. Writers met on Monday went smoothly, Tuesday I had a vile sore throat (actually it was obvious that I had it at writers the night before as I was coughing rather a lot) and I decided that a day in was called for. Not least because I was coughing so much conversation would be difficult. Also I needed to be in work on Wednesday and Thursday so take the day on Tuesday and hope that things would sort themselves out for the rest of the week.
Wednesday evening I was at Herringthorpe for a meeting of NAG (Needs Assessment Group) it really should be N-NAG (Neighbourhood-needs assessment group). Actually the reason Neighbourhood is probably missing is they have not decided what is their neighbourhood. This means that before we start asking about Needs at all we have got to start investigating how to define the neighbourhood. It was raised that about a third of the congregation lived beyond the Wickersley Roundabout (so one of the boundaries needs to go through the Wickersley Roundabout as obviously beyond that is not local)! There was also debate on whether to include "East Herringthorpe" I thought it might have been East Rotherham but on checking there is a place called East Herringthorpe which is North of the Church Buildings. One of the major tasks of the group will be to define the remit of itself.
Thursday was a normal day. Friday was my day off, it was a mixed day because I spent the morning coding interview transcripts in a very broad brush fashion, basically as I am reviewing the transcription and trying to make a sensible choice about what to transcribe from the interviews that are left. On the afternoon I did a trip down town to try and sort the last things out for holiday. This was really getting money out.
Saturday I had organised a Ship of Fools North East Meet. This time it was in Durham. There were about twelve of us there with two apologies although there are far more Ship of Fools members in the area. It was a beautiful day as was the one last Summer in Leeds. I cannot talk of the Winter one as I was off with a migraine, although it was in York. We basically pootled the whole day long, going between coffee shop and coffee shop, with a short spell in the Cathedral, as they were filming Songs of Praise in it while we were there and a walk along the river. I took lots of photos are up on Flickr if people want to see. Unfortunately on going down from the station I failed to see a half step down and as my foot tilted over so did and ended up flat on my face. Nothing seriously wrong but a bruised knee that gets stiff if I don't move it regularly.
Today has been quiet. Officially I am tidying and preparing to go. I have at least done a wash and sorted out some papers but yesterday took a lot out of me and I went back to bed mid morning. So I was at evening service tonight rather than morning worship. A small congregation and not the people I was expecting. The evening service seems to be more charismatic in style, although that maybe just who the pianist is. They even sung one I was not familiar with, which is a rarity. Somehow I seem to have kept more up to date with charismatic worship than I thought I had. The "Word" part of the service was led by Lighthouse: Rotherham Homeless Project. Afterwards the story came out of one of the church members "supporting" a drug user to the level of several thousand. The project was willing to investigate and see what was really going on, in the hopes that the drain would stop.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Courses, Holiday Preparations and quiet days
Lets see what this week has involved. Monday was the bank holiday. I think I spent most of the day recovering from the migraine that came on the day before. Luckily it cleared early evening. However I had all the post migraine problems like not remembering what I supposed to be doing before the migraine set in.
Tuesday I was in work and giving the last of the three new SPSS courses. This one has had a lot of work on it, and still needs more work on it. I am going to try and do this over the summer. The work there is mainly putting in exercises where I have just given data sets. The ending actually worked pretty well but I have to find a data set for one exercise. On the evening I went out to Herringthorpe for a Bible study. I decided to have a go and seeing if I could draw a Nicky Gumble talk. The answer is yes I can and I tend to be less argumentative afterwards. Whether that is a good thing with Nicky Gumble I don't know. I think he might find me quite challenging if I was ever in a group he led in real life rather than on a DVD.
Wednesday I had a meeting with Ahmed about the data for analysis. This set of data I am enjoying as it is coming out as it should on the first analysis which means I need not explore further. The data is on using sperm or plastic beads to stimulate response from oviduct and a second on whether oviduct or kidney cells respond more. That is interesting as it seems that kidney have much lower values even with OVEC but that when sperm is put in these respond more. I also think my new computer came. However as that was shopping night I decided I better go and do that rather than setting it up. So I went down to Waitrose and bought bits and pieces. Then Stuart came around for a shower, having annoyed Monica (his Landlady) the previous day by taking a shower in a room she was treating for mildew. He continued coming around to Friday.
Thursday was election time. had an interesting talk with my hairdresser when I went for a haircut. She was saying that what scared her was many of the younger voters were voting according to how good looking the leaders of the party were. I am afraid my view at present is that what you want to do is vote for a good local MP. However as I live in a safe Labour seat that is not likely. I suspect that locally more labour voters came out to vote to prevent Liberal democrats getting in. I think this is hugely unfair as the one party that makes an effort locally is the Greens and I would hope people would vote for people who were around on the ground. Any way I got my new computer up and running. No Cathy this is not the one with Dad's money that will be one solidly for PhD. This is one I bought for personal use. It is MY computer, one I can do what I like on and one that is reasonably light to carry around.
Friday was officially study day though I changed that largely with Saturday so went shopping on Friday. I sorted the torch I bought last week from Argos and got one that was working. This was really a bit late as I wanted it to try and photograph cherry blossom against traffic at night, but the blossom on the tree required has all gone brown in the last week. Other trees are still in full bloom but taking the photograph from them is not as feasible. Secondly I bought another pair of trousers, so I now have two for holidays and saturdays although my old dusky pink ones are still the most comfortable ones there are and I am wondering whether to pack them even though they are perilously close to having holes. I went into WHSmiths to buy some extras for the packs for Jenny and Cait and got stopped by a girl selling make up. She showed me a tiny pack with 25 different sorts of makeup in it. My brain was going "Who on earth uses 25 different bits of make up!" I use a maximum of twelve and then only on high days and holidays, most days only eight bits and when I am having a quiet day nothing. My aim is not for people to go "cor!" but just to present a decent face to the world. She then went onto suggest I bought twice that amount. She has got to be kidding, and as a rule I don't give make up, its to personal (the exception being for young girls who are playing with it). I went into Sheffield Scene to buy a book about Sheffield for someone up in Stranraer who is missing it. While in there I noticed that Shiregreen URC had a book about them being sold there as well. I wonder who would buy it. Sometime back came across this set of postcards and had thought about getting them instead but I wasn't sure that Victoria Hall would be open or that the lady in Stranraer would like religious paintings.
Saturday I spent most of the day reformatting an interview. It actually took quite a bit of time as I had to split it up into stories and comment on them. I am really needing to do this for all the stories interviews I have transcribed which is a pain, but think I may get away with putting them into Nvivo and categorising the stories from that.
Today I have not done much largely due to time of the month playing up and giving me cramps. I was going to go to Herringthorp but I did not feel good when I awoke and suspected that I had slept poorly due to it. Annoying as I was hoping it was getting better. Anyway it was bad enough to send me back to bed with a hot water bottle by midday and I had little concentration between getting up and going back to bed. The only thing that seems to work is alcohol.
Tuesday I was in work and giving the last of the three new SPSS courses. This one has had a lot of work on it, and still needs more work on it. I am going to try and do this over the summer. The work there is mainly putting in exercises where I have just given data sets. The ending actually worked pretty well but I have to find a data set for one exercise. On the evening I went out to Herringthorpe for a Bible study. I decided to have a go and seeing if I could draw a Nicky Gumble talk. The answer is yes I can and I tend to be less argumentative afterwards. Whether that is a good thing with Nicky Gumble I don't know. I think he might find me quite challenging if I was ever in a group he led in real life rather than on a DVD.
Wednesday I had a meeting with Ahmed about the data for analysis. This set of data I am enjoying as it is coming out as it should on the first analysis which means I need not explore further. The data is on using sperm or plastic beads to stimulate response from oviduct and a second on whether oviduct or kidney cells respond more. That is interesting as it seems that kidney have much lower values even with OVEC but that when sperm is put in these respond more. I also think my new computer came. However as that was shopping night I decided I better go and do that rather than setting it up. So I went down to Waitrose and bought bits and pieces. Then Stuart came around for a shower, having annoyed Monica (his Landlady) the previous day by taking a shower in a room she was treating for mildew. He continued coming around to Friday.
Thursday was election time. had an interesting talk with my hairdresser when I went for a haircut. She was saying that what scared her was many of the younger voters were voting according to how good looking the leaders of the party were. I am afraid my view at present is that what you want to do is vote for a good local MP. However as I live in a safe Labour seat that is not likely. I suspect that locally more labour voters came out to vote to prevent Liberal democrats getting in. I think this is hugely unfair as the one party that makes an effort locally is the Greens and I would hope people would vote for people who were around on the ground. Any way I got my new computer up and running. No Cathy this is not the one with Dad's money that will be one solidly for PhD. This is one I bought for personal use. It is MY computer, one I can do what I like on and one that is reasonably light to carry around.
Friday was officially study day though I changed that largely with Saturday so went shopping on Friday. I sorted the torch I bought last week from Argos and got one that was working. This was really a bit late as I wanted it to try and photograph cherry blossom against traffic at night, but the blossom on the tree required has all gone brown in the last week. Other trees are still in full bloom but taking the photograph from them is not as feasible. Secondly I bought another pair of trousers, so I now have two for holidays and saturdays although my old dusky pink ones are still the most comfortable ones there are and I am wondering whether to pack them even though they are perilously close to having holes. I went into WHSmiths to buy some extras for the packs for Jenny and Cait and got stopped by a girl selling make up. She showed me a tiny pack with 25 different sorts of makeup in it. My brain was going "Who on earth uses 25 different bits of make up!" I use a maximum of twelve and then only on high days and holidays, most days only eight bits and when I am having a quiet day nothing. My aim is not for people to go "cor!" but just to present a decent face to the world. She then went onto suggest I bought twice that amount. She has got to be kidding, and as a rule I don't give make up, its to personal (the exception being for young girls who are playing with it). I went into Sheffield Scene to buy a book about Sheffield for someone up in Stranraer who is missing it. While in there I noticed that Shiregreen URC had a book about them being sold there as well. I wonder who would buy it. Sometime back came across this set of postcards and had thought about getting them instead but I wasn't sure that Victoria Hall would be open or that the lady in Stranraer would like religious paintings.
Saturday I spent most of the day reformatting an interview. It actually took quite a bit of time as I had to split it up into stories and comment on them. I am really needing to do this for all the stories interviews I have transcribed which is a pain, but think I may get away with putting them into Nvivo and categorising the stories from that.
Today I have not done much largely due to time of the month playing up and giving me cramps. I was going to go to Herringthorp but I did not feel good when I awoke and suspected that I had slept poorly due to it. Annoying as I was hoping it was getting better. Anyway it was bad enough to send me back to bed with a hot water bottle by midday and I had little concentration between getting up and going back to bed. The only thing that seems to work is alcohol.
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