The McKenzie’s Blog…

It all started a few months ago when someone at my work (www.cbnl.com) was approached by a gentleman from WellChild, a charity that helps sick kids.  The project was to rebuild/make over the sick kids playground/garden just off Ward D2 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.  Check out the link for Ward D2 to find out more info about the unit and what they do.

Anyhow, the existing garden, while functional, was in need a good cleaning and tidying up of the plants and repainting and what not.  Here are a couple of the before pics (The rest of the before pics can be seen by CLICKING HERE)

After the 2 days we turned it into this (the rest of the after pics can be seen by CLICKING HERE)

This was, to say the least, a very rewarding 2 days of very hard work.  Please be sure to check out the rest of the pics in the gallery.   I would also like to invite folks to consider helping out WellChild either with donations to their cause or by offering your company’s help in some of their projects to help sick kids around the UK.  While my exposure to WellChild has only been a couple of days, it’s clear that these folks are dedicated to helping the children.  Charities like this are often forgotten or perhaps not given the thanks they deserve for the hard work and research they carry out.   I’d personally like to say thanks to them for the opportunity to help with this project and I hope I can help again in the future!

Of course, this project wouldn’t been possible either if not for the generosity of Cambridge Broadband Networks and it’s donation of time, money, people and supplies for the project.  There were a large number of other donations provided by local businesses, and I will update this article with those details shortly.

What a pig hahah no really. I started a 7 day accelerated MS Exchange 2007 course on Monday morning of this week. Well, it actually started Sunday night with a 2 hour intro and welcome briefing. The course so far has been going pretty well, but it’s been a lot of work. The course has been running from 0900hrs until we break for dinner at 1930hrs. Then after dinner it’s either back to the lab or back to the rooms to do self study and work on the lab machines via http://www.logmein.com.

Today, at 1700hrs, is our first exam. It’s the 70-237 exam (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-237.mspx).

We will have the second exam 70-238 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-238.mspx) on either Friday night if we can manage or more likely on Saturday morning some time.

The course is scheduled to finish around noon on Sunday after the final exam, the 70-236 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-236.mspx) sometime Saturday evening.

More on the results of this as they come out.

– UPDATE –

Well, the first exam ended in tears … needed 700 to pass only got 583.  I can resit the exam again between now and the end of June for free.  Depending on how the final exams go I may resit this weekend but we’ll see.

– UPDATE – 8/May/2009 –

The plan now is that Saturday I’ll do the 70-236 exam in the evening at 1700hrs, and if I can get enough time to study more for the one I failed, the 70-237, I’ll re-sit that exam Sunday morning then come home.  I’ve decided that due to the level of knowledge required for the 70-238 exam coupled with the fact that only 3 of the 9 people that wrote the exam today actually passed, sod that.  I’m not even going to waste a free shot at doing that one.  I’ll plan to come back in a month or so to sit the 70-238 exam.