I wrote yesterday about how difficult I find it to enjoy poetry because I’ve got very used to seeing how it works.

On a similar theme, let me tell you, trainers can make nightmare delegates on training courses. At their best they sit there with a facial expression that says ‘Ah, I see what you did there’. At their worst, they can derail an event. Especially if they don’t want to be there.* If, for example, they were caught by a speed camera, doing 35mph in a 30mph zone, and have paid £84 (£84! That’s a handbag!) to go on a Speed Awareness Course that they are only attending because they don’t want points on their license.

Yes, as you read this, that’s where I am, my friends. And I have made some decisions about this course.

I am going to kerb my resentment. I broke the rules. It’s time to suck up the consequences.

I am going to resist the urge to argue that (a) that speed camera, only just out of a 40mph zone, is pretty much designed and placed to catch people out (b) I was driving safely (c) we should be looking at appropriate speed for the road conditions rather than sticking to limits – if you’d filmed me 50 yards on I’d have been doing 20 in a 30mph zone.

I am going to see what I can learn about driving. It’s less than two years since I passed my test and there are still days when I get in the car, start the engine, and feel a fleeting sense of panic that I am actually going to be allowed to drive this thing anywhere – and experience deep, surprised gratitude when I get to the other end of my journey unscathed.

I am going to be a good delegate, well-behaved and participative.

In short, I will attend my Naughty Driver Course with a good heart and the right spirit. Which, when I think about it, is not a bad approach to any day.

Happy Friday.

*Fortunately, trainers-training-a-group-with-trainers-in-it understand this, and therefore can outwit those trainer-delegates get trainer-delegates on side. So I confidently expect that, if the trainer is any good, s/he will give me a small job to do (write on a flipchart, watch the time), ask me about a minor technical point, make eye contact with me when s/he does something to manage the group that the group won’t notice but I will. And I confidently expect that I will fall for it. I love it when I get to be the one with the pens.