Michael's Meanderings

While I was away D got a lot of repairs done to the house. Most importantly the hot water pipes got replaced, they had been leaking, very slowly for a while, and had corroded. He also repaired the grouting in the bathroom, raised the bath a tad and replace the drain pipe so it emptied properly, replaced the carpet with the tiles remaining from the kitchen and anchored the sink to the wall properly!

He also fitted a new gutter and drainage pipe to the porch, and it now drains into a large water barrel, with an overflow to the drain (which has been excavated from the dirt!)

This last week has been hectic at work as two members of the Ops team are on leave, and one is on maternity leave. I've also returned to encrypting laptops so things are busy.

Double Vision from SRM Publisher arrived the day after I'd put in an order for copy of it and a couple of chap books. I emailed kinzel so hopefully I won't get a duplicate. But if I do I'm sure I can find it a good home, it was a fun read.

The LX/Orbital Souvenir / Program book also arrived this week bringing back memories of Eastercon of this last year and the year before. This is a much better solution to the "cool book" for each member, as it give you what actually happened rather than what was hoped to happen (even though I didn't find any snaps of me anywhere ;-).

This weekend has been very busy. I was up early on Saturday as I had my first chiropractic appointment in a month, not too bad but must practice my ballance more (if I use my new bike enough it should help). Since it was a nice sunny day I walked from Hove to Brighton stopping of at Celly's hairdresser to get my hair cut, for the first time in years. This is because my passport is due for renewal and I want to look my best ;-) I'd checked out the hairdressers as I passed and prices ranged from £13 to £35 for a wet cut, so when I saw the price at Celly's was only £9 with walk-ins only, no appointment allowed, I knew I had to stop. Less than 20 minutes after arrival I'd been washed cut and left!

Got back home to help D clear the main gutter of dirt and moss, using a high power water spray. It was fun but tiring having to aim the water nozzle at the roof and being up a ladder didn't help. Then went into town for my first real shop in four weeks, my trolley was overflowing, when I returned home.

Sunday morning I wasn't up so early (just after 9:00) read for a while, then around noon D and I went back to re-glue the gutter. It's now mostly fixed but may need one more application for a thorough water proofing.

After this I went for my first bike ride, on a real road (ie not the driveway behind the house). It was a bit scary, and I wobbled a bit but it was fun too. But even the short ride to the nearby roundabout was a bit tiring, I'll have to practice regularly.

Today is the 30th anniversary of my first convention (Seacon 79 in Brighton) so I celebrated by going to the local cinema and seeing G-Force. A live action adventure, where the main characters and heroes are guinea pigs! The CG character integrated seamlessly into the real life action such that you forgot they couldn't be real.

When I got home I caught up on four hours of "Legend of the Seeker" fairly generic fantasy, but the scenery is good (not just the location!)

So last weekend I ordered a bike form ASDA for £75 inc delivery and it was delivered last Tuesday. D put it together for me, and i tried it out last night. I was a bit wobbly as it must be 25 years since i was last on a bike. The bike I rode then only had 4 gears, my new one has 18! I suspect it will take a while to figure out how to use them properly.

When I got home yesterday C and his family were cutting down the tree at the front of the house. He promised to do this months ago, and then turns up just before we had alternative arrangements in place. So there is now light in the kitchen and the bathroom.

Yesterday at work I had to had over the laptop encryption and keyfob rollout projects. It was a bit hectic getting everything finished before the end of the day, but nice to know it's in good hands, and that I've got 2 weeks off!

This morning i wasn't up quite as early as normal, and after packing a new backpack (sized for weekend travel) caught the 10:23 Thameslink to St Pancras International. Walked across the road to Kings Cross and caught the 12:15 express to Cambridge. Arriving just after 13:00, I got a taxi to Murray Edwards College, (previously New Hall) collected registration materials, paid for my room, got the key and then got to room K8 by 13:30.

Wired Internet is available in my room, though I did have a little bit of trouble getting my eeepc to connect at first. but as you can see perseverance paid off.

Later:
Since the con doesn't officially start until 18:30 I decided to walk into town and have a look around. On my way in, the Cambridge and County Folk Museum caught my eye. So I went in, paid my £3.50 entry fee, and spent over an hour wandering it's 3 floors. The building dates from 1600AD and for 300 years was the White Horse Inn. It became a museum in 1936. It reminded me a bit of 18 Folgate Street, probably due to age and twisty stairs.

I then continued into town and almost got persuaded into a punt on the river, but decided not to.

I did get something to eat at Tatties though, before returning to the con.

The next three weekends I going to be away. Next week at Constitution in Cambridge, then Anticipation in Montreal and then the local juggling festival at The Hawth.

So the last two weeks or so at work have been hectic, working as part of the team working on laptop encryption. Usually I might get one or two voice mail messages a week, over the last two weeks I've had 10+ a day! We've encrypted nearly 600 laptops so far and are nearly done!

I re-read the last 3 Harry Potter books prior to seeing The Half Blood Prince at the Cinema. I think they got the balance right, turning a book that long into a movie requires cuts and modifications, and I think it turned out OK.

A week ago last Thursday I went to City Airport at Docklands, just so I could tell how long it took to get there, and to find it. Since I'm flying from there to Montreal via Amsterdam next Tuesday. I also stopped off to see the Thames Barrier an then stopped at Gatwick for something to eat, as it was getting late.

Last Saturday after getting my back adjusted I walked from Hove to Brighton, since it was sunny. My niece was due to bungee jump on Saturday and when I spotted a crane on the seafront I texted to find out where she was. When I got home I discovered that the crane I'd passed was the one she'd jumped from!

I haven't managed to get many walks around Bedelands recently, due to poor weather at the weekend, and inertia! I have however been walking from Hove to Brighton, when it hasn't been raining, so I think that makes up for it. This Saturday I managed to buy some fresh Tamarinds, which I hadn't tasted since I was living in Barbados 40 years ago. The same shop also had fresh sugar cane but it was expensive, and wasn't my favourite even as a kid.

I've just ordered a new bike from ASDA it was only £75 including delivery, but at least I'll find out if I can still ride, and enjoy the process. I haven't been on a bike in about 30 years so... I didn't want to spend a few hundred pond and then discover I hated it ;-)