Right this week has been a week of two halves with an evening out between the two of them. The first part of the week was dominated by the need to produce a report by next Monday, the problem as always is sorting out the data. Once the data was sorted the results wanted were so prescriptive that it was a matter of filling in the holes. However that always takes longer than you think and we did not start filling the holes to the second session. We also managed to make good progress with an article. That being said, I still ended up very drained each day.
One thing that did come through is that I needed a method for making progress on my thesis visible to me. I worked out that if I can write 400 words for 5 days a week then in 40 weeks I will have written 80,000 or my full thesis. Well that is the theory anyway. Let me first put a number of caveats around that. First writing this way means that I need to plan each chapter in great depth before starting to write it. Second, the four hundred words are first draft, a lot of the referencing and checking will be done on the second draft. Finally I know there is a lot of reading, exploring and such that has to go on concurrently with the writing. The first task is therefore to plan in detail most of the methods chapter. However this week I have been having fun, creating a mandala for me to fill with coloured balls or rolled tissue paper. I am creating a Triskele but am using a Pythagoras tree (scroll down for actual one used) which is proving fascinating to draw out but unlike the original triskele the arms interlock.
By Wednesday I was looking forward to the writers group social. In many ways writers is the group that I socialise with these days. We are on the hunt for a bug without loud music but with atmosphere in Sheffield. I think we have fairly conclusively established that such a pub does not exist in the Devonshire Quarter. However the talk was good in the first part of the evening and the company was pleasant. I must really bring something in for Christmas time as I find I never end up buying drinks at these evenings.
Thursday I did my final interview for my thesis. It feels strange to be wrapping things up after so long, it will feel even stranger I am sure when I sit down to write after the holiday. The interview went well and it is interesting to listen to what Pauline had to say. In many ways I suspect she has a very good idea how the congregation ticks. The comment by her that she would change nothing personally but that there would be change while she was there, I think shows a shrewd approach to the congregation. I think what she has probably done successfully is to persuade the congregation that doing things differently isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Indeed there probably see it as in some ways a good things but are not too sure on the principals that should guide that change. This leads to a conservatism as they have to battle issues out.. They seem to be looking seriously at taking over the pre-school group that uses their premises (its current management are retiring). At times I could see myself in Pauline. In her tendency to see a job and therefore go and tackle it; including the feeling guilty if I can’t.
Friday I served breakfast again. We served 47 or so, but at the start we were really slow having barely double figures in the door when we opened. One of the breakfasters, comes with his bike, helps set out tables, has cereal and coffee and then goes down to Waitrose for 8:00 a.m. to sell the Big Issue. Needless to say the helpers at Breakfast who see him there always stop to buy a copy. I did put my alarm on, it is a sunrise alarm (see http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lumie-Bodyclock-CLASSIC-Wake-up-Light/dp/B0049AHZSM/ref=sr_1_5?s=drugstore&ie=UTF8&qid=1315763031&sr=1-5 ) and I got it while I was really battling with depression as it enabled me to get up. I did only wake once during the night so perhaps it was an improvement although I still started to wake before it started lighting as I heard it click on.
Afterwards I went to collect a prescription, I went to get it and when the second pharmacist was handing it over I showed my pre-payment card for the second time. Only he commented on it being out of date. Panic! Since I have found myself very good at not changing cards over (not just prepayment presciption cards, but membership cards , credit cards and the like) I have made the rule to immediately put them in my purse.when I receive them. So where was it, had I forgotten to pay. I decided to check my paper piles before I contacted anyone. In the one by the door, where my cleaner normally puts the post, I found it in an unopened envelope.! Obviously had arrived a day my cleaner was in and she had put it there, while I forgot to check the pile when I came in.
Saturday I went household shopping on the morning then finished the report on Herringthorpe.,The finishing of the report meant going through it at least twice. One to take account of Ruth’s proof editing and one to combine it with the fair copy from James. It is done and sent..It also decided to get warm again after being quite autumnal earlier in the week although it pelted down in the evening. The fact that the sun was shinning through the rain created quite a spectacular view out of the window, so much so that I did not go and look for rainbows that would have been out the other side of the house.
Today went to Herringthorpe, only one church meeting and one Sunday to go. Also I got stopped by two students of oriental extraction who were asking where they could get food, clothes and computers. From where they were I presume they were new overseas student at Sheffield University and they had simply come with a minimal amount. The girl did not seem to have the sort of clothes she really needed even for today which was a mild autumn day. This was at 9:50 in the morning. I just hope some of the shops open at 10:00 a.m. and they did not have to wait until 10:30. There was a panic at Herringthorpe today. by 10:15 the carpark was full and people were parking in the overflow car park. This was partly as there was a baptism and the church seemed fairly full when I got in. Then at 10:20 a coach turned up with more members of the baptismal party. There was a hasty opening of doors so as to allow for extra chairs. The Baptismal party was large I would say about sixty people. There were no less than eight god-parents. I think this says something of the parents.
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