Michael's Meanderings

So the first week end of this month I was in Marks Tey for Quoi de Neuf - The 29th British Filk Convention. I arrived Friday afternoon and left Monday morning (taking 2 days leave.)
GoHs were Jackie Mitchell and Cecilia Eng. Second time I'd been to the Best Western in Marks Tey. Bungalow Diner had been refurbished - but still had very good value meals.
The program followed the normal pattern with concerts, one shots and a musical + nMC (http://www.contabile.org.uk/quoideneuf/)
Ballroom classes on Tuesday, revised Foxtrot, Samba, Waltz, Tango & Quickstep (working on technique)
Got a hair cut! Went to PicoCon 34, but had to leave early as J & I were going to Strictly Dance Magic in BH.
After over 3 decades the villa in Spain was finally sold, C&L flew out to finalise. How the money will get back to UK with Brexit etc we aren't sure!
Yoga class down to 4 students, but still ongoing
Visited family for my Dad birthday, day off the day before (as the actual birthday my niece & her husband started moving into their brand new house).
Last Saturday of the month was Social Dance with J. Finished 5 minutes early!

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

On Saturday 19th I went to Haywards Heath for an Open Day by Rewards, who are providing the support for my ITQ Diploma. I discussed possible continuation modules and worked on my current ones, including compleating an assiged task.

Then discovered a new (in the last 6 months) 99p shop and bought sundry stuff. Lugged my shopping home on the train then to town, where I got a eye test appointment, and other sundries.

On Sunday I went to Preston Park to see The Moscow State Circus. These are the best circus performers in the world and in one case managed to convey what dance might be in free fall. There was also some very good juggling (which is not always the case). Well worth the trouble getting to see them (even if there was only one train an hour!)

On Tuesday I went to Brighton and have ordered a new belt from "Clever with Leather", this will be hand made to order and so a bit expensive, but may last my lifetime.
However my main reason for going was to see, as part of the Brighton Festival, "Smashed" at The Theatre Royal, a one hour juggling performance by nine performers with nine chairs and numerous apples and at the end crockery. A combination of dance with juggling and music hall melodies it was very memorable.

Wednesday night was dancing night, but before that I went to the bus depot and got an addition week added to my MetroKey hopefully I will thus NOT pay to use buses over the bank holiday.

Due to the heat (23°C indoors) we didn't learn any new Jive ;-( but instead revised the slower Rhumba and Waltz, with a short burst of Cha Cha. This week for the first time I forgot to take a cold drink, and was lucky to buy a tea at the church cafe.

Last Saturday I got up early, as I had a headache, and had an appointment to get my eyes tested. I need slightly different lenses for reading / PC work (which may be why the headaches). I ordered new glases costing £214 but also getting a pair or prescription sunglasses included in the price. This was lucky as I dropped my old sunglases and the arm broke off.

I also booked an appointment with a local chiroprator who has a more get fit attitude. I'll be seeing him on Thursday.

Then I got my hair cut, the shortest it's been in 35 years! Because they only used clipper to trim it was almost half price!

I then went off to Crawley and bought some books and a pair of trousers on sale at BHS, reduced to £15. Then I read in the garden outside the library until 18:00 when I got the bus to Goffs Park, which is near to St Wilfrids School where the monthly social dance take place. Unfortunately K sprained her ankle on Friday and couldn't make it, and I didn't check my text messages until I had paid for the evening! Despite not haveing a partner I had a fairly good time and did get to dance a Rhumba, a Waltz and two Quicksteps!

On Sunday I phoned my Mum to wish her a happy birthday, then bought train tickets for next week and then went to the Orion Cinema to see Men in Black III. This was fun, not great art but at least as good as the first movie.

This month's book club was "The Two Pound Tram" by William Newton, for the first time I completed the book, it was a shorter book, so was an easy read. Set in Sussex during World Word II it managed to feel almost documentary even though it was almost entirely fictional.

Then I got a student discounted haircut at Boomerang in Burgess Hill

The next few Business Admin courses were shorter and got first test at the beginning of the month and the final one at the end of the month, passed both. This completed "EDI Technical Certificate in Principles of Business & Administration Level 2". Got a new ID card that will be valid for next year as I got funding to take the Level 23 course in the new year.

I upgraded Lucid Puppy Linux on my eeePC, all the advantages of the Ubuntu repository with a smaller footprint Linux.

I also finally upgraded my iPod Touch 2G to iOS 4.2.1 (which is the last version of iOS which will work on this older device). This means that iBooks is now available, up to 20 apps were updated after the upgrade. The actual upgrade process took nearly a week! possibly due to the age of the PC I was using to do the upgrade. I haven't got around to jailbreaking the iPod yet as the only feature that I really miss is the option to stop rotation, and some apps have this as an option.

I subscribe to Audible.co.uk and buy at least one audio book each month. This isn't too expensive at £7.99 each month, which if it's a reading of a hardback is cheaper than getting the book.

I have been borrowing more books from the library and have therefore managed to reduce my book purchasing by a significant amount, I've tried to reduce it to less than 2 books a week!

Had to pay my TV License which was a fairly large chunk of change. But it's worth it just for Doctor Who and David Attenborough!

This month was a bit more exciting. I've been using the Time to Talk phone counseling, regarding possible depression due to losing my job. It has helped to talk, though I don't think I was ever clinically depressed.

On the 7th of April my Mum fell and dislocated her hip! She was admitted to Worthing Hospital, the following Sunday my Dad and sister collected me to go an see her. This put a spanner into plans for a party for my 50th birthday (and my sister's 48th). So we returned to their home for a reduced birthday tea and cake.

Monday was my 50th birthday and I'd already arranged to go to London, so first I went to the Science Museum again. As a Plus member I'd got a voucher giving me a free Birthday cake from one of the museum shops, which was very nice. I bought a couple of books (Yuri Gagarin: The First Spaceman, and As Easy As Pi: Stuff about numbers that isn't (just) maths). Then off to Forbidden Planet and got a single book there, then had a wander around Covent Garden, where I listened to Lotus Classics a classical music ensemble who dance to their own tunes. I was so impressed I bought a CD! You can hear some material streamed from their website.

I ended my day at Penderel's Oak, High Holborn, where the Science Fiction Book Club met to discuss The Vor Game. I was pointed to this meeting by filkferengi, and it was quite interesting hearing to views of people who had never read any Bujold before. Most had bought the omnibus edition of the Young Miles, so had also read The Warriors Apprentice. I don't think anyone hated the story, and all finished it. There was some issues of story background not being that clear (for those who didn't read TWA). I had a good evening and will probably be back.

The following Friday I had to get a blood test, and delivered a volunteering application to Sussex Oakleaf. The next Monday I had my hair cut, including the removal of my pony tail after 18 year. Later I went to the cinema (on Monday the tickets are cheaper) to see Source Code, a fun romp which combined Groundhog Day with Quantum Leap in a good way. This was underlined by the father of the hero being played by Scott Bakula!

The following day I went to Worthing, mostly to see Mum, but I also visited the Library and the seafront.

I dithered about if I wanted to go to Eastercon until the last minute, (as I was feeling a bit sniffley) but as I'd paid my hotel deposit already and it was going to be very sunny I decided to risk it, and I had a good time (details to follow?)

After Easter Mum was moved to Shorham Hospital, so I went to visit on Thursday after going to see my Chiropractor in Hove (halfway to Shorham-by-Sea) so managed to kill two birds with one stone. Also popped in to Shorham Library! mum was looking forward to watching the Royal Wedding on TV. I didn't bother, and was a bit sad that as someone unemployed I didn't get any benefit of the four Bank Holidays in April!