Peeking Beyond

I gave myseta handful of things I'd like to do before I got back to work in the new year, finishing a game I started back in early September was at the top of the list. There was only a handful of final bosses to get through so I dedicated some time this morning to white knuckle my way through the them and tick it off my list. It would have taken me longer but Rebecca accidentally made an insanely strong cup of coffee - caffeine normally doesn't effect me... until it does. With fully dilated pupils I peeked beyond the realm of mortals, the controller and I became one as I went medieval on the final boss. My poor heart was beating so fast and I only really calmed down when I was having a glass of water at a friend's house for board games. I'd already won at life today so I didn't mind losing to Mark and Lucy at 7 Wonders. 

Best part of today though is knowing I have nothing to do tomorrow. I'm a free agent which lots of loosely goosey plans. Might even watch daytime television and live like a king. 

Wrapping up Christmas Carol

As is tradition, Rebecca and I sat at the wrapping station and prepped all the gifts for this year. Every year I'm the sellotape chap, but it was only this time round that I cottoned onto a really quick and easy way to do it all. It's so good that I'll no doubt forget next time round. As is also tradition, we watched a new version of a Christmas Carol, this time was Albert Finney's Scrooge which I had high hopes for. I'm always keen to see how different eras and people adapt the story and I read online this is the only film where the characters literally go visit Hell... Perhaps a liberty too far there. It's also a musical which was the hardest aspect to tolerate. It's a long standing joke in my family that Willy Wonka's 'Cheer Up Charlie' is one of the worst songs to hit the silver screen, and Scrooge had half a dozen songs as poor as that. Likely won't make it into our regular rotation but glad to have seen it.

Merry Crew

A little hungover and under slept described most of our crew today, myself included. But the work today was light and the attitude was one of 'dah, it can wait til the new year!' The most important thing I did today was hand out custom chocolate bars to everyone, no one was expecting a little Christmas gift so they were bowled over with glee when they saw the freebies they were getting. In the office we enjoyed a lighter day too, plenty of time to exchange secret santas. Turns out I knew my person so well that I got them a cookbook they already know and love very well... So I had to return it and get another one on the way. After the fun of the day was all over all the adrenaline left my blood, I sat on the sofa at home and could barely bring myself to move. 

The holidays are here for me finally, this will be the longest break I've had since last Christmas. I'm going to start it off by catching up on a lot of sleep and decompressing thoroughly.

Xmas Party 2025

Attended the work Christmas Party

 Drank a fair bit

Volunteered to do karaoke 

Did a 6.5/10 job but with a lot of heart

Became a legend in the eyes of the crew. 

Xmas Dinner from a Truck

Had my first Christmas dinner of the season at work. It's a real wonder what a few people can whip up in a truck and a tent in a car park for 200 people, in total fairness they absolutely nailed it. Three meats, Yorkshire puds, red cabbage, sprouts, carrots, potatoes, cranberry sauce, black forest gateau, yule logs... And deviled eggs filled with tuna. It was a triumph. That truly was the highlight of the day, otherwise it was same old, same old. We're crossing the finish line slowly now but getting through the schedule at record pace. We have our Christmas party tomorrow too so there's added incentive to get done and get gone.

Radio Derig

Faced with a big box full of 50 radios from our second unit, my big job today was derigging them and making sure we got it all back before returning them to our hire house. I had visions of that taking up my whole day, at least eating into a good chunk of it. But we've broken the back of the pre-christmas work now so we're all just patiently waiting for Friday. Im already filling my head with the thought of having time to myself, two whole weeks of rest is more than I've had for 365 days so I am hyping myself up for a really nice break.

Soggy 2nd Unit

Did a rather soggy 2nd Unit day which got me getting my steps in. Lots of back and forth, but also helping manage all the moving parts. I felt like an actual co-pilot in the behind-the-scenes running of the day and that was actually really rewarding. I mean it was a tough, long day, but the work was good.

I came home shattered, but my energy levels were instantly renewed upon opening my front door and seeing my childhood friends in my dining room eating pizza. We hung out and chatted about favourite museums and our memories of our old YouTube videos. One of our very old Christmas videos was inexplicably marked down as private so no one could watch it. Well don't worry universe, I reintroduced 'Why Terry' back into the public eye - it is within my gift to return this all to you.

https://youtu.be/UmIu72oZuR8 

Mince Pie Mess

Just over halfway to Christmas and I think we hit our final market of the season. The Bristol Beacon host a large artist fair each year and today was the last open day, that also meant it was insanely busy as people crushed to get prezzies and support local talent. I think I'm almost settled for gifts now. It's rare that I'm so ahead of the game. No doubt some more will come out of the woodwork but I'm in a good place for now. I tried my hand at another batch of mince pies today too (using up the baking surplus still). It was all going rather well, up until every single pie stuck to the inside of the tin. We ended up scooping them all out into a calling it a Mince Pie Mess for Louis and Rachel who popped round for a little evening together. I'm done with markets and mince pies now, all I want to do is vibe the season. No more stress, just the good stuff.

Gingerbread Redux

 Last weekend I vowed off ever making a Gingerbread house ever again... Though we still had all the ingredients for plain old gringbread biscuits so I decided to use them up. That and cranberry sauce when through the works in our kitchen, it just ain't Christmas for me now until that smell has hit my nostrils in December. Rebecca and I popped into town briefly to do some light shopping and to check out the swanky new M&S that's opened up. I can indeed confirm that it is a shop. 

Rigged Friday?

 All the gains I made last night flew right out the window, it was an oddly mad scramble to get everything into the day. On top of it all, Fiver Friday returned so I had to deal with that too during a busy spell. Hilariously, the winner this week was the close colleague of last time's winner, so much so that people thought it was rigged. If anything it just shows how random the drawer is. In spite of it all, I keep thinking today is a Thursday. Imagine my relief when I remembered that tomorrow was the weekend.

Thursday Thrasher

Headed onto set to help get some breakfast pre-orders, ended up getting stuck there as the camera was looking up the road to where all the transport back to base parked up. All the while my inbox was filling up to the point where I spent most of the day scrambling to see the sunlight under from my pile of work. Then as quickly as it started, it was all clear. I busted through the lot and felt incredibly productive, I did have to stick around for another unit to finish, but that just gave me the space to get even further ahead of the game. Should be smooth sailing tomorrow.

Not Going Right

Had a day in which things didn't go wrong, they just didn't go right. Our Unit Base WiFi went down first thing and it fell on me to try and get us up and running again. Even while holding two Starlink dishes and a mess of cables crew members still tentatively approached me, smartphone in hand to ask if the wifi was working. Brother, what does it look like I'm doing?

Then there's hire vehicle shenanigans again, with Luton being swapped out for even worse lutons which has a knock on effect to the delicate eco system of the works. I could just about cover the gap but only after 45 minutesof intense phone calls. After all was said and done, I was just ready to stop thinking about the day. Yet when I got home, I didn't know what to do with myself. 

Toasty December

December used to be cold when I was younger. Now it's just October but darker... Just about caught up with everything by lunchtime today, only for some more shenanigans to land on my plate. I'm dealing with it all slowly but surely, yet I never felt like I had a moment to myself today. It's nice to be busy though, makes the working day fly by. 

Very Important VIP

While I can't go into too much detail about my day, the BBC News article will cover most of it. Yes, we had a very special VIP on set today and I was but a small part of the team facilitating it all. It certainly made a change from our usual day-to-day, I spent most of the morning making tea and coffee for dignitaries and the press. Once we waved them all goodbye we were back to the day job. Every now and then we'd see news articles popping up with coverage of the day. The sweetest part was all of us in the Production office, from the Assistants to the Producers all huddled around the television in the office to catch the 6pm news, of which we featured. We waited up until the final moments of the programme before we were mentioned, then we all whooped for joy. Bizarre to think that a TV show about how TV shows brings people together managed to bring us all together around the TV - an oddly wholesome moment.

I'm very glad Rebecca and I persevered through the baking debacle yesterday. The mince pies I brought into the office we short lived, especially after word of mouth spread about how good they were. I was left a little speechless when some of the grown ups started raving about them. It was worth all of yesterday's drama for some lovely feedback like that. 

Gingerbread Meltdown

Almost a decade ago Mum made a gingerbread house that knock all of our socks off. Since then she's never been able to replicate it on account of the actual build being so fiddle some. She lulled herself into a false sense of security after that first win, so I was desperate to take up the mantle and attempt my own Gingerbread house.

 Turns out, it's defeated another Durrant. 

I spent almost 6 hours in the kitchen baking, measuring, icing and praying that things would all come together... Only for the pieces to slide around, look utterly dreadful and generally fall to pieces. God it was miserable. You know in the The Sims when a character's need bar get into the red zone and they just start screaming at the universe? That was me internally because the task was Sisyphean. I lost all hope and motivation, especially after I remembered that I don't even like gingerbread. I added a touch of clove to the mix and that was all I could small for the next half dozen hours, just thinking about it gives me a headache now. I was left with a structure like Tintern Abby and a lot of biscuits as broken as my spirit. 

Thank goodness for Rebecca who swaddled me up with all the good grace I needed in that moment. The Sunday was salvaged by her optimism alone and for that I am eternally grateful. 

Mulled Everything

Operation get Christmassy started with the purchasing of our tree. The place we get it from offers free mince pies and mulled wine as you browse, a bit of pre-midday alcohol gave us the Dutch courage to buy a tree that's about a foot taller than what we usually get. It just about fitted in the car home but it's up and in situ now and looks suitably grand in our little living room. Not content with the hot wine, mulled cider was also produced as we went to a local distillery for gift shopping. That drink in turn juiced up my sense of giving, tomorrow I'll be baking all day so I went to get ingredients today and may well have gone slightly overboard. I have lofty ambitious for tomorrow, it's going to be like working in the Bake Off Tent.

Lens Test Monkey

On my busiest Friday in a while I nominated myself for a 'quick lens test' on behalf of the camera team... 3 and a half hours later I found my inbox filling up and my responsibilities piling up. So I crammed everything into my dwindling afternoon and still managed to cross the finish line of the day. This weekend is all about getting Christmassy, we're getting the tree tomorrow plus all our Christmas booze. Already cannot wait for the good times to flood into our living room.

Expedient Advent

Continued our days at the studio, with that comes a litany of little jobs that always need doing. They kept me occupied throughout the day, so much so that it felt like breakfast was only just ending before it was time to go home. I actually don't know what I really filled my time with today at work but it went past in an honest heartbeat. I wish I had some means of slowing things down a bit now, but the slippery slope of December has taken us. Next time I blink it'll be Christmas. I only just got round to opening my first few days of Advent chocolates.

Bios For Sale

Someone is coming to visit us on set next week and they asked for a short bio for a bunch of cast and crew members. Always nice to flex my writing muscles a bit and kinda get paid for it. The final shooting schedule released today, a starter pistol for us to get cracking and do the final push of organizing filming. Lots to do by the end of the week now, just got to knuckle down and keep moving forward.

Escape Room Reloaded

 Blame it maybe on the almost full moon, but today people were acting a lil crazy. Including me to be fair. Second cup of coffee in and I developed some weird anxiety sweats, I wasn't feeling surface level stress but my body just kept saying 'danger'. By lunch that calmed down but I was still felt like something was in the water. 

Actually come to think of it, maybe it was the Christmas Jazz we had on loop at the office. Made the room feel smaller somehow.

Not as small as the escape room we all did as a team. History finds a way of repeating itself, three years ago I found myself with the same team, half cut on mulled wine fumbling around with combination locks and shrieking 'Ah HA' at the top of our lungs. We also discovered that Itsu offer half price sushi if you go in just as they close, so we rounded the night off with some late night California rolls as we quietly pondered the future after this gig. 

It only felt bleak because of how good this one has been. 

Unpicking

Rain, rain, go away... Mess up our schedule some other day.

Things went a bit pig-eared once the call was made to shimmy the order of things around. Lots of big talks and decisions made about how to proceed amidst the inclement weather. One thing was for sure though, we were going off the beaten track and that means things needed to become unpicked which is the most tedious and self-defeating things in this business. We made a new plan and things are all good now, but it's a reminder of how good we've had it on this job so far.