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… of sorts, or more accurately barre.
I use a service called Onefit in the Netherlands which lets me register for group lessons or use a gym in a bunch of places (limit is four times a month). I used it for joining yoga classes sometime back. Apparently its quite popular with locals here and so I have a hard time finding a spot. So like any sensible person, I tried to automate it. I wrote a python script that would run in the background and try to find me a spot when someone cancels their’s (and people do cancel as there is a no-show fee). Lo and behold the script alerts me, and I immediately sign up. Now am feeling excited that I am the smartest person around to do such a thing.
The day of the supposed yoga class, am all pumped up to be going back after 2-3 months. I get to the venue on time and tell the person at the reception that I am here for the yoga class. One of the persons sitting there was the instructor, and she thought I was confused, so she mentioned there is no yoga class for another hour. I tell her, no, look and show her the confirmation on my phone (there is a location-based check-in), and she went “yeah no, its a ‘Barre’ class” which is a Ballet style workout.
Now am visibly shaken, my mind wanders away, slowly, mentally debugging the code that I refactored day earlier, as to what just happened, all the while still blankly looking at that lady. It turns out I applied filters for location type, time but not for the class type. Neither during my testing did I realise that they were offering more variety of classes from the last time I tried months earlier, nor when I was pressing the “book” button. I can at this point see the code and what the error was.
What do I do now?
It is too late. I had to do something, either go forward or back home. One on hand I begin to wonder if will I be charged a cancellation fee? On the other hand, I asked myself, would I have ever tried this by my own volition? The cancellation fee of €10 would be a blow to my ego that thought it could automate itself out to glory.
So, I went in. Yes. It happened.
Boy oh boy, what an experience it was. I was the only guy and a chubby human in the entire class, full of women in shape and active. Halfway through, am sweating, panting, full of feeling that I can collapse any moment. I keep going, and then I could no more and had to take a timeout. And all throughout, everyone was going through the motions of the class without breaking a sweat, like it was some fucking music video. What the hell.
Usually when I play sports, its the next day I feel it. No sooner than the class ended, I could feel my body telling me what a dumb idea that was.
And gents, that’s how I ended up trying ballet workout, all due to a bug.
So, remember the lesson kids, test your code :)
PS: Now this made me wonder about something a friend said a long back, during one of our conversations about “anti-search” search engines, which recommend something that you wouldn’t usually try, either a thing or a place, a sight or an experience. While I have tried random things in the past, if not for this “bug”, don’t’ think I would have intentionally tried to go check this one out. Serendipity can be a good thing, and I wish this world facilitated more of it.