The magazine has gone to bed at last. There is a lovely sense of relief and I’m looking forward to tidying the office tomorrow.
I’ve had a very social day today; lunch with friends and loads of talking on the phone tonight.
People are sending me emails to tell me they read this blog. I just wish some would leave a message – go on, leave one.
We’ve had quite a long day on the final stages of our part of the magazine. Photographs seem to have taken most of our time – not helped by the computer crashing regularly again. We really do need a new one. I’ve just finished another proof read and now Andy is just tidying it up. In the morning I’ll do a final proof, collect it for out put, burn it onto a CD and then get it off to the image bureau, I hope. Film is made at the image bureau, I proof it again and then it goes to our printer, Robin.
It’s a lovely feeling when we put a magazine to bed, a real sense of relief.
I’ve just heard some great news. My good friend Lindy Thwaites gave birth to her 3rd baby during the night. Edward Jack was born at home, just like his sister Tabitha and brother Rupert (who is my Godson). Lindy and her husband James thought the new baby could be a girl, so he is a surprise. Mum and baby are both really well and the whole family is very happy. I can’t wait to meet him.
Today has been very productive. I am still a bit tired, but we’ve got a lot done.
I’ve managed to unpack all of the course stuff, although I haven’t sorted out the music, I’ve just carefully put the box away. Andy has almost completed the final layout of the magazine and I’ve started the next stage of proofing. It all takes ages.
I did a few good deals today as well. One of the publishers is going to give a flute book away to all our UK members; I’ve secured a bursary for one of our courses from a flute shop and I’ve worked on reduced price flute insurance for everyone. More details about all of those things soon.
When I went back to Ovingdean on Sunday to clear up after the concert I trapped two fingers in a door. I told it that it wasn’t allowed to hurt. Yesterday when I was totally exhausted, I noticed my hand had a dirty mark on it and tried to wash it off, unsuccessfully. Today it has started to hurt; the dirty mark is a nasty bruise. I really was tired yesterday. That makes me consider that all of our course members must be really tired – I think earlier bedtimes on courses are a good idea. Don’t you?
I’m off doing one of my other things in life tomorrow, back soon.
What a course!
I’ve spent today doing hardly a thing. I’m totally exhausted and so is Andy. We’ve just had residential course at Ovingdean Hall. The course members and staff were great and we ended the course with a fabulous concert at the Church of the Good Shepherd. Jonathan Myall came along from Just Flutes with his travelling shop and kindly donated a coloured flute for a prize in the raffle as we were raising funds for Ovingdean Hall School to help have their theatre rebuilt.
Nearly every course we have a problem or two. We expect them. Risk assessments are carried out so we can anticipate problems and avoid them. But we couldn’t have anticipated the dramas of this weekend.
I was made aware of the first problem before the course, on Thursday. I phoned the venue and I was asked to go in for a meeting about a problem with fire exits and bedrooms. I arrived to find scaffolding because a ceiling had fallen in above the main stairs. This meant we couldn’t use seven of the bedrooms, as there weren’t enough fire exits from them. Several hours were spent working out different permutations of the use of rooms. It was decided we would need to use another accommodation block in addition to our usual one, which turned out to be extremely fortunate. These changes meant a change from our usual plans for the beginning of the course and therefore meant things were a bit stressful for me. One of our course members has a dad who is a firefighter, so I asked him to have a look around the building with Andy to make 100% sure it was safe as can be. He set my mind at rest and we all settled into the course.
The next morning I discovered I couldn’t have a shower as it was running cold. There seemed to be only one working shower we could actually use as a barrier had been put up blocking two of the bathrooms we usually use. Oh well, smelly people aren’t that bad!
The rest of the day went well. Loads of fabulous flute playing; Kirtsen Spratt working with the more advanced players on their pieces; Sandy Hay working on flute choir pieces; Chris Baxter accompanying people; Lynn Myall, Barbara Sykes and Abbi Burrows doing small ensembles. After lunch we had a lovely walk to the beach. All was going well. After dinner we had just settled down to a concert given by many of our course members when the next disaster struck.
Andy was coming along a corridor when he discovered water coming from the ceiling, just beside a light fitting. We did all the things we needed to do – isolated the electricity supply to that area, called the maintenance man and had a quick panic about what to do with the course members to keep them safe. I didn’t really like the idea of water and electricity together and I was also concerned about the water having to be turned off completely because of the leak. Fortunately we had access to the other accommodation blocks so I decided we should evacuate the building for the night. It took awhile to check out the room availability in the other blocks and allocate rooms appropriately but everyone made it so much easier by being so cooperative. Just gone nine o’clock Flutewise members could be seen plodding across the hardcourt with their bedding, toothbrushes and some teddies to their new temporary home. They looked like proper evacuees! There are some great photos and I’ll see if we can get some up on the website. I think everyone enjoyed the drama.
The important thing was that we were all safe and well and the rest of the course on Sunday was fabulous. It will be a course we’ll all remember. The only other problem was that when we got up and tried to have a shower – guess what? No hot water! It was wonderful to get home and get clean.
Were you there? Let us know how it was for you and leave a comment – please!