Michael's Meanderings

On the 1st J & I went to T's 60th birthday celebration (from our ballroom dance class), it was supposed to be fancy dress and we went as The Blues Brothers! not many others bothered with costumes.
Ballroom and Line dance classes continue. Discovered the step sheet for Night Fever - which is exactly the same as I learned it 40 years ago! Danced it again for the first time in over 35 years!
Ticketed Line Dance Christmas social - with Rancher supplying the live music. The following day J collected me and we went to the Pastiche dance at Steyning.
On New Years Eve I went shopping then off to Crawley for the annual New years Ever Ballroom Social Dance with Jane from 6:00 to 00:15 was as usual great fun, demo from David and Rosie, and raffle (I won a prize!), then to stay the night a J's place.
I've been tracking all the line daces I've learned, and created a booklet of all the stepsheets, unfortunately I discovered an app on my phone that did the same thing (but without the cut and paste I needed to create the booklet), only after spending the time creating a document by hand.
Sent out those few Christmas cards I wasn't delivering by hand. After seeing GP, started taking pills for allergies, though cough remained.
My original Kindle Fire died, it lasted over 2 years, with constant daily use. The monthly cost of purchase was less than £2.50 which is pretty good value.
I ordered a similar spec Kindle Fire tablet which cost £20 less and was slightly better specified (Alexa included by default).
Continue to regularly Skype D on Thursday, it's nearly a year since he moved the last of his stuff out.
I renewed my annual train season ticket, now £2336.00 which allows me to effectively travel anywhere on the rail network between Durrington and Gatwick Airport.
The difference in price between my home station and Gatwick is only £72 and this allowns me to get to dancing in Crawley for no additional cost. (a day return would be £7.30 so I'd save the extra cost in 2 months!).
The SF reading book club went for an Indian Christmas meal, prior to discussion of the book, but we had such a good time we were unable to discuss the book! A decision was made to discuss it in January.
A Work Christmas outing was also organised but this time the menu was Chinese, we has two circular table with a revolving centre, allow the sharing of the various selections.
Joined Amazon Music Unlimited; for 99p a month for 3 months, able to listen to almost all line dance tracks, and ballroom too. Not sure if I will continue to subscribe after the initial trial. Amazon kindle unlimited however has been an excellent bargain.
I finally took my winter duvet to the laundry, as it appeared to be too big for my washer, but once wet is would have easily fitted (I'll remember that I can use my own machine next year).
After work, on Christmas Eve, I made my way to my sister's house (with my brother-in-law & parents) for the holidays.
On Christmas Day my niece & her husband, arrived in the morning and we all opened our presents. My sister had prepared a full Christmas dinner for 10 people (the additions were 4.5 members of my niece's in-laws).
After dinner played quizzes, and trivial pursuit. Then watched the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special.
On Boxing Day I helped move all the furniture back to their normal configuration. My BiL and I play a head to head Harry Potter trivia quiz he won 26-16
Went home on the 27th and watch the recorded Royal Institute Christmas Lectures.

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.

Best news of the month my contract at work has been extended to the end of March 2014.
Second best news I realised that my season ticket alowed me unlimited travel between Three Bridges and Durrington by any viable route, which included the route via Horsham and Crawley. Which means I don't have to buy any more tickets to get to my weekly dance class.
Continued dancing with C & J on Tuesday evenings.
Strictly Come Dancing continued on to a excellent final just before Christmas, any one of the four finalists could have won and it was all down to the audience vote.

Leylands road (under the railway bridge), was closed for nearly a week and was somewhat resurfaced (at least where all the potholes had been).

Finally got my Kobo case from Clever with Leather in Brighton, went to the dentist and had two filling both on left upper side.

Weather started to get frosty, but mostly raining. (inc storms)

Saw Frozen at Worthing Cinema, which had a pixar feel to the Disney princesses. The following day saw THG: Catching Fire at a different Worthing cinema.
Saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at my local cinema, which has now been totally refurbished. Very nice new seats. This was followed by Strictly Dance Magic where J joined me for a Christmas dance in BH.

Took a final day off and helped at Sussex Oakleaf re-customising a spreadsheet i'd setup earlier in the year. Then to last dance class of the year (which included drinks and nibbles). Got a card and plant from J!

Another storm with torrential rain meant I couldn't get to work on Christmas Eve, so was collected slightly early by my sister and dad.
Christmas Eve was a main dinner as S was working over xmas, there were guests (L&S's best friends) M & G. Played Harry Potter Scene It, my BiL and I were the best!
Christmas Day included morning service, present opening (I got a ticket to the Harry Potter Experience!!!!) then dinner. Uploaded the November instalment to LJ
Saw Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special followed by Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor. Read all evening

On Boxing Day read then helped prepare lunch, after which was taken home (one road still partially closed with a tree over half of it).

Back to work and very quiet even with half the normal staff, only on the phone for half the time.

New Years Eve caught the 17:17 to Crawley via Littlehampton and arrived at 18:29 J collected me and we got to St W by 6:45 in time for the food to start just after 19:00.
Good buffet meal, much dancing and an excellent demonstration by Ian Sharpe & Victoria Lawrence.
Then danced the New Year in and helped clear up the room.

The last few days, as the snow finally melted, the trains were much delayed. On Wednesday the delay was 53 minutes due to a preceding train being frozen to the tracks! (other parts of the country had it much worse). I've even managed to get a request for a refund in, so I might get some money back.

I also finally booked my Gafilk hotel room, just in time as on-line discounts require 14 days before arrival.

Christmas Eve was a half work day, left at 13:45 and caught the 14:00 from Farringdon to Three Bridges, then caught the train to Horsham, where I was picked up by my sister, then to their home.

Christmas day we were up by 8:00 open presents (I didn't get a large haul) but I did get a Dr Who Annual, a new grey furry cap, and a protective case for my iPod. (Not to mention an actual £20 note!).

Then the parents and I went off to church for the 10:00 Eucharist then back for nibbles, so that Christmas dinner with the whole family was a bit later. After a full Christmas meal of turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots, peas and Yorkshire pudding, followed by Christmas pudding and cream, I crashed for a couple of hours. The up for the first part of the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Then the Christmas Strictly Come Dancing episode. Saw another couple of iPlayer programs on my iPod then to bed.

This morning I saw Dr Who Confidential, again on my iPod, then lunch. I've been trying to improve the performance of my Dad's PC and believe that it really needs extra memory installed.

Been quite busy this last week. At work we had to have 2 tape drives in our tape library replaces, allowing our backups to run successfully again.

Last weekend my niece turned 18, so a immediate family fondue was held at lunch time on Saturday, and a buffet style lunch / tea occurred on Sunday afternoon for less immediate family (L went clubbing on Saturday night to celebrate legal drinking!)

Strictly Come Dancing started up too and I've been watching the Friday and Saturday dancing, with background every evening on It Takes two.

Autumn is certainly here as it's been misty first thing and the leaves are drying out (but not going the proper autumnal shade. I did manage to take a walk around Beadlands last Saturday afternoon, and saw a couple of fungi, but no interesting leaves and just a few dried up blackberries.

The tree on my front lawn, chopped down before I went off to Montreal, has now been moved and I can see the grass once again (under a layer of dead leaves!)

Yesterday I went to the local cinema to see the animated feature "Cloudy, with a Chance of Meatballs" in which mad science really goes to town. Followed by another very short bike ride, Hopefully before Christmas I'll be able to ride it into town. Talking of Christmas, last weekend when shopping I saw my first Christmas cakes, Chocolate money and Christmas puddings. It's 3 months to Christmas wouldn't they be past their sell by date if bought now?

I've managed to install Windows XP in a Virtual PC on my Dell laptop running Ubuntu/Mint. There are just a few things that won't run under Linux (audible.com audio books, Palm Desktop?, Pegasus Mail, Internet Explorer and a few other bits and bobs including remote access to work).

Tonight I hope to see "Moon" at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square. It's had excellent reviews so hope it'll be good. It's also on on Wednesday but there will be a Science Museum late then. so I'll be in South Kensington instead.

On Christmas Eve the trains were running on a week end service and the office closed early, I was one of the last to leave as I had to change all the backup tapes before I could leave. I was still out by 2:30pm and managed to catch the 3:11 to Three Bridges (where I almost didn't get out in time) before getting the train to Horsham, where I got picked up from the station, by my sister

On Christmas Day we (parents, sister and I) went to Holy Communion. My father celebrated, for the first time in weeks. He hadn't even been to church for weeks so it was really nice that he felt able to celebrate. My sister and her family were off to their in-laws so we had a buffet nibbles for lunch before they left.

An then there was the Christmas Doctor Who, with Kylie, which was brilliant, and then a little later the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special, which was also marvellous. and then to bed.

I actually got up a bit earlier on Boxing Day so I could watch Casino Royale (recorded on Sky+) which was excellent. My younger sister phoned, but I didn't get a chance to speak to her, she too was suffering from a cold. Then we had a real Christmas dinner, with duck and turkey, roast potatoes, sprouts, chestnuts, carrots, cauliflower, Yorkshire pudding! Then to follow Christmas pudding with brandy cream and custard. Excellent.

With the addition of a glass of wine I was totally wiped out by 3pm when we finished and crashed and slept till just after 5pm when my sister took me home.