Clearly distracted by the presence of a great big truck with the number plate CHR111S, I didn't get the picture at the end of the day, but I did manage to catch James and Mike sneaking a crafty fag, doing their best 'catalogue poses'. Hmmm...
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Cardiff - Wednesday 4th June
Right, I'm almost up to speed in my monster Saturday night catch-up session, so it must be time to do Cardiff! We saw a large number of people turn up at St. David's hotel, apparently including Chris Eubank and Girls Aloud, who must've heard about the seminars and been eager to learn more about educational ICT...
Clearly distracted by the presence of a great big truck with the number plate CHR111S, I didn't get the picture at the end of the day, but I did manage to catch James and Mike sneaking a crafty fag, doing their best 'catalogue poses'. Hmmm...
Clearly distracted by the presence of a great big truck with the number plate CHR111S, I didn't get the picture at the end of the day, but I did manage to catch James and Mike sneaking a crafty fag, doing their best 'catalogue poses'. Hmmm...
Coventry - Monday 2nd June
It's always a bit odd being in football grounds when there isn't a game on, and the Coventry seminar gives us this chance every six months. It's also the biggest single day on the seminar round, so always one to keep us on our toes.
It's also by a long way the oddest place to stay overnight, as there are no bedrooms per se: all the hospitality boxes at the stadium are equipped with fold-down beds so they can be converted when there's no game. It gives the strangest view when getting up in the morning:
Another nice opportunity which we couldn't resist was finding the bit of card with sponsors names on that they do post-match interviews in front of. In the absence of any real silverware, Tebs substituted the Seminars Tea Cup (a valuable trophy nonetheless, since it represented James' 100th cup of the day).
And of course, no entry would be complete without the end of day picture:
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Aberdeen - Thursday 29th May
This entry is going to be a short one (for now), since I wasn't actually there. Rather than the full team, there was only a small subsection of us for an abbreviated seminar. Since James was the only presenter, er, present, he holds the responsibility for the blog entry. This is a little placeholder till I have his copy.
For now, here's another picture of a cute kitten...
For now, here's another picture of a cute kitten...
Birthday #2: Cumbernauld - Tuesday 27th May
Bank Holiday Monday saw the seminar team flying up to Scotland in order to set up for the first of the week at another new venue in Cumbernauld. A slightly odd location, sat on top of a hill overlooking the motorway, with a golf course tagged on the back, but the place itself was excellent.
The day also saw the occasion of James' 30th birthday - a little unfortunate that Tebs had to spend a 'big b-day' working but we did little bits and pieces throughtout the day to make him feel a little special (as opposed to just "Special"), including a pic of him at our last Xmas do (reproduced below, of couse), birthday banners in his presentation room and a complimentary G&T in the place of his morning tea. (Well, more accurately for JT, the 37th tea of the day he normally has during the break after the first session).
The big other item of note was a little presentation we did in the morning for Mike Smith from Scottish Borders, who was the first person ever to get a mark of 100% in the RM Certified Network Manager exam - pretty impressive given the challenging nature of the questions! Bill took the 'official photo' duties, so I will have to edit this blog once I get a copy from him. In the meantime - well done indeed Mike!
And no blog entry would be complete without the obligatory "photo at end of day", again mercifully free of RM staff gooning about. You can also see Mike "Mr 100%" Smith grinning broadly in the back on the left (and well he might, with a fine mane of hair which jealous souls like me can only dream of...)
The day also saw the occasion of James' 30th birthday - a little unfortunate that Tebs had to spend a 'big b-day' working but we did little bits and pieces throughtout the day to make him feel a little special (as opposed to just "Special"), including a pic of him at our last Xmas do (reproduced below, of couse), birthday banners in his presentation room and a complimentary G&T in the place of his morning tea. (Well, more accurately for JT, the 37th tea of the day he normally has during the break after the first session).
The big other item of note was a little presentation we did in the morning for Mike Smith from Scottish Borders, who was the first person ever to get a mark of 100% in the RM Certified Network Manager exam - pretty impressive given the challenging nature of the questions! Bill took the 'official photo' duties, so I will have to edit this blog once I get a copy from him. In the meantime - well done indeed Mike!
And no blog entry would be complete without the obligatory "photo at end of day", again mercifully free of RM staff gooning about. You can also see Mike "Mr 100%" Smith grinning broadly in the back on the left (and well he might, with a fine mane of hair which jealous souls like me can only dream of...)
Birthday #1: Barnsley - Friday 23rd May
Wow, this day was something of a blur for me, but largely for personal reasons. It saw not only the first time at the new Yorkshire venue, but my entering into the final year of my 30s, so I started with a certain amount of trepidation on both counts! Add to that the fact that I did a runner half way through the day for something of a mission and you'll forgive me if it was all a bit blurred.
The venue turned out to be great, with loads of space, especially the breakout area which is significantly larger than the slightly cramped conditions we had at Leeds. Hopefully this is one we can keep returning to, since everyone seemed happy with it.
With my "half day closing", Tony Bodfish kindly stepped into the breach and covered my Infrastructure session for me, which I'm extremely grateful for. I understand he had a bit of an error happen with the SNMP management of one of the switches during a demo, but I'm sure he did the usual professional job those of you who've been on any of his training courses will be familiar with.
I was off at lunchtime to drive like a man possessed to Birmingham airport in order to get a flight to Milan, as an Italian friend of mine was getting married, and had unbelievably booked the date without checking the seminar timetable first. Some people just have no sense of priorities... The whole wedding thing went great, but sadly the pics all went the way of the seminar ones when my phone went strange.
Fortunately, James did the end of day wrap up and thus the responsibility of the 'photo of the room' fell to him and his considerably more reliable phone. This time, no members of staff waving in the background, though we do have Mike lurking like some evil brooding presence at the back, though thankfully sans pipe. By the look of the picture, it seems like I wasn't the only one to do a runner before the end of the day - then again, it was a sunny Friday before the Bank Holiday weekend ;)
The venue turned out to be great, with loads of space, especially the breakout area which is significantly larger than the slightly cramped conditions we had at Leeds. Hopefully this is one we can keep returning to, since everyone seemed happy with it.
With my "half day closing", Tony Bodfish kindly stepped into the breach and covered my Infrastructure session for me, which I'm extremely grateful for. I understand he had a bit of an error happen with the SNMP management of one of the switches during a demo, but I'm sure he did the usual professional job those of you who've been on any of his training courses will be familiar with.
I was off at lunchtime to drive like a man possessed to Birmingham airport in order to get a flight to Milan, as an Italian friend of mine was getting married, and had unbelievably booked the date without checking the seminar timetable first. Some people just have no sense of priorities... The whole wedding thing went great, but sadly the pics all went the way of the seminar ones when my phone went strange.
Fortunately, James did the end of day wrap up and thus the responsibility of the 'photo of the room' fell to him and his considerably more reliable phone. This time, no members of staff waving in the background, though we do have Mike lurking like some evil brooding presence at the back, though thankfully sans pipe. By the look of the picture, it seems like I wasn't the only one to do a runner before the end of the day - then again, it was a sunny Friday before the Bank Holiday weekend ;)
Here we go... Runcorn Wednesday 21st May
Hello again at last. My luck hasn't been great this round - since the last post I seem to have spent my time either doing seminars or having migraines - there's clearly some Faustian pact going on here but it's probably best I don't think about it... Regardless of the foibles of my head, let's dive into the backlog of non-posted blog entries, starting with Runcorn.
It seems a little far away with all the rotten weather we've had of late, but it was a lovely day in the north west when we hit Runcorn for the first of the larger venues. All was well, and Mike was doing good having overcome his "Presentation Virgin" nerves on the Monday. Even our setup of kit went better than usual - all done in about 3 hours, including a super-efficient unloading of several tonnes of kit from the lorry in only 35mins in order to beat the arrival of three coachloads of American tourists (although what they were doing sightseeing in Runcorn is unclear, given I thought they only ever did the tourist "axis of evil" of London-Oxford-Stratford, then straight back on the plane).
I did have a funky series of photos of the setup, showing the demo stands in various states of assembly, but after the Great Phone Corruption, they've all gone :( You'll just have to imagine them, I'm afraid.
The day itself went very well, with plenty of familiar faces and some good sessions. We picked up some handy tips, too, but in the general disappearance of things, I've lost track of the exact details of who said what where, so I'm going to put a single big update entry of all the tips and tools we've had so far after the individual entries, if that makes sense... Don't worry - if you passed some info on, it'll come in the later blog.
The other predictably missing photo is of the unexpected end to the day. Just as the intrepid people about to do the Certification exam were starting, the fire alarm went off in the hotel, leading to an inpromptu bit of sunbathing for everyone. Again, I'm afraid you'll just have to imagine the sight of a car park full of RM staff and customers milling about randomly waiting to have the false alarm confirmed.
Having waved everyone off and packed up, we spent the evening watching the Champions League final, hoping there was some way that both sides could lose - the team contains Oxford, Arsenal and Liverpool fans, so not exactly committed to the continued domination of English football by the Red and Blue Menaces ;)
It seems a little far away with all the rotten weather we've had of late, but it was a lovely day in the north west when we hit Runcorn for the first of the larger venues. All was well, and Mike was doing good having overcome his "Presentation Virgin" nerves on the Monday. Even our setup of kit went better than usual - all done in about 3 hours, including a super-efficient unloading of several tonnes of kit from the lorry in only 35mins in order to beat the arrival of three coachloads of American tourists (although what they were doing sightseeing in Runcorn is unclear, given I thought they only ever did the tourist "axis of evil" of London-Oxford-Stratford, then straight back on the plane).
I did have a funky series of photos of the setup, showing the demo stands in various states of assembly, but after the Great Phone Corruption, they've all gone :( You'll just have to imagine them, I'm afraid.
The day itself went very well, with plenty of familiar faces and some good sessions. We picked up some handy tips, too, but in the general disappearance of things, I've lost track of the exact details of who said what where, so I'm going to put a single big update entry of all the tips and tools we've had so far after the individual entries, if that makes sense... Don't worry - if you passed some info on, it'll come in the later blog.
The other predictably missing photo is of the unexpected end to the day. Just as the intrepid people about to do the Certification exam were starting, the fire alarm went off in the hotel, leading to an inpromptu bit of sunbathing for everyone. Again, I'm afraid you'll just have to imagine the sight of a car park full of RM staff and customers milling about randomly waiting to have the false alarm confirmed.
Having waved everyone off and packed up, we spent the evening watching the Champions League final, hoping there was some way that both sides could lose - the team contains Oxford, Arsenal and Liverpool fans, so not exactly committed to the continued domination of English football by the Red and Blue Menaces ;)
Sunday, 1 June 2008
A grovelling apology...
Hello again the Blogosphere.
You might've been wondering what the hell happened to the seminar blog entries after Newcastle. Well, the short answer is I hadn't had the opportunity, but the full list of "the dog ate my homework" excuses is as follows:
You might've been wondering what the hell happened to the seminar blog entries after Newcastle. Well, the short answer is I hadn't had the opportunity, but the full list of "the dog ate my homework" excuses is as follows:
- A very hectic first week.
- Having to leave halfway through the Friday at Barnsley in order to go to a friend's wedding.
- Spending all weekend at said wedding.
- Straight back out on the road again.
- Gaps in between above 4 largely filled by migraines.
- My new phone having a bit of a wierd one, corrupting the entire memory and deleting all the photos on it.
There, I think that just about covers it. Sorry, it says "grovelling apology" at the top, but this has turned more into a "pouting, bottom lip sticking out excuse-fest". Must be a side effect of doing blog posts on a Sunday morning before leaving for work ;)
Right, I shall catch up with all the previous entries over the next day or so, though sadly without the photographs for some of them after the "Phone incident". Now though, I need to finish packing my stuff and be ready for the off in a tic - Coventry here we come!
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