Thursday 22nd March 2018

I woke up at six only to find it had snowed again during the night, but a thaw had already set in. And it was already getting light; I had travelled an hour and 40 minutes and yet the sun seemed to be rising far earlier than at home. Yes, even with the time difference taken into account.

Anyway, time to get up and attem, even if all the day has in store is yet more 8D training.

Sigh.

At least there is breakfast, they always put the same stuff out at the Scandic, so bran flakes with yogurt followed by two buttered rusks. And coffee. Lots of sweet coffee. There are many other diners dressed as I am, in company t shirts, well, they're free, or that's how I looked at it.

Out to the car, clear the windows and off we go with My Rock radio station blasting out. Makes me drive quicker.

When I arrive at the office, Highway to Hell comes on, meaning I have to sit in the car park, turn up the volume real high, and shout along. Good job I wasn't driving when that came on!

But that was the end of the fun, as I walk to the offices, check in and have an hour's work before the course restarts, with more pen action. I lose patience really quickly, as our team argues among ourselves as we try to come up with root cause analysis on the scant information we have. My colleague, Glen, loses it just before lunch and has a shouting match with our instructor, Anna. Uncomfortable seeing someone so placid be so angry, but we all had important work to do, and yet, here we were, messing around with pens. And then Anna tried to blame us, rather than the training material, which just inflamed matters.

After lunch, we have the exam, and am allowed to use the course material through it, which explains my 100% mark. Or I could just be brilliant? A quality Quality Manager?

And then straight into meetings for the rest of the day, so come five, I am drained, and despite having lunch, really, really hungry. So I drive back to the hotel, book a table for six and while away the 45 minutes listening to the radio.

Anna had ordered steak the night before, and it looked great, so I risked it, and wasn't as good, and was a tad overcooked, but still, steak and a dark German beer, then back to the room for the rest of the Radcliffe and Maconie show before I fell asleep on the bed once again.

But I was going home in the morning....

Yay