StratLAN Day 1

Somehow I spent most of my morning packing to get ready to head out to StratLAN. I hadn't packed down my PC for a long old while so I took it as an opportunity to hoover out my vents to get rid of some of the crap and dust that's accumulated over the years and boy, was there a lot of it!

Just about got everything sorted before Mark picked me up to head out, first stop was to pick up the camper van we're hiring out (I'm tucked up inside the roof of this thing right now for bed and I already want to live here for the rest of my life.) We stopped for a McDonalds en route but afterwards we stepped into what 16 year old me would have considered to be heaven. While a room full of avid gamers and players still makes me smile, I can already tell that when I walk in next morning the smell is only going to mature.

Buzzing for Camper Vans

Phonecalls from Mark came though while I was cooking dinner today, he was asking about what my movements were for tomorrow in preparation for StratLAN tomorrow. Bless him, he sounded like he was as excited as I was. Tomorrow we're heading off to pick up our camper van, it'll be our home for the next few nights and I already know Mark is eager to drive it.

Speaking of driving, I actually had a really good lesson today! Everything just felt right for a change which made for a nice change of pace, at a stretch I'd say it almost started to feel natural - that can only be a good sign.

Ready to not make Coffee

Got about halfway through my shift today and I just wanted to go home. Nothing in particular went badly (on the contrary, it was quite a good day) but when I saw the washing up starting to pile high and the steady stream of customers coming in I felt a claustrophobic tightness surround me - I can usually power through these moments but today started to get the better of me. Coming home felt incredibly relaxing, and to make things even better, Rebecca cooked an amazing risotto that really hit the spot. I'm not working again for a week or so since I booked holiday this weekend, I'm already starting to count down the hours.

Sorting Sticky Jobs

Powered through a bunch of little odd jobs that I only just got the chance to complete. I had a pending job application I wanted to work on so I got that done and dusted, which in turn put me in good stead to ask for some extra time off at work for Christmas and to help out on another Wildseed shoot. I sorted out my packing list for my LAN party too, did some finances and cooked a chicken pie for dinner. In the middle of it all I got a delivery from my favourite supplier of sticky black stuff: Gafftertape.com. Mark replaced a bit of my filming equipment and I thought I'd get some extra bits at the same time, so I picked up a rather fetching set of mini fluorescent tapes which make me look super pro. I'm all about the streamlined versatility factor on film shoots and now I've reached a new high... Or a new low if you ask my 'embarrassed for me' girlfriend.

Sunday Slouch

Rolled up some stuffing balls for the roast dinner we had with Rebecca's parents and they were all enamored with them. All I did was follow the instructions but they were pleased that I did that tiny extra bit, but it wasn't like I was too busy today anyway. Spent this Sunday drinking beer and sitting in Rebecca's parents sitting room, lazily watching BBC News and eating mince pies. Its the epitome of a Sunday slouch day and I was revealing in every second of it.

Once we got back to Bristol we watched the final episode of Louis Theroux's Altered States, most interesting part for me was seeing the credits roll and noticing I knew the director. Worked with him in September on an advert and he was a real good egg, nice to think that I'm at the stage where I'm eagerly watching credit sequences to see who I recognise.

Turkey Traveller

After a very slow day at work, I hopped on the Megabus to London (feels like I spent most of 2018 riding these things) to spend some time with Rebecca and her family. Stuffed my gob with a Christmas turkey ciabatta from work and that has actually seen me through most of the travelling this evening, it was like eating a roast dinner in a sandwich - it was glorious.

Closure - Dust Off

You know December is knocking once you've bought an advent calendar. Had to go for a maltesers one this time around as the only Cadbury calendars I saw rather oddly all had football stadiums on them? Wasn't very seasonal at all.

Louis was feeling the festive spirit though when I saw him this evening, we went through all the current Christmas adverts from all the big brands and ranked them. None of them felt especially remarkable this year, John Lewis' is well done but that's kinda their thing. Maybe something will crop up soon that'll blow me away.

I also got round to publishing my first 'Dust Off Review'. These are little writing challenges that I'm giving myself to keep myself occupied and to give my website a bit more content. My first one is on a game called Closure that I bought back in 2012 and I never properly played it until the other day. Link is right here if you want to check it out.

Noticing the Notice Board

Tasked myself with clearing out the community notice board at work, folks often come in to put up posters for local events or their new-age yoga classes for over 50's. One did catch my eye though, Bristol's Old Vic is showing a production called Steamed which is a retelling of a Christmas Carole which is all improvised alongside a steampunk flavour. Mentioned it to Rebecca and 15 minutes later we bought tickets. Guess I'm just a sucker for advertising.

Dust Offs

Although working the early shift means I have to brave the biting cold weather before the sun has even come up, it does mean that I get to go home at a reasonable hour. Rebecca is out tonight too so in theory I had the whole evening to do whatever I wanted! A horrible and familiar feeling started to form in the pit of my stomach once I got home though, it was the feeling of not knowing what to do with myself for the evening. After some deliberation, I decided to seize the opportunity and give myself a little writing task. For a while I've been mulling over the idea of doing some mini game reviews for my website (so written style only) and the other day I thought it would be cool to go through my game library and give some time to all the games I've never played, and boy there is a lot of them. I'm thinking of calling the segment 'Dust Off' or something similar and it's a great excuse to get me writing quick and easy pieces. I play a game for an hour or two and write a review in the same amount of time. It turned out to be rather successful too, I've already written one, just got to add some pictures and it's good to go! Felt my eyelids drooping though so I thought I'd get in bed before stumbling into a late night editing session.

Start Shortlisting

Its that time of year when I start consolidating my thoughts on what my favourite games of the year have been. I spent a bit if time today creating a shortlist and writing a short paragraph for some of them, still got some time before the year is out to get a few more great games in though.

In between thinking about games I squeezed in another driving lesson which went a bit meh. Still fiddling around with the maneuvers but I'll get there eventually.

Double Let Down

Got two bits of moderately disappointing news, firstly my new manager at work is going to be transferred to another shop outside of Bristol in 2 weeks time. Not only was he a good manager who helped bring the shop and the staff together, he was a total bro. I've been meaning to invite him to the pub sometime out of work hours just so we could have a good chin wag, looks like I'll have to invite him out sooner rather than later. After that Rebecca and I found out the guests we were expecting this evening had to cancel on us last minute which was a shame. We were both really ready to spend some quality time with them, plus we already brought all the ingredients to cook them dinner! All the more for us I guess.

Great Company and Great TV

Whipped up a batch of my, now signature apple and cinnamon porridge for Rebecca and me and that put us on the right track for another easy going but lovely day. We headed out to a friend's house for an afternoon of board games and cake, even got a cheeky can of Irn Bru while we were there (still not a fan). In recent times I felt like I'd graduated from the realm of traditional and familiar board games, but today proved that I still have a little soft spot for Cluedo. I've got in the habit of playing it like Mum used to, by constructing an elaborate spreadsheet of information to keep tabs on any new clues. After building up a solid base of Intel, I begun to march my character back to the centre of the board to make my big accusation to win the game, rolling a 1 meant I was 1 square away from victory after a friend beat me to the punch - I was livid since Mum's technique definitely works but there is still a big luck factor you need to consider which really holds the game back.

We returned home in the evening to settle into some remarkably good TV. Dynasties was up first, a David Attenborough nature documentary series and this episode was all about penguins. Generate speaking it was all familiar territory (if you've seen one penguin doc you've seen them all) but this one had a bit if an edge since it managed to capture a remarkable sequence where mother penguins and their young ones fall into a ravine, it turned a well worn bit of nature into something quite tense. Since I'm a sucker for Louis Theroux show we saw his new Altered State episode about assisted dying which was harrowing and thought provoking, one of the best things I've seen him in.

De-Stressing Rebecca

Rebecca's been feeling super stressed at work recently so we took this Saturday as an opportunity to melt away all her troubles. I started off by cooking up some pancakes for her which went down a treat. I did a whole bunch of little chores too like the laundry and the weekly shop so she could switch off for a little bit. In the evening we went out to Pizzarova and made our own delicious pizza as part of a mini date night, it was just nice to go out somewhere without thinking about cooking or washing up. We each had something to drink and by the end of the evening you'd never have guesses that Rebecca had been feeling stressed out - mission accomplished.

Explosive Internet

I know this is a totally unoriginal statement, but since the internet chap came in to install our faster internet it feels like we've stepped into the 21st century. At least it felt like that after we got through the massive ordeal that came with getting it set up today. Long story short, they changed the code to the building's internet cupboard without telling us so we had to go through a daisy chain of phone numbers until we finally got the right one. It's all good now through, I christened the WiFi by downloading a large game as tears of joy rolled down my cheeks as I marvelled at the new download speeds.

Managed to squeeze in a driving lesson today too which went rather well considering its been a little while since my last time on the road. Rebecca and I also headed up to a friends house to watch a proper firework display - first one I've seen all year! It was a local primary school event but the friend's garden conveniently backed right onto the field where the display was happening. What made me smile was just how many new types of fireworks I saw at this cute little event, there were ones that started flying slowly then they picked up speed dramatically and there were ones that exploded with a ring around them, they looked just like Saturn for a fleeting moment. Chuffed I got to finally see a firework display, they always manage to make me feel like a kid again, marvelling at something so loud and so pretty.

Flat Whites and Flatcaps

To give a sense of the kind of clientele that frequents the coffee shop at Thornbury : there was a M&S flatcap in the lost and found. Since I was I'm a cheeky mood, I felt like doing this.

The shift wasn't too hectic either which was nice, I was ready for a coffee-stained warzone but today was a very good level of busy. Mr internet is coming tomorrow to upgrade our service and I cannot wait, it'll hopefully be a real quality of life improvement for Rebecca and me - we might be able to watch Netflix in one room and play an online game in the other now!

Christmas Music Objector

Christmas music has already started playing at work to my chagrin. I'm fair game for a bit of festive cheer, but not in mid November. A customer seemed to echo my thoughts on the music and asked that it be turned down until it was barely audible as background music, I would have given him a high five but it felt unprofessional. I'm bound for Thornbury tomorrow now too, I'm dreading it if I'm being honest since its just so busy there. If there's a non-stop queue there for less than 4 solid hours they consider it to be a quiet day.

At least Rebecca's back home now! She's been away for days now and the flat and my facial hair has fallen into disarray, now I have to raise my standards again which I guess isn't a bad thing if it forces me to be a bit neater. Just nice to have some company at home too.

Carry on Cold

It was only halfway through wrestling a piece of white tack from a child's hand (he was threatening to eat it) that I realised that I had a ripping headache. This cold isn't going gracefully, like a bad guest at a house party it's insisting to stick around even after I started flickering the light switch on and off. With any lucky it will have cleared up  tomorrow, Rebecca is coming back home then and it would be great to greet her without a runny nose and a stuffy head.

La Strada

This cold I've got is holding in for dear life. I'm basically over the worst of it, but my ears are still rather blocked up, which isn't ideal for when I need to listen our to what coffees people want to order. My energy levels have also been totally sapped, once I got home I just collapsed in a heap and seriously considered having a nap - this is coming from a man who doesn't nap.

Since I was in a loliping mood, I put on another old movie this evening, this time it was La Strada, it's also the first Fellini film I've seen since he's probably the most famous director I hadn't engaged with until tonight. I ended up really enjoying this one, it was hard not to fall in love with Giulietta Masina's artichoke-like face and have your heart broken whenever she endured a hard knock. Perhaps I should give some other of Fellini's films a watch...

100 Years of Remembrance

Considering I was all by myself today I decided to go out and see Bristol's Remembrance Parade. I've been living here two years and this is the first time I've seen how Bristol do their ceremony, I got there a little earlier than most so I got a really good spot too, I turned around halfway through the proceedings and I noticed it was suddenly packed with people behind me. Fascinating to think that it was 100 years ago today that the Great War ended, I kept trying to put myself in the shoes of anyone back then who were thinking about the future - did they think 2018 would look like it does? It also dawned on me that this is perhaps the first parade where I have been a spectator, previously I was in the Scouts and marched alongside the armed forces, this time though I was a humble civilian.

Once I got home I put on All Quiet on the Western Front, I read the book years ago and loved it so I don't know why I out off watching this one for so long because it was excellent. Considering it came out in 1930 too it was really pushing the envelope, the battle scenes were impressive, the tone and message was undiluted and it even had some shocking violence that I didn't expect to see from a classic Hollywood movie. Don't pass this one up like I did.

Widows

Had a proper little play date afternoon with Mark and Louis playing board games, drinking beers and just generally taking it easy - this marks the first day in a little while where I could really just switch off for a little bit and I already feel much more rested.

Louis suggested we all go out to see Widows in the evening and it turned out to be a film I wish I enjoyed more. On a technical level, it was pretty flawless, incredible performances, impressive camera work and a Hans Zimmerman score, but even with all that the film felt a little cold and distant at times. It sets up a good bunch of lead characters but somehow I didn't really care too much about their plight. Maybe some characters didn't get enough screen time, or maybe they needed a smidgeon more characterization. So a good, but not great film in my opinion, its like Oceans 8 meets Heat and now that I'm thinking about it, I just really want to rewatch Heat.

A Bit Early...

Despite feeling like a train has run me down, I got up bright and early so I could get into work for 8am. Once I walked in though my colleges all looked rather surprised, I started to worry at this point thinking I had done something wrong. Turns out the rota got shuffled and I was meant to come in at 11. My manager was very apologetic, got a free coffee out the deal at least and that kept me warm on the long trudge back home. Gave me plenty of time to think about how an extra hour or two in bed would've really refreshed me.

Rebecca's packing to head to Amsterdam for a Mother/Daughter holiday over the weekend so I'm prepping my next few days flying solo. Spoke to Mark and Louis and I might be having a lil Saturday for the boys which will be lush.

Gotta Keep on Trucking

Woke up in Newbury for a fleeting visit with my folks before Mark and I hit the road once again to drop off all the filming kit we used over the past few days. Had my standard cup of coffee with a Lemsip chaser as we reached Pinewood, we shed out camera and grip equipment and headed home to Bristol. Although it was only a few days, it felt like I'd been gone for weeks. It was amazing to come home and give Rebecca a big hug before collapsing on the sofa. I reckon my filming adrenaline is about to run out which means I'll be dead to the world for a spell, but I'll keep on trucking back at the coffee shop tomorrow - back to reality for me.

Souper Trouper

A few months back I bought a really great little torch to use on film sets and today I really got to put it through its paces. Cooked a big old vat of minestrone soup in near total darkness, but my new torch kept me going. We wrapped on this shoot just a bit after 11 tonight, very, very tired now and I reckon that everyone who worked on this project deserves a good rest.

Feeding an Army

One more day down, just about got it all in the can. We did a bunch of work with extras today, which meant I was making nearly double the usual amount of teas and coffees. In fact, I was generally stationed in the kitchen for most of the day. I cooked breakfast and lunch for the whole crew, I tell ya, if you ever want to get on someone's good side, make them hot food on a film set. Got out quite late but there was enough time for me to head out for a very quick drink to wish our production designer a happy birthday, heading to bed now though, need some kip for the final push tomorrow.

Paelle Guru

Back on set with the Wildseed gang which can only mean one thing... Being roped into being an extra! (I love it really) this time as a creepy chap in a suit wearing a burlap sack mask, its a 10/10 costume. With an hour until wrap I also found myself 'refreshing' a few portions of the paelle we had for lunch, it warmed up again quite well and everyone was dead chuffed with the extra food. Not as an early start tomorrow, might actually have a sort of lie in compared to this mornings 4am start.

Back on the Wildseed Road

Squeezed into a car brimming with snacks and filming equipment to join Mark and the Wildseed gang for another film shoot. I'm staying over at Mark's house tonight and just finished a great little board game session with his family. Early start tomorrow, just hope that the cold I may have coning doesn't get any worse but I got some lemsip just in case.

A Boozy Bristol Tour

Took our uni friend Max basically all around Bristol today, gave him a slightly more insider look at the city. We started off going along North Street and headed into Wapping Wharf before heading into St Nicks Market for a really, really delicious jerk chicken wrap. We did some shopping and grabbed a few beers before crashing back at home, we were all a little tipsy at this point so we nodded off while watching Paddington on Film4. Louis and Rachel turned up in the evening for a few board games and a nice little catch up. We did a hell of a lot for a Saturday and I think Max had a really good time experiencing Bristol in all its facets.

A Day in my Pants

Had a little day to myself where I sat in my pants, watched BoJack Horseman and generally pampered myself a little bit. Rebecca took me out to a tiny pasty shop round the corner from her work, I got a beef and Stilton pasty which was to die for - warmed my soul up a treat too. We have a uni friend staying with us for the weekend, still need to hash out what we want to do with him tomorrow, he's seen the Suspension Bridge and all the other touristy bits so we might just take him up North Street for brunch and a coffee.

I also heard back from the editing job I interviewed for a little while back and unfortunately it was not meant to be. They did send me a very lovely email saying that they passed on my CV and that I should keep in touch and I plan to do so. I just need to keep on keeping on.

A Thornbury in my Side

Rode the bus for an hour in order to work a cover shift up in Thornbury, where the store is big and the customers come in droves. Between 10 and 3 we had a queue, it literally didn't end and I'm not exaggerating. Left that shift with my soul feeling drained, luckily I've got all of tomorrow to do whatever I want, can't wait to kick back, put my feet up on the ottoman and decompress a little bit.