This week has been quieter, although Stuart has been given compulsory leave (he’d got himself in a situation where he was not coping and needed time to rest and recuperate) so been around slightly more often than he is usually.
Monday was writers group on sequencing poems. This was interesting although I don’t think I am up to deliberately writing a sequence of poems at the moment. The other way around where I accidentally write poems that form a sequence seems far more likely. I do seem to work on themes at least unintentionally. There maybe a sequence developing from Autumn to Spring. I am also beginning to realise that I may be a halfway decent amateur poet, which is surprise, as I took to poems largely because I could not find the time for consistent concentration to write longer fiction. Interestingly another person in the group seems to be following much the same line. Before anyone asks, until I have finished my PhD I an not even considering trying to get any of them published more formally. It takes time and effort that I do not have. By the way I have a memory of Browning referencing Shelley’s Ozymandias in one of his poems but am unable to find the citing.
Tuesday I manage Bible study, which was quite quiet although people hung around afterwards which is unusual for this congregation. If this was Parrswood I would just treat it as normal but as a rule everyone is out by 9pm prompt. I think it might be due to a couple going on holiday but I am not sure.
Wednesday I managed to not notice that I was meeting my boss at 9:30 (it had changed several times and my brain still had it as 11:30 which I think was one of the earlier times. However otherwise the day went fluently. Stuart came around in the evening and I think I managed to talk him into going to Castleton on Friday so that he did something.
Thursday was my day off and I had a bitty sort of day, Cliff was coming to set the sound system us so that it could take sound from a PC. This appears not to be difficult but it was something new to me. However Cliff was ill on the day, so he postponed it from 9:30 to when he was able to come out (about 3:00 p.m.) I had said to my supervisor I would put up a discussion board for his tutorial group. I had tried the previous Friday evening but the straightforward method had not worked. So I was trying to do one in Drupal. This was more complicated but also a better solution. I also managed to finally get around to organising things so that I have a separate web address and the ability to put it up for “Wigtonshire Wandering”. I need to learn some more Drupal then I can set up the basics of the website and we can go on to develop from that.
Friday I saw my boss, she rather threw me saying she would be five minutes late as the queue was long in Coffee Revolution and would I like anything. In the end I asked for a black coffee and said that next time it is my treat. On the evening James and Jean took me out for a meal at Panahar's an Indian restaurant at the bottom of Tom Lane. It does not have an alcohol license but you can bring your own and it serves a decent range of soft drinks. The interesting thing being that I don’t think anyone in our party was drinking. James was driving and Jean and I were too tired to actually want to drink anything. The food was good but they put what I suspect are Asian or Thai chilli peppers in their vegetable dish. Unfortunately I mistook them for green beans. This was not a good idea and the main problem was that it blew my taste buds, so eating any level of spiced food afterwards was painful. Before that I had tried the food and it tasted good. I had dessert of sorbet which cooled my mouth and took away much of the stinging, although if my mouth gets slightly dry it returns.
Yesterday was bitty as well. The tiredness in part was due to a not quite migraine, so I felt fragile on Saturday morning. I then went down town, bought a number of things I needed including a folder for my poems. I realised that I was actually developing quite a collection and it needed some sort of sorting rather than all just bunged in my writing folder. What I actually also need to do is produce final pieces as most of the work is in draft state. Some only require words changing, others require quite large re-writes. I also found out that my home phone is not working. I have reported it and at present if you ring my home number you get through to my mobile. They should let me know what is going on in the next twenty four hours so they have found a fault. I was worried that Cliff had just not managed to hang up as he was the last person to call me or that the phone itself had given up. I got in and then messed around, doing so reading on Drupal, until Sarah rang to say she and James and Jean were heading down to St Andrews after the elder’s retreat, I assume at St Luke’s Lodgemoor. For those who wonder why this has moved, the Church Army College is having lots of work done at present and there is no way they could accommodate it. We were setting up the church so that today Sarah could play a video through her laptop. Stuart came around again in the evening.
Today, I was officially not going to church this morning. Just as well as my body clock had not got itself back on track after the disturbance of the almost migraine. Sarah rang me early because one sound operator was down with the flu and the other had injured his ankle. Unfortunately I can’t get my mobile phone to ring loudly enough to wake me when I am having a lie in. So I only picked up the second phone call when Ray Smith had already agreed to do the sound. However it did mean I made sure I was up and dressed by 10:30 just in case. This evening I was leading worship at Herringthorpe. Now before anyone gets any idea about what sort of thing this is, just think of leading bible study. That is the group gather over a coffee and biscuit, sing a few songs and then discuss a chapter in a book which has a bible passage attached and about an hour later we say some prayers. This is NOT PREACHING and it is no indication that I think I should be leading worship in other settings. Oh and the theme was the discipline of joy. Unfortunately that comes across as people saying “be happy” when I think the theme really was a lot better, about savouring/appreciating/enjoying things as they happen, practising gratitude and then allowing yourself to celebrate. The third thing arises naturally out of the previous two and when it doesn’t there is no reason to stick a smile on your face because Christians are joyful. As I said I can do five minutes a day of the first.
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