I'm back from my course. It was more interesting than I had expected. A course on management and financial advice for small and medium sized enterprises could have been very dry. The lecturer was good and was highly experienced. The course was structured around how to survive in this recession. It's more likely to be of relevance to larger clients than I have, but it could be of use one day.
Ted has confirmed to me that the problems I reported were probably down to the activity streaming widget (yes, it's another widget 
) slowing things down on the home page. They are looking into it.