Hello all. I hope everyone has had a good week. I have decided clearly not to do the weekly update each and every week but I think that’s fine as there is not always going to be news every week. But there is now so I have chosen to do another one.
No More Social Club (for now)
Unfortunately, one of the social clubs I was very much into and that has opened up a lot of doors for me in my community and elsewhere has stopped for the foreseeable future. There is a chance it may come back as they look for a new person to run it, fingers crossed it will not be too long.
I am a bit sad of course, but naturally these things can happen and show it is important to look for such things and make the most of them! I just hope the group for my own age range will stick around in particular. I also wonder about the sailing trip and jubilee activities, but we shall see what happens for now.
I still go to another social meeting via Zoom every other week that is looking more and more hopeful to grow into something big, and I have the art club to keep me occupied as well as the young film event programmers’ group I am in. Plus, I have something else coming up very soon that is going to have me very busy…
I am Starting a 9-Week Programming Course
It will be for 9 weeks Mon-Fri from 9am to 5:30pm each day. This course is once again been brought to my attention via the Prince’s Trust and is being run by Service Now, a big software company that looks like it could be a good fit for my future if all works out – early days yet. But there are guaranteed job interviews following the programme.
Naturally I am doing it as I am interested in learning to program and get some kind of job in the IT sector – even better if it involves working from home most of the time. I already have some base knowledge on HTML, CSS, and a little bit on JavaScript through Mimo and FreeCodeCamp and so doing this course will help to greatly expand on those things and hopefully turn them in proper skills. The course will also focus on various other IT-related areas as well.
All of this also complements the Google IT Support Specialist certificate that I obtained last year. And it is all transferable skills more important than ever in this growing digital world that is getting hungrier and hungrier for more employees with such skills.
So, it is very exciting times and I am hoping it leads to big things. And as always, I will still be keeping this blog going, such a job should allow new and more interesting content that is perhaps more IT and programming focused. Although politics… particularly their systems – especially elections – will always be a part of my blog.
But of course, for the 9 weeks (beginning from the 30th May) – plus a separate Get Into Cybersecurity mini-Course that runs for a week from next Monday – although this will be 9am to 3pm each day – will be taking time away from the blog for those periods.
The Blog
WILL STILL BE HERE. It is not going anywhere. Spare time I have during the weeks of the course will be put into my larger blogging projects such as the Commonwealth army series (like this, this and this). I am still working on the one for the Royal Navy. It may be ironic they actually get more work put into them while I have less time – strange.
I will also be aiming to do a Weekly Update post each Friday during the course’s 9 weeks (plus next week during the mini-course) to talk about how it is going, what I have learned, and anything else that is interesting and insightful, or related to the blog.
So, there will still be some activity. But this time I am hoping to maintain much better activity than the drop to basically nothing that happened during the IT Course I did last year. I do not want that to occur again. So therefore – the goal of one weekly update post per week is something I am making essential for myself.
After the courses are finished following the 9 weeks, I should be able to get fully back into the blog again, although there will be job interviews. But to begin I am hoping for a part-time job to ease my way into having a job and adjusting from a life on benefits to a life on wages. I do not want to just jump straight into a job, with benefits gone, and potentially then fall into a pit and be in big trouble. So… baby steps.
As I said, when and if I do get a part-time job and eventual full-time job, I will still keep this blog going with it becoming more expertise focused. I have NO PLANS to end this blog. That is something I want to make very clear.
You may also see the next government series post on Montenegro at some point… or not, dependent on time. But as I said most focus will now be on my larger blogging projects for the duration of the course from the 30th May until the end of the 9 weeks.
Getting on the Roads with my New Bicycle
I am not sure if I mentioned it or not but I got a new bike for a good price recently. It was from a place that recycles and fixes up bikes that Halfords no longer wants to sell, much of the profit then goes to charities for Africa. These bikes are still really good quality and they fix them up great. Well worth the price. For myself I got a Carrera mountain bike for under £200 that would usually cost around £400 or so. I bought it using birthday and Christmas gift money I had saved up.
It was thanks to my social worker actually that I found out about this place and he helped me get the bike back to my flat. The place did also sell bicycle helmets as well but my head is huge… and I mean it is pretty big (I needed an age 13 helmet as a toddler when riding on a baby seat on my mum’s bicycle), so all the helmets they had failed to fit so we had no choice but to go to Halfords for a helmet.
Even in Halfords it was quite a nightmare trying to find one that would fit my big head, but eventually found one for £40. It is worth it as safety is always very important, only takes one knock off from your bicycle to get your head smashed in or impaled – either dead or severely brain damaged. Better safe than sorry, I will always wear my helmet while riding.
I have since then been enjoying going on bike rides (which I have not done for many years, since childhood) with my social worker through the town and have gone on to the roads as well, learning bicycle road rules and etiquette so I can become more confident doing it myself. It has been great fun. The sore butt and hands are worth it.
I was a bit wobbly and rusty after it having been so many years, but I am quickly getting used to it again. I am also not familiar with using bicycle gears as I never did on bicycles previously, so I am learning those – it’s not that difficult, it’s more multitasking – riding while changing gears – that I am finding difficult. But then, multitasking has never been my strength.
I still need to get better going up steep hills but I will get there, just need to change to the right gears on time.
Getting a bicycle is well worth it and also saves a lot of time traveling across town. Plus, it is still exercise and fresh air.
Well, that’s all for now. Exciting times are ahead.
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