I think I’ve finally cracked it. I’ve finally realised what I have been doing wrong in relation to guiding and am all set to prove next Sunday that I can guide when I pass the exam.

I went out today with some of my trainee guide colleagues and we practised the exam walk not once but twice over the course of the day. They gave me what I needed which is constructive and detailed feedback. My mistakes (ie basically talking too much and too fast) have been hinted at by others on my course but no-one had actually spelled it out to me and I was too dim to realise what they were trying to tell me.

I have finally managed to smile as I talk (another thing I had had difficulty with) and had thought that was my only problem. However after talking about Lansdowne House (where Mr H G Selfridge lived in the 1920s) for 1 minute longer than I should have this morning I was told I was giving far too much information and that I should slow down, give less detail and put some pauses in. In the afternoon I tried the same stop with the pauses and cut the extraneous information and it worked.

S from the class has organised a couple more practice sessions during the week and I do still have a long way to go but feel that I have finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

Fingers’ crossed for Sunday