Catching Breath before I dive into another week

Right lets see about news for this last week. Writers was on again last Monday, at the moment they are running a bit of money raising drive, so I took in Minerva and books in case anyone wanted me to make an Amigurumi and came back with an order for one hippopotamus and one lamb, the hippo is a standard amigurumi and I have half made it already this weekend, the lamb I have to make safe for a child so rather than using dolls eyes and such I will be embroidering (possibly with wool as John Lewis’ was out of black embroidery thread and I really can tell the difference between their darkest navy and black).

I also managed a week ago on Saturday to hand in the material for the cushion cover I was making to show off Cait’s embroidery that she did for me at Christmas. Cait’s work was very well done given that she is largely at nine working on her own with respect to embroidery, I help her when I am up but most of the time there is no-one around to help, her mum has never to my knowledge done anything but the stuff she had to do at school. So I wanted to do something to boost her moral. I got the material to include it into a cushion cover, and actually got it put together on the material but actually getting my sewing machine out to make it up into a cushion was daunting me. So I took it into a repair shop and asked them to make it up. The result is I now have a new cushion cover.

Work has been busy this week. I seem to have stayed to 6pm most nights. Now a lot of this has been due to the fact that I had 4:30 appointments and they needed time. With one of them it was just a matter of doing standard statistics but because I am quick at doing it, they came to me rather than doing it themselves. I don’t really mind this. The person is amazed at how quickly my brain gets into a research project, but the truth is that the engagement during these sessions is quite superficial, when I am working on something in depth it normally takes me a session of playing before I can do a proper analysis. i need to find my way around the data. When I work in these sessions I do not spend time trying to find my way around, I rely on the people there to guide me. It can mean I make mistakes. Another which was really quite interesting, looking at computer games designed to teach clinical knowledge and unfortunately the final number were quite small. However if they have created the game, run focus groups and such it is still a worthwhile project.

I also have managed to do two more videos for the NVivo course. I really need to get these out pretty regularly from now on but I have realised that the ones which are mainly software actually do take me a lot less time to do. I do not have to think of the visuals and so can do a video in a couple of hours session. That is a five minute interview, but by the time I have worked out what needs to be said, set up the computer, done a dummy run through, recorded once and junked then done the final run through and edited, as well as psyched myself up to do it then two hours is often reasonable.

I also found with being on holiday next week that I was struggling with getting everything set. I ended up sleeping most of Friday and was going to fill in the form from the end of Beta testing for SPSS when I got up. The only thing was that I really only got around to it after 5:30 p.m., yes I was sleeping most of that time, and then the department decided to do a major upgrade (see http://cicsupgrade.blogspot.co.uk/ ) and the result was that everything was down and I could not do the bit of work I was planning until Saturday afternoon. It was just awkward with not being in work Monday to Thursday next week I had something to fill in that needed to be done by next friday but I could not do it until this Friday as that was when I was sent the link. However as they were tweeting and such all through the night giving updates on progress it was quite interesting. Indeed at one point in Sheffield it was trending higher than UEFA and this on the day of the England Sweden match.

From the weekend after the jubilee

I am going to do highlights rather than the whole thing, actually because I can’t remember far enough back to do a blow by blow account. The week before last was quieter. I suppose a highlight was going around for a meal with my friend Margo. I have sussed now what to take for her children to drink. Marks and Spencers still lemonade works a treat. Her son likes proper lemonade and her daughter does not like fizzy drinks so this suits both of them without seeming to choose one over another. Her daughter is Sam’s age and her son I suspect is between Jenny and Cait. He is also a proper book worm. It is pleasant to go out for a meal with friends and Margo is a good cook and her daughter a good baker.


Otherwise the Jubilee weekend was spent editing. alright so there was a migraine thrown in with that. I managed to reduce the chapter by over 4000 words, it still needs to diet further, not least because I am realising I have to include the way the congregations relate to the minister which is interesting, This past week I have really started the next chapter, although it was writing the relevant appendix. As with all chapters at this stage I am feeling quite a lot of trepidation but I am now at least confident that I know how to get there. This one is centred around worship, as such it will include the material I have already turned into papers. However those will also have to be substantially rewritten. The one on Cafe Church is going to have to be one on subsidiary and occasional services. That would alter the focus quite substantially. the one on hymns can probably remain largely intact. There will also be one on communion, not about who can have communion but about the actual liturgy used. There is definitely one of baptism which therefore leaves me with prayers and sermons and I may have little to say on those. Then I have to pull together the ideas around worship and what is going on with respect to identity.. This chapter should also build on the previous two.


The week was otherwise quiet and I was looking forward to having Thursday to actually get some development work done, it looked hopeful when I got up but over breakfast I developed cramps due to time of the month and when painkillers did not settle them I went to bed with a hot water bottle. I thought I would be up in the afternoon and indeed the cramps stopped quite quickly but then I went off to sleep and did not wake until after 2pm which is too late to go into work So I finally did the reading of a couple of chapters from a couple of books that I have used in my thesis. I had read about the chapters but had not read the actual chapters. One problem is that in one case I have had to use a collection rather than the original (in the other though obscure enough copies of the original were available for Oxfam to provide me with one).

Friday was a bit of an odd day, I did not settle very well for a variety of reasons, I eventually started to make Minerva (she is amigurumi that I created for myself. An owl (owlet) with an eyepatch and walking boots. I googled owl designs but did not like any of them really, was far happier producing a cape like cover for the back rather than the cartoon style wings quite a few of the patterns had. Birds do not use wings as alternatives to arms, and if she does use anything like hands it is going to be her beak. The aim was to produce something I could use to create a small image to use in work rather than my walking boots but it also gave me an example of what I do which I could take to writers group. Not sure if anyone will want one but it is something I can do with relatively low hassle. I think I may have to do further work to get this right. Maybe I need to print the photograph and then paint it to get what I want for the image.


Today I was at church, one of the Henstridges family was being baptised so the church was pretty full. I have noticed that people tend not to sit in the rows by the pillars. I sent an email before last weekend asking Sheila to look for elders to serve at July’s communion, as with not serving and not regularly being around church I find time chasing people to do things time consuming of thesis time. It was simply a reminder. My mistake was not making it clear. She interpreted it as me not doing table elder. I wondered why she wanted the case. This was a communication failure on both our parts. I guess I sounded apologetic because I felt awkward reminding her and therefore she interpreted that I was apologising for something. Whatever it is, it is a miscommunication and the responsibility lies with both of us. So now we have to stop people from panicking.