A lively start at the Rosa Center
This Monday morning coffee came from the Rosa Center in Playa Paraíso, and it started with a small disaster. Before I had even properly begun, I managed to spill an entire café bombón over the table, the chair next to me and the floor. The staff sorted everything out, brought me another one, and I finally settled down for the show.
I had also planned not to eat, but a hot focaccia filled with mortadella had other ideas. It was crunchy, cheesy and far too tempting to ignore.
Football, viewers and Monday morning chat
As usual, the live chat quickly became part of the programme. We talked about the weekend’s football, the long half-time entertainment, celebrations after the final and the usual mix of greetings, anniversaries and messages from viewers around the world.
There was also a short story from a bar in America where everything was apparently bigger — including the bar stools, the carpet and, after one wrong turn, the “toilet”.
Spotting Tenerife in In the Grey
One of the most interesting parts of the morning was talking about In the Grey, the action film with Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavill. Much of it was filmed in Tenerife, and several scenes were shot very close to where we live.
I recognised the area around Marazul, the rough ground and old buildings near the coast, and the small jetty used during one of the film’s extraction scenes. It is always strange and enjoyable to watch a big action film and suddenly realise that the dramatic location on screen is just down the road.
A new way of processing the programmes
I also explained the new Final Cut Pro and ChatGPT workflow I have been building. Final Cut now creates the captions, which can be exported as an iTT transcript. I can then combine that transcript with the YouTube link and the Final Cut XML file.
From those files, the project can prepare title ideas, a YouTube description, exact chapters, a Jetpack article, suggested clips and separate Final Cut timelines. It does not replace the final creative edit, but it removes a large amount of repetitive work.
Meeting viewers in Tenerife
We talked about future coffee mornings and walks, including possible plans for La Gran Manzana. Anyone who wants to meet up can choose between a walk and coffee or simply meeting for coffee, depending on the day and location.
Details and bookings are available at https://timothydowd.com/events
Housing, holiday rentals and Teide
Towards the end, the conversation turned to housing in Tenerife and attempts to limit the pressure caused by short-term holiday rentals. The aim is to make more homes available for long-term residents, although changes to the rules can also create unexpected problems when owners simply leave properties empty.
We finished with a brief chat about the recent rumblings around Teide. Nature cannot be controlled, but the islands have continued preparing and learning from the La Palma eruption.
More Tenerife videos, live shows and updates are available at https://timothydowd.com