A lousy correspondent

Training last week, and I didn't even write about it (well, I was absolutely cream crackered).

The 2nd training was more relaxed (the guy I thought was a bit "self-rectal" the first time seemed a lot more human - I don't know if he'd mellowed or I had), but it did feel a bit chaotic. I know that seems like a contradiction , what I mean is that the students were more confident, but that the trainers were trying to cram so much in that we were fighting the clock the whole time.

There was only one part where I knew I'd done badly, and for two reasons.

We were role-playing a scenario, enacting a family visit with a woman whose son had killed himself, and our brief was to find out the cause of death.

Self criticism no 1 - I could hear myself asking closed rather than open questions - must get out of that habit RIGHT now!

Self criticism no 2 - The trainer playing the bereaved mother was in denial about the death (unsure if it was deliberate or not), and so we were getting inconclusive answers. I just turned to a fellow student and said "I've gone blank". Obviously, that is a Very Bad Thing, but I would like to think that in a real situation I would behave differently, for two reasons.

Firstly, if the mother didn't know or didn't want to share the cause of death, I would leave it out of the ceremony.

Secondly, if I was drawing a blank from the family, I would ask about something else entirely (what did the deceased do for a living, favourite music, anything) and move on, perhaps coming back to the cause of death later, once more trust had been established.

However, I've been invited back for part 3 of the training, and so it couldn't have counted against me too much.

I've not had any ceremonies for ages, so I've had to go to work (boo) and rack up spare hours for when they're needed. If I get too many, I might just take some time off anyway.