Helping Out

The storms that hit the country overnight (Storm Goretti) skirted our area. We had strong winds throughout the evening and a lot of rain, but when I got up this morning, the rain had stopped, and the wind had eased.  Having seen photos of the storm in the West Country, we have to be thankful.

Zoe had a 09:00 start, so there was no need to get up early. I met up with them in time to join the walk to school and then set off on my morning walk. I completed my current audiobook during the first circuit and dropped straight into another. It was a nice walk, though the wind made it a bit nippy, and there was rain in the air.

While I was walking, ~Diane went to see the nurse who runs the Cardiac Rehab sessions. As she hasn't been for a while, she wanted to check that she could restart the sessions without a referral and that they could accommodate the exercises she has been given for her knee. Fortunately, she said that it would not be a problem, and she is aiming to restart next Friday.

After some breakfast, Di started on some chores and some admin. I cleared some of my own admin, then set about a challenge posed by my school friend, Michael. I summarised the challenge as:

Michael is chairman of the residents committee for a block of apartments. He would like to set up an email account for the committee members such that there is only one address for people to contact, but any of the authorised members can access and respond to the emails. This is all voluntary work, so he needs a service that is free of charge. 

I then set about trying to help. I was looking for a free solution that would give him and the committee a common repository for them to conduct their business and for residents to contact them. After hunting about, I concluded that a solution based on Outlook or on Google Groups was probably the easiest for them to set up and use. What's more, both solutions are free. I then set up a test model for each solution. Michael plans to arrange a phonecall one evening next week for the committee to discuss this with me.

After lunch, I managed some Kindle time until it was potentially time to collect Ellie. The question was whether she had managed to get into the after-school dance class. There had been some confusion, and it was left "if you don't hear from me, she is going to the dance session".  The trouble with that is that people can get too busy and forget. Rather than take a chance, I went to the school, and she assured me she was going dancing. I went home. The joining instructions for the dance class said the class finished at 16:00, but the pickup time was 16:15. I arrived just before 16:15, and Ellie was the only child left. ll the others had been collected at 16:00.

Ellie came back to us until Zoe came by to collect her.