Bob’s Blog (11)
Due to lockdown, guest Jackie has reluctantly had to relinquish her role as Group Social Secretary, albeit temporarily.
She now has taken the job of Curry Queen. During one of the group chats it was agreed it would be a change to have a takeaway curry as we had missed the opportunity at home. It started off with just five making choices from a menu downloaded. When the word got out it soon grew to seven. Originally, we were going to be in the tv lounge but the meal had to be relocated into the larger Quiet Room for social distancing.
Jackie got everyone's preferred curry and it was decided that four curries would be enough for seven along with naan breads, rices, poppadoms, pakoras, salad, raita, mango chutney and spiced onions. This was going to be a real feast! After discussion the Eastern Eye in Haddington was thought to be the takeaway with the best reputation in the area. They were happy to deliver to Leuchie so the order was placed. Guest Jim went down into the town and got Cobra beers just to give authenticity to the event. Alexa completed the atmosphere with a selection of Indian music! We all had a bit of everything and the only thing to go in the bin at the end was a spoonful of rice!
This was a great day because in the afternoon CEO Mark Zoomed a virtual behind the scenes tour of Leuchie to the big screen in the quiet room, showing off all the parts of the house we presently can’t access, including all the new building work in the basement. The big screen may sound a bit pretentious to you but you’ll see what I mean on your next visit to Leuchie.
The digital skills team has been busy with making a presentation and sorting out issues with guests' phones, laptops & tablets. In Blog #10 I said I was getting a Ring doorbell. My friend John installed it and managed 97% of the set up. Unfortunately, the last 3% was beyond him. Simply I couldn’t use the Amazon Echo to communicate with whoever was the ringing the bell. Elizabeth at Leuchie tried to solve the problem remotely but was unsuccessful. She asked me to bring my Echo in to Leuchie. She then called Ring customer service, explained the issue and found out it was a very simple solution. Even though I didn’t require the video function it had to be enabled to give me audio. I called my neighbour and asked her to press the bell and we tested the system whilst at Leuchie. All was working fine, we just need to check it when I return home. Result.
Jackie has researched and found The Festival Theatre will be open when we meet up again in October. Let us all hope the guidance allows us the opportunity to go to a show. The only one announced so far is Beauty and the Beast … not my cup of tea ... but I’m sure there will be some takers. Hopefully one of the other venues publishes their programme before we return.
