Michael's Meanderings

Ballroom Dance classes every Tuesday revised cha cha, tango & rumba. Finally started on learning a new jive sequence
This month train travel was severely disrupted due to "staff illness" & strike action. This was also the case with the previous month. I got a £24.20 refund!
Ordered an Amazon Fire Tablet for my younger sister & brother in law as an anniversary (and birthday) present.
Yoga is continuing though the numbers have been down often only 3-4 students. At least I didn't miss any classes due to rail strikes this month.
Took a day off work so I could go to a Library talk "Discovering family history resources ancestry"
Brighton SF Book discussed "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" this time I didn't re-read the book!
I posted my EU Referendum voting papers, in advance of the deadline. Which meant that I could discount all the noise & fury leading up to the Day.
Sad that "the people" decided to leave the EU, hopefully we will survive the experience, even if the the government doesn't!
The people next door have decided to extend the lower floor of their house into their garden, it a bit of an eyesore and caused some damage to my fence!
All the downstairs lights went off mid month, when the external light (which had been on for 3 years) stopped working!
I was notified of my annual asthma review in May but finally got around to it at the end of this month. all is under control!
I made a backup of my Calibre ebook library on to a USB stick, over a thousand books in that collection.
The end of the month social dance, was not very near the end of the month, it was also more lightly attended then normal, but then it is "summer".

With Barnes & Noble / Nook leaving the UK market (only one book I bought has been transfered to Sainsburys), I decided to root my Nook - It was out of warranty anyway.
It was relatively straight forward; using NookManager, allowed me to finally browse the net on the Nook tablet, I've been unable to run the kindle app on it but the Kobo app seems to work. and generic epubs can be easily read.
Went to see Zootropolis which was a sci-fi, cop buddy, animated feature. well worth a watch
Dance classes continued every Tuesday, and this month we had an extra Saturday dance mid month. Finally started to learn some new Latin steps (in Cha Cha)
It was my 55 birthday this year, so I can technically take early retirement - I decided not to. But the family got together for a meal the Saturday before.
The second Monday is SF Book Club and as this was on my actual birthday I ate at the pub (rather than the cheaper Burger King / Subway) drinks were also purchased for my fellow readers.
Also for a change I had just completed reading " "Station Eleven" by Emily St John Mandel, this month book to read. Once it got going it was an interesting example of Literary SF (it won the Clarke Award last year)
The following day went to lunch with J before we went dancing, extra long weekend!
Started listening to Audible; audio books; again (after not listening at all during March). Especially the Noctis Magicae series by Sylvia Izzo Hunter - looking forward to the 3rd in the series.
I have a belt bag that I keep all the stuff I need every day (keys, wallet, pen etc) it was hand made a number of years ago. While the leather is still in good shape the seams have been coming apart. I returned to the shop (Clever with Leather in Brighton) and they repaired all the seams and replaced the belt attachments for £5!
As a belated birthday present I decided to buy myself an Amazon Fire Tablet for £49, it arrived only a few days later and was a delight, nearly the size of a paperback (though thinner) and with the ability to read kindle books aloud, download and read epubs (inc library books) watch video and of course browse the net and check email, it even has a pair of cameras (though not the greatest quality).
Finally uploaded my Eastercon report to LJ!

Renewed my season ticket for the month £212.80, Contract at work has been extended again!
Used up all the eVouchers I had accrued due to train Delay Repay to pay for my ticket to Marks Tey, for this year's Filkcon
Took half day off so that I could go to the Matinee of Private Lives at The Theatre Royal in Brighton
Next day off to Con2bil8 (The 28th UK Filk Convention), 5th – 7th February, 2016 at The Marks Tey Best Western Hotel
With UK Guest of Honour: Piers Cawley and Overseas Guests of Honour: Stone Dragons (Tom & Sue Jeffers)
Discovered the Bungalow Diner just a few minutes down the road. Ate most of my meals there, an English version of an American diner.
Went to Earth & Stars pup on second Monday for SF reading club where we discussed The Diamond Age.
Went to The Hawth to see The Last Tango with Vincent Simone & Flavia Cacace, no dancing this week.
Learning new steps in Foxtrot, an revised this every week, Social dance was a week early as the school was using the space for a play.
Forgot my yoga gear one week so missed that class. The funding by NHS stopped this month so we decided to continue funding the class personally at around £6 per week.
One of the irritations of the yoga class was that when we moved the tables in the conference room many off the legs fell off! I finally found an Allen key which allowed me to tighten the appropriate screws and now none of the legs detach!
Listened to audible books almost every day usually for over an hour, due to having the St Mary's Chronicles by Jodi Taylor, to listen to.
Updated The Bujold Nexus - (Bibliography). Need to update more regularly as it is coming up to the 20th Anniversary!
Saw Deadpool at the Dome cinema in Worthing. One of the best moves I seen in the last year. Rather more adult in nature than the usual super hero fare but funnier too.
Used paper Delay Repay vouchers to get ticket to London for Picocon 33 on 20th. Guests of Honour: Paul Cornell, Carrie Hope Fletcher & Michelle Paver. Had to leave early as the social dance was this evening.
Booked bed at YHA in Manchester for this years Eastercon. I've also got membership of Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, Finland.
Got two hardback books from amazon at enough discount that it was paper back price. Amazon locker in town is really handy.

Suffered cold and had to take time off work. Ballroom dancing classes every Tuesday, but not for the last two weeks
Yoga classes also continued except for the last two weeks of the month.
Bought an amazon fire TV stick, not quite as useful as it seemed in reviews and TV adverts!
Christmas Dance in Steyning Alice & Bradley demo and End of Year Dance in Crawley, demo Sam & Shannon
Brighton SF Book Club had a Christmas party with is short discussion of Bill the Galactic Hero
Visited the Chiropractor, had an issue with my right shoulder.
Finally sent out Christmas cards, and got amazon voucher for xmas presents
Completed Fire Safety training online to complete all mandatory work training - still need face to face fire safety training
Got train and bus to my parents and sister's family home on xmas eve, took 2 hours 30 min (car takes 20 min)
Spent Christmas with my family, came home to discover my shower had failed, had to buy replacement.
Last Tuesday in the month went to the Rocky Horror Show with J, at the Theatre Royal in Brighton.

As J had just returned from 6 weeks travelling across Canada, we had to have a catch up private dance lesson. Managed to cover all the new material, and revised those bits she had forgotten!
Went to see The Martian at The Dome Worthing in 3D. It was very impressive, almost everything in the film occurred in the book (except for the coda at the end). and they managed to show the highlights without it feeling incomplete (see Dune for a counter example)
Nominee contender for next year's Hugo Awards? I still think the audiobook was the best version though.
Dance classes every Tuesday, revised Viennese waltz, learned new steps in rumba.
Saw Dr Who, and the new Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries series.
Worked on Scratch programming via Coursera, it's a lot more involved but simple.
Yoga class continues for an hour every Wednesday after work
The Brighton SF Reading group discussed King David's Spaceship, which I actually managed to finish! Not the liveliest discussion.
Went in to surgery on a Saturday for my yearly flu jab, despite arriving at 8:30 there was already a long queue, it went down quickly.
This was followed by a visit to my chiropractor, who indicated that my posture had improved since I started yoga.
Bought a load of clothes at ASDA, and had to hem one pair of trousers due to being too long. but only pair in my waist size ;-(
Got a first day cover of star wars stamps - very pretty
Saw Back to the Future (part 1 & 2) on the 21st. Booked the following day off, as there was a drop in session at the library I was interested in.
However Gentleman Joel & the Red Queen eARC by Lois McMaster Bujold was published the previous day so instead I spent the day reading my favourite author!
On Thursday 28th my dance teacher organised a night out at a theatre in London, however due to miscommunications I didn't discover I was invited until Tuesday (two days before!),
I had to get emergency time off of a couple of hours on Thu which was allowed and met up with J and other early.
Saw Pig Farm at St James Theatre, 12 Palace Street SW1E 5JA seat C20 about 2m from the stage! Performance from 7:30-9:30 with intermission, interesting choice - only 4 on stage roles.
Not something I would have paid to see but for free!... Got home 11:20!
Went social dancing on the last two Saturdays of the month. First with Strictly Dance Magic at Burgess Hill School for Girls, then with Crawley Dance Academy at St Wilfrid's School Crawley.
Clocks went back an hour on 25th at 2am/1am

OK so this was a very busy and important month. The first thing being the wedding of my niece L to her fiance S
This was at least 2 years in the planning and went off without a hitch, to the very great happiness of my sister.
The wedding was in an old barn! and the reception was in another building on the same site.
The sun was shining all afternoon and we had perfect weather, I was even social with friends and relatives.
After eating pizza later in the afternoon - J (dance partner) arrived for the evening and we danced and conversed until she took me home.

There are some perks to working for the NHS and one of them occurred this month. A 8 week class for beginners in yoga was to be held after work - for free!
I signed up, as yoga is something I have been wanting to try for a while, as it has a beneficial effect on back issues, and it might allow me to be able to touch my toes!
We are now halfway through and it is much more exhausting than expected, given you don't move from your mat during the hour class.
I was asked if I might be interested in a permanent position if one came up. I then got a number of forms to fill out, but no one actually told me about the job in question, so I been waiting to find out what next!

I had my eyes checked a couple of months back - as this was a work related requirement I got a voucher from the agency for free test and free standard lenses
(I normally have varifocals) I decided to get a pair of glasses with a focal length at arms length - free VDU glasses.
I've been wearing them 2 months now and it's much easier to view the screens, but long distance is fuzzy (still clearer than no glasses)
I'm still using varifocals for normal use though.

Been dancing on my own as J is on a 6 week trip across Canada. Meant I only got a few dances at the social, and dancing with the teacher in class
I have also started reading the LMB mailing list again (after a hiatus of a number of years) on my iPhone during my train commute

I got Terry Pratchett's, last books and it was a perfect swan song, not his best book ever but perfect for a last remembrance.
I've also started back listening to audible books, not least because of the low priced Deal of the Day! Got and listed to The Martian" sad wasn't nominated for the Hugo, looking forward to the movie.
Have now listened to all of Pat Wrede's Frontier Magic series, well worth the time needed to listen (even though I have read them all)

I also went to Earth & Stars on first Monday expecting the SF Reading Group meeting only realise that the meets had moved to the 2nd Monday of the month! (My diary had the correct date!)
However three of us turned up to chat generally about SF and had a pleasant evening.
The following Monday I returned after finishing "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: A Novel", a number of new readers turned up and a lively discussion occurred.

Discovered that it is now impossible to download the epub files for the Nook, the Windows readers are no longer supported (in the UK) so there is no way of downloading the files.
Now only readable on my hardware Nook or phone apps. Will be buying from kobo, google or amazon in future (as all allow download to PC).
Also on the Amazon front discovered that amazon has installed a locker in The Martlets in town, near the library, next to Lidl - which is more convenient than trying to get deliveries to my house while I'm working.
The first book I collected from "Dimple" was a Modesty Blaise Graphic novel.

Watched the Hugo Awards (after the fact - I didn't want to stay up past 3am) and bought membership to Worldcon75 in Helsinki. I've been to all the European worldcons since 1979 and don't want to miss this milestone.

I reinstalled the current version of Ubuntu LTS to my multi boot USB drive (boot loader corrupted) which meant the creation of a bootable ubuntu USB drive. This doesn't work on my Windows 8 laptop!

Bought a small portable drive to backup my videos and ebooks, needed 2 usb sockets so will try a pen drive for my ebooks and install Calibre portable to manage them.

Visited the dentist for a checkup and x-ray, haven't heard anything so all should be well. Also visited chiropractor, who agreed that yoga was a very good thing (TM) for back issues!

Marvel's Agent Carter did finally get broadcast on Sky (in UK) hurrah!

Continued watching iZombie (only a few days after US broadcast), also new Thunderbirds are go, saw Last episode of The Mentalist and 200th episode of Bones (gave up on both series a while back)
For Free Comic Book Day I visited Dave's Comics in Brighton and got goodie bag of comics
Decided to continue the series started by one - so visiting Uncanny Comics near work. Also ordered some from Forbidden planet (cheaper than amazon even with postage)
Bought a new Acer Aspire ES1512 from Tesco for only £179, comes with Windows 8.1 ;-( (and free one year license for Windows 10!)
After collecting from local store (ordered online) had to configure and removed unwanted buyware, downloaded Windows 8 updates and then installed then (total time over 6 hours!)
A number of trains delayed, so was able to claim a tiny delay refund!
Saw Avengers: Age of Ultron at local cinema (Sunday matinee in 2D)
Dance classes on Tuesday with J revised foxtrot, waltz, tango
General and local elections didn't effect me as I voted postally before canvassing started in earnest!
Finally got around to adding £10 to my iPhone account, got £20 free credit in addition - was unable to use it all up, within 1 month!
Listened to The Master Magician (via audible) last in trilogy and finished in one day!
Got my eyes tested at Specsavers (with work voucher test and glasses were free) but could only get single VDU lenses for free. Eyes hadn't changed enough to justify replacing varifocals
Started watching new dramatisation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell on BBC1, I may finally get the the end of the story having failed to finish both the original book and the audio edition.
Binged on Castle series 6, repeated prior to series 7, missed due to sky box crash last year.
Re-watching Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries series 2
Reserved Uprooted by Naomi Novik from library and read in one day
Started new Coursera class - An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1)
Last Saturday in the month si social dance nigh BUT this month was the annual Loraine Barry lecture and tea dance.
Loraine is a World, European, British Open, International, US & Irish Champion, and friend of my Dance Teacher! Gave a workshop on posture and footwork in foxtrot, waltz and tango
Last Sunday in the month saw Tomorrowland, which was better than it might have been if a bit parasitic at the end.
So a pretty busy month, not least - first full month back at work.

First Monday of the month at Brighton SF Reading group discussed The Disappeared, I had actually completed this one!
Danced every Tuesday of the month with J - learnt/revised new steps to quickset, waltz and foxtrot - also new sally anne cha cha
Finished listening to The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
Saw Saturday Night Fever at the Theatre Royal in Brighton - took day off and went to matinee
Terry Pratchett died 12 march! I couldn't remember if I'd ever actually spoken to him or not, then I discovered a personally signed copy of Strata from 1987. So I must have told him my name at least.
Made black cape for relay pig (at work) RH then created bat mask from paper
Went to visit my family - continued on pottermore.com and got early birthday present from my sister.
Helped sister make sunday dinner!
Got confirmation that work contract ending on March 31
Sasquan (Worldcon 2015) PR3 arrived. Sent in request for partial refund of train ticket due to delays
Social dancing on last Saturday in Crawley, tried to create a Jive sequence out of steps learnt, as not given an official sequence of any length since J&I started dancing together nearly 2 years ago.
Trains delayed on last day of work, got to office 8:10 for 8:00 start!
At dance class got small easter eggs from teacher and larger one from J.

Spent New Year's Day with J, went for walk in Bucham Park before lunch (kangaroo steaks!)
Saw The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn on TV (I have not been watching many films of TV of late
Bought Texet Power Bank (to recharge iPod) £6 at Wilco (reduced from £8), this will extend the time before I will be forced to buy a replacement.
Listened to Good Omens on iPlayer - BBC Radio production
Prior to going to to book group heard a bus knock down a pedestrian! (in the argus later) traffic stopped for hours.
To Earth & Stars pub for SF Book meeting "Good Omens" new people turned up
Sky box crashed and deleted ALL content I'd saved over the years!
Dancing wit J on Tuesdays, started to learn a new series of waltz steps.
Decided to re-read daughter of the empire (and its sequels) by wurst & feist and couldn't find my copies.
Discovered library copies at Worthing so got 1st book from there and the other 2 from Brighton (which didn't have the 1st book!)
Saw "Into the Woods" at the cinema in BH. New series of The Librarians is great fun, hope it continues, (but very Warehouse 13).
Saw dentist and got a temp filling in top left, needs proper filling next month.
Booked two tickets to see "Return to the Forbidden Planet" at the Theatre Royal in Brighton (stalls). J & I went to the matinee performance.
J had not seen it before while I'd seen at least 10 prior version. 'twas excellent as usual!
Ordered 3 throwing knives, which arrived very quickly - but were smaller than expected. I will have to source a board to throw at.
Backup of my LJ account to DW
Got my hair cut. Saw the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures (3 programs). Got first 3 episodes of Agent Carter from JA at work, very period - pity not being shown in the UK. Trying to play digital media on TV fails.
Last day of the month was the Social Dance in Crawley

Saw last of series of Doctor Who, mowed lawns for the last time this year. Also managed to move 4 bags of earth from where it had been dumped.
Able to use bath for the first time (even though showering is a bit iffy as no curtain as yet installed - though ordered).
The Brighton SF Reading group met in the Earth & Stars pub and discussed a P K Dick collection
Went dancing every Tuesday evening with social dancing on the last Saturday and Practice eight days prior to this.
Backed C E Murphy's new kickstarter (which has been successfully funded)
Got "new" monitors at work, a pair with a longer stand, providing a higher screen, which gives a better sight line.
Had my first one to one / supervision! I was on track and hitting all targets!
Went to see doctor re pain in my left foot instep, got pain meds over a 2 week course.
Ordered a new shower curtain, which works like a roller blind! very cool and should keep the floor dry too.
Use Calibre to transfer some ebooks to my new Nook
Finally defrosted my freezer (over a year since last done).
Strictly Come Dancing continued on Saturday and Sunday getting too close to call the result. Anyone's game.