I think I am going to have to write a highlights, but despite things being busy, (when aren’t they) I am not sure how many highlights I actually have.
Right on Friday 10th I went as I normally do to the Broomhall Breakfast. It seemed very light staffed, Mary was cooking, Jean was behind the hatch and Sarah was taking orders. Fortunately at that stage it also was fairly few clients. So I had my breakfast and then realised that Sarah might like hers so offered to take over orders. When I did that, Mary decided that, as it was quiet, she might as well have her breakfast, only for over ten people to walk through the door. This resulted in Jean cooking a couple of eggs just so the backlog did not get too bad. I have since volunteered to be around on a Friday until September time, so I now have to be up and ready to go by 7:30 a.m. in the morning on a Friday.
That evening I went out for a meal with James and Jean Dickson. Rather than cooking this time they decided to take me to the Bistrot Pierre on Ecclesall Road. The reason for doing so is that it does a gluten free menu and as their grandson is both a celiac and milk intolerant, they wanted to try it out before they took him. Their grandchildren are moving to Sheffield in a few weeks time. It was airy with glass all the way around, a good number of dinners and the food was good. They do a set of light main courses which were about the right amount for us to eat and they also do 500ml (2/3 of the normal bottle size) of wine which is very nice if only two are drinking , James was driving so didn’t. We came back to my place to have coffee and I found the bag of decaffeinated beans I had bought so we were fine.
That weekend I was writing, well I was analysing hymns. It is interesting, I think if I am right the hypothesis that the reason hymns are sung often is because they are “our hymns” does not seem to hold. Congregation’s do not sing hymns for the same reason football supporters chant at crowds, at least they don’t during normal worship. I suspect the hymns were being used for two different purposes in the two congregations. However what I am not yet clear on is what the hymnody of the tradition looks like. Do I go through Rejoice and Sing and pick out those with a definite “Reformed” background? Do I analyse “When I survey”, “We limit not the truth of God” “The Lord’s my Shepherd” and “Ye gates lift up ye heads” and use them as examples? If so what in the Churches of Christ one? Do I not bother but look to themes that come out of the tradition generally.
Tuesday saw me giving an NVivo course. This was full subscribed and well attended. I however am getting fed up with it being a talking head during it. I give a lot of information out but I am pretty sure most of it washes over people. They seemed appreciative but still I wonder. I was able to show someone at the end a quick way to get on with her coding but so hard to deal with a widely disparate group.
Thursday my new computer was set up and working in work. I actually found that having a faster machine makes a huge difference, it works at the problems I set it about the sort of speed my brain works at the commentary. So I don’t go off and think about something else while the computer is working and then have to pick up the pieces again. This means I work through things more efficiently. I got two large data sets ready for analysis by someone else during the week.
Friday I did the breakfast then did an interview for my PhD. It went well and I think I have only another three to do. This should be interesting as things are definitely now getting to the writing up stage.
I took twenty-four hours largely out from doing stuff from Saturday afternoon when I sent off my supervision papers and this afternoon when I went to evening service at Herringthorpe. A friend from my writers group had leant me “Into Great Silence” (that review is in depth good and worth reading to the end) It says there it last 2.5 hours in fact it is slightly longer than that. It is slow, slow enough for me to watch it and even in my own home I was drawn into it. It is beautifully shot and the repetition becomes slightly mesmerising. I thought that at the start the monks would blend into each other but they don’t. No two of them sit at prayer the same, their hands and heads are held differently. However when you see the older ones there is a real sense of laughter just trapped behind the eyes while the younger ones look more stern. It was three hours well spent and if I have the chance to watch it in a cinema I will take it.
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