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

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!

So since Picocon, taken an ITQ Database software module, and passed with a score of 92% (a suprise as I didn't compleat the course work). I've also signed up for the next module, I'm intending to work towards a BCS ITQ2 IT User Skills Diploma.I've taken 5 modules so far and have up to 8 more to go, but I'm half way there.

At work I've added an external monitor to my laptop which is very cool. I've also been providing mentoring / training on the new way of working mostly to groups of 1-3 people, but one group was for 11, which was quite scarey . Additionally I have moved into work flow management as "hot-house co-ordinator", not my favourite thing, but I seem to be able to do it. This is in addition to the original Report writing!

Last month was my Dad's birthday and I took a bus directly from work to Crawley and then a train to Horsham. Mum collected me (which was a suprise as last time I saw her she was walking with the aid of sticks). I showed Dad my EZReader and Android eTouch, also took him to Currys to see newer devices, but he decided not to purchase at this time.

When I got back from my parental visit, I took a walk around Bedelands, pretty bleak at the moment, despite the sun.

Due to a reccomendation on LJ I hunted my TV channels for Phineas & Ferb and have been watching episodes regularly since. They are great fun, and have earworminh tunes.

For Lent I decided not to buy chocolate or books, or anything from the vending machine at work. A few previously pre-ordered books from Amazon have arrived, including Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire, which I must remember to nominate for a Hugo next year, Fair Game by Patricia Briggs, Assassins in Love: Assassins Guild by Kris DeLake, and Raven Calls (Walker Papers) by C E Murphy (and the No Dominion Kickstarter).

I have been involved in a number of Kickstarter projects, mostly book related. This seems to be an excellent way of supporting an author to write a non comercial story that needs to be written.

As today is Mothering Sunday I decided to visit my Mum (and the rest of the family). Once again I left from work, though I was delayed by an hour and a half to compleat a report! Mum collected me and discovered my parents were the only one in on Friday evening. Saturday rained almost all day, helped Mum with her spreadsheets, and attached her lapto to the TV so she could play iPlayer on the big screen. I worked on my ITQ modules!

Just got back from church went with parents and sister.

So it's Chrismas Day and I have been catching up on my blogging, the last eight months have been extracted from my diary so don't have a lot of character ;-)

My volunteering at Sussex Oakleaf had a change, as the work I was doing for the Finance team had been completed, and they didn't have any new stuff for me to do for the moment. So I got re-assigned to another project at The Yews, first helping re-format some teaching documentation, then helping create some graphs in Excel.

I've been watching a fair amount of TV including Haven, Warehouse 13, Alphas, Bones, Fringe, The Secret Circle, Frozen Planet, The Mentalist, Rissoli & Isles (started reading the books too), Lost Girl, not to mention Strictly Come Dancing and it's companion It Takes Two.

What now appears to be my last book club meeting discussed "The Tenderness of Wolves" by Stef Penney, once again I haven't finished it, but I still have it on loan so I may do so eventually.

I took my duvet and under-sheets to the nearby laundrette to get them washed, while there, there was a short power-cut, but the wash cycle continued on power resumption. I then put all the washing in the drier (which was the main reason for going. If washed at home it wouln't dry before evening).

In the first week of the month I got an email from Deekay Recruitment indicating that there might be a job available for me if I was still looking. I replied in the affirmative and then the next week was sent a contract to start on 19th December in Crawley. This without any interview, just on the basis of my CV. I wasn't even told what the actual job was!

Since I still wasn't sure what the job was I signed on for the last time, and was told my next sign on day was 10 January 2012 due to the Christmas holidays. So I have to notify them before then.

I had a morning of admin at Sussex Oakleaf and was able to to provide some final assistance, but then had to say I wouldn't be back, at least for a while as I'd got a job! Thought they were sad to loose my expertise, they were happy that I was soon to be employed.

I also notified CDG as I had an appointment at their new office (they had moved in early December).

Last weekend I went to see Puss in Boots in 3D followed by Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows at my local cinema, both fun in their own way.

So on Monday morning I got a weekly season ticket to Gatwick Airport and then walked in the cold morning to the Amey office where I discovered that there were 15 other people starting on the same job at the same time. It was a new project relating to the administration of railway inspection! But we didn't actually find out what the job entailed until Monday lunchtime.

The first two days were mostly training then we started report writing. By the end of the week I'd just managed to complete 25 reports! On Thursday I started to suffer from a cold/flu despite my flu shot.

We were let out early at 3:30pm and I then took the bus to Crawley, where the traffic was jammed, and it started to rain heavily with strong winds. My umbrella blew apart! Then train to get picked up by my sister then on to her home!

This is the first time I've had a short term contract and/or worked through an agency. I wonder how I'll cope!

I thought I'd finish off the financial year, and my March posting in one go.

This last weekend the weather wasn't as accommodating as previously so I messed out on my walk around Bedelands Farm, hopefully next weekend will be better.

Pat Wrede has recently had a new website at www.pcwrede.com and I've now added a link there from my minimal Read Wrede pages. I'm really looking forward to her new book The Thirteenth Child which is due out later this month.

Yesterday was quite hectic, the PTB decided that we (Charityshare) didn't need to provide IT Training any more and after 2 months notice the team was made redundant. With over 40 years of training experience it was a very strong group and is no no more. There was a farewell lunch for for them and a few of our colleagues, at the tapas bar just over the road. I had a nice chicken Fajitas for a very reasonable price, but had to leave before most of the rest as I had to get back to work!

In the evening was the last juggling class of this term and I managed a number of firsts. First due to BST I was able to juggle outside in daylight, and I was able to borrow some knives and managed over 50 throws in one go.

We then did some collaboration and Pete and I managed well over 10 x self pass with clubs, we got so zen we weren't counting! We also manged 9 x pass, pass twice. Then the five of us that have been passing clubs tried a self pass pentagram! Everything fell apart quite quickly, but even the little we did manage, did get better.

This morning I had training on a new web service that is due to be made available from the NSPCC in the next few months and the Charityshare is providing the back-end support for.

I really should have posted sooner, it's 3 weeks since my last post and this included my birthday!

I've rejoined as a Hawth friend, giving me advances news and discounts at the theatre. I've had a number of books from amazon, and I've also got a few SD Cards to allow me to install alternative Operating Systems for my eeePC without overwriting the original.

Before joining Charityshare I started on the ECDL course. my details unfortunately got lost so I've been persuaded to start again by a member of our in house training team. On Thursday the 10th I took and passed 5 of the 7 modules, without any revision! In the afternoon while eating a jelly bear part of a tooth/filling cracked off, not painful but I did phone my dentist for repair. He was unfortunately on holiday so it had to wait.

The following day was my birthday and a colleague had her birthday on Saturday so cakes were available at work and a number of people wished me well.

Since Saturday was also my sister's birthday I was collected by my Dad, so I could visit. But first he took me shopping so I was able to buy an extension ladder,which only just fitted. Then back to Horsham. We had a delightful fondue supper and I finally joined the 21st century when I got a mobile phone(PAYG)as a present.

On Sunday we went to church and Dad celebrated for the first time in months. Mum and I took up the bread and wine (which was cool) and at the end the congregation sang Happy Birthday to me (which was less so.

After dinner my Mum took me home (and was nicely surprised at the lack of clutter due to my room mate!).

Next installment hopefully later today.

After a couple of hours at work I left for my first visit to the Microsoft Campus in Reading. First taking the Tube to Paddington, then a fast train to Reading, I arrived just over an hour after leaving the office! Got a taxi to the site but being early, this meant I had an hour to kill before they stated registration so I had a walk around and ate my lunch.

The presentation was on Microsoft Licensing, which while not stunning interesting, has been made part of my job, and didn't put me to sleep, which has happened in the past!

A large number of us caught the complementary but back to the station. it even had WiFi, provided via 3G which was cool. Train back to Paddington, Tube to Victoria and then the train home, only an hour later than normal!