This was a trip which I had been thinking about for over six weeks. True, it would mean missing at least two days of lectures and practicals, but I felt the benefits would be far-reaching - the better understanding of technologies which are becoming increasingly important in the world of software development and implementation.

The next problem was the cost. True, the Java workshops were free, but MySQL wanted about £200 per person, plus my own travel expenses. Luckily, it appears that Sun Microsystems have a fund for such things. It's actually only supposed to be used for their own events, and is relatively unknown, but they agreed to extend the courtesy to cover the MySQL event - for a price - the writing of a report for their site on the event, my thoughts and experiences, etc. To date I don't know whether it's either been accepted or published, but I did uphold my end of the deal.

So, the evening of Tuesday, March 13 saw me on the night's sleeper service down to London, which to cut a long story short was uneventful - unless you count the 20 minute delay arriving in the morning due to the arrival notice boards being down and therefore the train being unable to dock for some reason. As it was early, I promptly had myself another coffee and a second light breakfast (the first being not to indecent on the train), followed by a taxi ride to the workshop site in Islington.

I will put a detailed technical analysis of the day on my actual website soon'ish, but so as not to bore you all, let me just briefly outline things here. Following a short introduction and offers of yet more coffee, the day kicked off with a talk about Java's role in the 21st centuary, Web 2.0 and some enterprise examples of advantages over PHP and ASP. Following that, a couple of corporate directors gave case-study type chats on how their companies had evolved using Java, which was interesting to listen to, being both to the point and factual without the adverts.

Following this, there was about an hour of workshop time. Basically, people could go wherever they wished and attend any tutorial or demonstration they wanted to - of which there were lots. I decided to try an introductory one - just to get some of the concepts straight - for some reason the way they were explained at Uni never really stuck - probably because of my delayed access to the notes and lecture slides. This was totally different. The expert put each concept and principle relative to the real world - which was great for me as I've always maintained the only way to truly learn is if you can see a point to what you're doing and visualize using it outside the classroom.

Lunch followed, buffet style, then more workshops and a 'A day in the life of' type chat from an actual developer. I learned about the GUI design features of Eclipse, which I'd honestly not heard of before (which is kinda stupid for an IDE not to be able to build GUI's yet complete code snippets flawlessly). I got to try it out there and then, and even built my own little calculator for my online sports trades. I honestly think the simple yet concise praise I got for even such a simple project being completed did wonders for my self-esteem, not to mention the little practical tips that were showered upon me at each stage - although not in a way that would make you feel patronised or an underweight.

Afternoon tea, then a bit of Sun's own marketing, which was interesting but by no means the highlight of the day, then a bit of networking (people that is), and finish. A good 8-hour day which will actually benefit me.

I had made a pre-booking at the Comfort, but was a little unsure on what to do not knowing London at all. Luckily, I met someone who was attending the workshop and the MySQL one the next day as well, who was in the same position, being from Plymouth, but not having arranged a stay for the night. Rather a spur of the moment thing, but I offered Julie to spend the night with me, especially with the sky-high cost of hotel rooms, and we'd split the cost. I did try to put it in as best as way as I could, as I was being genuinely honest, but I wasn't sure how she'd take it from a total stranger. But she was OK and as it turned out we had a few things in common to chat and laugh about.

OK, this is getting rather long for me, but the night went OK, we went out to eat at some international place I can't remember the name of - they did do very nice fried rice with beef strips and sweet sauce though sadly they didn't have any squid (which, since I first tasted in Oxford about two years ago I've grown rather fond of). Oh, and for anyone that knows me well, no I did not automatically go for the pasta - didn't even ask about it.

More in the post above, if you're reading this in descending order.