After a busy Easter

No writers group this week, I am going to have to write a paper for them on epublishing, I am not sure that they are aware of the options and how to go about them. The problem is that I suspect many of them think that web-publishing, epublishing and publishing on demand are one and the same thing. What I think they actually want is website that show cases their writing and allows the group to interact. It could either be joint blog or a fairly simple content management system which allows interaction. The thing is that setting up such a website is beyond me at present with a thesis to write. Anyway part of the problem of running a website is that it needs to be publicised so others would need to be willing to do this.

The week was busy in work. with working on a paper and also preparing on-line course material well editing it at least. Plus I took Thursday off as I was aware that Holy week services, and other Easter commitments were going to dig deep into my time.

Wednesday I awoke to find it snowing. It was just settling so before I went into work I nabbed some pictures of cherry blossom and snow. Unfortunately only one of the really came out, I will attach it to the blog posting of this when I get home. The weather cleared by lunch time although still miserable and wet. Given the warmth of last week it was a real change around.

Thursday evening St Andrews had a short Maundy Thursday Service, this takes place before the choir rehearsal. This year it was a drama from Iona Community “Eh .. Jesus?” “Yes Peter” set in the last supper and based around the last supper. At the end I realised that the next people in were the Broomhall Breakfast and started moving the chairs and tables; as it became clear that there was a purpose to what I was doing, first Sarah and then others joined in. That resulted in the room being set up by ten minutes the tables were in the right place. If the disciples were as efficient maybe they did the washing up before going to the mount of Olves. It looks as if James and Jean did the setting up, I was on standby for helping.

Friday was the Breakfast, I had been booked by Sarah weeks ago. Although like many ministers she seems to think that there is more time between events than there actually is. St Andrew’s tends to turn up early and this week the Breakfast decided they wanted to sit and talk. Last week at Breakfast Phil (who I call silver due to the amount of jewelery he often wears and to distinguish him from Phil with the ponytail) had been in hospital for several weeks, we need to think about ways of getting news through because we would like to take some sort of care for those who come and who is ill.

We then set up for the Friday meditation service that Sarah. Sarah also wanted to look for a diary date during the time but we had only vaguely got the projection stuff up, when people started arriving. For a first Sarah even had the hymn words on the projector, but most of it was pictures and words to think about. The whole service was about broken covenants. I struggle with the theme as the covenants are normally on God’s initiative and it seems always as if he dictates terms. Is this really what we mean by covenant. It was hard hitting as we faced human failure. Anyway I setup the projector and the sound system and as I did so realised that what we really needed was to be able to get the projector away from the computer so that the computer could be placed where Sarah felt happy with it. Rather than try anything fancy it occurred to me a single long cable would do as well. I might need to configure the electrical extension leads differently as well but it was all doable fairly easily. Anyway I have ordered the cable and we shall see.

Friday evening I went around to a friend/colleague called Margo for a meal. We have a close research relationship which has developed over the last eighteen or nineteen years since I came to Sheffield. Times have not always been easy, nothing to do with our relationship just various life events but the last year or so she and I have worked very closely indeed. At Christmas time she held a very enjoyable party to which I was invited and on Friday I was invited around for a meal. She is also has a student project looking at how people at breakfast manage their eating and she went to check out what URC stood for. Well her background is Presbyterian Church of Ireland although she has not been to church for decades. So an interesting conversation ensued around St Andrews.

Saturday I ended up with the end of a mild migraine. So I shopped and then realising that I was not getting better went back to bed for a couple of hours but that cleared it, completely and utterly. This was just as well because as well as two case studies for my thesis to finish typing up I was also meeting James down at St Andrew’s to set up communion. I have agreed to be second table elder this year with a view to being first next year. I also understood I was have a varied first table elder as James’ had not had a deputy this last year but people had taken turns. I should have been suspicious when James started being very thorough about making sure I knew how things were done. However with three to four elders checking on me the first Sunday I was on pulpit duty I just thought it was a resurgence of that gene. Anyway we got it basically setup, with Jean checking up on us at times.

Anyway it was communion today, things went well on the whole although perhaps going straight from congregational member to table elder (rather than a serving elder) was a bit of a leap. There have been changes while I was away and the service is a lot less fussy than it used to be, but still not the simplest of URC services. I reverted to the old form and put a tray of glasses close by the minister. It also made sense when James gave me the communion case. It was not until Sheila, and said she was table elder two to my table one, I queried this as I want a slightly longer apprenticeship and she agreed that she would at least do the chasing of elders for serving communion (we need six, four main ones, one for the choir and one for special diets although we do not at present do gluten free so it is only the non-alcoholic wine).

It was therefore about 1:00 p.m. when I got home, then it was pack and get out to come to my parents. Dad has forgotten that I have travelled across most Easters and decided that I was going to struggle to get a train. I had to keep reassuring him. When I said I had seen the rising sun he said “from the train?”. I am not sure where else I was likely to say that from! Maybe next year I had better hire a car so as to stop him worrying.

From a Snowy Sheffield

This week has been cold. That may have been a good thing as it has encouraged me to spend time indoors doing research type things. The temptation to go out for extra shopping or such just did not exist. That said I still made writers on Monday. The room was struggling to get to 18°C during writers group. This is NOT due to the thermostat but to the power of the radiator and the outside walls. I suspect it would do better if there was someone in the church or there was someone other than Jugglers in the hall. The jugglers require minimal heat and often will even then leave outside doors open. The poem I took this week was well accepted, I even got thanked for bringing it. I wonder if I should put it on my good list. The one for this coming week is just fun, I took the class exercise and wrote a piece that is quite a bit outside my normal style. I was surprised at how easy it was once I got the voice. Maybe I should try for the rest of term writing pieces in other voices.

Tuesday my body through a wobbler in the morning. I will probably register it as a migraine which is close enough. Basically not wanting to cope with things like light and sound or any other stimulus. All I need is time keeping quiet and my body will normalise and I can cope. I come out of such episodes far quicker than a migraine although they can cause quandaries for those watching. I thought I was going to have the afternoon to prepare for the course I was doing the next day and also to pick up other things only to find I was suddenly in demand at all directions at once. This included a useful contact and also another research proposal. On the evening Mum and Dad rang to say Aunty Jean (or Granny Jean for Sam and Hannah)  is coming over this summer during July

Wednesday I had a session working through a paper in the morning and then went onto teach the final course of this set. I had a turn out of 125% i.e. four said they were coming and five turned up. I told the group that they were responsible for their learning and that if they wanted something repeated, or me to go slower or such, just to ask. It proved one of the most engaged and demanding groups I have had for a long time. I finished at 4:30 but had to turn them out at 5:00 p.m. (I am pretty sure the Hicks building starts closing then). I suspect given the opportunity they would have happily stayed until 6:00 p.m.

Thursday I was in to present a review of an analysis and then to recreate a data set into Nvivo 8 which we already had in NVivo 9 and see what it brought up. This was because the people who were supposed to do it were finding that NVivo 9 was not stable on their machine. This is typical of the medical school which has a lot of under spec machines around and is not helped by QSR saying NVivo runs on machines where it clearly does not with any reliability. Anyway I hope the girls have been able to do the little bit that I left them to do.

Friday I went to breakfast, first time in a few weeks for various reasons. The numbers were down we suspect due to the cold. If you are somewhere warm, coming out even for a fried breakfast is not necessarily going to be your top priority in temperatures like those on Friday. There was a girl from Ghana asking whether England ever got warm. It is such a difficult question to answer. Yes it does but it might well not be the sort of warm you are expecting, really does not cut much ice. Anyway afterwards I went down town to basically food shop. I must admit I have a weakness at present and that is for cheap scarves that a market vendor has started selling outside Boots. Two of the stalls are staffed by girls of oriental extraction who seem to have very limited English. Anyway they sell large very fine (as in thin) scarves and always seem to have a different selection. As they are relatively cheap I normally end up buying one or two. Part of this is that after years of earache I like having a warm neck (hence to polo-neck jumpers) but the other thing is that the scarves soften what can be a rather harsh look. So at present I am playing with using them. The only problem is wine and chocolate are not the in colours at present. The rest of the day was spent on bits and pieces including doing some writing up for thesis.

Saturday was a thesis day, the morning was spent finishing the writing up from the week. There were bits of analysis to do and other things to track down. I am beginning to wonder if former Presbyterian churches are more dispersed than former Congregational ones or whether that is just a mark of how they relate to the area around the church. They feel more disconnected so they must be more dispersed. There is no evidence of an actual difference in the distance members travel to either of my placement churches. The thing was I think that St Andrews Chesterfield would be surprised at how far people were travelling to come to Herringthorpe. Feeling as if the congregation belongs to a locality does not mean that the majority of the congregation live within a mile of the church. Actually though I removed them from the analysis, some people were travelling from Retford to Herringthorpe! On the afternoon I started to put together my dataset. This thing is both boring and addictive. I thought I would stop at seven in the evening so as to do chores only to find I had continued doing it to eight! The snow started coming down early evening and continued well into the night. It was funny as it was fine snow and a lot of the time it did not look like it was snowing but it the snow on the ground kept getting deeper and deeper.

This morning I was watching to see if church was on, well waiting to see a car in the carpark. People were estimating about 6 inches for this area of Sheffield. The communion service was done on reduced numbers but the Dickson’s did two runs to get people to church bringing David, Derek, Sarah, Aileen and John as well as being duty elders. The service went well. Fortunately the Cookes offered to take Sarah and David home which meant only a single trip home. Maybe the church should buy them a four wheel drive minibus. However Mary came to St Andrews as she could walk to us but was not sure whether she could get up the hill to St Marks. the snow has been slowly thawing and is due to continue doing so until tomorrow night (see XCWeather although I have also checked the Met Office and the BBC weather forecast)

From a supervision to an Advent Wreath

Lets see how things have been. I cannot remember back to the start of last week although I know the snow was still making travel difficult, indeed if you know where to look around here in Sheffield (i.e. below the normal snow line) you can still see traces of snow, not much, and the rain today has done something to get rid of the dregs but still there. Oh I got snow boots on the Monday which made walking a lot easier. Snow boots are fairly similar to walking boots but stiffer, lighter, warmer and with a better tread so less likely to slip. However at work someone recommended Yaktrax which you put on over shoes and have coils for gripping the snow

Wednesday I was down to see my supervisor. He had emailed me on Monday to say don’t come if travel is dicey. I was watching the weather but by Wednesday it had definitely started to pick up. I was also watching the trains through the website the Narional Rail Enquiries disruption page and spotted that alternate trains seemed to be having difficulty. As one of the delayed trains was the one I was planning to get, I was able to set out and get the train half an hour early which was only five minutes late leaving Sheffield but then behind a stopper to Chesterfield. This meant it was delayed by about half an hour, so I got in the time I would have otherwise. On the journey Derbyshire was thick with snow,with the ground all white up to Derby but after that you started to see tall grasses coming through the snow and such, by the time I got to Birmingham everything was outlined in white by frost not snow. It turned out that my supervisor was going on information from his sister. She lives east of Sheffield and the snow has been worse out that way. There is noticeably more snow remaining in Rotherham than in Sheffield at present. The supervision went well and though the journey back was delayed it was otherwise smooth, until I got to Sheffield when there was a huge queue for taxis so I decided to go for the tram. This meant a wait for the tram and cramped travel but I suspect the wait was shorter than it would have been for a taxi. Apparently a shooting star went over while I was waiting, unfortunately I was looking the wrong way.

Friday started with a departmental meeting. This meant I missed Broomhall Breakfast and had to do a quick-turn around at work to get there. The meeting was poorly attended I assume in part due to the snow. I started picking the greenery for the Advent wreath for the chaplaincy. On the evening I went up to James and Jean for a meal. It was a lesson in how badly Sheffield public transport was effected by the weather. I got to the bus stop shortly after 6pm and by 6:30 pm no 40 bus had been by. A full 120 had gone by and the 52 seemed to have sorted itself out but no 40. At which point I and a French Lecture caught a taxi that dropped him at Slayleigh Lane and then took me onto James and Jean. After that the meal was uneventful but a thaw had set in that day and I was slightly concerned that if the temperature dropped below zero, that the Close which my flat is on, would be inaccessible by car, as there were puddles lying in the snow on the road leading to it.

Saturday was busy. I needed to shop for bits for the advent wreath and other practical shopping. Then on the evening went to Herringthorpes Women’s Christmas Dinner. This year only a dozen attended compared with between twenty and thirty last year. Pauline dropped out at the last minute due to Alex being ill but one of the other ladies took her place. The chatter was general this year, about family and what was going on in each others lives. I got to here about NHS winter weather planning in quite a lot of detail due to sitting near two nurse-managers.

Sunday I made a strategic decision to stay at home on the morning as with all the time spent out over the weekend I needed some time in. I also had more greenery to get for the Advent wreath for chaplaincy. On the afternoon I went to Herringthorpe for their Cristingle service. The car park still had quite a bit of ice/snow on it as indeed had the pub the previous evening. About a dozen kids came to the service. A former scout master from the church brought his grandchildren so it was not just a selection of the usual suspects. At Herringthorpe they make up the oranges during the service including making the cuts for the candle in the top. A good atmosphere to it.

Yesterday was a fairly normal day in work except I went to cut more greenery for the Advent Wreath. This year on both Friday and Monday I have taken time out of work to cut the greenery, it means that I was not going out after dark to cut the greenery which I have done previous years. In the evening I went with my writers group to the Frog and Parrot, fortunately for us there was no DJ or live band that evening, just fairly loud background music. The pub was fairly busy when we arrived but quietened down as the evening went on and we continued to natter.

Today was the carol service at the University. I was again in charge of making the Advent Wreath. There had been communication problems in advance. I said Advent Wreath and I think they started looking for something about a foot in diameter with eighteen inch candles. What I was talking about was something six foot wide (the base is a metre wide) and has candles between 2 ft and 4 ft. It was not helped that they lost the candles and did not think to ask the office manager who knew exactly where they were. Anyway it all worked on the day as you can see from the photos. Next year I will have to plan the work flow differently as we can’t spray the greenery in the Octagon which means it will have to be sprayed, probably at St Andrews (hopefully outside in the garden at the back) on the Sunday. Lynn and Sandra who are half the team will also be in Australia so I need to do some thinking. However the comments were good, and there was an acknowledgement that something like that had to happen to create an atmosphere in that room. It was interesting that the party afterwards was quieter. I think quite likely as Will the former chaplain had felt the need for a Christmas party and I don’t think the present one does.

Coping with snow in Sheffield

I think this will be highlights as I can’t remember over the fortnight to give details.

By the time I got back from Writers Group on Monday 22nd, I had a burning sensation at the back of my throat, which normally heralds a cold; so I looked in my work diary and as the next day was free in work, I took it off and bombed the cold, the result of which is that it did not develop.

The next day I had some premonition of the coming weather as I ordered snow boots and a down gilet and snow boots unfortunately they have not arrived yet. I also was helping out with the Arts and Humanities PG Open Day. They call it an open day but it lasts about four hours in the afternoon and it is mainly Sheffield Undergraduates who come.

The weekend was writing weekend. It was also church fair at Herringthorpe on the Saturday but the snow arrived overnight and as I had no duties, plenty of writing, I cancelled. I did get to church on Sunday although the congregation was reduced as more snow had fallen over night but then there was a Baptism which increased the numbers. So the church was still fairly full. The writing was progressing well although I am struggling to find methods of talking about the ways the congregation uses space as part of creating an identity. Part of it is that I am realising that I have to cope with a different understanding to space to that that is assumed with other theorists of religious space. The nearest I can get is sacred space in the Reformed tradition is four dimensional with the time boundaries being as important as those in the other three dimensions. This is not the essay I intended to write, there is something about introversion and extroversion that needs writing but I am cautious over how to deal with this. I was ahead of myself so went to writers group on the evening.

Tuesday I think proved my dedication to teaching. The gig I did had only come through the previous Thursday when finally the Social Science RTP decided to contact CICS and see if we had anyone who teaches NVivo. If they had actually gone back through their records they would have seen my name for having done this in the past but doing something sensible like that isn’t what they are about. So I got on Thursday an urgent email. There was no way I could write anything special especially as it was a writing weekend, but I do have a 2 hour course I give to introduce academics to NVivo but even to do that straight requires some preparation as I work off my memory. The other snag was that it had to be given twice on the afternoon to two different groups. So that already was a tall order, when you add that it was the day the snow settled in, and although about 12:30 pm the roads were clearing by 13:30 it was coming down harder than ever. Then the students were protesting over cuts to Higher Education and staging a sit in. I’d never been to the room which was in the bowels of Bartolome House. It seemed to go okay. There were only eight I think to the first time but upwards of twenty to the second and therefore I finished after 18:00 p.m.. Unfortunately despite my best efforts to gather all my cold weather gear stuff when I left, a glove remainded in the room and when I noticed I did not have the energy to go back and look. In the midst of me doing this my university email account was switched to Gmail.

It was still snowing on Wednesday. I went in late due to the previous days length and the place was like a ghost town. What is more remarkable is for the first time I was sent home by University due to poor weather. That is not to say it was the first time I have gone home early due to poor weather but that has normally been my decision, this time the senior management in the University told everyone to leave before dark, so when the flood lighting started coming on in the building opposite I thought it was time to leave. I walked down to Waitrose and promptly saw another member of staff had also used the early leave to go shopping. Also met up with a former colleague who was doing a quick shop. Also bought myself a pair of gloves but these were women, and with my long fingers even large women’s are really too small, I can wear them for a while but the fingers always end about half way down the bottom segement of my fingers.

Friday I made it too the breakfast albeit late. On the way back I came across a mum, who I presume is the wife of one of the overseas students, pushing her daughter in a pushchair to playgroup. Daughter was squalling, Mum believed it was due to not wanting to go to playgroup but I suspect by that time it may have had more to do with absence of hat, mittens and blanket. I am not quite sure what to do, the quicker that child got to playgroup the better.

Yesterday I mainly did two things, I cooked a big pot of sweet potato, carrot, ginger and chilli soup. It was going to have coconut in it but I could not lay hands on the coconut milk I thought I had so it had to make do with Soya Dream instead. I think if I was making it for anyone else but myself I would cut back on the amount of Chilli I put in. I also went shopping. I went into Blacks as well as buying yet another thermal base layer (can one have too many) bought another pair of gloves. So will have a spare pair while up in Scotland however I suspect there will be no shortage of takers for them.

This week I have a trip to Birmingham planned provide the weather is such that the trains are running. If the current forecast is right, this should be the case. After that I can start Advent properly and just to make sure I am due to go out three times over the weekend socialising. I also will be collecting greenery for the Advent Wreath at the chaplaincy, the carol service being the following Tuesday. I will cut back on greenery and paint (only four cans this year I think not six)

Supervision in wintry weather

Lets see what has happened this week. Monday was a quiet day with no writers group in the evening so I went down to Waitrose instead and did some shopping which meant I could last until Thursday without problems. This was necessary as I had bible study on Tuesday and a supervision on Wednesday.

Tuesday, night was bible study night at Herringthorpe. The congregation obviously was running a Holiday Bible Club, I think Champions Challenge so still using Scripture Union rather than writing their own. The major difference I spotted was that the songs seem to have gone over to having a professionally recorded CD to sing to. This means the music style has changed more towards pop music (multiple instruments, performance bits) rather than the older ones that drew more on folk style (simple catchy tune and lots of actions). However I am fast concluding that congregations often don't realise when they have something special happening. In this case the Holiday Bible Club seems to be attracting local Muslim children. This to something labelled "Holiday Bible Club" organised by a Church and held in a Church building. The main church building being where most of the stuff happens. The most useful course I did for watching Alpha or other HTB videos is the course on visual culture, it gives  a whole way of looking at them that makes one wonder about the intention. Is using one of their videos trying to get the same effect as the old six feet in the air pulpit, i.e. putting Nicky above contradiction. The meal had a smaller attendance than usual but there were a larger than usual number who came to the Bible study. This may partly have been due to the holiday Bible Club, some people were both workers and attended Bible Study, but it may also have something to do with the minister being away.

Wednesday was a trip down to Birmingham for supervision. It was one of the occasions when my supervisor asked to meet at Selly Oak. This as a rule does not seem to bode too well. The last time he did this he changed it back to Edgebaston without telling me! This time he was half an hour late. The secretary came up to say he'd be about ten minutes late when he was already twenty minutes late. I think I got the message right when I said that he would be there in ten minutes. He was. An emergency had happened and as head of college (read Dean of Faculty for more normal terminolgy) he had been the one where the buck stopped. The snag this time was he was giving a paper at a seminar at the end of supervising me. So there was no ability to shift times later. The one thing that did come out is I am once again persuaded I am going to have to use heavily fictionalised accounts of some events, simply now because of some of the character of St Andrews. That means extra work, as normally anonymising is just done by broader brush strokes but I am going to have to actually write fictional accounts of events because the people themselves are so much part of that congregations character. However the upside of it was I got to the seminar. This was Birmingham Urban Theology Forum, yes that is the right web page, Chris just needs to update it more regularly. The talk was about crossing boundaries of faith with the opening talk from the Nishkam Centre and then talk from someone from Finland about Religious Diversity in Finland. The important things that struck me was first of all once again Martin's insistence that you needed to listen and what people were saying in a situation might be very different to what the dominant discourse was. In this case that people had a religious community to which they belonged and only belonged and by talking with the leaders of that community you could gage what the local people wanted. Community was any way something that white English people did not have. The other thing were two things mentioned for interaction between communities. The first was the fact that any faith group wishing to engage with dialogue with another faith groups requires  the group first to earn the respect of the other faith group, secondly that all people require for interaction to happen that they are allowed to maintain their dignity. This however meant I was back late from Birmingham, catching the 6:00 p.m. train rather than the 5:00 p.m. train, which meant that I was tired and hungry when I got in.

Thursday I had a migraine. Not a bad one, just a routine one and given all I had done the day before not too unexpected I think it was a fortnight between it and the last migraine maybe just over and it cleared nicely

Friday was a feel good day, I got to Friday Breakfast, went into work, some trousers I had ordered came and I actually got on with something. I also got my hair cut about three weeks after it should have been. I also sorted out something for someone doing their PhD. It meant a re analysis but it also makes her talking about the end results easier. I really should have spotted it when she first came to me, but until I saw the pictures I did not "get" that her design was a level more complex than I thought. I also managed to sort out how to test php on my home computer without having to upload everything to a website. Morag this means that we can use basic html and such for longer, the cludge I have used is pretty simple at present but it means every time we write a new page I don't have to edit every single page! I want to see if I can do something slightly more complex with PHP so we don't have to enter each page title twice.

Saturday was during daylight surprisingly good. I did some transcription, alright not much but some, I wrote up last weeks bible study and I found a place that will scan documents for me to flash drive, as both my printer and works printer are refusing to do so.  I got my medicine and realised I do not need to phone for it anymore, they automatically will get me an update for me in two months time.  I also made dhal, this time cutting back on the water drastically, only one cup and a tin of tomatoes. That was plenty. Then I went and fell in my study/backroom. Yes I know I should be tidier. Unfortunately I caught my right knee on the edge of the foot of my desk. I doubt it did any more than bruising and the minor swelling associated with a nasty bruise but because of the way the joint works, walking was difficult yesterday and this morning, as the injured part was compressed if I put my leg straight and it did not like that. Oh I changed the other pages around so they now all work with php.

Today I should have gone to Herringthorpe, but when I woke to three to four inches of snow and it still snowing that just did not feel possible. At least two reasons, the walk up there was going to be uncomfortable at least even without snow due to the fall the day before and doing it through snow felt one too much. Secondly the roads weren't clear, even traffic on Hanover way was going slowly as I think it probably had not been gritted yet. I was also tired, whether this was just the cold coming through or what I don't know but I do know I felt happier in bed. I got up around lunch time, have since made bread (Hovis Granary this time) which I am enjoying this evening. I will eat it up during the week. I am almost certain that one of the reasons my bread does not seem to rise as much as I would like is that it is too dry but any more moist and it gets very sticky to handle which does not help kneading.

Supervision sandwich

Lets see, well Monday I spent most of the morning in bed due to migraine, got up slowly but by evening was feeling fine so went to writers group. This was because there was something of a three line whip on for writers group as the WEA is talking of cutting sponsorship. It is not actually all that clear what this sponsorship means to us (apart from extra work for Neil). The sponsorship is anyway going to end after Easter. This does not mean the group is stopping, just that it will become a free standing writers group. We no doubt will have to create some structure if only to share the administrative burden with Neil (he has eye problems, so a group secretary may well be in order at least and we will need to talk about treasurer). The group was good with one new person joining. I had not written one, ironic as I had the perfect base for the homework. The new person is another poetry major (yay that makes three of us).

Tuesday in work, bright maybe over bright but certainly no sign of the migraine. The roads however were treacherous. I got as far as the intersection between the path to my block of flats and the neighbouring one and skidded on sheet ice! The path has buckled really badly and the result was to form one slab basically into a puddle but it was slopping (don't ask how water sloped and froze, all I know is it did). I went straight back in and got the remaining cat lit and spread it over the area. The big advantage of fullers earth or cat lit is that it forms a sticky layer when in contact with water. That evening it snowed again so went out and put out more. People were allowed to go home early from work. Actually that happens more frequently in Sheffield than Manchester I put it down to snow preparedness.

Wednesday funny, could have been migrainous but managed work and doing what I needed. The only real hint that everything was not fine was that I needed coffee regularly and often. However so large was the demand for coffee the Students Union was out when I first went over. Must be a snow essential. It was still a snow day in Sheffield. I cannot remember much but I can remember making it into work and buying the coffee and printing out the papers. Shopped in the evening at Waitrose and did not slip on my way back.

Thursday was supervision day. This meant up early, get to the station (get out of front door, and toss up whether it is safer to struggle up to the tramstop or to walk down to the station, in the end decided to walk down to the station, as possibly less ice to contend with). I also discovered I'd missed taking my anti-migraine tablets the previous evening. This I think meant I spent the whole day slightly frazzled. On the other hand getting to see my supervisor is good. It always gives my PhD efforts a pep and I normally feel better in myself after going to one although I also normally have a lot of work. Actually was pretty good when I came in.

However next day was migrainous which continued to Saturday morning, however the migraine cleared on the saturday about noon and was replaced with a very able and doey mood. I got through tons on Saturday afternoon what is more remarkable made only one mistake and in such a way that I can rectify it next Saturday if I can get to town. I also managed to make soup and sort some more on the website plus write something for writers group. So in half a day managed a full days work. These times when I seem able to cope with lots, contrast as much with what is normal for me as the times when I am in bed with migraine. Not sure if they are just the other end of the wave or what.

Today went to church at Herringthorpe, a lot of talk over the weather, worship was led by two of the Sunday School teachers. They did well and I saw Pauline before and after worship so my presumption is she was there the whole time. The previous week they had been badly effected by snow so that even for a service taken by the moderator they only got a 50% turn out. Fortunately the christmas party which was due to be held next Saturday is cancelled.

New Year in Scotland and coming home to snow

On the 28th December I headed north to visit Morag and Tony for New year. Lets be clear now. Most of the UK has been bound by snow this last fortnight, but it is only most, not all. As can be seen from this photo. You will have to look closely but you can tell that part of main land Britain actually escaped the snow. If you know where the Solway Firth is, that inlet that looks like a smile on the west end of the Scottish border, now follow the Scottish coast west, there is a bump belly below Dumfries, followed by the point protrusion which is the Machars of Whithorn. Carry on past and just as you are getting to the point that seems to point out westward, look again carefully and you will see a double penisula, with little or no snow on it. That is the Rhinns of Galloway and it was where I was staying. We got very cold spells and severe frosts but very little snow indeed. If you wish for further proof there then my pictures of the time are up on Flickr. We spent the time, taking things as easy as we could with two excited girls and a bearded collie puppy called Dora. I think I am probably in big trouble with her at the moment as I seem to have escaped permanently! She does not like people escaping from her pack. Sorry I have no pictures of Dora, the main reason being that what she wanted was attention and that meant physically being fussed. We did most of the usual things, we climbed the creeky hill (don't look for it on a map, these things are relative, and basically this was a walk from sea level to the top of the peninsula, Creeky is short for Creechan, went on a walk with the Ramblers Association, which was meeting locally (Morag is trying to get a walking group going in Stranraer as one of her jobs) visited the old parish church site (pre Kirk Covenant and I refer to by its dedication St Catherine's to distinguish it from the present parish church, St Medan's, the middle parish church, Kirk Covenant). If that was not enough religious sites, there is a pilgrimage site and several other former churches in the parish, excluding the link to Sandhead and Ardwell. No I am not even starting on religious sites in the Machars of Whithorn. We are talking about setting up a website to bring together the things we discover while we are doing the exploring. It looks like it will be a mix of information of religious sites (no decisions made on Standing stones and such), short walks, coffee shop - local eatery reviews and places to stay. It may include bits of theology, devotional works, fiction (Mo tells her daughters stories about people who were once around these sites), information on other things to do nearby and so on. In other words its a method of focusing what we would be doing anyway. 

Getting back was interesting. As a rule I could make any journey but the last one hundred yards. I actually got stuck, trying to turn the car around at my parents to put it in another place. Two fostered children by a neighbour came to help and we got it moving again. The next day I went A6, A625, A623 and A612 back to Sheffield as both the Snake (A57) and the Woodhead (A628) were closed. Dad was in favour of me using the M62. I was slightly worried of about the route from M62 to Sheffield, unless I used the M1 which seemed a very long way to go. I got to Sheffield again fine. The roads were very clear here and I was okay until I tried to park my car in my parking bay. I simply could not get it out. In the end went down to Waitrose and bought cat lit which I mixed with dishwasher salt (the advantages of having a non-standard dishwasher which cannot take tablets). Anyway I was glad to get the car back to Hertz on Friday!

While I was at Drummore things kept dropping out of pockets, and pockets that were buried deep too. The first time it happened it was my B&B ladies keys which I had had so I could lock the door. That day, I had done practically nothing, except walk Dora on the beach and get pulled over by her. The assumption I made was that in the fuss of being pulled over and tidying up (I succeeded in scratching the outside of my lip and it bled slightly)  that the keys dropped out. The next day when all we did was the walk up the Creeky hill and around and my mobile phone went missing. I left it twenty four hours to see if it would try and tell me its power was running out. There was no point in ringing it as there is no reception in the area, I use it instead of a watch. However this resulted in me giving permission for someone to try to ring it knowing they would fail: no reception, battery flat and the chances being that the electronics were ruined due to a wet night on the Creeky hill. Anyway I was due a free upgrade and the replacement sim cost me all of five pounds. The new phone is apparently Sony Ericsson T715 although I wish it was in the silver colour scheme rather than the one I got (grey) the difference being that the silver has white font while the grey has a metallic aqua font. I have not changed my phone number (old sim disabled, phone too old to bother about), however if I had your phone numbers on my previous phones I now no longer have them. Would you mind ringing or texting me, so I can store them on this one please.

Otherwise, I have bought myself some more thermal underwear, baked bread, worked on designing the website, warming the house up (another of my storage heaters had gone phut. I guess I must look to replacing it this year which will be interesting. Storage heater is really great for the one that is left functioning in the house but the rest of the rooms are better with timed heating as I am not usually in much after 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. at night. So storage heat, heats the house largely when I am not in. For core heating which is what the hall does that is fine but for rooms used only some of the time a pattern of heating is better. So am looking to replace one storage heater with an electrical heater on a timer, with probably a second electrical timed heater in the room next door replacing a panel heater that has a wonky timer, I thought it was broke but it is only the timer. Oh well I shall no doubt find it interesting when I decide to do it.

Oh Morag I have long cherished the idea of getting Tony a paper log maker, but since you don't yet have solid fuel heating there is still no point. However there may well be some peace over you buying the Guardian. The question will be whether you could keep long enough to read it. Did I ever tell you of my experience with the Times. I had answered a survey which said I was an occasional reader. They rang me to ask whether I would like to become a subscriber. The first question was when had I last bought the Times. I answered honestly that I did not think I had ever done so. They presumed because I read it occasionally I bought it occasionally. I don't buy it, my father does and I read it when visiting him i.e. when on holiday. Therefore I am an occasional reader but am unlikely to want to subscribe. After all I only have the time for such activities on holiday.

A White Christmas

At my Mums request I wrote a definitive account of our Christmas this year. So I am going to include a lot of boring trivia, be highly opinionated and hope you will stay tuned for the ride! All opinions expressed are my own, except when they have been carefully edited out by my parents!

First let me deal with some misconceptions that those not in the UK may have got from the media. Yes, I think for the last ten days it snowed somewhere in the UK everyday. No that does not mean everywhere had continual snow. This is the UK not Cananda. What has happened is that the snow first hit the South East of England, think London and Home Counties, then moved onto East England, the East Midlands and South West England, then by the weekend it hit North East England and the west Midlands, reaching Northern England and North West England on Wednesday, then onto Scotland and is slowly now clearing from the West of Scotland. This is not a weather front moving across the country but a band of slowly moving cold air, which has meant temperatures hovering at around zero, and what would normally be rain falling as snow. It is still likely to be snowing in Scotland but in Manchester the weather has turned to rain and is now above freezing. Yes, driving was hazardous especially on minor roads but the gritters were out and doing a marvellous job on major roads and B roads. So as a rule if you could get out of the bit of road on which you lived, onto something more major you could get where you wanted to go, or at least as far as the start of the minor roads that lead to them. The advice at least between Sheffield and Manchester was never “do not travel” but “take precautions”.  Take precautions equals, take a hot drink with you, give extra time for your journey and do not try to travel by very minor roads. For instance don’t try and cross Winnats Pass in Derbyshire (which is a pass you use if you are looking for a pleasant ride on a summers day, but not for going anywhere in a hurry). On Wednesday when I came over, even the Snake Pass (notorious for closing at the slightest fall of snow) was open, but the question was whether I could get through Glossop at the foot of the pass rather than whether I could get over. It is largely drivers pretending that the weather is not worse than usual that cause the problem. When drivers are driving appropriately for the weather conditions there is really no problem. Alright it may take you an extra twenty minutes for every hour of travel to get somewhere, but you will get.

So how was Christmas. Well when the snow first hit the South East Dad started to panic. I think its part of his habitual pessimism; he expects the worse and therefore is regularly nicely surprised when it does not happen. So when it started snowing he actually saw a  week ahead with heavy snow, freezing fog and black ice everywhere (note to father, black ice and frozen snow don’t tend to happen together, as black ice requires either rain or the snow to melt!)  He always does it is part of his nature. We have learnt to live with it, but it is handicapping him as much as anything else and certainly his worrying over it ain’t doing his blood pressure any good.

Yes on Tuesday, going up to my sisters was not a good idea, as they had had fresh snow there. My sister lives on the northern moors of Greater Manchester. You get better scenery there but you also have a higher chance of snow, and minor roads tend to become impassable quickly. (for instance on Christmas day it was about two degrees colder than down in Stockport which was not) . However it should be noted that while my sister advised my parents not to come up on Tuesday and they sensibly didn’t, both she and her husband went out to work that day and returned safely! In other words travel was possible with care; it was just foolish to be doing extra travel on that day.

On Wednesday my parents took the food for cooking that morning up to my sister’s at her work place. This meant that Dad did not have to cope with the icy condition of the roads around her house. Dad and Mum had bought frozen sprouts so rather than let them defrost my sister dumped them outside the church in the snow (refrigeration is not strictly necessary in this weather in the UK). They were also waiting on tender hooks to see if Hannah’s dressing gown would arrive. I had ordered it on the last date that they guaranteed delivery before Christmas. However it had not arrived on the morning but the delivery company had put it in the meter cabinet by the time they got back.

Dad’s caution meant he was all for me coming over by the M62 rather than going as I planned to visit friends which meant going through Derbyshire. All right my SATNAV decided Winnats was a sensible way to go not the route I planned A623 followed A625, which was nice and clear. In fact the one bit when I thought I’d follow the Winnats route I ended up following a snow plough and as part of that was B roads I knew Derbyshire was doing well and risked a B road that cut a considerable bit of the journey off for me, going to a friends and the SATNAV redeemed itself by getting me to their home, through the centre of Macclesfield without sending me twice around the ring road or up a oneway street the wrong way. I find for getting to residential homes in unfamiliar towns having a satnav is very useful. It saves me having to pull in and get out a map. Travelling through Derbyshire in the snowy weather was glorious. I quite regularly wished I had more time to get across and could stop the car and take photographs. Surprisingly it was after 4pm before the last light had left the sky. Dusk was very slow and gradual.

The meal with Fleur and Walter was good and it was good to stop over and chat. They both seemed to be doing well, with the delivery man still turning up with parcels for Christmas, even though they were off to Sheffield the next day. It does seem a bit ludicrous visiting someone to deliver a parcel who is the next day going to go over from whence you came but as I had hired a car (too large, next year I must remember to get a size smaller) and they were travelling by train, leaving it at Elizabeth’s (their daughter) was not going to be sensible. I set off from theirs shortly after nine pm, unfortunately I was still struggling with the size of the car and had difficulties pulling it out and it was starting to sleet and snow, but once on the main roads it was straightforward to get to my parents. At one point a driver thought they would be cheeky and overtake at a traffic light. Actually I was not bothered if they did, but having the bigger powered car meant that they did not have the chance they expected and I noticed that they settled in behind me.

Next day Mum and Dad got up to get into town early. The weather took second place to Dad’s worry about dealing with crowds doing last minute shopping in Stockport, hence the early start. As the day slowly warmed the roads were actually clearer later on. Also there was a milk delivery. My Mum and Dad still have a milk man who delivers but he does not do it daily so with the bank holidays he delivered rather a large quantity of milk, more than the usual fridge can cope with in this foodie season. The result is as usual the overspill ended up in the laundry (cold weather outside keeps that even cooler than usual so another plus for the weather). In previous years quantities of cheese and wine have also been stored down there. Modern British houses are all built to be kept at a single temperature; it’s the exception that has a room that is cool like my parents laundry. If I was designing houses I would have both a pantry (cool room normally on the north side of the house for storing food) and a drying room, which is a warm dry room, with airing cabinet and drying racks in it, used for getting clothes dry. The idea of just one standard temperature throughout the whole house seems daft to me.  

I just spent the day wrapping the presents; this seems to be an annual ritual. I turn up at my parents with presents, wrapping paper etc and proceed to wrap up the remainder of the presents.

On the evening Jean rang and mum had a natter with them. I think if Mum could have been in two places at the same time then she would definitely have been in South Africa this Christmas.

Snow again came in towards evening and Dad woke very worried about getting out. We tried to get out in the morning to get to Parrswood. The wheel spun on the car so we decided that discretion was the better idea and stayed in. However the day was a balmy 2-4°C and that is enough for snow to melt. My parents neighbour Rick was seen scattering salt on the front of their house and I realised that doing so would allow me to clear the slope from the house to the street which was really quite nastily slippery and that would make Dad a lot more confident about getting out. Anyway tacking things slowly with my hire car, I got it out, unfortunately I was still had not got its size right (actually if I am honest the car does not have a clear view to the rear and I feel I have little idea how I am doing when I am reversing. Mum and me loaded up the car. I should have left Dad in charge of checking we had everything out of the house as, as per usual we left the stool at home. Soon we must buy Cathy a couple of folding dining chairs, as Hannah will soon be too big to sit on the high stool from their kitchen comfortably at the dinning room table.  Once we were on the Didsbury Road at the bottom of the hill there were no problems until we got onto Manor Road itself. Then our timing was just out and two cars were leaving just as we got in. As there was a single clear track it took some manoeuvring but we managed. Somebody had cleared two car spaces on their drive and built a snowman with the snow so freed. Why do I think that somehow Hannah and Sam might have had a hand in doing so. Cathy had put her car into the garage so I parked our car in the space she had vacated.

Irene, Adrian’s mother had already arrived and they were back from the pub. Adrian was saying Mum does not like going to the Pub, that may be the impression given by my parents but the problem is not quite that. The fact is that the pub is crowded and Dad does not like crowds while Mum finds crowds make hearing difficult with a hearing aid as it does not tune out the background noise. So a quiet pub is fine, a busy noise one isn’t. Anyway we went up later this year so as to avoid going to the pub and that seemed to work.

Dad was planning to play a trick on Sam and leave his Christmas present in the car, but with the snow, Dad was not carrying the presents and Sam came out to help (initially in his stocking feet, until he got sent back in by his aunt to put something more substantial on) and so I let him carry in the large box that had his Christmas present in. Hannah’s response to Sam’s Christmas present was where was hers. So I pulled out the parcel for her from my parents. This contained a yellow dressing gown which she put on over her smart Christmas clothes.  I had had various freebies during the year and I put a pen and pad of paper to one side for Sam and a few bits of makeup for Hannah (from Boots when I buy makeup I actually want). Hannah was delighted with the bag with makeup in it and tried it out. So you have to imagine this small six year old in a smart grey shorts, sparkly top with tights on, over which she had a yellow dressing gown and bright red smudge around her lips and mascara smudged all under her eyes. She was a bit like a sprite in the process of dressing up as a pantomime dame.

Cathy and Adrian had prepared the Christmas lunch as per usual. This year Cathy had decided not to hassle and try and put on extras but just to do what she knew worked. So we had French Onion Soup as a starter, followed by turkey with all the trimmings and just Christmas pudding with custard. Sam, much to Cathy’s disgust loves sprouts! It appears he is the exception in the family. Hannah only like sprouts if Mavis cooks them! Mavis is the school cook and appears to be a favourite with both Sam and Hannah. They were listing the best cooks in the world, Cathy got first place and Mavis second on Christmas day, but my sister felt that was them flattering her and they really preferred Mavis, at which point Adrian pointed out that that meant that the best he could be was the world’s third best cook.

Sam is one, of those kids, who wants to be always helping. The problem was that between main course and pudding his job was to talk with my mum and day, Irene and me (although Hannah was rather monopolising me). He did not understand this as helping and wanted to be getting up and helping his mum. The result was that it had to be spelt out to him but in the end he got his new mobile phone out and started collecting people’s phone numbers for on it. He got my parents and then got mine, at which point we discovered that Adrian had my old mobile number. He must have got it when Sam was about three, and he and Cathy went away for a weekend, leaving Sam with Mum and Dad. However Dad was preaching at Zion Wakefield for an anniversary service, so I was called in to help. In order to keep in contact we used Adrian’s and my mobile. This meant that we could ring Adrian, hand Sam the phone and he could talk to Mum and Dad. So Adrian got an up to date phone number for me as well (given that I have had the present one for over five years).

Sam and Hannah are neither of them the sort of kids that will sit still. Or at least Hannah isn’t and Sam only seems to when he is watching TV, then if you get in the way you are in trouble. Adrian had specified no TV before 5 pm so they both wanted to be up from the table and away. Hannah immediately wanted to do something so pulled out the puzzle that I had bought her. It said for seven year old plus but as it was right up Hannah’s street I bought it for her anyway. The puzzle was 250 piece jigsaw to be done without a picture to work from. Also there was a story and questions to answer, but you could only answer the questions once you had done the puzzle. Hannah was darting all over the place while Cathy read the story, but when Cathy started asking question Hannah had the answers with out a single doubt, so she was obviously listening. My God daughter Cait is exactly the same. I wonder how they will get on as they get older. As we all moved through to their lounge I started to work on the puzzle not expecting to get very far, but just so Hannah felt someone was giving her attention. Sam so he was not left out was texting me, meanwhile Cathy and Adrian were clearing up and brought us tea and coffee.

Of course Hannah got bored with doing the jigsaw, little girls do and wanted to know when we would finish. Fortunately Cathy came and joined me and some how we managed to put the puzzle together. To make it worse it was four pictures, two sets of two with similar colour schemes so we kept finding we had put pieces together in the wrong quarter.  It was not helped that some of the pieces fitted almost. Hannah is doing well for a six year old, she is quite capable of doing what her great grandfather used to do and coming along and helping to put in the last twenty or so pieces, although sometimes she’d have the pieces the wrong way up even though she was trying the right space. Unfortunately unlike her grandfather she expects the others to do the early bit really quickly. At one time she was fussing with the pyjamas I bought so Cathy chucked them into the other room. Hannah grumped. Cathy told her she had a mean mummy. If Cathy carries on like this when Hannah is a narked teenager and calls Cathy mean, Cathy will have the luxury of informing Hannah that she has been telling her that for years, and its nice that she has at last realised and no she is not going to change her policy now.

At 5:00 pm Adrian allowed Sam to put on the TV for the Gruffalo. It starts  “One day a mouse went for a walk in the dark wood…” and this mouse is a very much a quick talking mouse who pretends he is going to meet a Gruffalo, but there is “No such thing as a Gruffalo!” You will either need to get the children’s story book or find a copy of the programme as I am not telling you what happens. Adrian having no doubt worked late on Christmas eve, then been busy helping with dinner, plus woken by Hannah at 6:00 a.m. or earlier fell asleep on the settee. Sam objected at this point to the fact his father was snoring. As my sister pointed out, she could ask people to shut up but there was not much she could do about his father snoring.

By the time that that had finished we had almost completed the puzzle. Then we had to ask Hannah the questions which, of course, she got right. I wonder how long it will be before she persuades her mum to do it again with her.

Anyway as Dr Who was coming on, and while Sam is an avid fan, I can not take it. Loathe it would be wrong, rather I have only watched it once right through, when sickening for some childhood illness and it gave me nightmares. I am not good at watching TV anyway and the memory of that experience is vivid enough to make me want to exit the room pretty soon after Dr Who comes on. This is even quicker than for most comedy programmes. Surprisingly when I have been to the cinema I seem to have coped better. Anyway mum and Dad were ready to come home and Irene. The journey back was uneventful although Dad sometimes was over instructing and unfortunately for him this lets me know when he gets things wrong. He wanted me back behind the white line when I was turning right at a green light, as mum and Irene confirmed to me, not that it really mattered as traffic was light.

Having dropped Irene at her house we had an uneventful trip back.

Since then we have spent time quietly. I slept most of the next day and I don’t recall my parents doing anything exciting. I think they tried to get around to the paper shop but it was too icy underfoot. Otherwise a very quiet day for us all although Sam texted me from his new mobile phone

Sunday was Sam’s eleventh birthday. Mum and Dad phoned him on the morning to wish him a happy birthday. I got a text from him, thanking me for his birthday present and also saying that he had enjoyed his walk the previous day. Mum and Dad went to church; I however was lazy and slept-in in the morning. Mum felt that Tony Cottam’s son, who is a Methodist Local preacher led worship well on the Sunday. Dad said that he did the text justice which is pretty high praise from Dad.

We had got for my father bird feeders for Christmas after his broke during the year. So later in the day I out to check the pole for my father’s bird feeder, I had been told it was fine, but I found that the top bit that was supposed to connect the pole to the bird feeder was either damaged in the fall or had gone missing. Anyway there was no way I could put the new feeder onto the top of the pole so we have had to order a new pole.

On the afternoon I tried to put into action Dad’s new birdfeeder but the crucial top of the pole bit has either been broken or lost and a new one did not come with the feeder so I have ordered for him a new pole hoping that it will come with that. Dad also wanted the ability to feed insect eaters so I added to his order a feeder and some dried meal worms so that he could feed them. Mum drew the line at live meal worms although she might accept peck ‘n’ mix as an alternative.

Today we went to Sainsbury’s to do some shopping and to get mum from a cash point near there, then Dad took me to fill my car up at a local garage. Tomorrow I head up to Scotland to visit Morag and Tony.

Advent service, Christmas preparations, and Carol service

what news is there from this week. Well I did not make my supervision due to supervisor being double booked. He is on temporary "promotion" due to basically the Dean of Arts getting a new job. I think for the first time he realised that I know how to handle people with busy diaries (thanks Fleur, Sarah, the Dicksons etc for the training) as when he did not respond with dates to my first email I sent him a second more persistent one. I am also learning to deal with busy people with Dyslexia. If you want them to act of something make sure it is the FIRST point in the email, if they think they can get away without reading on they will, and that rather blows things if from your perspective the main point is the second.

The Advent Wreath happened largely thanks to Lynn and Sandra (her twin sister). I think Asha the Chaplaincy assistance thought I was being odd when I introduced them by colour of clothing especially as both of them were looking down at the time and at present Sandra has more weight on than Lynn. However they are identical twins and though I can tell now just by looking someone who does not know them won't. Lynn has retired so came in specially bringing her sister and four bin bags of greenery. I am still trying to digest this years wreath. My analysis to date is it is more subdued but in better keeping with the front. The purple and I think blue will to create a depth and I wonder another year  I might have just some greenery sprayed with those.

With the supervision being cancelled I have actually had three quieter days this week (deliberately). I spent the time doing some transcription, writing up last Sundays service, making chocolates and decorating boxes as well as wrapping one or two presents and sending out my Christmas Cards. In between I have been playing with my camera and the result to date has been three panoramas of the view from my window in the snow. The first one after a flurry on Friday, the second later than evening and the last one this afternoon after a far heavier fall today. Fortunately the met office seems to think that the snow will decrease over the next few days.

Today I went to Herringthorpe for the nativity play, this year the play was set around the story of Simeon and Anna. The kids had written it. So it was set in the X-mas Factor, with contestants of Shepherd, Angels, Animals, Kings and Mary and Joseph. None of the acts caught the judges eye but there were two people cleaning around the place while it was going on. They of course were Simeon and Anna and although they appeared insignificant they were chosen as the most important. As the leader said afterwards they get more bible verses in Luke than do the Shepherds or the birth of Jesus and yet have none of the cute appeal the others had. I did rather get worried that he thought there were no animals in the temple, of course there were, even the passage we were reading has Mary and Joseph bringing two doves. Maybe animals don't count if they are going to be sacrificed. The other thing is that I think Anna and Simeon weren't nobodies you over looked. They represent the piety of ordinary folk who were part of Judaism, their piety made them exceptional. The piety did not bring them wealth but it gave them a way of living. So they were respected but for a totally different reasons. Oh and God was all for using the older person. In fact looking at a lot of biblical characters I am still too young. I think God sees eighty as about the median age for getting people to do things.

Last week I met up with a member there called Jenny. She used to attend Littleborough URC and then went up to St Andrews. So had enough in common to talk about things with ease. I could for instance say that perhaps Eldership should move more to an Academic Families pattern of pastoral care, and she immediately got the analogy. I wonder if that comment would actually work. There are several things about academic families that are interesting. Children choose parents and choose at least two (mother and father), families tend to be a mix of people parents have met in differing ways e.g. through societies, through hall of residence or through a social that the child and parent both attend. The result is that families are more mixed than most elders groups are. Its not a single interest group but a group where there are shared interests with some of the others. Hmm I think I feel a Musing coming on but will need some more thought before its written.

Tonight's service was a pretty normal carols by candlelight service. The things that stood were that they had both a choir and a young persons singing group. Both groups did harmony and the teenage girls have some strong voices amongst them. So I am beginning to see why they are thinking of putting on a musical. Roads were fine despite the snow but then the roads I am travelling along nearly all 40 mile an hour or higher with their speed limits so priority gritter roads. The problem was that most of the elderly stayed in so it was about a half a dozen mince pies each at the end.