Anne’s bio and legacy is well covered in these reports (BBC News Report ,  Other Report ). She will be missed and forever fondly remembered. And in writing this I have discovered that there is more to the “Brain Ship” Series of stories and that will set me searching for a while.

I raised £240 however (for Prostate Cancer) the link to sponsorship is here (Beard Shaving Sponsorship ).

For many of my colleagues this was a first and possibly only time for them to see my naked face. I don’t do this often. Like Samson my strength is in my beard. My war gaming, Sysadmin and general Irishness would be lost with my beard shaved.

And a Movie of the shaving is here.

I then spent the month of November nursing and growing a Mo and raised a further £193 for Movember (Movember Sponsorship)

I tried to take a picture once a day to show progress and have combined the results into a montage (because every good Mo needs a Montage)

And finally and excellent portrait of the finished article before my beard is grown back and yes it will be grown back because “She who must be obeyed immediately and without question” has deemed it so

A big shout out to Guilherme Zühlke O’Connor for the excellent pic.

I must also say that it was encouraging to see all those people (yes men (Mo-Bros) and women (Mo-Sistas)) who supported the cause this year. Movember got a lot of press coverage too the Evening Standard covered it at one stage details are here.

And yes it is way too early to think on Christmas but this has fired my imagination and taken my heart (yes it seems I still have one).

I have been watching this (on the TV) each time it comes on and  it moves me every time. And in this cynical time it has left me feeling human which sometimes is hard to do.

The anticipation of Christmas not because we want to receive gift but because we want to give.

And yes it is for John Lewis but it is class ! Thank you John Lewis.

Please share it !

I see now that this is a hot topic. The BBC has spotted this and run this Article on it. It seems that I am not the only person that has been effected by it.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515)

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs. Your work here has just began.

We can say of him “He stayed hungry, and stayed foolish”

More saddened by the news than I expected at the news.

Steve Jobs

It was very interesting indeed. The training highlighted some areas that I had serious misconceptions about and also some bad practices I have seen creeping into some of the scrumm teams around me. Time to change that if I can.

A pleasant two days. Something new learned

And now back to the trenches.

This is about giving people self-worth and rehabilitating them through allowing them to have value in society.

From the whole family a resounding sucess. From orgainsing the trip to arriving at the festival and particpating it was a absolute joy to be part of the whole event.

The volunteers who helped us organise our visit could not have been more helpful. The App for my android phone was excellent and a great help in many ways  (I have a few suggestions for the developer for next year which I will feed back).

The most daunting part for me was taking the whole family , three teens (one wannabee teen really, one Aspergers teen), Mum (not keen on camping) to a  four day festival.

However from our arrival to leaving on Monday the whole experience was really good. There was ASD provision for my oldest. Everyone got to see something that interested them.

The weather held off enough for us to pitch when the weather was dry and to stike when the weather was dry.

The only downside was that I did not pack an phone chargers (a big mistake when reliant on technology) but even here Greenbelt aced it as it had a charging service.

As with all festival eating out (which we did a lot of) was expensive .

It was a successful trip and we all enjoyed it (even the surly teens). Mum has been looking at next year and working the possibilities.

Today was a quieter day. A writing workshop with Kathy Watson (which was a lot of fun), LZ7 a band the kids liked and in the late evening a taize service.

In between dipping in and out of events. Checking in on a friend who is having a baby. And a pint at the Jesus Arms. Listened to blake while I was there.