Double down

Due to a mad bit of scheduling, I was down to present two editions of the Talking Newspaper today.

It was because of a swap and my stabby fingers. I’d entered an incorrect date in the phone calendar and didn’t realise I was already booked to present the Alton edition when Mary rang and asked if I could do her Farnham one. I happily agreed and…well today was the result.

It’s not that I didn’t know. I’ve known about the double shift since October. I just figured that someone would either ring me for a swap or I’d just do them both. It should be possible, I reasoned, given there’s the Haslemere edition in between.

And, basically, it was easily possible. (It was made a lot easier by Tony having the middle slot because he ended up running late.) The thing is, I’d forgotten what two performances in a day are like. While not particularly physically exhausting, talking almost non-stop for three hours and making sure everything works as it should, is somewhat taxing. Mentally.

The Farnham edition was brilliant. It’s been a long time since I laughed as much. Christine had me in hysterics at one stage. I was talking about a lecture being held locally about Australian Impressionists – it coincides with a National Gallery exhibition on at the moment. I’d raved on about it, mentioning the fact that “…while my wife loves Impressionists, I can’t stand them.” I then handed over to Christine.

Before going into her next piece she declared that she thought I meant people who did impressions of Australians rather than Australian Impressionist artists. She was going to ask me to do an Aussie impression before she realised. I just fell about laughing.

To be honest the whole edition was a lot of fun. Christine is always funny as is Rosemary who was also reading. Susan, not so much but it doesn’t matter. And Mike, the engineer is pretty good value as well. I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. (I know Christine did because she told me so before she left.)

Not so the Alton edition. It went okay. There were no big mistakes or anything but I couldn’t muster up as much humour as I normally manage. I think I was just close to drained of jokey chat. Though, Ann, one of the readers, reckoned I was a ‘laugh-a-minute.’ So, really, who knows?

Anyway, it was a long, long day and I was glad when I managed to reach home and hygge and, eventually, Mirinda.

And, in passing, here’s a short video taken from where I wait for the bus after the gym: