Growth and Development: my recent learning journey.
Once my place on Team Coaching was confirmed, I decided that in order to cut costs, I would drive south, stay with family in SW London and commute daily to Heathrow Terminal 4 Hilton. Until I remembered that I hate commuting by car especially when Google gets her knickers in a twist, and I miss the umpteenth turn, the train/ tube journey was going to take at least 1.5hrs each way, and actually how much nicer to have downtime at the end of every day. So, I raided my travel and training budget, bought a return train ticket and booked a hotel room.
All went exactly according to plan until Wednesday morning. Having given myself 2.0hrs for the journey I was shocked and frustrated to discover that Terminal 4 is closed to everything - including trains. There was no indication at Hatton Cross that I was to get a bus, and after eventually arriving in Terminal 2, I hailed a taxi. Feeling relieved that a black cab would deliver me safely to my destination, I bounced up to Hilton reception and asked to be pointed in the direction of EMCC training only to be advised that I was in the wrong Hilton.
Good grief, if a black cabby didn’t know there were 2 Hiltons, what hope did I have?
I used the emergency number to alert the organisers that I was running late, and when a Hop On bus appeared, I jumped on after ascertaining that he was indeed going right past the correct Hilton.
Total cost of travelling from Streatham to Heathrow: £27, 3hours and a very wobbly life coach!
Once coffee was poured, I settled in quickly enough and was delighted to meet the other delegates. As always, I was on the search for connections and met the niece of a good friend of mine from North Berwick and another retired teacher who lives not far from my first teaching job in Ilford, Essex!
Dinner on Wednesday night was a little upsetting for a variety of reasons that would not have gone amiss on Fawlty Towers, and we were unable to sit together resulting in 4 of us staying in the bar while the others went into the restaurant. However, the bar food was fine, the wine delicious and company excellent, so the evening turned out better than expected. The hotel management later apologised and dinner was refunded. Thursday evening was a much more slick affair, and nothing was too much trouble for the very attentive waiting staff, who were blameless for the previous evening’s fiasco.
I spent an hour each morning in the gym, using a treadmill, cross trainer and rowing machine, which reinforced how grateful I am that ordinarily, I walk outside every day, swim in the sea when I want, and use my rowing machine looking out at the trees in our local park.
The team coach training was excellent although 3 days in a windowless room on hard chairs was tiring, but I have made allegiances and connections, and a similar level of support to that I experienced with Columba 1400 HTLA.
The journey home was much smoother: I was dropped off at Terminal 5 by the aforementioned niece of my good friend, picked up the Heathrow Express to Paddington, took the tube to King's Cross, then boarded the LNER train to Edinburgh before collapsing on the soft Scotrail seat home.
I had fantasies about walking down North Berwick High Street with the scent of salty sea air filling up my senses, but alas, September is muck spreading season, and the local farmers had been busy!
Not to be put off I went for a swim on Saturday, and my mind, body and soul are back where they belong.
I am looking forward to diving further into the Team Coaching Foundation Workshop manual, 'Coaching the Team at Work' by David Clutterbuck, and getting in some real time practice.
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