It was with some trepidation that I put my name down to host #SBSWinnersHour – but yesterday finally arrived and I got myself into gear. My computer sadly didn't. I had spent over an hour with a marvellous Apple geek at the Exeter Apple Store just over a week ago and he messed around with various settings on my MacBook and said that even though it is now 7 years old, it should still work perfectly. He deleted bits and pieces and was very sweetly explaining everything as he went along. Quite honestly I would rather he had taken it away to a back room and said come back in a while so I could have gone and had a cup of tea, or glass of wine at Carluccio's, but had to sit and look really really interested and ask computer savvy questions and try not to glaze over or wander off to check out the new iPhones. He was amazing though and my 15 minute slot turned into an hour and a half. Once home, it worked slightly better, only just, but now it still takes about 20 minutes to send an email and if I have to attach anything I can write off the rest of the afternoon.
Help! How was I going to manage Twitter? So I managed to wrestle Mr ATK's lap top off him (sadly not a Mac) install Tweetdeck, get everything into order with my 'columns'. I have never had an hour rush past so quickly. No sooner had 8.30 arived and there were already some people in the waiting room. A cup of tea at my side – no glass of wine for me so as to keep all my wits about me – slippers on and off we went! Jolly glad it doesn't happen on a FaceTime/Skype type medium. I loved it, just kept getting a little panicky when I could see I was looking at Tweets from 5, 6, 7 minutes earler. It really is a fascinating hour, so many people to say hello to, people I already know on Twitter and some I don't. Angela @PearlySmith got a very well deserved thankyou from Mr Paphitis at the SBS Event in January for starting the Winners Hour up on Twitter. If any of you guys don't take part, it is so well worth it and a fun way to get to know all the other members of this great community. My mobile was chirruping away well into the evening once we had closed shop for the night.
I am definitely up for hosting again – plus my laptop is booked back into the Apple Store later this week – so see you all on #SBSWinnersHour again soon!
