Right the past week has been busy. Monday was fairly normal Monday, indeed I had a bit more spare time to myself because the morning meeting I was expecting took only 15 minutes when I was expecting it to take an hour. Perhaps just as well as I had managed not to print out some output for people when they were with me the previous thursday and it was needed for a talk this thursday day so that gave me time to redo the analysis, print the output and send it over to them.. The afternoon was spent preparing to teach the course I was giving the following day.
Tuesday started with a team management meeting. I have the great management role of managing exactly one person, myself. This of course is anomalous but I actually find that work seems to quite value someone who is out of the power structures. When a debate is getting heated I can often reflect on what is being said and thus provide a different perspective. However this is the last meeting of the management of our team in this form, this is due to the team being expanded. On the afternoon I was giving a course on SPSS. I had one guy who had signed up hoping to learn about Excel. I am not sure where he got that idea from, the course is titled “Entering data into SPSS” and I teach exactly what it says. Over the years we have put a lot of effort into communicating this to people who come on the course. I stayed in on the evening.
Wednesday I took the day off work. This was to allow me to conduct an interview in the morning, to write it up and get to Birmingham in the afternoon. The only thing was that I got the time wrong in the morning and set off too late. What is more annoying is that the earlier time would have suited me better with the journey down to Birmingham. The result of which is that I will finish the interview next Tuesday. I seem to have a very considerate supervisor. I planned to get down to Birmingham for 7pm at Woodbrooke Hall, but knowing this was around supper time I bought food at Marks and Spencers but did not eat it, expecting to eat it either in my room or outside in their extensive gardens. Instead I found that my supervisor had booked me in for supper. So rather shell shocked I found myself in the dinning room of the hall amongst mainly Quakers who were there for a meeting on Peacekeeping.
Actually there are some things worth saying. I was the only person staying overnight from my supervisory group. I would guess most non-Quakers who stay there would be in groups. As I was one on my own, I was more mixed in with the other people around. Somebody asked actually on the Thursday morning whether I had found it strange. I replied no, I had found it right. I had been shown into a room with a bed and a desk and thought “this is my kind of place”. She commented that others might find that weird. The other was my supervisor asking whether I had been well looked after, I said “of course, this place is Quaker and I have always found them a hospitable people”. I have told my Dad that if he needs a place to stay in Birmingham it is a good place to stay.
The study day itself was interesting. I was surprised how close two of us were in what we were tackling. In a sense it works because both of us are approaching it from different angles and it is only a small part of either of our theses and we are coming from different directions. He is also two years behind me so I get to publish first if I stay the pace. The other guy had just finished spending time in Bromford which when he talked about it reminded me somewhat of Blackbird Leys but more cut off and isolated. He was asking questions about his responsibility to the very marginalised youth he had worked with and what was he to do.
Friday I was at Breakfast again, this time we had forty two but there were already over a dozen diners in the hall when I turned up. Next week I need to be more wide-awake when I get there, as it is clear that I need to supervise them putting out tables so that all the tables have chairs and also so the sign goes out. Oh well. The day in work was relatively quiet which it needed to be.
Saturday was quiet, the big news was that during the week I got back my backup drive (actually they have sent me a 2TB in replacement for a 1TB which I think means that there may be problem with the 1TB disks. I also am trying out Carbonite and if I like it will use it as a remote back up for my thesis machine. I am fortunate and have never lost something hugely important on a computer, but there is always the first time and I don’t want that first time to be my thesis. I will consider whether I do it on my laptop as well when I know how it is working. Other than that I did a shop and some reading.
Today I went to morning worship, at 10:15 the car park there was full to overflowing. The church was very full, with two baptismal parties as well as the normal congregation. They also had three people brought into membership and a meal afterwards for people who were relatively new to the church. I was reading the lesson Romans 8:1-17, I had prepared it from my copy of the Good News Bible. Unfortunately my copy is first edition and the ones in the church are second edition and so use inclusive language.
This week is still pretty busy although quieter than last. I am finishing an interview on Tuesday, teaching a course on Wednesday and my writers group has some extra sessions starting on Wednesday as well. Next Sunday Herringthorpe is holding its church picnic.
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