A quick update

This week I'm in Hinckley, running a 2073 ("Programming a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database") course for the first time in months, and it seems to be going fairly well. At least it isn't the admin course, which I've run twice already this year and feel franky tired of now. Yes, I still enjoy it, but I really feel as though I'm just going through the motions with it, so doing this one makes a refreshing change.

My last posting was just before the annual staff day in Chesterfield. It was its usual self, a morning of presentations from the board followed by an afternoon of frankly irrelevant games (and a raffle where I didn't win an iPod mini - bah! - but did win a mini-keg of Stella Artois, which I don't actually drink), and throughout the day I felt dog-rough because of the bug I was suffering from. It ended up lingering for about a fortnight, stopping me eating, making me lose a fair bit of weight, and making me feel deeply miserable.

So what's new? Well, at the moment I'm doing a fair amount of work for Microsoft, rewriting the 8028a labs (that's booked in for me for next week) and also helping to plan the CRM 2005 curriculum, which is extremely interesting stuff. I'm also picking up quite a bit of information about what is coming in the new version, which is good. I'm still slowly working through VB.Net but have kind of ground to a halt and can't see it changing until I've attended the next course in the track, after which I'll know more about writing code and so will hopefully be able to do something of my own. Other stuff? Well, I'll keep you posted.

On the home front, we've finally got a decorator booked to finish the kitchen off - hooray! - and we managed to get tickets to see U2 at the City of Manchester Stadium in June. I had no problems at all getting them, so it was strange to hear of so many people failing, including my good mate Des who is something of a fanatic.

Things to recommend at the moment... "I Am Charlotte Simmons" by Tom Wolfe (almost finished it, and have thoroughly enjoyed it), "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami (haven't read it yet, but bought myself the hardback *and* the signed, slipcased collectors' edition, so I hope it is good!), and "The Great Destroyer" by Low, which is the best album I've heard in ages.

That is all.