Page 154 - Through a glass brightly

From Glenda at 12.26
Friday, 17th July
Hi everyone! I think adding everyone’s emails to the book made me realise that it’s a long time since you heard from Glasgow. Once I have added this email I’ll be sending out Version 3 as a website. You won't be able to download the book (I’m still working on this!) but it will keep you up-to-date, you can send on the website address to others, and it’s in a slightly different format. If you don’t want to read the whole thing (although we have some new material right very beginning) you can jump to Page 110 which is the end of the second draft. There have been quite a few 'sortings out’ behind the scenes including getting the page numbers in order (!) but you needn’t bother with these. And don’t bother with some blank spaces. There’s still some stuff to go in at the beginning and this will alter the pagination so I’ll do all that at the end. I’m hoping to add a DVD with all the movies to the eventual book to keep them coming!
The trouble with being “tail-end Charlie” is that all the news has been covered. Our hairdressers opened on the 15th and my hair was cut on the 16th! My walking with friends has restarted and we have another planned for tomorrow and Monday. The weather is at last beginning to show signs of a little warmth. The cold spell put a severe dampener (pardon the pun) on all the quasi-legal get-togethers and glasses of wine over the hedge or socially distanced with appropriate seating in the garden. I have a very small city garden, but one advantage is that I am close to the pavement and everyone, but everyone, stops to talk or to cuddle the kittens or to examine the garden for anything new in the way of plants or imitation animals. (Sorry, these are really naff but the children love them and for much of the summer they and their mothers have toured the garden hunting for hidden animals. When we have huge events like my mother’s hundredth birthday or the Commonwealth Games or the European Cycle Championships I made worksheets (what else?) to keep the children occupied.) Our ‘schools’ (home-learning) finished at the end of June as usual, actually a week earlier than usual, but they will go back in the second week of August, again a week earlier than usual. There have been various rumours about how this will be managed including dropping a whole year so that everyone starts as though it was last year, only attending for two days a week or – the latest – going back as normal since we have had no deaths in Scotland for about 10 days. Once the children are back, of course, the weather will improve!! The students will not return, if at all, until the last week in September so at the moment the city is still very quiet. We have 130,000 students in Glasgow and they make a major contribution to the economy. It was thought that the situation would have a severe impact on applications but actually applications from overseas students are up by 16%. I can’t imagine why. I should think it is a relief to the University which is in the process of expanding (aren’t we all). The student who was studying with me has become Locked Down in Glasgow because his home is in Australia and he can’t get through Melbourne. The lease on his flat runs out soon so I think I will be having him as a long-term boarder.
My main memory of this year, however, will be my huge upsurge in technological learning. I don’t seem to do anything (apart from walk and sit in the garden) which doesn’t involve a degree in technology before I begin. I am doing the church notices every week at the moment. The first time it took me five hours to record three minutes! Oh but I am now down to about an hour and that includes putting up my Green Screen, writing my teleprompter script, recording the notices umpteen times (why do I always make a stupid mistake right at the very beginning?), saving them as a quick-time movie, dropping them into iMovie, adding a suitable background, and then sending the completed movie off to someone who collates all the various pieces on Saturdays.The services ‘Premiere’ at 11.00 on Sundays as a YouTube Movie. Last week, when thanking everyone, I included the comment 'We’re getting so good at this that there’s a danger we take all this new-found knowledge and skill for granted. But I assure you - it takes hours of hard work - but its worth it!’ Ands it's true! I’m taking one of the services
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