I spent yesterday evening watching the Olympics opening ceremony and, at the same time, sorting out my blog-related emails. Today, I have to settle down to getting everything ready and packed to leave for Romania tomorrow.
I’m not a great sports fan, neither as participant nor spectator, but the Olympics has done something – something good – to Britain. I originally set up this blog to moan about how I found my country on returning after more than ten years absence. Yesterday I went into my nearest city, Bradford, 8 miles away; so depressing – the people in the street look depressed, the main shopping street full of empty shops – and I thought of writing a post about it, the sort of post I envisaged when first I created this blog more than four years ago.
Of course it’s not the fault of the people of Bradford, but that of the politicians – both local and national – who have allowed it to happen. The vast metropolitan authority needs breaking up to allow the local communities to have the local decision-making democracy which David Cameron seemed to promise but now clearly has no intention of delivering.
Part of Bradford’s main shopping street; there are least four dismal, empty, abandoned shops in this picture and many, many more within a few paces
But I also went to Leeds, only 3 miles further; vibrant, colourful, the people in the street look contented, elegant, happy – and I wondered if my initial depression on return to the UK eight years ago was just that I returned to my home city – Bradford.
Seeing the enthusiasm of the crowds, including the blind and multiple disabled tenants of the charity for which I work, turning out to cheer on the Olympic torch carriers over the past couple of weeks, it is difficult to remember that Britain has serious problems. Britons need a jolt to jerk them out of the stoic acceptance of bad times, and it seems to me that the Olympics could well provide that from what I have seen so far.
The dedication, perseverance yet wonderful modesty of Olympians like Jessica Ennis and Bradley Wiggins give us all something to aspire to. So, despite my aversion to sporting activity (though I do love to walk), I have high hopes that the 2012 Olympics will provide the jolt to spark a renewal in Britain.
Sorting gmail
As for sorting my emails, Google’s claim that you never need to delete anything and don’t need folders with gmail was beginning to look shaky as, despite labelling, I was increasingly unable to find anything among 563 blog-related emails since I began posting a little over a month ago. An internet search quickly showed how to create folders, so now everything related to likes, follows and comments on my own blog – 216 emails – is in one folder; everything related to other blogs – 347 emails – is now in another folder.
July 29, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Thank you. I’m sure I shall. Let’s hope I get the inspiration – for writing, for photos, or both. However, I might find time for a ‘picture Haiku’ before I leave this evening; I just ‘saw’ a picture and heard the outline of a haiku. Yet to have a look at the photo to see if it worked in the way I thought. If it does then I’ll be posting before I leave.
July 29, 2012 at 10:34 am
I hope you have a wonderful trip!
July 29, 2012 at 7:53 am
First off – thank you so much for the large font! I find a lot of blogs hard to read (and I’m not THAT old!)
.
I hope you do well in the Olympics (it’s a good spirit and national pride raiser) – so forgive me for barracking for the Aussies 🙂
I have the same problem with gmail and am looking for something to ‘automatically’ sort my mail as it comes in like outlook does. I’m sitting at 2,000 unread and couldn’t be bothered going through them all (most of them are just people trying to sell me things)
🙂
July 29, 2012 at 9:31 am
Hello Dianne. Thanks for the ‘like’ and the comment. I believe that what I have done with my gmail will also automatically put things in folders, using ‘filter’, but I chose not to do it as I like to see new things in the ‘inbox’ first then put them into the appropriate folder. Basically, you make a ‘label’ with the name of the folder you want, apply the label to all the appropriate messages, then ‘tick’ them all (little box on the left) then click the ‘archive’ button (top left). All the ticked messages then go into the folder.
See: http://www.ehow.com/how_4517602_folders-gmail.html
It took me a while to move all my 500+ ‘blog’ emails into the folders but now I just read the emails as they come in, apply the appropriate label then ‘archive’ them into that folder. Very quick.
However, I think (but am not sure) that once I’ve applied a label to a particular username, then all messages from that user are maybe labelled automatically.
As I said, I didn’t do it but from what I understood from the more complicated process shown at:
this will put things into folders as they come in.
July 29, 2012 at 9:46 am
Oh, thank you for that! I’m illiterate when it comes to anything IT tech – but I’m working on improving my skills!
🙂