FCE Interview 15

Fail

My guest today is Douglas Turner, who spent a weekend climbing a mountain in Africa. Douglas, how did this come about?

Well, I suppose it started with seeing adverts for activity holidays in the national press week after week; it somehow got into my subconscious. Then there was one which said, ‘Are you ready for the greatest physical challenge of your life? Five thousand metres. One weekend.’ And somewhat against my better judgement, I found myself picking up the phone straight away. You see, I simply hadn’t trained for it; the nearest I’d got was a bit of hill-walking five years ago.

What did you think you would get out of the weekend?

Generally when I go to things, I enjoy meeting people, but in this case I was afraid the rest of the group would be a bunch of healthy types and I wouldn’t have much in common with them. And as for the physical effort of climbing the mountain, I thought I’d be lucky if I survived the weekend at all! It was more a kind of wanting to see what I was mentally capable of doing. Would I get cold feet and not go at all? Or go, but give up halfway up? That sort of thing.

But you made it to the top.

Yes, I did. Much to my surprise, I can tell you.

And were you right about the other people?

No, actually. There were a few serious walkers and climbers, but most of the participants were professional people who wanted to do something quite different once in a while, more or less like me, in fact. So not intimidating after all. Though I have to admit that nearly all of them were fitter than me. Actually, I hadn’t realised so many people did this sort of thing. It was funny – when I told a friend that I was going, she said, ‘Oh, not another one. Everyone I know’s going climbing this year. There’s a big thing about pushing yourself to your limit at the moment, isn’t there? You’re welcome to it,’ she said. ‘You won’t catch me up there.’

How did you all get on together? I suppose we were a bit suspicious of each other at first, but that soon went, and we somehow developed a really close group feeling, and nobody complained about having to wait for the slow ones, which usually included me. Or at least, if they did complain, they did it out of earshot. In fact, on the flight home we were busy exchanging cards and decided to book another weekend trip as a party – but without a mountain in sight this time.

So how did the weekend compare with your expectations?

It was much better than I’d expected. It made me change in subtle ways. As I’d hoped, I gained in self-knowledge, and I learnt to get on with people I couldn’t escape from, but I also became much more observant, of the tiny little wild flowers, for instance, and that was quite a bonus.

I suppose you’re going to be a regular mountain climber now.

The pair of boots I wore I’m keeping with the mud still on them on my desk at work. They’re a kind of trophy, to prove to myself that I’ve done it. But I somehow don’t think I’ll be using them again. I’m going to have to put them somewhere less visible, though, because it’s sometimes a bit embarrassing when other people are impressed.

Douglas Turner, thank you very much. Thank you.

My guest today is Douglas Turner, who spent a weekend climbing a mountain in Africa. Douglas, how did this come about?

Well, I suppose it started with seeing adverts for activity holidays in the national press week after week; it somehow got into my subconscious. Then there was one which said, ‘Are you ready for the greatest physical challenge of your life? Five thousand metres. One weekend.’ And somewhat against my better judgement, I found myself picking up the phone straight away. You see, I simply hadn’t trained for it; the nearest I’d got was a bit of hill-walking five years ago.

What did you think you would get out of the weekend?

Generally when I go to things, I enjoy meeting people, but in this case I was afraid the rest of the group would be a bunch of healthy types and I wouldn’t have much in common with them. And as for the physical effort of climbing the mountain, I thought I’d be lucky if I survived the weekend at all! It was more a kind of wanting to see what I was mentally capable of doing. Would I get cold feet and not go at all? Or go, but give up halfway up? That sort of thing.

But you made it to the top.

Yes, I did. Much to my surprise, I can tell you.

And were you right about the other people?

No, actually. There were a few serious walkers and climbers, but most of the participants were professional people who wanted to do something quite different once in a while, more or less like me, in fact. So not intimidating after all. Though I have to admit that nearly all of them were fitter than me. Actually, I hadn’t realised so many people did this sort of thing. It was funny – when I told a friend that I was going, she said, ‘Oh, not another one. Everyone I know’s going climbing this year. There’s a big thing about pushing yourself to your limit at the moment, isn’t there? You’re welcome to it,’ she said. ‘You won’t catch me up there.’

How did you all get on together? I suppose we were a bit suspicious of each other at first, but that soon went, and we somehow developed a really close group feeling, and nobody complained about having to wait for the slow ones, which usually included me. Or at least, if they did complain, they did it out of earshot. In fact, on the flight home we were busy exchanging cards and decided to book another weekend trip as a party – but without a mountain in sight this time.

So how did the weekend compare with your expectations?

It was much better than I’d expected. It made me change in subtle ways. As I’d hoped, I gained in self-knowledge, and I learnt to get on with people I couldn’t escape from, but I also became much more observant, of the tiny little wild flowers, for instance, and that was quite a bonus.

I suppose you’re going to be a regular mountain climber now.

The pair of boots I wore I’m keeping with the mud still on them on my desk at work. They’re a kind of trophy, to prove to myself that I’ve done it. But I somehow don’t think I’ll be using them again. I’m going to have to put them somewhere less visible, though, because it’s sometimes a bit embarrassing when other people are impressed.

Douglas Turner, thank you very much. Thank you.

My guest today is Douglas Turner, who spent a weekend climbing a mountain in Africa. Douglas, how did this come about?

Well, I suppose it started with seeing adverts for activity holidays in the national press week after week; it somehow got into my subconscious. Then there was one which said, ‘Are you ready for the greatest physical challenge of your life? Five thousand metres. One weekend.’ And somewhat against my better judgement, I found myself picking up the phone straight away. You see, I simply hadn’t trained for it; the nearest I’d got was a bit of hill-walking five years ago.

What did you think you would get out of the weekend?

Generally when I go to things, I enjoy meeting people, but in this case I was afraid the rest of the group would be a bunch of healthy types and I wouldn’t have much in common with them. And as for the physical effort of climbing the mountain, I thought I’d be lucky if I survived the weekend at all! It was more a kind of wanting to see what I was mentally capable of doing. Would I get cold feet and not go at all? Or go, but give up halfway up? That sort of thing.

But you made it to the top.

Yes, I did. Much to my surprise, I can tell you.

And were you right about the other people?

No, actually. There were a few serious walkers and climbers, but most of the participants were professional people who wanted to do something quite different once in a while, more or less like me, in fact. So not intimidating after all. Though I have to admit that nearly all of them were fitter than me. Actually, I hadn’t realised so many people did this sort of thing. It was funny – when I told a friend that I was going, she said, ‘Oh, not another one. Everyone I know’s going climbing this year. There’s a big thing about pushing yourself to your limit at the moment, isn’t there? You’re welcome to it,’ she said. ‘You won’t catch me up there.’

How did you all get on together? I suppose we were a bit suspicious of each other at first, but that soon went, and we somehow developed a really close group feeling, and nobody complained about having to wait for the slow ones, which usually included me. Or at least, if they did complain, they did it out of earshot. In fact, on the flight home we were busy exchanging cards and decided to book another weekend trip as a party – but without a mountain in sight this time.

So how did the weekend compare with your expectations?

It was much better than I’d expected. It made me change in subtle ways. As I’d hoped, I gained in self-knowledge, and I learnt to get on with people I couldn’t escape from, but I also became much more observant, of the tiny little wild flowers, for instance, and that was quite a bonus.

I suppose you’re going to be a regular mountain climber now.

The pair of boots I wore I’m keeping with the mud still on them on my desk at work. They’re a kind of trophy, to prove to myself that I’ve done it. But I somehow don’t think I’ll be using them again. I’m going to have to put them somewhere less visible, though, because it’s sometimes a bit embarrassing when other people are impressed.

Douglas Turner, thank you very much. Thank you.

My guest today is Douglas Turner, who spent a weekend climbing a mountain in Africa. Douglas, how did this come about?

Well, I suppose it started with seeing adverts for activity holidays in the national press week after week; it somehow got into my subconscious. Then there was one which said, ‘Are you ready for the greatest physical challenge of your life? Five thousand metres. One weekend.’ And somewhat against my better judgement, I found myself picking up the phone straight away. You see, I simply hadn’t trained for it; the nearest I’d got was a bit of hill-walking five years ago.

What did you think you would get out of the weekend?

Generally when I go to things, I enjoy meeting people, but in this case I was afraid the rest of the group would be a bunch of healthy types and I wouldn’t have much in common with them. And as for the physical effort of climbing the mountain, I thought I’d be lucky if I survived the weekend at all! It was more a kind of wanting to see what I was mentally capable of doing. Would I get cold feet and not go at all? Or go, but give up halfway up? That sort of thing.

But you made it to the top.

Yes, I did. Much to my surprise, I can tell you.

And were you right about the other people?

No, actually. There were a few serious walkers and climbers, but most of the participants were professional people who wanted to do something quite different once in a while, more or less like me, in fact. So not intimidating after all. Though I have to admit that nearly all of them were fitter than me. Actually, I hadn’t realised so many people did this sort of thing. It was funny – when I told a friend that I was going, she said, ‘Oh, not another one. Everyone I know’s going climbing this year. There’s a big thing about pushing yourself to your limit at the moment, isn’t there? You’re welcome to it,’ she said. ‘You won’t catch me up there.’

How did you all get on together? I suppose we were a bit suspicious of each other at first, but that soon went, and we somehow developed a really close group feeling, and nobody complained about having to wait for the slow ones, which usually included me. Or at least, if they did complain, they did it out of earshot. In fact, on the flight home we were busy exchanging cards and decided to book another weekend trip as a party – but without a mountain in sight this time.

So how did the weekend compare with your expectations?

It was much better than I’d expected. It made me change in subtle ways. As I’d hoped, I gained in self-knowledge, and I learnt to get on with people I couldn’t escape from, but I also became much more observant, of the tiny little wild flowers, for instance, and that was quite a bonus.

I suppose you’re going to be a regular mountain climber now.

The pair of boots I wore I’m keeping with the mud still on them on my desk at work. They’re a kind of trophy, to prove to myself that I’ve done it. But I somehow don’t think I’ll be using them again. I’m going to have to put them somewhere less visible, though, because it’s sometimes a bit embarrassing when other people are impressed.

Douglas Turner, thank you very much. Thank you.