Up early again and packed bags.
Went to breakfast to say goodbye to the people travelling on earlier flights (we dont travel until the afternoon back to Luton).
They were a nice group of people to spend time with and I hope we all do keep in touch however it is a sad reality that friendships made in these situations don’t always last because of geography etc. I think there are a few guys who will keep in toucha and I have offered the messageboard to everyone at the bootcamp so you never know.

Nice airport was nice and efficient. Easyjet was as good as a cut budget airline can be. Had a whole row at the back of the plane, which was nice.
Landing with a bump (literally) at Luton was a real shocker, the rain and cold was insult enough (after a week of blistering sunshine), but passport control was packed. They had not put on enough staff to cope with the number of flights coming in, ans so there was a huge queue. I became seperated from the others on my flight and rejoined the queue behind some stressed out businessman coming back from Rome. He had a posh but winey irritating voice and was moaning terribly about the queues while using his nokia comminicator (Phones are not allowed in that area) and kicking his laptop bag along the line. At one point he left the bag in the middle of the line as he turned a corner and a lady reported it as a left bag. When the officer asked if it was anyone’s bag he was, of course, on the phone and didn’t hear her. She have him such a hard time when he picked it up.
At the end of the queue I was so busy waching him moan to the passport officer I didn’t see it was my turn which amused the ones waiting for me. Conspiritorially they asked me about him and laughed when I told them he had (like me) only been in the queue for 30 minutes.
Wifey and little bud travelled up to get me for the airport. It was rainy and there was loads of traffic on the M1 roadworks so it took them ages but was much appreciated by me.
Home and a nice stodgy English dinner (toad in the hole). I felt absolutly knackered so I went for a “little lay down” and (apart from nudges because of snoring) didn’t wake until 6am.

Up early and no breakfast – directly to class for finish up and Q&A before the exam.
I am still less than confident as I take the online test. Issues with the internet again cause a faltered start and interruptions during the test.
Well to alleviate stress in you the readers, I may as well tell you I passed with 86%, not bad really. One chap really surprised himself and scored in the 90′s. We all passed in fact and with style (a good teacher perhaps?)

As way of celebration, after lunch we treated ourselves to a trip to Cannes on the train.
It is a mix of old London or Paris with the most fantastic beach and weather. Very expensive (the other guys had 4 beers and a short in a bar and it came to nearly 50€

Four of us decided we didn’t want to sit in a bar, but wanted to see something of Cannes so we went for a walk. Apart from the beach area and about two or three blocks back there’s not a huge amount to see. I am sure if you are super wealthy you can get anything there but alas we aren’t.

Back for dinner, Shellfish salad starter, lamb on a bed of onions and a pistachio flavoured desert. Then drinks and talk into the night. Think I may have reacted to something and am getting a cold.

It is now 2:30 am as I write this up.
Breakfast at 8am tomorrow to say goodbye to our classmates so I need to get some sleep otherwise I will not function.

Getting serious now. The command line course is pretty heavy going and I didn’t had the time to look at it before flying out so I was really unprepared.

Usual routine, up early and finish late but a good break in-between. I don’t think any of us did activities today. I am sure that like me, they all had their noses in the books after lunch.

With the Kismet WiFi utility (the French pronounce it “Wiffy”), I discovered why the net is so flakey here, all the access points in the hotel are configured for ch1 and there are about six of them all within range of one and other. No wonder they are intermittent.

Finished class, dined and then back to the room to revise. Bed about 2:30am. Have made copious notes but still feel unprepared for tomorrow’s exam.