[00:00:10.090] - Gordon
Hello.
[00:00:10.680] - Taylor
Hello.
[00:00:11.160] - Gordon
My name's Gordon from Drayson Design.
[00:00:12.930] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.
[00:00:15.310] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week with Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast where we talk about things that have affected our businesses, as self employed people over the last seven days. And welcome to our show. It's been a busy time since we last had a show up, which was last week on the Friday, although it's the Wednesday before that, that it was recorded because you were going away.
[00:00:42.690] - Taylor
I was indeed.
[00:00:43.680] - Gordon
You were going to Portugal, weren't you?
[00:00:45.820] - Taylor
I went to WordCamp. I went to WordCamp Europe in Porto. And yeah, so I'll get straight into it, which is my topic. I had a great time. I've never been before. It was my first time, and it was a great experience. Not only the fact that I got to experience the city and the culture and all, try all the food and things, but just being able to network and also just be in a room. Well, not one exact room. But there was 4500 people approximately at the entire event, including all volunteers and things like that. Which is quite a lot of people. Especially for an event like after Covid. And yeah, it was just great fun. There was lots of people that I got to speak to, including people that I've spoken to online but never actually met before. Got lots of great photos, lots of merch, like T-shirts and kind of goodies; stickers and all that stuff. And I also learned a lot. There was workshops, sessions, talks. Matthew Mullenweg, who's the creator of WordPress, was there and did a talk right at the end where they announced the new, next year's WordCamp, which is going to be in Athens, which should be good. And I'll hopefully be going to that. Yeah, it was great overall, really.
[00:02:08.920] - Gordon
So for those who don't know and didn't see last week's episode, go and watch last week's episode because that was very good. We had a special guest with us, Permaslug, Jonathan, who was a great guest. So thank you for joining us there, Jonathan. He's currently going around Europe, isn't he?
[00:02:30.090] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:02:30.090] - Gordon
His first time in Europe and he's going crazy. He's going to another country that will be his what, third country?
[00:02:36.050] - Taylor
I think he's in Italy.
[00:02:39.710] - Gordon
Fourth country, then. Wow. Okay. He's trying to get as many countries under his belt as he can in this short trip. So, yes, for those who didn't watch, WordCamp is all about WordPress, which is a platform that we both use for building our websites on. And it was a big convention. Do you want to give us an idea of sort of some of the talks that were happening and what maybe any, that you thought were stand out?
[00:03:11.570] - Taylor
I went to one that was about APIs, using WordPress as an API. And this was all about being able to use the rest API to create your own applications using authentication using the GraphQL, which again is using an API, and just different ways you can use it and ways that you can access the data from your website, because you can use different parameters to get different data that you want. There were talks on accessibility, design, new and upcoming things that have been released in WordPress Core, which is the main WordPress installation, and the hooks and filters that they've been adding and all of the react stuff in the Gutenberg editor. There's a lot of stuff that was on block based websites and building with FSE, which is Full Site Editing. It was really exciting to see the new stuff that was up and coming in the WordPress community and space.
[00:04:16.500] - Gordon
And the people you met. Have you got any sort of new contacts that you think you'll be keeping in touch with?
[00:04:22.580] - Taylor
Yeah, I made a couple of people that I found and met up with. There were some people that I've been friends with for the past two years or so that I've met in various communities, and being able to actually see them and just chat to them in real life was very cool. Especially since you kind of, at first sometimes you don't realize who that person was and then it's like, "oh, that's... Right, okay, yeah, that makes sense." Because yeah, you just kind of don't put a name to a face.
[00:04:53.450] - Gordon
Did you get recognized or did Jonathan get recognized?
[00:04:57.710] - Taylor
Not really, because it was such a big convention that, it was such a big conference that there were just so many people walking around all the time. I even struggled to find Jonathan at times and some of the other people that we were with just because it's so big.
[00:05:14.390] - Gordon
Was it in a conference centre then, or was it like a hotel?
[00:05:17.330] - Taylor
It was in the Super Bock Arena, which is like a big conference stadium type place and yeah, they have multiple different rooms and things like that. But yeah, because it was just so big that you would say "I'm here" and by the time that person gets there, you've moved and you're somewhere else. You would get the message ten minutes later and like, "Ok, I'll go there," and then they've moved. So that was the biggest thing. It's just trying to coordinate where everyone was and trying to meet up with them and stuff.
[00:05:48.490] - Gordon
Yeah, these things do sort of grow a bit, especially when you've got over 4000 people around. But it sounds like you had a really good time. Worth going? Going to go again?
[00:05:57.780] - Taylor
Yeah, I had a great time. I will do. I'll be going next year to Athens.
[00:06:00.790] - Gordon
So you're not going to go to the American WordCamps then?
[00:06:03.400] - Taylor
Well, the American WordCamps, especially the next one, which is in San Diego, there's only going to be there's only 600 tickets available, not including volunteers and stuff. Yeah, I think the one in St. Louis is probably the biggest one in America, but again, that's still only about 1000 people, whereas the Europe ones, because we were talking to some of the WordPress volunteers and the organizers, and they said that WordCamp Europe is always the biggest just because of how much space there is.
[00:06:35.670] - Gordon
And the number of people that want to come.
[00:06:37.950] - Taylor
Yeah, it's a very central place. It's very very easy to get to compared to some places like America and the UK aren't super easy to get into, especially if you're coming from a third world country. I had a couple of friends who have to do interviews, send off tonnes and tonnes of documents and paper just to get like visas to come to Europe, and obviously America's probably a similar situation. I know when I tried to go to America, I had to get an ESTA and all of that stuff.
[00:07:13.410] - Gordon
Well, you didn't. I did.
[00:07:15.000] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:07:15.720] - Gordon
I did it all for you. You didn't know about the ESTA. Luckily I knew, because I've done it before.
[00:07:22.110] - Taylor
Yeah, there's just so much that you can do and it was great.
[00:07:26.970] - Gordon
Well, I'm very pleased you had a good time, and talking of going away and ESTAs. We can just skip forward to tomorrow. Because if you are a regular viewer of this channel you'll know that back in February I was due to go to America to go to Las Vegas to help out on a stand for my friend Marc, who was exhibiting. And then we were going to go over to where he lives in Texas. And that didn't happen because I got to the airport with Taylor and we both had our Lamp tests just to check that we were clear of Covid and his was nice and clear and mine came back positive. Which was the first time I knew I had Covid. So he had three weeks in America, having a lovely time, and I had three weeks in the spare room. Hoping to have it all become negative so I can come out and join you. And that didn't happen, so we've moved it, and the next exhibition that Marc is doing is on next week and so I'm going out on Saturday, tomorrow, to Chicago, which is good, because I've never been to Chicago.
[00:08:40.540] - Taylor
I've been to the airport, but apparently that doesn't count.
[00:08:43.010] - Gordon
No, apparently not. No. So yes, I'm doing that tomorrow morning and fingers crossed, we should be all okay with the test this time. I actually took one today just to check and that came back negative. So, hopefully, to be fair, my lateral flow tests, when I got my negative Lamp test, was also negative, so that doesn't really help, does it? But, hopefully we'll be okay. So I shall probably be telling you about my trip to America next time we speak. I don't know if we're going to have a chance to do a "This Week With" while I'm away, we may try and do it because it'd be nice to have Marc on.
[00:09:34.210] - Taylor
Yep.
[00:09:34.210] - Gordon
If we can do a Zoom one, then that would be good. So watch this space. But if for the next couple of weeks there isn't an episode, well, now you know why. Anything else you want to say about your trip? Okay, so today I want to talk about generosity of people. I was contacted on my magic website through my web form from a lady who asked me if I would like to take her late husband's children's magic props and make use of them. And she lived not too far away, which is nice. That's always a bonus. So I replied back and said, "Whereabouts are you?" Found out she was local, so that was good, and then asked her what sort of things she had. Would it be possible to send me a picture? Because I wanted to see if it was because sometimes you get stuff that's really really valuable and you have to then sort of decide what is the best route for that. Because it could be that it might be specialist, it could be that very rare or it's antique. And that sort of thing definitely needs to be looked after in a very special way, possibly put to auction and money raised for the widow. And other times it's like a case of props that used to be used by her husband and have just sort of been in the attic. But as it turns out, she sent me a few photos and there were a couple of items there that were very interesting to me. Not a great deal of value, but to me they're really interesting. One is a magic prop that I already own. So by going to pick up this one, it meant that I end up with a backup prop, which is always a good thing to have because I use it quite a lot. Are you okay?
[00:11:43.340] - Taylor
Yeah, I've got a runny nose.
[00:11:44.860] - Gordon
Okay. Not a nosebleed then.
[00:11:46.620] - Taylor
No.
[00:11:47.400] - Gordon
Okay, good. So I've got it here. This is called, I won't tell you what's called, but it's all about this little bunny rabbit who lives in here. And the problem is he quite often disappears, you see, and you can never find him. And then when you look again, he's gone, and then, oh, he's gone to the other side. So you sort of go back and you have a look and go, yeah, there he is. And then he disappears again and you can't see him and he comes out somewhere else. It's a great trick. It's a lovely trick for children. It's one that I have had, probably one of the first big tricks that I had for my children's show. And I was able to tell the lady who kindly donated these to me how I got my first one. So when I was doing my paper round, I was about 13, 14 years of age, I decided I wanted to buy that prop. And at the time, it was £25. Now, this is going back 35 years or so it's, £25 is a lot more than it was then. I think I was earning about £3 a week on my paper round, so that's a lot of paper rounds that I needed to do to get that prop. Anyway, I saved it all up and there was a shop in London where you could go and purchase this. I had all my coins, because that's how I was paid, and I took them all up with me. I think there was some pound notes as well, because that was a thing at the time. And I went up to the shop and I said, "I'd like this prop, please. Here's my money." And they said, "oh, so sorry, we sold the last one we had in stock yesterday." "No! Months and months I've been waiting for this." And I wasn't able to buy it. So I went up a couple of weeks later and they had new stock and I managed to purchase it. And it was because of my paper round that I had this prop and it's one that I used all the time because I really enjoyed it. And it's the same one I have now, but it's not looking quite as nice as this. So the gentleman who owned this, Mr Locke, I believe his name is, I don't know him. I don't think I know him. I don't think I heard of him. He was a member of the Magic Circle, but he died about 20 years ago. So if I did know him, it's like 20 years ago, and I think he'd stopped going to the Magic Circle by then. So the chances are I didn't ever know him. But he used to perform for sort of family, and I think they were connected with some sort of gymnastic club and they did magic at the gymnastic club. So he did it as a sort of a semi-amateur basis, and this was one of the biggest props he had. And if he died 20 years ago, you can see this looks new and he used it. It's in a much better condition than my one. So I think what I'm going to end up doing is I'm going to start using that one, and the one that I've got already, I shall use as my backup. So that should anything happen to it, I've got a backup. See, the thing is, when you are a working professional, doing entertainment, any props that you rely on, it's always really good to have a backup of, because you don't know when that property is going to break or stop working, for whatever reason.
[00:15:19.350] - Gordon
Are we back? I don't know what happened there. I think we lost our video, so hopefully you're back with us. Apologies for that. Technical issue we'll have to look at, find out what the problem was there. I can't remember what I was talking about because it was a surprise. Oh, yes, talking about props. So quite often, it's always a good idea to have a backup prop because you never know when they're going to break or stop working. And sometimes that's not always possible because some props are custom made or they cost a huge amount of money. And having a backup just sitting, waiting is not necessarily a good use of cash flow, but for things like this, I don't know what it's worth, but it's probably worth about £70 ish, something like that, at the moment. So it's not a huge amount of money as a business expense, but to have a backup given to me is extremely nice and thank you so much to the lovely lady who contacted me to let me have it. There's a few other things in the box which is quite nice as well. Again, some backups of things I already have. There's a snake can in there as well, which is really nice. It's one of the old fashioned ones and she's kept all, or he's kept all of the instructions as well. So you've got all these very old instructions that came with the props, which are probably worth more than the props now, I would guess, because of the age of them. But, yeah, it's lovely when someone thinks about it. She didn't want to throw it away because she realizes that this sort of thing is something that... Apologies, someone's ringing me now, it's all going wrong today. So, yeah, she realized that it's the sort of thing that you don't want to just throw away because it can be of use to someone. And these props are now going to get the chance to entertain more children in the future, which is just what she wanted in the end. So, if you have anything that you think, "oh, we don't need that anymore," then see if you can find someone that can make use of it. It might be that you have an old computer and it's not worth selling, but there may be somebody who's in need of a computer or in need of that particular model. Yes, you can sell it, but for things that don't have a big value, it's nice to give them away to someone who needs them, as long as they're not going to then go and sell them and make a profit out of your generosity, which I'm definitely not going to do. I'm going to look after these and I'm going to use them. So that's the lesson I learned this week and I ended up with some new props for my show, which is lovely.
[00:18:13.630] - Taylor
Wonderful.
[00:18:15.070] - Gordon
So that's everything from me. Have you got anything you want to add?
[00:18:19.280] - Taylor
No, not for me.
[00:18:20.680] - Gordon
Okay, so thank you very much for joining us. As always, please like, share and subscribe this video. Hit the notification bell as well so that you'll get notified when we put a new video out.
[00:18:32.770] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all of our past episodes and anything else we may have spoken about.
[00:18:39.510] - Gordon
I forgot to say, we can be found on YouTube and on Facebook. That's what you were waiting for.
[00:18:44.370] - Taylor
Yes.
[00:18:44.640] - Gordon
Sorry about that. This break in transmission has confused me somewhat. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next, possibly, next week. If not, the week after. If not that definitely the week after that. So we may have one, we may have two weeks break, but we will be back the following week, definitely. So until then, my name's Gordon and I'm from Drayson Design.
[00:19:09.330] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.
[00:19:12.130] - Gordon
Goodbye.
[00:19:12.750] - Taylor
Bye.
