This week has been busy. Monday saw me in work early for an appointment with Margo and Toni, but Toni failed to turn up so we decided to change to looking at some work for Hilary. Only the work for Hilary threw a wobbler on us. It gave an unwanted result and when we unpacked it, it was obvious that we would need to analyse as two cohorts to explain what was going on. The biggest surprise was that it was showing a difference between ex-smokers and non-smokers. This is something that is totally counter-intuitive. The accepted wisdom is that as soon as you stop smoking your health starts recovering. On the afternoon I saw my boss for a monthly review and then it was writers group on the evening. The new light at the corner of the church is confusing us as it seems to switch itself on and off (well I have not found the switch). It keeps being suggested I should produce a pamphlet of poems but I just feel as if that is too much work at present.
Tuesday I saw Margo and we sorted Hilary’s analysis. It was not as tidy as I would have liked but as it was done in two hours that was the best I could do. My PC at work is also bugging me as it regularly hangs for no apparent reason. I know some of these times it is due to downloading over the internet but it really can be appallingly slow. On the afternoon I went over to see Kate, she is in education and is doing a project for a major art gallery on working with young artists. They wanted a pictorial presentation of the findings and my job was to show Kate how she could go from NVivo to the start of a pictorial presentation. What I suddenly realised half way through was here was something at which I was going to be rather good at. Not sure if I can produce these for my thesis. My supervisor would be highly supportive if I did, but I am not that far down the line. In the evening I was across to Herringthorpe for a Bible study.
Wednesday was quieter in work. I only had a query from a doctoral student from dentistry. These days these are the easy to do, although I know when I started that they used to produce interesting challenges. Things like people being interested in variability rather than absolute results. Dentist are culturally interesting; they are precision freaks, measuring everything several times and normally the biggest challenge is to sort out what level of variation is relevant to the particular difference. The evening it was time to go shopping and to get ready for going to Birmingham the next day.
Thursday I was off to Birmingham. It was a showery day but I seemed to have a good day for missing them. Supervisions tend to be huge moral boosters. I go in feeling as if the stuff is getting out of hand and come out feeling as if it tameable. Maybe that is a sign of a good supervisor. I need I think to tackle Jonathan Edwards on the Religious Affections next, well there is that and hymns. I also found a paper that looks as if my spatial models may be fairly well developed in America for Congregations, this is useful, especially as I seem to have most of the books and read quite a few. The chapter on space is coming along quite nicely apart from the fact it would be useful to find some text on a Reformed understanding of space. There is little there, although I have found some with respect to worship.
Friday was a day of happenings. Firstly I turned up at the Breakfast early as I had a 10 a.m. appointment, to find 18 or more hungry breakfasters and a short staffed kitchen. We got out another table as all the seats were already full and I did some time on the hatch. Shortly after me Kay came in and she had slightly more leeway but again needed to be off before the end. Then into work to see Ahmed and Alireza about study I had done. They wanted different estimates. In actual fact I had them although my computer was going slow so I only got one set out. I have another two or so to do. That evening I went to pick up my regular prescriptions from Boots. They are in charge of re-ordering. The only thing was that the prescription had not been dealt with so it was a matter of waiting while they rang the surgery for them to fax the prescription, then prescribing it and finally getting it filled. It was by then so close on closing time that the security guard was offering me free sandwiches. They had a number of sandwiches that were on their sell by date so if I did not take some, they would just go in the bin. However by the time I got home my head was definitely having a headache.
I woke up on Saturday without a headache but feeling out of sync with the world, as if it had spun a half degree further than I had. Anyway I got up and went into town but then messed up paying in cheques at the bank. At which point I decided that my brain was probably still fuddled and the headache was probably a migraine. Anyway shopped at Marks and Spencer and then caught the tram home on the grounds that I was not safe to be out. The shopping only came first because it was groceries for the weekend and no I could not face the walk up to the Co-op (Somerfield). I then went back to bed and slept for two plus hours. Why I could not do that first thing in the morning I do not know. Anyway sorted interviews from Chesterfield and know what processing I need to do to get them ready for sending out. In the evening Stuart came around and we went out to the Devonshire Cat. It was pleasant enough but they had music on and conversation tended to boom.
Today I was at Herringthorpe for morning worship, first time since I reported as I was at my parents last weekend. The feedback was actually very positive. One person apologised for not staying, another asked for a copy of the handout (all but one were taken on the day and I did about 45 which was 5 more than Pauline suggested) and then one person totally unsolicited said that I had got it very accurately. With my supervisor being impressed with it and saying that I had not only got the important things in I had also got the balance exactly right. I think I am counting it a success, of course it is a real success if it actually changes things.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Recovering from the bigness of last weekend
Let’s see about this week. Well it has been quieter or at least I have been quieter during it. Then that was not difficult after the presentation last weekend
Monday I was going to go into work as I had a meeting with my boss, even though I had an essay to write and knew I also should be calming down after my presentation. However when I checked my work email before going in I found she had postponed the meeting. Therefore I decided to take the day off and get on with the essay. The essay was easy enough to write, well what I was writing of it. It is often only when you start writing about a topic that you realise the background that you need. In this particular case, it was hymns. I decided on a very broad brush strokes approach to classification and am now wondering on going back and reclassifying the revival based hymns. I will need to spend some time on the history of hymns, main problem is that there is a clear content difference between the top hymns as Herringthorpe and the top ones at St Andrews, this may be largely a construct of the fact Herringthorpe uses far more from the Charismatic’s stable while St Andrews uses far more Modern ones. I am at present struggling to classify it but I suspect broadly speaking Charismatic ones tend to focus on the work of God while modern ones tend to focus more on our response to the work of God. Anyway I got it finished and to writers group that evening which was good.
However having had an unexpectedly good day on Monday, Tuesday hit me for a six. I think I had a migraine, I also lost my voice. I lose my voice less often these days than I did a decade ago so it was a surprise to find I suddenly had no voice. Having had this originally as my day off I had no appointments so did not feel too bad over ringing in sick. It also meant that I did not make Bible Study on Tuesday evening. There may be no need to speak at Bible study but there is an need to respond to people when you socialise around it and I have yet to find a way of being in public space and not talking too much for my voice when it fragile.
Wednesday I had a frail voice back so went into work. However I had a meeting I had missed the previous time it was on and then prayer meeting so I went. The first meeting suggested that it would be a good idea if the department knew how many papers we had published. It does the department some good as it shows we are supporting researchers. However whether I should have done is a mute question as my voice was still very frail and had disappeared completely by the end of prayer meeting. However knowing that I had no voice on Wednesday afternoon I put things together so that I could do my SRDS preparation the next day at home. This included going through various work records and also getting hold of departmental plans. They always say they are assessing against departmental aims but then I usually find that they are assessing me against institutional aims.
Thursday I worked at home, first doing the SRDS and then submitting my papers for my supervision. This was a quiet day in and was exactly what my voice required although I went to the doctor’s for a routine visit and then onto work to lend Rosie my album from the time I spent as a volunteer on Iona because she is going up there at the end of this week.
Friday I had my voice back, which is good but with not having it earlier in the week I had deliberately been making appointments for this week rather than for Friday. I also had an email I needed to respond to and also an analysis I needed to do. I however also went and checked for papers I was either author on or acknowledged. I found that I was author on 17 papers and acknowledged on another 25. The biggest number that is missing is the number of theses I am acknowledged on and I suspect that would quite possibly take me close to a hundred or so. The problem is that the theses are rarely online so the only way to find out is to go to the library and check all the theses. On the evening I went out the Herringthorpe’s Ladies’ night. I thought this was going to be an art evening in the practical sense, but no it was a demonstration by a lady who has been an art teacher for ages although she herself is self taught. She chose to do an autumn scene in pastel, it was interesting watching her work but pastel is not my thing although I have had some fun with it.
At the weekend I was over with my parents. They are chunttering along as usual. Ruth came over on Saturday and helped tidy the garden. It now needs some fresh flowering plants in it to bring colour in amongst the green. However I am not sure what is the best way of getting such plants into the garden. It is not enough just to buy them as mum could really do with someone coming along to plant them as well. At present I think immediate colour is probably more important than longevity. Today I did the routine checks on Dad’s computer that I try to do every time I am over. He has Anti-virus and I try and also do a couple of scans for malware and spyware plus checking to see if his version of Windows is up to date. The later is not usually necessary, but Dad tends to only have the computer on for the short times he is actually using it and I suspect that sometimes when this is the case the computer does not always up date when it should. I had planned to do this while they were at church but they decided with the showery weather that they would go this evening in the car instead of walking this morning. So after a while Dad came down to join me basically to see how I was getting on. Anyway he stayed for a while until when the last download was taking slightly longer I suggested we went up for coffee rather than wait. Mum had decided as she had nothing better to do that she would cook dinner which was therefore would have been ready about 11:30. Anyway we persuaded her to come through and have coffee with us although she was cross with us for leaving her alone for so long (about an hour for me, less for Dad).
Monday I was going to go into work as I had a meeting with my boss, even though I had an essay to write and knew I also should be calming down after my presentation. However when I checked my work email before going in I found she had postponed the meeting. Therefore I decided to take the day off and get on with the essay. The essay was easy enough to write, well what I was writing of it. It is often only when you start writing about a topic that you realise the background that you need. In this particular case, it was hymns. I decided on a very broad brush strokes approach to classification and am now wondering on going back and reclassifying the revival based hymns. I will need to spend some time on the history of hymns, main problem is that there is a clear content difference between the top hymns as Herringthorpe and the top ones at St Andrews, this may be largely a construct of the fact Herringthorpe uses far more from the Charismatic’s stable while St Andrews uses far more Modern ones. I am at present struggling to classify it but I suspect broadly speaking Charismatic ones tend to focus on the work of God while modern ones tend to focus more on our response to the work of God. Anyway I got it finished and to writers group that evening which was good.
However having had an unexpectedly good day on Monday, Tuesday hit me for a six. I think I had a migraine, I also lost my voice. I lose my voice less often these days than I did a decade ago so it was a surprise to find I suddenly had no voice. Having had this originally as my day off I had no appointments so did not feel too bad over ringing in sick. It also meant that I did not make Bible Study on Tuesday evening. There may be no need to speak at Bible study but there is an need to respond to people when you socialise around it and I have yet to find a way of being in public space and not talking too much for my voice when it fragile.
Wednesday I had a frail voice back so went into work. However I had a meeting I had missed the previous time it was on and then prayer meeting so I went. The first meeting suggested that it would be a good idea if the department knew how many papers we had published. It does the department some good as it shows we are supporting researchers. However whether I should have done is a mute question as my voice was still very frail and had disappeared completely by the end of prayer meeting. However knowing that I had no voice on Wednesday afternoon I put things together so that I could do my SRDS preparation the next day at home. This included going through various work records and also getting hold of departmental plans. They always say they are assessing against departmental aims but then I usually find that they are assessing me against institutional aims.
Thursday I worked at home, first doing the SRDS and then submitting my papers for my supervision. This was a quiet day in and was exactly what my voice required although I went to the doctor’s for a routine visit and then onto work to lend Rosie my album from the time I spent as a volunteer on Iona because she is going up there at the end of this week.
Friday I had my voice back, which is good but with not having it earlier in the week I had deliberately been making appointments for this week rather than for Friday. I also had an email I needed to respond to and also an analysis I needed to do. I however also went and checked for papers I was either author on or acknowledged. I found that I was author on 17 papers and acknowledged on another 25. The biggest number that is missing is the number of theses I am acknowledged on and I suspect that would quite possibly take me close to a hundred or so. The problem is that the theses are rarely online so the only way to find out is to go to the library and check all the theses. On the evening I went out the Herringthorpe’s Ladies’ night. I thought this was going to be an art evening in the practical sense, but no it was a demonstration by a lady who has been an art teacher for ages although she herself is self taught. She chose to do an autumn scene in pastel, it was interesting watching her work but pastel is not my thing although I have had some fun with it.
At the weekend I was over with my parents. They are chunttering along as usual. Ruth came over on Saturday and helped tidy the garden. It now needs some fresh flowering plants in it to bring colour in amongst the green. However I am not sure what is the best way of getting such plants into the garden. It is not enough just to buy them as mum could really do with someone coming along to plant them as well. At present I think immediate colour is probably more important than longevity. Today I did the routine checks on Dad’s computer that I try to do every time I am over. He has Anti-virus and I try and also do a couple of scans for malware and spyware plus checking to see if his version of Windows is up to date. The later is not usually necessary, but Dad tends to only have the computer on for the short times he is actually using it and I suspect that sometimes when this is the case the computer does not always up date when it should. I had planned to do this while they were at church but they decided with the showery weather that they would go this evening in the car instead of walking this morning. So after a while Dad came down to join me basically to see how I was getting on. Anyway he stayed for a while until when the last download was taking slightly longer I suggested we went up for coffee rather than wait. Mum had decided as she had nothing better to do that she would cook dinner which was therefore would have been ready about 11:30. Anyway we persuaded her to come through and have coffee with us although she was cross with us for leaving her alone for so long (about an hour for me, less for Dad).
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The week leading to presentation at Herringthorpe
This week has been dominated by the fact that I was giving an initial report to church meeting at Herringthorpe today. In some senses even when I write now of other things that was still going on in the background.
Monday my writers group started again. This is good news as in some ways this has become one of my safety valves, a place where I go not to talk about thesis but to discuss other things and for which I have to be creative in a different way. Actually the big discipline that comes with this is that I have to actually stop and look at something rather than presume I know what I see. They also are a group with which it is pleasant to hang out with. It has become another non-negotiable of my life. In work I repeated an analysis I had done about three times already, finally sorting out what I wanted to do. The funny thing was that the results came out for what the original topic of interest was.
Tuesday was a fairly busy day in work. We had a team meeting with the head of department at ten O’clock where she talked about Lean process management. It is something that vaguely interests me. It Looks at redesigning processes so as to make them more efficient by removing stuff that does not provide value to the customer. What is important is to realise that backup/fallback procedures do provide value.
Wednesday I decided to work at home as I desperately needed to get the report into slides. I had actually finished preparing the handout first as I found working in Publisher easier for ordering ideas than working in Powerpoint. Actually the putting together of the slides was relatively easy. You just had to design the slide to portray the idea. I kept the slides visual and short.
Thursday in the morning I spent time dealing with a bright student who really needed to be told to do a qualitative approach at least to start with. Once they have the coding sorted then hopefully we can export to SPSS. Then on the afternoon did a run through of my presentation with my boss in work so I know that I had made it understandable to people with no background in the social sciences. I deliberately tried not to do anything that evening
Friday was my day off. In the morning I had coffee with Sarah, I had a strange feeling that neither of us really wanted to get up from it and do other things. For Sarah it was probably a good chance to sit down after the business of Broomhall Breakfast, with me it was partly coming back to thesis although I was actually noting what hymns the churches had used while I was there. From fairly early on while I was at Herringthorpe I have kept a note of the hymns that were actually used as there was a dispute over their use. St Andrews Chesterfield printed theirs on their weekly newsletter. So I have this information for both churches. It was a matter of abstracting it and then categorising it. I had to develop a coding categorisation, because of the congregations I have used a four part code characterisation. I picked any material pre 1840 as traditional; this is set as the start of Queen Victoria’s reign. Then for material between 1840 and 1960 I called it hymnody, this was to reflect the high number of hymns written between those times and in use. Later material was not classed on a time basis rather I distinguished what I call Modern Liturgical including many modern hymns but it is broader than that, which is material written for use in formal worship since 1960 and Charismatic which is material coming out of writers identified with the charismatic renewal. If I was studying this in-depth I would want to subdivide all four categories. For instance I have metrical psalms put in with translations of ancient hymns with the hymns of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. In the next I have Revivalist hymns aside high Anglican ones and so on.
On the evening I made a big mess. I managed to book a Tesco’s delivery for just the time I was at the Dicksons. Not just that but I also managed to get into my head the wrong time so it was only when it did not arrive by seven that I checked the times. In the end Tesco’s very kindly agreed to redeliver today and James came to pick me up. Very thankful for people’s considerateness over what was completely my mess up! The evening was enjoyable as ever.
Saturday was just more work on the hymns followed by setting up the sound system at St Andrews so that a guitar could be played through it, I hoped it worked ok as though the technical solution was in place, it also required the operator to balance the levels of the voices and the guitar! Something no operator had done previously. On the morning a quick run to the shops. The rest of the day was thesis both working on the hymns and today’s presentation. Unfortunately by this point I realised that nerves were taking over and needed some controlling
Today presentation day! Actually things went pretty smoothly only I had put too much in. I turned up at the church only to find that it was parade and the car park was full. God must have heard my heart cry because a car promptly pulled out of a parking space! Not usual ten minutes before worship in the church carpark! I got asked on entry to the church whether I was rehearsing my presentation, no I replied thanking God for providing a parking space. The idea of having to move the car in the time between worship and church meeting just felt too much! I got through three quarters maybe more of the presentation. The moderator commented that on there being not enough time to do this sort of presentation in church meetings. I don’t think people understood that I was hanging around to calm down afterwards, I have been so intently involved in doing this presentation and so focused on presenting it well, that I was quite sure that I would technically not be in a good state to be driving on the roads immediately afterwards. Anyway came in had a bacon sandwich and a glass of wine and went to bed for an hour and a half.
Monday my writers group started again. This is good news as in some ways this has become one of my safety valves, a place where I go not to talk about thesis but to discuss other things and for which I have to be creative in a different way. Actually the big discipline that comes with this is that I have to actually stop and look at something rather than presume I know what I see. They also are a group with which it is pleasant to hang out with. It has become another non-negotiable of my life. In work I repeated an analysis I had done about three times already, finally sorting out what I wanted to do. The funny thing was that the results came out for what the original topic of interest was.
Tuesday was a fairly busy day in work. We had a team meeting with the head of department at ten O’clock where she talked about Lean process management. It is something that vaguely interests me. It Looks at redesigning processes so as to make them more efficient by removing stuff that does not provide value to the customer. What is important is to realise that backup/fallback procedures do provide value.
Wednesday I decided to work at home as I desperately needed to get the report into slides. I had actually finished preparing the handout first as I found working in Publisher easier for ordering ideas than working in Powerpoint. Actually the putting together of the slides was relatively easy. You just had to design the slide to portray the idea. I kept the slides visual and short.
Thursday in the morning I spent time dealing with a bright student who really needed to be told to do a qualitative approach at least to start with. Once they have the coding sorted then hopefully we can export to SPSS. Then on the afternoon did a run through of my presentation with my boss in work so I know that I had made it understandable to people with no background in the social sciences. I deliberately tried not to do anything that evening
Friday was my day off. In the morning I had coffee with Sarah, I had a strange feeling that neither of us really wanted to get up from it and do other things. For Sarah it was probably a good chance to sit down after the business of Broomhall Breakfast, with me it was partly coming back to thesis although I was actually noting what hymns the churches had used while I was there. From fairly early on while I was at Herringthorpe I have kept a note of the hymns that were actually used as there was a dispute over their use. St Andrews Chesterfield printed theirs on their weekly newsletter. So I have this information for both churches. It was a matter of abstracting it and then categorising it. I had to develop a coding categorisation, because of the congregations I have used a four part code characterisation. I picked any material pre 1840 as traditional; this is set as the start of Queen Victoria’s reign. Then for material between 1840 and 1960 I called it hymnody, this was to reflect the high number of hymns written between those times and in use. Later material was not classed on a time basis rather I distinguished what I call Modern Liturgical including many modern hymns but it is broader than that, which is material written for use in formal worship since 1960 and Charismatic which is material coming out of writers identified with the charismatic renewal. If I was studying this in-depth I would want to subdivide all four categories. For instance I have metrical psalms put in with translations of ancient hymns with the hymns of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. In the next I have Revivalist hymns aside high Anglican ones and so on.
On the evening I made a big mess. I managed to book a Tesco’s delivery for just the time I was at the Dicksons. Not just that but I also managed to get into my head the wrong time so it was only when it did not arrive by seven that I checked the times. In the end Tesco’s very kindly agreed to redeliver today and James came to pick me up. Very thankful for people’s considerateness over what was completely my mess up! The evening was enjoyable as ever.
Saturday was just more work on the hymns followed by setting up the sound system at St Andrews so that a guitar could be played through it, I hoped it worked ok as though the technical solution was in place, it also required the operator to balance the levels of the voices and the guitar! Something no operator had done previously. On the morning a quick run to the shops. The rest of the day was thesis both working on the hymns and today’s presentation. Unfortunately by this point I realised that nerves were taking over and needed some controlling
Today presentation day! Actually things went pretty smoothly only I had put too much in. I turned up at the church only to find that it was parade and the car park was full. God must have heard my heart cry because a car promptly pulled out of a parking space! Not usual ten minutes before worship in the church carpark! I got asked on entry to the church whether I was rehearsing my presentation, no I replied thanking God for providing a parking space. The idea of having to move the car in the time between worship and church meeting just felt too much! I got through three quarters maybe more of the presentation. The moderator commented that on there being not enough time to do this sort of presentation in church meetings. I don’t think people understood that I was hanging around to calm down afterwards, I have been so intently involved in doing this presentation and so focused on presenting it well, that I was quite sure that I would technically not be in a good state to be driving on the roads immediately afterwards. Anyway came in had a bacon sandwich and a glass of wine and went to bed for an hour and a half.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Two Weeks trying to get back into an even pace after Easter
I am going to need a long memory to remember back to the Easter bank holiday, I expect because it was fairly quiet.. Work was quiet with a lot of people taking advantage of the two double bank holiday weekends but I still ended up with plenty of work to do.
So will you excuse me while I move quickly onto that Thursday which was a supervision date in Birmingham. The supervision was as early as I can really make in that it was at 12:30 and the first train I can travel on gets me in at 11:30. Yes it is only a fifteen minute walk from the University station but I don’t like to arrive anywhere with less than an hour before an appointment if I am travelling by train. The campus was being host to a large number of school students who were taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to eat their packed lunches outside. My supervisor had two more theses bound upon his desk. He is supposed to be rationalising the number of students he supervises as the central system noticed suddenly he had far more than they expected staff to. This might not totally be his fault, he had when I started inherited rather a lot of students from a former colleague who had left to work elsewhere. He also has a fair number of students who have been in the system for rather a long time. Then the two students graduating may well only reduce his numbers by one as one of them was seriously thinking of returning for a doctorate.Anyway the result of having a fairly early supervision meant that I spent a fair time checking papers and still managed to get the 4pm train from Birmingham New Street and therefore bought myself a meal from Marks and Spencer and walked home.
On the Friday my parents came over. We did not do anything spectacular. My hairdresser was open so I had my hair cut and there was a street party on the road outside the shop. Not really your traditional sort of neighbours all joining in, rather a group of market stall holders got together to put up some tables and people could buy food off the food stalls and eat it at the tables, I think there probably was a TV screen up somewhere and there were other stalls selling stuff. Maybe even a small stage. However the hairdresser informed me that there was a flower market on in town so when I had collected my parents from the coffee shop in West One and then wandered down. The market was a general one although there was a large area selling plants. Anyway Mum bought a decent macaroon and a not so good chocolate brownie.
Saturday was a quiet day. That is my decision was to basically havea normal Saturday and to try and start putting together the presentation for Herringthorpe. Now there was an alternative. I could have decided to go the Herringthorpe Royal Wedding party, but that just seemed like too much for me. I believe it was a really splendid affair and the photos which I saw on the following tuesday seemed to indicate many people enjoyed themselves.
Sunday last week was very hectic. There was church in the morning which had quietened down somewhat from the pre-Easter frantic activity, but still a good turn out. Then I nipped home to get lactase tablets as I had forgotten to bring them, what I did not realise was I also needed to change. Then it was off to have lunch with a family. This family has been missionaries in Pakistan and are still in contact with the Christian community out there.After talking with them it was clear that the problem is not so much the blasphemy law but a societal behaviour that makes people over zealous for the honour of Islam and where the slightest suggestion that you may have done something dishonouring will lead to mob violence. This plays into the hands of the unscruplous, who can make allegations without really having to face consequences if the are wrong. Afterwards dinner which was delicious, we went for a walk around Uley Reservoir which is pleasant place for a walk. There was a cott with chicks just by the nest. Some of the chicks were in the water and some were on the nest. The coot seemed to be adding extra material to the nest, I wonder if this was to accommodate her growing family. There was also thousand of tadpoles at the side. As we past the boating house the girls heard wind chimes. This reminded me that Stuart had told me the previous evening that he had been out to visit a friends grave there in a woodland cemetery.
After that I went home changed and then back out as evening service had been cancelled so one of the normal attenders was having a social at her house. The main topic of conversation when I arrived was the Royal wedding, both the actual event and the party the day before. The hosts son and a friend who is the son of head of the local Christian Homelessness Project were playing in the back garden. They had “put up” a tent intending to sleep in it and got bedding down from the sons bedroom. However I would not have put much money on the tent staying up and the father of the visiting lad had said he would not spend the night outside.
At this point I felt that was enough socialising for me plus presentation was calling but the next day a group was also going out to Rufford Country Park. So Monday was spent in largely being fairly quiet indeed I had over done it and as much of the presentation as I would have liked did not get done.
Tuesday I was in work and had a very bitty day. nothing major, meeting in the morning, a missed appointment in the afternoon and four papers fighting for attention including one on which I am sole author. My liturgy paper should be in Anaphora I am glad to have done it. Then there was house group on the eveing. One of the leaders defined being spiritual as being Christian, that is not how the word is used in wider society!
Wednesday brain through a wobbler and I had a migraine which was most uncomfortable. I am used to the sort that lands me in bed and asleep pretty quickly but this timeit just made everything uncomfortable.
Thursday I got through a major analysis but I still have to write it up so will have a go next week. Then I will have to see if the student can make any sense of it. Otherwise an uneventful day with nothing much to report.
Friday I think I broke the back of the handout for the presentation. That might sound odd, but I had to find something to put my thoughts in order. Too many ideas not enough narrative. I have lots of ideas of ways to put across themes, it is just putting them into a form where I can present. I actually am finding publisher more useful for doing that than anything else. Part of the problem with Powerpoint is some of the visuals are not computer based and are better presented by other means but powerpoint does work for things that are computer based.
Saturday was quiet and fairly productive. It almost fell into a routine with two hourly slots. Cooking 9-11, shop 11am-1pm sleep 1pm to 3pm PhD work 3pm -5pm and so on. It was quite funny how the pattern appeared out of nowhere.
Sunday is today and I spent this morning watching the Sheffield Half Marathon. I’d checked the route yesterday and it was situated in such a way that I had two choices, set out half an hour at least early and see if I could find a way around it through Sheffield back streets (it ran from Don Valley Stadium to at least Hunters Bar on the Ecclesall Road through the centre of Sheffield. It was like having a major line drawn between me and Rotherham. It also closed the route north to the M1. Well as Jon the youth and children’s worker at Herringthorpe was running I thought I would go and watch it instead. It really is quite impressive to watch with the hordes of runners taking over an hour to pass once they had got to Devonshire Green.
So will you excuse me while I move quickly onto that Thursday which was a supervision date in Birmingham. The supervision was as early as I can really make in that it was at 12:30 and the first train I can travel on gets me in at 11:30. Yes it is only a fifteen minute walk from the University station but I don’t like to arrive anywhere with less than an hour before an appointment if I am travelling by train. The campus was being host to a large number of school students who were taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to eat their packed lunches outside. My supervisor had two more theses bound upon his desk. He is supposed to be rationalising the number of students he supervises as the central system noticed suddenly he had far more than they expected staff to. This might not totally be his fault, he had when I started inherited rather a lot of students from a former colleague who had left to work elsewhere. He also has a fair number of students who have been in the system for rather a long time. Then the two students graduating may well only reduce his numbers by one as one of them was seriously thinking of returning for a doctorate.Anyway the result of having a fairly early supervision meant that I spent a fair time checking papers and still managed to get the 4pm train from Birmingham New Street and therefore bought myself a meal from Marks and Spencer and walked home.
On the Friday my parents came over. We did not do anything spectacular. My hairdresser was open so I had my hair cut and there was a street party on the road outside the shop. Not really your traditional sort of neighbours all joining in, rather a group of market stall holders got together to put up some tables and people could buy food off the food stalls and eat it at the tables, I think there probably was a TV screen up somewhere and there were other stalls selling stuff. Maybe even a small stage. However the hairdresser informed me that there was a flower market on in town so when I had collected my parents from the coffee shop in West One and then wandered down. The market was a general one although there was a large area selling plants. Anyway Mum bought a decent macaroon and a not so good chocolate brownie.
Saturday was a quiet day. That is my decision was to basically havea normal Saturday and to try and start putting together the presentation for Herringthorpe. Now there was an alternative. I could have decided to go the Herringthorpe Royal Wedding party, but that just seemed like too much for me. I believe it was a really splendid affair and the photos which I saw on the following tuesday seemed to indicate many people enjoyed themselves.
Sunday last week was very hectic. There was church in the morning which had quietened down somewhat from the pre-Easter frantic activity, but still a good turn out. Then I nipped home to get lactase tablets as I had forgotten to bring them, what I did not realise was I also needed to change. Then it was off to have lunch with a family. This family has been missionaries in Pakistan and are still in contact with the Christian community out there.After talking with them it was clear that the problem is not so much the blasphemy law but a societal behaviour that makes people over zealous for the honour of Islam and where the slightest suggestion that you may have done something dishonouring will lead to mob violence. This plays into the hands of the unscruplous, who can make allegations without really having to face consequences if the are wrong. Afterwards dinner which was delicious, we went for a walk around Uley Reservoir which is pleasant place for a walk. There was a cott with chicks just by the nest. Some of the chicks were in the water and some were on the nest. The coot seemed to be adding extra material to the nest, I wonder if this was to accommodate her growing family. There was also thousand of tadpoles at the side. As we past the boating house the girls heard wind chimes. This reminded me that Stuart had told me the previous evening that he had been out to visit a friends grave there in a woodland cemetery.
After that I went home changed and then back out as evening service had been cancelled so one of the normal attenders was having a social at her house. The main topic of conversation when I arrived was the Royal wedding, both the actual event and the party the day before. The hosts son and a friend who is the son of head of the local Christian Homelessness Project were playing in the back garden. They had “put up” a tent intending to sleep in it and got bedding down from the sons bedroom. However I would not have put much money on the tent staying up and the father of the visiting lad had said he would not spend the night outside.
At this point I felt that was enough socialising for me plus presentation was calling but the next day a group was also going out to Rufford Country Park. So Monday was spent in largely being fairly quiet indeed I had over done it and as much of the presentation as I would have liked did not get done.
Tuesday I was in work and had a very bitty day. nothing major, meeting in the morning, a missed appointment in the afternoon and four papers fighting for attention including one on which I am sole author. My liturgy paper should be in Anaphora I am glad to have done it. Then there was house group on the eveing. One of the leaders defined being spiritual as being Christian, that is not how the word is used in wider society!
Wednesday brain through a wobbler and I had a migraine which was most uncomfortable. I am used to the sort that lands me in bed and asleep pretty quickly but this timeit just made everything uncomfortable.
Thursday I got through a major analysis but I still have to write it up so will have a go next week. Then I will have to see if the student can make any sense of it. Otherwise an uneventful day with nothing much to report.
Friday I think I broke the back of the handout for the presentation. That might sound odd, but I had to find something to put my thoughts in order. Too many ideas not enough narrative. I have lots of ideas of ways to put across themes, it is just putting them into a form where I can present. I actually am finding publisher more useful for doing that than anything else. Part of the problem with Powerpoint is some of the visuals are not computer based and are better presented by other means but powerpoint does work for things that are computer based.
Saturday was quiet and fairly productive. It almost fell into a routine with two hourly slots. Cooking 9-11, shop 11am-1pm sleep 1pm to 3pm PhD work 3pm -5pm and so on. It was quite funny how the pattern appeared out of nowhere.
Sunday is today and I spent this morning watching the Sheffield Half Marathon. I’d checked the route yesterday and it was situated in such a way that I had two choices, set out half an hour at least early and see if I could find a way around it through Sheffield back streets (it ran from Don Valley Stadium to at least Hunters Bar on the Ecclesall Road through the centre of Sheffield. It was like having a major line drawn between me and Rotherham. It also closed the route north to the M1. Well as Jon the youth and children’s worker at Herringthorpe was running I thought I would go and watch it instead. It really is quite impressive to watch with the hordes of runners taking over an hour to pass once they had got to Devonshire Green.
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