Rollercoaster ride

The last couple of days have been a real rollercoaster ride. It all started last Tuesday, when I received a message saying that the footage that was shot the Thursday before, would go online on Wednesday and there would be an article in Dagblad van het Noorden, the regional newspaper, about the Wonderfoons that I am building for people suffering from dementia.

To make it completely clear: I did not invent the Wonderfoon. I am building them, based on the instructions that can be found on the website wonderfoon.eu. A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to build one for a local nursing home, where my mother works as a volunteer. I knew I would be able to build it, but I didn't have an old rotary dial phone that is the base of the Wonderfoon. I asked around on Facebook and this was then picked up by the media. Here are the links:

- the article in Dagblad van het Noorden, that appeared on Wednesday. In this link, you can also find the film where you can see me explaining about the Wonderfoon. The real star, however, is lovely Mrs. Bulthuis, singing along with the tunes on the Wonderfoon.
- An update they did on Thursday. By then, I had received lots of emails with people offering me their T65 rotary dial telephones but also nursing homes asking me to build a Wonderfoon for them. I contacted a friend and he will help me building many more Wonderfoons. Thanks, John!
- On Thursday, I was also called by local radio station RTV Noord. I did a live interview with them and they also wrote an article on their website.

Even as I am typing this late on Saturday night, an email is coming in asking me to build a Wonderfoon. On Thursday, I was also called by a national radio station to do an item with them, but because my mailbox was already overflowing at that time, I decided not to do that. On Friday, RTV Noord contacted me again, wanting me to come to the studio and show the Wonderfoon on local TV. Unfortunately, it was short notice and I couldn't make it, but maybe that will be done at a later time.

There are still over 30 emails to answer and some phone calls to return. I tried staying on top with answering the emails,  but it took me until very late the last couple of nights and today I'm going to get to bed a lot earlier. Oh, I did manage to complete two more Wonderfoons today. 11 more T65 phones are waiting to be converted and there are quite a few underway as well. Fun, but exhausting...