I was exhausted last night and had an early night, but that didn’t stop me having a lie in this morning! I wanted to be in the training centre for about 10 am, but didn’t get up until after 9.  I’d agreed with Kichu that I’d make my own way in as I wasn’t sure when, or even if I was going to go in when he was taking me home yesterday. He said I could give him a call and he would collect me, but it’s only a Rs20 auto ride, so it would be unreasonable to drag him away from his family on his day off! Anyway I managed to get into the centre for just before 10 and then started practising some of the topics I’d been having a few problems with. Continue reading →

It’s been a while since I last updated the blog because I’ve been so busy. The exam approaches and we’ve all been preparing for it by doing mock exams. There are two ‘papers’ (though the questions are on a local web page rather than on paper!). I did OK on the mock exam for the first paper, but didn’t do well at all in the second. I felt quite demoralised afterwards.  Continue reading →

Today has been a little different. I was expecting it to be another day at the office learning about the Red Hat operating system, but on the way home last night Kichu told me that today would be a ‘hartal’ – that’s a political strike;  everywhere would be closed and there’d be no cars on the road! Continue reading →

Today was my day off, so I had a lie in and a late breakfast. Then it was nose to the grindstone again for a couple of hours reading through my notes and checking out a few things I wan’t sure of. That done I decided to hit the tourist trail . . .  Continue reading →

Although today is Saturday, it was just another day at the office as far as training was concerned, though we finished at 4 pm;  a little earlier than usual. Just before lunch we were asked if we would have our photographs taken for the company’s internal blog, the photographer also took a few pictures with my camera for me. The early finish gave me chance to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of days: visit a doctor . . . Continue reading →

My days this week have been pretty full. I get collected at 08:30 from the hotel and start doing practice labs as soon as I get to the training centre. At about 10:00 our instructor Mohsin starts teaching us new concepts and technologies. Lunch is at one and we get chance to do more practice labs after 4:30 or so. I generally get back to the hotel around 19:00 and then have a meal and that’s my day pretty much done. Earlier in the week I’d asked Kichu to help me get an Indian SIM card for my ‘phone to help reduce my telephone bill. This turned out to be more of a mission than I thought it would be . . . .  Continue reading →

Not too much to say today as I spent most of the day training!

The second day of training stepped up a notch and we covered stuff that was new to me. I’d done some logical volume management before, but through the graphical interface, not via the command line. Today we did both. We also had ample opportunity to practice which made it more fun than just sitting listening and watching!  Continue reading →

Just a quick update today as I’ve been training on Red Hat Enterprise Linux ( Red Hat ). I’m sure you don’t want to know the real techy stuff, so I’ll just keep it light . . .  Continue reading →

Unsurprisingly, given the lack of sleep whilst travelling, I went to bed early and slept well. However I did wake quite early, a not unusual occurrence for the first night after a long flight. After updating the blog I went down to breakfast which was buffet style and had both Indian and Continental dishes. I had a mixture of both and then caught up on more sleep for a couple of hours before heading off to find an Umbrella (useful for both rain and sun!). I couldn’t find one locally so took a tuk tuk down to Fort Kochi. Continue reading →

I’ve arrived in Kochi, which is in the Kerala region of India (click here for map). The flight from the UK to Mumbai was a bit shorter than expected, but still long enough to give me a numb bum! The seats on the plane had the hardest cushions I’ve ever encountered on a plane seat! The flight from Mumbai to Kochi was delayed due to a connecting flight from Riadh being delayed. On the plus side I enjoyed the food on both flights. Veg curry makes a welcome change to the usual bland airline food!

On arrival in Kochi I was met by Kichu, the guy I had been dealing with at the training company. Continue reading →