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It seems I've been using Twitter in place of writing here in recent times. Here's a selection of what I've been up to.

Last weekend I went to Manchester for a birthday party and to see msbhayvn. Though driving up gives flexibility in when to leave (and return), I find motorway travelling quite tiring, even as a passenger. Well, that, and it takes an age.

Self-directed maths learning is going well. I've mentioned on occasion the puzzle site (projecteuler.net) that I saw a year or so ago which caused me to be motivated enough to start learning a bit more. Anyway, the Saturnday night of last weekend I solved my 99th and 100th puzzles. Current areas of research are Ramsey Theory, combinatorials, and Diophantine equations.

On Wednesday I went to the dentist. I've had an occasional toothache for a while now and so decided it was time I sought help. Turns out that some treatment I had when living in Manchester wasn't done well and it's failing and become infected. I've got some strong antibiotics and some work scheduled in a couple of weeks. 200 quid :-(

Thursday evening I went out for drinks with saucy_goth who I met at Reptile a couple of months ago. As much as I like owning a place, it is a bit far out from town making it hard to socialise at short notice, so it's great to have someone relatively local with whom I get on well.

Friday night I was going to give some private Linux tuition but the guy cancelled. I was pondering going bellringing but dropped plans at the last minute to help a friend in distress, and we ended up going for sushi and cabaret. The cabaret was really quite awesome. One of the acts in particular
( cut for the sqeamish ) I think the audience were unprepared, judging by reactions. (Other acts did not have the kink aspect, so I think they were lulled into a false sense of security). By a weird coincidence the place we went to took us past where I would have been ringing.

Yesterday I went to Borough Market for the first time ever. It's hard to believe that I've been living in London for something like 4 years and never managed to make it. I'm glad I did. I acquired some lovely chilli hot chocolate and some chilli chutney. Thanks to _onlysmarties__ for the suggestion.

last night I went out to a charity quiz which was raising money for the Cats Protection League. It raised in excess of 650 pounds. Plus I enquired about housing one. I keep mentioning it but have decided that I'm ready for it. Hopefully by writing I'm committing myself!

Today was bellringing in Hampstead, and I was in charge, covering for the regular person who was away. It was a good session; I do so much enjoy being able to

Tonight I am off out to the Pembury Tavern, having not been there since Jan 1st. I shall be leaving once laundry is done. Who else is going to be there this evening?

Last weekend was full of epic joy, epic fail and moderate success.

But first, a passing comment on Thursday. I went up to Oxford to see a new knitting pub social. If you're an Oxford crafty-type and not part of it then do check it out at http://www.ravelry.com/groups/headington-knitters


Last Friday I went out to the pub after work with a couple of colleagues. One of them was on call so left quite early, but the other two of us stayed out. I go to the pub quite often, but what's less rare is that I drank. A lot. (Well, a lot for me, anyway). I think it was the first alcohol I had since Whiby last October.

We had such a fabulous evening, and it was really good to spend a sizeable amount of time with someone. Not in a romantic sense, but that I think it's incredibly important to get on well with colleagues. I ended up coming out to him[1] -- but it was as a result of him asking (after a few drinks, I might add) "So what's your involvement with the LGBT community?". He said that he first got thinking a few weeks back when I pulled him up (albeit gently) on the word "transgendered" when a more preferred term is the shorter "transgender". We lamented about old jobs, and team building and it was really quite a fab evening. Shortly after 11 we wandered over to Leicester Square (since that would get us both home) and awaited the rollover of 1234567890 seconds since Jan 1st 1970. (It's a unix thing). It was at 23:31:30, in case you're wondering.


I was intending to head down to Westminster for a lecture on training bellringers on Saturday morning, and my alarm woke me at 7am but I was far too rough to head down. Ｉ　decided to go back to sleep, and re-awoke at 11am.

Day time, though much later than planned, pinkoi, dj_jen and I went on a yarn acquisition in various London shops. (in the immortal words of pinkoi)"bi poly threesum in valentines day SEx shocker". We were intending to make it to 4 loop, stash yarns, socktopus and iknit) but spent too long at the first eneded up only making it to loop and socktopus.

Socktopus isn't open often on a Saturday (every other week, I think) but I did find some lovely silk. It cost more than I'd like to admit, but as I don't make a habit of buying esxpensive yarn and as it'll feel wonderful on my feet I don't mind.

On Sunday I went bellringing in Hampstead. 5 mins before the end I suddenly realised - I was meant to be leading the Edgware service ringing. Oops. Sunday afternoon was spent chez hughe winding yarn and making cats dizzy by having them chase laser pointers round in cicles.

Fun, fun, fun.

[1] I realised that I'd used entirely gender neutral language up to this point. That wasn't a conscious effort, but was just somerthing I noticed.

Work has been insanely busy, but thankfully it's been the kind of business whereby I've been able to be productive rather than being interrupted with priorities all the time. Lunch today was at the Bierodrome. Mmm, steak. A good way to end the work week.

I got most of my Christmas shopping done this week - just a few remainder to get tomorrow, then I'm aiming to meet up with pinkoi and hughe.

Annoyance of the week: I spent about 2 hours yesterday trying to get my phone to sync with my computer, and failed. I'd dearly like not to have to migrate the data manually when I upgrade my phone. (Most likely to a googlephone, but I'm not entirely convinced yet)

Celebration of the week: I learned a new knitting technique this evening - a figure8 cast on for toe-up socks.

Off to bed shortly.

Had an awesome couple of weeks. I'll post details at some point but before I do this is just a notice that I've added and removed a few from my friendslist. If I dropped you it's because either we don't have contact with each other any more or that you've stopped updating. I prefer to not have more open access than necessary so block access from dormant accounts. If you still read but don't post then drop me a line and I'll re-add you.

There's a few of you on my "also friends of" list that I don't recognise. Who are you? I can work out where I likely know some of you from, but not enough to pin down who you are.

Comments screened, just in case.

Friday was the work Christmas party. People were getting very drunk; I left the time that people started doing lapdances for each other! I didn't take any photos, but I know there are some somewhere. (None of me, I'm glad to say). I went to Aldgate to go bellringing to hide from the debauchery.

Saturday:
Afternoon I went ringing at Westminster. I don't often get nervous when ringing, but the prestige of them is enough to unsettle me a little.
Last in the evening I went round to see snork_maiden who I'd not seen for far too long and we headed out to spiral scratch. A great little place, in a pub just off Charing Cross road. I keep forgetting when it's on, but have enjoyed it each time I've gone.

Sunday:
A day I'll not forget for a long time. It was the first Sunday service ringing at Edgware since I started training the band. Such a proud moment, and it went really well.

In the afternoon there was more bellringing at Hackney and Islington, and then I went back to Hackney for drinks in the Pembury Tavern. A fantastic evening, and was great to catch up with people (especially those like missyk8 who I'd not seen for ages). Got the bus to KX with S. and even arrived in time for the last tube home \o/

Ugh. So this going-to-bed-earlier lark didn't work out well. Not that I haven't enjoyed myself - far from it - just that I'm struggling with the lack of sleep. It doesn't seem all that long ago when I use to regularly get by on 4-5 hours a night with the occasional 6-7 catchup. Now it seems to be a 7-8 with a slightly less common 9-10 catchup.
Anyway, so what've I been up to this week? (I've been asked about my mini hiatus from writing in my journal by more than one person. It's hugely flattering to know you're that interested in my blatherings. I've made notes of what i've been up to but am waiting for when I have time compose a worthwhile entry.)

Tuesday night I went to
Marine Ices
And then to a bar with
Bluehelen.
Was great to catch up without having to fight the bustle that is typical of our usual mutual haunts such as
Bmovie.

Wednesday wasn't awful, it just didn't turn out the way I had intended. By way of preamble, a friend has done a load of resoration work on a church in the city of london. It's not as well known as one might thought, considering how well-known is a song in which it appears. These bells haven't been in a functional condititon for over 100 years. They now are, and I've rung at a couple of services there during the week when I worked next to
The gherkin
This friday is a fundraising launch party and publicity event, and I was going to help set up equipment there. The spanner in the works (pun not intended, but left in for good measure) was that the trailer which was going to be used to transport things over was blocked in by an unknown vehicle. I had reached the church and was waiting for a while so again it was very late when I got home.

Last night I went out with colleagues from work. There were 2 departments (loosely speakingcustomer servies and tech), and it was good to finally meet some of the people I'd seen on the internal ticketing system. (the two depts are at different offices)
Ended up staying out very late, but still managed to get the last tube home. Once again it was a noisy bar and I was struggling to hear at times, particularly toward the end of the night when I was tiring so coping even less well.

Given loud enough background noise am sure even fully hearing people would struggle to hear, but though my hearing (as far as I know) is normal, based upon the facility with which most of my peers conduct conversation in noisy atmospheres I seem to struggle more than most. Having spoken to deaf people about it, I've heard occasional mention of cognitive deafness.

I don't know if any such tests exist, but that's pretty much what it feels like. I find it so tiring as I concentrate so hard and people sometimes mistake the resulting facial expression for aggression.

Towards the end of the night I spent it talking to one person who pointed out that I was "on edge". His english was easily converasational, but I think I would have struggled to explain the above. There's a story i've started using because it's easier to explain in noisy circumstances, that I fell asleep next to a bass canon in a club a few years ago. After that he took much more care to speak clearly. I know it's perhaps missing the hugedifferences between the two types (well, ok there are many more) of deafness, but in loud situations I rarely have the ability to explain.

I was intending this post to be a short one. Oops.

Back to the grindstone for today, carter usm gig this evening (and having heard through the grapevine, I know loads of the people going), then to katie and Zeke's housewarming.

I was going to make this a bah/yay post, but I don't quite have on the bah side. Not that I'm complaining.

This week's annoyances:
mutt seems to segfault if an IMAP folder changes whilst mutt is accessing it.
Network card on my laptop has died. I suppose it's time I bought a faster machine anyway.
XSLT's variables aren't, uh, variable. You can assign them once but not thereafter. I have yet to find a workaround for my problem hindered by this.
On Wednes day when walking home I passed an art gallery and saw a fantastic photo in the window. I considered buying it as I quite like contemporary artwork so made notes and phoned the gallery to check the price. It was > 50x what I'm prepared to pay. I could barely contain my horror when calling. Shame, really.

Good stuff:
On Monday I had lunch with snork_maiden. Was great for a catchup, but not quite long enough. I'm still interested in these knitting socials, so if you let me know which ones you're likely to attend I'll see what I can arrange.

On Tuesday I had dinner with my mum. AS well as a social catchup, she was visiting in order to discuss what I want in the way of curtains. A couple of the blinds in the house are a bit flaky and I think curtains look nicer anyway. Curtain-making is something she enjoy and is good at so I invited her to make a set.

On Wednesday I at bellringing in Hampstead, I taught an accomplished ringer elementary conducting, something he'd previously been reticent to do. It went well, both times. BBPx3 for 108 PBM for those who care.

Last night I finished one of the gloves I was knitting, and though it's small, it's not too small for me. I think I'll make the other one to match so that if/as/when I'm bothered to make a slightly larger pair, I'll have a matched pair to give away. I'd like to do that anyway, as it's fun to make stuff for others. (I made a striped version of the hat for a colleague about a week ago)

Aldgate ringing tonight, but I'm tired. Hopefully I'll perk up. I need to be more disciplined in getting to bed earlier. Please help me to do this.

Stay Beautiful this Saturday. Can I tempt anyone to come along?

Found during late night browsing last night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swqvwH0PX50

Weeked was spent in Manchester. Intent was to install Cat5 cabling chez xugglybug, but as is often the case with such projects things fell behind schedule. I'll get the rest done some other time.

Shame not to have been able to meet up with other people this time. I've not yet fixed any dates when I plan to go back, but it should happen soon enough.

Time now to finish off a few emails I owe people re other recent posts. (Sorry for the latency about that)

I'm somewhat tired having been doing work on my personal website for the past few hours. I should head off home and eat, I guess :-)

I'm heading up to Manchester tomorrow night, returning to London on Sunday evening. Saturday I'll be at a reunion so unavailable, but other than that I'm free. Who wants to meet up? (If after Friday then best to phone/use SMS as I can't guarantee Interwebnet access)

*luffs to all*

Today:
Today was the 100th anniversary (to the day) after the baptism of St John Betjeman, Poet Laureate from 1972. It was from his poem Slough whence the subject of this post comes. St Anne's in Highgate was one of his favourite churches, and to commemorate there was a special service with ringing afterwards.

Then I went to Archway Cat Shelter with one of the other rings who was a cat lover. I spent almost 2 hours there and provisionally picked a couple for the house. I let the people know there that it would be dependent on the move happening as planned (a post about that to come, probably tomorrow). As fate would have it, when I called immiscibility to tell her the news and of my choice, she mentioned she would have gone for those cats too, so *fingers crossed*

Tomorrow:
A few days ago mrk told me about an exciting opportunity near my house-to-be. There's a nearby church with bells and a gorup of willing learners, but noone to teach them. They're looking for someone, and I've been volunteered (I don't mind this - it's something I'd actively like to do - see item 81 ). My reason for mentioning this is that tomorrow is the demonstration, just to maintain enthusiasm and let them know what it's all about.

* * *

Off out now to bluehelen's housewarming, and if circumstances permit, to sort out the 'Net access there.
I just found a bug in either my journal style, or part of the public one - tags are not shown on the preview page. I shall hunt it down and squish it later; it's been far too long since I last poked the LiveJournal internals.</geek>