Today I had a Talking Newspaper session, Alton edition. This means leaving at midday so, first thing, I took the dogs to the park so they could run themselves ragged and make mum’s day in all that much better.
Freya, apparently, was exhausted. Emma never is. Day-z only sleeps anyway. All in all they were well behaved and the only thing mum had to worry about was Day-z staying alive.
Today I had Liz, Margaret and Mike reading with me except that’s not what happened. Mike was late so I rang him to make sure he hadn’t forgotten.
He hadn’t forgotten. He’s been very sick and didn’t want to infect the rest of us so he rang yesterday, leaving a message for the duty dog to ring me. This didn’t happen.
Anyway, we divided his stories up between us and simply read without him. Or at least we tried. There was a technical hitch.
The recording software wasn’t performing in any recognisable manner: only allowing 12 seconds of recording, not showing any voice oscillations, that sort of thing.
When Liz asked what was wrong our sound engineer, the always delightful Sir Paul, said “Don’t ask me. Apart from anything else, I’m stone deaf.“
Eventually it all fixed itself. We’d called the technical director and I chatted to him while Paul fiddled and suddenly it just worked again. Magic.
(To be honest, I think that Paul had clicked something without realising it and then managed to do the reverse while I was chatting.)
So, an hour late, we started and ran through the edition with only a few little blips (not by me, I stress) and a lot of laughs. Liz is a relief teacher and was having a bit of a stressful day so she was glad for the entertainment.
Actually she teaches Latin. I was shocked that Latin is still taught particularly when English grammar isn’t. Margaret stated that she was taught Latin in school then added, with a wry grin, that she’d never had cause to use it.
A late start meant a late end and I didn’t get home till gone 6pm. In the meanwhilst mum had enjoyed herself colouring and curling her hair.
