On a dry day after much rain

Right, the supervision went well although I found it more tiring than usual, the travel just seemed to take it out of me. I was dodging showers rather than walking around in glorious sunshine but that said I hardly got very wet. Graduation seemed to be happening around Birmingham and there were quite a few people wearing gowns and having their picture took. An intriguing episode when I was going through possible papers for the thesis and a couple came in worried that their account had been deleted and therefore they could not access the email with the booking details for their gowns. I knew from experience how slow computing services are to delete such accounts, I can remember the caution that happened the first time we ever deleted any accounts. They had to not have been used for six months, not just the person had left the University. We are quicker these days but there is a generous overlap between finishing your course and your account being deleted. Anyway another chapter of the thesis has been placed as in main draft.

Then on the Thursday evening I went across to my parents hoping on the Friday to go to Martin Mere. It was quite late as I was teaching that afternoon and as it was my last day in work for the week I needed to also do the end of week tasks such as fill in my notes on what I have done that week and also write the work blog. So there were things to be done. Anyway Friday it rained, the sort of rain that you do not want to go out in and though it cleared towards late afternoon Dad was not going to be coaxed out of the dry comfort of his home although I think Mum and I were more up for it. So we spent the day inside, I had taken a bit of thesis work, mainly reading but I spent the day finishing an amigurumi sheep for a friends granddaughter. It is very different making something for a toddler and making something for an ornament. for starters I had to embroider the eyes and I was much more careful about finishing off. I put in the last of the ball of wool just in case the child does manage to pull something off as it is easily fixable with wool. The funny thing was when making it up rather than following the pattern I started thinking about how a sheep really do look and as a result the sheep had a much more life like face than the one in the book.

Saturday was fine and sunny! So we set off to Martin Mere . The journey there was uneventful but took us through Ormskirk as that was how the SatNav worked it out. The centre was by far the largest one I have been to since I went to Slimbridge while at Reading and I never really got to see around Slimbridge. There is a huge children’s playground just by the entry but it was pretty busy when we arrived and even busier when we left. The cafe was pleasant with a view overlooking one of the ponds. There are lots of ponds at Martin Mere. After coffee we went out to the nature reserve side as Dad enjoys watching birds in the wild. We saw a fair few waders and a couple of butterflies. I really do need to improve my recognition of waders. All right I got the Oyster Catchers but saw Ruff ( and did not recognise them plus other waders. I also think we might have taken the wrong set of hides for good views. We then had lunch and went to look around the collection for a bit. We really only saw about a fifth of the collection but we did get to see where the Beavers live and because we timed it for when someone is talking about beavers Mum and Dad got to feel a real beaver skin. However we did not get to see beavers as they are nocturnal and therefore not about when the visitors are there. You can see them on the Beaver Camera . Finally as we walked back we got to see the Asian otters feed. I bought myself a good quality pair of binoculars, something I have been toying with for a while and I am hoping to use them when I am up in Wigtonshire at the end of September/start of October.

We were I think all tired and though the journey back was straightforward and the SatNav decided to guide us through the back lanes of that part of Lancashire including through Parbold which was pleasant but the motorway was a major part of the journey and Mum fell asleep during it and woke feeling that she had been travelling forever when in fact it was only a relatively short spell of time, just over an hour. Motorways are monotonous and we were tired. I went home that evening so as to be able to spend Sunday working on my thesis.

This week has been quieter, with not nearly the same amount of travelling around. I saw Sarah for coffee on Tuesday. It was a useful point to catch up and think about how things are going. I think I have set myself a rather hefty challenge, in that I am going to try and write a set of short articles about Reformed Piety alongside the writing of the major chapter on Reformed Piety for my thesis. There is a tension in the Reformed Tradition between the normal inward looking nature of spirituality and the very worldly-practicality that is valued. We tend to ask what purpose do many of the spiritual practices of other traditions are and be highly sceptical when they seem to be concerned with the individual sanctity of the practitioner. In that sense the Reformed tradition actually agrees with James 2:14-25  although not seeing works as guaranteeing salvation, but rather as the necessary outcome of a lively faith. It should therefore be an interesting exercise.

Work is busy but nothing exciting at present. I am beginning to wonder what will happen at my annual review. It should be an interesting one, not because of the grade I expect but because I want to see what my boss has to say. My illness rate over the last year has been substantially lower than previous years and I have been noticeably more proactive. I suspect that because of when she start supervising me, she thought that my performance which was not bad was perhaps a bit slow for me but largely fine. There is a change and I know it and she will know it. Other than that I think I have drawn the long straw with the Royal Statistical Society chartership renewal, they have chosen to look at just the years 2012-2014 for me. Of course that is the time that will cover me getting my doctorate. I suspect it will be hard to argue that that does not constitute professional development.

This weekend I have spent mainly doing catch up on my thesis due to the fact that last weekend I was doing detailed analysis and did not get much written so not much news there unless you want to check my thesis blog . Today I went to church partly as I was doing the sound system. I seem to have a mild ear infection which made this interesting, as at times I was hearing an echo on the sound coming through the speakers. I checked with Ian Cooke and he did not hear this. The whole system seemed to be very sensitive indeed so I am wondering how much was due to the infection and how much was genuinely there.