A Brazilian friend of Graham’s who knows about our Sheds and has done interesting work with youngsters in the Maker Movement had some news.
He lives in Santarem quite a distance up the mighty Amazon River. A river like a sea.
Yes, there is Covid in Brazil.
The surprise news came about 3 weeks ago that his wife was 8 weeks pregnant. Graham hopes that mother is overjoyed because father, Celson, is over the moon. He Skypes messages that show how excited he is.
He’s a professor at the University there (smart IT stuff but applied to community needs really. Not tech for the sake of it. But one of his noted skills is as a musician. Graham knew him in France originally and he’d do sessions with others around Nice area. Back in his place of birth, he does live performances and records songs and music too with a group of friends in Santarem.
Thus it came as a shock but no surprise when he said he’d composed a couple of numbers for his unborn son who seems to like the sounds and responds with movement!
Celson will provide some background in English to the pieces which we’ll add.
But for now, listen on.
More about Santarem from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santar%C3%A9m,_Par%C3%A1
I don’t think there are Sheds in Brazil. There are many fine craftsmen however.
Here are residents of Santarem (the name does crop up in the refrains) all performing from their homes.
(I’ve sent the video of Singing Vicar Steve Foster with his banjo singing the number he wrote 10 years ago about the Coast to Coast Walk. That ought to confuse the Brazilians! )
Here is an Opinion piece in Whitby Gazette today. About my Covid-19 experience . . .
Apologies for the poor image. I mean the quality of the image and NOT my face or my friend TED’s. BTW He is sporting the Australian Men’s Shed Association 10 year badge 🙂
Graham is learning the lathe slowly but not carefully. Here is the evidence.
Yes, the stem of my goblet broke in the lathe. I’d started it with a log from my log pile. Very irregular in shape as the lathe turned. I worked on the stem of the goblet first, next the top and finally the base. I began to chisel out the inside of the goblet and the stress was too much. On the goblet and then on me! Lesson – wait a while to narrow the stem. Do the top first and hollow it out. Then do the frest. Please don’t tell Keith, Eddie or Lance about this.
News at BayThorpe
Yorkshire Post will visit the Shed and environs for a photoshoot on progress with the Shed and it’s notable Penny-Farthing bicycle automaton. Well the virus took its toll on the Tour de Yorkshire of course and at present the plan is to recycle the project (hope you get the joke) by completing it and using a black livery for the Bay Victorian Evening at Christmas.
The Shed has been checked but has remained closed. However, work outside in a children’s play are has been possible. There is more work that could be in a team of 6 well distanced with the project including painting/preserving a galleon. It is to help the Parish Council.
We had to check with our insurers because of these unprecedented times, but as long as the Covid rules are followed we are insured for falls from the Crow’s Nest if there is one!
They and the rest of the Sheds can’t wait to be back – even distanced.
An Aussie joke from Labrador Len
At a couples conference the speaker mentioned that couples are so disconnected that 85% of husbands don’t know their wives favourite flower.
Paddy turned to his wife and whispered, “It’s self raising, isn’t it?”
Zooming
We are hoping for success with an application submitted to create the infrastructure for a Zoom-based communications system for our Sheds and for external relationships.
Graham connected with 140 others in a 30 minute live introductory session run from Atlanta, USA. It was recorded and we can view it through this link.
If it is all Chinese or Greek to you, do not worry. You will not need to know this to be a participant!
And finally, all the way from Loftus area come funnies from Shedder Malcolm . . . .
Malcolm’s favourite is the last one about Santa. Mine is the Star Wars mask made from a plastic milk bottle.