To the postbox, with a clip-on mic

Transcript

Hi, this is John-Paul, and this is Voice Notes to the World, and yesterday I finally got hold of a new Lavalier clip-on microphone, which should fix problems like having to walk up and down the street with the telephone under my jumper to keep the wind off it. Anyway, I experimented a little with both of the microphones. Here’s what happened.

Well, now I’m using the fluffy one, and it’s on my collar, and I am indoors, and I know it says the other one is more suitable for indoors, and this one is for outdoors, but I’ll be going outdoors in a minute, so I think I’m going to just wander around and make a quick recording indoors.

Leave the tea to brew in the pot. Just made that. There’s a nice mug. Walking upstairs now to get the letter that I’m going to send to Julia. Then I can take it to the postbox and practise recording from outside. I don’t know how that’s going to be. Let’s have a go and find out.

Well, actually, I talked to Nancy, my daughter, about making voice notes and using these little microphone things, because after all, she got hers a week before mine, and hers are pink, and mine are just black.

So she wins.

So she wins, and then I signed a letter, which I’m just about to put in the post, with a book, which I have personalised to the recipient, and even written three or four lines inside. So I’m quite excited about finding out how that is received.

Now I’m going to have to go and pop a stamp on it and take it to the, what is it called? Postbox. But first, I shall eat a handful of nuts.

Now I’m going to go out. Just locking up, obviously.

And now I can walk around the corner, and it’s still bright and sunny and quite warm, considering how cold it was yesterday, mid-October, late October. And the tree in the front yard of David and Veronica’s house is really, really bright, vibrant red. So there’s definitely a lot of autumn going on.

Red berries on the rowan tree. That’s the rowan tree that I stood under when I had a voice message from Andrew, which went into my Voice Notes to the World podcast recently. And I think Andrew said that the rowan tree is medicinal. I’m fairly sure he said that.

And now I’m on a road called Sunnyside. I keep holding the phone up to my mouth as if I need to do that, but actually I don’t need to do that, because the microphone is on my collar.

Coming up now to a much busier road, probably lots of traffic. And I can see the postbox.

So here is the letter in my hand. Got the right address. Got a large stamp for a large letter. I’m not sure this is a large letter, but I’ve got the large stamp for it anyway.

Realising that it doesn’t actually matter if you walk around.

Right, hang on. Here’s the letterbox. Listen to this. Can you hear this?

Well, there we are. It’s gone into the box. Probably couldn’t hear that.

But I’m just suddenly realising that, of course, everyone walks around now talking on their phones. So who knows what anyone’s up to? Are they just recording a real voice note? Or are they recording a podcast and so on?

Anyway, this has been a sensationally exciting episode of Voice Notes for the World, or to the World. I should remember which it is. Voice Notes for the World? Voice Notes to the World. Sounds better. I should change it if it’s not that.

But anyway, I’m John-Paul Flintoff, and thank you for listening.

jp at this domain name.