I’m off to the UK today for two reasons – the first is my SQL “programming” course that lasts 6 days, and is meant to be more intense than university for such a short period of time. It’s rumoured to be 14 hour days with enough time inbetween days to eat and shower. I’m not expecting to pass the exams as I’m inexperienced, but that’s the point in me taking the course in the first place. The courses are designed to be for advanced developers, and my weakest point is actually my SQL development. Most people see it as quite an easy language – which it is – but there’s a much more advanced side to SQL that we deal with at our work, especially when you end up with ten temporary tables serving data up through twenty joins to bring back financial data that could cause some serious upset if the query were wrong. Seeing my developer peers working on those queries shows me a) how little I know about our data and b) how little I know about advanced SQL queries.
The second reason for me going to the UK this time around is for my hopeful last hospital visit at the specialist neurology centre. The truth is that my neurologist still believes I’m having either mini-seizures or unrecognisable fits (they come in many different forms) hence why I’m still not allowed to drive after over two years of waiting. The test I’m having is an EEG, so they strap me up to a machine for a few days and let me look like a cyborg from the future sent back in time to visit tourist attractions around England. My wife is joining me for that week, so at least I won’t have to spend it on my lonesome.
Anyway, this means I won’t be responding to e-mails for the next two weeks as I’m not taking my laptop with me.
