Delicious hot drinks all around!

Scheduled to meet up with Mark today but he was a bit late due to him playing Risk with a bunch of other people. After unlocking the true potential of our coffee machine yesterday I have been looking for any excuse to make people coffee or hot chocolate with the steamer thingy on the side, makes a damn good coco!

TellTale = Awesome

Spent this morning finishing off TellTale's game adaptation of The Walking Dead, episode 1 was finished quickly but when I started episode 2 I couldn't put it down; it was phenomenally good! Just hope they can keep it up for three more installments. I also spent some time with my girlfriend watching the Olympics, really awesome that England managed to earn a silver in gymnastics and I'm sure we will bag at least one gold within the fortnight.

Freak Rainstorm

We had a massive rainstorm at work today, freak weather at its worst. Seriously, it was sunny one moment and a monsoon the next. Of course we also have the leaky roof going on where I work so I had to clean up all the rainwater filtering through the warehouse ceiling, unlike Buxton's water though, this filtration process probably did not make for very tasty water. Then the thunder came and all the kids started screaming, delightful. A repeat of yesterday evening came about today as well as I was taken out to re-film the play, I ran out of tape in the first half but it was much better this time around as I actually had a chair to sit on, this minimised back pain by 100%. Currently staying over at Mark's house as I forgot my house key, I also underestimated when abouts Louis goes to bed as he offfered to open the door for me via a text I received after I made my bed round here, ah well.

I'm freezing

Jamie rung me and woke me early this morning so we could hang out, the rest of the day was basically spent playing games and scrounging around the kitchen for food. In the evening I was invited to help Mark and Chris out with filming an outdoor play, I cannot remember being so cold as I was holding up the camera, my fingers went numb very quickly and we all just wanted a hot water bottle by the end of the day.

An all nighter of epic preportions (Youth for Europe is over!)

I have finally returned from the Newbury Youth for Europe gathering which consisted of about 40 people from 6 different countries. The entire event was absolutely amazing and just a ton of fun, Mark and I met so many new people that were very interested in the British culture and we were happy to tell them everything they wanted to know.

The Europeans even joined us in many game of improvised indoor tennis

I already mentioned the trip to Thorpe Park but a few days later we headed off to London to show them everything the city had to offer. Immediately after exiting the train however, one of the Spanish people lost their train ticket, also since we were using the group ticket thing the trains offer, I had to stay with them to buy a new ticket and take them around London for a little bit. I was told to meet the rest of my group in Westminster but I had great difficulty in understanding how the underground worked, after a brief delay though we were back on track and visited Parliament and Trafalgar Square.

 At the end of the day the main group were due to leave London at 7:30 but a small group wanted to stay for another hour to do a little bit of shopping. Being the gracious host person I am, I opted to stay with them so they could get their 'Mind the Gap' fridge magnets and other bits of memorabilia. This group, consisting of an Italian, 3 Germans, 3 Hungarians and myself, as I took them back to the station an hour later I had to joyfully explain why London trains are typically delayed, in this case, we waited an hour longer for our train to arrive. After it did, there was only standing room in the bar area available, it was very warm and the train experienced technical difficulties multiple times. On a happier note, one of the Germans I was with got into a very peculiar conversation with a commuter about school, sport and ethics, I could only listen and laugh quietly to myself as it went on, the German also got a free beer out of him so that was good. Eventually the train stopped in Reading so there was now room for my group to sit on the train, just as we get comfy there is an announcement.

'Everyone expecting to be traveling to Newbury this evening, I'm afraid I have some bad news. This Train is experiencing some technical difficulties and will not be traveling to Newbury. However, alternative transport is being arranged for you.'

AKA: The bus of shame. We got home that night at 11:30 to frozen pizza.

Last night on the other hand was very special as Newbury was the host of the first ever sporting event inspired by next weeks games.

The famous logo!

The first every 'Beerlympics Games' took place outside, starting off with 2 rounds of Flunky Ball (google it!) And later on some games of Beer Pong, all was very good fun, even Mark got roped into downing a small glass of cider. And by the way, I was also on the winning team!

As the games came to a close at 4:30am I decided to call it a night, little did I know that our bedroom was hosting a Mario Kart tournament so I stayed up for that too. At 5am we were all tucked in while having a bit of witty banter. The oldest English person, and general care taker of the Youth for Europe group however was quite eager to do an all nighter, suggesting more Mario Kart of card games. Then he burst out with this:

'I know what we should do... Feed the ducks at the park! I know its ridiculously early in the morning, but it will be worth it for the looks on their little ducky faces!' 

So, some English guys and 2 French people all piled into Mark's car at 5:30am to feed the ducks. It was incredible.

I am currently writing this during the real Olympic ceremony, not quite as prestigious as the Beerlympics but it is still special. Danny Boyle's ceremony has been phenomenally spectacular and now the countries are all marching into the stadium, after seeing Argentina, Australia and Armenia I quickly realized that they were alphabetical and we had a very long way to go. Here hoping that we earn a couple of medals and that everyone has a very good weekend, for me, it will be an excellent time to recover from an awesome week.

DEAD END TRAILER

Hello! Mark here. Just taking a break from Youth For Europe and thought I should post the new trailer for Tom Metcalf's 'Dead End' Zombie web series. It looks pretty damn lush - can you spot how many times we appear in it?



Hopefully Theo will be back soon as Youth For Europe is nearly over. We spent most of last night playing 'Chairman Mao' and they've been to London today. I think the plan for tomorrow is to go to Bournemouth.

-Mark out.

Barely here

Sorry for the patchy updates on my blog, the thing I am at is an all day everyday kinda thing and I rarely get a chance to come home to write about my day. Although we went to Thorpe Park yesterday which was amazing, everyone had a really good time and today we headed to a nature discovery center and went bowling, which I was incredible at!

Mugs

Took the Europeans down to the conveniently timed canal anniversary where they had the big festival and whatnot, some tents for arts and crafts. We pitted ourselves against the might of the tombola and won a pair of rather dirty mugs. Good times.

Dark Knight Rises

I didn't get the chance to blog yesterday as I was at a day long event for Youth for Europe where a bunch of teenagers from all over Europe come together to have a good time, there was 40 of us in total and they all needed feeding... by me, Mark and another lad. We did quite well considering the minimal manpower we had but the true pain came from the washing up, which took an hour in itself. After that, it was about 9:45pm, time to head home and unwind I told myself, then Mark says 'Ooooh Dark Knight Rises is on, lets go see that.' Stupidly I agreed despite having work the next morning and the showing would finish at half 1 in the morning but it was Batman so I'd let it slide.

The film was... great but disappointing by Christopher Nolan standards. It was all a little bit too busy and rushed in places, but the acting was amazing, especially Micheal Caine who easily had the best moments.

This may seem a little lazy, but I actually found a spoiler free review of the film that sums up any point I would try to make about this film far more successfully than I could:

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/CMJ/news/?a=64264

The final moments were pretty good and quite satisfying I will say.

More zombies

Mark and I were invited to star briefly in Tom Metcalf's latest film which will heavily feature the popular undead creatures. Metcalf kinda work like a really good version of Roger Corman, he works fast and effectively and really knows how to do some decent make-up!

 
That's Mark there with a bit of blood-soaked gelatin hanging off his chin looking like rotting flesh, getting ready to have his head impounded once again but this time with a door-frame; violent stuff!

Making dinner for myself was a wee bit of a nightmare today as I attempted to make myself a cheese omelet. Begun slicing up the cheddar to find blemishes of mold all over the block of cheese, looking in the fridge there was only one other kind left: That crappy, plastic cheese stuff McDonald's put on their burgers; suffice to say, it was not a tasty omelet.     

Freddie Kruger!

Most of today was spent doing the voice recording for our latest sketch, the whole team was assembled in my dining room and meticulously rehearsed their lines so it was in-time with what was filmed. We also got around to watching A Nightmare on Elm Street, a horror classic by many peoples standards. In the right frame of mind it can be greatly enjoyed but I didn't find it quite as 'great' as I expected it to be. They didn't really go very far into the whole dreams idea as apparently these children only dream about their dull suburbs instead of mighty castles and surreal landscapes, although this is something they would have undoubtedly amended in the sequels. As it stands though, it was a mildly entertaining horror film with a very frightening concept as it forces us to consider our own vulnerability when we sleep and the horror is very accessible as everyone has had a nightmare.  

Outta batteries...

I have been feeling repeatedly tired everyday without fail from 7pm onwards since Saturday, feels like I just need a damn good nights sleep! Today was marginally uneventful, Mark and Lucy came over and we were going to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street, but then Jamie came over and we all ate cake and got chatting and the time flew by so fast, maybe next time. I'm seeing most of them again tomorrow so we can voice record the stuff from yesterday we cocked up.

All systems go

After squeezing in a couple of caverns of Cave Story+ we held a meeting with our collaborators to go through the final edit of the scripts. Things went really well, everyone was very interested and they seemed quite excited to work on this project, many laughs were had, mainly at the expense of how bad Dan is at pronouncing various multisyllabic words. I even en devoured to make cups of tea for everyone but we ran out of teabags so I had to resort to the good old fashioned teapot and leaves. I did brew a little bit too much however, so I had a cuppa tea to myself, I've never been a tea person, but it wasn't half bad.

The team all shifted down to Dan's house to film our new sketch about a very awkward break-up, complete with drunken bravado from the man in the relationship. Filming went swiftly, I was on camera for the first time in... ever I think and Mark certainly seems to think I did a decent enough job. Many scenes did involve us dragging the limb body of an actor towards a car boot however, and this is where the police came and got involved. In fairness, we came across the nicest and most understanding police officers ever who responded to a call where a neighbor showed concern for the actor who seemed to be getting kidnapped, instead the police were all smiles and we continued while our actor beamed as he perceived it to be a flattering testament to his acting ability.

Just got a text from Mark... after 2 hours of filming in the cold we didn't turn the microphone on.

Bugger!

Cheap games!

Steam Summer Sales commenced a few days ago and I have since purchased my weight in all the games I had backlogged but was too frugal to buy at full price. While everyone else was getting Modern Warfare 3 and Dead Island, I was just there, chilling with my copy of Lego Harry Potter, been waiting ages for that one! Work today was as expected but not very busy which is nice, finally got the knack of how to wash up more effectively than the dishwasher, big boss came in for a visit today and said 'well done' on how quickly I managed to get it all done! Felt good.

Walk in the country

Spent a day out in the country with my girlfriend walking the dog, seeing the cows and wading through some very deep puddles, luckily I was supplied with a pair of wellington boots, possibly the first pair I have ever worn to have actually fit me for once. In the evening we went out to an Indian restaurant with her Mother who I got to meet and we had a long conversation about films, a feild which I am relatively knowledgeable at least.

Sketches incoming!

Firefox decided to be a pain and not open yesterday, the important thing was that we are in the very final stages of our new script and we have 2 (that's right 2) new sketches on the way quite soon. Today I was at work for 11 and a half hours but it felt wholesomely satisfying, the lunch rush went really well with plenty of happy customers and even a little bit of banter, I was very lucky to get such a nice crowd then.

Olympic torch relay!

This afternoon Newbury was graced with the Olympic Torch Relay passing through. Even though I was at work, the entire office ground to a halt to catch a good glimpse of the event, and we had the best possible seats in the house!

I have seldom seen Newbury so busy, there was quite a crowd parked outside the town hall all waiting for the runner to pass through. In the meantime we had all the sponsored companies passing through on their floats, even the local police were really getting into the spirits of things, high-fiving people as they drove past on their motorcycles.

 
Sorry about the quality of this photo, but you should be able to see the Olympic torch bearer in white in front of the yellow car, just above the window latch in the foreground. The crowd went wild as he jogged through the market place, 60 seconds later everyone lost interest and dispersed relatively quickly, in fairness the torch was 27 minutes late and they were probably tired from waiting.

A copy of a copy of a copy

Once again I was stationed in the office, today I learnt how to effectively use the photocopier and I only jammed it 4 times! During my lunch break I sat in the corner of the library and tucked into the new Professor Layton game, little bit ticked off because I spent 20 minutes on a puzzle that required me to divide fish by colour and it really stumped me. Evening time was scripting time once again, but only for a wee bit as we did some tweaks to what wasn't quite perfect, it just gets better everytime we work on it!

Late night scripting fun

Today was all about scripting. Specifically scripting our new noir/action film. So today, Mark, Lucy and me all became typewriter monkeys for the afternoon, we carried my computer down into our dining room to avoid any possible distractions I might suffer. After much cursing about configuring my monitor all systems were go!

This was my desk for about 4 hours today. To my left you will see my scripting juice, (double espresso) it kept me on the go and helped me plow through any instances of writers block I encountered. On my right was one of the aforementioned pots of jelly that needed finishing off, this way I could successfully balance the caffeine with fruity sugar. On-screen we have stuff highlighted in blue, this was very helpful while writing as my job was predominantly going back over what had already been written by Mark and Dan, while good it needed tweaking into that good old Cafe Studios goodness you know and love.

The others briefly left me during dinner but returned to finish the job. Oddly enough, Mum challenged if I had eaten my 5 a day at this point while offering me some cherries, this sparked me off on an insane urge for all things natural which ended in a late supper type thing and some more late night scripting.

  
Admittedly it got a little bit French this supper, (minus the Stella) but the atmosphere was very positive at this point as we had now finished a rough copy of the script that only needed a few tweaks away from the completed thing! Over 5,000 words in total and this is easily my favorite line:

'Tell me where he is or this bagel won't be the only one with a hole in him!'

Under my Umbrella

What with the weather being so bad and all, I decided o buy myself a proper umbrella. Last one I had cost me about £5 and lasted me a few skirmishes in the rain but quickly got destroyed one way or another. So now I decided to splash out and get myself a proper brolly, one that could withstand multiple uses, I immediately went searching online. There were a bunch of neat umbrellas all over the place, but none that quite defined me as a person... That was until I found this!

I was sold on the item's description alone:

'Precipitation won't stand a chance!'

Love it! That is currently in the mail, if I'm lucky I might get to use it a few times before the typical Summer weather kicks in! If your interested in getting your own then I found it here:

http://www.notoriousthreads.com/Samurai_sword_handle_umbrella/p1055501_4956338.aspx

Damn you, Jelly!

Yesterday I forgot to mention that Jenny bought over a lot of jelly for us all to eat, and I mean A LOT of jelly.

This was 1 of the 3 bigger ones she prepared, she also made about 8 smaller ones for general consumption. We made our way through about half of this between six of us but there was still loads left. Dad casually opened the fridge this morning to be greeted by a rainbow tsunami of gelatine in all manner of containers. It was my mission today to eat as many as possible so there was enough space in the fridge.

Save the Cheerleader!

Last night I hosted a small sleepover with the usual crowd, the choice of film was Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, a film so embedded into most of our childhoods that it was difficult to view it without the nostalgia goggles. I was laughing to myself at the ridiculous nature of just what we had decided to watch at 1 in the morning. A rough night on my floor followed, eventually the others also got up around lunchtime for some awesome bacon sandwiches followed by 6 episodes of Heroes! Little bit of a mini marathon going on there, but it was so good!

Chicken with Plums

Office life again today, this afternoon I was called into take notes for a meeting with a client, I turned down the chance for a cup of coffee at the beginning of the meeting, seriously underestimating the length of time I would be sat there. 3 hours later we had a much better understanding of our case but our backs were sore. I did get to read a really excellent short graphic novel my Marjane Satrapi, the woman behind Persepolis, called Chicken with Plums about a man who's favorite instrument gets broken and he decides to die, really was the highlight of my day.

I'm a bag man

Sadly I didn't get to see Roberto today as I was stationed in a different part of the office, bagging up old documents to be shredded and recycled in a very narrow archive room. Picked up some more graphic novels at the library, the joys of reading, still in awe at how simple and quick the self check out in there is, don't even need to scan the bar-code on the books, the machine just knows what books you wanna borrow.

Ledgepeckers

Again, was sent to work in the office to organize the bog case file, to which we are now 90% of the way through! Treated myself to an hour long lunch break where I had a very nice coffee with Dad and went to go and visit the library for some graphic novels, currently reading through A History of Violence and just finished a Sandman side story thing. I leave you with my new office best friend who was with me the whole time through the window...

...I called him Roberto

Fun with lifts

Had one of the busiest days at work in recent memory, had to cater for 6 parties overall which is the most I have ever done. Despite that, the day struck a nice balance between difficulty and productiveness, we were always on our feet and had something to do but it never got too stressful. At the end of the evening the boos tried using a scissor lift he hired out to change a light bulb with some interesting results. I got to ride it to the top of the warehouse which was pretty awesome, trying to pilot this massive thing through a very narrow corridor was like trying to thread a needle with boxing gloves.