After a couple of quieter weeks

Birthday Flowers from my sister

News wise it feels quieter. I am now registered for next year but am not able to pay my fees. I suspect that the entry for next year has been done wrongly, but as it is such a close run thing on whether I would or would not have to make fees, we will probably in the end ignore it. I was having to pay a years fees and then get two thirds of my fees back because I would progress to writing up. The tradition chapter is signed off so I am now onto the one on belonging. Unfortunately I am realising there will be a lot of rewriting of the tradition chapter and I am also just beginning to put together the opening section on belonging. It is taking longer than I would like (I’d have liked it written by today but I need to do some more reading before I can write the last bit). Perhaps of more interest is that I am writing articles for St Andrew’s magazine “The Messenger” and also posting them on a blog called Reformed Practical Piety . The first one is up and the second will come out at the start of October. I pre-write them, send them to James and then set the publishing date once we have a proofed version. These are not pieces from my thesis but bits I have written specially for the magazine on one strand of my thesis.

The other thing is I have sent the drafts of the data chapters to my two congregations. Helen, who is church secretary at St Andrew’s Chesterfield got back to me to ask me to print extra copies. Commenting on what she has read she says I found out things that she never knew about St Andrew’s, which an interesting comment. It makes me wonder if I have got things right or whether there was a culture where if you do not actively seek information you do not get it. If so why? I will have to wait until the final feedback I think to sort that out. From Herringthorpe I have heard absolutely nothing. I know the copy of the chapters arrived and only that because I sent them special delivery. Different congregations, different ways of behaving. I also have heard nothing from David the minister at the time at St Andrew’s admittedly I sent him them by email, maybe I should check if his email is current.

Work wise it has been quieter. However I am now moving teams to one which is more big computer orientated. I call it supporting “toys for the boys” research, as it is all about working on big computers that have software most people who use computers do not care to use. It does fancy things but you have to be able to program it in detail. I tend to point out that the entire support for the other 80% of the researchers who use computers is me. Anyway it is just a different team structure and a slight change in some of the things I was involved in at work. I cannot help improve communications in my previous team if I am in a different one. I think there is more going on but I am not sure and I may have to be deliberate about what I will and will not do.

For my Birthday I took James and Jean out for an Indian at Tamarind which is part of the former Glossop Road Baths complex. It used to be called “Saffron Club” and boasted a Indian Curry Lovers listing, but I never got to it when it was that. The meal was superb, we asked for mild to medium dishes and there was just so much flavour in them that was not hidden by strong chilli. They brought us poppadoms and chutney dishes. I tried one of them and Jean asked me if it was hot, I said not really but it was sour. She tried it and her face said it was not as she expected but admitted that I was right it was sour. Actually it with the mango chutney on a bit of poppadom was delicious. The main courses were superb and the rice cooked superbly. Unfortunately they only had the English desserts available and they were all full of cream while the ice-cream was fancy. I also tried Cobra beer and it works fairly well with an Indian meal.

Amigurumi I have made this summer

Over the summer I have been making a couple more amigurumi for people at my writers group. I charge people £5 which is donated to writers group and then they pay me something towards the wool (usually another £5 much to my embarrassment as that is more than the wool costs) the latest couple are in the other photo attached. The lamb has a hat because I put the eyes into the wrong side of the head, so rather than let my slightly untidy decreasing show (it never is as tidy as the increasing, although in fairness I doubt you could have told that) I put a beret on I must stress that these are ornaments not toys, when I make toys they are substantially different.

On a second "easy" Sunday

This week has been busy but not over busy indeed the bank holiday allowed me to get on top of my next chapter which is with my supervisor now. This weekend I simply spent getting the descriptive data chapters ready to send to my placement churches. This was more complicated than I hoped as I first realised at 5:00 pm on Friday that I needed paper and then with trying to print double sided that I also needed a new print cartridge half way through printing on Saturday morning. However it all got done and I managed to get the print copies to the binders in time for them to be bound on Saturday so if I am fairly organised today and tomorrow I can send the copies to the placement churches. This is the last stage of the permissions for my thesis and I am aware that the chapters will look significantly different in the final thing but I am pretty sure that the portrayal of the two churches is not going to change significantly unless they produce something pretty startling. The accounts are all fictionalised, but people in the congregations and around them are going to have a pretty good idea who all the characters are based on. At least they should do. I also have deliberately on occasion put in detail which is aimed to mislead the casual reader.

Work wise this week I was only in two days, well not quite I did see someone on Thursday but that was because the desperately wanted to submit their masters thesis on time and the thesis was one where I was the originator and so I felt responsible for that. Ellie has been coming to the Breakfast Club and looking at the food patterns people who eat there have. I need to sit down and think whether it is worth getting the project again but looking at the people using the Breakfast club who are not homeless and why do they come. Many of these are still vulnerable people and quite often there are housing issues that need to be sorted for them. However if someone wants to do something for free for the Breakfast Club, something that created a visual image that held rapport with the clientele would be good. This would need to be largely visual as a substantial number of them can not write and one of the items would be to use it on a notice board so we could share pictures, achievements and so on with others at the Breakfast

Friday I had an Indian with Margo, it was supposed to be end of term with several students that had done the human nutrition course this year but they came in for a quick drink and then left.So we ended up looking for somewhere to deliver a curry. We eventually settled on Jannath but as I did not have a menu I ended up ordering curry and leaving it for them to choose but they just gave us the dishes in a curry sauce.

Yesterday I actually started getting ready for the trip to Maryport, so far the shopping has mainly been dog walking supplies, on the grounds that that is something I am likely to do on several days. I also finally got around to getting myself walking gaiters which seem sensible gear for walking anywhere where there might be wet vegetation as they basically cover between the boots and the ankle. I have binoculars and I also could do with a couple of trips to photograph lighthouses. Then there are geocaching trips with the girls (plus getting a takeaway) and seeing if I can find anything when my sister is not there. Together with some birdwatching, drinking coffee and writing a thesis I do not think I will have too much time to get bored.

Today I turned down the option of being on the management team at St Andrews, with the amount I need to get through in the next six months taking on anything new is going to be very difficult indeed and something else would have to go. I also do not mind doing practical things, but if it comes to managing and organising other people to do them, then I really have little inclination at all to do it.