Orcan Update…

I’ve been in Sweden for the last few days at Orcan, the Swedish Oracle User Group. The event was held in the Yasuragi Hasseludden hotel about 20 minutes outside Stockholm. I was a surprised when I arrived as the hotel is a Japanese Spa and it didn’t really seem to be an obvious place to hold a conference. As it turned out it was a great choice. The atmosphere was very relaxing and the social event involved sitting and chatting in a hot bath then going for food. It sounds a bit strange, but it was good fun.

Some of the sessions were in Swedish, so I took the opportunity to use the spa facilities, including a flotation tank. It’s quite freaky lying in a big plastic bubble full of salt water with no light or sound. Sensory deprivation is a strange thing…

It was good to see some familar faces (Julian Dontcheff and Laurent Schneider) and meet some new people including Joel Goodman.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Patrik Norlander for inviting me to speak at the event and thanks to everyone who attended my talks. Hope to see you all again soon.

I think I’m going to be at home for the next few months. It looks like I’ll be in Chile, Bulgaria and Finland in the middle of next year, but for the moment life is back to normal…

Cheers

Tim…

OCA PL/SQL Developer and stuff…

Today has been a bit of a rare day…

I hurt my back last night at Karate. I managed to get in on a cancellation at my osteopath, so off I went this morning to get everything straightened out.

I left the osteopath just in time to get to the Prometric test center down the road to sit the “Program with PL/SQL (1Z0-147)” exam, which I passed. The exam was pretty easy, but then I have been doing this stuff for 14 years. I sat the “Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL (1Z0-001)” as part of my Oracle 7.3 OCP, so I guess I’m now an “Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate”.

The reason for doing this is I quite fancy doing the “Oracle Database 11g: Advanced PL/SQL” exam, currently in beta, to get the “Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional”. The OCA PL/SQL Developer is a prerequesite. I’ve been teaching most of the content of the “Oracle Database 11g: Advanced PL/SQL” this year so it shouldn’t be a problem. I just don’t know if I’ll have time before I hit the road, and the beta period will be over by the time I get back…

What made the whole day a bit more problematic, was I had a Diabetes clinic appointment today and I wasn’t allowed to eat before it, so I was really hungry. My appointment was at 15:30 and I hadn’t eaten since about 17:00 the previous day. Back pain and hunger aren’t the normal things you expect to deal with during an exam. Never mind, it’s sorted now… 🙂

By the way, I might be doing a couple of talks at the Swedish Oracle User Group in December (10th-11th). Nothing definite at the moment. I’ve been invited, but it’s all in the ether. The world tour continues… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…