The course
The first day of my course had passed without much excitement. I arrived a little late, having slightly miscalculated how slow the tube would be, and how long a walk it would be from the tube station to the training centre. Just as I arrived at the tube stop, a strange man in the carriage started eyeing me up... and eyeing up my map... then he admitted that he was doing a course at the same place.

We journeyed together from the tube to the venue. We got lost together. We found our way together, but we started different courses. That was yesterday and there were few challenges to be found in the Microsoft .NET course. But first days are just that - the beginning, the easy stuff. It promises to get harder. Right?

Well, it's day 2 and I've woken up at 6.45am, taken a taxi to the railway station, taken a train to London and a tube to Farringdon, where the course is. I'm using my newly bought Oyster card, which, for some reason, excites me as I touch it on the yellow pad to magically open the doors into, or out of, the tube station. The course is getting no more challenging, and I'm wondering whether I've really taken a week out of my work schedule, as well as a commitment to stay at my employer's for a year (or pay back some of the course fees) to do this. The lecturer knows his stuff. The course content is straightforward, filling in a few gaps here and there... but largely the course is simplistic. The exercises are, to me, nothing more than a typing game. We get 60 minutes. I take 6 and then have plenty of time for coffee and web browsing.

My two other course-mates take their full time.

They must be slower at the typing.

Chip and PIN day
Never mind the course. It's Chip and PIN day. The most romantic day of the year, where one should treat one's other half to the most intimate of secrets - what is the 4 digit number that unlocks your credit card? It will, ultimately, save them a lot of time in learning to fake your signature.