Michael's Meanderings

So first weekend in February was filkcon, (see prevous post) I got my ECDL certificate and it's now hanging on my kitchen wall. I've also watched Terry Pratchett: A Life with Altzheimer's a two part documentary fly on the wall following Terry for a year.

After my Saturday chiropractor adjusted my back, since it was a nice day, I walked from Hove to Brighton stations (I also wanted to visit one of the shops at Seven Dials), it was an interesting experience, but I don't think I'll be doing it again ;-)

So the third weekend in February I finally fulfilled a promise to my sister and visited her and my brother in law in their house in Somerset. When they moved there over a year ago I said I'd visit, and now finally I have. I hope my next visit isn't quite so long before it occurs.

Some Photos

So I left work on Friday at lunch time from Paddington station to Bath Spa, then to Castle Cary where I was collected by my sister. We went to their "new" home and after dinner saw "Flushed Away" and "Igor" on DVD before going to bed.

Saturday morning and sister and I went off to the Discworld Emporium where we met Bernard and Isobel and after an hour of browsing I bought a post card and a small "fossil". We visited a couple of libraries during the day, but then went next to Glastonbury where we had pizza for lunch. We then caught the special tourist bus to Glastonbury Tor. We walked to the top where we were nearly blown away but it was clear enough to see for miles. We then caught the last bus back to town (just before the car park ticket expired)

We then went to Cheddar Gorge which we drove down and then back again, had a walk around bought some mead and then bought a take out Chinese dinner. After we ate sister and I returned to Glastonbury where we saw the amateur production of "Lord of the Bling - The 21st Annual Glastonbury Pantomime" started at 8pm and finished at 11pm! then back home and bed after a very full day.

Sunday we left at 10am for Wookey Hole where we spent the day. We first joined the tour of the caves. Then we went through the fairy garden and the Dinosaur Valley (including wooden dragon and King Kong) then through the Paper Mill which has only just shut down as a working paper making enterprise. We saw the Wookey Hole Youth Circus perform, all participants under 16 and only been learning for two years. Then lunch after which we did further exploring and found the clown museum, tho old penny arcade, the mirror maze, the cave museum, and the bear museum, an finally exclaimed over a figure of Captain Jack Sparrow.

By this time it was mid afternoon and we wound up the day by visiting Wells, the Bishop's Gardens, The Cathedral and The Crown. The former and latter being used as locations for Hot Fuzz watched later. We also managed to get to the Museum 15 minutes before it closed to see a display on circus in the UK. After a Hot Chocolate at the Crown we went home and a snoozed for a couple of hours (it had been an exhausting two days! When I woke up it was time for dinner, and excellent roast pork and veg, which we ate while watching the aforementioned Hot Fuzz. Unfortunately the DVD was corrupted just 20 minutes from the end ;-( Since I had enjoyed it very much and wanted to know how it turned out I went on-line to get a copy from Amazon!

On Monday I had to get up at the crack of dawn (i.e. my usual work day get up time) as my sister was unable to get a window in her work schedule before my train left! Fortunately one of her work colleges was actually going near the station anyway and was able to give me a lift. This did entail waiting a hour in my sister car and another hour at the station but I did get on the direct train to London from Castle Cary at 9:40 and thence home by 1:30pm

PS Hot Fuzz arrived a few days later and the ending was excellent!

A month since my last post and I only just got back from the US! My first 2 days back at work were spent in VMWare training. I wish I've had time to actually do some hands on since I finished.

I got a new Palm TX, this was my third and according to Amazon the most expensive! It's probably due to Palm not creating a new device, and stock running out. But I've been using Palms for 7 years and I think I'll continue to.

While staying with filkferengi I was introduced to Leverage and I've been grabbing them off the net over the last month or so a bit silly but fun.

Farringdon station is in the middle of being rebuilt as part of the Thameslink Programme and so far the most visible change is a re-built bridge across the tracks. (Photos may appear at some future date).

On the first of February it started snowing, and it kept snowing all night such that on Monday morning the country was covered. Being the good drone I am I walked carefully to the railway station, only to discover that no trains had run that morning and that none were expected. So I decided that I'd return to the warm and Work from Home. This turned out to be a good idea as no-one in my team did manage to get in to the office, and neither did most of the rest of the London workforce, as both the Underground and buses didn't run.

Apart from testing out remote working, successfully, I managed to build a small snowman during lunch (it survived nearly a week). I did get back in to work on Tuesday!

The next / first weekend in February was the uk filkcon AXXIdental in Grantham and they still had inches of snow everywhere. While there was a risk of further snow on Sunday, the light dusting we did get meant there were no traveling problems, when I left on Monday.

Guests were Ookla the Mok and Richard "Hitch" Wheatley with double concerts from each. Hitch' sax triplet was eye opening.

The High light of the con, for me at least was the live performance of the Before the Dawn filk musical. 2 hours of musical theatre.

Next year Van Der Filk returns to Grantham.

My actual ECDL certificate finally arrived, It will be hung on the kitchen wall when I get around to it! The wreck that had been sitting next to my garage for the last few years has now been removed.

And now I'm only just over a week behind real time, more later?

I don't normally make New Year resolutions, but I feel that I really ought to be able to post at least once a month!

I finally realised I hadn't posted in over two months and if I don't do so today, I won't have my diary to refer to!

So back at the end of October....

I took some training in Powerpoint, which allowed me to take the final module of the ECDL, which I passed! It's not too technical a qualification, but it's the only the second IT related one I've got (3rd if you count an "OA" level taken in 1978!)

In mid November I went to the Hawth theatre twice. First to see Cirque du Glace - circus on ice. The whole stage was iced over, and most of the performers were on skates. There was ice dancing as well as the usual circus performances. The second was to see Shades of Brown, a one woman show, high lighting issues of skin colour. A tour du force, the writer / performer (Rani Moorthy) was on stage all the time (even when costume changing).

I started watching "Sanctuary" on ITV4 using ITVPlayer as my sky+ box had finally died! Last in the series is going to be on TV this Monday (sky+ box replaced over Christmas). Also have been watching "Merlin" and "Strictly Come Dancing" on BBC1, both now finished and "Fringe" on Sky1 also on my PC with SkyPlayer, but when I tried to view the last episode (ep10) it wouldn't work, so I'll have to find it elsewhere.

Finally booked my flight to Atlanta and hotel for Gafilk, though with the exchange rates and petrol prices it was a bit higher than in previous years. I look forward to seeing friends again, and hearing good music.

I've bought a new camera, as the old one fell apart when I was in Denver last year. It uses an SD card and can record video (but the sound isn't so good). It's smaller and made of metal, rather than plastic, so I hope it lasts better.

Jugging class finished a few weeks back, for this term. It will restart in the New Year, but due to Gafilk I'll miss the first 2 weeks. (previously it was on Monday so with the plane schedules I only missed one week, now it's later so I miss two!) We have been doing quite a lot of passing, with both balls and clubs. I used the new camera to take some video I may post them some time.

December 12th was our staff Christmas party / dinner. It was in the evening and I though the meal was quite good, some how I managed to have two christmas pudding, though I decided not to drink, so that may have balanced out.

I've finally managed to get Ubuntu to run on my eeepc from an SD card, as if it were a writable Live CD and with the wireless function working! I'm using the Eeebuntu Netbook Remix which works like a charm. But it still takes twice as long to boot as Puppy Linux which is also now working from SD Card.

And so I'm nearly up to date. Two weeks ago I saw a double bill of "The Tale of Despereaux" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" at the local cinema. Then we get to Christmas which I spent with my parents, and sister and her family. Oh yes my niece has just past her driving test, only three month after her 17th birthday, when she first started driving.

On Christmas day we watched the traditional "Doctor Who Christmas Special", followed by "the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special", back home on Sunday afternoon, when I had to go out in the freezing cold to buy my Annual Season Ticket (so I can travel in 2009 at 2008 prices) then back to work on Monday. We did get New Years day off work, and I spent it, as expected reading.

The book list meme has been going around at this time, so I extracted the data from LibraryThing and determined that I read 343 books during 2008. I'm not going to post them all due to space considerations, but it would be really cool if there were a widget which could be set to show the books you'd read over a certain period. A week, a month or even a year.

I really and truly did intend to post over a month ago but getting a round tuit proved difficult.

My Sky+ box has been playing up for the last few weeks, often when trying to change channel I get a blue screen, instead of the programme I want. It's intermittent though, some channels work some of the time and others don't.

September 19th was my niece's 17th birthday, I bought her a WiFi network extender (and set it up for her, how geeky) She's now started driving!!! I went to visit the weekend after her birthday.

Due to the issues with Sky+ I've been watching a lot of BBC programs via the web an iPlayer, which is very handy as it gives a 7 day window to catch programs.

Stuff I've caught up via this method include Strictly Come Dancing, Merlin, Charlie Boorman: By Any Means, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Dirk Gently (Radio4).

In the last couple of weeks my back pain has migrated down my left leg. Today it was particularly painful, but my chiropractor should help later.

Yesterday was the 5th week of my juggling class and we managed a Z pattern with clubs, which was very cool while it was working.

I've got a lot of theatre planned over the next weeks so I'll try to post a bit sooner.

My parents are getting on in years (as am I) and have not had the best of health recently, but they still wanted to visit their villa in Spain this year (they didn't make it last year). An I selflessly have volunteered to travel with them to insure they arrive safely.

The last week has been eventful, I've been visiting my Chiropractor regularly (4 times since the last post!) and it seems to have helped. I also managed to get a better chair at work (the last two day I had a rocking, kneeling chair which was cool).

I've been clearing stuff off my Sky+ box, so there would be space for this weeks stuff, but I really need to finish watching Ashes to Ashes.

Last Monday was hectic, when i got home I discovered the freezer had switched itself off and had almost completely defrosted! Fortunately the ice packs a the bottom kept most stuff frozen, but the ice cream had totally melted and the mince had defrosted. And then after getting all the water out of the freezer, switching it back on and eating one of the least frozen dinners, it was off to juggling, where I borrowed 3 juggling knives and managed to successfully juggle them! Did some passing too but that was less successful.

So once I got home I had to turn the defrosted mince into meat sauce, which took about half an hour, then I had to freeze it in individual portions, the freezer now working perfectly.

Well at least i wont have to do another defrost for a year or so!

Due to the Chiropractor visits I have to leave some what earlier than I have usually done in the past, and so to compensate I've getting the train 40 minutes earlier. Which means getting out of bed 40 minutes earlier. A 6:00am wake-up call is not my favourite thing but needs must...

So I didn't get around to updating at home so...

Mon 14th Finally got started on updating The Bujold Nexus.

Tue first lot of SD cards arrived and I tried installing alternative operating systems for the eeePC, only the 2GB cards got reformatted as 1GB! Downloaded 3 ISOs using Torrent.

Thu discovered there was a problem with my heating system. The pump had been silted up with crap from corroded pipes and wouldn't turn.

Fri heard that a colleague of 20+ years had died yesterday! Heating system pump replaced, pipes need doing to at a later date.

Sat after years of back pain I have finally been persuaded to visit a Chiropractor and my first session was this morning. X-rays were taken of my lower back, and an initial exam was made. This on my house mates recommendation.

Mon further SD Cards arrived and they also format to 1GB, since the reader is the only common device, I tried with a different one and this generated a 2GB Card. In the evening Juggling class started, we were able to juggle outside as the weather was fine (if a bit windy) and it was still light. Managed some club passing, but not as good as the end of last term. I managed to break my right thumbnail when we were 3 person passing.

I was in early on Tuesday (to make up for leaving early on Monday for juggling, and got a call to say my dentist could see me that afternoon, so i took the afternoon off and had my tooth looked at. At first it looked like a small chip, but then the whole filling came out leaving mostly hole! Due to time constraints I couldn't get a permanent filling but a temporary one was applied (should last until my new appointment).

and so Wednesday morning I had my second meeting at Chiropractic First in Hove, when I was taken through the examination results, and then had my first Adjustment. It was weird after the treatment was done, then I realised that I didn't have any back-pain!

Today I missed my normal train so got in a bit later than normal. At 10:00am there was a Requiem Mass for the person who died a week ago, which I went to. I'd met him for the first time when he interviewed me for my first job at The Children's Society (which I didn't get!) It was a nice service, 5 staff from Charityshare went, in addition to the many from The Children's Society past and present. An now we are up to date!

I really should have posted sooner, it's 3 weeks since my last post and this included my birthday!

I've rejoined as a Hawth friend, giving me advances news and discounts at the theatre. I've had a number of books from amazon, and I've also got a few SD Cards to allow me to install alternative Operating Systems for my eeePC without overwriting the original.

Before joining Charityshare I started on the ECDL course. my details unfortunately got lost so I've been persuaded to start again by a member of our in house training team. On Thursday the 10th I took and passed 5 of the 7 modules, without any revision! In the afternoon while eating a jelly bear part of a tooth/filling cracked off, not painful but I did phone my dentist for repair. He was unfortunately on holiday so it had to wait.

The following day was my birthday and a colleague had her birthday on Saturday so cakes were available at work and a number of people wished me well.

Since Saturday was also my sister's birthday I was collected by my Dad, so I could visit. But first he took me shopping so I was able to buy an extension ladder,which only just fitted. Then back to Horsham. We had a delightful fondue supper and I finally joined the 21st century when I got a mobile phone(PAYG)as a present.

On Sunday we went to church and Dad celebrated for the first time in months. Mum and I took up the bread and wine (which was cool) and at the end the congregation sang Happy Birthday to me (which was less so.

After dinner my Mum took me home (and was nicely surprised at the lack of clutter due to my room mate!).

Next installment hopefully later today.