Public relations

Got suited up once more to take on the streets of Newbury as Eddie the Cat. Along with my assistant we were tasked with handing out balloons and leaflets to all the girls and boys with a spark of youthful innocence that can and do still believe there is such a thing as a giant walking cat. But mostly I posed with older kids being ironic and once possibly intoxicated gentleman who wanted a photo for his pub's pool room. Good PR at least.

Brain waves

I stumbled upon Joseph Gordon-Levitt's website HitRECord.org today on Reddit after he announced that his website has gotten so popular he would be getting his own TV show. His website is basically a community hub where people upload and share their original content, the best stuff will be featured on this TV show. So after a quick tidy of my room I had a little brain wave for a quick and easy series of videos I could make that would be fun to make, insightful and original! I won't elaborate just yet but I have already started giving it some serious thought and would very much like to work on them ASAP!

Exhausted existance

Bioshock infinite was nothing short of a masterpiece. Finished that. Felt a looming sense of emptiness shortly afterwards. I looked forward to it for many months and now it's come and gone, absorbed by my consciousness in an unforgettable experience. I have nothing left to look forward toanymore and I feel as hollow as I did when I finished Firefly or whenever I re-watch Castle of Cagiliostro. I am spacewalking through life as if everything is on a distant, meaningless plain.

Oh wait! I can watch Archer!

Archer series 3 was hilarious. Finished that.

Crap...

Early morning updates

Got up bright and early for Bioshock and the infamous final steam update/de-dencription. It started of by saying it would take 8 seconds but that ETA quickly rose to 36 minutes. Fortune was seriosuly smiling down on me however as I got to watch the first few episodes of Archer series 3 in the meantime. Very funny stuff.

Blitzing through the game at a break-neck pace so I can get to the ending and final confrontation and hopefully see the floating city of Columbia crumble. So far so good, I am quite viscerally enjoying it as I am frequently letting out squeals of delight or terror exactly where the game wants me to.

Super excited to play Bioshock

Cold in my room. Freezing in fact. Probably means I won't sleep so sell. Which is a shame because I want to be up bright and early to play Bioshock! Aside from work I have practically been counting down the minutes until tomorrow, it's like Christmas Eve all over again. In fact, I'm going to brave the cold and tuck myself in right now!

No pain, no gain

My arm basically seized up this morning, at the time of writing I cannot reach up to scratch my ear without causing a sharp pain in my elbow. I went to the doctors to get it checked out since it felt no better after sleeping on it (not literally, that would have made my arm worse.) Got an X-ray and everything was as it should be, it just hurts a fair bit when I try to move it. Just gotta man up and take it as it comes.

It helps that I had a day to entirely to myself to recover and just chillax as I patiently wait for Bioshock Infinite to come out... counting down the minutes now!

Arse over tit

As a result of a rather embarrassing turn of events, I am am forced to type most of this with one hand. I was asked to trample down the rubbish at work to make a bit more space in our skip. This was a job I had done several times before and actually advertise in case we are indeed overflowing with refuse. However, my preferred method of entering the skip involves climbing up a waist high pole with the circumference of a tennis ball; it's wide enough for a single, well placed foot.

My footing this time however was far from well placed, I didn't help that it was snowing this morning so the pole was slippery and I fell onto my arm. I laid there for a good 2 minutes before going to tell people there might be some hilarious CCTV footage; I managed to make someone cry with laughter. Feels like more than a graze now though, I can't really bend it at all so I popped a bandage on it and hope it'll feel better in the morning.

Behind the scenes of Yes, Prime Minister?

A helping hand

I'm back in England!

I will try my best to get some photos from my holiday and explain it all in detail once I get the photographs and videos sorted, which should be tomorrow!

Today I was greeted with the brunt of British weather at it's absolute worst. Walking home was a rather miserable event until I almost got home that is. A small old lady, whom I thought I recognized, waved to me so I approached her and she asked me for directions to... even she didn't know where. She suffered from short term memory loss and had been walking for seemingly hours as she was soaked to the bone and it was apparently daytime when she left home. I walked her into Newbury high street in an attempt to jog her memory with no success. She did mention wanting to go to the police station to get directions however so I walked her that way and talked with her along the way.

We arranged a lift back to her care home at the station and she was extremely grateful that I went so out of my way to help her. She could have possibly been walking for many more hours if she hadn't have asked someone but by the end of the ordeal she felt of me as a friend. It was a bizarrely heartwarming and humbling hour knowing that I did all I could to help this lady.

Yes, Prime Minister?

Mark here whilst Theo is away in Spain. Hopefully he'll be back blogging soon but in the meantime, here is a brand new sketch from us called Yes, Prime Minister?

Final Boss

Boy it was very grim this morning, walking into work was an absolute nightmare. Bearing in mind that today would mark the 7th day in a row I have essentially done a morning to close shift and I knew we would be busy with 5 parties, traveling to work in the near-storm like conditions of this morning made it feel like I was approaching a final boss level.

Trousers were soaked when I got into the kitchen, and then I had to stand with the Saturday trolley again. My luck turned around though when I got to train the new girl who was simply superb at everything she did and a real joy to teach. Me and my boss also had a small outing after hours to pick up a new freezer for work. We were scanning the house numbers as we drove past until we found a delightful couple who were glad to see their freezer go, it will be invaluable at Eddie Catz.

So after a long ol' week of work and a lot of nasty weather recently I could really do with a short holiday... Good thing I'm off to Spain tomorrow! While I am not overly confident that there will be internet where I am staying, I will try to take plenty of photo's to display upon my return on Thursday. Have a nice week everyone!

Red Nose bake-off

Just came back from a session of staff bowling with a blistered/bleeding thumb and a broken nail; it got pretty serious. Mark and I also did a bit of filming again for Gardner Leader, this time with a bake-off! Nearly every member of the team made a cake and bought it into work and they all looked super! Had a great time filming them and the judging process.

Giant parrots are apparently a thing

Another day that blends into the others so nothing very special to report. I did come across this rather amusing and cute video of an endangered species of parrot in the wild! Hooray for the internet!

Where's my apron?

Cold again, wrapped up all nice and warm before leaving the house only to discover I forgot my apron. Running home only kick-started my memory as I understood that there was a brief possibility that I left it at work, my suspicions and panic subsided when I arrive to find it on the banister waiting for me at work.

I am currently trying to get myself back into a film watching mood, I want to watch more stuff and just explore what is our there on a daily basis again, I am trying to ease myself back with some shorts, hope the fire in my belly re-ignites.

Highs of sub-zero

Left my window open last night, my room was like an igloo when I woke up. There might as well of been icicles on my eyebrows as my only salvation was to hide my entire face under the covers and pray for the cold to go away, it would have been too much to get up and shut the window. I was jolted from my bed however after a text from my boss came through informing me that a co-worker has been taken ill (presumably by the bad weather.) Pegged it down to work, facing the brisk winds only to discover a brisker temperature inside the centre. Many members of staff wore gloves at some point while I raised my body temperature by having 4 cups of coffee.

Our latest sketch is now in the editing process now that Mark is back from holiday! We visited TV Bay, a local broadcasting network whom Mark now works for and they very kindly lent out their studio so we could edit there and it is so cool inside! Big ol' cameras and sound-proofing everywhere, professional and inspirational!

Mothers Day Muffins

Just finished work, a normal day with a new and rather ambiguous rule about discounting muffins as it is Mother's Day. Louis and I went down to Lidl yesterday in search of Mum's favorite chocolate bar but sadly they didn't have any so we bought her a whole bunch of similar chocolates and presented it to her the morning where it was met with sarcastic scorn funnily enough. We went above and beyond this year it felt...

About to watch the final two episodes of Life on Mars before sloping to bed, should be a nice evening. 

Same cinema, same film

First time for everything. Went to go see Wreck-It-Ralph again today for the sake of seeing it with Mark and Dan for our podcast so we discuss that in our latest episode which will be up soon. Mark stayed behind after recording to play Dead Pixels, a game I picked up for about £1 and we spent about 2 hours on it, just tanking our way through wave after wave of pixelated zombies.

Rain usually means busy

Considering that its been the first time, in what feels like 2 weeks, for it to rain here, I sure didn't miss it. Rain typically means a very busy day at work and the common leaky ceilings we get too. But once again we were very quiet today for no special reason. Nearly everyone at work has caught this sickness that he been going around, my boss has had it for the past week and it is slowly working it's way through the other staff. Hasn't hit me yet though, guess it's just a matter of time.

Adaptation

There was a time where Nicholas Cage was a very decent and interesting actor, and I think he stopped being that after he was cast in Face Off and got a taste for being in action films. However, his performance in Adaptation was possibly the best I've even seen him; tied with Leaving Las Vegas. Adaptation is about a troubled screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) attempting to adapt a novel written by the Meryl Streep character, writers block and several other distractions get to Kaufman however, the most hilarious of which is how he tries to cope with his more successful twin brother (also Cage.) The film dips into moments of great comedy and tender moments when dealing with relationships and periods of self doubt that are unique and great to watch. One scene in particular involving a script doctor was very bizarre and intriguing, ending with the advice 'Wow your audience in the end and people will remember it.' Unfortunately the film didn't take it's own advice with a third act that is a bit too detached from the overall feel of the film but it was still enjoyable. I recommend this movie if you were a fan of Being John Malkovich but this has a little more structure and substance in my opinion so check it out.  

Happ Birthday Lucy (a making of)

Yesterday was a huge and successful day for us. It was our friend's Birthday and we we wanted to do something a little bit special but since she is quite a 'low-key' person she didn't want to do anything too flamboyant for her Birthday. Mark suggested just coming over to mine to chill and eat pizza. That would be fine for some situations; but not this one.

Texts were sent, phone calls exchanged, messenger pigeons set free in order to arrange a surprise party! With Me, Dan, Jenny and Phoebe on our team here is what we did.

Firstly I got up and had a shower and some breakfast, can't do nothin' til you done that. Biked down into the high street to pick up a piñata plus munchables for the evening:

Penny the piñata

 I then met up with Jenny for some amazing cake baking, she had per-prepared some delicious fairy cakes but we also went all out to make an amazing sponge cake.

Initial stages of the cake decorating

 So, now we had a small buffet table with crisps, sweets and the like but the table looked a bit bare, as did the room. Before I even had a chance to think Jenny bursted out with 'Banner!' like an over excited child. Grabbed our roll of 14 year old paper and got cracking with paint at the ready.

Long way to go here, still had to colour in 'PY BIRTHDAY LUCY'!

So far so good. Picked up Dan from school and ventured to both Sainsburys and Tesco for decorations and additional bits

The car boot was groaning with goodies at this point

Back to mine (we were in a bit of a rush now.) Dan and Jenny decorated the cakes, and the room while I endeavored on a much more feral task involving these damned things:

 

 

As of yesterday I have a love/hate relationship with coconuts

Plan was to have hollowed out coconuts as quirky make-shift cups. Plan was to have them done nice and quick. Notice how it's daytime in this picture? Retrospectively I should have taken a photo of my little coconut shop of horrors with a tool-set ranging from a Chinese meat cleaver to a hack saw, just anything I could get my hands on to crack open these bastards. Immensely satisfying when it happened though, just took 90 minutes longer than expected!

Eventually the room looked like this:

Little victory pose from Dan here too! Note the incredible Birthday chair!

And here is some of the spread we prepared.

Nail the coconut cups!

All we had to do now was wait...

Wait and cook pizza...

Collectively we also decided to add on a last minute 'surprise' element by shutting the door to this room until it was needed. So when Lucy turned up we all said our Happy Birthdays and the like, made small talk to distract Lucy from asking why the door was shut and while we waited for the pizza to cook. Longest 5 minutes of my life. Eventually it was all done and I nonchalantly said 'Shall we go into the dining room? Lucy could you get the door, my hands are full with Pizza.'

The look on her face was worth every second of effort put into making that room what it was. She was holding back tears of happiness she told us. She deserved it too for being an all round lovely person and a great friend.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Naff all, just the way I like it

My bed was very comfy this morning, I just tucked myself in over and over again until I convinced myself that there was more to life than cosy bedsheets. In reality though, I could have stay in bed all day and it wouldn't have made much difference as I had a chill day once again to recharge. It was rather nice to actually be home for Sunday Dinner today as well, as opposed to the usual microwave version of the same meal the family ate 3 hours ago I get after work. Gonna hop back into my bed now!

The odds were against us.

Eight parties today. Eight.

Typically we have 4-6 parties on a single weekend day but today was different. It was the one day of the week all the staff members were dreading because several kitchen staff members booked the day off as holiday. This meant it would be me, a girl who ended up leaving early for feeling beyond ill, and a party host who could just about knock up some chips and a jacket potato. we knew it'd be chock-a-blocker. To add to this already busy day, the coffee machine lost all pressure, meaning that it could take upwards of 2 minutes to get a single shot of espresso.

We were doomed it seemed. But as luck would have it, we weren't quite as busy as anticipated. The head of Eddie Catz cafe management came down from London for the day and politely asked if I could have a short, 15 minute break because we were so busy. Imagine the look on his face after I came back 7 minutes later to get back into the action. I think he was impressed.

Came out of work today with a lot of positive comments and praise which was really lovely coming from a team of great staff members.