Of Course

I spent a week on an intense course where it felt like information was being forcibly wedged into my ears. It was residential, and a good thing too, because it started early and most evenings we did not finish until about 6 or 6.30 and then we usually had a couple of hours preparation work to do for the following day.

It is years since I had to concentrate this hard, and I could feel the scales of rust falling away.

I had a little time to be fascinated by the dynamics of the group. The initial wary circling and weighing up; the revelation of perosnal and work information a bit like playing a card game; the gentle exploration of the limits of humour. The nature of the course divided us into two non-competing teams (?), which further complicated things.

We would regularly split into our teams and work in separate rooms to achieve something, and this presented some interesting problems. At the start of the course we were told that 10 was the absolute maximum: by the time we started we were thirteen.

My group was of 7, and totally unmanageable. We tried democracy, evangelism, shouting and reason; we kept running out of time. We were given - say - 45 mintues to discuss something and come up with a recommendation. There was the One Who Had Been On A Course who insisted that we have an objective for the meeting and an intended result, there was the One Who Liked Flipcharts who wanted to get everyone's ideas of the objective of the meeting written down so we could discuss them properly, and Tangent Man who thought the task we had been given didn't relate to the real issue and we should be discussing something else. On one occasion we had twelve items to discuss in 30 minutes and after 15 we were still arguing about the format of the meeting. Four is the real maximum for a meeting like this and we suffered.

The course leader was one of those interesting and rather infuriating people who seems to have been everywhere and done everything. His job took him all over the world and into contact with an enormous range of industries. He had endless stories and observations, and a very dry but warm sense of humour.

The course had a proper exam at the end. Not the notional test where you can get the certificate so long as you spell your name right, but the serious kind with trick questions and a tight timeline. I don't remember having to concentrate this hard in ages.

Very much worth it though. I could feel my life changing as I watched.

Somebody Down Here Doesn't Like Me

There is a residents' parking bay outside where I live with enough spaces for four of five cars, depending on how well they are parked. There is a small amount of off road parking but it is always crowded so for many years I have been buying the permits and parking on the road. I seem to be the only one who does this.

Of course, after 7 pm anyone can park there, and because there is a pub nearby many do (it is interesting that there is a distinct aversion to parking on single yellow lines even when it is legal to do so).

So I am used to coming home from work and sometimes having to park on single yellows because all the bays are full, then keeping an eye out and moving the car later in the evening when (if) a space becomes available. Sometimes it doesn't and I have to make an effort to be out by 7am or risk a ticket.

Now the interesting thing is that there are quite a few people who leave their cars in the residents' bays outside the legal times even though they do not have permits. Local parking enforcement is sporadic so maybe they feel it is worth it. The fine is £50 and the permit is £60 for a year, so if you are only caught once a year it makes sense (just). But I buy a permit anyway because it allows me to park other useful places in the borough where parking enforcement is stricter.

So the other night I had to park on single yellow lines because all the bays were filled by cars without permits (legal at that time). In the morning I was late out and found a parking attendant just fixing a ticket to my windscreen before taking a digital photo of my car (we are very high tech here) before leaping in his car and driving off. They don't like meeting their customers.

Bugger, I thought, but felt at least a grim satisfaction that the same fate would have befallen the cars parked illegally in the bays where I could have parked legally.

Not so. The Parking Enforcement Officer had let them off. He had ignored five cars that had plainly overstayed their legal use of residents' parking bays and had instead ticketted the next car in the line that quite obviously could have parked legally if the others weren't there.

A sort of Selective Parking Enforcement Officer. The Bastard.

Back from China

Back from an amazing holiday in China, which swamped my mind with images and impressions. I will untangle them and post some images on flikr when I get the chance. The general effect was one of cultural ovewhelm.

It started many trains of thought which will resolve themselves in due course, and I have to be careful about generalising from some very fleeting impressions.

It has taken me a while to get round to updating this blog, so there are going to be a few buses coming along at once.