Little Hampden Organ

One project that will occupy me over the next weeks is the replacement of the organ in Little Hampden Church. We have had an electronic organ vintage 1970s I should think but this has been dying for some time. The engineer has managed to replace the chips as they failed: the last time he succeeded in finding one in the bottom of his bag. But it has given up completely now and gone to the organ loft in the sky. We have been relying on an electronic keyboard for some time – just about adequate but not really in sympathy with the Church.

Our Director of Music found a real pipe organ which was waiting to be restored and suggested that we use this as a replacement. Although larger than the high-tech (mid-tech?) modern organ, it is much more authentic and, I’m sure, will sound much better. I recently attended a service in which the hymns were accompanied by a modern electronic organ which sounded adequate but it lacked something. However, replacing the organ isn’t going to be a simple operation! Not surprisingly, the Church of England is fairly strict about what can be done with the buildings under its custodianship. And fitting the new organ into the tiny Church is not without its problems. Step one was to get permission to use the keyboard as a temporary replacement for the defunct organ: an Archdeacon’s Licence was issued, granting us this permission. But then the fun started....

Still snowed in

I managed to get out of Little Hampden today, thanks to a neighbour’s 4x4. This was rather fun: because there was a blockage on the lane, Geoff decided to go through the field – known locally as the L1.

With many people not able to get to work, I thought it a good time to share some of my experiences with remote working. I have run geographically-dispersed teams where face-to-face meetings were infrequent. Body language plays a large part of communications – whether social or professional. Figures vary but estimates range from 60% to 97% of information is transferred by non-verbal means. You don’t have to be an expert to detect peoples’ feelings and moods from the way in which they react physically. Most remote immediate communications – even today – rely on sound only – so potentially large amounts are missing from the interaction. One of the teams I was involved with used to have regular conference calls. In order to be as productive as possible, we worked hard at developing a range of techniques to make the most of this mode of meeting. The first was to get to know and understand each other as well as possible when we did meet – I tried suggested to my manager that all the team’s face-to-face time should be spent socialising so that we would know everyone’s foibles. She wouldn’t accept this but nevertheless we spent as much time together as possible. We also agreed to be very open with each other when in these calls – if we were uneasy about something we’d own up – rather than just sitting awkwardly. We’d also go round the room (so to speak) at each decision point to confirm that everyone was really OK about it.

We also used messenger and telephone calls whenever we wanted to discuss or query something. We were always chatting – productively, of course, and this helped the team building and group operations. I developed the term ‘Next desk thinking’ for this way of operating: had we been working in the same location, we’d have leaned over and asked a question or commented on something. We tried to operate in the same way even though we were thousands of miles apart – and the technology supported this. As well as speaking informally, we respected times when people wanted to concentrate on some activity – just like we’d have spotted had we actually been in the next desk – but we disciplined ourselves to reject a request – and to accept such a rejection without ill feeling.

Communication is much better now with video calls which we can do from our own PCs – although I think multi-site video calls are not easy to find. I remember on another project introducing video rather than audio-only conference calls with remarkable effect: remote team members suddenly felt much more involved in – and committed to – the discussion. We’ve successfully used this technique recently to interview a candidate who was across the Atlantic. I don’t think we get the full body language yet but we’re getting there.

However, none of this is a substitute for an intensive working meeting in the pub!

Snow and Lasan

We’re snowed in again but the sun was out this morning and it was beautiful.


No 4x4 this time but everyone in the village is making sure we’re all OK. Alvin collected mail and papers yesterday and today. We’ve stocked up with logs and the freezer is full. See you in March?

Gordon Ramsay

Did you see Gordon Ramsay’s F-word tonight? We discovered Lasan in Birmingham a few years ago and have visited a few times since. Everyone was rude when I reported that I’d taken Brenda to Birmingham for her birthday last year (“Birmingham?”) but it’s a great place. There are canal walks, lots of interesting architecture (including an awful concrete shopping centre renamed Paradise Forum – at least they’ve tried) an art gallery and of course shops including the iconic Selfridges.

Lasan is a great Indian restaurant serving traditional food in a modern way. It won the ‘Best Local Restaurant’ on the F-word programme tonight. Well deserved. Other restaurants we found that are amongst the best places we’ve eaten in anywhere are Cielo – an Italian in Brindley Place – and Opus – fantastic food and service to match.

Birmingham’s only an hour or so away on Chiltern Railways – give it a try!

Looking back and forward

Christmas was a busy time so my blogging was rather sporadic and I’ve only just found time to look back and catch up. The last posting was in the run up to Christmas when we were trying to balance the risks of letting people struggle up to Church in the snow and frost with the need to hold services as normal as possible. Well we had a fantastic team of helpers who cleared a path up to Church and who manned the car park. The Christmas services went ahead (apart from the 8am one) and were very well attended. And no accidents were reported.

Did I find time for Christmas? Yes – we had all the family here and thanks to the 4x4 had some turkey to eat! I had to ferry son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren from Missenden – and thanks to Cia for allowing us to park their car on her drive over Christmas. The 4x4 has gone back – but as I draft this it’s snowing hard. But this time we’ll sit it out – we had a load of logs this morning and the freezer is full.

Blogging Advent was nowhere near as good as following a book – like last Christmas and Lent so I’ll have to think again for future periods like these. But for now, I’ll continue with occasional postings covering a range of things. There are lots of things going on: we’ve got some significant capital projects in the Church: repairing the clerestory windows, installation of solar panels and a heat pump, a new organ at Little Hampden. These projects need lots of fundraising activities – and we need to continue to raise money for our other activities.

A few days ago Bishop Alan blogged about the impact of the new communications technologies on life and the Church. This is a topic that interests me at many levels – how – and whether – I should use these, how to reap the benefits without wasting the time that most seem to take. Bishop Alan refers to a number of books but, interestingly, not any on-line references. So in spite of all this new technology, we still rely on books! More on this soon, too.

Meanwhile, back to the inbox – and the snow – it’s still coming down!

Contingency plans

What’s the weather going to do over the next few days? The roads have been very icy the last few mornings but tonight we’ve had rain and the snow appears to be thawing. We’ve cancelled the 8:00am Christmas Service at St Peter & St Paul: it’s just too risky at that time in the morning. The Crib Service, 4:30 Christmas Eve will be in the School Hall – this is better than the Oldham Hall because there’s a stage and the children will be more visible. For the other two services we’ve got contingency plans: the Midnight Communion at 11:30pm (which includes the 9 Carols and Lessons) and the 10:00am Christmas Communion on Christmas Day will either be in the Church or the Oldham Hall. I think by the look of the rain this evening we may be lucky.

The Ballinger services (Christingle at 3:00pm and Midnight at 11:30pm) will take place as scheduled.

Finding time

Another busy day but at least we can get around. A little ribbing from friends about the 4x4 but we’d be completely snowed in without it. Should I be doing some carbon trading to compensate?

Last year at about this time, I tried to find time to read. I don’t think I’ll have much time tomorrow but I’ll try. I’m behind with e-mails, too, and we have some decisions and actions for the Christmas services – will the snow melt? Will it be safe around the Church?

Isolation

Out of the village today courtesy of Becky. I’ve decided that we need to be mobile over the next few days and the forecast is not good so I’ve hired a 4x4. The change from isolation to freedom – at least comparative freedom - made me think of all the people at home and round the world who don’t have our freedom to travel, to access information, to make friends.... So spare a thought and a prayer for the oppressed everywhere.

Eventful weekend...

... or not. Lots of phone calls, texts and e-mails about the snow and possible cancellations of Church things, but we were snowed-in up here at Little Hampden so Neta and her band of helpers had all the real work. The Dahl concert was cancelled – a wise decision because, apart from the difficulty in walking, parking would have been very dangerous on the slopes. A pity because this is a significant fund-raiser but I think most performers gave their time free so not too bad. We just held one service at Great Missenden – in the Church Hall. Our Carol Service at Little Hampden went ahead but we advised people who usually come from outside the village not to risk the ungritted lane. This included the clergy so it was a real do-it-yourself service. Thanks are due particularly to Mary and Geoff who helped with music, prayers and a talk. We had 45 in the congregation – there were only 48 at Great Missenden. It’s not competitive, of course, but as the 48 included three of our regulars we claim a draw. We didn’t, however, have a bishop arriving on a sledge!

From Christmas Cards and Notelets 2009 - possible pictures

Snow

Beautiful snow today. Getting around is difficult but this beauty makes up for closed roads, no mains gas, broadband less than 1Mbps...

From Snow at Little Hampden December 09

From Snow at Little Hampden December 09

From Snow at Little Hampden December 09

Snow makes time

8 inches of snow (sorry, 200mm) forced a stay-at-home day. I had promised to help with copying and stapling – sorry Elizabeth! I even resisted taking pictures although this morning with the blue sky was wonderful. I did take one from the front door – the clear patches were caused by the wind – there was really 200mm in places!


But a day at home was good although there were several calls and e-mails about arrangements for the weekend. My e-mails are mounting up, though. I’ll need to attack them tomorrow.

Contact with friends

One of the suggestions in last year’s Advent ‘Do Nothing for Christmas’ was to make contact with someone who has been on the card list but with whom I’d had no contact for some time. I reconnected with David, an ex work colleague – we had spent many enjoyable days together on various project before we retired. The result was an extremely enjoyable meal together – David and his wife share our interest in the theatre. We agreed at the time to meet again and perhaps share some theatre trips.

David’s card arrived today – with a note that we should arrange another get-together. Yes, we had failed in our promises. So I’m revisiting last year’s action but this time we’ll try to meet more than once.

Have you looked through your Christmas card list and spotted anyone you haven’t seen for some time – and would like to see again?

Children at Christmas

Here’s a statistic that should make you stop and think. I was thinking about children in difficulty over Christmas – and juxtaposing this with yesterday’s story about the homeless, so I did some research and found one statistic repeated many times: there are 130,000 homeless children in the UK. They’re not all on the streets like the WWNS guests, but B&B or temporary accommodation are not the right place for children at any time, and particularly not at Christmas.

Homeless at Christmas

One of last Christmas’s suggestions was to find out about the homeless locally. This led to my contact with the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter and a supporting them through the period of their operations – January to March – last year. We are supporting them as one of the Christmas charities in Church and I’ll be suggesting my IT Friends donate to them again in the first three months next year. I just hope I’ll have more time to sort out PC problems than I have had this quarter.

My first reaction to homeless locally was “ Homeless? Around here? Surely not” but the WWNS experience soon put me right. Their success is nothing short of spectacular: last winter, they had 48 guests during the three months, including 9 women. By the end of March, 40 of these had moved on to some form of accommodation – hostels, family, shared housing etc. Unfortunately 4 were still on the streets. Before I saw the report, I had thought that getting 10% off the streets would have been a success but over 80% is spectacular.

I’ll try to blog more about the WWNS later – but you can see something of their operations on their web site. Meanwhile, it’s a thought that while we are trying to find time for Christmas, there are people not far away struggling with a whole different set of problems.

Christmas Lights

The puds have been steaming all day – not the greenest of food! But what about Christmas Lights? I haven’t seen any OTT examples yet this year – here are some I spotted last year.



I thought I’d track down some solar-powered Christmas lights – and I found Nigel’s Eco Store. Nigel has lots of environmentally-friendly things including lights. Maybe just in time for last-minute shopping – on the internet, of course, so no travelling to the shops.