Michael's Meanderings

So this month I took over the duty of putting the rubbish bins out for collection, which means getting up 5 minutes earlier on Tuesdays!
On the first Saturday I went in to London to the Science Museum, as this was my last chance to see the exhibition “Robots - The 500-year quest to make machines human”, well worth the time and money, the exhit book was also good value reduced from £25 to £15 (same price as ticket).
Dance classes on Tuesday continue with a completely new cha cha routine, which is cool - but makes my brain and body hurt! Dance practice on 1st & 3rd Friday of the month and Social dance on the last Saturday.
I’ve been watching Who do you think you are? and Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? Both provide a self learning experience for the participants - in different ways. Also watching Midnight Texas - and listened to the audio edition of the original book and it’s fairly unlike the TV show - the big bad is totally different. Strictly Come Dancing has started - meaning that autumn is definitely here.
The SF Book Club book this month was “The Peripheral” which again I didn’t finish, there was a lively discussion though.
Managed to post my Worldcon report (in addition to my monthly blog!)
Took a day off to help D with packing, also was able to see “Dunkirk” at the Orion Cinema - Golden Years only £2.50 inc tea and biscuit!
Renewed season ticket using 13 delay repay voucher (£33.50 refunded).
Managed to chip one of my teeth, and got an “emergency” appointment right after being fitted with a 24 hour blood pressure monitor (my dentist and doctor are about 100m apart).
My physio appointment at the Princess Royal Hospital finally came through, must exercise ham strings, which are then affecting my back, no yoga this month - 2+ months without classes.
Went to visit parents & sister and had a very busy weekend. Arrived on Friday to discover Dad may be suffering from Alzheimer's. Mum wanted to close her Force 9 account, so had to copy her website to an archive location on my site, and redirect all email and web pages to new locations. In the evening my sister took Mum and I to an Americana evening with line dancing (though floor area was not large!) First time mum went out in the evening for months if not years. the following afternoon went into Horsham where the town celebrated an American day - weather was lovely and tw one hour line dance demos were given by Flying High Line Dancers (inc my sister) I did stand up and dance in the “audience participation” part of the performance.
My iPhone stop syncing my diary with dropbox (after an iOS update) on the last Thursday of the month. When I tried to force a sync the app crashed so I lost all the written records for a week. I have been able to recreate some details but others have been lost.

Renewed my season ticket for the month £212.80, Contract at work has been extended again!
Used up all the eVouchers I had accrued due to train Delay Repay to pay for my ticket to Marks Tey, for this year's Filkcon
Took half day off so that I could go to the Matinee of Private Lives at The Theatre Royal in Brighton
Next day off to Con2bil8 (The 28th UK Filk Convention), 5th – 7th February, 2016 at The Marks Tey Best Western Hotel
With UK Guest of Honour: Piers Cawley and Overseas Guests of Honour: Stone Dragons (Tom & Sue Jeffers)
Discovered the Bungalow Diner just a few minutes down the road. Ate most of my meals there, an English version of an American diner.
Went to Earth & Stars pup on second Monday for SF reading club where we discussed The Diamond Age.
Went to The Hawth to see The Last Tango with Vincent Simone & Flavia Cacace, no dancing this week.
Learning new steps in Foxtrot, an revised this every week, Social dance was a week early as the school was using the space for a play.
Forgot my yoga gear one week so missed that class. The funding by NHS stopped this month so we decided to continue funding the class personally at around £6 per week.
One of the irritations of the yoga class was that when we moved the tables in the conference room many off the legs fell off! I finally found an Allen key which allowed me to tighten the appropriate screws and now none of the legs detach!
Listened to audible books almost every day usually for over an hour, due to having the St Mary's Chronicles by Jodi Taylor, to listen to.
Updated The Bujold Nexus - (Bibliography). Need to update more regularly as it is coming up to the 20th Anniversary!
Saw Deadpool at the Dome cinema in Worthing. One of the best moves I seen in the last year. Rather more adult in nature than the usual super hero fare but funnier too.
Used paper Delay Repay vouchers to get ticket to London for Picocon 33 on 20th. Guests of Honour: Paul Cornell, Carrie Hope Fletcher & Michelle Paver. Had to leave early as the social dance was this evening.
Booked bed at YHA in Manchester for this years Eastercon. I've also got membership of Worldcon 75 in Helsinki, Finland.
Got two hardback books from amazon at enough discount that it was paper back price. Amazon locker in town is really handy.

So my final LJ entry of the year. I've just started editing my diary notes so I can get a printed diary, using print on demand. Doing so last year got me a book of over twenty five thousand words, and I want to do so again.
First on the agenda is the Brighton SF Reading group, the book was "The Clockwork Rocket" by Greg Egan and once again i didn't finish it!
I did have a half of stout after initially arriving at The Earth & Stars
D finally finished fitting the downstairs toilet, a thing of beauty. And the roller blind style shower curtain finally arrived. Also new toilet to replace old one in bathroom arrived.
Final two ballroom dance classes before the Christmas break, were revision of dances especially the new jive (now if I could only remember the jive we learnt 2 years ago..). The final class was more of a party with food, drinks and dancing, with all the classes mixed.
Had to prune my mailbox as ISP told me it was getting too large.
Got a new ear ring, slightly smaller than the one I'd been wearing for the last few years.
Strictly Come Dancing Final, one of the closest ever. Also the Christmas Special was nice too.
Went dancing with J on the second Sunday evening, raining and dark but still arrived on time. Danced all evening, had unexpected competitor demo and snacks.
Saw "Paddington" at the Cinema and saw a doctor regarding pain in my left foot.
Determined it was cheaper to buy fish and chips at the local Wetherspoon pub (on Friday) than from the chip shop.
Lost filling or chipped tooth in upper left of my mouth, booked an appointment in the new year.
Took exam for "LFS101x Introduction to Linux" (online learning - didn't finish all the coursework) got 30/30! though a few questions did require 2 attempts (as allowed in the rules)
J learned that Salsa Julia was offering a Salsa Taster at Wivelsfield Hall, so J & I went and it was fun, stayed to see the freestyling for 20 min then went home. If it didn't clash with Book Club I'd go back!
Discovered how to install personal screensavers on the Nook ereader and added some quotes and XKCD ones.
Xmas eve got train to Horsham via Barnham the the bus to see my parent and the rest of the family.
Christmas was particularly festive with a Christmas service, an open fire, dinner and Doctor Who & Frozen
Home for the weekend, and caught up with recorded TV. back to work on Monday but a half day off for New Years eve, so I could get reading and to Crawley early in time for:-
The New Years Eve Dinner / Dance which was awesome - buffet dinner, professional demonstration (Latin & Ballroom) and danced a lot (restricted to 50% or less) by table numbers due to lots of people being there.
Helped tidy up after and left 12:40. Stayed at J's over night and listened to dance music and watched Galaxy Quest on tv before I went home! (New Years Day!)

My Kobo eReader had it's ups and downs this month. The operating system / interface was upgraded to make it work more like the iOS app. Unfortunately the micro USB, used to recharge and copy files to it, got damaged do it's now unusable. In addition it appears Kobo have decided not to continue making it so a replacement is not available.
Dancing with C & J on Tuesday of every week and the social dance on the last Saturday. J arrived early but in general the number of attendees was low. Gave J a copy of Firefly (the series) for her birthday. Also booked to see the HP Experience next month with her. Paid £5 deposit for New Years party.
Weather has been warm and sunny for most of the month, so I have been wearing short sleeve shirts to work. Dress code requires a collar so T-shirts are out.
I got a discount ticket (from work) to see Billy Smart's Circus at Lancing. The seat and program together only cost £5, this may have been the first time I've seen this particular circus.
Went to see my chiropractor, and he also tried my first acupuncture on my left leg. not sure if it made any difference, did feel odd though!
Renovating my garage and back garden. CS has emptied it of his stuff and installed a back door leading to a new path in the garden. He has also installed a hefty new gate and new fencing (on the right side looking from my back door). Attempted to buy replacement front garage door but no luck.
D took me in "his" taxi to the post office to collect a package from amazon. First time he's taken me anywhere!
Bought a new watch strap, to replace the broken original one, and saw "How to Train Your Dragon 2 - 3D"
Mowed the front and back lawns (in different days).
First Monday in the month I was at the Earth and Stars in Brighton for our Science Fiction Discussion Group to talk about Device Endurance. We were relegated to a table in the main back as the upper room had been book by another function.
Had to visit the dentist to get a filling in my upper left. I arrived much too early but is was raining and I didn't want to get wet wandering around town.
Mum phoned to say that she kept getting popup adverts on her laptop, so I went to visit and sorted it out. Had to de-install a load of Adware, and a couple of apparent trojans. Started accessing pottermore.com site - eats time! but fun.
Had a cough for the end of the month, finished bottle of cough mixture.
Walk to the Post Office Delivery Office, took just over an hour and a half there and back! Collected amazon package.
Saw Monty Python Live (Mostly): One Down, Five to Go [Live at the O2] on the Gold TV channel. It was of more interest as a event than the content.
Renewed my train season ticket. Got my London hotel booking extended to a day before and after Loncon3, Mobile version of program now live.
Bought 2 pairs of shorts and 2 short sleeved shirts. Returned 2 audible books for credit.
Have had blisters on right toes, but as the first two weeks in August dancing is off, I should recover.
Last Monday of the month had a major thunderstorm. Lightning strike on electric substation at Hove station; meant no trains on South West line from Brighton. So couldn't get in to work (did get to Brighton) so went home for the day.
Sent in my Hugo and Retro Hugo votes online. Alarm clock batteries expired.
Started setup for LFS101x - Introduction to Linux at courses.edx.org/courses/LinuxFoundationX/LFS101x. Created Ubuntu 14.04.1 install on USB Disc
Also started editing my electronic diary for last year prior to printing it out.

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!

Since I haven't blogged since October I though I'd leave an end of year place holder until I can find last year's diary.

So nearly a year later (7 January 2012) I've found my 2010 Diary and as a resolution, will update more often.

Was assigned a Personal Advisor when I signed on at the Job Center. Sally had been dealing with my case since the beginning but now it's official. During this period I have been using a paper based record of my job searching.

My TV License had to be paid for and cost £145.50. Signed on to to do-it.org to look for volunteering options.

Visited the dentist and got the permanent filling installed at a cost of £100.

Started watching Strictly Come Dancing. The final was on 18 Dec. I actually phoned the bbc and voted for Pamela and James.

Brian from Home Learning College came to talk about courses. But I couldn't afford them.

Went to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1" at the cinema.

I started reading the webcomic "Digger" (http://www.diggercomic.com/) A wombat, a dead god. A very peculiar epic.

It snowed at the beginning of December, and I decided to trek through Bedelands Farm, in the nearly foot deep snow. It was very memorable, but a had slog where walking where no one else had been before.

Got the old PC from my parents/sister up and running Windows XP took over 3 hours (I could have used Linux and got it working in half an hour but I wanted to be able to use Windows, to keep my skills up to date).

A few books arrived from Amazon, I read fanfic, and walked around Bedelands without snow.

Spent Christmas at my parents/sister's family. This was followed by my sister and brother-in-law's silver wedding anniversary. We all went out to dinner/lunch at the Tollgate, Bramber. I then went home.

This wraps up 2010, in which I lost my job and my sister celebrated 25 years with her husband!

Last few day's D has had his brother and family pop over to visit (they came over for a family Christmas from the US). They were around to see the New Year in.

New Year was Doctor Who day, re watched first episode, then the final one with ten, and the appearance of eleven! Followed by the Confidential, and the Best of.

On Saturday I lazed around mostly, though I did go shopping. Listened to desert Island Disks with David Tennant on iplayer.

Sunday morning I intended to go for a walk around Bedeland, if the weather was Ok, it was find but cold, but I didn't make it out until 12:45! anyway I did have a nice wander say a bird or two includin 2 swans on the lake and some ducks on the ice! pictures were taken...

After my constitutional I went to the the local cinema to see Sherlock Homes. The time spun by though I found the mystical storyline a bit suprising until the end.

This morning I was up early as I had a chiropractic appointment at 10:00. I discovered that Gold card discounts don't start until 10:00! Fortunately I had a refund voucher for £4.00 which paid most of the ticket price of £5.00. Since it was a nice day I walked from Hove to Brighton and got to the Odeon just after 12:00 to discover doors didn't open until 12:40 (the film has a start time of 12:45 with 20min of trailers). The reason for this visit was I wanted to see Avatar 3D. It was an Ok movie, the story was fairly straight forward, the effects were amazing and the 3-D didn't seem to be apparent half the time. If you can get to see it on an IMAX screen it would be breathtaking, but I wouldn't pay to se it again.

Then home, the weather has been very cold around 0 degrees C +/- a few. Finished packing, charged ezreader and ipod, minor update to the Bujold Nexus and so to bed. up at the crack of dawn due to the new security procedures.

So after my exciting day Out, the following Saturday I saw my chiropractor then went to the cinema, where I say the South African SF movie District 9. It was well made but in a totally un hollywood style. It's filmed in a documentary style and the main protagonist is a very unlikely leading man. It does raise some interesting issues, possible Hugo contender?

The following weekend I spent watching / clearing my Sky of TV shows, on Saturday 9 episodes of "Legend of the Seeker" not to mention watching Merlin and Strictly Come Dancing live. Then on Sunday 8 epidodes of Dexter (most all of series 3). I finished off the last 3 episodes by Tuesday! I really have to reduce my reading and increase my TV watching to keep up.

Last Wednesday I was back at the Science Museum, for a behind the scenes tour of two new exhibitions, for Plus (and corporate members) only. These were shown off by two members of staff who had worked on creating the exhibits. There were 30 guides to "Cosmos and Culture" and "Measuring Time" and then we had a further 30 minutes to explore ourselves. Unexpectedly free drinks and finger food were also provided, another perk of Plus membership!

On Saturday I saw my chiropractor again, and once more went to the cinema in Brighton, this time I saw Up in 3D. It was pretty effective, though I'm not sure if it really used all the 3Dness it could. Good story and it was different having an old protagonist (ie older them me!)

Yesterday I went for a walk around Beadlands and despite the dropping temperatures most of the trees still had green leaves, though some also had a few brown ones. Saw a few birds and a pair of model airplane flyers!

D installed a permanent shaving mirror in the bathroom. While I don't shave I do trim my beard so this will be very handy.

On Wednesday I spent the evening at the Science Museum Lates. I had to eat first, and got Chicken Noodles at Chopstix near the tube station.

Lates allow adults free entry to the Museum from 18:45 to 22:00, with themed talks and demonstrations. This month's topic was all things forensic. I arrived at the museum at 16:30 to find that the queue stretched the length of the Science Museum and half way past the Natural History Museum! By the time the doors opened the queue had got to the traffic light at the end of the block!

The doors opened on time and I got in by 19:00 which given all bags were being check was pretty good. Wandering about without any children screaming, was very strange and seeing people wandering about with a glass of wine or a bottle of beer was a bit surreal. There were a number of interesting talks being given, but queuing times of 15 minutes+ and cut off points when the rooms had filled meant I only go to listen to one of them "Going Ballistic" in the Wallace & Gromit classroom. I did get to see some new displays (3D printing, in both metal and plastic was very cool. An itinerant forensic photographer from the beginning of last century was interesting. I also spent time in the Kensington Gore workshop where I was able create a realistic cut on my left hand (photos may appear), I left just before closing at 9:40 and managed to get the 22:03 home.

On Wednesday alexmc noted that "Terminator: Salvation" was playing at the Prince Charles Cinema so last night I went along, and finally took out a lifetime subscription (I really should have done so 20 years ago!!)

At only £3.50 I wasn't too disappointed, but the film had almost no plot and little character growth. the SFX were good though! I also discovered that "Moon" is currently being shown in the new upstairs cinema. They show current releases at a premium price (but still cheaper that other London venues) so I hope to get to this sometime next week.

While I was away D got a lot of repairs done to the house. Most importantly the hot water pipes got replaced, they had been leaking, very slowly for a while, and had corroded. He also repaired the grouting in the bathroom, raised the bath a tad and replace the drain pipe so it emptied properly, replaced the carpet with the tiles remaining from the kitchen and anchored the sink to the wall properly!

He also fitted a new gutter and drainage pipe to the porch, and it now drains into a large water barrel, with an overflow to the drain (which has been excavated from the dirt!)

This last week has been hectic at work as two members of the Ops team are on leave, and one is on maternity leave. I've also returned to encrypting laptops so things are busy.

Double Vision from SRM Publisher arrived the day after I'd put in an order for copy of it and a couple of chap books. I emailed kinzel so hopefully I won't get a duplicate. But if I do I'm sure I can find it a good home, it was a fun read.

The LX/Orbital Souvenir / Program book also arrived this week bringing back memories of Eastercon of this last year and the year before. This is a much better solution to the "cool book" for each member, as it give you what actually happened rather than what was hoped to happen (even though I didn't find any snaps of me anywhere ;-).

This weekend has been very busy. I was up early on Saturday as I had my first chiropractic appointment in a month, not too bad but must practice my ballance more (if I use my new bike enough it should help). Since it was a nice sunny day I walked from Hove to Brighton stopping of at Celly's hairdresser to get my hair cut, for the first time in years. This is because my passport is due for renewal and I want to look my best ;-) I'd checked out the hairdressers as I passed and prices ranged from £13 to £35 for a wet cut, so when I saw the price at Celly's was only £9 with walk-ins only, no appointment allowed, I knew I had to stop. Less than 20 minutes after arrival I'd been washed cut and left!

Got back home to help D clear the main gutter of dirt and moss, using a high power water spray. It was fun but tiring having to aim the water nozzle at the roof and being up a ladder didn't help. Then went into town for my first real shop in four weeks, my trolley was overflowing, when I returned home.

Sunday morning I wasn't up so early (just after 9:00) read for a while, then around noon D and I went back to re-glue the gutter. It's now mostly fixed but may need one more application for a thorough water proofing.

After this I went for my first bike ride, on a real road (ie not the driveway behind the house). It was a bit scary, and I wobbled a bit but it was fun too. But even the short ride to the nearby roundabout was a bit tiring, I'll have to practice regularly.

Today is the 30th anniversary of my first convention (Seacon 79 in Brighton) so I celebrated by going to the local cinema and seeing G-Force. A live action adventure, where the main characters and heroes are guinea pigs! The CG character integrated seamlessly into the real life action such that you forgot they couldn't be real.

When I got home I caught up on four hours of "Legend of the Seeker" fairly generic fantasy, but the scenery is good (not just the location!)