rhino_neil

:)

Well Karen came up today and we did coffee, a walk round Perth, the Norrie-Miller walk / Perth Sculpture trail and a visit to the Greyfriars cemetery. Followed by coffee and cake at the community cafe.

A splendid day was had by us both.

I will not berate myself if I don't have the energy, physical co-ordination or mental co-ordination to do whay I want to do.

I will continue to exercise to try and improve the above.

I will continue to spend time with other people and engage with live music, theatre, cinema, audio plays, music, books, TV.

I will be aware of the massive privileges I have in this world and take advantage whilst I can and try and put something back whilst I can.

spent New Year's It's dark and quiet.

There's music from downstairs on the edge of hearing.

I am here due to choices I made.

Good and Bad I own them.

This is how I've spent New Year's Eve past and likely future

Tomorrow is a new day, tax returns to do, walking and daylight to see.

I have ideas of things I want to do differently, people I want to see more, places I want to go for the first time or to go again to places well known.

The wheel turns.

Actually this was a slightly atypical Sunday,but it did includea lot of things I usually do, but not always on a Sunday.

I'm starting an outdoor fitness class in aa couple of weeks, Nordic Walking, basically walking with ski sticks. As the Perth based tutor wasn't answering e-mails and seemed to be a dead entry on the website, I'm going to Dundee. In fact it's in a park in Broughty Ferry, which is a train to Dundee and then a bus. But I'm pretty familier with the area. That said I did a trial run out which was useful. So after getting to the park, I sat and ate my sandwiches, disappointing a number of small yappy dogs. (The Scotty dog was particularly cute) So I decided to walkback into Dundee. Now due to a slight miscalc I had already walked a mile or so and it's about 4 miles from Broughty to Dundee, which is in my range, but still a bit of a hike, especially along a main road.

Sobought myselfacopy of Alan Moore's "Jeruselem", a large novel,presented as three paperbacks in a slip cover. £20 instead of £25. I walked down to the DCA Dundee Contemporary Arts and was very glad of some green tea and a chocolate & beetroot cake with icing. I completed the afternoon with a film at the DCA,"Captain Fantastic" starring Viggo Mortensen as an off grid father who with his recently deceased wife was bringing up kids in the American wilderness.

His in-laws try to stop him going to th e funeral,sohe and the kids take a road trip...

I found the film to look fantastic,expecially the wilderness sections, to be stunningly well played and funny moving and deeply critical of the traditional life choices, whilst facing up to the issues around removing your kids from society. Viggo isstunning in the central role and at times conveys so much with extended silence and the sort of non verbal communication that sort of close nit family would have. Oh and Frank Lagella plays the father in law / grandfather. It's a sort of character he can do in his sleep, and it's a joy to see him again.

I tend to go and sit in DCA and drink tea a lot. It's like the Sheffield Showroom with a modern art exhibition centre above!

SHopping and stuff, followed by more of the "What the fuck am I doing with my life?" angst.

Don't get me wrong, the job is going well and I'm gradually improving my fitness. This is helping in my ability to see beyond just doing the work thing.

So what else do I want to do? Well some kind of social life and a creative life would be good. What do I like doing? Theatre, folkie stuff, walking, Doctor Who, Bi groups.

So interesting article on the Guardian about this - My workout nordic walker which sounds like a fitness program that I could go for. There are a couple of teachers nearby, Perth and Dundee, the Dundee one has taster sessions and classes planned for the Autumn, the Perth one doesn't have anything on the website, but I've pinged her a message.

Theatre - well a friend of mine who lives in Birnam is part of the drama group at her local arts centre. There's nothing in Perth at the moment and Birnam is doable by train or bus on an evening, and they start preliminary meetings for their Autumn/Winter 2016 show tomorrow. So I'm going to pop along and poke my head round the door.

So that's fitness and hopefully social walking group, maybe some acting or other stage stuff. Folkie Well I'm thinking of getting a bodhran and I have no intention of joining the local(ish) Doctor Who group. Bi groups? Well I occasionally go to Edinburgh, there isn't one in Dundee or Perth and I'm not planning on starting one (at present).

Well obviously, not even I could hide this long at an event!

Why not? Well last year ended with me, shall we say failing in expected social niceties. AKA being a git. Not deliberately I hasten to add, but I am socially blind at times and also just want to fucking hide from people if I can't deal with interaction or am just tired. BiCon is fairly full on people. They may be lovely and yes one can bugger off to your room, but sometimes I just get tired and stressed and fuck up. This happened a few times last year and come booking time this year I just wanted to avoid any fall out, so I didn't book.

Oh and money..Fucked up on spending again big time

So I'm continuing to work on the physical fitness. If I'm fitter, I'm less tired generally and hopefully more able to deal with that stuff in future.

So carry on with the exercise, walking and swimming, watch the pennies and try and be a happy Rhino!

Well, I probably should have gone further than the co-op today. I did a finished the Doctor Who audio, but to be honest have already forgotten the ending, Davison & Beevers were good though. Had a nap and watched the last five Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. It's not a series that's improving to be honest and C4 are moving it to increasingly outlandish times and days, the next part is on Sunday at 7am! It is on E4 in a regular evening slot but it started on Friday evenings on C4, so I don't think I'm the only one not impressed. It's not a show that's doing anything particularly interesting with a rather well worn "Are the mutated humans still human" plot. Where Marvel are winning the movie battle against DC, they are loosing the TV battle. The DC/Arrowverse TV shows are more engaging and with "The Flash" have a real hit. I'm looking forward to Super Girl, I expect it will be fun, cheesy and very entertaining.

Right well tomorrow is another day and I expect I will be back at work as I'm now moving about more comfortably.

Well a little warmer in Perth and we head towards Easter and Spring. Sadly this year's adventuring will be little scaled back on 2015-16 and no extra days on the holiday. Mainly I blew the budget in 2015/16. So some choices have to be made and Bicon is sadly not happening in 2016, although I will be in Sheffield this year in April and October which I didn't manage in 2015 at all.

I'm on holiday in May (end of 2015-2016 holiday year), trip to Brighton and July (beginning of 2016-17 year), trip to Stonhaven and Heb Celt music festivals. So I'm not exactly forcing myself to stay in Perth all year!

Still hopefully on track for the debt free day. It's still three years away, but I'm determined that I will not takeout another loan before the current one expires. I plan to be debt free for my 50th in 2019 and treat myself to a fortnight's proper holiday in a good hotel over my birthday.

I have so many books and DVDs/BDs and music and audio books that I could start reading and watching and I doubt I'd be finished in 3 years, allowing for new TV to watch and a paid for subscription to the Doctor Who audio adventures from Big Finish until late 2019.

Apart from moving house I don't ask people to help me clean the flat. This is dispite the fact that cleaning is a major trigger for me for panic attacks. Don't know why, but the never ending nature of the task always defeats me.

So I asked Derek to come and help me. We did about three hours. I sorted out clean clothes and did the bathroom. He did lots of washing up including stuff that had sat in a cupboard for a year. He cleaned cooker and worktops and two cupboards. There is still truck loads to do, but the start may be enough to get me going. The fact that there is NOTHING that needs washing up is a big bonus. OK one mug and the cafetiere to wash..