Pen Paradise

I set off for work hilariously early to beat the traffic and instead the traffic beat me. Over an hour of driving later I landed and dove into my work. The big thing at the moment is the amount of birthdays we have coming up for friends and colleagues so we're cooking up plans and gifts for them. Speaking of gifts, I've had my eye on a rather nice pen for a little while now and a saw our base was a stones throw away from a stationery shop. Low and behold, they had my pen, not even behind a cabinet so I could try it out and get a sense of it. Better still, they offered to sell it to me with a blue ink cartridge inside - I was prepared to drop some more money just so I could write in my signature colour. Just in time too, I had plenty of Birthday cards to sign...

On Turning 25

Deary me. I finished up my to do list before lunch time and nothing really emerged to stack on top. I'm not used to lulls in the action as it turns out, but the mind does start to wander when it's not occupied. I honestly think I spent more brain energy being the office DJ, a usually thankless task but when it helps everyone around me lock in then it's all worth it. 

A coworker is lamenting the fact they're turning 25 soon, pondering and getting stuck up on the fact 'they haven't accomplished much with their life'. That kind of thinking bits hard, especially at that age. I remember working at coffee #1 and telling my 30 something colleagues exactly the same thing when I was turning 25. Despondantly they remarked how they'd give anything to be that young again. Well now I'm empathizing pretty hard with that sentiment. Still, I hope we can knock them out of their funk.

Run Rebecca, Run

Rebecca and I went out on another run together, this time we smashed her personal best. First time we went out last month she was wheezing her way towards the finishing line (not a far cry from how I was doing the first time I got back into the swing of things), but today she took it all in her stride. Slowly but surely I'm convincing her that it's a fun hobby.

Our lazy Sunday's have also given way to a new part of our routine: a mid afternoon movie. Often these are mid 2000's chick flicks that Rebecca is enlightening me on and so far we haven't hit a stinker. It's just funny going back through my film history to see well regarded 60's French cinema, Silent era masterworks and cheese ball Rom Coms all lumped in together. 

Padel 2

Keep getting Saturday headaches. Probably a combination of catching up on sleep and not having caffeine in my system at the appointed time of pre-6am. I push through it every weekend though, I suppose by the time it goes away symbolizes how rested I am. It didn't effect my performance during some sports though. Mark and Lucy invited Rebecca and me to go play some Padel together. It had been a hot minute since I last had a stab but racquet sports do come back to me pretty quick. Padel is an odd one though because you need to unwire your brain a bit from classic tennis rules as there's always more options to keep the ball in play - the most common being smashing the ball against the wall for a bounce back. Literally every one of us that played got offer that opportunity in a game, ran over to strike the ball, then had a physical hiccup as our brain and our arms didn't communicate properly. That made it all the more fun though - we're all at a similar level so the match was dead close but always a hoot.

11 Years

Although today was meant to be a bit shorter for everyone, I still found myself running around trying to facilitate everyone. I got the Friday feeling though, around lunchtime I started to twinckle knowing that two whole days of rest were incoming. But that feeling was slightly stolen away as the post work requests came flooding in. 'Hey there, sorry it's after hours but...' is the prefix from hell, especially on a Friday. But I got away smooth and managed to enjoy a date night out with Rebecca to it's fullest. 

Not just any date night though! It was our 11th anniversary of getting together tonight so we hit the town, visiting a swanky wine and pasta place which was stunning. We're talking crab, clams and the silkiest panna cotta I've ever had. We crashed back down to earth by  sauntering into a kooky board game bar smack bang in the middle of Friday Night Clubbing Central. It was a little slice of us and a little quieter than most places so it was Ideal for us. The whole time we spent playing games I couldn't believe 11 years had passed me by - I'm so very lucky to have Rebecca in my life.

Plied with Pancakes

My colleagues noted my thousand yard stare on occasion today. I was running out in the rain a lot, juggling multiple requests on emails and WhatsApp which managing several expectations. It can be quite draining that but I didn't want to make a thing of it. Yet to make me feel better I was plied with pancakes from catering, which I would have enjoyed more if I wasn't constantly getting up to sort out more problems. That said, I wore my many hats well and showed a lot of people I wasn't just a Prod bod. Even the director made a remark as he saw me loading a camera truck.

A busy day requires some fun in the evening though. I nipped out for a quick run before Louis and Rachel popped round to try the new Mario Kart game. Louis likes the new cow character and shouting cow puns when he does something hype as it turns out. 

Tray 9

Attended another round of teeth shaving with my dentist. I asked him if it was as ropey for him as it was me and he just smiled while giving a tired look. Another set of my trays went in too, markings my 17th week with these things in my gob and I'm still not halfway yet. The results are starting to be a bit more pronounced though, just have to let that carry me for now.

My one hour at the dentist unexpectedly put me in the backdoor for the rest of my work day. I played catch-up til about 4pm, then coasted for a couple of minutes, then got hit with a bombshell that I had to untangle a bit too late in the day. I think it's all sorted but I certainly earned my money today. 

Cleared To Do

Something miraculous happened this afternoon. I cleared my to do list. Every single thing has a strike through it, not one job left to do for the day, even my daily duties were all done and dusted. While there's always something to be getting on with, I'm in a position to do those extra jobs in a more leisurely capacity which is a lovely prospect. This even came off the back of a chunky curveball I swiftly battered away when one of our hire vans broke down on the motorway. Everything was tidied up and sorted swiftly though without fuss. I felt so good after the day I went for a short run to, once again, try getting back into the swing of things. I gotta try keeping that up a bit more, I can feel my muscles being to atrophy behind my desk.

Lukewarm Monday

Back to it this Monday and the day went by slow. We're kinda over the big hurdle now, all our time, energy and stress has been poured into a single area and now that sequence is over we're just kinda laughing. I was in the office today and most of the day was just quietly spent tapping away on keyboards and emails, enjoying a lukewarm Monday to get us ready for the week. Even still I found myself as the first one unlocking the office and closing it up at the end of the day. I gotta learn to leave in good time really, there's so much more to life than work.

Power Washer

Prepped Sunday Scramble for Rebecca and her family. Her Mum and Dad are out in Spain for most of June, but before they went they offered to power wash our back garden. I couldn't possibly say no to that could I? It actually looks better than new out there now - the cat will barely recognize our garden!

I stayed at home while Rebecca went out to a gig in Bristol. Those few hours alone was all I needed to recharge my batteries before the next work week. I think we've broken through the hump of the block and gotten into a really firm swing of things. Just have to maintain energy and get through the marathon job and that starts with an earlyish night to catch up after yesterday's madness.

Happy Birthday Dan 2025

In between games of Mario Kart we got the house ready for Rebecca's visiting parents. We took the into Bristol town where I eventually splitered off from them so I could hang out with Dan plus a few other friends from my secondary school days. We did pizza, pints, shots of ameraetto, fun hypothetical questions and arcade games after dark. Rebecca and I queued to get into the sweatiest booth in Bristol to play some Guitar Hero together. I think Dan has a good day out in the city - he's the Birthday boy as of the stroke of midnight so I hope he had a good one!

 

Mario Kart World

Friday on the truck was a fun place to be. A bunch of the grown ups toddled off home just after lunch so we started raising hell. We admittedly got a bit overexcited by it all but we were laughing, working hard and laughing some more, a jolly good way to spend the day. Better still, Rebecca and I had a Friday night in. We opened a bottle of wine and settled in to drink and drive with the new Mario Kart - this time finish up all the levels, earmarking our favourites and learning to the best routes to destroy each other with later. It's been over a decade since the last Mario Kart so I think we're allowed some excitement.

Switch 2

While driving around town doing various drop offs for work I got the guy punch email. 'Your copy of Mario Kart isn't getting delivered... So sorry'. Potential day ruiner that, luckily I managed to hop into Argos and pick up a copy like usual - now I just needed to cross my fingers and my toes for my Switch 2 console to arrive.

No dramas there though - it landed super effectively with Rebecca at home. Now came the agonizing clock watching at work. I put my copy of Mario Kart on my desk as if it was a photo of my child - 'do it for them' style. That kept me going and before I knew it I was unwrapping the console and playing games with Rebecca all evening long. 

Nothing beats the excitement of a new console. Perhaps this one was a little downplayed because it's a little too similar to my old Switch. That and I'm 31 now, my emotions are much more in check. But I'd be lying if there wasn't a tiny part of my that felt like a little kid again opening up that box. 

T'was the Night Before Switchmas 2

Rocked up to a unit base I'm pretty sure was visable from space. With a huge number of cast and SA's in there was a lot to wrangle from all the departments, but everyone looked at ease. They had the right help, good team members and all the resources they needed to do their job well while keeping a sense of humour. That's frankly the best possible environment in our business and it was a pleasure to go into work today.

Tonight is also the evening before the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. I always get a little sentimental saying goodbye to and old console though, I remember what the original Switch represented, I recall where I was physically and emotionally when I got it and I can't help but smile thinking of all the good times it's resulted in. I went Interrailing with that thing, it's been a constant partner for family holidays and Su Beer competitions. To think that device will now be put in storage after tomorrow is actually madness. But that cycle is all part of the game. New tech comes in, rendering older consoles obsolete, but their impact is irreplaceable.

Copy+Paste

I don't think I did anything at work besides move information from one spreadsheet into another. I'm not even joking. Names for distro lists? Lemme copy+paste those off a Google sheet onto a dedicated emailing platform. PO'ing taxis? Lemme copy+paste from the invoice into a logging spreadsheet so I can copy+paste it all again into our PO software. Work like this is a bit fabricated at times, do humans need to justify their time doing busywork or are we just here to suffer? At least I get pennies for my pasting, then numbers in my bank account go up.  

Switch 2 Dispatched

Got to work just after the crack of dawn to set up our satellite wifi, (We're saving money by using me instead of a dedicated engineer to set it up). My boss invited me down to set to see it all setting up and getting ready for the big sequence we're doing. I had a small hand in organizing bits and bobs and it was nice to see them arrive and get put in situ. Otherwise I just kept to myself, put my head down and got in with my work. I'm actually getting ahead of the game once again, I have breathing room and I'm feeling good about the next few weeks. But it was a long old day for me, I've not fully got back into the swing of being back in Production during shoot days. I'm in the office tomorrow though so I should be able to recover a bit. 

The one thing that's keeping me going is the dispatch email I got saying the Switch 2 is on its way to my doorstep. Just a few more days to go... 

We can be Vampires

In the true spirit of enjoying my one day off and thus not wanting to see sunlight, I spent the majority of the day playing games and watching films about Vampires. Ok, I did actually do the North Street shuffle as it only felt right to do something productive with my day beyond being with creatures of the night. But if we really want to talk about bloodsucking, then we can go no further than Grease 2 - a cult classic to some or an absolute tire fire in my eyes. At least it was fun to watch something quite terrible with Rebecca, we had a hoot laughing AT the movie tonight, the ultimate brain off Sunday watch.