Michael's Meanderings

Best news of the month my contract at work has been extended to the end of March 2014.
Second best news I realised that my season ticket alowed me unlimited travel between Three Bridges and Durrington by any viable route, which included the route via Horsham and Crawley. Which means I don't have to buy any more tickets to get to my weekly dance class.
Continued dancing with C & J on Tuesday evenings.
Strictly Come Dancing continued on to a excellent final just before Christmas, any one of the four finalists could have won and it was all down to the audience vote.

Leylands road (under the railway bridge), was closed for nearly a week and was somewhat resurfaced (at least where all the potholes had been).

Finally got my Kobo case from Clever with Leather in Brighton, went to the dentist and had two filling both on left upper side.

Weather started to get frosty, but mostly raining. (inc storms)

Saw Frozen at Worthing Cinema, which had a pixar feel to the Disney princesses. The following day saw THG: Catching Fire at a different Worthing cinema.
Saw The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug at my local cinema, which has now been totally refurbished. Very nice new seats. This was followed by Strictly Dance Magic where J joined me for a Christmas dance in BH.

Took a final day off and helped at Sussex Oakleaf re-customising a spreadsheet i'd setup earlier in the year. Then to last dance class of the year (which included drinks and nibbles). Got a card and plant from J!

Another storm with torrential rain meant I couldn't get to work on Christmas Eve, so was collected slightly early by my sister and dad.
Christmas Eve was a main dinner as S was working over xmas, there were guests (L&S's best friends) M & G. Played Harry Potter Scene It, my BiL and I were the best!
Christmas Day included morning service, present opening (I got a ticket to the Harry Potter Experience!!!!) then dinner. Uploaded the November instalment to LJ
Saw Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special followed by Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor. Read all evening

On Boxing Day read then helped prepare lunch, after which was taken home (one road still partially closed with a tree over half of it).

Back to work and very quiet even with half the normal staff, only on the phone for half the time.

New Years Eve caught the 17:17 to Crawley via Littlehampton and arrived at 18:29 J collected me and we got to St W by 6:45 in time for the food to start just after 19:00.
Good buffet meal, much dancing and an excellent demonstration by Ian Sharpe & Victoria Lawrence.
Then danced the New Year in and helped clear up the room.

So the weather has been very cold, and there forecast was that there would be snow during the weekend. Despite this I packed my bag on Thursday night and took it with me to work so I could go directly (saving over an hour). I got an off peak saver return to Grantham (£59.70) and caught the 17:08 to St Pancras International, bought a pastie, and then a BK burger while I waited to get on a train going north. The first one I tried was SRO so I had to wait for the 18:56 before I could get a seat. Lucky I did as I discovered Smitty was on the same train and we shared a taxi to the hotel. It had already snowed in Grantham so there were small patches of white here and there.

Checked in and got membership badges and programs, the con officially started at 19:00 so I manages to miss and hour and a half. I did manage to catch Steffi, Some Guy Called Doug (friend of Talis) and Jackie Mitchell before crashing for the night.

Woke up in the morning to discover I was sharing with Master of Ceremonies realfranklin. Though we weren't in the room at the same time (and awake) very often.

In the morning I had breakfast with filklore_on_lj and had an interesting talk on ebooks, smoking (food) among other things. As a result I downloaded the Wen Spencer Tinker/Elfhome series to my ipod and started to re-read them in order.

Talis was in fine form as the first set of the day. I then went to see Roger in the dealers room to buy a couple of CDs Talis - Queen of Spindles, and Play it With Moxie Live! Left CDs in my room and then caught the end of the Seb Kinder (footloose filker) set. The business meeting follow and didn't quite finish when the fire alarm went off! So we all left the main room to wait outside in the snow. Fortunately it was a false alarm and we were let back in to defrost after a short while. After a reasonably priced curry for lunch and some reading the main concert started. This only allowed a single song per performer to allow the greatest number of people to sing, but while setup was occurring, the Filk Fund Auction ran in parallel (raising over £1000 in the end).

The last set of the afternoon was US GoH Mary Crowell which had more gaming related songs than I would have liked but the if you didn't listen to the words too much...

For dinner I had a nutloaf with vegetables followed by chocolate cake and cream, not the most brilliant meal I've had but not the worst for the money either.

The n'Early Music Consort started the evening (and keristor was sorely missed). And finally UK GoH Lissa Allcock with Phoenix, with the last time that Phoenix will perform.

As I left to go to bed I noticed it was lightly snowing so I went out to discover 2 inches had fallen that evening.

Sunday morning I was up early and was the first filer in the breakfast room! I wasn't sure if, with the snow, I should leave as planned in the afternoon, or stay an extra day and leave Monday morning. In the event I checked out, but did ask if I could check back in if the weather got worse.

I then read until Sponge fingers started, this was Zander and friends, including Chris, Valerie and Silke. This was followed by the bid session which was won by Quarter Tone with GoH Tom Nanson and Cat Faber triumphing over a spoof bid from Paul Bristow. The convention returns to the Ramada Grantham (and why not).

Castrophony was the last set before lunch (which was a steak bagette and chips). I had started on the third Tinker story by then. After lunch was Lissa's solo GoH set. It was actually very nice to hear her voice on it's own, as she normally sings as part of a group effort.

The Sams Awards were then presented. Seb Kinder (footloose filker) was surprised to win one.

Mary Crowell followed with a second set then the Sams Concert and closing. Since trains appears to be running on time I left and caught the 18:02 to London where I discovered that the Victoria line was closed, so travelled via South Kensington. Then a train to Gatwick where only 3 of 5 platforms were open, on to Haywards Heath and finally home by 9:45. I then discovered that the Bedford to Brighton trains were running at the week end and I could have got on at Kings Cross!

I got delivered home on Sunday afternoon after brunch, watched some TV (including Polar Express).Back to work on Tuesday, since the trains are running a Saturday service the Thameslink through London is closed, so I had to travel to Victoria and tube to Farringdon.

I had 3 jobs I wanted to complete this week and I have managed to finish all of them.

I've just bought my new season ticket, as far as I can remember this is the first time in over 20 years the price has dropped, in the new year. It still cost £3728! While I have put in claims for delayed travel, I need to see what the situation is for canceled trains.

Looking forward to next week when I'm off to Atlanta, and Gafilk!

I've really fallen in love with the iPod Touch, I've been downloading free apps, then deleting them with abandon! I guess I'll have a core few that I actually use regularly.

Up 7:40 down to breakfast, full breakfast service, like Friday, not a buffet so the egg was fried and there was only one sausage but with added tomato! Had a mild headache, finished packing and checked out by 8:50! Since I really don't need to catch a train until after 10:00 so I decided to stay in the the lobby and surf.

On the Train
So Marcus joined me in the lobby and copied a couple of silent movies to usb stick, and left at 10:15 walked to Boots and got something for the headache then on to Bradford Interchange and caught the 10:34 to Leeds which got in just before 11:00 so I had half an hour to wander the station and got some stuff for lunch. Once again I was in coach B in the quite coach, this time with an actual table in addition to power. So after I finally finished the book I'd started on the journey to Bradford, I pulled out the laptop to update and check out the silent movies and watched one but the difference with and without music meant I didn't watch any more.

I got home at 3:30 and since it was a nice day I went for a walk around Bedelands Farm. I saw a couple of butterflies, and a rabbit, there were even blue bells in the wooded areas. Got back after 45 minutes and started watching the TV I'd recorded over the w/e!

I finished packing this morning and caught the 9:53 ThamesLink to St Pancras International, since I was booked on the 12:35 to Leeds I had over an hour to wait so I wandered around the station. St Pancras International has the feel of an airport rather than a train station all glass and chrome and wide walkways. It even has multiple layer of train track (ThamesLink, Eurostar and mainline trains. I bought some lunch and then walked over to Kings Cross and discovered that platform 9 3/4 has moved while renovations occur!

I finished my previous post on the train, writing this up on my Asus EE PC plugged in mains power and then uploaded it via free on-board wifi. I'd also written this up to the last sentence, but since the day wasn't near done I didn't upload.

We got to Leeds between 10 and 5 minutes early so I was able to catch the 15:08 to Bradford rather than the expected 15:22, while waiting another half a dozen fen turned up and we all got on the same train. We arrived in Bradford at about 15:30, I went looking for a map at the info booth as I intended to walk to my hotel (only five minutes away). I arrived at the Midland Hotel and had checked in and walked up to my room 232 by 15:55!

I took the lift down and all the walls are mirrored so whichever way you look you can see multiple copies of yourself! Anyway I went for a walk to the cathedral, and as it was drizzling wen in for a look around and to check service times. After leaving I discover a Cineworld multiplex with 15 screens! And on looking through their play-list discovered the "The Boat that Rocked" was starting in 20 minutes, and since it was before 18:00 the tickets were £2 cheaper. It was delightful more Notting Hill than Hot Fuzz and amazingly lasted nearly two and a half hours, and the time flew by.

By this time I was peckish and stopped at a KFC for a meal then found the
National Media Museum which is open 10am-6pm it's free so I hope to go in the morning before the con starts.

Then back to my hotel to write up my day and then to bed!

So first weekend in February was filkcon, (see prevous post) I got my ECDL certificate and it's now hanging on my kitchen wall. I've also watched Terry Pratchett: A Life with Altzheimer's a two part documentary fly on the wall following Terry for a year.

After my Saturday chiropractor adjusted my back, since it was a nice day, I walked from Hove to Brighton stations (I also wanted to visit one of the shops at Seven Dials), it was an interesting experience, but I don't think I'll be doing it again ;-)

So the third weekend in February I finally fulfilled a promise to my sister and visited her and my brother in law in their house in Somerset. When they moved there over a year ago I said I'd visit, and now finally I have. I hope my next visit isn't quite so long before it occurs.

Some Photos

So I left work on Friday at lunch time from Paddington station to Bath Spa, then to Castle Cary where I was collected by my sister. We went to their "new" home and after dinner saw "Flushed Away" and "Igor" on DVD before going to bed.

Saturday morning and sister and I went off to the Discworld Emporium where we met Bernard and Isobel and after an hour of browsing I bought a post card and a small "fossil". We visited a couple of libraries during the day, but then went next to Glastonbury where we had pizza for lunch. We then caught the special tourist bus to Glastonbury Tor. We walked to the top where we were nearly blown away but it was clear enough to see for miles. We then caught the last bus back to town (just before the car park ticket expired)

We then went to Cheddar Gorge which we drove down and then back again, had a walk around bought some mead and then bought a take out Chinese dinner. After we ate sister and I returned to Glastonbury where we saw the amateur production of "Lord of the Bling - The 21st Annual Glastonbury Pantomime" started at 8pm and finished at 11pm! then back home and bed after a very full day.

Sunday we left at 10am for Wookey Hole where we spent the day. We first joined the tour of the caves. Then we went through the fairy garden and the Dinosaur Valley (including wooden dragon and King Kong) then through the Paper Mill which has only just shut down as a working paper making enterprise. We saw the Wookey Hole Youth Circus perform, all participants under 16 and only been learning for two years. Then lunch after which we did further exploring and found the clown museum, tho old penny arcade, the mirror maze, the cave museum, and the bear museum, an finally exclaimed over a figure of Captain Jack Sparrow.

By this time it was mid afternoon and we wound up the day by visiting Wells, the Bishop's Gardens, The Cathedral and The Crown. The former and latter being used as locations for Hot Fuzz watched later. We also managed to get to the Museum 15 minutes before it closed to see a display on circus in the UK. After a Hot Chocolate at the Crown we went home and a snoozed for a couple of hours (it had been an exhausting two days! When I woke up it was time for dinner, and excellent roast pork and veg, which we ate while watching the aforementioned Hot Fuzz. Unfortunately the DVD was corrupted just 20 minutes from the end ;-( Since I had enjoyed it very much and wanted to know how it turned out I went on-line to get a copy from Amazon!

On Monday I had to get up at the crack of dawn (i.e. my usual work day get up time) as my sister was unable to get a window in her work schedule before my train left! Fortunately one of her work colleges was actually going near the station anyway and was able to give me a lift. This did entail waiting a hour in my sister car and another hour at the station but I did get on the direct train to London from Castle Cary at 9:40 and thence home by 1:30pm

PS Hot Fuzz arrived a few days later and the ending was excellent!