Michael's Meanderings

Two Wednesdays back BOTH K and J were at the dance lesson. Fortunately the teacher needed a partner so J stepped in. Last Wednesday only K appeared so no issue. Last Saturday was the last Saturday in November so the social dance was on in the evening. K and i both made it and we danced all the dances we knew (even the recently learnt quickstep. Next social dance is on New Years Eve party (all night!). K gave me a lift to Three Bridges station as it was on her way home, and it meant I got home 45 minutes earlier than otherwise. I've also ordered some new dance shoes (my current pair I got 33 years ago!)

"Learn to program: The Fundamentals" at http://www.coursera.org finished last week. the final exam took 3 hours! and I managed to get 85%, this meant my total mark for the course was 83.5% (the pass was 70%) this despite only getting 35% on my last assignment. So I'm pretty happy. I also bought a discounted ebook copy of the tutors "Practical Programming" and intend to take the next course in the subject.

I've also started to listen to audio books from audible.co.uk, starting with "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold" I've already read the book, but the audio edition bring it more alive (at least with a good narrator).

Last weekend I got a warrant from NS&I, as I've won £25 on the Premium Bonds. I can't remember if I've ever done so before but since I only have £26 worth that 104% over 50 years! I must remember to pay it in to my account.

My TV License was due this month so I have reluctantly subsidised the BBC, while they do produce some cool stuff (Dr Who, Sherlock, Strictly) £12 per month is a bit much.

I've managed to continue working on my ECDL Advanced (Excel 2007) module each week and am over a third the way through. Signed on at the Job Centre and am still looking for work.

As a result of being unemployed I have re-contacted Sussex Oakleaf and I'm volunteering with them again. Today was my first day back and it went less than perfectly. Due to issues with the IT equipment. First I had to get an account set up (I used a temp account all last year!) Then I had to use a VPN to connect to the central services on an ASUS Eee PC desktop. Finally got everything working and started creating an address database in excel.

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!

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!