ABSTRACT THURSDAY - PAINTERLY

Painterly :  the application of paint in a “loose” or less than controlled manner, resulting in the appearance of visible brush strokes within the finished painting.  

When I was looking around in the garden first thing this morning, I saw a lone daffodil and decided to take a photograph of that.  I then did some faffing around with Enlight, one of the apps on my iPhone, and this was the result, which I think looks like a painting - and possibly one that might result if I slapped some yellow paint on to a canvas in a “less than controlled manner”!

It was the third session of my training at the Swindon 105.5 Radio Station this morning and I knew it was going to be a one-to-one session with Shirley Ludford, the Station Manager.  I was taken into Studio 3 where she proceeded to show me how to do an interview with a guest.  She told me exactly how to do it including using the computer screen - and also how close I needed to be to the microphone etc etc  

There were so many buttons to push and things to watch that my head was reeling before too long, but thankfully, Shirley is a very patient and excellent teacher and before long I was actually doing it myself - a bit scary when you know that you are “in control” of the desk.  However, it wasn’t long before Shirley went round to the other side of the desk and let me try out my new-found skills.  Before I knew it, I was “fading” microphones, watching the output, and then saving the file into what is known as a “cart” and all within the space of about fifteen minutes.  One thing she did impress on me was the need to wear headphones, so that the balance could be checked constantly, and once I was actually doing it myself, I could see the sense in this.

Shirley then told me that she wanted me to do a “proper” interview with Louise, a lady who was presently helping in Reception, but who brought students into the Radio Station every week from Crowdy’s Hill School, a local school for students with special needs.  She told me to take Louise into Studio 3 and do a 10 minute interview - just like that - to say my knees were knocking is an understatement!

I chatted with Louise, who is a Teaching Assistant at the school, for about five minutes and then invited her to sit on the other side of the desk and off we went!  Louise was very easy to interview so made my job easy - the interview lasted for 10 minutes and 19 seconds, not bad for a first time, I thought and hopefully by the time I have edited this, it will be just about 10 minutes.  

The only issue we had and we both ended up giggling afterwards, was that when I wanted to listen again I clicked the finished interview twice so I could hear myself and Louise speaking twice with about a 5 second time gap, which was quite funny resulting in Louise going to find Shirley to find out how to stop this.

Louise told me that she notices how the confidence of the students grows the more they come in and that being at the Radio Station helps them in many ways towards the goal of independent living and managing in a working environment.

All in all, a great and very rewarding morning, made even better when J, one of the students Louise had brought, and who didn’t normally communicate, came to look at the computer screen when he heard me saying I found the print rather small, and proceeded to tell me how to make it larger.  We have swapped names and I have said I will look out for him next week.  

For some reason my cold has decided not to leave me completely and I now have a sore throat and am “sneezing for England” so I think an evening indoors, in the warm, beckons and perhaps a paracetamol or two.

“The capacity to learn is a GIFT,
    the ability to learn is a SKILL
         the willingness to learn is a CHOICE.”
     Brian Herbert