Michael's Meanderings

This has been more delayed that I would wish but...
As is traditional I spent New Year's day at J's, taking a walk through the park and having a roast lunch, before going home.
Yoga class has had to increase in price to £8 for an hour (as the numbers are between 2 and 5 people. Ballroom dancing lessons have also gone up to £6 for the class and £8 for the Saturday social dance.
Went to Holland and back; with D driving (see prior post).
Have had a cough since the middle of the month, saw my GP and it MAY be a side effect of the blood pressure tablets I started taking, (or I may have a cold!) had to take 3½ days off work!
The Brighton SF Reading Club discussed To Say Nothing of The Dog by Connie Willis, I read it when i originally bought it in 1999, but didn't complete my re-read in time for the discussion. A massive police presence in town due to football match against Crystal Palace.
Ordered external USB 2TB Drive, only the size of a tape cassette but doubles my data storage.
Learned new steps in Waltz and Tango. J managed to do something to her knee, and was unable to dance at the end of the month, including the Saturday dance (I had to use bus replacement service to get there and back).
Booked the last Wednesday in Feb off and also booked ticket for ABBA: Super Troupers; on Southbank after which I intend to go to the Science Museum for their Lates.

Started Cold / Flu / Allergies at the beginning of the month which continued through to the end of the month. Did see a Doctor, and prescribed medication.
J Returned from S America, so was able to dance with a partner once again. Went to 2 Saturday dances, one in BH one in Crawley, the latter being the Summer tea dance with Tea and Dance Demo
Continued line dancing, 10 weeks to last class in the month. Yoga had a 2 week hiatus at end of the month due to low numbers
Saw Wonder Woman at the cinema, best DC movie since the original Superman!
I had to transfer domain dendarii.co.uk from Just the Name to 1&1 (JTN stopped trading), transition went without a hitch.
Completed all Mandatory online training at work. Had problems with the IP phone system (made difficulties for a service desk!)
D has decided to move back to Holland, and intends to be gone in August (hopefully after I get back from Worldcon)
Continued to listen to audio books, finished Sorcerer to the Crown, Winter Tide, Mira's Last Dance, & Storm Front: The Dresden Files.
Summer finally arrived with record temperatures, of course this only lasted for about a week!

Yoga class has still been reduced to 4 students and last week there was no class. Decided to add an additional workout and have now started line dancing on Wednesday evening.
Watched 3 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
At work the merger between SE CSU and NEL CSU was completed first week of the month, (IT merged last year). IT Team has new installed Skype for business (IM Service from NHS Mail).
In ballroom dancing learned new sequence in Waltz, and new sequence dance the Veleta, social dance on last Saturday of the month and 2 additional practices on 2nd & 3rd Fridays.
Got some sad news too. Dance partner J's Dad died, after some weeks of ill health. Had a DNR authorisation.
Stared final migration from LiveJournal to Dreamwidth, including all my posts and as many contacts and feeds as I can. I started posting to LJ on 11 April 2007 and it seems appropriate to finish 10 years later. This will be my last post at LiveJournal, my next post will only appear at Dreamwidth.
On the 8th I treated myself to a day at the Theatre Royal in Brighton (as previously noted) Walking back stage (and on stage), getting to see all the props for the afternoon performance was really cool. It's also really small, I've also been backstage at the Hawth (a much more modern theatre) which has much wider passageways and rooms. But then the Theatre Royal was built 210 years ago.
In the afternoon I attended a matinee performance of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" based on the movie (which I saw many years ago) with a delightful performance by Joanne Clifton as Millie.
The following Monday the SF Book club discussed Crashing Heaven by Al Robertson, which I hadn't finished on the night, but did complete the book a few days later.
Took my birthday off work and spent the day with my family (it is my sister's birthday the day after mine so we usually celebrate together), walked the dog together! Chinese meal for lunch.
Eastercon was in Birmingham NEC - stayed at Arden Hotel And Leisure Club about 20min walk from the con hotel (but cheaper!) used its Leisure club facilities a number of times
Registered for Innominate and collected program pack and badge, used app to select program items of interest (the one do not miss was ""Vorkosigan's Law: Legal Concepts from an Imagined Universe - this compared and contrasted the fictional universe with example in the British Legal system - SB was in the military and has since become a barrister!)
The program opened with a bang as Dr Emma J King, educator from The Royal Institution explored the history of the institute with added explosions!
The trek to and from my hotel was a bit of a pain, but the room cost were almost half that of the con hotel so.... (and it was good exercise).
The other program items that I didn't was to miss was the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, which was one of the best attended and started with free jellybabies! And the Easter Morning Service, which was non-denominations with a CoE backbone.
I did attend a least one program item with each GoH (Pat Cadigan, Colin Harris & Judith Clute. I also supported the Dublin worldcon bid.
My journey home was also somewhat fraught, as I caught what I thought was the Virgin - London train, but which I discovered, at Winchester, was going to Bournemouth! I did get off at the next stop of Southampton Central, then had to take a train along the south coast from the Isle of Wight to Brighton, before getting home some hours latter than expected (I still managed to got some shopping before going ballroom dancing!)
I finally topped up my iPhone, with £10 credit (may have been a year since my last £10) got one month addition £20 credit for free. BUT I have to use it before 24 May
Had my bi-annual dental checkup and will have to return for another filling, but generally speaking my teeth are OK!
D & I did a major spring clean of the kitchen (may be the most comprehensive clean since it was re-built!) Floor was bushed and mopped and scrubbed, all the counters were cleared and cleaned, the bins emptied, the sink and cooker tops cleaned and the freezer was defrosted!
I will have to buy replacement dish racks now though.
And this is the end of my posting to LiveJournal, all future material will appear at Dreamwidth anyone who wants to follow me there feel free, please comment there rather than on LJ. All my previous LJ material and comments have been imported into Dreamwidth.

Went to Specsavers for Eye test, paid for by work and got glasses for VDU work (also paid for by work). Also got my hearing tested, all OK. Also got hair cut.
Southern Rail are still striking, decided to take day off as roofing contractor came to see about quote. Also got a quote for new fencing and install of new patio £11,000+! (decided not to use this contractor)
The SF Book Club meeting discussed Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon - and unfortunately our normal upstairs room was full so had to gather in the main bar downstairs. Also our Fearless leader had only just got out of hospital so was unable to come ;-(
Next door neighbour is getting his garage re-roofed, since my garage shared the wall a combined re-roofing is cheaper, so another expense (too look forward too).
Managed to find a roofing contractor and had the roof de-mossed, all tiles checked for cracks, the ridge tiles were re-cemented, and one tile needed replacing.
Broke a tooth and discovered my 6 month appointment was in a couple of days! A couple of weeks later lost another filing and had to return to the dentist for a second temp patch.
My sister came to visit our parents and I was able to join the 3 of them for a weekend visit. On Sunday my Aunt, Uncle and cousin came over with baby cousin one removed!
Dance class every Tuesday, focused on waltz - new steps - practice on 3rd Friday and Social Dance on last Saturday.
Yoga classes continue every Wednesday after work, numbers fluctuate, but still persevering.
Strictly Come Dancing started on BBC1
Managed to leave my Amazon Fire on the train, didn't get it back, so had to order a replacement
Saw "Escape from the Planet of the Day that Time Forgot" at the Hawth theatre in Crawley, a wonderful three hander performance with minimal scenery.

Ballroom Dancing with J all month (on Tuesday evening) practicing Foxtrot with some Tango revision. J's mum in hospital
Visited parents and sisters family, setup iPad for my Mum. Gave gad his belated birthday card. J's mum died.
Updated The Bujold Nexus a bit. Ordered some books from amazon, collected then from the Amazon locker in town
Yoga class every Wednesday after work, now paid for by the students at £6 per week
Bought short book for £1 for World Book Day. The SF Reading group met to discuss Anima by Brett Davidson a book that has not yet been officially published by our fearless leader!
Barnes and Noble are to stop supporting the Nook ereader in the UK, uk Nook users can automatically transfer their library to Sainsbury's Entertainment On demand. I tried and only one book was copied.
As it stands my Nook Wifi is not longer of any use so I will have to "root" it to turn it into an android 2.1 tablet and be able to use wifi again.
Decided to re-read all Diane Duane's Young Wizards as part of Mark Reads
Printed my 2015 Diary via Doxdirect, it appears to be slightly longer than the previous volumes.
Cut the front lawn for the first time this year, exhausted me, now I have to mow the back lawn!
Social dance was a week early due to Easter using that week end.
For the first time since I started at work I was on the very early shift 7:30-3:30 (I did say that I was available for this time slot) Unfortunately due to train time I actually gt to the station 7:28 so I have 2 minutes to get to the office and get setup (with a cup of tea), this work out OK. - no late trains.
Did some overtime - setting up new account to allow GPs to use WiFi. iPhone iOS updated to ver 9.3
Remembers to nominate in the Hugos this year!
Eastercon 2016 - Mancunicon

As J had just returned from 6 weeks travelling across Canada, we had to have a catch up private dance lesson. Managed to cover all the new material, and revised those bits she had forgotten!
Went to see The Martian at The Dome Worthing in 3D. It was very impressive, almost everything in the film occurred in the book (except for the coda at the end). and they managed to show the highlights without it feeling incomplete (see Dune for a counter example)
Nominee contender for next year's Hugo Awards? I still think the audiobook was the best version though.
Dance classes every Tuesday, revised Viennese waltz, learned new steps in rumba.
Saw Dr Who, and the new Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries series.
Worked on Scratch programming via Coursera, it's a lot more involved but simple.
Yoga class continues for an hour every Wednesday after work
The Brighton SF Reading group discussed King David's Spaceship, which I actually managed to finish! Not the liveliest discussion.
Went in to surgery on a Saturday for my yearly flu jab, despite arriving at 8:30 there was already a long queue, it went down quickly.
This was followed by a visit to my chiropractor, who indicated that my posture had improved since I started yoga.
Bought a load of clothes at ASDA, and had to hem one pair of trousers due to being too long. but only pair in my waist size ;-(
Got a first day cover of star wars stamps - very pretty
Saw Back to the Future (part 1 & 2) on the 21st. Booked the following day off, as there was a drop in session at the library I was interested in.
However Gentleman Joel & the Red Queen eARC by Lois McMaster Bujold was published the previous day so instead I spent the day reading my favourite author!
On Thursday 28th my dance teacher organised a night out at a theatre in London, however due to miscommunications I didn't discover I was invited until Tuesday (two days before!),
I had to get emergency time off of a couple of hours on Thu which was allowed and met up with J and other early.
Saw Pig Farm at St James Theatre, 12 Palace Street SW1E 5JA seat C20 about 2m from the stage! Performance from 7:30-9:30 with intermission, interesting choice - only 4 on stage roles.
Not something I would have paid to see but for free!... Got home 11:20!
Went social dancing on the last two Saturdays of the month. First with Strictly Dance Magic at Burgess Hill School for Girls, then with Crawley Dance Academy at St Wilfrid's School Crawley.
Clocks went back an hour on 25th at 2am/1am