A new toy but no pancakes

I splashed out on a new toy yesterday. For a while I’ve been wanting a device to voice record for a few reasons, firstly to help me with my writing; secondly to help me learn French and German better and thirdly to create a record (on CD) of some of my theatre speeches for my own nostalgic pleasure.

Press what?

I’m a bit rubbish at understanding the operational booklets that come with the equipment. What does ‘Instrukcja szybkiego uruchamiania’ mean exactly and will it help me build an Ikea wardrobe from scratch? Being a bit impatient, it takes me a while to use the equipment properly however I did manage to put the batteries in the recorder the right way round and I can record my voice now. Why I suddenly sound like Kermit on acid is rather a worry though. Perhaps I’m playing it at the wrong speed. Transferring the data to CD took a bit more effort and a lot of patience and the method I use is still a bit hit and miss. I think all this impatience comes from my childhood. I remember that I was the only child in my Junior school to be totally confused by the purpose of Lego. But WHERE does the red brick go???!!! Where are the instructions?

This morning I enthusiastically recorded 13 short theatre speeches. This took hours as I am a bit of a perfectionist and I also went to the city library to pick up some scripts that I no longer have. It was all fun however and finally at 3.33pm I managed to transfer the data to a CD. When I played it back it was ok if you like the sound of lots of breathiness and very close up acting. Perhaps I under-estimated the power of the Sony recorder and should re-do the recordings at arms’ length. The best place for the sound seemed to be in my bathroom but not whilst in or running a bubble bath.

The machine was unanimously praised on Amazon so I shall persevere. Sadly I have been so busy doing all this that I forgot it was Shrove Tuesday. So no pancakes pour moi this year.

PS: 17th March note. I am finding this a really useful tool.