Visit to National Media Museum and a Hectic Breakfast

Right it will be highlights this time rather than a day by day account. Work was still busy and students were still panicking but really other than that there is no big news from most of it although for the first time ever on Monday I had to shut up the building, which required me ringing security for them to lock it as I do not know the code.

Tuesday I went to Bradford to the National Media Museum with Cathy,Sam and Hannah. The trains worked really well, I have a double train from Sheffield, while Cathy, Sam and Hannah have a single one from Rochdale. Cathy had used Red Spotted Hanky and got the fares for the three of them for about £15.00, As my fare from Sheffield cost about that much as well, I reckon she did pretty well. However not all routes are as good, there is no saving for me going to University of Birmingham, I have just checked. The centre is an easy fifteen minute walk from the Interchange Station. We got in and had a coffee, while we made plans. Cathy found a trail with questions for children, but we also decided to see Hubble 3D which tells of a mission by the space shuttle crew to repair and improved the Hubble Telescope. Sam was worried about this as it was an afternoon showing but when we pointed out that they would still have about an hour and a half to go before they needed to catch the planned train he was quite happy. Hannah was carrying a pack to see how well she did, if she managed it the prize was being able to take more toys on holiday. We went around the galleries in the morning, spent quite a bit of time looking for a story board for Bob the Builder. We overlooked it because it was not in colour, even though there was a video of the episode right next door to it. Then we went to have lunch in the picnic room. I had packed a picnic sticking pretty close to Hannah’s suggestions. Hannah had a good go on cheese sticks and Sam ate nine mini Pepperami. No I was not counting, there were ten in the packet, Hannah ate two thirds of one and Cathy the rest, but I took none home. Actually most of the food went. Hannah took one sandwich to eat on the way home and I took home a yoghurt and a couple of peaches. Sam was amazed when he said he would have a nectarine if we had a knife, and I said “who says I have not got a knife” and proceeded to get out my tool kit and take out the pen knife. I am not sure what he thought I carried in my handbag, but a tool kit wasn’t it.

Hubble 3D worked really well. Sam is saying at present he wants to be an astrophysicist (before I forget Cathy it might be worth telling Sam that Astronauts tend to be really fit Astrophysicists, admittedly we have just come to the end of a generation of space mission and we don’t know what is next but I will be very surprised if there isn’t something).. Therefore Sam thoroughly enjoyed the film including the pictures of stars as well as the story about the space walk. Hannah was wowwed by the experience of Imax but after half an hour she was bored with the film (I suspect she would have been bored by any film, Hannah is a busy person and likes to do several things at once). I was impressed with the pictures, unfortunately the sound was slightly out of sync and it was like having someone continually whispering behind me. Afterwards we came down and had another drink, after Hannah and Sam had finished theirs (far quicker than Cath or I) I gave them their packs for home which included £5 to spend in the gift shop. They raced off with it, which gave Cath and I ten minutes to talk, as Cathy could watch them from where we were seated. Cathy had asked whether I had heard of the postcard app on my phone. I said that I thought I had it there, so we looked and not only did I have it, but I also had a free postcard from them, so Sam and Hannah posed, while I took a photo and then Sam typed in the text on the back, and we sent it to Mum and Dad. Time was getting on so we headed to the station. We got the trains safely back, for the first time ever I managed to get by chance the cross country train from Leeds to Sheffield so got in earlier than expected.

Wednesday was an away day, it was partly a get to know the team session and partly a chance for the people in charge to pick peoples brains. Two things surprised me. First on our table I was second longest serving member (alright so the other person had been with the department for over a decade longer than me and the next nearest person was only a year or two behind but still). The second was how surprised people were that I did not have a TV. I suspect when you own a TV you think everyone does, but when you don’t you pick up people who like you don’t. I would be suspicious that there is at least one other person without a TV in the team (which is large) if not more.

However the real fun and games started on Wednesday evening. Mary (who helps at breakfast) had tried to take the food for Friday around to the church when she had been bitten by something and seems to have had quite a severe reaction to it. Anyway she was having difficulty standing and did not make it to the church but went home. Also David Price who was supposed to be helping found he needed to do something else on Friday morning. So it looked like Broomhall Breakfast was going to be Roy and Fleur and me. As I have very few breakfast associated numbers. I think Jean Dicksons mobile phone number was the best I had, I was not being very useful. All I really could do was say to God “you sort it”.

I got a second call from Mary on Thursday as David although not able to come on Friday had offered to take the shopping around to the church for her but she was not getting a response when she rang his number. She wanted to know if I had a more up to date number. I said no but suggested that she rang St Marks. Why I had not thought of that before I do not know. Anyway she must have got in contact with David because he did the bulk of taking things around to the church and there were only a couple of things she had forgotten.

Anyway Friday came and Stuart who cooks often came as did Ollie so although perhaps lower staffed than we would have liked, were very efficiently staffed. Not only that but one of our regulars who help set up the chairs brought a bunch of flowers so at the end I sent the flowers round with Ollie to Mary. We served fifty all told although the list only has forty eight, Stuart and Roy had breakfasts but are not listed. We ran out of almost everything, though I went down to Spar to buy enough to keep us going to the end. Roy and Beryl decided to ask me .

Today I went to morning worship at Herringthorpe and conducted the interview with the current church secretary, it was perhaps the shortest interview I have done but it certainly was not uninformative. I am still trying to think through what was going on though I have written up a report. On the surface it looks like someone who is busy fitting me into a tight schedule but there is something deeper going on, in many ways I felt as if I was working through a minefield and as much for my own sake as for his I needed to keep pretty strictly to the path. He displayed a much deeper emotional attachment to the congregation than any I have seen, and I have seen some strong ones.

Bradford Shipmeet at the end of a normal week

Right lets see about this weeks happenings. I am beginning to feel that I am settled back into what I need to do. I managed all four days at work this week without a migraine so it seems to have been the post Christmas blip that I have managed to throw off. On Wednesday in work there was an NVivo Users meeting. I am begining to realise I need to be more proactive in taking things to people. A research bid went in and because I had not talked to someone they had not put in the money for software and hardware plus personel to keep it running that they need to really run the software.

Another thing is I am learning that with another member of staff that when I was expecting her to take the initiative she was waiting for me to issue instructions. Bother. I can issue instructions but she really does need to be more instrumental in doing her job (that is organising and running computer courses). I am not pushy but I have been wondering why things have not been happening and it seems to be because I have not been suggesting dates. One of the problems is that she actually knows the demand while I don’t. Oh well I now have one arranged.

Another thing is I have my phone battery sorted. It has been running flat far more than it should have. In the end I needed to do several things. Firstly set up a sync properly, as it was trying and failing to sync. I then turned the frequency of syncing to daily and largely turned syncing off. I also got a larger battery, which means a chunkier phone but the battery now last about three days instead of less than one. I have tested that over the weekend and on Saturday it got a lot of work for me and still did the three days.

Even better news is that I saw the doctor on Friday and I no longer have a prescription for Paroxetine (Seroxat). I am on a really small dose at present 5mg having been tapering off for a long time (I think something like three years). 5 mg is really an irritating amount to be on as you need to chop tablets in half to get that amount. If I do go down after stopping I can go back on but the doctor thinks the present level is almost homeopathic it is so small so I do not expect to. Formally I will stop doing this on Wednesday.

Saturday I went to Bradford for a Ship of Fools Meet, in honour of Erin Etheredge(community editor on the forums who died just before New Year). We met at the National Media Centre and I got to seeing an Imax film for the first time with the film Wild Ocean ). It was spectacular although I came out with a headache. I found that although the initial images lept out at me, after a while my brain seem to process them as on a screen or a fish tank. Then we went onto Omar Khan’s for a meal. It was only a small crowd of us I think six people through out the whole event. I also went tee total for the event and that meant with getting back to Sheffield by about 10pm I was able to be functional today.

I was reading in church today. Normally when there is a version of the bible in the pews I use that one. However the version is the Good News and as part of my preparation I look up other versions and this time even glanced at the Greek. The reading was only 4 verses long 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 but I had at least three grumbles with the way it was translated. The deal breaker for me was the fact that they had changed the subject of the first verse. Not drastically admittedly but in a way that would have for the original readers weakened the force of what Paul was saying. The switch had happened from the fact Christ was crucified to the fact he had died. the others really were personal preferences. However this is of course Paul speaking about the wisdom of God being different from the wisdom of this world. Ironic that I am using learning to ask questions about the passage and find it wanting. However I take comfort from the fact Paul the writer is a trained scribe and not only that uses that knowledge to write this passage when he picks up the verse from Isaiah. In other words to read this passage correctly then it is not a rejection of worldly knowledge but a plea to understand its limitations. However it so happened that although the bible in the pews are Good News none of the readers used it today. The preacher read from the Bible she had with her which was probably the NIV, I read from the ESV and the third reader read from the NRSV because she had the beatitudes and could not stand using “happy” instead of “blessed”.