Last night I attended my first Skillswap event. These are free events where the emphasis is on learning a new skill, and presented by a local expert. It was presented by Matt Zandstra (author of Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours) and was all about PHP, Objects and Patterns. Matt also delved into some of the new features that PHP5 will provide when it's released towards the end of this year.

I must admit that Design Patterns are something that have been on the fringe of my knowledge for a long time, but that I've just never got around to learning more about, so it is good to now have a bit more of an idea. There were a couple of book recommendations mentioned during the night - Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software and A Little Java, a Few Patterns which I may have to take a closer look at.