2009 update
I am still alive and living in Brighton. I did start a post in September about a walk from Chichester at the end of August (photos), which was great fun but the last long walk I did in the year. Out to Fishbourne and then to Bosham, down to the Itchenor ferry to cross to West Itchenor for crab salad and beer in the Ship Inn, before returning to Fishbourne via Chichester Marina. Lots of birds (I particularly remember a close view of a little egret in a creek at Fishbourne, and later a yellowhammer and a greater spotted woodpecker, together with wishing I had taken binoculars). One of my resolutions for 2010 will be to acquire a small pair of binoculars to take walking or when I am carrying my larger camera. Some views were rather like South Devon, and there were upmarket houses and many boats, as this is a retirement area for the affluent who enjoy sailing.
Good intentions to go walking more and get more exercise fell somewhat by the wayside, partly because of the demands of my hypnotherapy course which is fascinating but demanding. I have now practised on a real volunteer client which was a good learning experience. Beyond that I have put a lot of effort into decluttering our house, to the point where Mrs Badger admitted that the front room now looks like a library rather than a junk storage area. Hypnotherapy weekends have clashed with bibliogoth so I didn't manage to go to meetings until December, but this shouldn't be a problem looking forward.
In September I went to dConstruct in Brighton, after finding it by serendipitous accident on the interwebs. Interesting in itself, and also for out of the box thinking on work issues (what can be learned from gaming interfaces for modelling systems, for example). Also enjoyed catching up with tearsxintherain there. Later that month I went to the first part of a workshop at treadwells given by the amazing yezida (Thorn Coyle), but had to excuse myself and leave early after I discovered during the first two exercises that I was almost too tired to stand up. Decided to focus on sleep for a period rather than going out in the evenings, so missed all but the first session of the rune course by bluemagpie. Celebrated my birthday by another visit with Mrs Badger and bluemagpie and other friends with heathen leanings to treadwells to hear Freya Aswynn talk about Woden and runes.
I've also started going to and enjoying quite a few spoken word events in Brighton, including George Szirtes reading at Redroaster under the auspices of e.g.poetry who could do more work on their website. Particular highlights were Sparks Night and two events organised by James Burt. The first was Fear of the Dark and the second was a flash fiction writing evening Write club 2 run jointly with Ellen de Vries. The Brighton Book Club which I organise, started again in October.
In November I went to the conference of the Anglo-Catalan Society in Edinburgh, where the speaker I most enjoyed (and was most able to understand) was the actress and playwright Angels Aymar, who did not suffer from the academic tendency to speak rapidly and indistinctly. I had hoped to meet graeco_celt there but unfortunately she wasn't able to make it. Next year it's planned to be in Barcelona so there will be no excuse! Later that month Mrs Badger and I went to London for the launch of Odin's Gateways by bluemagpie with illustrations by lauraredwitch (photos). On the way we stopped to look at the Ghost Forest exhibition in Trafalgar Square (photos)
December seemed to be swallowed up by work, getting elder cub's dongle to work after upgrading to Snow Leopard (we had to switch from o2 to Orange) and upgrading her hard disk, getting her to Paddington to put her on the train to Devon for Christmas with her mother on a day with severe bad weather and my worst journey from Brighton to London ever (the disabled assistance staff at Paddington station reception were very helpful when we were two hours late). Once she was on the train I went to the Dawn of the Oak moot which was good fun and took my mind off the freezing temperatures.
Followed by three days at work, going down with a cold, and a period of torpor at Xmas. Looking back, more happened than I remembered when I started writing this.
Good intentions to go walking more and get more exercise fell somewhat by the wayside, partly because of the demands of my hypnotherapy course which is fascinating but demanding. I have now practised on a real volunteer client which was a good learning experience. Beyond that I have put a lot of effort into decluttering our house, to the point where Mrs Badger admitted that the front room now looks like a library rather than a junk storage area. Hypnotherapy weekends have clashed with bibliogoth so I didn't manage to go to meetings until December, but this shouldn't be a problem looking forward.
In September I went to dConstruct in Brighton, after finding it by serendipitous accident on the interwebs. Interesting in itself, and also for out of the box thinking on work issues (what can be learned from gaming interfaces for modelling systems, for example). Also enjoyed catching up with tearsxintherain there. Later that month I went to the first part of a workshop at treadwells given by the amazing yezida (Thorn Coyle), but had to excuse myself and leave early after I discovered during the first two exercises that I was almost too tired to stand up. Decided to focus on sleep for a period rather than going out in the evenings, so missed all but the first session of the rune course by bluemagpie. Celebrated my birthday by another visit with Mrs Badger and bluemagpie and other friends with heathen leanings to treadwells to hear Freya Aswynn talk about Woden and runes.
I've also started going to and enjoying quite a few spoken word events in Brighton, including George Szirtes reading at Redroaster under the auspices of e.g.poetry who could do more work on their website. Particular highlights were Sparks Night and two events organised by James Burt. The first was Fear of the Dark and the second was a flash fiction writing evening Write club 2 run jointly with Ellen de Vries. The Brighton Book Club which I organise, started again in October.
In November I went to the conference of the Anglo-Catalan Society in Edinburgh, where the speaker I most enjoyed (and was most able to understand) was the actress and playwright Angels Aymar, who did not suffer from the academic tendency to speak rapidly and indistinctly. I had hoped to meet graeco_celt there but unfortunately she wasn't able to make it. Next year it's planned to be in Barcelona so there will be no excuse! Later that month Mrs Badger and I went to London for the launch of Odin's Gateways by bluemagpie with illustrations by lauraredwitch (photos). On the way we stopped to look at the Ghost Forest exhibition in Trafalgar Square (photos)
December seemed to be swallowed up by work, getting elder cub's dongle to work after upgrading to Snow Leopard (we had to switch from o2 to Orange) and upgrading her hard disk, getting her to Paddington to put her on the train to Devon for Christmas with her mother on a day with severe bad weather and my worst journey from Brighton to London ever (the disabled assistance staff at Paddington station reception were very helpful when we were two hours late). Once she was on the train I went to the Dawn of the Oak moot which was good fun and took my mind off the freezing temperatures.
Followed by three days at work, going down with a cold, and a period of torpor at Xmas. Looking back, more happened than I remembered when I started writing this.