Michael's Meanderings

Yoga class has still been reduced to 4 students and last week there was no class. Decided to add an additional workout and have now started line dancing on Wednesday evening.
Watched 3 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
At work the merger between SE CSU and NEL CSU was completed first week of the month, (IT merged last year). IT Team has new installed Skype for business (IM Service from NHS Mail).
In ballroom dancing learned new sequence in Waltz, and new sequence dance the Veleta, social dance on last Saturday of the month and 2 additional practices on 2nd & 3rd Fridays.
Got some sad news too. Dance partner J's Dad died, after some weeks of ill health. Had a DNR authorisation.
Stared final migration from LiveJournal to Dreamwidth, including all my posts and as many contacts and feeds as I can. I started posting to LJ on 11 April 2007 and it seems appropriate to finish 10 years later. This will be my last post at LiveJournal, my next post will only appear at Dreamwidth.
On the 8th I treated myself to a day at the Theatre Royal in Brighton (as previously noted) Walking back stage (and on stage), getting to see all the props for the afternoon performance was really cool. It's also really small, I've also been backstage at the Hawth (a much more modern theatre) which has much wider passageways and rooms. But then the Theatre Royal was built 210 years ago.
In the afternoon I attended a matinee performance of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" based on the movie (which I saw many years ago) with a delightful performance by Joanne Clifton as Millie.
The following Monday the SF Book club discussed Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson, which I hadn't finished on the night, but did complete the book a few days later.
Took my birthday off work and spent the day with my family (it is my sister's birthday the day after mine so we usually celebrate together), walked the dog together! Chinese meal for lunch.
Eastercon was in Birmingham NEC - stayed at Arden Hotel And Leisure Club about 20min walk from the con hotel (but cheaper!) used its Leisure club facilities a number of times
Registered for Innominate and collected program pack and badge, used app to select program items of interest (the one do not miss was ""Vorkosigan's Law: Legal Concepts from an Imagined Universe - this compared and contrasted the fictional universe with example in the British Legal system - SB was in the military and has since become a barrister!)
The program opened with a bang as Dr Emma J King, educator from The Royal Institution explored the history of the institute with added explosions!
The trek to and from my hotel was a bit of a pain, but the room cost were almost half that of the con hotel so.... (and it was good exercise).
The other program items that I didn't was to miss was the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, which was one of the best attended and started with free jellybabies! And the Easter Morning Service, which was non-denominations with a CoE backbone.
I did attend a least one program item with each GoH (Pat Cadigan, Colin Harris & Judith Clute. I also supported the Dublin worldcon bid.
My journey home was also somewhat fraught, as I caught what I thought was the Virgin - London train, but which I discovered, at Winchester, was going to Bournemouth! I did get off at the next stop of Southampton Central, then had to take a train along the south coast from the Isle of Wight to Brighton, before getting home some hours latter than expected (I still managed to got some shopping before going ballroom dancing!)
I finally topped up my iPhone, with £10 credit (may have been a year since my last £10) got one month addition £20 credit for free. BUT I have to use it before 24 May
Had my bi-annual dental checkup and will have to return for another filling, but generally speaking my teeth are OK!
D & I did a major spring clean of the kitchen (may be the most comprehensive clean since it was re-built!) Floor was bushed and mopped and scrubbed, all the counters were cleared and cleaned, the bins emptied, the sink and cooker tops cleaned and the freezer was defrosted!
I will have to buy replacement dish racks now though.
And this is the end of my posting to LiveJournal, all future material will appear at Dreamwidth anyone who wants to follow me there feel free, please comment there rather than on LJ. All my previous LJ material and comments have been imported into Dreamwidth.

After the New Year's Eve Dance, I stayed over with J, and finally started watching Game of Thrones! Actually finished watching series 1 and started series 2.
I ordered two print on demand books, one collecting all my LJ posts and comments, the other all the books I've read since March 2007 (when I started using LibraryThing to catalog books owned and read.
The LJ material actually generated something the size of a normal novel! I've also finished editing my 2015 diary but I am waiting for a discount code before sending it to print.
Finally bought my membership for Eastercon in Manchester this year.
Dance classes continue on Tuesday with J. Learned new steps in Tango. Started working on technique.
D finally fitted new shower, much improved over the previous unit. Bought new digital blood pressure monitor and scales - bluetooth enabled. Now I can measure both my Blood Pressure and my weight accurately
Yoga class restarted. Funding for this ends the first week in February, but we intend to continue classes self funded.
Discussed "The Androids Dream" by John Scalzi at the SF Reading Group. Once again I fail to finish the book before the meeting. Still enjoyable though.
Saw Stargazing Live (recorded ;-)) with first British space walk - Tim Peake born in Sussex!
Used my new scales and BP monitor to record weight and BP every hour on one Sunday, quite surprising the fluctuations and consistencies.
Temperature finally dropped below 0°C for the first time, we even got a light dusting of snow!
Decided I need to go to the theatre more often (especially as I currently can get there for free) so booked 3 performances at The Theatre Royal - Brighton. Saw the first one "The Mousetrap - 60th Anniversary Tour" on the last Saturday as a matinee.
Got a copy of Gentleman Jole & the Red Queen from Lois McMaster Bujold personally signed.
On the last Wednesday in the month went to London. Saw the Alice in Wonderland exhibit at the British Library. Then to the Science Museum to see the Ada Lovelace exhibit. Returned to the Science Museum for SMLates. Main reason wa to see the "Cosmonaut" exhibit which was excellent.
Ordered the Audio version of LMB's GJ&tRQ - I have all the others, though I haven't listened to all of them.

It's Christmas and I haven't updated my blog since Easter. I'll try to remember stuff from way back then.
First I remember having a cold/flu and didn't feel the best.
Walking to the NEC station shopping area to buy food
Watching Dr Who with hundreds of fans, saved at the last minute with Internet streaming when the freeview box failed.
Dave Webber being a particularly good GoH also David Hardy talking about space art
Presentation on Skylon space plane
There was other stuff happening, but after this length of time I can't bring them to mind. :-(

Before the con I wasn't feeling at my best, so I only decided to go at the last minute. I also discovered I couldn't cancel my room booking after 2 days beforehand and at £70ish per night...

Then I discovered (at 12:45) that the cost of a ticket leaving after 13:00 goes up from £30.25 to £96.50! The jump in price only affected the London to Birmingham leg of the journey and the price dropped again at 19:00. So I decided to got up to London on the next train and wander around the British Library (which I'd never visited before) until it shut at 17:00. I learned about the new Out of this World Exhibition that was to open in May, which I decided was worth a visit.

I walked to Euston Station and had a BK Meal, with reading and found that due to some problem or other trains to Birmingham were delayed so all tickets were valid. I was therefore going to board the next train when I discovered that my tick had been marked as valid from Monday 25 April! (even though I'd used it successfully to get through St Pancras). As Virgin Trains didn't sell me the ticket they couldn't provide a refund, and I would have to buy a new London to Birmingham return ticket!

Finally I got on the train and got to the NEC at around 20:00, it was dark and I could figure out how to get to the hotel, so gave up (I was also tired) so took a taxi which charged me £5.60 and then went right to bed. (The following day I discovered the station was a 10 minute walk from the hotel!)

So it's been a week since the convention ended, what do I still remember?

The first thing was that it was a very good convention, with a very strong programme, and a good convention hotel. The hotel was well laid out, had a good sized main hall and dealers room, there were at least 3 areas where you could sit and read, drink or chat, there were even three bars with real ale available. The dining area provided reasonable cost meals for both lunch and dinner, and both were available for a wide time slot.

In fact there were only two faults that I can recall. And both faults were worked around.
1) The overflow hotels were rather a long way away, and required the con to provide a free bus service
2) The cost of WiFi in the con was excessive, but it was free at my hotel (the Midland)

The big events were also cool, but mostly different. The silent movies with live music was new, as was the full orchestra (though I personally would have preferred more SFnal music e.g. the Dr Who theme) and the Dave Wake play, was well performed (if not original)

Then there was the science program The George Hay Lecture was an excellent presentation on the RepRap project a very cool idea.
The other one I caught was the Search for Dark Matter (in a salt mine).

I even caught a few media items. The one thing I didn't get to see were any programs with both fan guests, maybe next year.

LX also decided to go the route of a memory book, rather than a program book. I look forward to seeing it.

Down to breakfast at 8:10 and had fruit salad and yogurt rather than my normal cereal. Had a few baked beans with my scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and mushrooms. I also had two serving of toast and marmalade with three cups of tea (and very good tea it's been too).

I took my eee pc to the lobby to check my LJ and upload when I realised I hadn't got any notes or program so couldn't write anything! Anyway I discovered amazonfail from a number of LJ friends links all over, where gay material is being de-listed. Checked "Ethan of Athos" which didn't appear to have been. Decided to take the netbook to the Cedar Court Hotel so I could actually write stuff even if I couldn't upload. but the lack of power sockets is a bit of a problem all over.

First item I went to was the revised titled "The Search for Dark Matter in Boulby Mine" by Sean Paling who provided a history of why Dark Matter should exist and then how they are searching at the bottom of a working Potash and salt mine for it! Their new experiment, starting next month will either prove the existence of Dark Matter or will make this small team the best at not finding Dark Matter!

I then sat down to update my notes and then spent 15min listening to a talk on Punch and Judy. I should had got there before the start, as it was very interesting. I had to leave early (just as the performance was due to start) as I wanted to see Absolom Daak: Dalek Killer, which was a half hour 3D animated fan movie. Afterwards I had lunch, pasta in tomato sauce for only £2.95

I finally got to see Dr Horrible's Sing-along Blog on the big screen, though not with sub-titles so we couldn't sing-along. I sat with Valerie and Kate and chatted after, apparently neither had seen the whole thing before.

Then at 3:30 the closing ceremony where the co-chairs thanked everyone they could, and made a collection for the hotel, they finished just over an hour later, I was sitting with Kate and Andrew ands said a heartfelt au revoir, until Constitution.

Then for the first time at Cedar Court I had to wait for a coach, then we went first to Campanile, so I didn't get back to the Midland until 5:30 when I finished my LX notes and uploaded two days to LJ, before going looking for food.

Before getting home
So just after six I went looking for somewhere to eat. When I wandered around the city on Thursday I spotted a fish and chip shop with eat in for only £3.99 including tea and bread and butter. So I aimed for the shop only to discover they were only selling take away food!

My other reason for walking that way was that I decided that I wanted to see "Monsters vs Aliens" on the big IMAX screen in 3D so I went over to the National Media Museum and got my ticket for £8 and then discovered they were selling food, so I had some bread and soup, and a large slice of cake, to tide me over until after the movie.

It was a totally different experience from seeing it on a normal screen (a ninth the size) and in 3D too. In some scenes you could (like a hologram) look to either side, the sound was impressive too. There were a few 3D tricks but mostly it had the 3D reality of a theatrical performance.

It finished at about 9pm and I found my way past a McD and got a chicken sandwich, fries and drink to be eaten before I got back to the hotel, where I decided to net surf (and update my notes).

Got up 7:15 so I could go to the 8:00 service at the Cathedral.However as it's less than ten minutes walk from the hotel I got there 20min before the service started. There were 14 others in the Lady Chapel and the service used the BCP style (Common Worship Two) which I haven't used for years (but it all came back). Back for breakfast by 8:50 after which back to wifi on the eee pc!

Out for the bus about 10:00 and the sun was shining! so waiting ten minutes or more was not a hardship.

Visited the dealers room and bought a Vogon T-shirt from ZZ9. Also got my first alcoholic drink of the w/e a half of Murphy's stout!

Caught up with Andrew and had a quick chat, then upstairs to the meeting rooms area. Where I caught the end of the Oliver Postgate tribute; the end of a Clangers episode and all of a Bagpuss one.

Lunch was an unexciting burger a fries (the fries being potato wedges). There was then supposed to be an Eastercon bid session for 2011 but when i got there a few minutes late, it was already finished,there had been no bids, so currently no convention! Then after 50min to Tim Powers (GoH) being interview, this was surprisingly his first visit to England, given the very accurate sense of London that e has managed in some of his books This was followed by an illustrated talk by David Lloyd how he started in comics through to the development of V for Vendetta as both a comic and eventually a film.

I did start in the Urban Fantasy panel but bailed after about 15 min

I returned to the Dealers room and finally broke down and got a book from Richard (Sign of the Dragon) then saw the4 very short tribute to V for Vendetta with mild explosions scenes from the movie and masks for everyone!

This was followed by EU1415 a feasibility study on the possibility of a Worldcon in Europe. 6 sites were looked at 3 in Holland (all were too small or otherwise unsuitable; thee Hague had been downsized since 1990. Three in the UK the front runners were Glasgow (SECC site of 2 worldcons) and London, which would only be viable due to the new facilities generated by the Olympics in 2012.

I finally got to hear some filk, but the "concert" only had 6 performers and they sang twice. It was more like a circle with microphones.

The main event was Dave Wake's new play "Insidious" a sequel to "Inveigle" where the question what if memes became intelligent, and you could kill with words. It was very professionally put together and ran for less than an hour, and left a lot of questions unanswered. Perhaps a third play could finished the story and the trilogy be put on at Worldcon 2014!

"Who Watched the Watchmen" was a very lively discussion with both pro and con panelists, and one who had seen the movie then read the graphic novel. Though that sales of the book declined after the movie's release was an interesting fact.

The last item I stayed for was a panel on ebooks which was quite interesting but had been done before the conclusion being that the iPhone is more likely to popularise ebook reading than the kindle. I think I read my first ebook over 10 years ago, I'll have to check my reading list from back then. The hotel has been selling butties (chip, bacon, egg and sausage) but i've been leaving before they went on sale. This time I was late enough so get a bacon buttie, for only £2 before leaving and finding the coach waiting. Got back to the Midland by 11:20 and in bed by 11:40! the earliest night since Thursday.

So good general stuff - despite maze like coridors everywhere signage was v good. Badge names are clear and readable.

Not so good temperature control is irratic. I had to buy a sweat shirt I was so cold. (The hail yesterday & snow this morning didn't help).
Having no breaks in the program I found unhelpful. Too many streams seems to be the bane of larger cons.

Arrived at Heathrow yesterday afternoon, there is free Wifi for web access. Dinner last night in hotel. Early to bed, full english breakfast first thing. Con hasn't quite started yet.