Ups and Downs

All weeks have their ups and downs, and this one has been no different. Somehow, though, I've been more aware of them this week.  Maybe it's just a side-effect of the new financial year.  It's not obvious, of course, just what's an 'up' and what's a 'down'.  Take an exchange I had last Friday with a friend on social media.  I was bemoaning the prospect of a late homecoming, and the knock-on effect of having to make a choice the next day between family history research and watching a football match, because now there wouldn't be enough time to do both.  It was assumed that there would be a good (financial) outcome, nevertheless, and reference was made to 'gold' and 'silver' weeks - expressions that I've already defined here.  I quashed the idea that this would be a 'gold' week, because I'd travelled nearly 2,000 miles, and answered the obvious question (what would be golden mileage?) with a lower figure. My suggestion that this mileage would probably result in a 'silver' week also proved to be incorrect, because in making it, I'd failed to take into account the fact that there had been little 'doubling-up' of jobs to increase the productivity of each mile driven.  So, ups and downs aren't easy to identify.

Another confusing factor in this general discussion, is the pleasant nature of some jobs compared to others.  For example, I always like going to Scotland because of the challenge posed by the distance, the lovely scenery, and not least the very novelty element, since such opportunities are quite rare.  The same criteria also apply, if to a slightly lesser extent, to Wales; and Ireland has the additional excitement of the ferry crossing too.  But jobs to Scotland and Wales aren't good in the sense of productivity, unless they are combined with a second job, because otherwise the rate per mile is rock bottom for all that distance, which is often a high proportion of the week.  On the other hand, a boring day taking two jobs around the M25 in the morning, and then a couple of jobs into Essex in the afternoon, might well be sufficient to meet the day's target - but would that day be good or not; would it be an 'up' or a 'down'?

So, what has this week been like?  Monday was a good day in many ways.  It started with an early collection in Royston and an unhindered run down to Ashford, Kent, and then, without stopping, four more jobs followed concluding at West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds.  The last three of these jobs had overlapped, and so their productivity was high, too.

I was glad, too, to be back by the early evening, because our ringing practice was rather special.  The lady who, for many years, had been the verger, caretaker, and general 'go-to' person at the church where we ring, died recently and her body had been brought into the church that evening in readiness for the funeral the following day.  It had been her wish that ringing should continue as it ever would, but after our practice we gathered in the church together with the clergy, the widower and a handful of parishioners, and joined in the simple service of Compline, standing around the coffin.  It was not at all eerie, but a wonderfully solemn and quite moving occasion, for we had all known her, and it seemed a fitting opportunity for a last farewell. RIP Jean.

The only other 'good' day this week was one of those that are not so productive, but merely enjoyable.  On Wednesday I took some air conditioning equipment to an electronics firm on the outskirts of Blandford Forum in Dorset, and delighted in the drive across Salisbury Plain, and past Stonehenge.  In the afternoon, after returning home, I experienced a totally different sort of 'up and down', when I tripped as I returned to the van after paying for fuel, and fell between the pump and the wing of the van.  I'm amused, looking back, to realise that, after assessing the minimal personal damage, my next thought was for the fact that the keys that I'd been holding in my hand had scratched the wheelarch.  I told the van, 'Sorry,' and wiped the scratch with my finger, before getting to my feet.  It wasn't until Thursday afternoon that I realised that my elbow was hurting, and imagination suggested that I might have chipped a bone, because my self-examination at the time hadn't revealed any external cuts.  Later, since elbows are among the most difficult bits of the body to look at, I used a mirror, and discovered a small cut just on the bit of the elbow that I would lean on against the arm-rest in the van, or on my desk.

And finally this week, another 'up-and-down' example, already familiar to any of my readers who, like me, are keen on family history.  In a less than successful attempt to deal with the problems of increased popularity, the well-known company findmypast has now released a totally new website to enable access to its growing range of data sources for genealogists.  Unfortunately thousands of its customers, including me, have found this to be virtually unusable.  The changes seem to be geared to providing a single entry point for many different kinds of database.  The result is that they've made searches much more difficult, rather than easier.  For example, last night I spent an hour and a half trying unsuccessfully to find someone on a census - an exercise that would probably have taken a quarter of the time, and likely to have been successful too, using the old system that is now, unfortunately, irretrievable.

Grouse over - climbs down from soapbox.  More news next week, which will begin with another of those 'enjoyable unproductive jobs' . . . to Rhayader in the middle of Wales!