Personal essays
Passing the qualification tests
Weekend One
In order to save money for some of the conferences I speak at, I try to combine them so that they can split the cost of my travel.
This means that I often need to find something to do in the time between the conferences and I sometimes add some time before or after as well.
Between Swift Island in the Netherlands and iOS Dev UK in Wales, I spent the weekend in London taking a two-day Tai Chi class.
It was wonderful but it was also a bit odd.
Half a dozen of us were there just for the weekend from 9:30 to 5:00 on both Saturday and Sunday. Most of the class had traveled to become certified instructors.
For the most part those students were a bit more experienced than the rest of us and would no doubt pass the test on the last day when they demonstrated the form.
Most of them were not instructors.
They had to be told to be quiet when our teacher was talking. Adults had to be shushed at a course where they were studying to be an instructor.
They had to be told to spread out so that they didn’t crowd other students.
There was one exercise where we faced one side of a long room and slowly moved down the floor. When you got to the front you were supposed to walk to the very back and continue forward.
Everyone did it and it worked smoothly.
Everyone except a pair studying to be instructors. They moved halfway back, looked to see if the teacher was watching, and crowded in around me. I had no room to move and headed to the back of the room.
They will pass their test and become instructors. Courses like this don’t really determine if you’re fit or not. They make money from issuing certificates.
Clearly it’s stuck with me. I wouldn’t put my name on these people that they were qualified to teach others. At most I’d issue a certificate that they’d completed the training.
Weekend Two
After the conference in Wales, Chris and his wife drove me to Tenby on the southern coast. We spend a day walking around the town, enjoying a nice pub lunch, and taking a boat trip around an island.
We stopped for ice cream before the boat ride and as we headed down to the dock a man appeared in front of us suddenly like one of those seers from a movie. “Watch out for the birds,” he said, “they’ll steal your ice cream.”
We walked on and talked about it and didn’t notice the gull until it was too late and the bird took the last bits of a cone out of one of our hands.
The next two days I’d signed up for a walking tour.
The first day I walked nine miles along the coast. It was beautiful but a lot more of climbing to the top of a cliff and descending to the next beach than I’d expected.
The second day was a little less pleasant.
It rained for the first five hours of the walk. Not hard, but steady.
The woman at breakfast had looked outside and said, “It’s Wales, love, I hope you’ve packed your water-proofs.”
It meant that my footing was less sure. I went down the hills very slowly because I was worried about turning an ankle. I went up the hills slowly because they were up hill. There wasn’t much flat walking this second day.
About six miles in I saw a couple coming towards me the other way so I looked for a place where I could step off the path so they could pass.
While I was waiting, a man came from behind and I beckoned for him to pass.
He was tall and thin and wore a hat that said Canada and had a maple leaf on the front.
He passed me as the couple met us and we all chatted for a while. As our party broke up, the woman told us that there was a cafe ahead about an hour and they did a wonderful chocolate cake.
Noted.
Others
The tall man told me that he was taking his time and that if the map said a walk would take four hours it would often take six hours for him. He said that he usually had to stop two or three times when going up hill.
He headed off down the hill and then turned to watch my progress. “Be careful going down hill,” he called out to me.
I thanked him and waved him on.
He climbed the next hill and paused about halfway up to look back. He paused again at the top and looked back clearly waiting for me.
I thanked him but said I didn’t want to hold him up.
This was a teacher. This wasn’t someone who was crowding others - this was a man who was watching out for others and making sure everyone was ok.
By now my knee was acting up. I don’t know what I did but it was painful and I was wobbling a bit more side to side instead of keeping to the path.
On one step I missed the edge of the path and my foot slid down the slope towards the edge of the cliff. I don’t think it was dangerous but as I straddled the path it felt like a dramatic scene in a movie. It had started raining again. It was Kimmy’s birthday. And there I was on a walk in Wales by myself where I’d sent the tall man ahead so I was all alone.
I lay there for a moment or two then got back to my feet and continued the walk.
Up hill slowly, downhill slowly, and mercifully some level ground.
An hour later I slowly descended some steps cut into the rock and looked to my right as the directions advised and saw the cafe.
I ordered tea and the chocolate cake and was looking for a table when I saw the tall man. He invited me to join him.
He’d gotten there just a few minutes before me and was enjoying a scone and cappucino.
His name is John. He’s 77 and, like the remainder of my Tai Chi class, was not there just for the weekend. He’d be walking for a week.
His wife wasn’t a walker so she hadn’t joined him.
He had another two miles to go but he’d decided that that was enough for the day.
Me too. I’d just called to have my ride to the hotel pick me up here instead of at our arranged stop.
There was something comforting in knowing John had decided to stop as well. He’s a walker. Perhaps I’m a walker too. It’s too early to tell.
We chatted a bit and it turned out that he’s a retired special needs teacher.
It made complete sense.
I’m sure he was a great teacher. You could just feel it. You didn’t need to see his certification.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 233. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe