Pupdate

Autumn is upon us, and it was a wet start to the month, but that hasn’t stopped the boys from being enthusiastic about their walks.

Clear scan

Milo had another scan at the start of the month, and once again it was clear :) That means we’re now on the longest stretch of remission since he got ill.

Octopus

We fell for a social media Dachshund group promotion (scam?) and ordered a toy on what I thought was Etsy, but was actually ‘Esty Express’ (spot the difference). It was £20.24 inc shipping. If I’d looked on Ali Express I’d have found the same thing for £2.94.

Milo ‘Destroyer of Toys’ didn’t have the squeaker out in under a minute. But once he got started, it was less than an hour before it had to be binned :(

South Lodge

We’d planned to spend our anniversary at Trading Boundaries for a T’Pau gig, but that got pushed back a few weeks. Plan B was a night at South Lodge along with dinner at The Pass.

It was a beautiful place to spend a night, and the food (and wine) was tremendous. It’s definitely a place we’d both like to return to.

Torres tasting

I’ve always loved the selection on offer at Grape & Grain, and it’s become a regular haunt since they started doing cafe style service where you can enjoy some amazing food and wine[1]. So when I got an email for a ‘Meet the Winemaker’ with Torres Chile head winemaker Eduardo Jordon I didn’t hesitate in booking tickets.

It’s maybe the best such event I’ve ever attended. A great selection of wines, generous samples, and of course some amazing commentary from Eduardo. There was also just a really fun vibe to the place :)

Marcus Brigstocke

I wanted to see Marcus’s ‘Vitruvian Mango‘ show at Edinburgh Fringe last month, but (because we booked so late) tickets were already sold out. Luckily he’s touring around the country, and I was able to grab some tickets at The Old Market in Hove. That meant we were able to take $son0 along (who’s also a big Marcus fan), and we probably got twice as much material as he did 50m either side of the interval.

T’Pau

A few weeks later than originally planned, but still a great evening out, and they played a good selection of old hits and some newer material.

RC2014 Assembly

I’ve been a fan of Spencer Owen’s RC2014 kits since first meeting him at an OSHcamp workshop so when he announced a community get together at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) of course I was going to go.

I did a lightning talk on my TMS9995 project, which led to some great conversations with other attendees. It was also great to hear from RomWBW creator Wayne Warthen.

In the past I’ve driven to Bletchley Park, which has always been a slog, as the M23/M25/M1 combo is never fun. This time I took the train, which was much better[2] :)

Solar Diary

A sunnier September than last year, but not as good as previous years :/

Clay Hunt VR

No ‘Beating Beat Saber’ this month, though with darker days coming I’m sure I’ll be back to VR workouts soon.

I gave Clay Hunt VR a quick try, and it’s very compelling (and a lot of fun). I’m sure enough that it will help my real world shooting that I’ve ordered a Real Stock Pro for more realistic practice, which should hopefully arrive in the next week or so.

Notes

[1] Especially since I discovered that their whole wine selection is available with fixed corkage, which means we’ve been enjoying some top notch English sparkling for the same price per glass as Prosecco in other places.
[2] I’ve normally not travelled alone in the past, which has skewed the economics. But I also fell victim to silly ticket pricing in the comparison. A (railcard discounted) ticket from Haywards Heath to Bletchley is £36.25, but it turns out separate tickets to St Pancras and then on from Euston are £26.85 :0