I Believe in Magic

When I was a kid I half-believed in magic. I remember hoping that my homework would be finished when I woke up - but only the hard homework.  I recall clearly that it was my sewing. In Grade 3, I had to hem a hanky. It took me all year as I did a hundred stitches to the inch. At the end of the year, Mum cut off the mangled edges and I did it all again in Grade 4. This was the only homework I left out at night for the fairies or some magician. Apparently it was too hard for all of them.

Years later, when I dropped a pile of books trying to balance them and open the door, I wished for some magic that would just open the door in front of me when I approached.  That magic happened, reinforcing my belief. I also remember being at an airport, doing the long slog to the furtherest departure gate. I was thinking that a little bit of magic could provide a moving walkway. Hey presto! Magic.

During the past few weeks I have been trying to get the Solos website updated as part of my PR/Media role. There is masses of information on the site but it seems to have been done by different people at different times. I'd like to have a revamped site with the same style of writing and a layout that flows from page to page. If I can get it done fairly quickly, I can relax and just keep it up to date for the rest of my time on the committee.

You are probably thinking that I don't know enough to do this. You are so right. Fortunately we have a webmaster, Mark.  I send stuff to him and he uploads it to the web page. Well, that is the idea. What actually happens is that I write an article or gather material from members, run it past the committee for approval, and send it to Mark. Mark then tells me why it won't fit onto the page or why he can't remove what is already there or why I am trying to put it in the wrong place. I have about 4 entire pages all ready to go and waiting for Mark. Unfortunately, Mark is a farmer, has been through the fires recently, and gets to the website when he can.

I display my ignorance at every turn. My home page has been done and I thanked Mark for adding something to the page. He informed me that he only added a link to another page. Isn't that magic? I thought so too, until I realised that now I have another page to work on. It is interesting, isn't it, that you can underline a word or phrase or address and then, like Aladdin's 'open sesame', you are somewhere entirely different. As you can see, I am working far out of my comfort zone. I thought that because I could write the text, this job would be a breeze. Well, no, not really! I know that any task will take more time and effort than I planned.

I have had years of relying on my lovely daughter who works in IT. Even from a distance, I have been able to send stuff or let her connect to my computer, and things get sorted quickly. Now, being reliant on someone else, has been a bit of a problem. I am on a roll and just want to get everything done while my webmaster is not travelling and is tied up with problems at home. I don't think I am a control freak. I just like to be in control!

However, at the end of the process, we will have a revamped website, I will probably have learned something and I will be able to put it down to Mark, Monica and the Magic of the Underline..