New to Linux or use Windows but want to try LINUX without the hassle of installation? I have Oracle Virtual Box appliances (VMs) running CentOS5, CentOS7 and Ubuntu which I use for training.

Instructions on how to set them up, plus download links can be found here: https://icedrive.net/0/76OiAh5hdf. You won't need the Zoom software unless you are attending my course.

A busy morning. I visit the gym (it's not busy), bluetooth headphones and country rock (Lukas Nelson), while two guys trim the trees and hedges in the garden at home.

Have been reading about Chrome now being spyware. Decided to dump it in favour of the Brave browser, although I already use Firefox on my Linux Mint 19 desktop. I dumped Windows 10 as a desktop some years ago. On my Galaxy J6+ I'm trying Firefox Focus.

Last nights free Linux training went very well. It was the 3rd session of the 2nd course I've run and covered permissions, crontab, grep and vim. I'm waiting for the feedback form, positive I hope!

I'm using free software from zoom.us to host the meetings and out of the blue have just been approached to run some training sessions on zoom in London later this month. The only drawback I've found so far in using zoom is that free sessions are limited to 40 minutes but I've overcome this by subscribing on a monthly basis.

No virtual training this week but I'm looking for delegates, I have 3 already, for the next free Linux training session on 7-8th August.

If you want to learn how to use Linux at the command line including the mysteries of vim and grep, I have been running FREE, instructor led, virtual Linux fundamentals courses. I've run two so far and have another session scheduled for this eveining. I'll be running the next one on 7/8th August in the evening between 7.00 and 9.30pm GMT. If you're interested please email me for an invite.

I underestimated the amount of admin involved in setting up even free courses but I think I'm on top of it now.

Oxford Day 1 of 3 - I Travel South

Set off down south to Oxford via A1, M1, and M40. The highlight is when I pass a pink Austin A6, the low point when the sat nav tries to send me north from the M1 onto the M6. Note to self; I must get the maps updated. I listen to BBC Radio 5 as Stoke thrash Bolton 5 - 0 at Wembley and Arsenal let slip a 1 - 0 lead over Liverpool in the 8th minute of injury time. Not their year again then. 

I'm a bit worried as the M1 is still closed from junctions 4 to 1 after the fire on Friday, but no queues at all. Perhaps they should close it more often. Some idiot on the radio says we will 'have to look at whether we should allow scrap yards under the motorway'. So, no other type of business is a fire risk then?

Arrive in central Oxford a bit too early it seems as the sign as I pass the Royal Oxford Hotel says 'Next Burlesque on 26th April'! I try to find the office for tomorrow but am defeated by the one-way system. Instead I find the small hotel in Becket Street but residence only parking. Obviously this is not a car friendly city. Perhaps when I come back in May I'll come on the train. I park in the station car park outside the hotel but will have to move the car later as parking is only for rail users and they do check. 

The note on the hotel door says they're open but I get no reply. Ring the landlady. Her husband is in the washing machine room and can't hear the door bell so she rings him. He is very, very chatty and tells me I'll have to walk to the office in the morning as there is no access for cars. He even disturbs too old ladies watching TV in the dark lounge to show me the way on a map on the wall. He points me to the Park and Ride where I can park the car and get a bus back. Then, as an alternative, he suggests I park at a hotel nearby, The 'estgate' is run by the council (maybe that's why the W is missing) and they don't check, so I move the car there and walk back.

The room is small, clean and cosy although the radiator, which is on (a plus point), could do with a coat of paint. It has all the things missing from my recent visit to London including a small flat screen TV with freeview and a kettle. On the corner of the street are a Chinese takeaway and a Domino's Piza but I settle on a sandwich and crisps from the corner shop. Then blog while I wait for the football on TV and a repeat of Mel Gibson's Apocalypto.
 

London Day 3 of 3 - A Senior Moment

Up early again, at 6.30am, after the best night’s sleep for a while despite the pint last last night. The wi fi is working, though the signal is poor and I still can’t post this blog. I speak too soon as now the signals gone completely.. Shower and leave for work just before 8.00am. I won't worry the PO this morning but will have a pastry when I arrive despite my cholesterol levels (I must blog about that). The trip on the tube takes 30 minutes and as I'm early it's not too crowded. One of my delegates is having a lie in and driving to the venue but he really hates his 40 minute daily journey by tube into the city to Bank. I can't say I blame him. If I was living here I'd cycle. He's early but his colleague is late, again.

Make a note to create a separate blog with technical stuff for delegates only to see. I can't write how the training's going here in case they look! I was surprised at how many page views I have of this blog until I reliase that most of them are me as I view the page as I write it in order to make corrections. So, I'm not that popular then.

The day passes swiftly (they are flagging as it's the last day),we lunch at the Italian and finish around 4.00pm. Good evaluations, which is a bonus. Also a good day for more work with jobs in Oxford, Liverpool and Saudi Arabia in the offing. I then accidentally discover that Oracle have released 11g Express Edition. Nice.

Uneventful trip on the 263 to M&S in Holloway but disappointed. I always expect M&S to have an upstairs but this one is very small, all on the ground floor and I can't even find a sandwich for the train journey. Back to the hotel at KX to collect my luggage. I use the internet for an hour while I wait for the 7.00pm train (one problem with having a cheap ticket). Blow me, the connection is now working better than it has all week.

Join the train at 6.45pm. I walk past first class, there's only ONE passenger (no surprise at £326 a ticket) and on to Coach B. I'm in no hurry as I have a seat booked  I have tea and a sandwich and eat my second Bounty bar (two for a £1 in Smith's, naughty but nice) then settle down with BBC Radio 4 Extra, Hancock, and Radio 5, Chelsea vs Manchester United. The signal is holding up well so far. 

There's more free wi fi to look forward to while I wait in York for my last but one leg, the train to Micklefield, where Jennie will collect me at around 9.40pm and I'll be home in time for the football highlights.

Oops, have a senior moment; so engrossed in the web, a software update and the football on the radio that I don't notice as we stop and leave my station York! Oh well, change at Darlington, the 9.58pm back and then a taxi home.
  

London Day 2 of 3 - Rihanna Copied Me

Up at 6.00am, slept well with the ear plugs, to write this. No radio, TV (or kettle, just the bottle of water I refilled at work yesterday), so I listen to the end of a play on the iPod; the one that I fell asleep to last night. The wi fi is still rubbish and my dongle won’t open the blog, so I type into Word.

Last night I went to suss out the Lilac Court Hotel which is opposite Kings Cross and to the right. It’s just around the bend in Argyle Street at number 60 and is quiet as it’s well away from the station area. Unlike my hotel it has a kettle and TV in every room and is only £40 - £45 for a single. The only drawback might be that it has recently changed ownership and is now called the King’s Cross Hotel. These businesses must do well; there’s a rather lovely black Masarati parked outside!

This morning the shower is ok although the floor is rather wet as there’s no floor mat, I also have to be very careful when I put my contact lenses in as the sink has no plug. This whole place is a case of “don’t have”. When I return to my room I find I have company. Running along the little shelf under the mirror are three black ants! It’s someone to talk to I suppose. I also find the keys to my own suitcase, I have Jennie’s slightly smaller one with me, on the floor. I was wondering where they had got to. They must have fallen from my trouser pocket as I dressed. 

Again the Post Office fails to deliver breakfast. It's 7.40am but they are too busy laying out the metal tables and chairs for their pavement café. Now, I can understand why they did this yesterday, which was a bright, sunny day, but this morning it is actually raining. I find the reason when I look inside. Without the tables and chairs removed, I can’t even get into the place. So, breakfast at the office then. On the tube platform the announcement says "All trains go to High Barnet", which is odd as the board says that the first one turns left to Mill Hill East. Good job I looked. 

Arrive early but the second delegate is late this morning so we don't start until 10.00am. Pastries at break, I eat only one, a new daily feature. A lunch of meat balls, rice and a mushroom, yes only the one, sliced. We have a good day and finish at 4.00pm.

Take the free bus with one change back to KX. At the bus stop a tall, thin, black girl, very attractive, with long, bright pink hair, says to me "Why is everone looking at me?". Silly question. I ask "who?" and she says "those boys". I say "it must be the hair" and smile as I board the bus when she replies "I had it first; Rihanna copied me!". Decide to change at Holloway, The Nag's Head, as the stop there is right outside M&S.

Another bus this evening to the South Bank to meet Jennie's daughter Chloe for dinner at Giraffe. We enjoy a meal of lamb burgers with focaccia, chips and salad and organic apple juice. It's really lively here in the evening but I'm nearly run down by a cyclist on the walkway by the Thames. Chloe goes off back to Guildford and I return to the Euston Road for a pint of Fuller's and to watch Spurs, who lose badly, 4 - 0, to Real Madrid. I chat by phone to my daughter Abby on the way to the pub. She and her partner and two friends are driving to Italy on Saturday to ski. Why didn't I do that sort of thing when I was young? Too busy raising her and her brother I suppose. Back at the hotel I complain about the wi fi and the guy alters my DNS settings. Now it works but why wasn't I told that on Monday. 

Will listen to Ed Reardon on Radio 4 Extra at 11.00pm then blog, ipod and bed.