All Change?

Normal life has returned (at last!) after the holiday.  I found myself humming 'Fields of Athenry' the other day, and it somehow seemed old-hat, only a month after I seemed to be humming it all the while in anticipation of seeing if indeed they do lie low as in the song (yes, it is quite flat country thereabouts).  And with normal life comes change.

Change first of all - however briefly - in my background 'habits'.  There's always a 'go to' when I feel I haven't got anything pressing to do and, for many months, it has been census transcription for FreeCen but on Tuesday I discovered in my work at the hospice warehouse, some twin-cassette recordings that were headed for the grinder, recordings of cricket commentaries dating back to before I was born!  I couldn't just see them pass into oblivion so, for a few pence, they accompanied me home.

Some while ago I invested in a little unit to convert cassette recordings into MP3 computer files (in fact, I later bought what I thought was an updated and faster gizmo to do the same thing, only to find it was a re-branded version of the exact same item that I already have so, if you want one second-hand but unused, get back to me) and three evenings this week it has been hard at work computerising over 7 hours of cricket to warm up cold rainy days next winter.

I referred to the census transcriptions: earlier this week I finished the job I had been working on, a Piece of the 1871 census for Suffolk and when I submitted it to the organiser, she replied that there is only one Piece as yet unfinished of this, and that is being worked on.  So there was some debate about what I should like to do next.  I decided to attempt a Piece of the 1841 census, again for part of Suffolk.  A lot of this was recorded in pencil and the images are not easy to read, although I find the angle of the computer screen makes a lot of difference to visibility.  There is less information, so less to copy, but it requires a lot more concentration and, whereas with 1871 I could easily work through 8 or 10 pages in an evening, so far I've done a page of this on each of two evenings and felt 'that's enough for tonight'.

That's two changes ... they go in threes, as you know.  The third one came yesterday morning, when I was at the warehouse again for my other job, as a van help.  A change of routine has meant that the van I usually work on is now being used to collect and deliver donated furniture - something with which, as an asthmatic, I would need to be selective in what help I could give.  This meant that I was re-assigned to help on the other van, visiting the shops with orders and to collect donations as previously.  It has involved a slightly different outlook on life so far as conversation in the cab is concerned; the place of a retired telephone engineer, now semi-professional photographer, with technical interests has been taken by a young chap keen on cars, whose mental capacity was  impaired by a surgical accident some years ago.  A change of pace for me in many ways .. and somehow refreshing!

Now I'm embarking on an exciting weekend, with a striking competition this afternoon (where teams of bell-ringers compare their attempts to ring with perfect timing), and more bells tomorrow afternoon when we shall attempt a quarter peal to welcome the new curate to the parish ... with the additional dimension that, until her ordination tomorrow morning, she has been  a worshipper at the same church that I attend, just across the town!