Level 2 Chi Kung.
A tough week, in which I came hard up against my inability to discipline myself to rote-learn meaningless drivel! I’m afraid that the trainer on the APM course made dull material even duller. Hours of Powerpoint, relieved only by clips from a fly-on-the-wall documentary on the Eden project. Unfortunately the Eden project stuff was all of the ‘example of what not to do’ variety, so not really much use as a study aid. It wasn’t as if there wasn’t time to incorporate some group work / how learning – we finished early (or, in the trainer’s language, ‘took an early bath’) every day.
Several of the other participants on the training are from the military. At first I assumed they were from MoD but this turned out not to be the case.
J: So you’re from MoD?
Phillip: No, I’m infantry.
J: [surprised] The infantry has project managers?
Phillip: Gosh no. This course is the first thing I’ve ever done which didn’t involve blowing things up.
We had the exam on Friday morning and I don’t think anyone was really feeling good about it. One of the military guys turned around and said to me, quite seriously, that he would prefer to be back in Iraq!
I also found the travelling – over an hour each way – a bit wearing. Because I was travelling at rush hour, I ended up having to stand all the way there and most of the way back, so pretty hard on the injured knee.