Michael's Meanderings

On the 1st a special dance event was held at the Drill Hall in Horsham. There were demonstrations and lectures from professional dancers from the far east, including a troupe of youngsters. Followed by general social dancing. Both J my teacher from Crawley college and C my regular partner in the beginners class, were there and I DANCED WITH BOTH.
Mum came to collect me at the end, and I stayed to visit till the following afternoon. Dad took me to Hove as I had booked to see No Fit State Circus, which was in a big top and was standing only. The crowd moved around depending on location of the performance, a sort of Street / Les Mis version of Cirque du Soleil!

Played with my Raspberry Pi and newly installed Debian Mint on the laptop.

Most of this month was spent on a Job Centre sanctioned training course. Run by Elmfield Training in the Arora Hotel in Crawley. This course was 4 weeks long and was billed as:
Route 2: Employment
Four week full time course
Elmfield Training

Had two trainers initially John Durrant and in the later two weeks Peter Cockle. Both did a good job but with differing styles. Despite being required by the Job Centre I still had to sign on every other Tuesday!

06/06/13 to 03/07/13 (QCF Level 1) leading to the three following qualifications:

Award in Principles of Customer Service (Level 1)
Award in Personal and Social Development (Level 1)
Certificate in Developing Employability Skills (Level 1)

However it's mid December as I write and I haven't received any of the above certificates.

Despite this I did find it useful, it allowed me to discover my leadership skills, and team building skills, I learn to work with people of all levels of education/learning.
Also the hotel was very cool! Travel was refunded so I wasn't out of pocket, and i was even slightly better off as I didn't have to pay the travel when I went dancing on Tue and Wed. Continued to also dance on Friday evening with Ray Smith (now in Hassocks).

Went to Rewards took ECDL Advanced (Word 2007) test and finally passed with 91%!!!! (pass was 75%) Had a cream tea at BHS to celebrate!

New advanced dance partner, J arrived in the middle of the month, Eamonn had met her while shopping and asked if she would like to partner me. Went well, since we are still dancing together (in Dec 13).

Saw Man of Steel at the Orion Cinema. Visited Crawley Museum (which is very small only two rooms) for a little while.

Started getting a lift from Haywards Heath to Hassock for Friday dance class with M & J

Last weekend in the month was the Crawley Folk and Beer Festival at the Hawth

I'm now halfway through the year's updates!

Two Wednesdays back BOTH K and J were at the dance lesson. Fortunately the teacher needed a partner so J stepped in. Last Wednesday only K appeared so no issue. Last Saturday was the last Saturday in November so the social dance was on in the evening. K and i both made it and we danced all the dances we knew (even the recently learnt quickstep. Next social dance is on New Years Eve party (all night!). K gave me a lift to Three Bridges station as it was on her way home, and it meant I got home 45 minutes earlier than otherwise. I've also ordered some new dance shoes (my current pair I got 33 years ago!)

"Learn to program: The Fundamentals" at http://www.coursera.org finished last week. the final exam took 3 hours! and I managed to get 85%, this meant my total mark for the course was 83.5% (the pass was 70%) this despite only getting 35% on my last assignment. So I'm pretty happy. I also bought a discounted ebook copy of the tutors "Practical Programming" and intend to take the next course in the subject.

I've also started to listen to audio books from audible.co.uk, starting with "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold" I've already read the book, but the audio edition bring it more alive (at least with a good narrator).

Last weekend I got a warrant from NS&I, as I've won £25 on the Premium Bonds. I can't remember if I've ever done so before but since I only have £26 worth that 104% over 50 years! I must remember to pay it in to my account.

My TV License was due this month so I have reluctantly subsidised the BBC, while they do produce some cool stuff (Dr Who, Sherlock, Strictly) £12 per month is a bit much.

I've managed to continue working on my ECDL Advanced (Excel 2007) module each week and am over a third the way through. Signed on at the Job Centre and am still looking for work.

As a result of being unemployed I have re-contacted Sussex Oakleaf and I'm volunteering with them again. Today was my first day back and it went less than perfectly. Due to issues with the IT equipment. First I had to get an account set up (I used a temp account all last year!) Then I had to use a VPN to connect to the central services on an ASUS Eee PC desktop. Finally got everything working and started creating an address database in excel.