Exam Time

It's something that has been coming for a few months now but alas, with less than a week to go before my PMI-RPC (that's Pensions Management Institute - Retirement Provision Certificate to the uninitiated) I have finally come to the end of the notes. Having handwritten now close to 60 pages (double sided) of notes and having typed up only 30% of those so that I can actually read them, I am still feeling fairly well prepared for it - much more so than most of my school or university exams. I suppose with it being a financial sort of thing, I've actually been studying that since I was in year 9 and having done a GCSE and A-Level in accounting and a further certificate in financial studies, I should have an advantage over someone who has come to this without such a background.

So, catch up time. Once again I have neglected my blog and so I have quite a bit to catch up on. Nevertheless, I shall aim to keep it brief. I've had a trip to Sheffield since I last posted; the TSC formal was a few weeks ago so I made the journey across the Peaks to join in the celebrations. We had a delicious meal before hand at a recently opened Chinese restaurant on Glossop Road the Three Corners of China. The menu is certainly a long way away from the usual Anglo-Chinese hybrids that you usually see in these restaurants and not knowing what to pick, I ended up with a leg of pork. A whole leg of pork, to myself. Thankfully, I had several willing volunteers to assist me devour the beast - almost certainly the most tender and succulent piece of pork I've ever eaten. The sauce was a slightly different matter as I'm fairly certain that the main ingredient was chilli and was more than a little overpowering in anything but the tiniest of quantities. Thankfully, it didn't ruin the meal and despite the frankly appalling service - some people had left the restaurant before others had even been served their meal, a good time was had by all.

I wish I could say the same for the rest of the night. I've never been very good with rich food and when you mix it with dancing it can be a bad combination. This is the second TSC formal (out of three) where my night has been interrupted by the meal beforehand paying another visit. I'm not entirely sure how I managed to avoid it last year but whatever it was, I forgot to repeat it this time around. I refuse to let this ruin my night though and felt much better after I'd taken it easy for an hour. There were many times during the night when I had almost come to the conclusion that I was getting to old for this sort of thing but with hindsight, I have put this down to the detestable choice of songs from the resident DJ. There were short periods of bliss amongst the R'n'B horror that consumed most of the night - mainly when there was a TSC shout-out followed by a requested song but that was enough to keep me going until the end.

The journey home was less than spectacular. I had assumed that the formal would continue in time honoured tradition, until the early hours of the morning. This was not to be. We did manage about an hour and a half in the Harley until 4am when we were kicked out but even then there were only three of us left - one was me and the other two I had met only that evening. I made my way slowly to the train station, aiming to prolong the walk down as I knew my train wasn't until gone 5am. I managed to get there in about 15 minutes and then had to sit outside and wait for everything to open up at about 4:30. I managed to doze a bit on the train and then the hour long tram journey back to Altrincham from Piccadilly but bed was the only place I wanted to be when I got home, shattered doesn't begin to cover how I was feeling.

Not deterred by those nightclub terrors, the following week, I was off on another adventure back to my home-town of Birmingham. It was my friend from school's birthday and she had invited me to come out for it. Another friend had kindly offered to let me stay at hers for the night but I wasn't expecting a fully made bed. I've gotten so used to sleeping on sofas and floors that I had lugged my sleeping bag and pillow in my rucksack on the journey down. I'd slightly miscalculated how easy it isn't to get to Birmingham. In a car, it's about an hour and a half if the M6 is clear (although admittedly it often isn't) but by public transport - which I am now using exclusively since selling my car - it took nearly four hours. an hour to Piccadilly - plus an extra 20 minutes to cover me having to go back to the house to pick up my railcard after leaving it behind - an hour and three quarters on the train and then another hour on the bus the other end. On top of that all the waiting in between the changes of transport and you end up with more of a trek than a simple journey.

On my arrival, I was greeted with a sandwich before we made our way to the pub to meet the birthday girl. We were then off to the Jam House where I was to be very pleasantly surprised by the calibre of this over 21 venue. I had no idea what to expect from the description on the website, all I knew is that it was a sort of jazz theme but not a lot else. Within moments of stepping inside, I knew the night was going to be good. The right sort of music that you cannot resist moving to, and music I had heard before as well - mainly 80s and 90s with a few 00s classics here and there - this was my kind of venue. There were two live bands during the night, the first were a duo with one guy on the vocals and keys and the other on the drums - they were superb and really knew how to work the crowd. The second band were magnificent - the Subterraneans, a covers band but who managed to adapt their style to whomever it was that they were covering, it really was marvellous.

We managed to get a taxi almost straight away at the end of the night - something almost unheard of in the city centre - and at only £15 was a bargain split three ways. After a lazy start to the day, I was invited to stay for lunch - roast lamb and rhubarb pie with custard - how could anyone resist such a temptation. I'd not had a dinner like that in a long time and it inspired me to do the same this weekend as my Easter treat. I indulged in a leg of lamb - just for me and after making four meals from it, I still have half of it left so I'll have to think of something creative to do with the leftovers.

A quick summary of the other smaller things that have happened... I've bought a new monitor - a 23.6" Samsung beauty. I was finding it difficult to program on my old 4:3 screen after having gotten used to viewing things side-by-side at work, this is far better and I should be much more productive now (that's my excuse at least). After much deliberation, I finally took the plunge and updated my Walkman - something I've been meaning to do for a while now. I was very tempted by Sony's new Android range but alas, the main reason for the upgrade is that my music collection doesn't fit on the tiny 16GB of my current player and the 64GB version is only available in Japan at the moment. Instead, I went for the NWZ-A867. I've been trying to test it out in the Sony shop in Altrincham for weeks now but they never seem to have it in stock. I had read some bad reviews about the less than responsive touchscreen and as this would be my first proper touchscreen device - after having loathed them for such a long time - I didn't want to confirm my prejudices and end up with a dud. I then came across a very positive review on RegHardware and that was enough for me to click buy. I'm currently waiting for it to sync up with my entire music library which is taking a while but I'm informed that there is not long left to go now. In the mean time, I've been busy baking pasties - thankfully with a bit more success than the disasters I had over the weekend which offset the beautiful roast I'd made. Apparently I've lost my touch for the sweet stuff as the last couple of thing I've tried have come close to disaster. I almost lost a batch of hot-cross buns although managed to save them in the end and made a complete mess of a bread and butter pudding, so much so that it was inedible and ended up in the bin.

Well, it looks like I failed at keeping this short and sweet, nevertheless, I have a couple of musical highlights before I go. I will save one of them for my next post which should be fairly soon regarding the success or lack thereof of my PMI exam and a small review of my new Walkman but first, I wanted to share my favourite album of the year so far Our Version of Events from Emeili Sandé. I'd heard the first single she released (Heaven) and really liked her part of the collaboration she did with Professor Green (who I can't stand) and after hearing the whole album, I had to buy it. She manages to bring something fresh to the generic female vocalist that seems to have become so popular in recent years and I hope she sticks around long enough for a second album.

Finally though, I leave you with my single of the moment which has become my spring anthem. I am always amazed by the pure pop brilliance that this band comes up with over and over again, never failing to disappoint. I give you Alphabeat and their latest single, Vacation - I cannot see how this could fail to bring a smile to your face when the sun is shining outside (and even when it's not!). I cannot wait for their new album in the summer.