Michael's Meanderings

A month since my last post and I only just got back from the US! My first 2 days back at work were spent in VMWare training. I wish I've had time to actually do some hands on since I finished.

I got a new Palm TX, this was my third and according to Amazon the most expensive! It's probably due to Palm not creating a new device, and stock running out. But I've been using Palms for 7 years and I think I'll continue to.

While staying with filkferengi I was introduced to Leverage and I've been grabbing them off the net over the last month or so a bit silly but fun.

Farringdon station is in the middle of being rebuilt as part of the Thameslink Programme and so far the most visible change is a re-built bridge across the tracks. (Photos may appear at some future date).

On the first of February it started snowing, and it kept snowing all night such that on Monday morning the country was covered. Being the good drone I am I walked carefully to the railway station, only to discover that no trains had run that morning and that none were expected. So I decided that I'd return to the warm and Work from Home. This turned out to be a good idea as no-one in my team did manage to get in to the office, and neither did most of the rest of the London workforce, as both the Underground and buses didn't run.

Apart from testing out remote working, successfully, I managed to build a small snowman during lunch (it survived nearly a week). I did get back in to work on Tuesday!

The next / first weekend in February was the uk filkcon AXXIdental in Grantham and they still had inches of snow everywhere. While there was a risk of further snow on Sunday, the light dusting we did get meant there were no traveling problems, when I left on Monday.

Guests were Ookla the Mok and Richard "Hitch" Wheatley with double concerts from each. Hitch' sax triplet was eye opening.

The High light of the con, for me at least was the live performance of the Before the Dawn filk musical. 2 hours of musical theatre.

Next year Van Der Filk returns to Grantham.

My actual ECDL certificate finally arrived, It will be hung on the kitchen wall when I get around to it! The wreck that had been sitting next to my garage for the last few years has now been removed.

And now I'm only just over a week behind real time, more later?

Thursday was World Book Day so on the way home from LotR:TM I stopped at books etc (over Victoria station) and bought 3 of the special £1 novelettes that were available.

My sister and brother in law had traveled up for a long weekend for a 40th birthday party, on Saturday. They were staying with me on Thursday and Friday. When I got in we ordered take-out Indian and spent a nice time eating and catching up.

My sister tends to organise my life, so she organised a new lodger to visit on Saturday to see that we would suite and he moved in yesterday. He's also in the IT field, though not a fiction reader!

I finally started moving data from my Old half working Palm TX to my new replacement Palm TX (it arrived nearly a month ago). It's nice to actually be able to use the touch screen again.

Yesterday was my juggling class and I must say that my club juggling has improved enormously over the last 2 terms. This week I did a fair amount of passing with one classmate and then did 3 person passing with him and the "teacher". It felt really cool when it worked, even though it was only for a few throws.