While Fireworks bang on the otherside of the window

At present as there have been all weekend there are the sound of fireworks going off. I am not sure if it is connected but the other day I noticed that a neighbours blue bin had been burnt out. I hope it was a stray firework and not deliberate arson.

I will see what I can do to fill people in on the news. Building works are making things edgy at work, not really people being badly behaved but you sense that people’s wicks are slightly shorter than normal. I am  There is also more noise and I am not quite sure how it has impacted my migraines (I have had slightly more than I was having but it may be due to other changes so I have reversed those that could be causing it that are within my control. I can’t do much about the nights drawing in or the weather being colder.

Other than that work has largely been quiet with especially this last week when it has been school holidays and some of the people I work with are therefore taking holiday so they can spend time with their children or are working at home. That said I have plenty of stuff to catch up on and really do not seem to be keeping ahead on the courses I give. I need to get further than I am. It is not helped by my experience of the rest of the department as a black box. That is I ask a question to the person who I think is the right person, sometimes I get a reply back but more often than not I get silence. This is particularly true when I need people to state categorically that they can’t do something, so I can start to work at ways around.

Last weekend my parents came over for the day on Saturday. Dad was worried about crossing the Pennines beforehand. Well snow and severe frost did not turn up but the A57 was closed due to road repairs. Unfortunately they only told people that in Glossop and then directed them via the A621, which I always think of as the Chesterfield route. I know that Chesterfield is not on it but it is the route I used when I had a service at St Andrew’s Chesterfield and then had to get to my parents. It happened several times while I was placed there. Anyway we went out to Old Moor. I do not think that we saw anything spectacular this time. One or two interesting ducks but the birds my father thought would not have arrived yet had departed the previous day. I was hoping to see fieldfares or redwings as flocks of these had been reported but no real luck. Others while we were in one of the hides did report a peregrin but we did not see it.  Also there was a cold wind which meant that we spent only a limited time at the hides that faced one direction as our hands soon got cold with the chill wind. The meal was still good and it is within the coping of my parents although mum tends to think we are closer to the car than we actually are.

Sunday I did not make church as I needed to catch up with writing on my final substantive chapter of my thesis. However Sarah announced that she had accepted a call to South West Hants Group  and will be inducted after Easter. I was aware she was looking and indeed given that she has been here about eight to nine years was expecting it. That gives St Andrew’s about six months to work out where it wants to head. It is clear that St Andrew’s will not get its own minister but I am not sure what the congregation will decide it wants to do. I doubt it will look at an LEP although I know some who think we should have created one with Broomhill Methodist (now the Beacon Church Broomhill) when that was first formed. It would not have worked then as we were still too large then numbering over a hundred to their around fifty but the decrease over the last ten years has been substantial. The thing that disappoints me is that I cannot see anyway of moving from where we are now to being an attractive church for those Christians who live in the local community although I do see chance that the church might manage to become “trustee” for a community development where a URC congregation may or may not meet. I think we will also experience several deaths over this winter.

This week was half term so no writers group but I did end up going out for a meal with Margo at which we set the world to right, or at least got things in a small part of the University more clear. I am not sure we have everything to rights but at least we did for a while. On the whole a good evening out as was the previous Friday which I spent with James and Jean.

I am beginning to get organised for Christmas and New Year . I am feeling foolish at the moment as I put off booking the car so as to keep separate this bill on credit card from my University one, but the University one did not get through in time. At least I have done quite a bit of other preparation and I better soon book a car. I think I am going to have to be back in Sheffield for the first Sunday of the New Year. The problem is that the following month I am duty elder and communion elder on the same Sunday. This does not work. The person I need to swap duty with, is on the January and so I should really swap with her.

On returning to normal routine

This week has been far more normal I have less to report. I have largely been thinking myself back into the routine of the weeks. There are still things to be sorted but I am getting there. I hoping in work that things are not too noisy this week as builders come in to rework the building I am in and in particular this coming week the offices next to mine. This has been expected but its arrival was sudden. Guesses earlier in the week would have put it much closer to Christmas or even into next year as the pressure had been taken off by the fact we were into a new academic year and most moves of staff in universities happen over the summer.

I am getting fed up with a small number of acts of vandalism that are happening to the sound system. They are small scale, none in themselves that drastic but every time I end up on the sound system another one happens and normally it is clear that they did not happen by accident. The latest was the pulling out of an aerial from one of the microphones. Clips have been taken, pads ripped off earphones. The thing is that we should know who is using the system and the keys are in the vestry so it looks like an insider job. I am going to hope Cliff can fix the latest one.

Otherwise it was back to writers group and feeling as if this half term is very crushed with having missed two weeks. I went this week and read a poem but next week is rehearsal for our reading at Bank Streets Arts which is part of Off the Shelf Festival. We are launching a new collection so if you are interested in the collection please let me know.

Thesis wise I have had a massive writing week with over 5,500 words written. While on holiday I had been analysing the data chapters for times when elements talked about belonging. That means that I must have extracted about 10% of those chapters to put into this chapter. However the preparation paid off and I was easily able to write about this despite having a cold, if I had not had a cold I might just have made church today but cold both slowed me yesterday and also meant I need to spend a second day in today. Admittedly I pulled all the discipline stops, Pomodoro, music in background and the promise of treats if I did over a certain number of words but it got written. I am now officially over 80,000 words and the thesis has to grow before it can shrink.