Week Notes 29 and 30

Blogging

Two blog posts in two weeks. I’m still not doing very well here.

Health

I’m still losing weight slowly and surely. A week or so ago I reached the lightest weight I’ve been since I’ve really been concerned about it. And that was in 2005 after several months of quite debilitating illness.

Yesterday’s blog post was about some of the technology that I’m using to encourage me to keep going.

I’m still running. I’ve been doing it for two weeks now. Three or four times a week. I’m often not in the mood when I have to drag myself out of bed at 6am. But I’m sticking with it.

Training and Speaking

Instead of writing these week notes, I should be writing the slides for next week’s Modern Perl for Non-Perl Programmers course. Still got quite a lot to get through today.

A few people have dropped out of attending the course at the last minute. And I’m finding it hard to replace them with people from the waiting list. I’ve cleaned up the waiting list to remove people who have replied when tickets have been offered to them which means there are some waiting list slots available. I’m not promising anything, but if you sign up, there’s a chance you’ll get a place on the course.

And I’ve been talking to a potential client in Scandinavia. I love Scandinavia. It would be great to be paid to go there.

Gigs

Last time I said that I hadn’t seen any gigs in the previous week. That was nonsense. I had seen Kimya Dawson. She was great. You know all those cute, folky songs in the Juno soundtrack? Most of those are her.

Two weeks ago I went to Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. I saw some great acts during the afternoon (particularly Alessi’s Ark and Peggy Sue). I also caught some of Big Country‘s set – that was nostalgic. But the highlight of the night (and the whole reason I bought the ticket) was Paul Simon recreating the Graceland tour of 1987. He played for almost three hours and the set was everything that I hoped it would be.

Then last weekend was the London Folk Fest. Given that it was held in the pub at the end of my road, it would have been rude not to go. I was there for two of the three nights. I saw Alessi’s Ark again (sadly having to miss Kal Lavelle who played at the same time in another room) but the most exciting new find was the Paper Aeroplanes.

Theatre

A new section this time as I’ve been to the theatre for the first time this year. Last week I saw the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live at the Hackney Empire. As a huge Hitchhiker’s fan there was no way I was going to miss the chance to see a lot of the original cast recreating the show. As with any previous incarnation of the story, the plot changed to contradict anything we’d heard before. But it was a great night out. I hear rumours of another tour next year. If you get the chance, go and see it.

Film

Last weekend was all about superheroes. On Saturday I saw The Amazing Spider-Man (which was ok – certainly better than the previous couple of Spider-Man films) and on Sunday I saw The Dark Knight Rises (which was everything you expect from a Christopher Nolan Batman film).

Last night I watched Avatar for the second time. I still don’t understand what all the fuss is.

TV

I was completely prepared to be all cynical about the Olympics. But as a fan of Danny Boyle’s work I decided to watch the opening ceremony. And my mind was changed completely. As I watched it I could feel my cynicism melting away. Sure, it wasn’t perfect (I could have done without McCartney, to be honest) but as a representation of the history of Britain and modern life in this country, I thought it was great.

Still not planning to watch much of the sport though.