on Wednesday and Thursday so take the day on Tuesday and hope that things would sort themselves out for the rest of the week.
Wednesday evening I was at Herringthorpe for a meeting of NAG (Needs Assessment Group) it really should be N-NAG (Neighbourhood-needs assessment group). Actually the reason Neighbourhood is probably missing is they have not decided what is their neighbourhood. This means that before we start asking about Needs at all we have got to start investigating how to define the neighbourhood. It was raised that about a third of the congregation lived beyond the Wickersley Roundabout (so one of the boundaries needs to go through the Wickersley Roundabout as obviously beyond that is not local)! There was also debate on whether to include "East Herringthorpe" I thought it might have been East Rotherham but on checking there is a place called East Herringthorpe which is North of the Church Buildings. One of the major tasks of the group will be to define the remit of itself.
Thursday was a normal day. Friday was my day off, it was a mixed day because I spent the morning coding interview transcripts in a very broad brush fashion, basically as I am reviewing the transcription and trying to make a sensible choice about what to transcribe from the interviews that are left. On the afternoon I did a trip down town to try and sort the last things out for holiday. This was really getting money out.
Saturday I had organised a Ship of Fools North East Meet. This time it was in Durham. There were about twelve of us there with two apologies although there are far more Ship of Fools members in the area. It was a beautiful day as was the one last Summer in Leeds. I cannot talk of the Winter one as I was off with a migraine, although it was in York. We basically pootled the whole day long, going between coffee shop and coffee shop, with a short spell in the Cathedral, as they were filming Songs of Praise in it while we were there and a walk along the river. I took lots of photos are up on Flickr if people want to see. Unfortunately on going down from the station I failed to see a half step down and as my foot tilted over so did and ended up flat on my face. Nothing seriously wrong but a bruised knee that gets stiff if I don't move it regularly.
Today has been quiet. Officially I am tidying and preparing to go. I have at least done a wash and sorted out some papers but yesterday took a lot out of me and I went back to bed mid morning. So I was at evening service tonight rather than morning worship. A small congregation and not the people I was expecting. The evening service seems to be more charismatic in style, although that maybe just who the pianist is. They even sung one I was not familiar with, which is a rarity. Somehow I seem to have kept more up to date with charismatic worship than I thought I had. The "Word" part of the service was led by Lighthouse: Rotherham Homeless Project. Afterwards the story came out of one of the church members "supporting" a drug user to the level of several thousand. The project was willing to investigate and see what was really going on, in the hopes that the drain would stop.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Courses, Holiday Preparations and quiet days
Lets see what this week has involved. Monday was the bank holiday. I think I spent most of the day recovering from the migraine that came on the day before. Luckily it cleared early evening. However I had all the post migraine problems like not remembering what I supposed to be doing before the migraine set in.
Tuesday I was in work and giving the last of the three new SPSS courses. This one has had a lot of work on it, and still needs more work on it. I am going to try and do this over the summer. The work there is mainly putting in exercises where I have just given data sets. The ending actually worked pretty well but I have to find a data set for one exercise. On the evening I went out to Herringthorpe for a Bible study. I decided to have a go and seeing if I could draw a Nicky Gumble talk. The answer is yes I can and I tend to be less argumentative afterwards. Whether that is a good thing with Nicky Gumble I don't know. I think he might find me quite challenging if I was ever in a group he led in real life rather than on a DVD.
Wednesday I had a meeting with Ahmed about the data for analysis. This set of data I am enjoying as it is coming out as it should on the first analysis which means I need not explore further. The data is on using sperm or plastic beads to stimulate response from oviduct and a second on whether oviduct or kidney cells respond more. That is interesting as it seems that kidney have much lower values even with OVEC but that when sperm is put in these respond more. I also think my new computer came. However as that was shopping night I decided I better go and do that rather than setting it up. So I went down to Waitrose and bought bits and pieces. Then Stuart came around for a shower, having annoyed Monica (his Landlady) the previous day by taking a shower in a room she was treating for mildew. He continued coming around to Friday.
Thursday was election time. had an interesting talk with my hairdresser when I went for a haircut. She was saying that what scared her was many of the younger voters were voting according to how good looking the leaders of the party were. I am afraid my view at present is that what you want to do is vote for a good local MP. However as I live in a safe Labour seat that is not likely. I suspect that locally more labour voters came out to vote to prevent Liberal democrats getting in. I think this is hugely unfair as the one party that makes an effort locally is the Greens and I would hope people would vote for people who were around on the ground. Any way I got my new computer up and running. No Cathy this is not the one with Dad's money that will be one solidly for PhD. This is one I bought for personal use. It is MY computer, one I can do what I like on and one that is reasonably light to carry around.
Friday was officially study day though I changed that largely with Saturday so went shopping on Friday. I sorted the torch I bought last week from Argos and got one that was working. This was really a bit late as I wanted it to try and photograph cherry blossom against traffic at night, but the blossom on the tree required has all gone brown in the last week. Other trees are still in full bloom but taking the photograph from them is not as feasible. Secondly I bought another pair of trousers, so I now have two for holidays and saturdays although my old dusky pink ones are still the most comfortable ones there are and I am wondering whether to pack them even though they are perilously close to having holes. I went into WHSmiths to buy some extras for the packs for Jenny and Cait and got stopped by a girl selling make up. She showed me a tiny pack with 25 different sorts of makeup in it. My brain was going "Who on earth uses 25 different bits of make up!" I use a maximum of twelve and then only on high days and holidays, most days only eight bits and when I am having a quiet day nothing. My aim is not for people to go "cor!" but just to present a decent face to the world. She then went onto suggest I bought twice that amount. She has got to be kidding, and as a rule I don't give make up, its to personal (the exception being for young girls who are playing with it). I went into Sheffield Scene to buy a book about Sheffield for someone up in Stranraer who is missing it. While in there I noticed that Shiregreen URC had a book about them being sold there as well. I wonder who would buy it. Sometime back came across this set of postcards and had thought about getting them instead but I wasn't sure that Victoria Hall would be open or that the lady in Stranraer would like religious paintings.
Saturday I spent most of the day reformatting an interview. It actually took quite a bit of time as I had to split it up into stories and comment on them. I am really needing to do this for all the stories interviews I have transcribed which is a pain, but think I may get away with putting them into Nvivo and categorising the stories from that.
Today I have not done much largely due to time of the month playing up and giving me cramps. I was going to go to Herringthorp but I did not feel good when I awoke and suspected that I had slept poorly due to it. Annoying as I was hoping it was getting better. Anyway it was bad enough to send me back to bed with a hot water bottle by midday and I had little concentration between getting up and going back to bed. The only thing that seems to work is alcohol.
Tuesday I was in work and giving the last of the three new SPSS courses. This one has had a lot of work on it, and still needs more work on it. I am going to try and do this over the summer. The work there is mainly putting in exercises where I have just given data sets. The ending actually worked pretty well but I have to find a data set for one exercise. On the evening I went out to Herringthorpe for a Bible study. I decided to have a go and seeing if I could draw a Nicky Gumble talk. The answer is yes I can and I tend to be less argumentative afterwards. Whether that is a good thing with Nicky Gumble I don't know. I think he might find me quite challenging if I was ever in a group he led in real life rather than on a DVD.
Wednesday I had a meeting with Ahmed about the data for analysis. This set of data I am enjoying as it is coming out as it should on the first analysis which means I need not explore further. The data is on using sperm or plastic beads to stimulate response from oviduct and a second on whether oviduct or kidney cells respond more. That is interesting as it seems that kidney have much lower values even with OVEC but that when sperm is put in these respond more. I also think my new computer came. However as that was shopping night I decided I better go and do that rather than setting it up. So I went down to Waitrose and bought bits and pieces. Then Stuart came around for a shower, having annoyed Monica (his Landlady) the previous day by taking a shower in a room she was treating for mildew. He continued coming around to Friday.
Thursday was election time. had an interesting talk with my hairdresser when I went for a haircut. She was saying that what scared her was many of the younger voters were voting according to how good looking the leaders of the party were. I am afraid my view at present is that what you want to do is vote for a good local MP. However as I live in a safe Labour seat that is not likely. I suspect that locally more labour voters came out to vote to prevent Liberal democrats getting in. I think this is hugely unfair as the one party that makes an effort locally is the Greens and I would hope people would vote for people who were around on the ground. Any way I got my new computer up and running. No Cathy this is not the one with Dad's money that will be one solidly for PhD. This is one I bought for personal use. It is MY computer, one I can do what I like on and one that is reasonably light to carry around.
Friday was officially study day though I changed that largely with Saturday so went shopping on Friday. I sorted the torch I bought last week from Argos and got one that was working. This was really a bit late as I wanted it to try and photograph cherry blossom against traffic at night, but the blossom on the tree required has all gone brown in the last week. Other trees are still in full bloom but taking the photograph from them is not as feasible. Secondly I bought another pair of trousers, so I now have two for holidays and saturdays although my old dusky pink ones are still the most comfortable ones there are and I am wondering whether to pack them even though they are perilously close to having holes. I went into WHSmiths to buy some extras for the packs for Jenny and Cait and got stopped by a girl selling make up. She showed me a tiny pack with 25 different sorts of makeup in it. My brain was going "Who on earth uses 25 different bits of make up!" I use a maximum of twelve and then only on high days and holidays, most days only eight bits and when I am having a quiet day nothing. My aim is not for people to go "cor!" but just to present a decent face to the world. She then went onto suggest I bought twice that amount. She has got to be kidding, and as a rule I don't give make up, its to personal (the exception being for young girls who are playing with it). I went into Sheffield Scene to buy a book about Sheffield for someone up in Stranraer who is missing it. While in there I noticed that Shiregreen URC had a book about them being sold there as well. I wonder who would buy it. Sometime back came across this set of postcards and had thought about getting them instead but I wasn't sure that Victoria Hall would be open or that the lady in Stranraer would like religious paintings.
Saturday I spent most of the day reformatting an interview. It actually took quite a bit of time as I had to split it up into stories and comment on them. I am really needing to do this for all the stories interviews I have transcribed which is a pain, but think I may get away with putting them into Nvivo and categorising the stories from that.
Today I have not done much largely due to time of the month playing up and giving me cramps. I was going to go to Herringthorp but I did not feel good when I awoke and suspected that I had slept poorly due to it. Annoying as I was hoping it was getting better. Anyway it was bad enough to send me back to bed with a hot water bottle by midday and I had little concentration between getting up and going back to bed. The only thing that seems to work is alcohol.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
A busy fortnight ends in Migraine
As it is two weeks I am afraid it is going to be highlights. On the Tuesday two weeks ago I gave the second of three courses. So there is just one more course to give this session with maybe on NVivo course if there is demand as NVivo has been extremely popular. The puzzling thing is that like the previous course where you could just attend by being present at the first session only, there are now three sessions. So people need not sign up for all three. Indeed they could release spaces between courses. All three courses are fully subscribed but people are showing the same attendance pattern as before. That is selfish as I know some people want to attend the later ones who do not need to attend the early ones.
On Friday night the Younger Womens Group attended a St George's night meal at the Carlton Park Hotel which was pleasant enough. The menu was interesting, nobody thought it was typically English but some of that was the way they named the dishes. For instance they had Pork Hock Terrine which may well have been fairly British, basically Ham in Jelly, which of course does not sound quite as nice. The desserts really were not English, well the nearest you got was I think Manchester Pie and Apple crumble but the others were things like chocolate cake. There was not one steamed suet pudding amongst them, nor any milk puddings such as rice, sago or tapioca. I fully acknowledge that I would not have eaten the later but I equally would not have eaten Manchester Pie.
Saturday it was over to Manchester to visit my parents who had invited Ruth around for the day, I think on the pretence of gardening but really because they decided it was time Ruth and I got together again. We did manage to get some gardening done, but as my parents had not planned any it was limited to tidying up jobs. This reminded me of what I intended to get mum for a birthday present, so a folding stool is now ordered so that it can be stored down in the utility space for Mum when she wants to climb up during gardening. It is light and pretty strong. Hopefully this will help prevent her having mishaps like last years.
Sunday morning I had planned to do bits of thesis work I had not got around to, like writing up the meal on Friday night. Due to the meal I had not come over until Saturday morning and Mum was feeling that time was short. So she decided on Sunday morning that even though I was going to be busy that she would stay at home just to be near me rather than going to church. Unfortunately she did not confirm this with Dad who was not happy at the prospect of going to church on his own, so Mum had to do a quick change around and get ready for church.
Tuesday I was down to Birmingham for a supervision. It actually went fairly well but Birmingham New Street was on emergency power source after flooding which meant that though there were lights, none of the retail units whether food or newsagents were open nor were the escalators working (and I presume lifts). Intriguingly unlike when escalators are swtiched off or broken when you can still walk up them. For those interested the station right next door to Birmingham New Street, Curzon Street is still standing and the platforms are still there as I see them every time I go to Birmingham. My suspicion that this rather than Birmingham New Street is actually what is going to be the new High Speed Rail link seems to be confirmed on Wikipedia. The weather was good and I managed to get the Rymans shop which gave me opportunity to stock up packs for Jenny and Cait. The supervision with my supervisor went well, although I need to review the amount of stuff I am transcribing as I simply won't get it done in the time.
Wednesday I went out with the NAG (I think Neighbourhood Assessment Group) from Herringthorpe to Intake Doncaster. It was interesting. The thing was that the situation developed because a church was generous even though it was nearly out. Generosity is something Herringthorpe needs to learn at the moment the cost cutting I think is actually having the knock on effect of reducing peoples giving. The thing is that they see things run on lets get by with the cheapest we can. Somehow always looking for a bargain is not a good sentiment to get people to give nor to particularly encourage people to join the congregation. However the person at Intake underlined the fact that just being generous and involved in the community is not enough, in his words, it persuades people you have not got two heads but it does not bring them into church. I am getting more and more convinced that we need to look on joining a congregation as a journey to be undertaken and not as a matter of an instant decision. The good news is you don't have to approach everyone you know with "Have you considered the claims of Jesus Christ" or you are not playing your part. The bad news is that it needs more people, you cannot rely on the big evangelist to do it all, it is upto people to form relationships and to welcome a lot more people than will every join your congregation.
Thursday finally submitted my essay to Renewing Reformed Theology which is a sociological one. I know I am proficient in doing theology at least contextually but it seems to me at present more important to grasp how people do do theology, than to spell out what that theology ought to be. So late Thursday I submitted it. I suspect that they are expecting theological papers and to have one that clearly isn't but addresses the issue might be something of a surprise. However I can say with all honesty that my paper is answering the question.
Friday I had supper at the Dicksons. It is good to get to spend time talking with them.
Saturday I think I over did things. I put on a a pot of dhal in the morning, hung , not sure what now. Went into town where I shopped for a lot of bits and pieces. I started by walking down to Argos, but it was a Continental Market day. I must say I think the stalls are getting less continental and more arts and crafts plus normal market stalls. However with them Fargate was packed. I am tempted to say recession, what recession after seeing that. It was a constant crowd all the way down. I then bought a pair of walking shoes to replace the brown ones I started wearing when a volunteer on Iona. It is at least my second attempt to buy a pair of shoes to replace them. I bought a previous pair which proceeded to disintegrate at a faster rate than the brown shoes so I went back to them. So I now have a pair of walking shoes, fairly light which I hope I can be happy in wearing every day. Then to Boots and Marks. On a whim bought a pair of trousers and a top for smart as I wanted something cooler to wear to church. Then in the evening started writing up an account of the visit to Intake but got distracted into buying a computer. Well one somewhere between a netbook and a superlight notebook. I probably could have got a netbook for half the price but then I would not have been so confident in its quality. I also managed to order it at a good price from Debenhams rather than just any internet shop. This was prompted by an incident which meant I had no phone or internet connection at home for a few hours. I would not have known about it except that I went home for lunch and tried to login. I just became aware about how I felt disconnected when that happened. Silly really but so much of what I do is spent on line.
Today I went to Herringthorpe, we sang "Shine Jesus Shine", I have two queries, will we sing it again before I leave (no hymns repeated when I have been there since about Christmas and I have been recording) and secondly I realised it does stir strong emotions, people either seem to love or hate it. Individuals could give their own personal reason but I am wondering what the more general one is, and why this particular chorus. However I was aware at the end I had a migraine, mainly due to the headache, but also due to the fractured sense of reality. If you have seen early cartoons then they sometimes look fractured, jerky motion to them, well with a migraine my experience of reality seems to have a similar quality.
On Friday night the Younger Womens Group attended a St George's night meal at the Carlton Park Hotel which was pleasant enough. The menu was interesting, nobody thought it was typically English but some of that was the way they named the dishes. For instance they had Pork Hock Terrine which may well have been fairly British, basically Ham in Jelly, which of course does not sound quite as nice. The desserts really were not English, well the nearest you got was I think Manchester Pie and Apple crumble but the others were things like chocolate cake. There was not one steamed suet pudding amongst them, nor any milk puddings such as rice, sago or tapioca. I fully acknowledge that I would not have eaten the later but I equally would not have eaten Manchester Pie.
Saturday it was over to Manchester to visit my parents who had invited Ruth around for the day, I think on the pretence of gardening but really because they decided it was time Ruth and I got together again. We did manage to get some gardening done, but as my parents had not planned any it was limited to tidying up jobs. This reminded me of what I intended to get mum for a birthday present, so a folding stool is now ordered so that it can be stored down in the utility space for Mum when she wants to climb up during gardening. It is light and pretty strong. Hopefully this will help prevent her having mishaps like last years.
Sunday morning I had planned to do bits of thesis work I had not got around to, like writing up the meal on Friday night. Due to the meal I had not come over until Saturday morning and Mum was feeling that time was short. So she decided on Sunday morning that even though I was going to be busy that she would stay at home just to be near me rather than going to church. Unfortunately she did not confirm this with Dad who was not happy at the prospect of going to church on his own, so Mum had to do a quick change around and get ready for church.
Tuesday I was down to Birmingham for a supervision. It actually went fairly well but Birmingham New Street was on emergency power source after flooding which meant that though there were lights, none of the retail units whether food or newsagents were open nor were the escalators working (and I presume lifts). Intriguingly unlike when escalators are swtiched off or broken when you can still walk up them. For those interested the station right next door to Birmingham New Street, Curzon Street is still standing and the platforms are still there as I see them every time I go to Birmingham. My suspicion that this rather than Birmingham New Street is actually what is going to be the new High Speed Rail link seems to be confirmed on Wikipedia. The weather was good and I managed to get the Rymans shop which gave me opportunity to stock up packs for Jenny and Cait. The supervision with my supervisor went well, although I need to review the amount of stuff I am transcribing as I simply won't get it done in the time.
Wednesday I went out with the NAG (I think Neighbourhood Assessment Group) from Herringthorpe to Intake Doncaster. It was interesting. The thing was that the situation developed because a church was generous even though it was nearly out. Generosity is something Herringthorpe needs to learn at the moment the cost cutting I think is actually having the knock on effect of reducing peoples giving. The thing is that they see things run on lets get by with the cheapest we can. Somehow always looking for a bargain is not a good sentiment to get people to give nor to particularly encourage people to join the congregation. However the person at Intake underlined the fact that just being generous and involved in the community is not enough, in his words, it persuades people you have not got two heads but it does not bring them into church. I am getting more and more convinced that we need to look on joining a congregation as a journey to be undertaken and not as a matter of an instant decision. The good news is you don't have to approach everyone you know with "Have you considered the claims of Jesus Christ" or you are not playing your part. The bad news is that it needs more people, you cannot rely on the big evangelist to do it all, it is upto people to form relationships and to welcome a lot more people than will every join your congregation.
Thursday finally submitted my essay to Renewing Reformed Theology which is a sociological one. I know I am proficient in doing theology at least contextually but it seems to me at present more important to grasp how people do do theology, than to spell out what that theology ought to be. So late Thursday I submitted it. I suspect that they are expecting theological papers and to have one that clearly isn't but addresses the issue might be something of a surprise. However I can say with all honesty that my paper is answering the question.
Friday I had supper at the Dicksons. It is good to get to spend time talking with them.
Saturday I think I over did things. I put on a a pot of dhal in the morning, hung , not sure what now. Went into town where I shopped for a lot of bits and pieces. I started by walking down to Argos, but it was a Continental Market day. I must say I think the stalls are getting less continental and more arts and crafts plus normal market stalls. However with them Fargate was packed. I am tempted to say recession, what recession after seeing that. It was a constant crowd all the way down. I then bought a pair of walking shoes to replace the brown ones I started wearing when a volunteer on Iona. It is at least my second attempt to buy a pair of shoes to replace them. I bought a previous pair which proceeded to disintegrate at a faster rate than the brown shoes so I went back to them. So I now have a pair of walking shoes, fairly light which I hope I can be happy in wearing every day. Then to Boots and Marks. On a whim bought a pair of trousers and a top for smart as I wanted something cooler to wear to church. Then in the evening started writing up an account of the visit to Intake but got distracted into buying a computer. Well one somewhere between a netbook and a superlight notebook. I probably could have got a netbook for half the price but then I would not have been so confident in its quality. I also managed to order it at a good price from Debenhams rather than just any internet shop. This was prompted by an incident which meant I had no phone or internet connection at home for a few hours. I would not have known about it except that I went home for lunch and tried to login. I just became aware about how I felt disconnected when that happened. Silly really but so much of what I do is spent on line.
Today I went to Herringthorpe, we sang "Shine Jesus Shine", I have two queries, will we sing it again before I leave (no hymns repeated when I have been there since about Christmas and I have been recording) and secondly I realised it does stir strong emotions, people either seem to love or hate it. Individuals could give their own personal reason but I am wondering what the more general one is, and why this particular chorus. However I was aware at the end I had a migraine, mainly due to the headache, but also due to the fractured sense of reality. If you have seen early cartoons then they sometimes look fractured, jerky motion to them, well with a migraine my experience of reality seems to have a similar quality.
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