Ever had one of those days when nothing seems to go right? I call them stengthening days, since I seem to come out of them stronger and better able to handle things ... but, my goodness, they're intense while they're happening ...

It all started with the Internet connection going on the blink - LITERALLY. The router was trying to emulate a Christmas tree - lights flashing every few seconds as it tried to go up and down and failed in all sorts of interesting ways ... just as a full class on a course that really requires net access was arriving.

Did I say "full class"? Ah yes ... I should have said "overfull class". Seven places, but eight trainees turned up; careful checking of the paperwork very clearly showed "NOT our error", but at the same time we want to do what we can for the guy who's travelled with his colleague halfway across the country - on Sunday too - to find no room at the Inn - is offered the best solution. At the same time, I'm conscious that we've had to turn business away from this course and that we cannot alienate the customers properly booked by squeezing an "extra" into facilities that can't cope with more than seven.

Then - hey, can I feel sorry for myself, I have this cold that's numbing my responses. And because I'm campaigning to save the train in Melksham, everyone seems to think that I have some control over the current service, signs at the station, and the lack of information at the Tourist Information office on the Santa Specials!

The day concluded with a trip to Swindon - to pick up a new network router. Yes - I KNOW you'll tell me that this was the least likely component to be causing the problem, but by the time er had unplugged all the cables except the power (and we had cycled power too) and it was STILL playing up, I was concluding that it was either corrupt firmware, a dry joint, a power supply problem or something else along those lines, and the economics of it tell me that it makes business sense to chuck the old and start anew. Hey - and I noticed that some boxes state "Up to 8 Mbit WAN support" and ours is just going up to 10; perhaps THAT was the problem.

The extra trainee was offered a couple of options ... and plans to be back on the next Apache Tomcat course. Left on good terms with us; he had seen the room, he realised the problem and that we were suggesting everything sensible that we could. We're on the best of terms there.

And - do you know - having the "ear" and perhaps a bit of admiration from a couple of people on the train issue WILL help to get the message across, and will encourage them to tell other about the issues, put more people in touch, etc.

So I could say it was a grotty day ... but I'm going to say it was a stengthening one instead.
(written 2005-10-04, updated 2006-06-05)

 Z100 - Daily life
  [3553] Changes to morning routines - (2011-12-16)
  [3463] Busy weekend of contrasts. - (2011-10-03)
  [3319] Moving on - a task for the hotel staff! - (2011-06-08)
  [3316] Twitter Phishing Trips ... and a great new alert service - (2011-06-04)
  [3125] The familiy is defunct. Long live the family. - (2011-01-09)
  [2868] A move towards the family - (2010-07-12)
  [2580] C course inspires new teaching examples - (2010-01-16)
  [2450] Family Gathering at 404, The Spa - (2009-10-11)
  [2401] Back Tomorrow - (2009-09-10)
  [2371] Quiet summer days? I think not! - (2009-08-22)
  [2264] Learning about others private lives - (2009-06-30)
  [2217] Enjoying the summer weather - (2009-06-04)
  [2164] Updating my public profile - Graham Ellis - (2009-05-09)
  [2159] A long day to guess where - (2009-05-06)
  [2141] Town Crier competiton - (2009-04-25)
  [2121] Out in the Vale of Pewsey - (2009-04-07)
  [2118] Spring Sprung - (2009-04-05)
  [2106] Learning to Twitter / what is Twitter? - (2009-03-28)
  [2105] Hire Car, from Atlanta Airport - (2009-03-27)
  [2090] Melksham to Georgia - (2009-03-19)
  [2068] Playing Catchup - (2009-03-06)
  [2064] East of Melksham Countryside - (2009-03-02)
  [2034] Through Snow and Flood to Linux and Tomcat - (2009-02-10)
  [2030] The final step to being British - (2009-02-07)
  [2027] Who sticks by you in the snow? - (2009-02-05)
  [2024] Carry on Training - in spite of the weather - (2009-02-03)
  [2008] The Month Ahead - What is happening in Melksham - (2009-01-25)
  [2000] 2000th article - Remember the background and basics - (2009-01-18)
  [1979] Looking forward, in Melksham, in 2009 - (2009-01-05)
  [1953] End of Training, 2008 - (2008-12-20)
  [1810] Middle aged subsidise young and old - (2008-09-26)
  [1643] A lack of technical content - (2008-05-16)
  [1429] Remembrance day - inside a church and inside the day - (2007-11-11)
  [1303] Heading Upstate New York - (2007-08-14)
  [1272] Behind closed doors? - (2007-07-22)
  [1189] Meet, greet and welcome - (2007-05-16)
  [1178] Ducking stool for Melksham? - (2007-05-06)
  [1151] Gordon Dodge, R.I.P. - (2007-04-16)
  [1138] The Holiday - unlikely romantic comedy? - (2007-04-08)
  [1100] Wondering where I have been - (2007-03-06)
  [1061] Take vehicles off the road - put all the passengers into one - (2007-02-01)
  [1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
  [1056] Another frantic posting! - (2007-01-30)
  [992] Enthusiastic, but .... - (2006-12-16)
  [978] Wellhouse Manor, Hotel, Melksham - (2006-12-10)
  [921] French Exchange - (2006-11-11)
  [911] Letter Home - (2006-11-01)
  [908] And so to Inverness - (2006-10-29)
  [897] Too much for the National Trust - (2006-10-18)
  [882] Rocks, hard places, trains and funerals. - (2006-09-30)
  [843] To join an organisation? - (2006-08-23)
  [817] Working on Weekend in Wiltshire and others - (2006-07-29)
  [777] On Crosby sands - (2006-06-25)
  [752] Over zealous police activity? - (2006-06-09)
  [724] Helping mental health through diet, exercise and other lifestyle matters - (2006-05-18)
  [706] May day away - (2006-05-01)
  [698] Catch up weekend - (2006-04-24)
  [692] Healthier eating - (2006-04-20)
  [655] Can some food be TOO different? - (2006-03-23)
  [654] Making use of disabled facilities - (2006-03-22)
  [645] Lost Camel - (2006-03-14)
  [635] Odd one out. - (2006-03-06)
  [623] Behind every face is a person and a story - (2006-02-25)
  [613] Greetings from Dublin - (2006-02-20)
  [612] Coming or going? - (2006-02-18)
  [605] Design your day with a walk - (2006-02-13)
  [584] Loosing breath with Gerald - (2006-01-31)
  [580] What to do with milk - (2006-01-28)
  [516] Open source questions? Anyone can ask. - (2005-12-03)
  [474] Vintage Bus Day - (2005-10-23)
  [473] Looking different in town - (2005-10-22)
  [446] Up early - (2005-09-16)
  [363] Greetings from Edinburgh - (2005-06-29)
  [330] An O level comes in handy - (2005-05-30)
  [307] Farming yesterday - (2005-05-10)
  [283] Natural or man-made? - (2005-04-18)
  [271] Different course every day - (2005-04-07)
  [238] Difficulties with a trolley - (2005-03-07)
  [232] Diverse activities - (2005-03-01)
  [228] Beard Justification - (2005-02-26)
  [206] Fox and Python - (2005-02-08)
  [149] Fish stocks - (2004-12-12)
  [110] Friday, busy week! - (2004-11-05)
  [26] Matching Cat - (2004-08-24)
  [20] Not two the same - (2004-08-20)
  [19] interesting products and subjects - (2004-08-19)

G303 - Well House Consultants - During the course
  [3588] Learning about how to help people learning - and retaining - (2012-01-21)
  [3233] C / C++ Course Lunch - sitting out at the West End - (2011-04-07)
  [2560] Training comparison to QA Training, Learning Tree, GB Direct. - (2010-01-02)
  [2342] Training Classes in other tongues - (2009-08-10)
  [1816] Holt on holt - (2008-09-29)
  [1466] Effective Java training - the bootcamp approach - (2007-12-09)
  [1459] Interactive training, and advancing techniques further - (2007-12-05)
  [1420] The Learning Perl crew, October 2007 - (2007-11-03)
  [1363] One computer per delegate, or pair programming? - (2007-09-23)
  [1245] Ensuring that our tutor answers YOUR questions - (2007-06-25)
  [1035] Longer hours and better value courses - (2007-01-15)
  [670] Architectural Heritage - Devizes - (2006-04-04)
  [640] Training Centre Pictures - (2006-03-09)
  [570] Features and Benefits - (2006-01-20)
  [342] The evening after the course - (2005-06-09)
  [273] Course Picture - (2005-04-09)
  [56] Dress Code - (2004-09-20)

Back to Time conversions in Perl

Previous and next or Horse's mouth home

Forward to Laying out a vegetarian lunch

Kiss and Ride
Final courses of '05 coming up ....
Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid
Laying out a vegetarian lunch
A Stengthening day
Time conversions in Perl
Commenting Perl regular expressions
Is enough enough?
Accessing a page via POST from within a PHP script
Wheelchair access - can do!