Michael's Meanderings

Saw Rogue One (A Star Wars story) on Bank Holiday. Rather dark, but much better that the earlier trilogy.
Renewed my season ticked and got a 26% discount, and used a lot of delay repay vouchers.
Yoga class has had reduced numbers, down to 2 of us at the lowest numbers, but regularly 4 students.
D paying for Amazon Prime as he wants to watch The Grand Tour - so we are sharing the account.
Had first Personal Development Review, since becoming full time. Need to complete additional training, (before upgrading to Band 4)
Have also been trying to complete some online training - for work, but have had significant issues, not least test scres not being saved.
Due to the rail strike, I had to take the bus to work, this took over an hour longer than by train! and fortunately i only had to resort to this once.
I've been able to take all the other days when trains were not running as Leave, but this time too many others had booked the day off!
On one of these days off saw Passengers (12A) at the Orion Cinema Golden years showing (for over 55 years) for only £2.50 inc tea and biscuits!
Had to move desks at work second time in 2 months!) now well practised in moving!
Booked ticket to Marks Tey (for this year's filkcon - Quoi de Neuf) using Delay Repay eVouchers.
Continued with Ballroom Dance class with J each week. New Samba steps! End of month social dance didn't manage to use the new steps though

Spent New Year's Day with J, went for walk in Bucham Park before lunch (kangaroo steaks!)
Saw The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn on TV (I have not been watching many films of TV of late
Bought Texet Power Bank (to recharge iPod) £6 at Wilco (reduced from £8), this will extend the time before I will be forced to buy a replacement.
Listened to Good Omens on iPlayer - BBC Radio production
Prior to going to to book group heard a bus knock down a pedestrian! (in the argus later) traffic stopped for hours.
To Earth & Stars pub for SF Book meeting "Good Omens" new people turned up
Sky box crashed and deleted ALL content I'd saved over the years!
Dancing wit J on Tuesdays, started to learn a new series of waltz steps.
Decided to re-read daughter of the empire (and its sequels) by wurst & feist and couldn't find my copies.
Discovered library copies at Worthing so got 1st book from there and the other 2 from Brighton (which didn't have the 1st book!)
Saw "Into the Woods" at the cinema in BH. New series of The Librarians is great fun, hope it continues, (but very Warehouse 13).
Saw dentist and got a temp filling in top left, needs proper filling next month.
Booked two tickets to see "Return to the Forbidden Planet" at the Theatre Royal in Brighton (stalls). J & I went to the matinee performance.
J had not seen it before while I'd seen at least 10 prior version. 'twas excellent as usual!
Ordered 3 throwing knives, which arrived very quickly - but were smaller than expected. I will have to source a board to throw at.
Backup of my LJ account to DW
Got my hair cut. Saw the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures (3 programs). Got first 3 episodes of Agent Carter from JA at work, very period - pity not being shown in the UK. Trying to play digital media on TV fails.
Last day of the month was the Social Dance in Crawley

Continuing training course at BTC in Eastbourne, as part of the course members of the group had to help organise an event to include food and presentation of certificates. I got to design and print the certificates! We also had mock interviews and I also worked towards taking Functional Skills in English and Maths at Level 2 (there isn't a Level 3 yet). I went to see The Wolverine at the local cinema in Eastbourne.

The first weekend in August the Crawley Juggling Convention returned to The Hawth. Did some club swinging and poi (did a bit of teaching there!). The Kettle of Fish show in the evening as always was excellent.

The new Doctor Who was announce on that Sunday!

Went Dancing on Tue and Wed throughout the month, and have given up on Fri due to knee pain. Note Crawley Library now has free WiFi and the rest of the county due to have this feature by the end of the year.

Saw Julie & Julia at the Hawth cinema after a celebration of food and drink.

At the BTC Award ceremony I was very surprised to receive one of four tutor awards. A very nice crystal block engraved with the details.
The Functional Skills Maths was a comprehensive online test, which I managed to pass with 86% However the English one included a presentation (I talked about how SF changed my life) and conversation (my mock interview was used). As this was a new course it needed an external review so I haven't got the results yet (Dec 13).

Saw The Lone Ranger also at the Eastbourne cinema

Defrosted new freezer for the first time, the old chest freezer retained all the ice as it melted, the new upright one not so much. Many rags and towels were needed to keep the floor mostly dry.

The Brighton SF Reading Group finally met for the first time in the Earth & Stars pub in Brighton. This was a MeetUp.com sponsored group, which had been mostly dormant until Paul Braizer took over! Decided how to run the meetings and choose books, first book chosen was edited by Paul "The West Pier Gazette and Other Stories". Due to meet on the first Monday of the month.

I continued to cut the grass (both front and back lawns), a novel experience.

Got a request for help from K at Sussex Oakleaf and confirmed that I was starting on Business Admin L3 course at Crawley college next month.

On Bank Holiday Monday there was a showing of Grease, in the open air, at the Burgess Hill FC ground, just across the road. It was originally planned for the previous Saturday but rain stopped play. I was very surprised at how many of the songs I could sing along to!

Managed to lose my phone so had to get a replacement and the old SIMM blocked.

Danced all the dances with J at the end of month Saturday Social in Crawley.

The Sunday after my last post I helped The Friends Green Circle Network to trim a hedge in Bedelands Farm. Spent two hours cutting withies, (there was also a bonfire), then completed an hour's walk around the site.

I've recently rediscovered PortableApps.com where applications have been modified so they will run from a USB drive without installation. Quite like the 1980 when that was how DOS worked!

It does mean I can use programs at work which I can't install on my supplied laptop (mostly graphic tools and OCR).

On the work front, when we started we had to generate nearly six thousand template reports, there are less than a thousand to complete now (I did nearly two hundred). We have just started to peer review each other's work. This may take a while!

Last week I went to the cinema to see Hugo, based on a book (not really a novel though) it concerns the film pioneer Georges Méliès in his later life. I enjoyed the story even if the fact and fiction have been blended, possible Hugo material?

Last Friday I took the but into Crawley, as I'd just discovered some of my library books were overdue and one couldn't be renewed online. I got that sorted out and bought another pair of earphones.

My EDI Technical Certificate in Principles of Business & Administration Level 2 arrived on Friday exactly 2 months after passing the last module in the course. So I now have the paperwork proving my qualification.

Peacock (clothes shop) has gone into receivership, but is still open for business, I I bought another black shirt at 20% off, and also got some woolly socks at half price from the shop opposite!

I've been watching a number of new programs on TV including: Dancing on Ice, )as usual I don't recognise most of the contestants but....), Hawaii 5-0, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sherlock, Earthflight, Body of Proof, Lost Girl, NCIS, The Story of Musicals, Stargazing (a once a year series on BB/C2), Gadget Geeks, Suits, Unforgettable,

Just got back from the cinema. I saw The Artist at Cineworld in Crawley, first time I've visited this 15 screen cinema.

I keep forgetting to post, my last was just before my last visit to London with my Annual season ticket.

On Friday 16th June, first I went to the Science Museum to see something in the iMAX theatre, I then went over the road to the V & A for a quick look, I don't think I'd ever been there before, and I doubt I'll be back ;-) I then left for Hammersmith Apollo where I was meeting some of my ex colleagues first for Pizza then to the theatre to see Penn and Teller. This was a great show, I thought the best was where Teller cut the petals from a rose, but cutting the shadow of the rose!

I managed to fix the leak from my toilet, it wasn't a major one, but I did feel a sense of achievment when the water stopped.

On Sunday I went to Earls Court for the London Film and Comic Con. It was quite cheap but when I there wasn't much of interest I didn't stay long.

On Monday morning first thing I got a visit from Downs Energy to insulate my cavity walls. They blew stuff like cotton wool in through dozens of holes drilled in the walls. Started suffering with hayfever, and got some drugs after seeing my doctor (he diagnosed the problem without me saying a thing!).

I finally started working on a CV and got a refund on my season ticket.

Just a month ago I went to see Toy Story 3, which was great fun. On Monday 26 went out for lunch in Horsham with my parents to celebrate their wedding anniversary. my sister and brother-in-law also joined us. We mostly had steak and chips and finished with an ice cream sundae. There was an issue with the bill, but we got it sorted. Then back to sort out a few issies with PCs, and then back home.

A week later my P45 arrived, an then went to see The A-Team at my local cinema, which was a fun journey down memory lane (after thr credits was worth waiting for).

The first weekend in August was the Crawley Juggling Festival , I got a lift from I and L Had a fun time in the hula hoop workshop so bought a hoop, and I've practiced since then and have managed over 100% improvement since then. On Saturday evening was the semi-pro Kettle of Fish show in the main Hawth theatre, followed by a fire show and then home. Sunday started very grey, but by lunchtime had turned sunny after misc games in the afternoon we left.

Since then nothing much has happened, though I have been checking the local papers and jobseeker website regularly.

I really was going to post more frequently this year but....
Last Bank Holiday I went to see Iron Man 2 at the local cinema, it was fun, but not great (but at least as good as the original movie.)

This month I've been dealing with my yearly appraisal. The hardest part is that it's half self assessment. I find it very difficult saying anything about myself, let alone bragging!

My mini media server has had it's disk fail, So i've bought a usb 1TB disk to copy all the data on to. It only cost £60 a few years ago it would have been thousands of pounds, or even "science fictional!".

I've also caught the Torchwood Virtual Season 3 which re-writes the S3 story such that CoE didn't happen. It's just finished so I had the whole thing in a three week period (rather than weekly over 13 episodes).

Last Thursday I walked to Forbidden Planet, first visit in weeks, but it was sunny so the exercise was good, bought 4 books.

I took the day off on Friday and went to Brighton in the afternoon. did a small amount of shopping and read on the beach. Considering it was a Friday it was quite crowed, nice and sunny. I thing walked along the promenade to Hove, staying on the seafront till reaching the King Alfred Centre. Then north looking for the station, near which is my chiropractors office. Got there early for my appointment, but not busy so I was squeezed in and then home.

Sunday D left for the US early. He's going to be traveling all over and has a website to document his journey. I went to the matinee performance of the Price of Persia at my local cinema. I was the only one there which was cool. A very Indiana Jones meets Jason and the Argonauts.

And so we are up to date!