..And the start of a new era

Sorry it's taken so long to get round to posting, it's been a bit of a fuzzy-mind kind of few weeks!

I now have a placement arranged for the 'real life' portion after the training is finished!!   A couple of us get to go back to the team where we spent our mid-term placement, it was such a great experience that I am very excited to go back.  I know that it's going to be a constant learning curve to keep up, but that's part of the fun for me, that we get to keep learning new and exciting things.

Last week we started our end-of-training project, we have to build a web portal with a front end, middle portion and database back end.  It's quite an intricate challenge, have made a good start but there's loads left to do in the next fortnight.  It's making it all feel very real all of a sudden though, the things we're being asked to understand and utilise are complex and yet I feel as though I am starting to put them into context.

It's going to be hard being split up from the team I think, we've become quite close-knit over the training period - on the other hand as I am now starting to dream about them at night, I think a bit of space may well be recommended!!

Soon I will also be embarking on the final OU sign-up, one more course between me and Honours!  I'm becoming fairly certain that I would be leaning towards practical learning once I have finished with the degrees for good, I think I like the idea of the Masters etc much more than I like the idea of the work involved.  So unless I'm actively encouraged in that direction by work, I believe that taking on new practical code challenges may be more in my future.

I need to update page 2 again soon, but I need to work out what day numbers we did what on....

The end of an era...

It's our final day of learning today on the course, after that no more new knowledge to be crammed in, just a consolidation period with a mini 'project' to pull all our learning together.

It's been an amazing ride, and this is just the entrance to the amusement park, we have many new exciting things ahead.  Sometimes I still can't quite believe it has all been real, feels like I will wake up and return to real life.  But other times it feels like I've never been anywhere else, so much so that I am dreaming about my colleagues and my work at night!!

Yesterday I found out where my 'proper' placement will be.  More about that in the next post....

Survived to tell the tale

Phew, exam over and done with, and for a couple of months my time is my own again!  Well....what little time is left over after training.. But you know what I mean!

The exam was OK, feel like I did more than enough to pass, don't feel like there was a distinction in there, but still hoping that I could surprise myself!!

Feel like I will really enjoy the rest this time round.. What is it with life, we always think we were busy, and then a new regime or temporary change in routines comes along to show us just how much free time we still did have?

Starting to really feel the ache of being full time at the moment, the little things become big things because they are taking up what's left of an already depleted pot of free time.  Stupid things like leftovers in the fridge become a battle of wills as to which exhausted partner will deal with them first.  Problem is, we're even too tired to fight about this stuff, so it just sits there instead.  (I hasten to add that I have lost the battle of wills and am off to clear out the fridge in a moment, before reverting to standard 'collapse on couch' post-exam mode.......I can't take the sight of a fortnight's worth of expired sandwich filler any longer!!)

And only about 6 more weeks of full time work to go I think, which is a very nice thought.

T minus 2..and counting!

Yeesh - 2 days left till the exam!  I've prepared probably as much as I can manage in the limited time left to me while I'm doing the Software Developer training.  Still doesn't feel like enough practice, but what can you do?  I have tonight and tomorrow when I shall look at a couple of past papers, the morning of the exam on Friday will be spent on the couch staring at the TV.

I've completed a full set of revision notes from my course materials, that will be my commute-reading on Friday on the way to the exam.  I'm not a 'crammer', if I don't know it by now then I will never know it.

I'll just be so glad to get it over and done with, it will be nice to just have my brain full of the 'day job' and maybe even a teeny little time left for hobbies outside of a computer!  Looking forward to the summer 'break' from study (it's in quotes because I think this summer may well be full of work-related learning, but at least it will be to my own deadlines).

And soon I will need to push that final button, to sign up for the database module, the final sign-up of the degree.  Possibly my last OU sign up ever, unless I decide to take the plunge into Masters territory.  (still only a tiny seedling of thought, and to be honest I may be better spending some money on more practical learning that I can take into the day-job too, not sure about that one and not even pressuring myself to think about it as a serious decision yet).

OK blogpeeps, see you on the other side (I doubt I will get back here before then....)