Two significant events have happened this week and it’s only Tuesday!
Significant Thing 1
I got an email from Sue Gurney, our Inspire Programmer at SEEDA who has been battling with bureaucracy at LOCOG on our behalf since September.
I’m writing to inform you that Thursday 31st March is my last day as Inspire Programmer for the South East region, as the post’s contract comes to an end.
It goes on to talk about DCMS funding cuts of course, and it turns out that SEEDA and the other development agencies are all for the chop. I suspect there is more bad news down in Weymouth where the Team Dorset website seems to have been subsumed into a broader Dorset site , and reaching my contacts down there is proving tricky. I am also failing to get hold of the man in Hampshire CC who was hoping to help us get Inspire accreditation and had some smart ideas for the walk across the county.
You will no doubt be relieved to hear that LOCOG’s supply of red tape has survived – phew. As long as they keep the good stuff.
Sue has been a wonderful supporter of walk2012 and I am very grateful for her help and encouragement and determination to get the project accredited. It feels very unfair that somebody who is so obviously a valuable asset to any organisation has ended up in the wrong pile on the beancounters bench. I wish her all the very best, and hopefully now she’s not busy doing Olympics things she’ll be free to join us on the walk next summer!
Significant Thing 2
I have upgraded my girlfriend. The old one was fun and everything but the new one – well she’s a DOCTOR! Pretty cool huh? Do you want to see a picture? Thought so…
Doctor Ford dispensing her musical medicine
Yes, Felix has got her PhD and is now officially Dr Ford the artist. It is a hard won and incredible achievement that has taken about 2 and a half years and a pic’n'mix of art projects ranging from game shows to listening walks to shop window displays.
While I was behaving rather irresponsibly and giving up work to go off testing out the walk2012 route, Felix was sat in the dining room typing away on her thesis for weeks on end, carefully crafting each sentence and making sure she crammed it full of clever words like didatic, acousmatic, liminal, non-cochlear and quotidian and then asking me whether I understood the case she was arguing. No wonder it took the university a few months to find suitable examiners!
What a fantastic achievement, well done Felix xxx
Just catching up on progress here and this post arrives which has totally distracted me from all things Walk 2012. Fantastic news and many, many congratulations to the new and marvelous Dr Ford.
Expect life may be a little freer without Inspire and will be thinking what we can do here to support you.
C
There has to be ‘life around the Olympics’ without Inspire! You are proving it. And of course, huge congrats to Dr Ford
xxx (not that I am biased 
)
What a bummer about Sue – it’s tough to lose someone who’s been so supportive. But huge congrats to you on your girlfriend upgrade. It’s always good to have a doctor in the house.
I am really sorry to hear about Sue being laid off; she has been very supportive of the walk. I agree it will be great if she can join us on the walk, though, and I suspect Colleen may be right about the extra freedom.
With my new skillz I am now officially qualified to advise you on the imaginative possibilities suggested by your domestic soundscape, and to provide practical methodologies for making art about dust; washing up; tea-drinking; and the sonic magic of fried onions.