Michael's Meanderings

So my replacement Amazon Fire Tablet (replacing the one I left on the train) arrived and was restored from cloud backup.
A few weeks later I got notified that my original tablet was available for collection at Victoria lost property!
Dance class continues every Tuesday and Practice night every other Friday (1st & 3rd week) Social dance on the last Saturday. started to learn new steps in the Tango.
Due to strike action by Southern Rail I missed two weeks of yoga, but was allowed to just pay for the two weeks that I could go to.
SF Book Club discussion was deferred as we learn that the Paul (the organiser) had dies the previous day ;-(
The Delay Repay scheme - allowing refunds for delayed trains has been revised to allow payment in eVoucher & via PayPal! as well as the prior paper versions.
Replaced my Brighton & Hove library card, to allow access out of hours! Historical records for my Overdrive ebooks weren't copied, so logged a query and got a result in minutes!
After three years in one place at work, I have relocated closer to the the window and with colleagues closer.
My backup copy of all my ebooks (kept on a USB stick) is managed using Calibre. and currently has 1973 items saved, mostly ePub (or converted to ePub).

Biggest news was that as of 1st September I am now employed directly by NHS rather than via an agency - as had been the case for the last 2 years! But it's only for 6 months.
However I didn't get paid on the last Friday of the month as expected but had to chase up to get my money on the following Monday!
All month went dance class without a partner (J in Canada) as we started (as a class) to learn the Viennese Waltz - which I have wanted to revise since we learned it in a private lesson.
So most Tuesday's I partnered dance teacher B, though the last week I danced with L (whose partner was unavailable).
J was back from her travels for the last Saturday Social Dance, though as she hadn't danced for over 6 weeks her memory of the steps was a bit dodgy! But I still danced more than the previous month!
I finished listening to The Martian by Andy Weir - I wish I'd read it earlier so I could have nominated it for a Hugo! Have to remember to nominate the Movie instead.
On the 2nd Monday of the month went to the Earth & Stars in Brighton for Discussion of the Left Hand of Darkness - didn't finish this book, We were given inadvertent ARCs of Anima by Brett Davidson, as a Read for next year
I have now used the Amazon Locker (Dimple), at the martlets in town, a number of time and mostly find it very convenient - however, the 4-5 day collection window can sometime be inconvenient! Fortunately it appears to be open 24 hours a day!
I've just ordered a new USB Memory stick to which I have copied Calibre and as many ebooks as I could find, on my desktop and old laptop. I also need to hunt up any other ebook floating around!
I have been watching Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish on TV so when his Live show was advertised at the Hawth I got a ticket, for next month (November)
The weekly, free, yoga class, after work has been extended for a further 8 weeks - my back thanks the powers that be!
Christmas is coming earlier and earlier. Lidl started selling Mince pies and Stollen, with a best before date in November!
Mowed the front lawn at the end of the month, we should soon get to the point where the grass stops growing, but we are not there yet ;-(
Both Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing started this month - so thats what my license fee pays for!

Unfortunately my bathroom has been out of action all month (or at least the bath part). Fortunately I have been able to use a shower after work. I haven't been able to trim my beard and it has grown very bushy! I'm not sure how much I will trim it down one the bath is installe (it arrived at the end of the month).
My printed A5 diary also arrived and I was most impress at how cool it looked.
My new Nook Simple Touch arrived, unfortunately after the fist day I was unable to use it and I have been trying to return it for replacement / refund.
New cleaning crew have cleaned the house so that it tidier than it's been since I moved in!
First week end was the mini maker faire at the Brighton Dome. Large number of children and more crafty making including (knitting and felting)
Finally got to watch Dr Who live at home, and the Extra broadcast on iplayer.
Strictly Come Dancing started with a new crop of 15 celebrities and 3 new professional dancers.
Discussed "The Dispossessed" at the monthly Brighton SF Discussion group on the first Monday of the month.
Dancing every Tue for class, with the normal end of the month social dance on the last Saturday. However J & I also went to the "Strictly dance magic" evening at the Martlets in Burgess Hill the week before. (they are usually held on the same night but this month the BH event had to move)
On Thursday 11th J & I went to the WB Studio to enjoy the Harry Potter Experience! J drove up up arriving at eleven
We checked out the shop which was awesome, the variety of stuff - and the prices!
We then had lunch (sausages and mash) before starting the tour at one o'clock (a bit earlier than scheduled, but as not very busy it was OK)
I took dozens of photos, until the battery died and have to say that it was one of the most interesting and fun day I've had in quite a while. It was a sort of cross between a museum and a theme park - but in a good way.
If anyone has a chance to go, do take it it's well worth it (and now with a new Death Eater section arriving after our visit). Everyone I have talked to, who have been have enjoyed it, if a HP or not.
Also I have been playing on pottermore.com, I was sorted into Ravenclaw (not surprisingly) and have progressed to the end of the chamber of secrets.
D has made som major improvements to the garden, including a lean to for his bike and additional paving slab to provide space to walk around it.
I planted and additional pear tree, to add to the apple tree and grape vine.
D also painted his room walls, so had to finally say goodby to purple paint, it did make the room more cheerful!
Brighton & Hove libraries have started improving their ebook collections and I have borrowed my fist ebook using OverDrive.
Went to visit family to celebrate my nieces birthday on Sun 20th (birthday was Sat) her fiance took me nearly to work on Monday morning (but the wait for a train for over half an hour was not fun in my shirt sleeves!)
At the end of the month I finally got to the dentist to discover I had a loose filling (which he removed with little effort) ball bearing sized. Got a temporary filling to last until the whole thing can be replaced.
Purchased my season ticket for October, which will be the start of my second year at NHS Sussex.
On the last sunday of the month a select group of 20 people from Crawley Dance Academy were invited to " West End Heroes" at the Dominion Theatre in London.
Train's to Three Bridges were replaced by busses so took longer to get there. Group train tickets meant the price was half the normal cost and we shared taxis and dined at Garfunkel's
The tickets had a nominal price of £175 each! But the total cost for the night out was only £31.45 to me.
Got back to Three Bridges at 00:00 and replacement busses not running to reliably so J gave me a lift home.
Also paid the remaining amount for the New Years Eve dance, and collected the ticket.

So over the Christmas holiday (which I spent at my parents/sister and family) I suffered a cold, causing me to cough all night. I did get better over time and now my coughing is not nearly as racking.

My Dad's eye sight is still poor, an I've been investigating option that will allow him to read his office (once a priest, always a priest even after retirement). I've been looking at Kindles / Android tablets with large print and read aloud options. Also text to speech on Windows 7 (but the free options seem very limited).

I've also re-started listening to Audible books, most recently "Bloodlist" by P N Elrod, read by Barrett Whitener. This is the first in the Jack Fleming series. I'll probably get the next one in the series as my January book.

One thing that is different in contracting, than in permanent employment is payment. I now get paid weekly, and have to get 3 different sets of time sheet numbers completed every week. One for the company where I'm actually working, one for the recruitment company (signed) and one for the payroll company (done on line). Then I have to have a master sheet for my own personal use, which includes all expenses and salary details.

We were working between Christmas and New Year (for 3 days) which was an unusual experience for me. The building was almost empty, and with nearly all the permanent staff off we got a lot done. I'd made some suggestions about documentation, and was very surprised to be shown some a while later that took my idea and ran with it, to produce something that would have been very good to have when we started! It was still very handy even so...

I've been wanting to see "Stomp" at the theatre for years, but haven't got around to it. I was therefore very happy to see that it was on Sky Arts during the Christmas/New Year period. I managed to watch it this time and was very impressed. They managed a live recording at the Dome in Brighton. Anyone interested in dance/acrobatics/movement and percussion should try to get to see this. And I expect a live performance would be event better.

My favourite ebook reader on my ipod has been for the last few years "Stanza" which is well supported by many ebook sellers. However a few years ago Amazon bought the company, and the software languished unsupported. Last November a final version was released, with a note that no further support was available. Unfortunately this copy was broken and only ran on iOS 5 devices. Since I have an iPod Touch 2G with iOS 4.2.1 it stopped working! I did manage to recover the previous version of Stanza on my device, but decided enough was enough, and moved to ShuBook, which while not quite as functional as Stanza is under current development. I have managed to archive all the ebooks I'd downloaded to Stanza (285 in total) and have just finished copying them back into ShuBook. Stanza is no longer on my iPod!

For New Year D cooked a chicken dinner with roast potatoes and sprouts. There was a chicken EACH so I've been eating the stuff all week.

Last Tuesday there was a storm across the UK and trees were blown down on the railway line, which meant that instead of taking 45min door to door, it took and hour and a half (which was my average journey time when I worked in London!) Luckily nothing was damaged near my house and if I hadn't watched the news I'd never have known.

With the New Year a new batch of people started doing the admin work we had been doing for 2 weeks, I got asked to do some mentoring, which seemed to go well. I'm also part of the pilot group which will start on the second half of the job, inputting data from the on site examining engineers.

I've been looking at the other software that was on the original requirements list (Office skills being number one) Visio was mentioned and I've do a little with it but not much. The other was SmartDraw a simple CAD package. I was able to download a demo and it looks very easy to use. It has the same layout as Office 2007/2010 and a wide selection of pre-developed objects. I would expect that Amey has added their own widgets, so I'll have to try it out next week.

Today I went shopping and got a coat (on sale at £11) and pyjamas (on sale at £1.50!) then to the library and got 3 books (including the latest book club one), and finally to the hairdresser to get a hair cut. Then home and a chance to update my blog!

HarperCollins has it's own browsable books and Lois McMaster Bujold's latest can be looked at here.

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

Not sure how to combine them horizontally so... "Paladin of Souls" is also availible in the same format.