I am mum and stepmum to four children and have two very young grandchildren and two over 20, who I decided would manage very nicely without me, but I am going to really miss my smaller ones, one of 18 months in the middle of London (parents working from home) and the other four years old and living in Antigua in the Caribbean (and three cases of coronavirus) whilst I self isolate.
I thought I needed to do something fun so they didn’t get completely fed up with seeing me on Facetime, which I think is deeply boring sometimes when other more fun options , like pretending (age four) the sofa makes a fine trampoline and (age 18 months) why can’t I get more toys to emerge in the middle of a call from the old bat!
So I decided a regular three minute activity video would be more fun. I was then plunged into the murky world of digital communications. Email? Love it. Texts? Can’t do without them (and would never speak to one son if I didn’t have them). Facetime is a miracle, Skype refuses to work for me, and what I will do with my carefully downloaded Zoom, when I have to “attend” the next meeting of Rye News editorial team, I really cannot imagine.
So I decided to use my photo video thing. I love taking photos, which take me hours to upload when needed for Rye News, but that’s another story, and I noticed it had a video button. That’s when the fun started.
How do you prop up the iPad so you can be seen? After much fiddling about I managed to get it to sit up and at least film the top of me to waist level. Next, how do you switch on the video button without appearing as a vast Granny lump on the screen? Gave up on that and just did it.
Then I had to decide on the moves. I am in my 70s and my dance moves owe more to the Shadows than David Bowie, but nothing ventured nothing gained, there was a bouncy track on Radio 2 (I like Radio 2, don’t carp), so off I went. But no sound.
I thought, innocently, it would record the sound. No such thing. Hard as I tried, pressing hopefully and trying to find the sound up button, I couldn’t discover it anywhere, so gave up, exhausted, and re-ran the moves. They were quite extraordinarily bad, but it made me laugh so much, I felt much better.
So I switched the arrow thing that sends pictures or a video in this case, to my loved ones and hoped for the best. They thought it was as ridiculous as I did, but asked for more.
So, we can all make ourselves and our family laugh out loud even if we don’t quite have that in mind. But I do miss them all! Next Granny’s video? Making an indoor garden. But can someone tell me how to make a video with sound on a really basic level? Over to you!
Image Credits: Gillian Roder .