Looking the part

Following what my boss told me yesterday, I brushed my hair and put on aftershave in order to appease the big boss' wife who was coming down for inspection to see how well we were running our branch, sadly my efforts to actually look and smell appealing fell on deaf eyes and nostrils as she never turned up, rather anti-climatically since we were all rushing around trying to make the place sparkle. I very unfortunately missed a family party today but managed to scavenge on the left-over nibbles and drinks as I tucked into Far Cry 3 and a friendly game of Team Fortress 2 which left me in stitches as Louis was raging so hard over the microphone that Mum and Dad could hear us downstairs.

Coffee Catz

Lots of rain headed down to Newbury and to the leaky Eddie Catz roof today, timed my break just right though as I could hear the heavens opening while I was sat tight up in the office having a sandwich thinking about the unlucky few who were on shift at that moment. I also got to sample all our styles of coffees today: cappuccino, latte and americano. I can safely say that any coffee that is 90% milk is practically the devils nectar as a typical black coffee is certainly the way to go. After essentially 3 shots of coffee though I felt pretty good for a short while, my productivity certainly doubled while on this caffeine high.

Persuaded Louis to watch a documentary with me (easier than I make it sound)  called The Thin Blue Line which was an excellent tale of miscarried justice done in a very minimalist manner but it works brilliantly and is totally captivating from start to finish. The most unique aspect is how it completely drops you into the deep end of the story, there aren't even any names given for the people they interviewed, it forces you to think and piece together the story for yourself which makes you feel pretty good about yourself.  

Kent Khristmas week (Not quite alliteration there)

Another Christmas reunion of families took place for us in Kent once again, but just a short one as we went down yesterday and came back today. I did get a chance to sample one of the infamous Heston Blumenthal's Xmas puddings, while I am a huge fan of the man the pud itself wasn't anything too special, then again if he tried to make any of his wicked food inventions commercially available they would cost an arm and a leg. Louis and I got a chance to play some amusing instruments while we were visiting grandparents including the accordion and the elctro-harp! Random as they may be they were a lot of fun to try out. Just been chilling at home recently, getting ready for work in the morning, shouldn't be too busy though as there have been no parties booked for the whole of Christmas week. Here's to an easy one!

To The Moon

Games were the theme of the day. I went over to my girlfriends house once again to play some Boxing Day board games ranging from Trivial Pursuit (which my team won) and Cranium (which our team very badly lost at.) Sandwiched between this however, I played a little indie game called To The Moon which I picked up in the sales for under £2 and it was simply a joy to play. So much so that I have stayed up quite late just to see it through until the credits roll. The writing was top-notch and witty, the visuals were charming and the music was a deal sealer with dozens of brilliantly composed piano scores. It was so good I bought it for Daniel because I know that he will absolutly adore the game as much as I did.

Merry Christmas 2012

Sorry again for the lack of blogging over the holiday season but there is a good reason, well a fairly good one. A few days ago I went to our Staff Xmas party which was amazingly good. Our managers spent all day dressing up this room, fitting speakers and decorations and all manner of festive bits and it truly looked great! They even prepared a short slideshow of the year which ended with a confetti bomb which shook the room! Coming home that night was simple enough as my boss gave me a lift home, walked up to my drive at 1am, can't stop thinking about Christmas and how nice bed will be, go to put my key in the door... and its got another key on the other-side of the door so I can't open it. 30 Minutes of me panicking and exhausting all my options later I decided to sleep on our porch so as not to wake our visiting Grand-parents, took one for the team lay down and tried to get some kip.

Freezing cold that night too, just about got through it happily enough to go last minute shopping with Mark and here we are on Christmas day after a very pleasent family party last night. Presents were exchanged with beaming smiles all round, my gifts to peeps went down very well, especially mine to Louis, got him a banging vinyl album. I got a nice selection of cloths and a rather swish bag along with what can only be described as a Simpsons TV guide Bible - the thing weighs a bloody ton!

Family are downstairs watching the Christmas Special of Downtown Abby while Louis and I are just chilling with some nibbles and playing with our gifts. Hope every reader out there has had a just as nice, if not even better CHristmas Day than I did.

Merry Christmas everyone!    

Xmas Stress?

Actually, I wouldn't call work today stressful, it just threw us all through a lot of unnecessary loops and hurdles. First off, the guy who was meant to be sharing my shift was sadly very ill last night and couldn't come in so I was by myself after his replacement had to leave at 1. It was around this time that our electronic tills and internet broke down, resulting in me doing an awful lot of mental maths and scribbling down on random bits of paper various equations so I could log the transactions when the tills re-started; they didn't. Finally we had no teatowles so everything I washed up couldn't be dried unless I put it through the dishwasher and let it steam dry after the cycle. All these things added up to a very tiring day but when I got home things looked up.

Our Grandparents from Kent came down early this evening, by the time I got home they were halfway through the Strictly Come Dancing final but it was great to see them again over Christmas. We have also posted our Christmas special on our Youtube page, go check that out to put yourself in the festive spirit. Additionally, Louis has begun animating HIS Christmas Edmund and Darrel special which I assist once again with the voice acting of everyone's favorite blue cat, that wil be out in a few days time and is absolutely hilarious.

Merry Christmas!

How would you react if everything was already done for you on Christmas morning?...

Beating the 80's, one film at a time

Oh boy, recently I decided to take on two of the biggest cult films of the 80's: Dirty Dancing and Top Gun. The first being that Rom-Com everybody knows and many enjoy and simply put, it's not for me and was naff but not in an endearing way that I thought it would be. The ending was the highlight though with the final dance scene that actually did manage to put a very weak smile on my face. Top Gun was better than I thought it would be, Maverick and Goose's relationship felt genuine and it was depressing to see him go, and certain scenes were hilariously 'macho' (I'm looking at you volleyball scene!) But the romance sections dragged whereas the bromance sections were fairly decent and there are a few decent lines for an 80's flick.

We got around to film our annual Xmas sketch this afternoon, coming to a Youtube channel near you just in time for Christmas!

Wrapping time!

Xmas present wrapping begun today! I have 75% of my presents now this year with just a few more to get downtown tomorrow afternoon after school in the morning. However it's not quite like I want to show my face in school again after the embarrassing situation myself and my parents put me through for the award ceremony this evening. I was initially quite against going at all because I knew it would be nice to see old school friends but at the same time very tedious (my suspicious were confirmed as the guest speaker did like to have a jolly good ramble.) However when I was due to pick up my certificate my name was not called, it later dawned on me during the show that I possibly forgot to hand in a slip of paper saying that I would be coming to pick up my award so they had nothing to present to me. Of course this was my own fault but then my parents whisked me out of the ceremony as they considered that any further time spent in the hall would be a waste so they beckoned me over with Mark, between us we had to time our retreats during moments of applause so to hopefully slip out unnoticed. 

I was also quite passionate about letting Mum play through The Walking Dead today, so I very kindly installed all the necessary files onto her computer and talked her through the basics. It wasn't til we started play that she bombarded me with rude, self-important quips about how to play the game, this coming from a woman who hasn't played a proper game since Dragon's Fury on the Megadrive was nothing short of astonishing. Games have come a long way in the cinematic department too, something Mum clearly hasn't quite understood yet as she tried to play most cut-scenes while failing to press any buttons when she was supposed to. I guess it is just a testament as to how generic game design has been hardwired into my brain as I know exactly what to look for in an adventure game in a given situation and how a game wants me to think. It is both fascinating and infuriating to see a new person get into gaming for the first time as we expect everything to come naturally to them as it does to us but sadly that is not always the case. Mum is a lost cause though, she has a very spiteful naivety when it comes to things like this...  Guess she just needs to stick to pinball.

Gotta write that quiz!

Had a dream about being at work which consequently almost made me late for work as I clambered out of bed. Meeting the new guy was a pleasure and we worked really well as a team and got our kitchen spotless before it got a chance to get dirty, we did so well that I got out happily on time tonight to write 30 questions about Fight Club for tomorrows upcoming lesson. With a little help from Jamie and Mark (both avid fans of the film) the task was long but enjoyable, we even learnt a few new touches and interpretations about the film as we went, heightening our appreciation that much more.

Higglty Hobbit

Spent another day at practically internet-free girlfriend's house after catching a train down to where she lives, I did have to confirm if I was on the correct platform with only twp people this time. Eddie Catz hosted a First Aid training course for us all which was actually very enjoyable due to a personable presenter of whom we constantly cracked jokes with and now I certainly feel a lot more confident if there is ever a child with some kind of symptom or injury in our centre.

Our gang had a big muddle-up trying to organize a viewing session of 'The Hobbit,' at first we couldn't see it, then we could, then someone couldn't but we did anyway and it went on and on. Eventually everyone just come over to mine to play Mario Chase which was awesome. I believe we have postponed the viewing to a much later date though. Plus my handwarmer arrived! I will be very cosy on my way to work!

Xmas shopping woes

Went into work for a little bit today, I was originally penned i to work the whole day but on account of the glorious weather in the morning I was sent home rather early indeed. Luckily this then gave me a chance to work on my Xmas shopping. Gift brainstorming took well over an hour and I very begrudgingly hit the 'Place Order' button when my basket exceeded £200 and I still need to buy for 4 more people.

Worst part was when I went to check if they had my girlfriend's coat in stock in her size and sadly they didn't so I rather embarrassingly had to ring up customer support and ask if I could get one mailed from a shop; I got a very icy response. Otherwise I had some Bro Time with Louis playing Rhythm Paradise on the Wii, can't believe how much he loves that franchise.

Particular Party

First thing Dan said to me when I saw him at work was 'Today is going to be stressful,' he was about 50% right. The morning was choc-full of parties to host and cater for, but there was one we needed to give special care to as the Mother of the Birthday boy was very particular about what she wanted. We performed admirably however, earning ourselves a £20 tip that went toward the staff party. Bar that, I have just been chilling once again, foolishly putting off buying people Xmas presents, the one thing I really need to get around to do!  

Not 1 idea... but 2!

Aside it from being absolutely freezing still up in my room, very little has changed. Mark and I have however planned up a short Xmas sketch for the fans along with a longer short we be doing in collaboration with some other local film-makers. We have finished a basic script and are looking forward to filming both of these shorts just after Xmas so stay tuned for some more Cafe Studios magic!

Cineclub in a different school

For the first time this Winter I would have considered myself to be cold. Walking into school today I discovered that my coat pockets are not as warm as they appear and my toes were turning numb. TO top it all off, when I got home Phoebe's handwarmer arrived, shame because I really could have done with my one about 2 hours before hand, ah well. Mark and I successfully presented a meeting to students about Cineclub (the organization that got us into film-making) and hopefully at least half of the turn-out will be interested in taking up the opportunity to make some films outside of school.

Archer

Since I got Netflix on the Wii-U I have been looking for a TV series to get into, and since I am into animated sit-coms I first tried a series called 'Drawn Together.' It was fine but after working my way through series 1 I won't be going back to see anymore. But then I got addicted to 'Archer' as of yesterday, already finished series one and slowly working my way through the second. It is insanely funny with a great art-style to boot, it is the kind of humor that certainly appeals to Daniel and hopefully a style we could incorporate into our own sketches from now on.

Pokemon cards revival

While today's work day was not nearly as eventful as yesterday it was still packed with a lot of cleaning and tidying. I also got a chance to look at someones pokemon card collection, initially I had the intent of trading or buying some cards that took my fancy but this college had a legendary collection that I simply couldn't take my eyes off. Rather embarrassingly I had to reject all of them on account of me not being able to afford any of them.

Fantastic day at work

Had a really awesome day at work today. First half, nothing special, just doing my thing of serving customers and frying chips. Then in the afternoon I was asked to do an event outside of the kitchen while dressed up in the Eddie Suit!

Me all dressed up with my helper, thank goodness she was with me, else I would have bumped into many a lamp-post!

Walking into the highstreet dressed up as a giant tiger was very cool, I got to wave a all the cars and people without feeling embarrassed for my actions;I even did the whole 'Tap on the other side of the shoulder routine to someone.' And while it was only about 5 degrees outside it got very hot, very fast in  my suit, by the time I got back to HQ I had to extract, not remove, but extract my undershirt from my torso as it was soaked in sweat.

Instantly upon returnin I was headed for the shops to get some extra bits and even a pair of tights for a co-worker. With me being your typical male 19 year-old I had absolutely no idea what qualities to look for in a pair of tights. Hell I even discovered there were different kinds, lengths and coulours of them, and lord have mercy on whoever the hell is buying 'Footsies,' What possible purpose do they serve?

Then the coolest thing of all happened. The customer bell rang and I went out to serve as if it were any other customer but it was non-other than Smiley Dave! Cafe Studios have been big fans of his videos and they never fail to put a smile on our faces. I did have to confirm my suspicions about his identiy by flat out asking him, but when I told him I was a fan, his face lit up with that familiar smile.

His videos can be found on his Youtube channel here, and I would seriously recommend watching his accent videos which were absolute side splitters for us one afternoon.

The wait for Xmas has already begun

Had another viewing of Bad Santa with the usual crew today, lotta laughs from everyone even after the DVD cover put off a few people as it makes the film look trashy when it is actually pretty good. A lot of fond discussion was had at work about the staff Christmas party which will actually be held at Eddie Catz! It's cheaper that way and gives us much more freedom as to what we can do and eat, very excited for that one. Otherwise I am just chilling at home as I wait for my stuff to arrive in the mail and play games until Christmas comes again.

Meal at Mark's

Had an evening meal at Mark's house yesterday, while He and Dan made some pizza and enchiladas I was put on popcorn duty; I think it was a statement as to how much Mark trusts me to cook things. The home-made pizza was lush and we squeezed in plenty rounds on the Wii-U before heading off to bed. I found out that Daniel snores in a manner that can be compared to a deflating balloon.

Headed off to school for another good lesson, went into town to buy some pre-owned games, sadly they didn't have the ones I wanted but I picked them up later online for a little bit of personal Xmas shopping. I coupled them with a pair of different hand-warmers, A long lasting Zippo one for me and a snazzy electronic one for Phoebe (She has raynaud's so I thought I would look out for her, I try to be a good boyfriend!)

Finally I sat down on Mario Bros U and decided that I would get around to beating it, some mild cussing and several re-tries later I got down to the last epic boss fight and toppled Bowser yet again. Sat down waching the end credits with a glass of cola and enjoyed the serenity of the moment of the words 'The End' faded onto the screen; simple gaming bliss.

Another 2-D Mario down!

   

Oh Andrew Lincoln

Spent another few days at my girlfriends house, she was quite eager to watch Love Actually and since it was the season I was happy to oblige her. However it was quite jarring seeing Andrew Lincoln playing the lovey, secretly into Keira Knightley character one day, then seeing him play the lead of The Walking Dead  this evening. Louis and I are planning on watching the first series together, so far so good!

Not Clock Watchers!

It was strangely unanimous among my work colleges that time was going very fast, probably because we were enjoying ourselves so much. We got into a heated debated over why you would realistically consider enrolling in Hogwarts. I contested that although it would be very cool to be a wizard or witch the practicality is some-what limited in the real world as you only learn spells in incantations in Hogwarts rather than maths or English, you would leave school without any official qualifications and no means of entering a University or a well paid job. This was countered by my colleagues suggesting you could work in the Ministy of Magic or Diagon Ally (or similar location e.g. Hogsmead.) But still this is very limited as you would only ever deal with non-muggles resulting in you leaving behind the boring world for a much smaller populated one full of magic, it would get a bit boring. They eventually won me over by referring to all the awesome sounding sweets that exist in the wizard world like chocolate frogs and the every-flavor jelly beans, and they sound too good to pass up, future success be damned!

They also dared me to mix in a banana milkshake in with my coffee, as I am not one to turn down a food dare I accepted and was quite disappointed as it tasted fine but with some lumpy banana at the bottom; I though it could be the next big thing...  

Wii-U Arrival!

After 3 very successful lessons at school I got the call from Granny Sue, the Wii-U was waiting on my kitchen table ready to be opened. I was loving every second of the unboxing, I was holding the console of my dreams and setting it up for first time installation. Sadly the lengthy 90 minute update process held me back from spending any real time with it as I needed to go into work the same afternoon, then immediately to Jamie Creed's Birthday party celebration thing. Tagged the Wii-U along with a copy of Nintendoland and had an amazing time with the 5-player multiplayer, throw in some social beers and cheese on crackers (an odd but brilliant addition to any party buffet) and you've got yourself a rocking way to have a Birthday.

Waiting on the Wii-U

It was right there in the shop. The Wii-U. Playable model. Lovely to hold, wonderful screen resolution and as just about to start using it to play Nintendoland, been waiting for this moment for nearly 8 months now. Then my girlfriend whisked me off of it as she was starting to get embarrassed by me squealing like a little girl while in the high street, she told me to put it down promptly and my heart was broken. Can't wait until tomorrow. I will kill the postman if he doesn't bring it to my door.

Ice Sculpture

Work was dead today, spent most of the afternoon thawing out a large block of milk after the bottle broke in the freezer, it got to the point where we used the kitchen hammer (not sure why we have on of those, but hey-ho) and a knife to chisel away at the milky iceberg. That and I spent a fair bit of time with Louis, having some 'bro time' playing Guild Wars 2 while making wise cracks and enjoying the adventure. Aside from that I am currently enjoying the free DLC for Mario Bros 2 Nintendo put out for us; time to collect some coins all over again!

Presentation = Success

Presentation went awesome. Bought some cheap films to give away as prizes for the pupils, they were quite surprised to actually get something so decent for winning. I had a lot of fun doing it too, they all seemed quite interested and engaged with what they were learning about which gave me plenty to smile about while walking home and wearing in my new shoes.

Damn you, Small walls!

Walking to work in a pretty cheery mood, feeling unusually good for a Sunday morning thanks to some pretty decent weather. Come across the front door at work which is locked to the public because I am a little bit early, usually in these situations I head towards the nearest window to tap on and ask for someone to let me in. In the direction of said window, there is a tiny walk, no higher than a coffee table which I have crossed several times before with a little one-two jump over, as if it were a hurdle. This time however, I did not clear it, bumping the top of my knee on the corner. As a result, my knee has been completely nadgered by this puny wall so now I walk with a limp. Resting the leg now after preparing a warm-up exercise for my lesson tomorrow about the highest grossing films of all time, I'll let you all know how that goes tomorrow!

Season Finale

A phone call woke me up this morning from my girlfriend's Mum, naturally I got a bit nervous about this because she rarely calls me unless there is some kind of emergency, it was 9:30 at this point so I expect the worst.

Me: 'Hello?'
GF's Mum: 'Hello Theo, just wondering if Phoebe gave you that jar of lemon marmalade we made for you yesterday...'

Sadly I didn't but I told her I look forward to recieving it another time as I racked my brain as to what just transpired.

My Mum then insisted that we go into town to get me some new shoes, my current shoes are very comfy but have more holes in them than a slice of Swiss cheese so I suppose it would be sensible to get a new pair. Very rarely have I ever been pleased with a shoe purchase but this time we nailed it, leaving with two pairs of rather nice brown shoes that are perfect for my teaching technician job, I was so thrilled to get them that I treated Mum to a cup of tea and slice of sponge cake at a local cafe.

Mark and Dan did briefly visit this afternoon for a couple bouts of Street Fighter 4 and to check out Indie Game: The Movie with Louis, a documentary about 4 developers experiences with independent video game making. Honestly it was a great documentary that really made you sympathize with these guy's struggle to just get their games out to their fans despite the massive impacts it had on their social and personal lives.

Finally me and Louis got around to playing through the final episode of the Walking Dead. Lets pause here for a minute, I purchased this game back in April on a whim and from the very first scene I was hooked, thinking to myself 'This is going to be something special.' 5 Months later and the final chapter has been released, I have just finished it now and I can easily say that this has been my favorite game of the year. Every aspect of this game has been perfect but especially the way it makes you seriously think about each decision you make and how it will affect the relationships between characters. But by far it's greatest accomplishment is how it has effortlessly set a milestone for story-telling in video games which attains a cinematic quality to rival that of the TV series. Even if you have never played a video game in your life you can appreciate this brilliant adventure for what it is.

Subtitles and Sound

Got a small round of applause at school today for sorting out a sound issue in a teacher's lesson. Admittedly it wasn't very technical to scout out a pair of external speakers and plug 'em in, however the teacher needed to show his class 'Paths of Glory,' one of the best films ever made and I couldn't sleep at night knowing I would have denied anyone that pleasure on account of dodgy sound quality. Somehow I also managed to wrangle my girlfriend into watching a film with subtitles, something she told me she hated. Bizarrely, she loved the French though, and I think you can learn so much about them by watching their cinema so I suggested a French rom-com 'Heartbreakers' in an attempt to bridge the gap and hopefully get her more interested into subtitled films.

Thirty Flights of Loving

Whilst I had to combat various leaks in the roof at work with buckets and tea-towels it was generally very quiet at work so I was once again sent to the laundrette to watch the washing spin as I listened to music. Steam Autumn sales started today and I have already caved and bought myself a short, but brilliant game: 'Thirty Flights of Loving.' This is possibly the greatest example I can think of to demonstrate story-telling in video games done very, very right indeed, something about the bizarre atmosphere and endearing humor make it an absolute joy to play through. You get get the prequel 'Gravity Bone' here (just click on the icon at the very bottom) for free and it is highly recommended that you check both these games out no matter of your interest in the industry.  

Open evening stars

Just had a pair of very productive days as teaching technicians, we continued to help students use various software and generally comment on the visual quality of their work. We did a fair amount of overtime yesterday though, staying on til 5 to catalog all the various camera equipment and give it all a good (and much needed) tidy up. This evening we attempted to inspire a future generation of film students through the school's open evening by showing past clips and enthusiastically discussing the course, Mark and I thought we did really well, made the parents and year 11's laugh at some points and showing our old films was a blast from the past.

Didcot and Distribution

Didn't get back til quite late yesterday as we signed up to film the quarter-finals of 'Distributions got Talent' in Didcot. full marks for anyone who can guess what show the name was based on. We filmed several groups of rockbands and solo singers, all of which were fairly ok however a magician act was certainly the highlight, and it showed as he walked away with the 1st place cash prize. Interviews with the performers were also conducted by yours truly and I think I did an alright job as those were the bits I had the most fun doing. Filming the actual performances was sometimes a test of endurance, especially since I was given the heaviest, but most stable camera to work with, suffice to say, my arms were aching after holding it up for so long. It was unanimously decided that we all deserved a midnight snack at McDonalds while getting the largest size milkshakes they offer, they tasted so good after a very long filming session.

Nicholas 'Credible' Cage

School again today, once again we gave a more refined version of the Final Cut Pro presentation to a seemingly more capable group as 3 had used the program before. Our teacher was also quite keen on making us hot drinks sit seemed, I was offered one as I walked in and later there was one waiting for me on the side, one I didn't ask for but was greatly appreciated. I was also in charge of cooking dinner tonight, with some simple omelets and chips stuffed with bacon, cheese and spring onions, and thery were awesome.

To my eternal surprise I saw a very, very good Nicholas Cage film 'Leaving Las Vegas.' I f anyone has ever seen the re-make of 'The day the Earth Stood Still' and saw how Keanu Reeves gave a credible performance because he came across about as wooden and uptight as a real alien would, possibly unintentionally but it worked really well in that film. Same applies here as Nick Cage's odd mannerisms and attitude were perfect for the role of an alcoholic. This is the kinda movie that makes you pull faces, just thinking of all the booze Mr Cage necks on camera makes me cringe and several other moments wil make you smile and raise an eyebrow. Worth a watch if you ever need to validate you belief that Nicholas Cage was once a great actor. 

Life is a state of mind

Not used to waking up at the crack of dawn it seems as it properly was back to school for me and Mark for our first pair of lessons as teaching technicians. Firstly we helped a group with photoshop to aid their magazine cover coursework, some of which were looking very promising and almost like the real thing. Second lesson we had the same group as Mark gave a 15 minute presentation on how to use Final Cut Pro which garnered a lot of bemused and bewildered faces from the students. He went through it fine, did all the basics and any longer would have meant that he would have overstayed his welcome, but it is quite a daunting program to learn at first; guess we will just stick to helping out individuals.

Watched 'Being There' this afternoon, and was pleasantly surprised in almost every way, especially Peter Sellers who did a phenomenally good job in the leading role. But if I would have one criticism it would be the same thing every other person has pointed out; The end of the film has a charming final shot with some very poignant lines read (The last of which are immortally etched onto Sellers tombstone) and the whole thing really felt final and wonderful... Then the blooper reel comes out... Sellers himself hated it but producers refused to take it out upon initial release and it really distracts from the overall experience; that said, it is quite pleasant to see Sellers having a god time filming.

Dogbody

Felt like a general dog-body at work today as I was always asked to do the fun odd job. The day itself was very quiet so it gave us a lot of leniency as to what we could do but mostly we were preparing for the big visit from head office tomorrow so that means cleaning! Started out with the coffee bin, a job that literally demanded thick rubber gloves and should have required a cloths-peg because the thing stunk to high heavens before I was through with is. Sorting out and shelving the seasonal decorations came next as the Halloween stuff needed to go up into the loft, while the Xmas stuff needed to come down with the assistance of a bodge pulley system we got it done effectively while even discovering a hidden second loft full of old goodies like cups and jugs.

Finally I was very hurriedly asked to go to Sainsbury's to pick up some bread, milk and whipped cream. When asking home much milk we needed for coffees I was given the instructions 'As many as you can carry' which I interpreted very literally as it turns out 18 pints in my limit; at least while holstering a pair of whipped cream cans and 3 loaves of bread. Took some serious jugging to get into a steady position with all my shopping (I dropped it all many times in an almost vain effort) as foolishly I didn't have the hind-sight to pick up a basket or trolley, upon loading up my limbs with groceries I instantly located the closest Self Checkout point and stormed in that direction before Anything else went wrong. After work though, my girlfriend came and picked me up and drove me home, the busiest days have the best silver linings.

Liberal Arts

Got up a wee bit later than anticipated today and rushed into work, forgetting my name badge and apron unfortunately, however I only realized this when I got back as I found my bag in the corner ready to be taken into work about 5 hours earlier. Mark came round to film a short thing for our teaching technician roles to help teach the students how to use Final Cut Pro effectively, hope that turns out well. Also went out to see Liberal Arts, a film about the joys of being optimistic about life while being at university which came across as a little bit self indulgent with one or two annoying characters but I guess it was ok...?

Back to school again

Hurriedly did my application form for my Film and Media Technician posts for my old school and got shown around the various administration offices with Mark, we both decided they were probably very nice people outside of school but they were grumpy as hell during school hours. We are both very excited about starting work on Thursday morning, we are starting both our lessons with a brief tutorial on how to use Final Cut Pro which should be pretty awesome if all goes well.

Backpacking to work

Got driven back into Newbury after helping out with the 2012 Bone Hike which I organize with 2 other guys, it's essentially a night-hike for scouts who are not quite confident enough to do larger district competitions so we ease them in with a simpler course. However although it was very easy for me and a 27 year old to walk the course in 45 minutes, one group managed to take upward of 4 hours with multiple phone calls to HQ, the best of which started with the brilliant sentence of:

'We are really, really lost. We are by some buildings and we all think we are in London...'

So after spending a night in a room that felt like a walk in fridge within Pingu's Ice Cave and warfing down a breakfast consisting of chocolate milk and an ice cream I was back at work on the day of Remembrance no less. All the staff got in quite early and we were briefed on the necessary procedure for the two minute silence where we re not to serve anyone or do anything distracting ourselves or others from the silence. The firebell rang briefly at 11am to mark the beginning of the service, a few kids were making nose but that is expected as they are 3 and don't really know what's going on but about halfway through, I could hear the phone ringing at reception. Naturally everyone ignored it but then it rung again, still we didn;t pick it up because we didn't want to disgrace the honour of those who died for our country. FInally the phone rings for a 3rd time, this time down by the cafe, to my immediate right, now the silence has just ended so I pick up the phone. I already know who it's from, the director of the company, the big cheese calling from London:

Me: Hello?
Darren: Hello, it's Darren calling, how is everything doing in Newbury
Me: Oh, it's doing ok, we just had our 2 minute silence
Darren: ...Oh yeah, that was today.'

While this is an amusing anecdote it is still a little bit pathetic that the director of our company can't keep up with what day Remembrance Day is supposest to be.

Filmcast Episode Five

Coming to a film lesson near you...

Got myself suited up once more to go back to school for a joint informal interview with Mark for a position as Film Studies teaching assistants which went brilliantly. We got the job, and although we won't get paid much, we will certainly get all the right amount of experience we need and it'll look great on our CV's. Also, we went into a new shop in our highstreet called Temptation which I initially wrote off as a place for mums and rich single women, but I was bizarrely surprised to find myself buying things in there and considering other bits and bobs and Xmas presents. I got myself this bad-ass mug that carries its own little spoon in it's handle which I am dead chuffed with.

Expect to see another of our short videos appear up within the next week as we rounded up Louis for a small bit of filming and it should make you chuckle a bit. Additionally our podcast returns, last week I was still on holiday, but that should be up relatively soon as well, and it's a very good one this week as we all really got in the zone for it.

Skyfall

After a mildly chilly night I did one of the quietest days of work I have ever done, would have been real easy for everyone until the sinks backed up and all decided to simultaneously overflow into the hallway. Thank goodness my shift ended just about then because I and the others headed off to do a photoshoot for our new website desings and profile pictures, expect to see them around some time in the future.

Went to go see Skyfall last night before locking myself out of the house and I can say that the film was highly enjoyable and a great anniversary film for the legendary series. However the entire thing felt more like an action films rather than a spy film, something about the simplistic plot and the pacing made it feel unlike a Bond film. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but we all came out of the cinema thinking that something was a bit off, although we couldn't quite put our fingers on it.

Wii U Pre-order!

After a very nice oiled egg at my girlfriend's house I went to work with a smile on my face as everything seemed to go quite well when I got there. Mark drove me home where I finally got round to pre-ordering the Wii U, due to be with me by the end of the month so that's very exciting. In the evening I was given a pipe from Nepal that has a very unique design and I told people's fortunes through Tarot cards with varying success.

Here comes the Spider-Man

Got up bright and early to play Dead Rising 2 today only to find that 90% of Steam copies launch you into an infamous death-screen meaning you can't play your game. 20 minutes of hardcore, first-thing-in-the-morning internetting later I found out I could do play it with a press of a button, sorted; big grins and dead zombies all round. Walked into walk amidst a downpour, the first thing I get greeted to after spending a week off is a load of rain. There was also a lot of chatter about a child's Birthday party whom we had gone to great lengths to organize, bought a special costume for a Spider-man themed party and everything was planned, minus who would get to dress up as the infamous web-slinger. Long story short, this happened:

I figured everything would just go swimmingly if you just get stuck in with what you should do, no matter how stupid you would look while you do it. The kids loved it and nobody knew my alter ego as the mild-mannered cafe boy!

Return from Copenhagen

After playing about 3 hours worth of Super Mario 3D Land in the airport and flight, I have finally arrived back home in England! Already kinda miss Copenhagen, although the temperature is about the same here, England lacks a certain something, might be the frequent cafes or the bustling amount of tourists but I'm not entirely sure. Dad and I did a pretty good job of weeding out the last of our foreign coin, we had about £2.50 left and were searching around the supermarket until Dad settled on getting some dried figs. With the minor time change and the long time spent traveling I am quite tired rather unsurprisingly, better yet I have work tomorrow (Yay!) Need to get some god kip for that!

Happy Halloween 2012!

Happy Halloween everybody! Not that I really noticed until I went on Google's homepage to remind me what day it was because it isn't very big out here in Copenhagen. I saw a couple of pumpkins on the way to a fairly tall tower we climbed and towards a hippie commune where people openly smoked cannabis, good day overall. Not very spooky though...

Greetings from mildly nippy Copenhagen

Arrived in the city yesterday afternoon, the first thing that struck me about Denmark is how modern everything seems. The traffic lights are all flat and the supermarket we visited had digital price codes. All this modernity comes with a literal price though as everything is rather expensive here. But we are staying in a lovely apartment, Louis bagged the only bed in my room so I get to sleep on the floor mattress. We have seen some pretty impressive stuff so far although it has been quite a lot of walking and while its not cold here, I am certainly glad I brought along my awesome coat to keep me warm and looking badass. 

Filmcast Episode Four!

Ungodly

Setting off on holiday to Copenhagen tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 3:30am, already charged up my 3DS for the trip and man oh man, am I gonna play a lot of Mario tomorrow. Went into town on my bike as well, popped into GAME to see if they had anything good. Bit weird me going in there nowadays, with digital distribution and Steam I don't really go into high street game retailers anymore but sometimes they have some good deals. While queuing behind the typical screaming child who's parents won't get them the new first person shooter or My Little Pony Adventure game I felt mighty proud of myself to be holding a copy of The Binding of Issac Unholy Edition! Certainly put everyone else's choice to shame. It came with a sweet art book but possibly one of the most hideous posters I have ever seen, which will be kept in the box at all time methinks.

Hopefully there will be Wi-Fi where I am staying but if I don't then that's the only reason I'm not blogging, I shall try my best. Might even get some pictures up.

Daylight saving lie-in!

Had my second driving lesson today, getting to grips with the basic functions of the car while struggling vastly with roundabouts, whenever I approached one memories of Mark making a big deal of them in the past came to mind so I panicked when that happened; thank goodness for duel control cars! Mark Lucy and I all went into the highstreet to sort out some banking bits and bobs today, it was only after spending 15 minutes looking for a parking space we remembered that most banks shut after mid-day so we left home nearly empty handed, a trip to the pasty shop returned our morale to neutral levels.  

In the evening we headed off to an amateur comedy act venue in Reading. I was talking to Mark on the way there how I have never been disappointed by a comedian in my life and tonight definitely changed that. We saw 4 acts and the first 3 were just woefully unfunny, I was really up for a nice evening full of laughs but I ended up just feeling bored and losing faith in humor in general; as if nothing would ever be funny again. Luckily the 4th guy was quite good so that bought me back around. 

Chilly Willie

Got up to greet my chilly bedroom first thing, so I decided to put on my penguin onsie to keep me warm, I was rather snug indeed when I was huddled up on my chair. Mark and Dan came over to record a podcast before taking me to work, everyone was quite relieved to see me as the kitchen was one hell of a bombshell when I went in but we sorted it all out relatively quickly. I helped out a bit after hours putting up the Halloween decorations for tomorrow's big kids party, fake spider webs and paper ghosts ahoy! Looks pretty good too, the kids will surely have an awesome time but it is bound to be busy for those working tomorrow.

WOW! New play area!

Long old day of work, had some major construction work done for a new play area which came out great and we went back out to the woods to film the other half of Louis' music video getting some amazing shots of a campfire; hope to get that one out soon!

Untouchable

Had a nice little day to myself to play a few games and talk to my girlfriend on Skype, it was refreshing to be able to have a vocal conversation that was instantaneous rather than a daily email conversation we had going before hand. Mark and I also helped film part of a music video for Louis' band: The Runways. They were really easy to work with too, the whole thing took under an hour and we are going to do some additional stuff with them tomorrow. I also went to see the film Untouchable which was excellent, I am saving a mini review style thing for the podcast this week so stay tuned for that, until then I want to get some sleep for work tomorrow.

Filmcast Episode 3

Work again

Didn't feel quite ready for work this morning, getting up before 8 was a strange thing to experience once again, and with it being so foggy and dark I just wanted to go back to sleep. Work itself wasn't so bad, legs begun to ache after a few hours but generally I was quite excited to be back, plus I got a chance to wear my sword umbrella to work, generally I got a lot of weird looks and people obviously trying not to look.

We used to wait

Woken up by an email from my girlfriend telling me that she could talk to me on Skype at 10 in the morning, seeing as I have rarely had a chance to speak to her I was very excited at the proposition, ate my breakfast quickly and sat on my computer while playing some flash games to pass the time. No sign of her at any point in the day though. Talking to Dan later in the evening (his girlfriend is also in Nepal) and asking if he had heard from her, but he hadn't spoken to her. We can only assume there was a technical issue with the laptop or the internet out there, so it was a quiet day of waiting for me mostly.

That and eating the Belgium chocolate I brought back with me, testing out my new wireless mouse and keyboard, sorting out my UCAS application and making room for my bedside table; I seem to get a fair bit done when I'm not at work sometimes...

Return from Eeklo!

Got back from Eeklo, the Belgium town that Newbury is twinned with and had an amazing time and a great roadtrip, granted we got stuck in a 90 minute traffic jam at first but after that we were sailing.

Upon arrival we were all introduced to the various residents from Eeklo all about our age around a massive dinner table with an even bigger dinner, which was just what we needed after the long drive down there. On the same evening we were shown a little bit of the Belgium nightlife in a youth club where you could get some very affordable and intrinsically excellent Belgium beers, most of which we purchased a few more of when we visited a supermarket along with a few other goodies to bring home to our families; obviously including the great chocolate.

A day trip to Bruges was also organized after a huge continental brunch along with a perfectly lengthed guided tour from one of our hosts, giving us the basic historical information of the main buildings, while also allowing us ample time to free-lance around the gorgeous medieval town for photographs and Belgium waffles dipped in chocolate sauce. Bowling in Eeklo followed after a group meal which was a great opportunity to talk to people in between turns. The next morning we were taken to a Bed-and-Breakfast where we were fed a real slap-up home cooked meal paid for by the Twin Town association consisting of traditional Belgium dishes, during pudding the chef even sat with us to eat while enthusing and explaining her cooking techniques.

After that we packed up our car, which was stuffed to the brim with the extra bits and bobs we got from the supermarket, and gave everyone a hearty farewell. In reality though, we wanted to stay longer, to spend more time with our wonderful hosts, to eat more of their delicacies and experience more of what Belgium had to offer us. A weekend to remember.   

The long awaitied arrival of the sword umbrella!

Today... 4 months after original ordering... the sword umbrella finally arrived! And it's a little bit meh to be honest. The handle feels a bit cheap while the strap on the sheath is far to small for me, going to need to do some home-made extensions I think! Otherwise, it looks like a solid thing that will definitively withstand the rain. Work was deader than a dodo today, which is cool because head office came down for inspection, since we had been cleaning all day they were very impressed with the facilities. We should have a new podcast coming out tomorrow too that we recorded in advance since we are all going on a car trip to Belgium tomorrow! Can hardly wait, just gotta pack now...  

Normally I am a tidy person...

With very few customers in today and with big boss arriving tomorrow it was time for one thing: cleaning montage! Except without the jamming tunes as all we had was our rubbish local radio station to listen too, but the cleaning did happen. Did a thorough sweep of literally everything, heck I was standing on the bar-top for half of it just to reach the various nooks and crannies otherwise forgotten. Everything at work looks all spic-and-span while my room is still the ugly mess it always is, some time tomorrow morning though, need to remove the deposits of crap from around the everywhere!

The Times, They Are A-Changing

Some minor excitements at work today. We changed our normal green top milk for blue, apparently this brings out some extra flavor and is easier to froth for cappuccinos, not sure if that's true but we will see. My boss and I also cleaned out various parts of the office, removing a dozen cardboard boxes full of flyers in what appeared to be the most convenient method possible but we ended up with about 80% of the fliers spilt out of these boxes as we learnt that chucking cardboard downstairs tends to break the boxes. Walking to and from work I got through all of Bob Dylan's 'The times they are a-changing' which was really excellent in my opinion, my first proper Dylan album and certainly not going to be my last. Dad and I also played a bit of an Ipad game called 'The Room,' not to be confused with Tommy Wiseau's "masterpiece." The game offered up a nearly hour long puzzle in a single chapter where we were solely tasted with opening a single box, easier said then done; I wouldn't be surprised if Dad has already look at a walk-through to help the cause.

One small jump for man

accomplished very little today minus another, easy day of work. Been booked into another full week of work, minus the weekend and Friday where I am going to Belgium on a small holiday getaway thing. We plan on making a brief stop in Bruges on our way back home where we will get a lot of photos to compare with screenshots from the film so we can pinpoint where they filmed key scenes. All very exciting in that respect but now I just need to get through another busy week.

I did get around to watching the Red Bull 'diving off the edge of the world' stunt thing live on youtube however. Essentially a man broke the world record for highest ever freefall at about 38-39 miles above ground level, he could see the earth's curvature basically, and it took him about 7 minutes to fall all the way back down to earth. I would very much recommend watching the highlights of this on youtube or somewhere similar, the actual jump part especially, that part really set off Dad's acrophobia,

Action packed day off

Was driven down to Devises this morning to test walk a hike for the 2012 Bone Hike which I help organize with two other people. We need to walk through the route to make sure its safe and easy enough for scouts to traverse, and especially since the planned hike we did around Salisbury had this sign posted firmly at the start of our planned route.

About halfway around I got a call frim Chris and Mark who offered me an old coffee table/TV stand for my room. Once again I had a major shift around to get the damn thing in (it was twice as long as my old TV stand!) But I will admit it does look bloody good, finally got a place to put my lavalamp. Now though I am thinking that a bedroom sofa would really finish off the room, need to head back down to the furniture project and see what I can scout out there.

Invited Dan along to see Frisky and Mannish. For me, this was my second time watching the excellent duo and they were even better this year with a tighter performance with some returning classics, brilliant show overall almost broke off from our group to say hello to the pair but I didn't quite have the courage; maybe next year...

Now with jingles!

In case you haven't noticed, a new podcast episode is out, it is considerably shorter than the last episode as our first one was really just us testing out what worked and what didn't, we stripped out all the fluffy and rubbishy bits to give you a more refined experience overall; ow with 100% more catchy sound clips!

Otherwise today was another Friday, we did make an effort to watch a Bond film though since we were so impressed with the Skyfall trailer, so we went back to see Goldeneye, my personal favorite Bond film at the time of writing (Haven't seen them all yet!) It was quite nice to re-watch it and actually gauge how well it stands up to my glowing fondness of it bred from nostalgia of re-watching it repeatedly as a child and great memories of the classic N64 game, and we were all quite impressed. Although it wasn't as flashy or as brutal as the Daniel Craig films, those one was certainly the bridging point between the older films and the action packed flicks of the 21st century. Bond made a hilarious amount of innuendos while always keeping it classy. Possibly the highlight of the film was the St. Petersburg tank chase scene which is ridiculously boss, it was also quite a testament to special effects in the present because all of the explosions and destruction were genuine and very satisfying to watch; I turned to Dan and Mark and said 'It's so nice to see some real explosions again!'

Filmcast Episode Two

Story time

First thing that happened when I got to work involved me immediatly putting on the Eddie suit in preparation for the new 'story time' activity we offer on Thursday mornings. Basically it involves a person reading a children's book while someone (in this case me) dresses up as the big cat  and listen to the story with the children. I attempted to inject as much personality as possible into my Eddie, making him mime along with any action in the book even hugging the children at the end who wanted one. I felt a bit like a Tweenie or something similar while it was happening but I really enjoyed the experience. For anyone unaware of what the suit looks like it looks a little something like this. (This is not me in the suit but it would be identical if I were)

Looper

Me and the usual suspect went down to the cinema to see a sci-fi film that we were very much looking forward to, purely based on the premise and the actors alone. For those of you who are unaware of the basic plot, a man in the modern present (Joseph Gordan-Levitt) is a contract killer for thugs in the future, one day a man he's meant to kill turns out to be his future self (Bruce Willis) and the rest is a game of cat and mouse, or so the trailer leads you to believe. In reality though this is only one half of the story as most of the second (and best) half of the film is focused on a very different thing with Emily Blunt, one which I won't go into too much detail now but it reminded me very much of Stephen King's 'Firestarter' while the time traveling premise feels like a nice throwback to Terminator. But the plot is very original and the setting is nicely shown to us through some modernized looking environments that look familiar but its just the little things which look flashy like the cars and other technology. Strangely all of the weaponry used by the Loopers were more reminiscent of the wild west with over-sized revolvers and steam-punk shotguns which was very cool.

The actors did a good job on the whole, with some emotionally charged or tense scenes peppered intermittently. One mild distraction at first was the make-up on Gordan-Levitt's face to make him look more like Willis. Essentially they gave him some bolder eyebrows, puffed cheeks and a stoney complexion, which did a convincing job but it makes you find yourself constantly doing double takes on Levitt's character because he looks so unfamiliar. Camera angles were varied and involving while the sound design could be very tense at times, especially in the many slow motion sequences.

A very enjoyable Sci-Fi film and the first sci-fi blockbuster to attempt something original while using the familiar element of time travel. The cinema was unexpectedly packed tonight so it has definitely interested a lot of people. While not a classic it is certainly one of the best modern science fiction films made in the last five years and is definitely worth checking out; especially if you are a fan of time travel like me.   

Beer and Baby Food

Got up at the crack of dawn after dragging myself outta bed. When did it get so cold? It was difficult to leave my duvet as I knew that the precious bubble of warmth would be gone forever if I left. But after putting on a dressing gown and a scarf I was warmed up again and ready to hit Tesco, until we got bogged down in early morning traffic due to an accident. We got everything we needed from the shops, getting some odd looks as we piled up the baby food up with the beers, both items we sell at Eddie Catz. We even got a Birthday card for my Boss' Grandad so success all round really, especially since it gave me an excuse to see the dark mornings I so love now that it's Winter. Something about the twilight streets and lamps that makes me feel very humble, if only I could get out of bed earlier in the meantime.

I wanna be with you everywhere

Admittedly, in the morning, I was having a bad day. The weather was miserable, everything was going wrong for me at work and I just felt a bit hollow on the inside. Then I got an email from my girlfriend whom I had been without contact for a week which cheered me up to no end, literally, everything suddenly got better after I read it, particularly after reading the second one which was just a transcript of Fleetwood Mac's 'Everywhere'. Everything except our blatant lack of stock at work, it was pretty bad so now I have to get up to go into Tesco with my boss at 7:30 tomorrow morning, admittedly that does sound like a bit of fun but it means no lie in... 

Code Red

This evening I stared at myself in the mirror, long and hard. I had a haircut recently so I am getting used to how I look once again and also because I feel absolutely knackered. Work really took it out of me, especialialy after we suffered from, what my boss lied to call 'Code Red's' The first was after somebody had a toilet accident, the second was introduced rather ominously as he said 'follow me.' Silently we ran up the stairs to the managers office (in great haste mind, as this was a 'code red) he sat down at his desk and said:

'Theo, what do you think of this song?'

And he put on Turn Around by Conor Maynard, a song so naff I couldn't make it through the first chorus. At least the absurdity of the request was a welcome change of pace considering the manic day we had; and I have a sinking suspicion that tomorrow is gonna be worse.

Clothes are everywhere

Went through my chest of drawers to see if I actually knew what was in there and if I recognized any of it, chucked a few bits away and the rest will be coming to a charity shop near you.* Louis was in a bit of a down mood today, especially after his bike broke so I got him some Skyrim DLC to keep him happy. There was also a bit of experimenting going on with our coffee machine as I attempted to create an awesome cappuccino, what I got was a big mess; guess I just stick to mochas in the time-being.

*Only in the Newbury area and that IF I get round to taking them down to Oxfam

Happy 2nd Birthday to the Blog!

As soon as it came to the beginning of October I knew that something special was around the corner, it felt like something had to be given a ceremony of some kind. Shortly later I realized that it was Cafe Studio's Birthday. This time however we shan't burden you with another rush video like last year! No no! Instead we bring you the first of the Cafe Studio's Podcasts, or as we like to call it, the Filmcast! So if you have even been walking to work, doing the ironing baking some scones and thought to yourself 'Damn, I wish I could listen to 3 lads have witty banter about films' then now you can! You can download the sound file in the link below so you can listen to it on the go or save it for later when your are curled up with a nice cuppa coco in your nest of a duvet with your headphones; at least thats our serving suggestion.

Podcast can be found here!

As also mentioned it has been 2 years since I started blogging and what a fun year it has been! Writing these things have certainly made me take a little bit more pride in my life and have hopefully brightened some of yours. Certainly doesn't feel like 2 years, seems like we were only filming 'The Unprepared Dead' yesterday, about time we did a commentary on that video methinks...

Thanks again for all the readers out there who take their time to have a good read about my life, I know often it ain't great but I often try to think of a high-point of my day and recall it in in a vaguely humorous manner; it's great to be an optimist! 

Another work load

Work again today. My kitchen hand went home a few hours after I got there because it was so un-busy. In this time there was a bit of a mad panic to clean out the fridges as we were suppost to get a repair man to check on it, but he never came. I also tackled a lot of food orders solo today to train myself to do it effectively. Remember to check out the Facebook page and the website tomorrow for more details on our podcast.

'Bad-Ass Indonesian Action Film'

Another limbo day for me, just some time to myself in between shifts at work. Plenty of time to read Maus which is just as good as I remember it the first time. Got a message from Mark asking if we wanted to do anything this evening so I suggested watching The Raid; our conversation was a little something like this:

Theo: 'Wanna come over and watch The Raid? It's a bad-ass Indonesian action film!'

Mark: 'Hmm, I dunno...'

Theo 'Empire gave it 5 stars'

Mark 'When can we come over?!'

While round we were in full swing to sort out plans for the Cafe Studios Podcast. We plan on making this a weekly segment thing where Mark, Dan and myself talk about our latest efforts in creating original content for our viewers and we also enthuse about films we have seen and really want to see. Top 5's, classic film reviews and even a small quiz will be done every week and rotated between the three of us and we are very excited to be recording our first podcast this Friday!

A night of entertainment

After a pretty standard day of work and washing my bedsheets I went over to Mark's house with the usual crowd in a 'Dan and Theo miss their girlfriends so lets give them some form of entertainment evening' thing. Really nice actually, got locked out of Eddie Catz as I thought Mark would be ready to pick me up, turns out the traffic was awful so I had to wait for a bit in the pouring rain. When he got me though, there was pizza with Total Wipeout and a viewing of Down With Love, a film destined to cheer everyone up. Told Mark that it was a guilty pleasure film and he just replied 'There is nothing guilty about watching this film!'

Adrien Brody Double Bill

As stated yesterday, I got around to watching a couple more films today that have been on my radar for a while now. The first being The Pianist which was very good, especially at the end when you got the sense that you had seen a great film. I did spend the first half thinking about Schindler's List and what a great film that was, but The Pianist was very good at creating a sense of desperation and destruction as one man hides for survival so they are very different films despite the similar subject matter. Adrien Brody was also very good in it, and he was also very watchable in The Darjeeling Limited a neat and quirky little film from Wes Anderson. All his trademarks are here but this film felt a lot more spiritual than the others, there is a lot less dialogue than in other of his films and what we get is a very beautiful and visual film with a very satisfying journey.   

Grumpy Louis

Spent most of today laughing at how grumpy Louis was after he developed indigestion and how he managed to put off all his homework until Sunday evening. Work went in a flash and I am hopefully going to start watching more films in the meantime, my watch-list has expanded an all I have done is ignore it.

First Driving Lesson

Again, last night I was under the effects of my recent cold so I had a Night Nurse after returning from Chris' house for some editing. Today, Mark and I were up at a local recording studio filming a young rockband similar to the Mini Band. We watched them play their instruments and the drummer especially was very loud indeed, it certainly wouldn't be the place to be if you had a hangover. Mark then rushed me home for my first ever driving lesson since I got some for my Birthday. I drove around many a road and speed-bump, I was even lucky enough to go into 3rd gear at one point. Had a wee bit of difficulty steering the car as I'm not overly confident at making turns larger than 45 degrees but I'm leraning; I only stalled twice!

Pondering a podcast

Yesterday, Mark, Dan and I attended a Community Radio meeting to register interest in doing a live local show about films, coming away from that meeting we found out two things. 1: We need to start making a weekly podcast show for the website where we could easily keep people posted about our new updates and plans but also to enthuse about films we have seen and just generally have witty banter that we could share with you guys. 2. I have a very bad cold.

Had one of the worst nights sleep I've had in a long time last night, despite nearly falling asleep on Chris' floor while I was there I couldn't fall asleep for the life of me when I jumped into bed. It got so bad that I didn't even want to look at my watch to see how much sleep I was missing as that would have really scared me Just been generally feeling sorry for myself, about to take some Night Nurse to help me out. Here's to a good nights sleep

*Takes shot of Night Nurse*

Pasta alla Vodka

Just another day today, my eye feels much better and work was samey as always. Made an interesting pasta meal for dinner tonight which involved setting fire to vodka which was pretty fun and quite tasty.

Eye Eye

Had Mark round early this morning after dropping Lucy off at her new job to watch What ever Happened to Baby Jane? A creepy movie similair to All about Eve but with a much darker tone, Mark certainly felt the tension as he was frequently talking to the characters, telling them what to do. Then we picked up Dan and Jamie for some fish and chips and games, I managed to shoot myself point-blank in the eye with a nerf gun, nothing serious but my eye just hurts like hell. I was also just having a cheeky look on IMDB before I went to bed when out of the corner of my eye I saw a big-old spider crawl across the wall, took me 10 minutes and a whole lotta swearing until I finally plucked up the courage to get him. Luckily Jamie was playing with my spider catcher earlier so it was in arms reach, with it I could nab the bugger and chuck him out the window; good riddance! 

Happiness is cake

Work was no where near as busy as anticipated and we actually had a very nice party at the end of the day. The parents of the kids really enjoyed themselves and were so pleased with the party that all the working staff working there were offered a piece of Birthday cake! Success there then. My girlfriend also took some time (and some serious cash possibly) to give me a call all the way from Nepal, she sounds like she has gotten over the initial home-sickness stage and is starting to properly enjoy herself.

Calm before the storm

Spent most of today playing through more of Borederlands 2 and some Torchlight 2 with Louis and a chum where much banter was had. I am however, dreading work tomorrow as I know that we are gonna be really busy indeed. Weather forecast for tomorrow is practically Hell on Earth. Guess I just need to man up and take it on head-first!

Geocashing

Not only have we released our new sketch viewable here:

The Boyfriend

...But we also all went Geocashing as a team. If that word confused you, like it did to me this morning allow me to explain. A team of people have gone around the UK and dispersed small containers pretty much everywhere. They are designed as a kinda modern time capsule thing as this started early last year, but you download an app and go in the rough location it sends you to but then you're on your own to look around the spot for the elusive box. We found two of them and signed the small time sheet within each.

Its a fun little thing to do if you got a free afternoon and there were at least 20 of them within a mile around Newbury so you can check out the site for yourself to see if there are any hidden around your neighbourhood:

www.geocaching.com/

The Boyfriend

After various trails and tribulations, our new sketch stumbles out of editing and onto your screens. This one isn't very family-friendly, so watch out for various expletives. We would also like to thank Newbury Police Service for their concern as Olly was shoved motionless into the back of a car.

Out with the old and in with the new (Dishwasher)

After going 2 months without a functioning dishwasher at work we finally inherited a new one, or rather a second hand one from another branch while they get a brand new one. The one we go came with some serious limescale too, spent 40 minutes cleaning it all out with a sponge and a knife to get all the crap out of the jets. Now I have 2 days off though, and with Borderlands 2 coming out early tomorrow morning I have my weekend all planned.

The second coming of Eddie

Did a massive re-jig of my room to accommodate my new computer set up. All my games consoles have been neatly put away in a cupboard but still readily available if I need to plug any of them in. Did all this before heading to work where I got to be the cat for the second time and this one went much smoother than the first. The children were younger and less skeptical about 'The man in the suit,' I gave them all hugs and tussled the Birthday boys hair so I think I did a good job.

I want to ride my bicycle

Louis came home with a massive gash on his hand after spectacularly falling off his bicycle this afternoon, he ripped his favorite pinstripe trousers too; couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy.  Went over to Chris' house to give moral support to the team as Mark edited parts of our new sketch, destined to come out soon. I also picked up my cable from Mark so I am now running my PC off my television at the moment, still figuring out if I like it or not, text is a bit hard to read at times but aside from that, it looks pretty boos! Work was another typical day but I found out 3 things about my Manager today:

1. He didn't know York existed
2. He didn't know what the equator was
(Saved the best til last)
3. He thought that Pepperoni was a vegetable...

'Nuff said.

Adios

Today was our last day with the Spanish boys at our house, they spent the day looking around Newbury while I leveled up in Guild Wars 2. Went out to a farewell house party for the Spaniards in the evening after playing some Wii games for Louis' Birthday. Showed the guest 'PSY Gangnam Style' video, a Korean pop song which is suddenly dominating the charts in many countries, which is very impressive for a self-aware club hit.

See the video here:

Part-time English Breakfast

After treating our Spanish visitors to a full English Breakfast under the false impression that our household has one every Sunday I pootled off to work for what felt like a very long day. Nothing happened out of the ordinary but time just seemed to drag on, I was so knackered that night, seeing a roast dinner when I came home really boosted my spirits.

Camping in a freezer

Spent another night camping yesterday, suffered possibly one of the worst nights sleep due to my feet being very cold, along with the rest of my body. I need to huddle into the fetal position to regulate any form of acceptable body temperature but strangely I still really enjoyed myself at my girlfriend's camp-out. She also left for Nepal today with tears in her eyes as she will be away from home for 6 weeks, I will miss her very much.  

Coffee and Card

I was riven down to Stansted today to pick up a group of exchange students from Spain. I bought myself a meal deal and an espresso as I waited in the Arrivals Bay with my crappy hand-drawn sign for Carcaxient. We currently have two young lads living with us at the moment, I showed them how to play Left 4 Dead and we took them to our local castle ruins and they seemed to settle in quite well. 

'Bacon Hands'

We had a very quiet morning at Eddie Catz today, made a sandwich or two for some children but mostly the place was a ghost town. Early afternoon was a little bit different as a whole crowd of people came in to grab a coffee at the same time we had a massive delivery scheduled, yet we had virtually no room for any of the new stock in our freezers. This resulted in an ongoing, 2 hour effort between 4 staff members to re-jig the freezers. At one point I had to wrap up a whole lotta bacon in slices of four, I was about halfway through the process when my boss came in screaming 'Theo! Come quick!' Of course I happened to have 'Bacon hands' at this point so I dashed to the taps to wash off the bacteria and sprinted to he food cupboard where there I found, my second boss, who apparently was in an effort to clean out the back of a chest freezer, managed to fall behind it and get stuck there. It took three people to help pull her out of that gap amidst bouts of laughter from all parties.

Mark and Lucy also came round to deliver the last Birthday present, a mounted Big Lebowski poster! As I walked back up to my room with a white russian in hand I stood for a moment and thought to myself: The Dude abides. 

Happy Birthday Boxing Day!

Last night I didn't get a chance to do a Birthday blog unfortunately but I certainly had a good time with my chums as we BBQ'ed and partied long into the night. I got a copy of Maus which is a utterly fantastic graphic novel which is direct conjunction with Louis' gift of an ironic children's book  entitled 'All my friends are dead' which is wickedly funny. Spent today recovering after having a great nights sleep in a tent in my garden and staring at my new lava lamp in awe and sorting out my new phone contract, I'd better make the most of all those free texts! 

Grapes of Wrath

My day at work was booked with 5 parties to cater for, it was definitely a change of pace compared to what I have been used to recently so we had a few moments of panic when party food wasn't quite on time but we coped well. Louis and I decided to watch The Grapes of Wrath since he was a big fan of the book and I am a fan of John Ford and Henry Fonda. It must have been phenomenally good for its time with some great settings and a couple of nice little speeches taken from the book, it would have been nice if some of the more minor characters were better characterized but I guess that's what the novel is for.

Beer Festival 2012

After a crash course on how to iron, wash and hang up clothes from Mum I went off to the Newbury Beer festival to try some of their fine ales. To my surprise I came across some of the Belgians I met at Youth for Europe there who were just chilling and enjoying the lovely British weather. Off to supposedly hit the town now, however I won't be staying up too late anyways as I have work the next morning and apparently we may be very busy with a plethora of children parties.

Quiche, coffee and elbow grease

Work was dead again today, but this time, we were not just lounging around, no sir. For a long time now we have had a griddle that was supposed to be used for frying burgers if we ever included them on the menu, that idea never materialized and we used the surface for food preparation. So we decided to scrub it up real good and flog it for a fair price, the actual scrubbing process required me to pour boiling water on a hot stove and use a wire brush, safety gear of a pair of heavy duty gloves, an apron and eye protection was given; a co-worker observed keenly that I looked like one of these:

After shipping off that space we spent another few hours giving the kitchen a much needed deep clean and re-jig to boost efficiency in the work place and to make space for our new fridge. We got our hands very dirty in the process of the cleaning but it looked really pukka at then end of the day, there was even some broken quiche and stale cake to eat after close which went down very nicely with the newly found staff instant coffee. Seriously, the kitchen used to be cramped but now I feel like I could do acrobatics in the new space as I toast paninis!

Your my Rushmore

Work was predictably easy today, so much so that I was sent home early since there were no customers in the place after the 'lunch rush' of a single food order. Returning home I tided up my room a little bit for the usual crowd who came over to watch Rushmore, a film which has well stood the test of time and was much better than I remember.

Back 2 School

I was at work again today and the first thing that struck me was a massive ongoing headache I carried with me for the rest of the day. It felt like my head was two sizes too small for my brain. Luckily, today wasn't at all busy and tomorrow is looking to be a glorious day, and all the kids will be back to school as well so I will have a ridiculously easy day ahead of me it seems.

Trip to Marwell

Sorry again about the distinct lack of blogging over the past few days, this is because I was staying over at my girlfriends house which is situated in the countryside which gets internet at about the same speed as when you wait for the very last drizzle of ketchup to come out the bottle. Today we hit the zoo as a big group as we were all eager to do something before Jamie and Dan go back to school for their year 14. Undeniably the highlights were the Otters, the Anteater and obviously then Penguins which were very cute indeed. During the car journey we listened to an audiobook version of The Little Prince, Jenny's radio was broken and we had to resort to the old cassette tapes for entertainment, sadly, her car is also very noisy on the motorway so I didn't get to hear much of the story but I will definitely try to get the tape back to have a proper listen.

NEW VIDEO! TEA!

My Beautiful Laundrette

Got into work, bright and early all ready to open up the kitchen but instead I was asked to go to the laundrette to get our tea towels washed. I have never been to a laundromat thing before so it was all very new and exciting for me, that is for the first minute before I realized I needed to wait another 29 for it's cycle to complete and a further 20 for it all to dry properly. Ah well, the actual day of work wasn't bad at all, tomorrow is the highly dreaded Family Fun Day however, which is a curse for anyone working then as we are going to be insanely busy; looking at the weather forecast I think I can rise to the challenge.

Luuuuuuunch Ruuuuuuush

Got my new wireless adapter last night but haven't had a chance to use it until now, I have been rocking all the online games now because previously I was frequently losing connection after we upgraded to BT Infinity. Work was horrendously busy today, possibly the worst I have ever seen it, the lunch rush simply didn't stop, from 10:45 until 5:15 there were still people ordering food and a mountain of washing up to be done. We gave it our best shot though and I think we did ourselves proud. Going back tomorrow though and the forecast is even worse, here's hoping to a better day then. 

Staff meal shenanigans

After a very nice bank holiday yesterday I am now faced with a seemingly daunting week ahead where I am working everyday, funny though as no matter how much I think it'll be a bad and busy day I always seem to enjoy myself at work. Today especially so as we all had the staff meal to look forward to in the evening. So after finishing off the last of the kitchen mopping we toddled off to Prezzos, we would have gotten there much sooner but we had to wait a bit longer for the late comers. The meal itself was very good although service was a bit slow and the room was very warm. However, it was quite entertaining when our already embarrassing manager somehow found a new realm of generally being embarrassing by immediately tripping up before we even got into the restaurant and made a right scene while people were eating. Other diners were turning around and looking at our table several times due to the sheer amount of flailing limbs at some points that it even made me cringe; but in the best possible way because I had a great time.

What's for Breakfast?

We completely ran out of any breakfast stuff this morning, no cereal, no toast no nothing. That is with the exception of the Pop Tarts that came back from America yesterday. While I was toasting them I feared that they would taste like absolute cack, but they were actually amazingly tasty, probably not the best thing for you first thing in the morning but good enough for me. Spent the day with the usual suspects playing Monopoly, a game I haven't played in many years but only now have actually begun to understand how to properly start raking in the cash. Didn't win mind but I put up a bit of a fight with a space decked out with 3 houses, all fun and games until my girlfriend landed on that square and lost everything paying me off. 

(No longer) Home Alone!

Mum and Dad have both returned from their trip to the States, bringing back with them some small but classic confectionery like Pop tarts and a pair of Levi's which look rather interesting. It was very nice to see them after a long day of work, getting used to making Latte Frappicinos was particulary awkward but I think I have got the knack of it. 

New E&D!

Louis has just finished and uploaded the latest episode of Edmund and Darell, this time they head off to the supermarket for some more hilarious antics that might be close to home for some viewers! You can check it out here:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/601678

But for now, Louis is chilling on Guild Wars 2, a game he has waited 4 years for!

New sketch coming in a few days!

Steak and Cake

Working alone in the kitchen today, kinda got to that point where I started singing to myself rather loudly as my sanity crawled out of the window, there is just something so desperately soul destroying about doing the washing and drying up by yourself. Came home to the ultimate of morale boosters, steak and chips followed by a 'Good work on your GCSE's Louis' cake. He ended up with 3 A*s and 7 A's which is blooming good!

Shopping trip to Lidl!

Since Mum and Dad are off visiting the States at the moment, me and Louis find ourselves home alone once again, and today we were quickly running out of sustenance; a trip to Lidl was in order. Louis has never had that much faith in Lidl as it basically feels like a East Berlin supermarket, I on the other hand was very optimistic since we were essentially living there while in Bournemouth. Fortunately the trip itself was a bit of a gas, we were laughing at the low prices of pizza and even bought ourselves some delicious ready meals, today we had the sweet and sour chicken meal which we ate while watching the Simpsons to give it that 'TV Dinner Charm.' Yeah, it wasn't reat but at least it kept us alive.

Heavy lifting

Today was just like yesterday, except there was 100% more lifting heavy concrete slabs! We have decided to build a new fence around our garden so we got these stone slabs that are supposed to look like wood but instead they look like pink soap, a very bizarre design choice. Louis and I lift about 70 of them from on side of the garden to the next and it took us about an hour, and these things weren't light either!

Me day

Ah, I haven't had a 'Me' day in a very long time, and I'm not sure if I wasted it or put it to good use as I spent most of it just ploughing through New Super Mario Brothers 2 and getting mullered on the Counter Strike: Global Offensive beta. Also, I found out today that even though Mark is on holiday, he is still keeping up the editing of our new sketches which should hit your screens sometime next week I imagine!

Rude Tube BBQ

Spent the day at my girlfriends house after catching a train down to her home, there I was taught how to roughly play Canasta and was even invited to stay to her family BBQ, I felt very much at home there and had an amazing time. I was later persuaded into watching Rude Tube, an endevour I typically regret as it ends rather late and leaves me rather tired.

Back home again

I am now back from Bournemouth and can finally return to the daily blogging scene. Not much else happened out of the ordinary while we were there, we did however become very accustomed with our '150 Homemade Cocktails' handybook and attempted to make as many of them as possible. Coming home felt great though especially after I got my A-Level results which were very positive with an A in Film and B's in English Language and History.

The lovely Bournemouth Pier

Our finest cocktail

The mess

Clubbing, pubbing and a distinct lack of blogging

Sorry about the lack of blogging again, there were many late nights at Bournemouth and I hadn't had the chance to use someone's (Mark's) laptop for quite a while since he has been hard at work editing. A few nights ago we hit Bournemouth town in an attempt to go clubbing for Malcolm's Birthday, what we got was a very busy nightlife and a cornucopia of bouncers eager to check our ID's. The night went anther well but I came to the conclusion that the clubbing life isn't my scene.

Last night we hit the beach again after a very awesome BBQ done by Ben Chen, but this time it was a night beach visit! It was just nice sitting on the shore listening to the waves lapping without the sounds of angry mothers and frisbee jockeys, something very serene about the experience.

And today was a lazy one, stay at home with the exception of a trip to the chippy and a morning Subway deal; nothing spells frugality like getting up early for a free coffee.

Ben 'The Sauce Boss' Chen lighting up an BBQ of epic proportions.

Another display of Manliness from Ben Chen as he and Birthday Boy Malcolm play a game of swing ball in the pouring rain.