Train Time Traveler

Rebecca's Dad's Birthday gift was go on a steam train out in Shepton Mallet, today he cashed in his token and took the lot of us out for a day trip. Rode a steam train twice today technically since he liked it so much he wanted to go again. I spent the day enjoying the quiet scenery and wildlife around the train tracks, picking the occasional blackberry and piggybacking Rebecca over puddles. The day trip took me back to a time when no-one was in a rush, the vintage train station was like a time capsule to a simpler time and I relished in its pace of life.

Take Your Mind for a Walk

Perched at my dining room table to peck away at some little ideas running around in my head. I took a little look back at my graduate film too on a whim, I always recall it being something I was ashamed of for one reason or another, but you know what, I'm pretty damn proud of it now. It was nice just to open up my mind and let my imagination wander again, truthfully I think I need to try being bored once in a while to unlock some creative powers. So often I reach out for my phone or the internet in an effort to always engage with something, in reality its far more valuable to take the time off if you're bored and just see where your brain takes you.

First Man

Finished up the last of my niggling writing projects today and applied for all the jobs that caught my eye over the past week. Feels a little weird having a clean slate, think I may need to have  big old brainstorming and development session tomorrow, I'm feeling especially motivated after reading Robert Mckee's Story.

Though I heard luke-warm reviews for First Man I decided to check it out with Rebecca this evening Frankly, I think opinions on this film are very unkind because I thought it was absolutely fabulous. So many space films take the fist-pumping approach where they celebrate the leaps of mankind, but this was a measured character study of the often reserved Neil Armstrong. Domestic scenes were sometime just as intense as the turbulent space expeditions. Intimate scenes of Armstrong's home-life highlighted the sacrifices several astronauts had to face during the space-race and Ryan Gosling's guarded performance elegantly captured a man who consistently hid his emotions. Breathtaking and thrilling, First Man is a considerate voyage that captured my attention and my imagination.

Early Morning Hustle

Another busy old day brimming with work, writing and job applying. Got up bright and early at 4:45 to eat a truly dreadful breakfast I made myself: overnight oats with an accidentally copious amount of honey. Though I couldn't bring myself to eat it I somehow had enough pep to get me through the day. Finishing work I responded to some emails, and applied for a Cardiff-based production role which looked kinda fun. Afterwards I settled into watching a news presentation from the folks who made one of my favourite games: Shovel Knight. I then reported that news, pecking away at the keyboard while burning the midnight oil. Chuffed I had another big day, might put the brakes on slightly tomorrow since it's equally important to to burn myself out.

Return of the Obra Dinn

Relaxed all of yesterday, put my nose to the grindstone all of today. Applied for two jobs today, the first was a simple running job nearby and the other was a job I applied for around this time last year. It was a sizzle reel editor position, I made it to interview stage, had a lovely chat with them all but I was apparently 2nd best. Now my chance has come around again and in a small bid to showcase my developed editing skills I put out my latest video review for Return of the Obra Dinn.

This is probably one of the tightest and flowing videos I've made yet. With the new intro graphics, timed montage sequences and a fluid pace I'm immensely pleased with it. It feels like a culmination of all my skills and with any luck, it'll help me re-land an interview for a promising job. 

Boozing in Tooting

Awoke with most of Rebecca's body weight piled on top of me, which generally speaking I'm alright with but it was stonkingly hot first thing this morning and all her temperature heated me up to an uncomfortable level. Shaking her off I started drafting a mini piece for Sick Critic I agreed to do last night, I finished brainstorming over breakfast and sent it off mid morning - that was my only bit of work I'd be doing this Bank Holiday. For the rest of it, we met up with some uni friends so we could enjoy the weather with an impromptu picnic on Tooting Common. Got a bit drunk early on but some pork pies and a Lidl pretzel sobered me right up. My 24 hour stint in London ended the same way it started: on a Mega Bus, pretty easy journey though and now both Rebecca and I are back home, eagerly awaiting the week to come. Got my next video coming out tomorrow and I've got my eye on a very hopeful job application - Great start to the week. 

Travel Boredom < Home Boredom

Dull, dull dull. That was my day. Suffered through perhaps the slowest work day ever, we were literally inventing jobs to jeep ourselves busy. I was secretly hoping I'd be sent home early, and I was but only by 20 minutes - longest 9 hours of my life. Once I got home I quickly packed and did some more video editing before I was back in another coach to London. I wrestled with sleep the whole way there and finished my book in the first quarter hour of the journey. By the time I made it to Rebecca's parent's house I was shattered but only because I'd been bored out if my skull. Funnily enough I made a mini vow to myself to strive to be bored more often, but travel boredom is different to home boredom, you just get antsy on a coach and especially when someone is sat next to you, you feel very judged when you do anything. Just wanted the journey to end, but it was worth the wait since I was treated to a beer and a scotch as soon as I arrived with Rebecca's folks.

Tourists in Cardiff

Had a free Saturday so Rebecca and I arranged to meet up with Simon, the German chap who organised most of this years Youth for Europe. He said he'd never been to Cardiff, I said 'me neither' so we hopped in the train to Wales for the day. Leaving the train we noticed a few people with rainbow flags and flamboyant costumes, seconds later we noticed that we walked straight into a Cardiff's Pride March completely by accident! We enjoyed the parade for a bit then thought we'd treat Simon to his first Weatherspoons experience for lunch. Full on cheap burgers (and cheaper beer) we headed to south Cardiff to check out the Millennium Square and the Bay which were photo worthy in Simon's book. Spent a little while just enjoying the sights before it was time to head back home. Retrospectively we Googled 'best things to do in Cardiff' and we ticked off all the headliners so I think we did a good job seeing the sights. Simon seemed pleased too and it was lovely to see him again while he was hanging around in England.

The Editing Wall

I've got my eye on a new job opportunity that popped up for a video editing role. Funnily enough, its the same role I got an interview for around this time last year so I reckon I've actually got a really good shot at it. Just to bolster out my editing portfolio I'm putting together another video for my YouTube channel which will have a lot of editing flair. Slaved over it for most of the day actually, I hit the editing wall earlier than I expected this time around, I very quickly started doubting myself and the quality of the product, I pushed on though and now I've got it in a pretty good place. Still needs a bit of love but I've got 85% of it sorted. With any luck, it'll give me the edge to bag another interview.

Table Football Hijinks

Swung by Wildseed to crack on with a bit of work. I'm in the midst of writing a features article for Sick Critic and got my first draft done just after lunch. Played a bit of table football with Mark before leaving too which was a lot of fun, he's got a trendy office pastime there. I showed off my article to Rebecca and she gave some legit good criticism, I'm in the process of rewriting the body of it now because you know that saying: Writing is Rewriting.

Took a whirl uptown to check out Tarantino's latest movie Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood which was a good old time. I'm still having a bit of trouble formulating my thoughs on it because I was just so sucked into the world and characters, though it was a long movie it held my attention. Might have some extended thoughts on it tomorrow after I've slept on it a bit.

Mental Drainpipes

Felt rushed off my feet with work today, dealing with the new tills and repeatedly explaining how the new loyalty card scheme work to disgruntled customers was mentally draining. Still, this evening I got to play some games with the boys online, been a little while since I'd played with Dan in particular but they were all on very good form tonight.

I'm going to sleep well tonight, I can already feel my spirit mingling with the duvet. Need to rest up because I've got a lot of work I wanna crack on with while I'm hot desking at Wildseed tomorrow.

Sipping Single Origin

Had the day off today so I met up with Rebecca on her lunchbreak, now that she's got a new job we can meet up in the trendy part of town. We enjoyed a coffee in a cosy cafe on Wapping Wharf and mooched around some design shops, thumbing through all the gift ideas for upcoming Birthdays.

When I wasn't sipping single origin coffee today I wash rolling up my sleeves and washing Rebecca's car. She parked it out on the street so I had to dodge a bit of traffic as I swabbed the east side of her whip, it kept me on my toes though and after 45 minutes her car was clean as a whistle. Back at home I cracked on with some ongoing writing projects. It feels like I have quite a few spinning plates in that department so I went to tidy up my backlog, starting with the Braunfels Youth for Europe write up which I finished sometime this evening. Just waiting for a few photos to come through from friends and I'll put it up here.

A Very Firm Handshake

My first customer at 7:30 this morning wasn't a customer at all, it was our area manager coming to do a surprise audit of the cafe. Here I was dreaming of a quiet Monday morning. They were fine in reality, poked around a bit and asked me some mandatory questions they already know I know the answer to, feels routine now. They left pretty happy though and left me in peace. About an hour later a rather quiet chap came up and ordered a flat white in a fairly stiff manner, I didn't think too much of it until he returned with his coffee a few moments later, extended his hand and officially introduced himself as the CEO of the company. Luckily he only had praises to say for me and the cafe, I like to think our sleepy shop in particular is how he envisioned his business when he first got the idea to open a coffee shop.



Committed to a spot of quick fire gaming news for Sick Critic once I got home. Nintendo held a mini press conference to announce a few indie games coming out soon in the midst of a major gaming news week. I nominated myself to do a write up on the presentation, I even jotted down the title and release date of all 29 games mentioned. Submitted it to my editor and since this was a time-sensitive piece he published it immediately - felt like I was in a news room.

Ceasar BBQ

Despite the glaring commission of anchovies, my Ceasar salad went down a treat at Rebecca's parent's BBQ. Just about dodged the rain and successfully put out a massive spread for the Birthday meal that impressed the guests. Rebecca and I spent a long time battling the wind as we tried to carry out the cake and candles, had to go back and relight them a few times before we started singing. Rebecca's Mum has had a fairly tough year so far but she was absolutely delighted that I made the effort to come down, it was no skin off my nose and it meant I got a free BBQ lunch - everyone's a winner!

What Thievery is This?

So apparently there was a break-in at work last night. Never seen a real life forensics team in action but they took our case rather seriously. After a few hours of swabbingb and the like the main chap excitedly came up to me and with a wry smile he told me about his theory about the burglars movements. Apparently there's been a serial thief on the loose who's using the same MO for every place they rob and forensics were chuffed to find a fingerprint on our window in pristine condition. I haven't even got to the good bit. The the if didn't take any cash or product, he took the orange juicer. He didn't get all of it! Some pieces clearly fell out so he left our place with an incomplete, bulky and heavy juicer. Hopebhe had a big old trench coat because that completes my mental picture.

So that was the excitement at work, I hopped on the familiar MegaBus journey to London this evening for Rebecca's Mum's Birthday BBQ tomorrow. I've been asked to prep a salad for the occasion and shot over a shopping list for my refined Ceasar Salad. The anchovies were poo-pooed however which is a pity because I reckon they add a punch to every mouthful. Looking forward to prepping a tasty salad regardless, I'm even more excited to get off this damn MegaBus. His did I never notice how dreadful the seats were previously?

A Little Rain

Took Jamie out this rainy day around the center of Bristol to see some sights and to check out some bookshops. For lunch we treated ourselves to some Wapping Wharf street food, Jamie had a hankering for pizza and Pizzarova was grinning at us as we walked by. Of course, we had to follow up an Italian lunch with some coffee and Little Victories was happy to fill our mugs with the black stuff. We spoke this morning about wanting to try a Chemex brewed coffee and this place to our delight offered just that and lemme tell you, it was a damn fine cup of coffee. Kinda want a Chemex brewer now but I have no idea where I'd stash it at home since we are swimming in coffee paraphernalia. So despite the rain, our souls were enriched by some good food and a good walk around town. Jamie left shortly after dinner, I walked him to his car as we talked about what a great few days it's been.

After I waved him off I put on Tom Waits' 'A Little Rain', then I put down my umbrella and let the rain soak me through. 

Mendip Mayhem

Took a little drive out into the Mendips after Jamie found a little hiking route we could both do around Bleadon. Had a bit of a mare finding the right parking spot (our route started exactly where this invisible car park was meant to be) we ended up ponking our car on the side of the road but that turned out to be exactly where we needed to be. We walked up and around hills, into fields and around cow-pats and to top it all off was a nice packed lunch, we basically had the quintessential Famous Five day out.

Tuckered out from walking we met up with Mark and Lucy in the evening to play board games and eat fish & chips. We chatted long into the night as the conversation slowly transitioned into reminiscing about the Bournemouth days. It dawned on me that we were the original 'Frederica Four' so we spoke a lot about my surprise 20th Birthday and the evenings spent with Jenny and her housemates. Made me glad we've all stayed such close friends after all these years, they are the best link to my past as it turns out and they help cast my mind back to times I almost forgot. 

North Street Jam

Hit the town today with Jamie who's down visiting us in Bristol. We took a spin up North Street, popping into an independent bookshop and coffee chop to buy graphic novels and artisan coffee beans respectively. We fought the rain all the way along the high street and when it finally subsided so did our legs, the sofa beckoned and video games were produced and the evening just flew by. We got a hike planned for the day tomorrow, Jamie's driving us to the Mendips to got climb some hills, should be a good old time.

Dead Links

Met up with Louis after work and headed to another house viewing with Rebecca in tow. House was a little too nice for us, ideal if we had a small child but couldn't quite see us living there. I invited Louis back to our place afterwards for dinner, Rachel is out of town for the month so I figured some social interaction would do him good. 

Submitted another news article for Sick Critic, this time I has a story where the dust was still settling after someone broke an NDA agreement and posted an unannounced game trailer before it was meant to go live. I did a bit of digging and found somewhere where you could still watch said trailer (lawyers were swiftly scrubbing it from the internet but I found somewhere nonetheless), but in the time between me writing it and my editor proof reading it, that video also got taken down. As a result it was a bit of a non story after the fact, I managed to describe what basically happens in the video within my article but I still feel a bit silly, should've had a bit of fore-sight and considered the video might get removed.

Snakes and Lattes

A few nights back I made haluski for dinner, it's quickly become a dinner time favourite of ours but seeing as we had all the ingredients leftover for another round, Rebecca asked me to make it again tonight. This time though, I souped it up a little bit with some spinach and a dollop of wholegrain mustard and neither of us could quite believe how good the dish turned out. Eating it reminded us both of our time inter-railing and enjoying various Eastern European meals, we yearn for those care-free days in Ljubljana, at least through haluski we can keep those memories alive.  

In my free time I'm scrambling to piece together a small marketing campaign for Coffee #1's community board game night. Just about written the first draft for a Facebook post I'll send out to various local groups and I've nearly made a cute poster for the event. I can confirm we finally settled on a fun name for the evening: 'Snakes and Lattes'. I'm ashamed to admit, it wasn't my idea, I saw a similar name online and my manager loved it so that#s what we're running with... I mean I wanted to call it the 'Brew-haha' but no-one got it.

Sunday 2.0

As I was opeing the cafe early this morning I wondered how busy we'd be today with the weather in flux. At 8:30 it was silent, I enjoyed the dulcet sound if the radio and the gentle him of the display fridge. At 8:31 the queue began, and it didn't end for nearly 90 minutes. Luckily our team totally smashed the day but we were borderline hysterical by the end of it. Returning home, Rebecca and I enjoyed what we called 'Sunday 2.0' since it was a redux of the Sunday evening I was meant to have the night I burnt my hand. Rebecca cooked risotto and we watched a film together, namely the new Ted Bundy drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile which was just OK. The director made a 4 part documentary series on Bundy's crimes as a companion piece and that is clearly the superior piece of media. Stick with that if you want an introspective look into that story, unless you love Zac Efron.

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

Crowds of people we're ushered into our cafe on account of the bad weather, we hit terminal velocity around 10:30 today and spent the rest of the shift clearing up after the storm. Battered and weary, I returned home to go out with Rebecca to Squeezed to sample their infamous veggie burger. In reality it was more like a pickle and mushroom sandwich with shedloads of sauce, but I was surprisingly OK with that. We dabbled into a 7 day free trial of Skt Movies afterwards to check out Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, probably one of the most visually impressive animated films I'd seen in yonks. Good themeing and characters meant that it was a cut above other superhero films too, I'm personally not the biggest Spiderman fan but I his appeal suddenly clicked while I was watching this movie. Its the idea that anyone can be a hero, however unlikely and that concept resonated throughout every scene offering the perfect emotional anchor to the well worn superhero genre.

Write Up the Tidy Up

Took to my desk this morning to write up a handful of projects. First was yet another news article for Sick Critic, second was a jib application and last was my write up for the Braunfela Youth for Europe meeting. The latter of which is still a work in progress but I turned in the other two with a big old feeling of self satisfaction. In the midst of all that I tidied up our flat a little, pulled out all the kitchen appliances to wipe underneather them and gave the living room some loving. Our little flat scrubs up pretty well and turns into a real nice place to chill it work, also it put a smile on Rebecca's face when she came home from work so all the hard work was instantly worth it.

Indoor Meat Feast

Balloon festival is happening here in Bristol so that means only one thing: rain. The evening accent was called off, as was Mark's BBQ, instead he invited us all round to his house for a indoor meat feast with the help of a George Forman grill. Mark did a great job despite the weather and we all got a chance to dabble into his board game collection for a few matches of King Domino. Rebecca and I teamed up and dominated the playing field while enjoying the Tarzan soundtrack as sung by the magnificent Phil Collins. Always nice to hang out with Mark, Lucy and Jenny - they're all good eggs.

All I Need is Rest

'All I need is rest' were the words dancing on my lips as I sat in bed, enjoying my first proper lie-in for nearly three weeks. With my sleep dept paid in full I strived to make the most of my day off by writing another news article for Sick Critic and by settling back into a good game. I'm currently playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which is perhaps the most famous game I'd never played until today, be it a book, album, film or game, it always feels good to finally check out something with pedigree.

The blisters on my hand are healing very neatly too, got a bulbous one on my pinky but aside from that I'm all good now. Can go to work tomorrow without fear of harming myself.

Dennis' Funeral

Tripped down to Newbury with Louis to attend a funeral for my Great Uncle Dennis. I figure there are two types of funerals, the kind where you get hugs and the kind where you give hugs and this one fell into the second category as I found myself comforting several of my younger relatives after the service. Most of the people there were impressed that we made the effort to come down for the day, it didn't even cross my mind that I had a choice in the matter - guess it's a good mindset to have. However brief the time we had in Newbury this afternoon, it was nice to spend it with my family. Funerals always hammer home the notion that life is precious and I've recently been relishing any opportunity to spend time with those closest to me.

Perfect Pickles?

Treated each of my fingers like mini-roundabouts as a result of my burns. Going to work turned out to perhaps not be the smartest move, though I eventually mastered a 1.5 handed technique that got me through the day.

Yesterday I stumbled across some baby cucumbers in a nearby market, I couldn't believe my luck since I've been wanting to make my own gherkins for months now and the opportunity finally presented itself. Went whole hog on the prep front for them, got some dill, mustard seeds, garlic, turmeric and chili peppers to throw into the mix to ensure maximum flavour. Googled the whole process and it turned out to be a lotta fun, end result looked fairly professional too:

These bad boys will be ready in a month or so - can't wait to see how they turn out.

First Time in A&E

My day ended in a rather peculiar place: Bristol A&E. Managed to burn my hand pretty badly after gripping onto a burning hot frying pan handle housing Rebecca's fritatta. Ran it under a tap, called 111 and they suggested I head down to get my handed checked on. I'm in the waiting room now, already feeling miles better but just want to get it all checked properly before heading home. Had some of the offending fritatta while waiting too, I'm a little ashamed to admit that it's delicious.

Mundane Times

Suffered through a painfully average day at work. One of my colleges also came back from a long holiday stint today so we were equally disenchanted with the prospect of working again after so much time away doing incredible things. Still, there's always a debt to be paid and the good times only have their power thanks to the mundane times.

Had a bit of time in the morning to rise later and watch some Louis Theroux with Rebecca. In the evening too we blitzed through the final two episodes of Fleabag, nodding our heads in synchronization and feeling satisfied with the watch. Gotta find something new to get our teeth into now.

Back from Braunfels

I'm back from Germany! Youth for Europe in Braunfels is officially all finished now and what a week it's been. Adventure courses, cultural visits and oodles of great food were the name of the game and frankly I can't believe its already all over. We had the travel day from hell this afternoon and I've literally never been happier to walk through my front door.

As always, I'll be doing a big write up of the event in the coming days, but for the meantime my blogging holiday is over and daily updates will return.