Happy Halloween 2018!

Feels like I've been waiting all my life the write the sentence 'I went to work dressed as a cowboy', and now I can say that with gusto. They let us dress up at work today and many of our regulars where chuffed that we made the effort. I got a few choice looks when I was walking home, but otherwise it was a pretty cool day at the shop.

This is one if the first years where I didn't have any real plans for Halloween. Rebecca went out in the evening for a work dinner so I just stayed at home. That's not to say I didn't observe some tradition!s Instead of apple bopping and eating doughnuts on elastic, I was drinking sticky toffee ale and eating an candy apple with a few spooky video games. I even carved a pumpkin, because its not Halloween until I fill my nostrils with the smell of pumpkin guts.

I took it easy this year, but I hope everyone else did something spooky or at the very least, ate a little more sugar today than they ought too.

Remembering Grim Fandango

Got up early so I could put my next video into the editing phase. I finished the script, recorded the voice over and cut the footage over the span of 12 hours, I crunched hard to push this one out on my day off and I'm proud to put it out into the world. Here is 'Remembering Grim Fandango'.

I wanted to take a slightly different and more personal approach with this video. I try to rationalise the impact the game has had on my life and explain why I think it should be remembered as one of the greats - hope you like the video.

Babyccinos are Worthless

Got into working forgetting that half term had started for some schools in Bristol, we were swept off our feet with customers as a result. Many of them naturally bought their kids along, and kids means your gonna back make a lot of babyccinos. AKA, the worst drink known to man. Kids just don't want to drink hot frothy milk, 90% of the time when I clear tables I collect babyccino cups that have barely been touched and I just shake my head thinking of the effort we go into making them for people. Stick to juice for your children next time people, I guarantee they'll enjoy it more.

About 80% done writing the script for my next video and I'm really happy with how its shaping up. I'm going to start editing tomorrow and with any luck, I'll be posting the video here within 24 hours.

Whole Lotta Lattes

Got swept off my feet with customers at work today. Between 10am and 11:30 I don't think we actually stopped serving people, I was making skinny cappuccinos, soya lattes and toasting teacakes solidly for the masses. It was a total relief once quitting time appeared on the horizon, I got out before I had to steam one more jug of milk.

I picked up Rebecca from the train station and cooked her a mini roast dinner. She got caught up in a lot of train delays and the like so she was eager to get back and chill out. Bless her, she's so tuckered out that she's fallen right asleep while I'm writing this. I'll be joining her soon enough though since I'm opening the coffee shop first thing tomorrow - setting my alarm for 4:55!

Having a Hoot in Bath

Got up a little earlier again so I could get cracking on writing the script for my next video. I've found an interesting and faintly personal angle of approach for this one and I think it'll really pay off. In between writing though I took a trip down to Bath with Louis to meet up with Mum, Dad and Austin, a Chinese student who is staying with my parents for a spell. We took him to do all the touristy bits around Bath including the Crescent, the Circus and of course, the Roman baths. We were initially planning to take him to a bespoke English pub for lunch, but the weekend crowd meant we couldn't secure a table so a nearby sports bar filled the void. Hopefully he had a good time though, Louis and I certainly did, and I think you can see just how much fun Louis was having based on this picture. Makes me chuckle everytime.

Day of Excellence

Today was one of those rare days where I keep remembering just how good my day was. I'm currently working on my next video which will be centered around Grim Fandango, so I got up early to play it and capture a lot of game footage, I also iced the remaining cakes for my team meeting later on in the evening. Already my morning was packed, but I had to cram in a whole bunch of interview preparation whenever I could. I was extremely nervous before going in to meet them and I kept going over all the things I wanted to say to them over and over again in my head. When I finally got in to shake some hands I felt relaxed and ended up having one of the best interviews I think I've ever given. It helped that they really liked the showreel tape I made for them (they continuously and earnestly mentioned just how much they liked it) and once the formal part of the interview concluded, we all just had a nice chat for a few minutes about what we were watching on TV and the like. I walked out with a spring in my step because I knew in that interview I showed off the best possible version of myself and I think they really liked what they saw.

Once I got back home I finished Grim Fandango and got that warm fuzzy feeling that only Grim Fandango could provide, then I got ready to go out for the team meeting at Coffee #1. We had a super brief meeting about the new tea we were serving (China Breakfast in case you were wondering) and our new manager told us about some upcoming changes. Then he announced which team member managed to sell the most seasonal coffees this month, there was a table slapping drum roll, a bag of goodies was produced and placed in front of me. Turns out I upsold the most this month and for my sins I got a collection of local ales! After I was done being humbled we hung up the Halloween decorations and I carved a pumpkin in the shape of a coffee cup... which I am only just now regretting not taking a picture of.We headed to the pub afterwards for a very quick beer before I came home for a well deserved rest.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I found myself repeatedly thinking back to how good my day has been so far, and now that I've put it in writing here I can sit back and nod approvingly at my day one last time before I head to bed and hope tomorrow is just as good.

Bustling, Busy, Baking Evening

Finished up at work, launched straight into cooking dinner, followed by sending off another job application, followed by baking some cakes. Busy evening for me basically. By the time I started baking it was about half 9, in the periphery of my vision I started to notice the pots and pans beginning to stack up and that made me feel really claustrophobic. Rebecca is down in London over the weekend now too so while I could slightly relax my living standards, it was still very messy so I dove in a tidied that all up too. I'm ready for a bit of a lie in on my day off tomorrow now, I have a job interview going on at 12 tomorrow afternoon too so I'll probably spend the morning prepping for that. Afterwards though, I've got time for a little bit of relaxing.

Oversleeping = Nastyness

For the first few nights this week I'd been getting up very early and only really getting under six hours of sleep a night, this morning I got the opportunity to have a lie in and I think that made me oversleep. I felt really hazy, as if I had the mildest hangover ever and that made work go all the slower. I made a little checklist of all the things I want to do by this time next week and it looks like I've got a busy few days ahead of me, chief among them is my interview on Friday morning. I think I've got a really good shot at this one so I'd like it to go as well as possible, I've allocated plenty of time to prep for it, just need to go away and nail it now.

Bargain Bakes

The furthest we could take out baking efforts for our weekly Bake Off meetings was taking some of ASDA's custard tarts out if the oven for serving. Since it was patisserie week, and seeing as I have no idea where to even begin with one, I handed the reigns over to Rachel who prepped an amazing baked apple with brandy butter atop a meringue nest. I couldn't believe how tasty it was!

Rebecca couldn't sample the flavours tonight though since she's staring to come down with something, I've been trying to be a good boyfriend and get her tea and a hot water bottle. Hope she gets a little better tomorrow.

The University Challenge Look

For whatever reason my stomach felt really unsettled long into the working day. I think it was my digestive system still processing all the pig I ate yesterday seeing as I really didn't have much of an appetite until this evening - once dinner time rolled around I was right as rain. Rebecca was thrilled when she spotted University Challenge was on tonight, her approach to playing along was shouting out multiple answers to questions and hoping one was right. Every now and she'd get one right, then she'd shoot me a look as if she was the smartest person in the universe. Its a look of pride with an overbearing sense of smugness. I think we've all been guilty of throwing around that glance while watching University Challenge.

Eat, Love, Pork

Enjoyed a double-whammy wedding weekend back in Newbury. Last night was the reception party (a perfect excuse to wear a waistcoat if I ever heard one) we danced the night away with free pizza in one hand and open bar beer in the other - a great way to ring in the partnership of a family friend. Today was a kinda 'Wedding Boxing Day' kinda vibe, same wedding guests all dressed down and sitting in the sun with a hog roast. I'd never had a proper hog roast before and I don't know if I paced myself correctly, 8 hours later and I'm still full of pork. Feeling a little fragile now but I'll get an early night so I'm fit and ready to open up the coffee shop in the morning.

Guinness is my Favourite Coffee

Had the pleasure of dealing with a larey chap who drunkenly stumbled into the cafe. He insisted that we sold Guinness but I had to let him down on that front. I decided that killing him with kindness was the best approach and luckily the encounter fizzled out fairly quickly, but not before he aired his opinions on the coffee shop and its staff which I won't repeat here.

Took a trip up to visit Rebecca's friend tonight to watch some choice episodes of Supernatural - not my idea but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Finally had a good excuse to try out my tiramisu too! Turns out the whisked egg whites didn't do it any favours whatsoever though so I won't be repeating that trick. Still tastes great though, albeit with a funky consistency.

Dogs and Coffee

My evening board game shindig got cancelled tonight, by the sounds of things the host's house has been transformed into a den of plauge and lurgy. We narrowly avoided catching anything nasty tonight, and the event has been effectively postponed until tomorrow, this means that for one more night my tiramisu gets to mock me while it sits in the fridge, taunting me with its certain deliciousness. I legitimately pondered about whether I could take a small scoop of it out and smearing out the gap, but I decided against it because there's no such thing as the perfect crime.

I think I've become a bit delirious are I write this, I've been awake since 5am and all I've done is look at coffee beans and edit stock footage of dogs for a promo trailer I'm working on. 'All Work and No Play...' and well, you know the rest. Sleepy time I think.

Tirami-gloop?

A quiet old day at the coffee shop, meant I had some leftover energy to experiment a bit while making tiramisu this evening. In order to combat the usual runny consistently my recipe typically produces (Mum endearingly nicknamed that recipe 'Tirami-gloop') I put my new electric whisk to good use and folded in some beaten egg whites to give it a slightly more moussey quality. The final product was certainly a lot more voluminous, but the taste test will be held tomorrow night at Rebecca's book club turned board game night. Really hope it sets nicely overnight and impresses.

Stress Baking

Had one of those days where everything made me grumpy. I'm working on a showreel piece as part of my next job application which is moving along a bit slowly at the moment and I had a driving lesson which I thought I was going to ace but instead I mucked up a lot of little bits.

So a handful of elements came together to make me a bit grumpy, nothing a bit of fun baking can't fix is what I thought. For Danish week I made some traditional butter biscuits, the recipe called for the mixture to be piped so I splashed out and got a piping kit - I walked home dreaming of all the different ways I could use it. When it came to the actual act of piping though, the bag totally let me down. None of the provided nozzles were wide enough for my mixture and the bag just leaked greasy, buttery dough everywhere. Get what you pay for in ASDA I guess, I'll be heading in tomorrow for a full refund of £2.

The biscuits themselves came out looking dreadful but tasting very good. While my day was full of tiny uphill battles, at least I had something tasty to snack on by the end of it - a net gain I guess.

Auto Pilot Coffee Maker

I was sleepwalking through the day. I noticed that I don't even need to think very hard about what I have to do at work, its all become instinctive and reactionary for better and for worse. I can't wait for robots to take over the hospitality sector. I was dog-tired when I got back though, even now I can feel my eyelids trying to press together and take me into the land of nod. Luckily I have the day off tomorrow and I've got a massive amount of stuff to get through, including editing a video to further a job application.

Soggy 10K

Even though it was absolutely chucking it down with rain this morning, Rebecca, Rachel and I all went down to Greenham Common to cheer Dad and Louis on as they ran another 10K together. Louis seemed to think that the route was so muddy he could empathise with what troops experienced during Vietnam, I'll let you decide if that was hyperbole on his part. Here's a photo finish of the cheeky chappy regardless:

Both Dad and Louis did really well to run in that rain though, they should both be really proud of what they pushed through to get to the finish line.

The rest of the day was spent resting and watching School of Rock. Rebecca had never seen it before because Jack Black put her off. While he's a little less endearing than I remember, it made for the perfect Sunday watch before a slap up roast dinner. Back to reality tomorrow but I already have fond memories of this weekend.

Tully

Most of the day at Newbury was spent just sitting in the sofa, drinking coffee and taking it easy. Rebecca and I played some Mario Kart while Louis nursed his hangover, I think he's feeling a bit better now though, but he certainly wasn't feeling up to coming out on a 3 mile walk with the rest of the family. We took a stroll up around Hampstead Marshall, somewhere I've never been at it was a gorgeous slice of nature. Saw even more sheep, plus a mound where a castle supposedly stood many moons ago.

In the evening we somehow all decided on a movie, even after doing the whole 'infinite scrolling through Netflix' thing. Tully was our chosen film, a movie that depicts Motherhood like no other. Charlize Theron plays a disheveled husk of a woman who is just trying to keep her life together while anticipating the birth of her third child. Wary of the baby's impact on her wellbeing, her brother offers to pay for a night nanny to help lighten the load and we follow the relationship that blossoms between the mother and the nurse. It hit all the right notes for me, while it dealt with adult themes it always found a way to keep the tone light and manageable without sacrificing its message. The highlights were two montages that occur fairly early on in the film, especially one that focuses on tending to a crying baby in the middle of the night. Good stuff all round, a highly watchable indie film with something to say.

Coffee Mercenary

As part of my work I'll occasionally be asked to go and do some cover work in other Coffee #1 stores, and today marked my first shift outside my usual store. When I turned up the queue was out the door, there was washing up and crockery all over the floor. The already knackered looking girl on the til looked me dead in the eye and instead of introducing herself she gestured to the shop and said 'Its a catastrophe!' Turns out I arrived when the crowd hit critical mass and I spent the next hour solely doing the washing up and firefighting the mess - they were eternally grateful for all my help.

After muscling through that shift, Rebecca, Louis and I drove down to Newbury for an easy going weekend, think I need it after today.

Rom the Vacuous Spider

Faced my fear of spiders a little bit by going up against a rather spidery boss in Bloodborne. Rebecca was there the whole time in case my palms got too sweaty to fight and that really helped put me at ease. The whole thing wasn't too bad actually, but that doesn't mean I've conquered my phobia entirely... If you want to get a sense of the fight then I'd suggest googling 'Rom the Vacuous Spider' that'll give you a decent picture of the nastyness I had to endure.

I packed my bags for a weekend in Newbury, it'll be good to spend a bit more time with my family again and a good chance to recharge after a busy month for me.

Development Limbo

Been looking forward to a whole day to myself for some time now, but it absolutely whizzed by. The central part of the day was my driving lesson which went a bit better than my last one. Still having trouble getting the maneuvers right, but general driving seems fine now.

I spent the rest of my day planning concepts for my next video and I even started developing a small idea I have for a mini series, I've always enjoyed coming up with characters so I got to brainstorming for just a short while. I'm in a funny old position when it comes to doing stuff like this because I'm never too sure if it'll ever see the light of day so I consider it to be a bit of a waste if time, yet I really like doing it. I reckon I should do it more often and perhaps treat it more like practice.

Vegan Bakes

Despite the fact I woke up at 5am to get to work bright and early a customer still commented on the fact that I looked very chipper. Didn't feel it after I finished since my eyelids were drooping all over the show the moment I sat down. No time to rest though because I needed to make some vegan brownies in prep for this weeks Bake Off session with Louis and Rachel. Spent more time in Asda looking for the ingredients than I did actually baking - trying to find ground flaxseed at a good price was nigh-on impossible! Regardless of that though they came out really rather good, the highest praise you can give them is 'Wow, I wouldn't have guessed these were vegan!' Which is generally what everyone said after they had a bite so I reckon I did OK.

No Tips

Monday hit me hard. Couldn't bring myself to get out of bed and face the day and it took longer than usual to get into a groove at work. My mood was made a significantly worse after we noticed that our tip jar got stolen, its just a really crummy thing for someone to do. I just kept thinking about the calibre of person they must be to take chump change from us, the principle of the act saddened me more than the practicality of it.

I collapsed when I got home and watched Amy, the documentary about Amy Winehouse and it was pretty special. I'd never been the biggest fan if her music but the film made me appreciate what a talent she had and how several key players in her life took advantage of it. Once you got a sense of the bigger picture the events of her life just became more and more heartbreaking - its a true testament to the power of the documentary when I became so enraptured in a topic that previously didn't interest me. Really powerful and thought provoking stuff.

Sheep in the Cotswolds

My head was a little fuzzy from drinking last night, but that didn't stop me from cooking some mighty fine scrambled egg on toast. That gave me plenty of energy to attend part 2 of Pete's Birthday weekend, this time we drive up to the Cotswolds to go for a little walk around the countryside. I'd never walked through an open field with so many sheep in it!

Really lovely day for it too, we were out for just under two hours - just in time to order some food at the local pub before the kitchen closed. We were all famished after the walk and a nice roast filled me up for the rest if the day. I keep looming back on this afternoon and say to myself 'That was really cool.'

Pete's 30th

After what might have been the busiest day of work so far, I had one of the best nights out in Bristol so far. A mutual friend called Pete turned 30 tonight and we had the privilege of joining him for some birthday celebrations. Basically is culminated in a lot of drinking, but I met some really nice new people that shared my love for The Wire and introduced me to a whole new realm if appreciation for port. Had a really social evening overall and I'd but hard pressed to think of a better way to spend a Saturday evening.

My Spinach Puffs

Caught up on Bake-Off with Louis and Rachel tonight after my absence on Tuesday. I saw a recent episode of Binging with Banish where he remade the spinich puffs from the Emperor's New Groove so I thought I'd try my hand at his recipe.

While they may have ruptured a little bit its only because they were literally bursting with flavour. I've never cooked with shallots or dill before, and when you combine that with spinach, puff pasty and three types of cheese you know you have a tasty snack on your hands. Fun savour treat that went down a storm while we watched Bake Off.

Dropping down a Gear

Not 1, not 2, but 3 job applications were sent off today! Managed to squeeze in a bit of cover letter writing during my break and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. Tonight also marks the first time I was properly able to drop down a gear and relax a little bit. This week has mostly been a lot of early starts and travelling, but tonight I put my feet up on my new ottoman, watched some BoJack Horseman and played a few games - just wish I had a beer to complete the feeling.

Jumper Grip

Slept like a baby last night and felt totally refreshed and ready to stride onto set. It was another BBC promo shoot and probably one of the busiest sets I'd ever been on. There were 6 runners on this one, alongside some talent I actually recognised!

My primary job this time around was holding onto the DOP's back as he walked backwards through a public audience. I think I did pretty well! I got the choreography downpat after a few tries and knew exactly how to hide myself out of shot whenever we did a swift 180 turn.

In between takes I was grabbing release forms like usual, but everyone I spoke to was lovely and really up for being on TV - helps when you can name drop the BBC.

We wrapped at 4 and initially I was planning a leisurely walk back to the coach station after we finished, then it turned out someone packed my jacket into the kit van which had just driven off. Luckily the office was only a few minutes away by car, so after snatching back my coat I jumped in two tubes and ran like mad for the Megabus and caught it with 4 minutes to spare.

Overall, today went a lot better than I expected considering how tired I felt yesterday, everyone seemed really happy with how it turned out too. Chuffed I made the effort to come down.

Stiff Neck Slumbers

Worked the longest shift I think I've do e at the coffee shop now, clocking in just over 10 hours I can happily report that I am shattered. But no rest for the wicked, after finishing work I rushed home to eat some leftovers, pack a bag and head to the bus station to London. I slept the whole way on the Megabus which was lovely and now I'm headed to a real bed at Rebecca's parents house. Gotta rest up for a big shoot day with the BBC tomorrow so wish me luck.

Cramming in the Sleep

Peaked a little too early on my day off, just after Breakfast I thought I'd boot up a little more God of War for an hour just to see if I could get any closer to the end. In that hour, I surprisingly did finish it. The finale came a little out of nowhere but it was really gripping stuff! Definite game of the year contender for me right now.

Wrote up a pair of covering letter for two quite promising jobs I saw being advertised on Facebook. Both of them were junior roles too to help my chances a little so we'll see how we go.

I packed my bags this evening in prep for what's going to be a very long 72 hours. I'm working a long shift tomorrow, then I'm heading off to London tomorrow evening for a shoot day, heading back that night to work another long shift at the coffee shop. What's that saying about burning a candle at both ends? I just hope I get enough sleep.