Out of placement

Thesis Fractal Triskele, a photo by jengie@btinternet.com on Flickr.

For those who are interested in the mandala I was talking about last week, I now have an outline which you can see with this post , I am hoping to fill it with little balls of tissue paper representing every fifty words written, the balls will need to be quite small to cope with the complexity of the design. If I also manage to put up photos every week then it gives people an idea of how I am doing. That is the plan anyway. How I deal with the final editing and those sort of things is anyone’s guess. Actually the big first hurdle is to start to have an outline of my first chapter so that I can really begin writing. I also need to have a todo list so I get through all the stages.

For those interested in my placement church it looks as is St Andrews Chesterfield have someone preaching with a view at the end of next month. No idea who and am not going to make inquiries, I am just praying that they make the right decision about whether to issue a call or not.

Otherwise this week has been one of slowing down from the quite frenetic pace of previous weeks. Monday was the last day at the frantic pace although next Tuesday looks as if it will have it as well. So it has been slowing. There has also been a lot of last things. Tuesday we finished off drafting a paper for a masters thesis. To get a masters project from the level of a masters project and actually get it to submission level for a paper is a lot of hard work. It involves the supervisor in a lot more hands on approach and I have been involved with two this summer and probably have another one or two to do.

On Tuesday evening I went to church meeting at Herringthorpe. It was held in the church (some evening church meetings have been held in the Clynes Hall. They have just finished renovating the Clynes Hall so I was half expecting it to be there, but with the starting time it was felt that it would be better in the church itself. I had on the Monday sent through to Pauline and Tom the report to elders. Well I was not expecting anything to be mentioned about it at church meeting. After all normal policy would be for elders to digest then bring anything they thought essential to church meeting. Well Pauline mentioned that I had done it, mentioned that it was thirteen pages long (approximately 7.500 words), said it was well written (so obviously I was not going over Pauline’s head anyway) and offered any member that wanted it access to a copy. She had printed five copies out and was willing to email copies as well, the elders were instructed not to take a copy as they would get one automatically. All five copies went and there was a fair demand to have copies by email as well.

Wednesday I actually had nothing on, so I spent it trying to find all the bits and pieces I had dropped while I was frantically busy. Thursday was my birthday, it was noticeable that this year I got more good wishes via Facebook than I did birthday cards. The day was quiet and normal although a couple of books I ordered from Amazon had come. This ups the number of academic books on Reformed Spirituality from three to four and the other which appears to be an emerging church book both seems to be tackling the issue I am tackling with in a broader setting and is from a Reformed perspective. They should both be interesting. Anyone wanting details please just email me.

Friday I did my last session on the Breakfast as server. It has seen them over the summer but they really need to now move towards a more secure volunteer staffing than I can provide long term and when I am back from holiday I need to be writing and the breakfast made a pace for fridays that was distinctly different and not really compatible with writing although it did tend to clear my Saturdays nicely.

On the evening we went to Orient Express on West Street. It is very Chinese, even the bill comes in Chinese so I hope I paid the right amount (it was less than I expected and we weren’t intentionally stinting ourselves although they could not cope with giving us two scoops of the same flavoured sorbet so we ended up with two desserts instead of three, but I did take the highest price I could see on the slip). The food was pleasant and well cooked and the majority of diners were of oriental extraction. The only snag was that the sound seemed to echo around the building.

Saturday I spent largely doing bits and pieces and today was my last trip out to Herringthorpe. So I am now officially out of placement. It feels strange at present and a definite sign of moving on. They gave me three cards, what is funny is that a couple of families have managed to sign the cards two or three times! I suspect there is going to be some come back from the report and such but I will have to wait for that.

Keeping the pace going over the late August Bank holiday

Right I am trying to remember what happened this last week, certainly it was not eventful as the previous one. Monday was spent writing the final report to the elders at Herringthorpe. I learn a lot about myself in so doing as I found it very easy to write lots of words and I know there are more words just waiting to get out. I think if I was designing my study again I would shorten slightly my time with the two congregations so as to have a space to recuperate between them. I find that in getting to know and understand a congregation for two years I also develop a love for them and the ending, uprooting of yourself afterwards is actually quite painful. Rushing into the next situation as I have designed my doctorate, is not a good idea. You need time to sort assess and get your bearings afterwards.

Tuesday I was in work, Derek Collins had asked about lights on at the sound desk so Cliff kindly came down and changed the bulbs. This was not a simple tasks as the bulbs needed soldering into position. A more modern desk would just use LEDs that last forever rather than small filament bulbs. I am well aware that when I get back I am going to have to start trying things like placing microphones for the choir and see how we get on. The initial stages will be messy and it will have to be done on weeks when I am there not weeks when I am writing. Then in the end it may not work or it might only be possible for the transmitted part (that would actually mean rewiring the speaker to the creche so it takes its feed from the loop or other output and not from that to the speakers. I also suspect that I should look again at recording services. Then long term there is planning for what happens when the radio microphones give out. They must be about a decade old.

Wednesday was the day that I had to sit down and write up an analysis I was doing for the department. The due date was 1st September, when I took it on I assumed I would be normally busy and that it would be relatively simple. The analysis was relatively simple but it took me a long time to prepare the data for analysing (first I had to go through and label everything, secondly I then had to calculate the variables we actually wanted, which were not the same as the variables that were there in the original data set) and then I had work through the actual presentation of the data. One of those days where the sheer absorption in the analysis is draining. I got most of the points covered and I suspect the request for more analysis is that it is making sense to other people now. The previous person did not understand that you had to give your audience a framework within which to interpret it. It meant that a number of my results looked substantially different from hers simply because I kept the base the same in graphs. So I reported estimated percentage of all students while she was reporting percentage of people who owned ipads next to percentage of people who owed laptop PCs.

Thursday got the nicest rejection letter ever for a paper sent to a journal. The response was basically “This should be published unfortunately it is not in our brief”. Also was proofing another paper., totally different subject. I am finding it odd to do this, I am not by a long way the most pedantic of grammarians as James and Ruth can vouch for. Actually although I keep trying to do better I was in the wrong generation at school, the one where they thought it all came naturally and did not need teaching. Hence I have bits but not nearly as much as I should have. This is not helped by the fact that I am a relatively late developer with writing style. I still at writers group often find it difficult to critique others writing.

Friday was the breakfast and we were down with 45 there, but this was a good number, more and we really are exhausted by the end of breakfast. The thing is numerical growth is not what we are aiming at with the breakfast. What we want is to develop is more a sense of community and relationship between those who come. One of our regular breakfasters is starting his masters (I think its his third or fourth) in sports chaplaincy. He has been appointed one of the sports chaplains in Sheffield at least in part due to the immense amount of volunteering he does at sports events. However after breakfast I go back and sleep. On a sadder note Matthew, a ltwenty year old who through most of his childhood been fostered by a local couple, collapsed shortly after the couple returned from holiday and certainly by friday had not regained consciousness. I have not sussed how to deal with my body and breakfast. My major problem is my body insists on checking every two hours during the night whether it is 6 a.m. yet. No chance of me oversleeping but by the end of breakfast I am tired. Oh I don’t think my body would cope with an alarm, it would just keep waking me every couple of hours to check how long it was before the alarm goes off.

Saturday my parents came over. Well I read a paper before they came over from a Presbyterian minister in Bloemfontein. Actually there seems to be a group of ministers doing fairly sensible Congregational Studies in South Africa although they are minister focused and therefore tend to be more managerial/action research. Working as a lay person I actually have more time to gather information but less ability to implement actions. Anyway I got it read and a couple more in store for reading on Mendeley. We went down to Waitrose to shop. Amongst the items was a new ironing board cover for me (I wanted to pick mum’s brain on putting it onto the board but my old cover had persihed) and also I needed to get a new toaster. My old one had started shorting the fuse every time I put it on and before it made toast. Fortunately Waitrose were having a bit of a sale of household goods so I got a £25 one for £17. We also bought lunch which was the real purpose and Dad boughts some coffee beans with the caffeine still in them. For lunch I got hold of same ham filled pasta, some guacamole and a a salad. I cooked the pasta and then stirred in the guacamole rather than use a sauce. It worked pretty well. I also bought the ingredients and mum made up a fruit salad. I forgot to get a fizzy drink for the syrup so had to make it from raw ingredients.

Today I went to Herringthorpe, a poorer than usual turn out possibly doe to the weather,but families often don’t ocme on communion sunday. Next week they have the dedication of the refurbishment of the Clines Hall and a gift day. I am trying to decide if I am going to their coffee morning for charities on the Saturday or if I am having a quiet day in, perhaps reading.

Hair colour and Summer Fairs

High lights this week include the fact that emails were sent out from me telling people what we were planning to do next year and I got emails back that allowed me to adjust the plans so that people could teach. I much rather make these alteration before we hit crises rather than afterwards. Then I made a date for seeing Pauline and also I worked a full week for the first time in ages. That does not mean I have been sick every week but holidays and bank holidays mean I have not had full weeks in work. Oh and I have not had a migraine today after a very heavy day yesterday.

So the week on the whole has been quiet. The regular rhythm of going to work and such. I was at writers group on Monday which went well. Tuesday was just a normal day and Wednesday the only exceptional thing was that I had Dr Nagi to see me and I did a lot of programming for him for his thesis. Data reorganisation mainly but I had learnt one or two tricks so things that could have taken days took minutes. The current favouring of area under the curve worries me. It seems to measure two things together, the level of the variable for which it is calculated and the time that data has been kept for the variable. This would make sense if there was some idea of cumulative damage done by the variable being either too high or too low but normally the variable itself is seen as an indicator of disease progression. They need to have some sort of baseline but starting point isn't a good one. Thursday I took half my day off as I was expecting to be tired after Wednesday and also to try an split a recording up. Friday at last we had a greek class again and have them set up for the summer. I also got my hair cut and it is back short and manageable again. For those who don't know my hair is getting lighter but not going grey. Cathy's I think is doing the same. At an event recently someone for the first time I can recall commented "You'd burn easily with your colouring?". The answer was such a definite "yes" that I have always wondered why people saw me as not having the pale skin, blue eyes look and put it down to having brown hair. So I put it now down to people seeing my hair colour as something of the red scale. Of course its only brown because my genes are indecisive, my mother has black hair and my father red. So my body compromised and I got brown as did Cathy. However the black pigment tends to stop being produced once we hit forty and the result is that our hair is slowly turning a pale red. Most people would see this as a blessing, but oddly when I found I was first doing this I felt most miffed. Going grey was a sign of getting older, going a washed out sand was not a sign of anything in particular and just another half colour to cope with.

Saturday was the Summer Fair at Chesterfield. I got there for around 10:30. I was not the first there by any means but I was fairly early. There was Marion and John plus a friend of Marion, also Nancy and Bill . John would have been there at 8:30 in the morning if he could have but had to wait until 9:00 a.m. for a lift from Bill. Actually people come in shifts, you get the early birds like these, then you get the over lunchers which Helen and Patrick fall into and then you get the catering ladies who do the teas in the church and who only arrive at lunch time. In actual fact John and Bill had an easier job of it this year as the scouts had largely set up the tables. I went to lunch with Marion and John which actually worked out as a brilliant break as they both went to get ready while I could just sit and make notes on what I had seen on the morning. I think the person with the hardest stall this time was Ethel, not because she did not have enough stuff but because she had too much stuff. Seriously the table was loaded when she went home for lunch and she came back to find more stuff had been brought while she was away. At the end of the afternoon the table still looked half full but she had probably sold a table and a half of stuff. I am not surprised she was too tired to make Just desserts on the Evening. The problem with being photograher is that you walk miles during the day. At about 4p.m. I realised that my legs were aching with the walking and standing I was doing. The problem is that you are always moving and on the go and you cannot have a chair to sit down for a while. I also missed the mid afternoon tea and coffee run. I was therefore worn out by the end of the afternoon so I asked Helen for a lift back to the station which she did while Patrick was counting the money. I was rather disconcerted to find on getting into a taxi at Sheffield station to find my legs just folded at the knees rather than try and step up into it.

I took Sunday rather quietly going only to the evening service and getting up when I was ready. The service was on the holy spirit and at one point the tea urn decided to boil in the background. I wasn't the only one in the group to think "Help that isn't Pentecost happening again" when it did so. I calmed myself down by reminding myself that God does not seem to like exact repetitions.

Yesterday was a bit of a washout as I seem to have got a sinus infection from somewhere. I presume it was left over from the cold a couple of weeks back and that having a glass of wine on Sunday stirred up a histamine reaction and that set me up for it. Yesterday at 3:30 p.m. I realised I was fanticising about being in my bed at home having taken pain killers so I thought that the best thing was that I would go home and see what an hour or so in bed would do which meant missing writers group.

Today I have been out to Rotherham to visit Pauline and to see the church. It must now be the largest church in the former district unless one in Doncaster beats them. They have a weekly congregation of about 120 so bigger than St Andrews when I first attended it back in the 1990s. Actually if they are going to set assessment on things I suggest they do a weighted mean of members, attendance, income and reservers and then subtract from that an allowance for new members and children. I suspect we would see growth much quicker with that formulation than any other. The manse like the one at St Andrews is directly connected to the church grounds and they are looking towards extending their buildings even further than it is already, replacing the activity hall with a community hall, that is building a new two storey building. The membership is local the furthest distance travelled is five miles.

Then home relax and finish writing this up.

Later this week I have annual church meeting at Chesterfield and a funeral on Friday as well at Chesterfield. Actually only the second since I came and it is of someone I interviewed. I have to decide how I handle transcription with his wife and there is one photo I took that I also need to think about. I am not playing politics with the church but how do I stop myself being used for politics and is it even right to.

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.