August 2005 Archives

* Breakfast: 1 large tea, 2 slices of malt loaf
* Lunch: Deep Fried Brie with Cranberry Dressing, with mediterranean vegetable cous cous accompaniment
* Afternoon tea: 1 large tea, mini Bakewell coconut tart from M&S Teatime selection (birthday cakes from Jenny)
* Dinner: TBD, but hopefully followed by some moments privilegés

It may sound like some dental hygiene 'event', but in fact it's the long-planned - and I'd thought lost-on-leaving - ISEB exam to become a BCS-certified project manager.

Theresa surprised my with a "We've booked four slots. We are now but three. Do you want to make up the numbers?" email within hours of my re-joining Simmons & Simmons, and my reaction was, "Why not?". So after re-reading my OU course books and notes, joining Theresa, Steve and Maurice for a couple of revision sessions, and trying to map those and my experience to the ISEB syllabus, I headed off to Covent Garden this morning.

Two nice gents were the examiners, and the 45 minute oral was a series of high-level questions on mainly practical points. That said, it wasn't as interview-like as I'd thought it might be, and they seemed very focussed on scoring the buzz-words. That said, they didn't seem to concerned that I offered up a mixture of "we do this" and "we don't do this, but I know the theory/what we should be trying to do". Goodness only knows if that was the right thing to say, but it felt like it at the time. I hit a few blank spots, even with their prompting and pointers.

Have I passed? I don't know - maybe; maybe not. I'll let you know in a fortnight or so when we get the results. Fingers crossed times four.

Matt pointed me to the Londonist (set to be come my main source of info on London and London events) which is publicising the fact that this year's London Open House weekend prebooking has started.

Hot off the blocks, I booked Phil and I onto two tours:

- Behind the scenes at the Barbican
- St Paul's Cathedral Triforium, Library & Trophy Room

I have to say that the search facility for what buildings are open and booking details is pretty well hidden up in the horizontal menu (Buildings information > Online search), especially given that there are big flash buttons all over the main body of the website pages.

I called VJV today to ask what we should write in the "personal number" box on the visa application form, and they told me that Ukraine has scrapped the need for a visa for holidays!

I had a look on the Ukrainian embassy website - just to be on the safe side.... et voila.

That's all I'm going to say.