Well Rested High

Every single bit of volumetric compression I did on my mental state to prepare me for going into work while feeling a bitnsick came quickly unraveled when someone told me I looked like death warmed up. For the morning at least, that was an accurate description of me. Gradually I felt better and better though, by the days' end I was just tired. Funny how I chase sleep now more than I chase films or video games, that 'well rested high' is no joke.

Non-Covid Sick Day

 I actually can't remember the last time I had a non-Covid sick day off work. I mostly just sat on the sofa feeling sorry for myself but that seemed to work well. Feeling better than I did over the weekend that's for sure, mostly in thank to Rebecca's wonderful bedside manner. I'll be trying to go into work tomorrow - fingers crossed I feel even better in the morning.

Circa 2000

 I remember once around the year 2000 Dad and I got up early one Winter morning to go drive out to Reading and queue up for cheap DVD players. We left empty handed however because after standing in the cold for hours Dad started to feel unwell. Shortly after he came down with the flu. My sole enduring memory of this (aside from the characteristic bargin hunt queueing session) was the image of my Dad swaddled up on the sofa feeling very sorry for himself. I probably didn't help the situation as all I wanted to do at that age was rewatch Toy Story 2 in the living room on repeat, but Dad was too groggy to voice his opinion.

Well it's all come full circle now because today I was my Dad circa Winter 2000 - swaddled on the sofa and feeling very, very ropey. I almost certainly have some kind of flu. My head, eyes and chest ache constantly and leaving the embrace of my sofa blanket brings on the shivers. I've had Covid twice, and this is worse than both times combined. 

I got A Fever

Had high hopes for a nice nights sleep after suffering so badly the night before. But no, it was a total repeat and my rest was broken up into 1 hour chunks. I also started hacking up phlegm and started shivering in the middle of the day. I think this may we'll be a fever of some kind. Mostly I wish Rebecca was around, the cat is showing some nice bedside manner but Rebecca's is always top tier.

Please let me sleep normally tonight.

Another GPU

Endured an appalling night's sleep and awoke feeling more tired than when I started. I had enough fuel in my tank to got and buy our director some wellington boots and to Frankenstein together a table for our Art Department. All the while I patiently awaited my new graphics card to arrive in the post. I was chuffed to bits when it arrived, once I was home I spent the whole night tinkering with it and came to the conclusion that I will probably return it. I spent an eye watering amount of cash on it and the improvements I'm getting for it just aren't worth my while. It's great games that I yearn for I realized, and it doesn't matter how pretty they look, a great game will always make itself known to me.

Rebecca sent me a link to a BBC news article announcing that Sylvia Syms has passed away. It was remarkable because just moments earlier I was thinking what it was like to work with her on the set of Together many moons ago now. Between scenes we chatted only on occasion but she took a small shine to me, she still had that twinkle in her eye when it came to acting even so late into her career. I was very lucky to spend even a smidgen of time with talent from the golden era of movies.

Manhunt

 I couldn't put my finger on why, but I felt wretched all day. I managed to put on a brave face at work but when I was out of sight I just wanted to put my head in my hands because of a stonking headache. Once I was home I suddenly felt worse and went into a primal 'Must consume Lemsip' phase. Teeth chattering I climbed into bed, flicked on the heated blanket and sat down in a nice dark room. Then the police raided our street. Sirens blaring and people shouting, a full in manhunt kicked off right at my doorstep. I just wanted a bit of kip, but even that wasn't meant to be...

Cranachan

Made eye contact with our Scottish First AD as I carried in 18 mini goblets of cranachan. They knew. From that point on I was getting showered with comments about how impressed people were with my level of commitment to batch making the office pudding. Ironically I don't think that many actually got eaten but folks were left with their eyebrows stationed far above their resting place.

 

Rebecca has begun her staggered journey to Berlin this weekend so I'm home along until Sunday evening. It's just me and the cat now, and bless her, she's been very confused about Rebecca's absence. The cat has been wanting attention all day but I had to crack on and write up a few more if Louis' vegetables this evening. We got a small deadline to hit now so I'm burning a bit of the midnight oil to get it all done. Though I had a horrible moment where I realized I had deleted a bunch of the dialogue I'd inputted for him so I had to re type it all up. THEN I thought I had flat out lost one of my notebooks which contained my work. I had productive hopes for this evening but I spent most of it needlessly fretting.

(Almost) Burns Night 2023

Hit a good level of busyness by mid afternoon. Some developments at work means that I'll be doing a few more bits and bobs now which is cool. We were humming towards the end of play though, shame because I had to dash out for an early Burns Night! Rebecca will be jetting off to Berlin tomorrow so Louis and Rachel hosted their annual haggis fest a day early for her. We filled our cups with some of my 60% whiskey and breathed fire for the rest of the night. I also whipped up three pints of cranachan, portioning large dollops for us tonight and the rest for my colleagues tomorrow for the real Burns Night. Hope they like it.

False Starts

Lotta false starts this Monday. Every delivery I was waiting on had to postpone and every job I started had invisible shifting goalposts. Even when Rebecca and I tried to play video games with each other, we kept getting hard crashes that forced us to stop in the middle of the fun. Overall a quietly frustrating day, no doubt everything will be neatly cleared off my to do list, but I could have ticked off so much more if it weren't for factors beyond my control.

The Curse of Sunday Night

Ah, how subtly the Sunday blues manifest. You wake up feeling invincible, you have a whole day to seize and it's only just begun! Breakfast and coffee, lunch and a walk to town, dinner and an evening activity. All daily milestones that chip away at the weekend morale, the day slipping through your fingers until before you know it, you're back in bed. Remembering how hopeful you were at sunrise. It's not that I'm even rolling my eyes at the thought of another week of work, Sunday evenings are a near-death experience. "If only I had done this instead to make the most of my time off". We only really receive that clarity once that part of ourselves is about to slip away. Time to make a new promise to ourselves, one we start with the best of intentions but inexplicably lose interest in. That's the curse of Sunday Night.

Jaws The Board Game

Made another whistle stop trip to Newbury to pick up Rebecca's now fully fixed car. It's been sat in my parents driveway since Christmas Eve, in a way it had a longer holiday than most of us. 

Mark and Lucy knocked on our door for an evening of fun - we hadn't seen each other since September so we had plenty of catching up to do. First thing Mark spotted was a big bowl of cocoa powder and suger I was rubbing together, 'I know what that's for' we whipsered with glee. It was for my chocolate self-saucing pudding which is a great gooey dessert, providing just enough ballast for feature length game of 'Jaws'... The board game. If you were judging a book by its cover the game looks like a low-effort cash grab, but that couldn't be further from the truth as we were all glued to our seats and chomping our nails down to the quick. On player plays as Jaws (in this case Mark) and the rest of us were the film's heros trying to close down beaches and minimize civilian casualties. Then wee moved in for the kill on the great white chomper on a tug boat that was slowly being reduced to splinters. It was a real epic, me, Rebecca and Lucy got Mark down to a single blob of HP before he cinched a victory by eating our boat. I'm determined to win next time now and sending that damn shark to a watery grave!

Story Guru

Food was once again my forte, getting lunches for the director and producer is an important gig and thankfully they're genuinely lovely people who appreciate my efforts. When I was out and about I was reading and comparing the latest version of the scripts. We are nearing endgame with our first bundle of episodes and watching them take shape is always interesting - just tiny tweeks now but every change has ripple effect. I just enjoy seeing those unfold and trying to remain as the story guru.

Debs Day

Our PM rubbed his hands with glee a d announced today as a 'Debs Day'. Debs being the unusually excellent greasy spoon cafe a half mile away, he was buying and I was driving to collect. While my passenger seat was still warm with bacon baps I was given a lunch order for some other members of our team. So I dashed out to Pret, retuning with a veritable garden of salads. Back at my desk, I was about to do some work when our Director and DOP come back from a recce, chance would have it they missed lunch. Back to Pret I go! 

It sounds like I'm complaining but at least I get to listen to some new albums while driving. I'm working my way through some REM plus all the music I have on my phone that I never got round to listening to.

Pret Will Never Die

Turns out my other specialty at work is making a rod for my back. On top of being the chap who makes the big tea round in the office, I've started offering going to Pret to collect lunches for people at work. This wouldn't be a problem by itself, but the closest chain is a 20 minute drive away... It was only meant to be a treat offering but I suspect it's opened a can of worms for me. 

Im mostly quietly cracking on with jobs that no one has assigned to me, but I suspect will be useful to the cause further on down the line. A brainstorm for wrap gifts never hurts and I'm hacking through a fair bit of our sustainability paperwork. Don't want to ever look like a teacher's pet, but I've got the time while everyone else is starting to feel the boil now.

Hidden Cake

My specialty in production has always been in Birthday prep. So many times I've collated celebratory bits and sung the special song to colleagues, it never stops feeling nice though. Best part about being in a small office with an even smaller team is coordinating the card to be signed and the birthday cake for set up. Ducking into empty rooms to avoid the Birthday girl is par for the course, but we've all got it down to a fine art, the anticipation of a caper well conceived is worth savouring. All the secrecy is worth it seeing the surprise on the recipients' face and the humble realization of all the hidden work we put in behind the scenes become transparent in their eyes. We did good today.

Blue Monday

Only well after the Sun set did Rebecca tell me it was Blue Monday. I could see that. The year is in full swing and my day was more subdued than usual. We're stood at that awkward point where there's plenty to do still but we're too early to start feeling the crunch. I'm just enjoying the quieter spell before it all kicks off. I get to go home to Rebecca and my cat, play games in the evening and watch a bit of telly. It's a good life, but there's a storm coming - that's Blue Monday for sure.

Hunting Boars

Pulled up our anchor and set sail away from London to head back home. A lounging session was long overdue for Rebecca and me, especially after such an intensive week. As soon as I put my foot through the door I hopped onto my PC and started hunting boars in a virtual medieval forest, I lost myself in the rustling leaves and the thrill of the hunt. I feel totally ready for whatever Monday can throw at me now... Though one more day of respite would never hurt.

Bisto Boat

 Didn't expect to start the day code-cracking with Mum. One of my favorite games of last year pulls a last minute carrot dangle over the player and asks you to decipher its in-game alphabet. Mum proved to be surprisingly knowledgeable in Korean characters which we then managed to reverse engineer into our understanding of what clues we had so far. I had a great epithany moment a few hours later once the penny properly dropped and now I'm decoding like a champ.

I had to put my notebook away latterly though as Rebecca's family friends came to visit. This is an annual tradition now which to me, signifies the true end of the Christmas period. It's a late social engagement and the final time I wish people a happy New year, we make merry with card games and catching up. A few years ago I was touted as the 'gravy king's by Rebecca's parents, but when it came to making the meaty sauce I totally messed it up. This year was the redemption and I mixed up a glorious boat of Bisto. I can sleep easy knowing I dispelled that demon.

Panda Eyes

 Laid out pastries for the final time - the last day of recces is over. I was tasked with one favour for the day: help out with the coffee run while out in location. The task was a bit of a nonstarter as while driving up to meet my guys I ran into multiple road closures. Once I finally turned up our locations department were all over the hot drinks ordering, I ended up just walking a few cups across a carpark before driving back to base. Never mind eh, it's all gone well and people are generally chuffed. I'm just tired now. Panda eyes tired.

Pret Wand

 Waved my little Pret a Manger magic wand over the Recces again and got the everyone's order sorted to the letter. Mind you, I did have to drive across what could charitably be called floodplains on my way to drop the food off. I even saw a literal manifestation of the maxim 'Nice Weather for Ducks' as I spotted 3 snow white ducks parading underneath an overflowing drainpipe. 

I met up with Louis tonight too to discuss next steps with his game. It was the kind of chat I'd been dreaming of having years ago, but Covid and work always got in the way. Deadlines are looming now so I'll be burning some midnight oil to get everything ready for him.

Gliding

 Got into work early to prepare a breakfast spread of pastries, fruit and coffee. It was all warmly received and spirits were high as our HOD's clambered aboard their minibus for a wet day of recces. I helped corale the lunch orders and nailed that too. It was almost so well planned that no worthy anecdote arrived from it. Guess that's how scissors feel when they glide through wrapping paper.

Back at the ranch there was jobs to be done. With a whole tub of double cream 24 hours away from expiration I was forced to make chocolate mousse with it. Once the bowls had been licked clean I was off to help Rebecca with her desk build. It didn't go especially well. I snapped a dowel and morale depleted fast once screws didn't line up. I'd say the definitive low point was when I started bleeding on the Allen key after a classic pinch attack from a clamping bit of wood. 

See? Fun anecdotes only happen when things go a little wrong. That's life I guess.

Here Come the Recces

Earned my keep today, especially considering I only sat at my desk for a little over an hour. Mostly I was driving. Up to Kemble and back in the nasty rain then a plethora of small runs as we prepare for wave one of recces. Production always likes to make a little song and dance over recces, for me that typically means food arrangements. I'll be getting in very early tomorrow to set up a small breakfast table. Been a while since I set my alarm before 6am, better get used to it as 2023 is going to involve a lot of early starts for me.

Desk Destiny

The best part of my working day was expended on building desks. For reasons too long to detail here, the furniture company did not provide the screws and parts that combines the legs to the desktop. With some quick thinking we managed to rig up two desks, but it took the better part of three hours to accomplish this.

Back at home I did what I like to do best after a long day of desk building... Build a desk! We swapped out Rebecca's old one with a newbie from IKEA, haven't finished it yet but she's ever so excited for a new workspace. The only thing I want to look at now with 4 legs is my bed.

Bin Rush

 Last time I was at Ikea was during Covid, face masks and distancing mean low footfalls and breathing room. Not saying I missed those times, but by golly, I forgot how busy that place can get. Bristling past the crowds we left with a new desk for Rebecca, a new recycling bin and a spew of frames to display our art pieces. This year is the year I finally commit to putting some things on the walls in this house!

A friend rescheduled a dinner invite at ours to a small pub get-together instead. There was still nachos, beers and boardgames so the time was very jovial. Best thing was we finished hanging out while the evening was still young. Rebecca and I squeezed every drop of our Sunday before having to head back into the Monday fray.

Cost of Chicken Crisis

We somehow coasted through this week off cheese and crackers for sustenance. Panic gripped us when the last if the Christmas leftovers were eaten so we were forced to go do a mammoth weekly shop that hit our bank accounts harder than we would like. It's remarkable how expensive stuff has become all of a sudden, even the cheapo stuff elicits and 'oof' from me when I drop it into my basket. We just have to learn to enjoy what we eat all the more I suppose. I did chicken picatta for dinner tonight, a recipe I only learnt a year ago but it's slowly becoming a staple weekend dish now. I just had to close my eyes and try to not think too hard about how much the ingredients cost.

Aftersun

Hosted the early Friday morning meeting with all our heads of department, that means only one thing for me: coffee! Our producer also brought in a selection of pastries that needed cutting up, so I was plating up croissant, pouring hot drinks to order and cleaning tables - just like my cafe days. Glad I remembered all the steps though, everyone was in high spirits once I was done and dusted. 

It's only the 6th day of the year, but I already think I've seen the best film ill see in 2023. Aftersun is an understated triumph that perfectly captures the feeling of going to an all inclusive holiday resort in Turkey in the 90's. Joking aside, this is a film about memory and how we reflect on the people we used to love. Home video removes some of the mental haze, only to replace it with static and longing for the people immoralized on tape. It's such a visually rich film that's seamlessly paired with focused themeing, it ends up telling its story with tone which means that every viewer will take away something personal and intimate. Easy recommend for just about anyone.

Undeserving Tech Guru

Earned the moniker of 'tech guru' this afternoon. My secret is I just Google the problem and hope someone else knows the answers - it worked for our 1st AD and our Line Producer though as I managed to help them get to the bottom of their computer problems. I'm just worried they'll start wheeling me in whenever something goes wrong and I won't be able to help because some hyper specific issue lays unresolved on a dusty internet forum. Til then, I'll politely revel in my newfound feather to my cap.

Twelfth night is upon us so the tree was stripped bare. Anything Chrismassy suddenly looks tacky and foreign, much better off back in a cardboard box stashed in the furthest corner of our cupboard. It's always a glum affair, but the living room always looks so much bigger once the tree's gone, guess that's a plus.

Poster Child

Did a few coffee rounds for my team and continued to get parts of our studio ready. We're slowly shifting our focus to Albert stuff (the environmentally savvy protocols we do in order to qualify for BAFTAs). Most of my mental bandwidth was spent on concocting posters telling people about the virtues of printing less paper and recycling responsibly. I joked I could have a career doing graphics for BBC Bitesize but I'll just keep moonlighting my artistic skillset.

Post Christmas Blues

The grand return to the office. Compared holiday stories with my co-workers over coffee for the first 30 minutes, then reality sunk in pretty quickly. Christmas is over. No more nice food, family time or seasonal music. We're out in the cold, miserable real world now and it's a far cry from the peace on Earth the homily promised. That epithany struck a cord with me but it was silently gripping the minds of my team too as we all remembered we had almost 10 months of hard work ahead of us. Not complaining of course, it'll be a mammoth job, but they all come one day at a time.

Reset the Gaff

Stepped into the New Year with a unkept house. Thank the Lord we have a Bank Holiday to sort that. We reset our gaff after a long stint away, plus I put on all my accumulated laundry from over the holidays (which was an embarrassing quantity.) Once that was all done Rebecca and I finally settled into the chilled out day we'd been clambering for. Movie, games and jigsaw puzzles all while nibbling away at our Christmas chocolate. It's rough that we're back to work tomorrow but I had a truly wonderful holiday which I'll keenly be telling all my co workers about tomorrow.

New Year Connections

You reach a new stage in a friend's relationship when you all wake up on New Year's Day to share breakfast together. Rebecca and I woke up in London with our uni friends to guzzle down some scrambled egg - fuel for our first walk of the year. We went out in hunt of coffee but all the local shops were closed up. A single place in town was open and the queue was massive, but we were in no rush so we took in the January air.

We bid our chums farewell, they bid us a painless journey home, sadly their warm wishes didn't come to fruition. We almost missed our train out of London due to a late connection so we ended up sprinting across town. Still panting, we took our seat on our train only for the conductor to announce the train had been cancelled; everyone off. In hindsight it only added a little over an hour onto our journey, which meant we get to claim back a full refund on the trip! Feeling less swindled by GWR we greeted a hungry cat and a fridge full of nothing but scraps. Hobbling together what we could Rebecca and I had a piecemeal dinner and enjoyed spending some time at home to decompress after the long Christmas week.

I forgot to mention I did my annual write up for the best video games I played last year - you can check that article out here!

Happy New Year 2022

Shoved all my dirty laundry into a bag and hopped onto a train. Rebecca and I took the London bound train to spend New Year's with some old chums of ours. We arrived just after 4pm, I blinked and somehow it's now 2am! A lovely chicken dinner and tiramisu was provided plus a near endless supply of wine, prosecco and martinis. After watching Sam Ryder wish us all a Happy New Year it looked like it was time for bed. 

Looking back on last year I'm grateful for a good deal of things. Firstly was a better work/life balance. I got back into Malory Towers, plus Gangsta Granny and my new project. In between I made room for hosting Youth for Europe, redecorating our dining room and writing several more lines for Louis' vegetables. I also climbed Arthur's Seat, clinging for dear life as the wind nearly buffeted me from the highest point. It was also the year of our Cat Edi, who arrived in March to make our house a home. Lots of little moments made up 2022, but I'm looking forward to next year all the more.