Lets see, This past week did not get off to a good start with a migraine, which I think was due to my normal bad behaviour on a Saturday over eating (I eat when I feel like it and what I feel like although it is not all fruit and ginger chocolate biscuits) By the way that reminds me I have found something so tempting that it is doing well if it lasts in my store cabinet a day and that is Buderim Naked Ginger which is similar to a strong crystallised ginger (think Humdinger not Waitrose) but does not have the sugar coating. The problem I have with the sugar coating is that it feels uncomfortably rough in my mouth, the same reason as I tend to pass on backed crunchy muesli. Then I went to Fairtrade Breakfast which was cereal, toast and fruit at Herringthorpe, which basically added to my bad behaviour and all my attempts to then getback on track were too late, and not helped by buying a fair trade dark chocolate bar. Actually I should have been suspicious when I ate that bar in one sitting.
Tuesday I was back in business and got on with things. I went to the bible study on forgiveness, which was interesting because it was not nearly as self satisfied, indeed I had the strange feeling that it was a topic which I might know more about than people there. It felt very much as if they had never faced a single big issue to forgive, which certainly for me was the experience that formed my own understanding of the necessity. I forgave then firstly because the bible said I should and secondly because I did not want that to rule my life. I suppose I had some awareness of how this would effect me if I allowed it to, but that is just me being me and I would not claim any merit and I have to watch that the small stuff does not catch me out, just because I once did it for a big one. Actually I wonder if there is a Screwtape style idea there about the way the habit of being unforgiving is built up in the small stuff, not the big stuff. Now I would distinguish forgiveness from reconciliation, which is the final stage after forgiving and repentance but forgiving itself is worthwhile doing.
Wednesday was my day off work, I actually got a fair bit done. The transcription is coming along slowly but I am managing to sit down regularly to do this this month and as I get more done every time I sit down (i.e. 5 min in the first session, 8 min in the second session, 12 min in the third session and so on) I will get hopefully get through it more quickly. I also got my notes almost up to date from Herringthorpe. I also did a shop at Waitrose and on the evening Stuart came around. I am pretty sure he came around because he wanted to talk to somebody due to having the day off and not therefore having anyone to talk to. I wonder whether I should have sent him onto the Network meeting at St Andrews, oh well at least he bought me ginger biscuits. He is off to see his Mum this week (too much leave again, I think due to the fact that they often give him time in lieu when he does overtime and he never thinks to take it).
Thursday was a quiet day I seem to recall. That is not to say I didn't get things done, just that it was quiet, I think I am finding ways to be more productive at work. It helps a lot to realise that though I can be organised I am not naturally organised. That means I need to create methods of working that don't build huge structural keep ups into them. Things like normal to do lists are no good as I need to keep putting things on them and marking off when I have done them but if I do a daily one and bin it at the end of the day, I cope, after all I have let tomorrow decide for itself. If anything is not done by the end of the day, it just sits on the do sometime board. I also find that keeping notes of ideas stops me from being distracted from what I am doing at the present. So if I get a good idea, I just make a note of it and get on with what I am doing after all then I can come back when I have time and review the idea.
Friday started with the breakfast and I was up in time for that, actually would have been earlier but spent ten minutes hunting for my church keys only to find them already in my coat pocket. Work was quiet allowing me to get on, although I find coming home for lunch makes a huge difference to how tired I am at the end of day. I realised just as I was about to pack up that I had to prepare for a meeting on Monday, so I did that. Then did the turn around to get to the younger women's Wii bowling night at Herringthorpe. I had made a mistake and thought it started at 7:30 not 8:00 p.m. which meant I had also booked the car for return to early. This is the first church I have known where regular events have different starting times and there isn't a lot of questions asked about those times. So Bible study starts at 7:00 after the church meal and Younger Women's meeting starts at 8:00 pm. One of the interesting things I found was that I can bowl better on a wii than in real life. I also confused everybody by saying I was right handed which I am but then picking up the hand piece and bowling left handed. I am definitely right handed but when learning something new I often use my left as well as my right, I think because my left is better at putting the whole thing together while my right tends to do the correct things but not necessarily in a coordinated way.
Yesterday was a quiet Saturday, however after last week I decided that one thing I would have to be fussy about and that is to make sure that I get something other than toast and fruit. So this week I tried making egg rich pancakes with blueberries. It worked fine but I need something more mushy than blueberries as a filler as they just rolled out. However having done that I ate properly the rest of the day rather than snacking on carbohydrate rich snacks and coffee. Hopefully this will mean less migraines after the weekends but we shall see. Otherwise transcription, shopping in town, and so on.
Today back to Herringthorpe. The car windscreen was covered with ice when I picked it up this morning and I had forgotten my de-icer at home so it was turn on the car heating an weight for the windscreens to clear which they did surprisingly quickly, less than five minutes. Pauline was back and preached on forgiveness. The communion was largely standard, I am begining to find a way of relating while I am there. It helped I think that the congregation was lighter today. I think I actually find the crowded crush hall too noisy and I cannot participate in conversations until later on and most people have left. I am slowly waking up to the fact that Herringthorp like the majority of churches I have been in, actually has people fighting over the music for worship. It is an intriguing one, in that I characterised it as Moody and Sankey vs Graham Kendrick. My father said this afternoon given that choice he'd go with Graham Kendrick. Actually I find I like a lot of the real modern worship songs, they seem less trying to be a rock star than those of our generation.
Showing posts with label transcription. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transcription. Show all posts
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
On cold flats and Bread making
Right lets see what is happening this week. Well I went to writers group this week, wrote a poem called Ice Ages, the group felt that the it was worth sending into the Sheffield Telegraph. I sent it, not sure whether it got in, I must try and see if I can get hold of a copy before tomorrow evening. I suspect not or rather I suspect if it had been someone might have told me.
Tuesday I can not remember much from except I know I was busy writing in work and was feeling whacked by the time I got in so did not go to the Bible Study at Herringthorpe but instead tried to write up the notes from the Sunday, without much success, but I at least got something down. I find with note writing that I actually need to leave it at least a short while after I get in otherwise my brain is caught up too much in retaining everything not just the central bits I noticed. This is exceptional for ethnographers who normally want to make notes as soon as possible, but my brain takes a time to make a coherency over the situation.
Wednesday, I took the morning off sick, my initial diagnosis of myself was Appelkoossiekte or Apricot sickness, which is caused by eating too many apricots. There have been suggestions of other causes, but the fact is if you eat rather a large amount of Apricots (in this case it was me counting dried and fresh as separate things and overdoing it on at least one alone) they become a too effective laxative. I have had it at least twice in the past and normally manage to restrict myself. Most people don't eat apricots the way I will do if I am not watching myself. Like most folk illnesses it covered a lot, but in most cases it actually only is a few hours of discomfort and I think diagnosing anything else is a bit much. However I realised later that I was probably partially wrong and that time of the month was partly to blame for the discomfort. However by mid day it had cleared enough so I was in work and getting on with course notes I am writing.
Thursday I saw someone in the morning to help with their research project. If I had known in advance what they were asking I could have just referred them to course notes we have on the web. There really was nothing difficult about it. Her major concern was whether it was valid to do it with seventeen people. Yes you can do it with seventeen people but you will only detect big differences. I also put her largely to doing non-parametric as with the quick look I saw I was ready to bet that quite a bit of her data was log-normal and not straight normal (it was counted data and timed data (which is technically exponentially distributed not even log normal but close enough to have similar characteristics). Had an easy night when I got home.
Friday was my day off, I slept most of the morning as time of the month was making me tired. However I managed to transcribe about fifteen minutes of tape, the first transcription I have done since Christmas and not only that I managed to do another bit on Saturday (all right only five minutes of tape but still some). Then I also caught up with the writing up of my diary, so not too bad a day research wise. On the evening went to a ladies night at Herringthorpe. Allison had organised it, or more accurately had thought of the idea and got what she thought was needed together. It was supposed to be a Christmas Present swap night. Simple idea you bring one or more unwanted christmas present and swap it for something better. Having thought about it, I conclude that the easiest way to do this is to buy raffle tickets. For every item a person puts on the table a raffle ticket is issued, then when they find something they want they hand in the raffle ticket. If people want more they either make a donation for extra raffle tickets. The problem is what about the stuff nobody wants, well the solution here was that went to a local charity shop, in this case YMCA. Donations could go to the shop as well or put to other uses. However Allison had not worked out how to do this, so things got a bit chaotic. I also would suggest that people were limited to the upper amount they can bring (say three items) as we had some bring about a hundred and that made it far more like a bric-a-brac stall.
Saturday again started with a late start, got up and had scrambled eggs on toast. This now seems a reliable way for me to be fairly okay on the afternoon however lousy I was beforehand. I got into town and managed to get changed a pair of thermal undertrousers. I also got myself two new plain top sheets. First time I have bought top sheets, partly as I did not use them for quite a while just a duvet but I find it easier to wash and change a flat sheet than I do a duvet. Partly because I inherited sheets I think from my grandmother. The one on last week was ripping. I do still have some good ones, but mum had sown that one so it became a sort of fitted top sheet and she had got the size right. I had done others but not done it as well, so I wanted to use that as a template for sowing the new sheets. So I had to get them before I chucked it out. I felt as I had worn the previous sheets out that spending money on more expensive new ones was not a waste. The bad news was yesterday I checked my fire in the lounge because it was not working and it was cold. On further investigation I found that the seven day timer plug had actually melted and the plug was firmly stuck half in. I changed the plug on the fire but it did not start working. I don't know whether that was because I had not quite got the wiring in right (the problem is that I am not 100% certain a connection was made in all case or that the fuse was good in the plug I used as both the plug and the fuse were recycled from old equipment.
Today I went to Herringthorpe. I found coffee time less noisy this time, maybe because it was not a parade come party service. Came back, had cheese and fruit for lunch as easy, then went and slept for an hour or so. After that I got up and made bread. Something about making bread seems to fit with Sunday Afternoons. I discovered over new Year I was actually missing it. I don't think I could go back to making my own bread all the time but I have bought those already measured packets and will make it up when I feel like it.
Tuesday I can not remember much from except I know I was busy writing in work and was feeling whacked by the time I got in so did not go to the Bible Study at Herringthorpe but instead tried to write up the notes from the Sunday, without much success, but I at least got something down. I find with note writing that I actually need to leave it at least a short while after I get in otherwise my brain is caught up too much in retaining everything not just the central bits I noticed. This is exceptional for ethnographers who normally want to make notes as soon as possible, but my brain takes a time to make a coherency over the situation.
Wednesday, I took the morning off sick, my initial diagnosis of myself was Appelkoossiekte or Apricot sickness, which is caused by eating too many apricots. There have been suggestions of other causes, but the fact is if you eat rather a large amount of Apricots (in this case it was me counting dried and fresh as separate things and overdoing it on at least one alone) they become a too effective laxative. I have had it at least twice in the past and normally manage to restrict myself. Most people don't eat apricots the way I will do if I am not watching myself. Like most folk illnesses it covered a lot, but in most cases it actually only is a few hours of discomfort and I think diagnosing anything else is a bit much. However I realised later that I was probably partially wrong and that time of the month was partly to blame for the discomfort. However by mid day it had cleared enough so I was in work and getting on with course notes I am writing.
Thursday I saw someone in the morning to help with their research project. If I had known in advance what they were asking I could have just referred them to course notes we have on the web. There really was nothing difficult about it. Her major concern was whether it was valid to do it with seventeen people. Yes you can do it with seventeen people but you will only detect big differences. I also put her largely to doing non-parametric as with the quick look I saw I was ready to bet that quite a bit of her data was log-normal and not straight normal (it was counted data and timed data (which is technically exponentially distributed not even log normal but close enough to have similar characteristics). Had an easy night when I got home.
Friday was my day off, I slept most of the morning as time of the month was making me tired. However I managed to transcribe about fifteen minutes of tape, the first transcription I have done since Christmas and not only that I managed to do another bit on Saturday (all right only five minutes of tape but still some). Then I also caught up with the writing up of my diary, so not too bad a day research wise. On the evening went to a ladies night at Herringthorpe. Allison had organised it, or more accurately had thought of the idea and got what she thought was needed together. It was supposed to be a Christmas Present swap night. Simple idea you bring one or more unwanted christmas present and swap it for something better. Having thought about it, I conclude that the easiest way to do this is to buy raffle tickets. For every item a person puts on the table a raffle ticket is issued, then when they find something they want they hand in the raffle ticket. If people want more they either make a donation for extra raffle tickets. The problem is what about the stuff nobody wants, well the solution here was that went to a local charity shop, in this case YMCA. Donations could go to the shop as well or put to other uses. However Allison had not worked out how to do this, so things got a bit chaotic. I also would suggest that people were limited to the upper amount they can bring (say three items) as we had some bring about a hundred and that made it far more like a bric-a-brac stall.
Saturday again started with a late start, got up and had scrambled eggs on toast. This now seems a reliable way for me to be fairly okay on the afternoon however lousy I was beforehand. I got into town and managed to get changed a pair of thermal undertrousers. I also got myself two new plain top sheets. First time I have bought top sheets, partly as I did not use them for quite a while just a duvet but I find it easier to wash and change a flat sheet than I do a duvet. Partly because I inherited sheets I think from my grandmother. The one on last week was ripping. I do still have some good ones, but mum had sown that one so it became a sort of fitted top sheet and she had got the size right. I had done others but not done it as well, so I wanted to use that as a template for sowing the new sheets. So I had to get them before I chucked it out. I felt as I had worn the previous sheets out that spending money on more expensive new ones was not a waste. The bad news was yesterday I checked my fire in the lounge because it was not working and it was cold. On further investigation I found that the seven day timer plug had actually melted and the plug was firmly stuck half in. I changed the plug on the fire but it did not start working. I don't know whether that was because I had not quite got the wiring in right (the problem is that I am not 100% certain a connection was made in all case or that the fuse was good in the plug I used as both the plug and the fuse were recycled from old equipment.
Today I went to Herringthorpe. I found coffee time less noisy this time, maybe because it was not a parade come party service. Came back, had cheese and fruit for lunch as easy, then went and slept for an hour or so. After that I got up and made bread. Something about making bread seems to fit with Sunday Afternoons. I discovered over new Year I was actually missing it. I don't think I could go back to making my own bread all the time but I have bought those already measured packets and will make it up when I feel like it.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Evacuating buildings and meals out and that's just Tuesday!
There was slightly more happening this week as I did not sleep through a couple of days of it. Monday was largely uneventful although I got to my writing group and thoroughly enjoyed that. However I may well have to go this week without anything written, or bring one from a couple of weeks back which is in my opinion really weak.
Tuesday morning I was organising for the middle of my three SPSS classes having missed last week. I got up there and only four of the class remained. I am not sure whether this was because they forgot, life intruded or they all fell foul of a dreaded lurgy. However this time we had a fire. Oh not in the room we were in, just one in the building but it was the Hicks Building and we were on the top floor. It is a long story of why my department's teaching room is on the top floor of the Hicks Building, partly it is history and partly it is inertia. There was no real panic, first assumption was that it was someone testing the alarms, second one was that it was either a practice or a false alarm and it was only when I went back in to tidy the room after getting the all clear, I overheard porters talking of the smell of acrid smoke. So there must have been a fire somewhere in the building. Fortunately I had finished teaching for the day but the building catching fire is yet another new one on me. I had to create an evacuation plan on the spot and I may have sent people to the wrong fire exit as I sent them automatically to the main stairs rather than the set of stairs at the other end of the building which is possibly nearer. In the Hicks they have installed a lift for use in case of fire by the disabled, but it is so poor that Derek Collins has been recommended to come down after all the rest down the flight of stairs. Part of me wonders if it is due to some students trying to use it when they are able bodied.
In the evening I went out with CICS Prayer Group to Las Iguanas to mark Lynn and Cliff's retirement. We all made it except Mike who had managed to get his wires crossed with his wife and was needed at home to look after their children. The set menu was not as good as a few years back, when you could get several course that were imaginative for a very reasonable price, the set menu was largely standards that you can get at a lot of other places. They also had cut their fresh fruit options to one but then as I had taken a lactase tablet I could have IPANEMA MESS: Layers of sweet guava, creamy mascarpone & crushed meringue, I might even have got away with it without the tablet, but it would have been pushing it. Malcolm a former member of the group who retired about a year ago was there and looking well despite battling quite serious stomach cancer.
Wednesday was the first meeting of the NVivo users group, a group which I have thought of as necessary for the University for years but which I did not know any way of setting up. I started teaching it last April and it just seems to have attracted people. I will run at least three courses this academic year (1 run, 2 booked) and from one of the courses last year, someone decided something needed doing and got onto someone who knew who to contact. So the group has started. I have since created a mail list for them and need to get started on updating the course.
However by thursday a query I had been given by Patrice had started to bear fruit. Many years ago I wrote reports on the data from Petrmetr. Then people stopped using them (licensing software got better and the techie boys decided that immediate reports were better for their part). The result was that I dropped it. There is no point in doing a report if no one is going to look at it. Only we are back needing to have the reports again. Fortunately the software is still there. However I no longer have the ability to easily access the data. So another member of staff writes a report to extract the data, then I do some wizardry on the data and produce the graphics and measures we actually need for people to make sensible decisions. Meanwhile on the morning my cleaner was doing her fortnightly clean (or the family was as both her sister and mum came to help). The mum has the same attitude to my bath mat as my mum and asked permission to put it out.
Friday was a fairly normal day. I went to the Breakfast first thing, and had bacon and mushrooms on toast. It looked fairly busy although on later inspection people had just chosen to spread themselves around the room. Sarah was having a conversation with Phil on one table, on another Janet and Jean Dickson and a couple of others were talking. Legend/Peter was on the third and decided to call me over to talk to him. So all the tables were in use but people were spread out. Got back and did some more transcribing. I hope I can finish a second interview this month by transcribing on Monday and Wednesday. Then I must really look to getting them out. Went into work, and even though I had only one thing planned for the afternoon I ended up jumping in a number of different directions. So it was after five before I left.
I got in did a quick turn around and went back out again as the Dicksons had invited me for dinner. The traffic was awful even though it was approaching 6 p.m. when I got to the bus stop. It was not helped that it decided to rain, not a full scale Sheffield downpour but it was still pretty wet. So there was a wait for the bus. I think if I had known how soon the next would be I would have got it, but the traffic did not seem to clearing, although it cleared within minutes of getting on the bus, and the idea of being somewhere dry was rather tempting even if it was crowded. I was damp by the time I got to the Dicksons. It was pleasant after the business of the week to sit down with friends. Although when Jean decided to send me home around 9p.m. I was more than willing to go.
Saturday my parents came over. Mum had been struggling with sewing up the cardigan she had knitted me and had wanted during the week for me to help her with exactly how the pieces fitted together. The problem was that she'd lay them out in from of her and say something like does this go so to this. As I had no idea what either "this" was nor what shape they were it was very difficult to answer. She had asked my sister about it during the week but Cathy had been racing around keeping her household on track, she did not feel as if she had had a proper conversation about it. However she had sorted it by the time she had got here and I just had to try it on. She still needs to knit the collar and the facings for the jersey and I got a button for it while they were over. We also went down town, partly to get me a replacement bath mat, which dad decided was to be the surprise part of my Christmas present.
Today I went to Herringthorpe for both the service and the following church meeting. The thing that struck me once again is how much new stuff they are taking on. It is a very "can do" and "go ahead" congregation. This included voting to support the setting up of Street Pastors in Rotherham, voting new elders, choosing a charity to support as well as quite a debate about how to charge for use of the buildings to charities. The congregation got really quite involved in the deciding how to charge charities. It was one of those cases where church meeting over turned the decisions of elders. I came in and went to bed and slept for another couple of hours.
This coming week, I am going to try going to their bible study on Tuesday and also have a trip down to Birmingham on Thursday plus the two mornings typing up transcripts. Then next weekend hopefully a quiet weekend in.
Tuesday morning I was organising for the middle of my three SPSS classes having missed last week. I got up there and only four of the class remained. I am not sure whether this was because they forgot, life intruded or they all fell foul of a dreaded lurgy. However this time we had a fire. Oh not in the room we were in, just one in the building but it was the Hicks Building and we were on the top floor. It is a long story of why my department's teaching room is on the top floor of the Hicks Building, partly it is history and partly it is inertia. There was no real panic, first assumption was that it was someone testing the alarms, second one was that it was either a practice or a false alarm and it was only when I went back in to tidy the room after getting the all clear, I overheard porters talking of the smell of acrid smoke. So there must have been a fire somewhere in the building. Fortunately I had finished teaching for the day but the building catching fire is yet another new one on me. I had to create an evacuation plan on the spot and I may have sent people to the wrong fire exit as I sent them automatically to the main stairs rather than the set of stairs at the other end of the building which is possibly nearer. In the Hicks they have installed a lift for use in case of fire by the disabled, but it is so poor that Derek Collins has been recommended to come down after all the rest down the flight of stairs. Part of me wonders if it is due to some students trying to use it when they are able bodied.
In the evening I went out with CICS Prayer Group to Las Iguanas to mark Lynn and Cliff's retirement. We all made it except Mike who had managed to get his wires crossed with his wife and was needed at home to look after their children. The set menu was not as good as a few years back, when you could get several course that were imaginative for a very reasonable price, the set menu was largely standards that you can get at a lot of other places. They also had cut their fresh fruit options to one but then as I had taken a lactase tablet I could have IPANEMA MESS: Layers of sweet guava, creamy mascarpone & crushed meringue, I might even have got away with it without the tablet, but it would have been pushing it. Malcolm a former member of the group who retired about a year ago was there and looking well despite battling quite serious stomach cancer.
Wednesday was the first meeting of the NVivo users group, a group which I have thought of as necessary for the University for years but which I did not know any way of setting up. I started teaching it last April and it just seems to have attracted people. I will run at least three courses this academic year (1 run, 2 booked) and from one of the courses last year, someone decided something needed doing and got onto someone who knew who to contact. So the group has started. I have since created a mail list for them and need to get started on updating the course.
However by thursday a query I had been given by Patrice had started to bear fruit. Many years ago I wrote reports on the data from Petrmetr. Then people stopped using them (licensing software got better and the techie boys decided that immediate reports were better for their part). The result was that I dropped it. There is no point in doing a report if no one is going to look at it. Only we are back needing to have the reports again. Fortunately the software is still there. However I no longer have the ability to easily access the data. So another member of staff writes a report to extract the data, then I do some wizardry on the data and produce the graphics and measures we actually need for people to make sensible decisions. Meanwhile on the morning my cleaner was doing her fortnightly clean (or the family was as both her sister and mum came to help). The mum has the same attitude to my bath mat as my mum and asked permission to put it out.
Friday was a fairly normal day. I went to the Breakfast first thing, and had bacon and mushrooms on toast. It looked fairly busy although on later inspection people had just chosen to spread themselves around the room. Sarah was having a conversation with Phil on one table, on another Janet and Jean Dickson and a couple of others were talking. Legend/Peter was on the third and decided to call me over to talk to him. So all the tables were in use but people were spread out. Got back and did some more transcribing. I hope I can finish a second interview this month by transcribing on Monday and Wednesday. Then I must really look to getting them out. Went into work, and even though I had only one thing planned for the afternoon I ended up jumping in a number of different directions. So it was after five before I left.
I got in did a quick turn around and went back out again as the Dicksons had invited me for dinner. The traffic was awful even though it was approaching 6 p.m. when I got to the bus stop. It was not helped that it decided to rain, not a full scale Sheffield downpour but it was still pretty wet. So there was a wait for the bus. I think if I had known how soon the next would be I would have got it, but the traffic did not seem to clearing, although it cleared within minutes of getting on the bus, and the idea of being somewhere dry was rather tempting even if it was crowded. I was damp by the time I got to the Dicksons. It was pleasant after the business of the week to sit down with friends. Although when Jean decided to send me home around 9p.m. I was more than willing to go.
Saturday my parents came over. Mum had been struggling with sewing up the cardigan she had knitted me and had wanted during the week for me to help her with exactly how the pieces fitted together. The problem was that she'd lay them out in from of her and say something like does this go so to this. As I had no idea what either "this" was nor what shape they were it was very difficult to answer. She had asked my sister about it during the week but Cathy had been racing around keeping her household on track, she did not feel as if she had had a proper conversation about it. However she had sorted it by the time she had got here and I just had to try it on. She still needs to knit the collar and the facings for the jersey and I got a button for it while they were over. We also went down town, partly to get me a replacement bath mat, which dad decided was to be the surprise part of my Christmas present.
Today I went to Herringthorpe for both the service and the following church meeting. The thing that struck me once again is how much new stuff they are taking on. It is a very "can do" and "go ahead" congregation. This included voting to support the setting up of Street Pastors in Rotherham, voting new elders, choosing a charity to support as well as quite a debate about how to charge for use of the buildings to charities. The congregation got really quite involved in the deciding how to charge charities. It was one of those cases where church meeting over turned the decisions of elders. I came in and went to bed and slept for another couple of hours.
This coming week, I am going to try going to their bible study on Tuesday and also have a trip down to Birmingham on Thursday plus the two mornings typing up transcripts. Then next weekend hopefully a quiet weekend in.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Making the most of a cold
For those who want to see the rain pictures from last week then the best two are posted here.
The wet one from my bedroom window works better as you get the feeling of a really wet day. However as I said last week it would have been even better if I had managed to get myself up earlier so that you got the lights spread through Sheffield in the wet half light of dawn, that would have given the buildings some more shape and form. The evening one really falls down because simply it was not wet enough so I was searching for raindrops on the window. I got a few but not nearly as many as required for the image. Oh well something to try again on another day when it is wet and I am stuck indoors.
My news, is pretty scarce this week as the strange mix of illness last Sunday decided to develop into a cold. Well a cough, tiredness and occasional (at most twice a day) bouts of sneezing. I am not quite sure how it did it but last Sunday and again on Thursday it seemed to manage to mix migraine symptoms in with the cold ones. Mum originally suggested this might be due to flu but as my temperature did not go above 37°C, I somewhat doubt this. This meant that for the first time in all the years I have been in Sheffield I cancelled a course I was teaching. I have taught it before when I have been this ill but with this course and the spacing I have learnt that if I do teach it when ill, I may as well cancel the next one as so many others are off with the cold, plus I do not teach the course particularly well when I am off colour so cancelling and rearranging seemed sensible. Monday and Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping and when I was up I felt very tired. I find if I keep myself inside my flat when I have a cold the symptoms are less severe but I seem to be very tired.
Wednesday I felt a bit better and decided to spend the day up and see how I coped. Quite a bit of the time I spent crocheting a duckling for Lynn who was a secretary at work until she retired recently, granddaughter Hannah. Hannah was born back in September and I got the orange wool for the beak and feet soon after. The yellow was bought for my nieces bee, which I do not have a picture of. It is somewhat bigger than the usual crochet amigurumis that I do. No the background was not pale blue, it was white, but if I took the picture with the the background white then the duckling looked positively orange and given that his actual colour is very yellow that would be problematic. It took quite a bit of fixing of the colour transitions for the camera for the picture to come out this well. I also on Wednesday finished another transcript for my thesis. So even though I was at home, it was quite a productive day.
Thursday I got the comeback of trying to be up all day on Wednesday and needed to sleep in the morning. That said I did manage to finish the duckling off. I am not quite sure whether it is a toy or an ornament. The eyes are put on with washers that go over the stem that goes through the crocheting. The washers are funnel shaped so pushing them off actually tightens their grip on the stem and the stem had ridges on to grip them. So as far as I can see about as sturdily on as you can get apart from just using embroidery for the eyes and I am no good at getting that right. Yes I have tried. Certainly they are better on than the using Fimo or Sculpey polymer modelling clay and then sticking them on, which is a technique I have seen recommended.
Friday I did some transcription on another recording. I still need to catch up a lot, but I got one interview sent out on Saturday and another sent back for checking. I just hope the postal strike does not go on too long. I now have five done, one in progress and another eight to do. I would ideally like them done before Christmas (Hah!) so will need to get a move on especially as I am back to making full notes on my placement. The weather has also got much colder so this week I got out my winter duvet. I am enjoying the fact it is down filled and not polyester so it hugs closer to your body and you do not need to warm as much cold air.
Today I made it to Herringthorpe and I got introduced to the congregation. The nice thing is that I did not have any pressure to take the service, which is why I actually did not get introduced at St Andrew's Chesterfield. David thought that it would be a good idea if I took a service. I don't take main Sunday morning services, and simply my thesis was not the sort of one where I can take a service and tell people about it before I have been with them. The congregation keep telling me repeatedly that they are a welcoming congregation, I have not seen anything to contradict that, but they are in danger of in my mums words "over egging the pudding". My one conclusion to date is that growth is not directly related to how welcoming a congregation is, despite what the denomination has stressed for years. Welcome is one of the things that stops you driving people away, but does not draw people in. Two more groups of members I have come across, the ex Pentecostal and the Scots who mistook the CofE for a sister church for the CofS and wondered why they did not find it friendly (I suspect more to do with wrong expectations of friendship than not being friendly). Oh the first indication of the dominant female name at Herringthorpe, someone said "There are lots of Jeans here", although if I had guessed I would have said Val. Maybe the Jeanery actually covers the whole of South Yorkshire and not just St Andrews Sheffield.
Next week I am giving the course I should have the week before, with the one for this date moving a fortnight later, having a meal out with Cliff, Lynn and others from prayer group and also the first meeting of the University of Sheffield's NVivo users group, so another busy week.
Hoping that this week brings you joys from unexpected places, times of good friendship and opportunities to relax and appreciate life
The wet one from my bedroom window works better as you get the feeling of a really wet day. However as I said last week it would have been even better if I had managed to get myself up earlier so that you got the lights spread through Sheffield in the wet half light of dawn, that would have given the buildings some more shape and form. The evening one really falls down because simply it was not wet enough so I was searching for raindrops on the window. I got a few but not nearly as many as required for the image. Oh well something to try again on another day when it is wet and I am stuck indoors.
My news, is pretty scarce this week as the strange mix of illness last Sunday decided to develop into a cold. Well a cough, tiredness and occasional (at most twice a day) bouts of sneezing. I am not quite sure how it did it but last Sunday and again on Thursday it seemed to manage to mix migraine symptoms in with the cold ones. Mum originally suggested this might be due to flu but as my temperature did not go above 37°C, I somewhat doubt this. This meant that for the first time in all the years I have been in Sheffield I cancelled a course I was teaching. I have taught it before when I have been this ill but with this course and the spacing I have learnt that if I do teach it when ill, I may as well cancel the next one as so many others are off with the cold, plus I do not teach the course particularly well when I am off colour so cancelling and rearranging seemed sensible. Monday and Tuesday I spent most of the day in bed sleeping and when I was up I felt very tired. I find if I keep myself inside my flat when I have a cold the symptoms are less severe but I seem to be very tired.
Thursday I got the comeback of trying to be up all day on Wednesday and needed to sleep in the morning. That said I did manage to finish the duckling off. I am not quite sure whether it is a toy or an ornament. The eyes are put on with washers that go over the stem that goes through the crocheting. The washers are funnel shaped so pushing them off actually tightens their grip on the stem and the stem had ridges on to grip them. So as far as I can see about as sturdily on as you can get apart from just using embroidery for the eyes and I am no good at getting that right. Yes I have tried. Certainly they are better on than the using Fimo or Sculpey polymer modelling clay and then sticking them on, which is a technique I have seen recommended.
Friday I did some transcription on another recording. I still need to catch up a lot, but I got one interview sent out on Saturday and another sent back for checking. I just hope the postal strike does not go on too long. I now have five done, one in progress and another eight to do. I would ideally like them done before Christmas (Hah!) so will need to get a move on especially as I am back to making full notes on my placement. The weather has also got much colder so this week I got out my winter duvet. I am enjoying the fact it is down filled and not polyester so it hugs closer to your body and you do not need to warm as much cold air.
Today I made it to Herringthorpe and I got introduced to the congregation. The nice thing is that I did not have any pressure to take the service, which is why I actually did not get introduced at St Andrew's Chesterfield. David thought that it would be a good idea if I took a service. I don't take main Sunday morning services, and simply my thesis was not the sort of one where I can take a service and tell people about it before I have been with them. The congregation keep telling me repeatedly that they are a welcoming congregation, I have not seen anything to contradict that, but they are in danger of in my mums words "over egging the pudding". My one conclusion to date is that growth is not directly related to how welcoming a congregation is, despite what the denomination has stressed for years. Welcome is one of the things that stops you driving people away, but does not draw people in. Two more groups of members I have come across, the ex Pentecostal and the Scots who mistook the CofE for a sister church for the CofS and wondered why they did not find it friendly (I suspect more to do with wrong expectations of friendship than not being friendly). Oh the first indication of the dominant female name at Herringthorpe, someone said "There are lots of Jeans here", although if I had guessed I would have said Val. Maybe the Jeanery actually covers the whole of South Yorkshire and not just St Andrews Sheffield.
Next week I am giving the course I should have the week before, with the one for this date moving a fortnight later, having a meal out with Cliff, Lynn and others from prayer group and also the first meeting of the University of Sheffield's NVivo users group, so another busy week.
Hoping that this week brings you joys from unexpected places, times of good friendship and opportunities to relax and appreciate life
Sunday, June 7, 2009
My fathers celebration of fifty years in the ministry and other things that happened this week
Well Monday was a day and a half. I started off forgetting I had a dentists appointment until ten minutes before it was due. The dentist is only five minutes walk from my flat so not dire but I had not had breakfast. So I went to the dentist and then came back and had breakfast. I think the postman also delivered one of my guarantees on my dish washer (I have two, two-year ones, one from John Lewis and one from the manufacturer). I then got into work and I think was quite busy although no appointment. At 5:10 p.m. I checked my googlemail box and realised I had an email from Pauline Calderwell (Loosemoor or Parkin) as she was taking my placement for next year with Herringthorpe to church meeting tuesday (the next day) evening, would I mind putting together some information about it. I went home, got myself something to eat and sat down and typed. By 7:00 p.m. I had a document to send to her, there was no time to get it to proof readers so it had to go out as was. Then it was onto writing group for the evening.
By Tuesday morning my migraine had returned. However I am suspicious that I had a low level tummy upset. My reason for this are two fold. The migraine was preceded by a couple of days when I lost interest in food, followed by the fact the dominant symptom was nausea, which is exceptional for me although it is sometimes a secondary. So am hoping that now I am clear for a good long time
I was better by Wednesday so went into work. I had two appointments on the afternoon. The first involved an intense lot of programming which was very involved the second was some thinking outside the box. Two very different queries and my brain was not really functioning A1. Then on the evening I went to Chesterfield for a celebratory meal to mark the end of House groups for the year. I counted about 15 people around the table and at least two or three were away. So out of a membership of seventy the house-group has a following of about twenty. Interesting that the first person plural pronouns were seen as far more threatening than the second person plural. Are people conditioned to "you" meaning somebody else?
Thursday I was in work in the morning. In about ten minutes I sussed the programming problem that had had me baffled the day before with a simple statement rather than a lot of complex calculations (ten lines instead of twenty, so far more elegant, yes even computer programming has its own aesthetic value system although it is closely related to those of mathematics). Then it was home to await my new dish washer. They turned up promptly just after two having had difficulty finding the flat. I directed them in and watched as they unloaded my order. The only thing was they unloaded a huge washing machine (instead of a small dish washer) so I went down stairs and told them that that was not my order. I think they were hugely relieved when they found out how much smaller and lighter my order actually was. They did not install it, I think this was a good thing as they seemed barely competent as delivery men.
Friday I took the morning off and got some transcription done and then went into work. I sort of had an appointment on the afternoon but guessed it was a mistake, however it through out the concentration part of my brain. Otherwise an ordinary afternoon although at 4pm it started to rain (well actually do the Sheffield impression of a tropical rainstorm) and it did not start to slow until about 9:00 a.m. the following morning!
Saturday was the main celebration for my fathers fiftieth years in the ministry. He decided in the end that what he wanted to do was to go out for a meal with Doug Thacker. The choice of restaurants being what it was on a Saturday midday (limited) we ended up at Antibos. As it was Italian I think dad was expecting cheese things. However this is a good Italian restaurant and so Dad had Barrimundi, Mum had lamb shank, Doug had sea food risotto and I had the same main-course as Doug but with pasta instead of rice. I think Dad enjoyed the time with Doug. I sent another picture of them walking together back to my flat obviously deep in discussion, to Reform with a spiel.
Today it was over to Chesterfield where there was a service to mark the second anniversary of the joining of the Scout troop. It was a good service if only because it demonstrated quite palpably that the church cared about the Scout troop. The service was based around the three stages: Beavers, Cubs and Scouts; with each linked to a bible passage and there was a presentation to the recently retired troop leader from the church. Tea and coffee was served in the hall afterwards, and many of the Scouts brought their parents in for coffee. That is correct it is the children who say "Can we have a drink please?" The more cocky ones actually come for a drink without asking their parents which means that we find parents coming in and saying "have you seen ...?"
Next week all I have is writers group on Monday and the church meal on Saturday. So somewhat quieter and I will split my day in two again so that I can get some more transcription done. Hopefully ted will come and install my new dishwasher.
By Tuesday morning my migraine had returned. However I am suspicious that I had a low level tummy upset. My reason for this are two fold. The migraine was preceded by a couple of days when I lost interest in food, followed by the fact the dominant symptom was nausea, which is exceptional for me although it is sometimes a secondary. So am hoping that now I am clear for a good long time
I was better by Wednesday so went into work. I had two appointments on the afternoon. The first involved an intense lot of programming which was very involved the second was some thinking outside the box. Two very different queries and my brain was not really functioning A1. Then on the evening I went to Chesterfield for a celebratory meal to mark the end of House groups for the year. I counted about 15 people around the table and at least two or three were away. So out of a membership of seventy the house-group has a following of about twenty. Interesting that the first person plural pronouns were seen as far more threatening than the second person plural. Are people conditioned to "you" meaning somebody else?
Thursday I was in work in the morning. In about ten minutes I sussed the programming problem that had had me baffled the day before with a simple statement rather than a lot of complex calculations (ten lines instead of twenty, so far more elegant, yes even computer programming has its own aesthetic value system although it is closely related to those of mathematics). Then it was home to await my new dish washer. They turned up promptly just after two having had difficulty finding the flat. I directed them in and watched as they unloaded my order. The only thing was they unloaded a huge washing machine (instead of a small dish washer) so I went down stairs and told them that that was not my order. I think they were hugely relieved when they found out how much smaller and lighter my order actually was. They did not install it, I think this was a good thing as they seemed barely competent as delivery men.
Friday I took the morning off and got some transcription done and then went into work. I sort of had an appointment on the afternoon but guessed it was a mistake, however it through out the concentration part of my brain. Otherwise an ordinary afternoon although at 4pm it started to rain (well actually do the Sheffield impression of a tropical rainstorm) and it did not start to slow until about 9:00 a.m. the following morning!
Saturday was the main celebration for my fathers fiftieth years in the ministry. He decided in the end that what he wanted to do was to go out for a meal with Doug Thacker. The choice of restaurants being what it was on a Saturday midday (limited) we ended up at Antibos. As it was Italian I think dad was expecting cheese things. However this is a good Italian restaurant and so Dad had Barrimundi, Mum had lamb shank, Doug had sea food risotto and I had the same main-course as Doug but with pasta instead of rice. I think Dad enjoyed the time with Doug. I sent another picture of them walking together back to my flat obviously deep in discussion, to Reform with a spiel.
Today it was over to Chesterfield where there was a service to mark the second anniversary of the joining of the Scout troop. It was a good service if only because it demonstrated quite palpably that the church cared about the Scout troop. The service was based around the three stages: Beavers, Cubs and Scouts; with each linked to a bible passage and there was a presentation to the recently retired troop leader from the church. Tea and coffee was served in the hall afterwards, and many of the Scouts brought their parents in for coffee. That is correct it is the children who say "Can we have a drink please?" The more cocky ones actually come for a drink without asking their parents which means that we find parents coming in and saying "have you seen ...?"
Next week all I have is writers group on Monday and the church meal on Saturday. So somewhat quieter and I will split my day in two again so that I can get some more transcription done. Hopefully ted will come and install my new dishwasher.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)