Saturday 19th August 2023
Today was tour day. Online to South Africa. My tour was more of a storytelling project than guiding people around photos on the internet. A few years back when I started doing my training as a tour guide, I realised that I wouldn’t be doing it like everyone else. I'm not great at remembering dates that don't have an emotional attachment to me so I wondered how I was going to make my mark. My angle now is the Scottish connection so that's the premise I use but I'm aware that my audience isn't Scots so I go into storytelling mode.
I'd sent through a whole range of videos that I'd recorded this week while coming up with props much like I'd done during lockdown. My 'internet live' videos had prepared me to be able to pretend that I was the characters that I was focusing on for the day. My videos told my Scots hero story from the perspective of his sister, wife and then he, himself. I'd made over 40 minutes of video so that meant I only had to 'pad' live for 20 minutes to make up the hour for the live zoom meeting. It's strange doing it online knowing that people are on the other side, but I couldn't see them as I ended up doing it on my phone.
The host was playing in the videos from Johannesburg, so we arranged to do a set up 30 minutes before the tour started. I'd done all my preparation and sat waiting at 1.29pm. Once logged in, we realised that he couldn't hear me, I resorted to my phone, still nothing. I had a slight panic but knowing that I'd tried two devices I thought it couldn't be my side. In the meantime the doorbell buzzer goes. I can't ignore it because it's loud. Turns out to be a parcel delivery. As I stand in the passage to wait for collection I could hear my mental clock ticking LOUDLY. My mind races, trying to troubleshoot and come up with a plan as I get handed my friend's parcel and the guy is almost invisible to my panic stricken/solution seeking mind. He then says 'okay love' and I get zapped back into the passage in Brixton facing a real human being. "Thanks so much " I manage and almost chase him back up the passage.
I get back to the table and with 4 minutes to go, people waiting in the 'waiting room' suddenly I hear my voice feed back into the line. Yey! I'm through. Phew. I scramble through my notes and smile. I'm ready.
The tour goes off without a hitch. The characters are loved, I'm complimented on doing the story in such a unique way. Thank yous are said and the meeting is ended.
I realise I'm exhausted and I fall asleep immediately for 2 hours. When I wake I realise I need to move the laundry off the sunsetting porch but I struggle to move. Bike ride, 2am bedtime and tour all caught up with me. So I snooze for another 15minutes and manage to get myself up.
I'm ready for another good dose of sleep now though. Tomorrow is moving day and I'm looking forward to the energy shift, but for now I'm grateful for all the opportunities. Opportunities to be creative, to travel, to understand technology enough to do fun things, to share my way of storytelling and most of all, to have fun.
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