The day I met Bosco's mammy for coffee

His red hair is now quite scraggy. The wool, glued on, was never going to last major wear and tear. He's missing one eye, the missing felt one a casualty of being thrown, dragged and hugged too much. I have no idea why he's wearing a yellow jumpsuit or where his original white and green striped shirt, jeans and boots are. He was my Bosco teddy and I've had him a long time. My sister had a matching one. We called them Biddy and Miley.

Fast forward some 24 years later and I'm sitting in Coffee Republic, hot chocolate in front of me waiting for the door to open and a lady I've wanted to meet for a long time to walk in. It started with twitter; I'd written a post about children's TV shows, someone had seen it and said the magic words "My mammy's Bosco" and now I'm waiting for Paula Lambert to join me for coffee.



Before I go further, for those not in the know, Bosco was an Irish children's television programme which ran during the late 1970s and 80s. Bosco, a small puppet of indeterminate gender (or so people thought) lived in a box, or his bosca, which was decorated with the number 5, because that's how old he was. You had to knock 5 times on the lid for Bosco.

Bosco's favourite colour was green (though Niamh says yellow), he was curious about everything. He was normally joined by two adults who would sing songs, read stories and make-and-do things with him. Songs included 'This is where I live', 'I'm painting', 'The Shadow song' and 'Poor old Michael Finnegan'. This was children's television back then - half two, just before Dempsey's Den - and we loved it.



There's a lot on the Irish web about Bosco. There are loads of unofficial Bosco Bebo pages, he pops up over on Boards.ie threads a lot and Donncha O'Caoimh's 2005 post on Bring back Bosco is up to over 80 comments. When researching the interview I felt I had to find out a few things. What gender is Bosco? Was he really kidnapped? Did Zig and Zag really throw him around? Where did he come from? Did the magic door really work? Come on, boys and girls of all ages, let's find out together!


Paula and Emily arrive. Coffee ordered, the first question I ask is the most obvious. "Yes," she says "I was in the box underneath for all of them". It was something I'd always wondered, once schoolyard conversations became old enough for someone to show their hand and say "What's this? Bosco naked!" - who was the person behind/underneath Bosco?

The history:

"Well Bosco was designed first as a doll, in the very early days. It relied on having the presenters work him which wasn't very practical so he became a puppet. I based the character on Emily, who was herself a red head, and quite bold and cheeky." Paula laughs while Emily goes a bit red, but seems used to it. "I think that's what Bosco is. Just an ordinary child. What gender is Bosco? I think of him as a boy but it's up to children what they decide themselves."


(Image from here)

Paula is from a - if not the - quintessential showbusiness family. Her father Eugene and mother Mai are behind the much loved Lambert Puppet Theatre and such TV shows as Wanderly Wagon and Murphy agus a Cairde.



"Dad was always making puppets" says Paula, "He started his ventriloquism act with Frankie, a predecessor to his famous Finnegan character. Him and mam moved to Dublin in 1950, when they were both 22. Mam entered him into a talent show, he won and that was the start of it." (There's a great interview with Eugene on Fústar's blog here)

"From there were the theatres, the musical halls, the tours and Jury's Cabaret. Dad was starring in the Olympia with people like Laurel and Hardy, Maureen Potter and Jimmy O' Dea. He then started with Telefís Éireann as it was at the time with Murphy agus a Cairde and then on to Wanderly Wagon. I played the squirrels on that show. I started with Bosco in 1980, and did around 360 programmes in all."

Why do Bosco?

"Well I suppose in those days I was just really grateful to have a job. The money was terrible but I've always loved children and found I could communicate well with them. A lot of people seem to use children's TV as a stepping stone, but it was where I wanted to be. I wanted to be a children's entertainer."

Bosco's voice?

"The voice just came very naturally to me. I could always do it, and really don't remember not doing it. I did have a lot of input into who Bosco was - he was 5 because my daughter was 5. I was given free rein really, allowed to do what I wanted."

The magic door:


The magic door was Bosco outside - sometimes in a playground (Oh Mr Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun, please shine down on me...) and other times to a creamery or to the zoo, where, for me anyhow, it was my first look at a lot of the animals. I didn't get to visit Dublin zoo for the first time until I was about ten.

"Ah, we were treated like royalty when we went to the zoo. My children would come with me. We'd be allowed to handle the animals, to go into their cages and everything. I remember being put in with the tigers - the keeper standing with a sweeping brush saying "Ah you'll be grand". Another time, I got a big fright with a snow leopard who leapt pawing at its glass wall when a woman in a leopardskin coat walked by."

"Most embarrassingly was the time I introduced a bird in the Aviary as a fukken cockaburra, the keeper, Mr Stone, having told me that's what it was called and me not copping on. That didn't go out on air, I can tell you."



The UCD kidnapping:

"Yes, Bosco was kidnapped from UCD. I was out there having finished a show and was loading the gear into the van afterwards. There's a lot of stuff in putting the shows together. I had just put the suitcase with Bosco down and it was whipped. They took the Bosco puppet and dumped the suitcase in the lake. That stuff was unfortunately ruined. I rang the police. The kidnappers brought Bosco on holidays to San Francisco, sent a photo to the Star newspaper.

It was big news at the time. We had reporters on the doorstep and Emily, only a young girl, dealing with them all. Because Bosco was gone, I was out of work, but there was rumours that I'd set the whole thing up! Coronation Street was running the Reg Holsworth gnome storyline at the same time and I think that might have been the inspiration. Anyway, they sent Bosco, fairly unharmed back to the Star offices.

Zig and Zag:

"Yes, I've heard the rumour and no, it's not true. Any professional puppeteer takes very good care of their puppets - after all, this is your livelihood. The guys behind Zig and Zag know this and would simply have more respect. So no, Zag was not throwing the Bosco puppet around."

Gift Grub and Dustin:

"Yes, that is Bosco with Bertie on Gift Grub. Quite simply Mario Rosenstock got in touch and asked me to do it. He also has appeared with Dustin - himself and the Turkey have a fraught but funny relationship, and they seem to like working together."

Growing up with Bosco:

"We were annihilated," says Emily. "We went to school in Cabinteely and my brother and me got it all the time. Don Conroy's son was in the same school and got hassle as well. I guess it just comes with the territory. Ronan used to be called Bosco. He dyed his hair black and they started calling him Sooty. There was no escape.

But we got to do loads of cool things, to hang around RTÉ, to see the shows being made and to meet loads of people. So the good far outweighed the bad."



Bosco's return:

"Well, he never really went away, you know." Paula admonishes me, "Just off the TV screens. Bosco had a record that beat U2 in the charts in 1983, you know. The first Bosco DVD came out around 3 years ago and has gone seven times platinum. We did an AIDS benefit cabaret in the Tivoli with Lily Savage and Phil Coulter, which was great fun. We did Electric Picnic in 2005 and the crowd reaction was amazing. All they wanted were to hear the old songs and phrases and sing along. Vodafone ran a Bring Bosco Back campaign a couple of years ago. He's been part of the seasons I did in the Gaiety and comes on tour. But it's more about entertaining children these days."

Paula runs The Paula Lambert Puppet Theatre, now widely recognised as the Premier Touring Puppet Theatre Company in Ireland. She presents a choice of four productions on tour: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty. Bosco travels with the show too, making the odd cameo appearance.

"Children now don't know that Bosco was on the telly, they don't know about the magic door or Seamus Spud or the plonksters or any of that. But they react to him almost exactly the same. We do shows in St Marks in Tallaght, a school with 400 junior infants. You'd imagine they'd be a tough audience but they love him."



"At one birthday party I put Bosco's legs and feet over the side of the box and one child shouted "Now mummy, I told you he was real!" At a school in Killiney where we were doing a show for GOAL, the principal made all the children sit and be quiet as they waited for Bosco to come back. "Don't let me down, children," she said to them when one little boy put up his hand and said "But miss, Bosco needs us to shout." Every reaction is magical and makes it worth it."

"I have a lot of puppets," says Paula, "but Bosco is my favourite. He's been with me now for almost 30 years. He is one of the family." "He even" Emily confides, "has his own little bed with covers and a hot water bottle."



"I suppose it's in the blood", says Paula when I ask her why she keeps doing it. "You can lose your inhibitions behind the puppets, no one can see you. I enjoy it. I consider myself very lucky to have a job that I love. So many people don't. I get to hear children laughing, singing and clapping. There's nothing glamorous about it, it's hard work. There's a lot of travelling, set-up and carrying gear, but that's part and parcel of what I do. I reckon Bosco goes to bed at night a very happy little boy altogether."

I wish there was a more apt word to describe her, but Paula herself is a lovely woman - genuinely warm, funny and easy to be around. Though shyer than I expected (hence no photos), her eyes positively glow when talking about Bosco, about the children's reactions and with the memories of the show and her experiences.

She seems a bit surprised by the reaction she still gets from adults - she'd been interviewed on i105-107 that morning, but takes it all in her stride. She's fiercely protective of Bosco - won't let a bad word be said, but has a great sense of humour that kept Niamh and me in stitches over the hour or so we had with them.

Emily is of course the person behind EmilyTully.com, a new Public Relations and online communications service for smaller budgets and start ups. You can find her blog here. There's also rumour that Bosco may be getting his own offical website soon...


A huge thanks to Paula and Emily for taking the time to indulge this big child. Of course I haven't met Bosco himself yet, but that's no reason not to leave you with this. It certainly brought back some memories for me.

"Time to go, goodbye, goodbye, put everything back in its box,
See you soon, goodbye goodbye,
And remember now, you're the tops!"

A review of the Late Late Toy Show 2008

*Meh*

That's about it really. Nothing majorly memorable, though I thought the choir from St Mary's School for Deaf Girls (website here) was interesting.

Nothing traditional or what you'd be alright seeing - no Billy Barry kids, no Zig and Zag, Podge and Rodge, Dustin or Soky, no June Rodgers or anything related to Irish acts or performances on over Christmas.

No focus on Irish toymakers or manufacturers. No memorable appearances from major celebrities or personalities apart from Top Gear presenters Jeremy, Richard and James. Nicky Byrne dropped in with the twins. Sarah Ferguson popped in for a minute or two basically to say she was in Eason's of O' Connell Street tomorrow at 12 noon. McFly put in a mediocre performance. There was a video plug from Ben Stiller and Chris Rock for Madagascar 2. Nothing worthwhile, nothing unique.

As David pointed out, only two Irish authors mentioned in the book reviews, they cut to ad break during Kilkenny's St Canice's Jazz band performance - who had arranged a special medley for the show and no doubt practised loads and Pat referred to the whole I don't want the tickets incident of last week so much that it became tedious.

As Suzy said, the camera work during the dance-fusion exercise by the Hood Rats was appalling. Some of the young presenters - Gabriella, the book reviewer, Robert the milkshake maker and Mark Boylan from Offaly were excellent, but overall it was stilted, over rehearsed and wooden.

More and more it's just one long advertisement with little personality, humour or soul. There were few aww moments, no opportunities for children to shine, no inspiring or emotional moments.

Fine, The Late Late Toy show, Irish tradition that it is, has never been brilliant, but surely to God it could be better? In fact, the only thing that made it any way interesting were the conversations on Twitter and the live blog, something Anton seems to have agreed with.

Is The Late Late Toy Show only on because it's a tradition, not that there's a need for it?

Did you see it? If so, what did you think? And if not, did you purposely not watch it?

Langerland: RTE2, September 8 at 11pm

I know what I'll be watching Monday 8 September...


LANGERLAND.TV from LANGERLAND on Vimeo.

Best of luck to Kevin and the guys who have been working hard on this new series.

From their Facebook page: (go on, become a fan!)

LANGERLAND.TV is a 10-part series of hilarious and highly irreverent satirical cartoons set to air on RTE 2 from September 8.

Following on from the huge viral success of their online cartoon “Top 10: What Have the Brits Ever Done For Us?”, this series asks the same question of the Church, the Dubs, the GAA, the IRA, the Yanks, the Gardaí, the Celtic Tiger, the Irish Language and even RTE!

Written by Aidan O'Donovan and Colm Tobin with animation and compositing by Kevin Nolan, Paul Madden and Eoin Whelehan, Langerland is a great example of friends working together on something they've enjoyed and becoming successful (deservedly so).

While I have my own favourites from their greatest hits, (I've been a fan for ages) I can't wait to see what they've come up with.

Also for anyone attending this year's Electric Picnic there will be preview screenings of the show all weekend at the Leviathan Tent.

Check out their website here. Watch a cartoon. Let them know what you think. Go on, look, The Chancer tells you to as well!

Our evening at Fáilte Towers

"Oh, I think I have one of your bum cloths"

Michelle Heaton

"I've worked 50 hours in the last two days"

Sean Ó Domhnaill

Every opportunity is interesting - some more than others. When I was invited to take part in an episode of RTÉ reality series Fáilte Towers produced by the fantastic Adare Productions, I was initially hesitant. At least for a couple of seconds. Would it be worthwhile, would it be fun, would I look foolish? Would this be a bad move?

The premise is simple - Irish personalities (TV people, weathergirls, singers etc) running a hotel and being voted off. The bloggers seemed intrigued by how good it would be.

But you only get one chance at things, so why not? So thanks to a very supportive boss and an equally up for the craic partner-in-crime, Niamh and I set out for Fáilte Towers yesterday.



The Hotel:

The show is filmed at Bellingham Castle in Co. Louth, north of Dublin. It's been a hotel since 1968 and speaking to the owner (of 42 years) last night at the bar, it's a place normally used for functions, weddings and the like.

Despite a ban on cameras (the flash affects live camera filming) I was careful enough with ours to grab a few shots.

The show doesn't really capture the size or scale of the hotel, confining the on-screen action to certain, necessary areas. It is however very suited to the style of show - the hotel needs work and updating. It's quaintly decorated in a simple style reminiscent of the original Fawlty Towers hotel.



with certain smile-inducing Irish touches



After being stopped by security at the gates for a bomb-in-the-car-boot-check (seriously!), we made our way up the drive to a dry-ice smoke filled reception, (you couldn't make this stuff up) where we were greeted by a enthusiastic Brian Dowling.

It's always funny to meet TV personalities in the flesh - he's exactly as he appears on screen, even when cameras aren't rolling. But more on him later.



People with cameras were everywhere and while we eventually became comfortable with them, they were never not noticable. Usually (despite the evidence this blog provides) I'm video camera shy, but this wasn't too bad.



Our room wasn't ready when we arrived. When I say "wasn't ready", I mean despite being given the key and directed upstairs, we walked into a mess. No clothes on the beds, crisp packets on the bathroom floor and a coke bottle discarded on the bedside table.

"Uh oh" was the initial impression, especially having watched the first show and seen the disasters that beset them. Down to reception I duly went and returned with a terribly apologetic Brian who assured us it would be sorted and brought us down to the resident's bar where the evening's guests already seemed to be entrenched, being looked after by the gentleman that is Don Baker.



A complementary beverage later - Niamh had a wine (in a brandy glass), I had a Guinness, that, though poured by a novice barman was a very welcome nerve soother - Brian returned to tell us the room was ready. Up we went to meet Jennifer Maguire who had raced very effectively through the preparations to give us what turned out to be quite a nice room...



... with the odd reminder that the hotel wasn't exactly manned by professionals.



We opted for the first sitting of dinner, mostly because we were starving. Brian, still feeling embarrassed and responsible for the room issue, came with us from the bar to seat us, ("I'll look after you both now") talking with a familiarity that put us both at ease.

Having seen the previous episode and reading some newspaper articles about Fáilte Towers, I for one was wary about the food. These people aren't professional chefs, they're not used to cooking and serving food in this way and there was always the danger that things would go wrong in the kitchen.

And with a menu boasting starters of carrot and coriander soup, Thai fish cakes and a Goats Cheese salad and main courses of Roast rack of Lamb with rosemary and garlic potatoes, Sirloin steak and Mussels there was a lot that could go wrong.



I needn't have worried. The food was fantastic - and even more impressively so when we heard that the production team had switched the menu an hour before.

In such an artificial situation it's almost natural, though cruel, to look for defects, for things to complain about, to see if they could be better. While I daren't openly accuse any fellow guests of doing that (despite some seeming to), I found it almost impossible to fault anything. I haven't had as good a meal in ages.

I'd chosen a sirloin (medium); Niamh went for the lamb. Both were delicious, with a great garlicky flavour to mine. Dessert too - brownie for Niamh, lemon tart for me were both very tasty. The food arrived well presented, hot and yummy.



Camera men went around getting reactions of the guests. There was quite a mix. Models, teachers, culchies and actors all chatting and waiting to see what, if anything, would happen. Having a hotel inspector there too caused a stir.

Brian, Jennifer, Michelle Heaton and former MEP Patricia McKenna were serving the tables. At one stage Patricia confided that there were substantial whispers that Bertie Ahern was due in that evening. "Possibly to make me serve him" she said with a smile. It didn't happen. That would just have been weird.



Post dinner we went back to the residents bar to await the start of the live show and eviction. The locals from the village came up bedecked (very much so) in their finery, the cameras were moving and the tension high.



For those of you who haven't been watching, the show documents the day to day activities in the hotel and has a live show where one of the "celebrities" is evicted. Each personality is supporting a charity and the proceeds of the calls that the public make for their favourite celeb goes to their chosen charity. Therefore, the longer they stay in, the more money they make.



Before the television show (which we got to see some of) there was good craic in the bar. The nudists of that night's show posed for photos (hence Michelle's bumcloth remark), and we got to meet fellow guests on the night as we chatted about our shared surprise that "it's so real, they're working so hard." I was convinced the lovely Emily (below) was a reporter, she that I was a spy or something.



We didn't get to meet all of the celebs taking part, though saw many of them. On my own list to meet were broadcaster John Creedon, weather person Evelyn Cusack, model Clare Tully and the McCauls, primarily because of the charities they were supporting but also with a morbid sense of "Are they really like that?" that I sometimes indulge in. Unfortunately they didn't seem to be in the 'public' part of the hotel so the people we got to meet were:



Brian Dowling

Brian is *that* guy - the overly camp and effervescent winner of 2001's Big Brother and subsequent successful shows in Ireland and the UK. He is great. As I said earlier, completely personable both on and off camera, he took a real interest and ownership of each guest, working hard to help where he could, responding to everything with a smile or an inappropriate but funny comment.

It would be rather difficult not to like him, exuberant as his personality is, and as the lovely Marian tweeted me this morning, he'd probably be great to go for a pint with.



Don Baker

Don, a "renowned singer-songwriter and harmonica and guitar virtuoso" is a gentleman. His sincere warmth and humour behind the bar remained unaffected by the somewhat ridiculous demands of some of the patrons. He was plain spoken, polite and affable.

I had a long and very funny chat with him this morning before checking out where he - in a very cheeky and sarcastic, but still friendly mode - quizzed me about my friendship with Niamh, about Limbo and about my motives. I strongly think that he'll do well out of this. He's extremely proud of the funds he's raised for his chosen charity and he seems a positive influence on the younger staff who both liked and respected him.



Michelle Heaton

Niamh knows a lot more about this ex Liberty-x singer than I do, so she wouldn't have been familiar to me. She seems like a confident and able young woman, managing busy dinner tables, pulling pints or dealing with car alarms at reception with great ease.

She is not as "up herself" as she seems to be portrayed, though I did note her checking the mirror the odd time to see if her make-up was okay. She's actually quite ordinary in a nice way and I doubt the show is doing her career prospects any harm. It would be nice to see her do well, now that she's moved to Ireland.



Baz Ashmawy

Again my lack of TV watching let me down here, as Niamh told me who this presenter of How Low Can You Go and Celebrity Bainisteoir was.

Baz, who is co-presenting the show is a very ordinary, friendly and good natured bloke who spoke to the guests as easily has he did the celebrities or the cameras. Niamh says he's exactly like he is on the telly, and if his party antics last night (till nigh on 5.30 am) are anything to go by, she could be right.



Jennifer Maguire

The image above is how I had pictured Jennifer - an ex Apprentice contestant - would be. A hard-nosed, direct and intolerant woman who wasn't going to let anyone stand in her way, and as such would neither be approachable or fun.

Imagine my relief so to find that Jennifer, though very professional and productive with a good eye for detail in everything she does is also a funny, sarcastic and witty woman who is enjoying the experience as much as she can, despite how different it seems to be for her. I'm glad I met her in person, as the side we see on the show and on the Apprentice doesn't do her actual persona and character any real justice.



Bibi Baskin

Ahh Bibi. I'll admit that I had a great wish to meet this woman, not only because I grew up watching her on TV but because once again I had this desire to see if she was really as she was portrayed in this recent interview. Personally I don't get what happened with the journalist because the Bibi I met was charming, engaging and friendly to the random young man who shyly approached to say hello.

We chatted about her hotel in India - she moved there because of an interest in Deepak Chopra and Ayurveda - and she gave me her email address and a warm invitation to come visit. Despite working all day and having to make a brave but brutal decision to evict one of the celebs, she was both accepting and happy to talk.

It's easy to see why the woman was a sex symbol (I really wanted to mention the famous "Where would you like to be buried question...", but didn't) and she still oozes charisma and style. I'm glad I took the opportunity - it was a treat of the evening. I could have done without her telling me the hotel dressing room was haunted though...



Donna and Joe McCaul

If there are two people in that hotel that deserve to win by sheer dint of hard work, effort, personality and enthusiasm, it's Joe and Donna McCaul. Legends is not the word. Both with duty manager roles last night, they were anywhere they needed to be, with a smile on their faces and a warm word for colleagues and guests alike.

Donna is strikingly beautiful - much more than she appears on screen in my opinion. She played a blinder in the restaurant last night, not only serving and clearing tables but checking at appropriate times if everyone was okay, making sure complaints were dealt with quietly to the satisfaction of the guest and the contestant.

Nothing was too much trouble and she was happy to talk, to invite us to join them at the bar and to enjoy ourselves. A memorable encounter, albeit all too brief. I didn't get a chance to ask for a photo as she was working too hard.

Joseph, above with Niamh, seems very different to his sister, though in the best possible way. He's a guy who knows how to get things done the right way. His skill was in speaking to people, to making them smile and in making them feel good without them realising what he was doing. He's a smooth guy with an undeniable charisma that should mean success no matter what he does.

Yes, he has a strong personality but what may not transfer is that in no way is he vindictive, malicious or disruptive. Everything he does is with concern for others and in their best interests. He looked after poor Clare Tully after her eviction like she was a close friend, rather than someone he met a week before. Joe would definitely be someone I'd buy a pint for.

it's easy to criticise, to point fingers and say "ahh saps" as a lot of people seem to have done to the McCauls, but in person they, as individuals as much as a duo are so natural, so warm and so inherently Irish that it's hard not to want to hug them. For some strange reason I was proud to see how well they managed everything.



The eviction:

I was sorry to see Clare Tully leave, not only because of the charity she supported but how much she'd fought to get someone on her side in an effort to make a real difference. More-so than anyone else perhaps, you have to admire the guts of the girl - her decision to model as a page 3 girl would have garnered enough criticism - who chose not to let the naysayers get her down, but instead to use the publicity she'd been receiving in an effort to do some good. it's very admirable and I hope it stands to her.

Her departure seemed to have hit the participants hard, as I'm sure it will every time. Here's a team of people all training, living, working hard and laughing together only to be faced with the truth that they're all against each other, no matter how worthy the cause is. As Don pointed out to us, it will get harder - the less people there are, the more jobs per person there are to do. It's not a task I envy them, given how hard they all worked already. They're exhausted.

Their camaraderie too was impressive. Sean Ó Domhnaill arrived to the bar late to give Michelle a hand, giving her snacks and chatting with her and the other guests about how difficult the few days have been. Niamh and I joined Joe and Michelle outside where they - like any other colleagues - chatted about the jobs, about the pressures and about their experiences with the other participants.

In such a bizarre and unique situation, it was somehow both amusing and reassuring to know that these people were all doing it for the charities, for the fun and they wanted to make the best possible go of it.

Equally the production team were amazing, particularly Lisa from Adare who worked tirelessly to make sure everything went well. In reality things could have been a hell of a lot worse. A lot of professionals worked hard to make sure that didn't happen.



As for me - well there's a reason I include the photo above. I took this at 5.45am, when the bar had finally quietened down (residents staying up all night, doing dares, naked races and other such stuff!) and quiet sleep was finally beckoning. Suddenly a car alarm shattered the silence. And did so a number of times. Not wanting to cause trouble but just to see what could be done, I had to go down to the now shattered but still working and cleaning Michelle to ask if something could be done.

What happened next? Despite an expectance that it may be on the TV, I think we escaped the camera's watchful glare. The experience was enough - meeting lovely people and getting to see a different side of things once again. All the episodes will be online here.

Details on voting and the charities that you can help by just sending a text message are all here.



Our thanks to everyone who made this a memorable experience. We're both dreading seeing if we end up on camera, but if we do, please be kind in your feedback!