Happy Halloween 2019!

Did a quick run into town to pick up a copy of Luigi's Mansion 3, a game I've been pretty excited about for a little while now. In fact, I've been so hyped for it, I decided to etch Luigi's screaming mug into my personal pumpkin this year.

My goodness, this was a fiddly one to carve! But it was all worth it as it stood proudly on the snack table for our small Halloween party. Accompanying Luigi was some adorably decorated fairy cakes by me and Rebecca:

 

Plus a 'Mummy Brie' as prepped by Louis, I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it.

Suffice to say, we were well-fed at this party. Mark, Lucy, Louis and Lorna joined us for board games and good vibes in the evening as we reveled in the Halloween spirit.

As a small side piece, I collaborated with some of the writers at Sick Critic to compile a short list of the scariest games we ever played. The whole article was my baby so I wrangled in writers, formatted it and even wrote a small part of it. You can read it here if you fancy

Happy Halloween!

Baa Ram Ewe

Goodness, I haven't actually stopped today it feels like. Caught up with a few life admin things in the morning then headed off to the cafe to carve the 'Monster Sized' pumpkin - it was an epic task to gut that one let me tell you. A co-worker drew on the design for me and I got to work on cutting out the shape. After the complete disaster that was the first one I did I felt compelled to make this one a work of art, and the end result was something I'm very proud of.

It's a ram in honour of our unofficial mascot (as seen just below the pumpkin): Norman the Ibex. I'm thrilled with how this one turned out, and good thing too because we are submitting it to work's pumpkin competition. You get bonus points if you lark around a bit on the submission photo, at least that's what I told myself before we sent over this one:

Left work beaming, then took a quick stop in town to pre-order a game, then headed home to prep another pumpkin, I don't want to overload today's blog post with pumpkin snaps so I'll show it off tomorrow. Rebecca and I also wittled away the evening hours decorating fairy cakes for our little Halloween shindig we are having tomorrow. We both licked the icing sugar spoon perhaps a little too much, I'm feeling a bit sickly now but it's all in the spirit of things I guess.

Art Runner

Wrapped on a jolly successful filming day. I did a days work as a dedicated Art Runner/Assistant which felt pretty swell. My boss effectively put me in charge of two easy scenes, the first of which was a stone skimming scene that we did early in the morning, most if that hour I spent beach combing for the perfect skimming stone. We moved into a house afterwards so IKEA flat pack assembly was the name of the game followed by some milkshake continuity work, all of it was fun thanks to a stellar crew that kept things feeling light and professional.

As an added bonus, someone asked if I wanted a tea or coffee around lunchtime and one magically appeared in my hand a few moments later. Been waiting my whole life for that moment.

A added little tidbit, I bagged my first Bristol Running gig too! I got a call at lunch officially inviting me to join them on a 3 day commercial shoot with good pay, good hours and beat of all, I can go back home after each day is over to share dinner and my evenings with the people I love.

Mega Betrayal

Battled my way through the hoards of mums and kids that all flocked to Coffee 1 over half term. Babycinos all day basically, I've said it once, I'll say it again: if I had my own cafe I wouldn't serve them. I travelled down to London for yet another film shoot, this time though I didn't use my old favourite Megabus... I got a National Express instead! Very swanky bus experience, it was like stepping onto first class, so I enjoyed a slightly more cushy trip this time around for a decent price too (was cheaper this time round). Set my alarm, for early and I'm already anticipating riding 85 bus stops first thing tomorrow morning - that's not an exaggeration, I will be going 85 stops.

Cat got my Pumpkin

Well, if its free don't say no. That was my philosophy when Rebecca suggested going to Stonehenge today, luckily we have membership cards that permitted us entry at no cost. Good thing too because it is EXPENSIVE to visit the stones! It was nice enough to take a whirl round the rocks, but for what you pay for, you don't really get that much. Least it wasn't as ropey as The Rufas Stone.

With my help, Rebecca carved her first ever pumpkin tonight. I took a picture of a cat design I saw last year and we finally got the chance to make it ourselves. It came out really well too, she was chuffed as chips with it, showing it off online to anyone who'd listen. I'll let you be the judge of how good a job she did:

Pumpkin Spice Latte

Got to carve my first pumpkin of the year at work today! Seeing as it was for a coffee place, we thought it'd be apt to do a latte art design on our pumpkin, I was up for the challenge of doing an intricate design but it was perhaps one of those pumpkin designs that sounds better on paper than it does in practice. This is what we tried to recreate:

It actually started off really well, but once I stepped back from it to admire it, I noticed that the design curved in up and around the pumpkin so no-one could really see the whole thing. I felt a bit bad afterward because it was meant to be our centerpiece pumpkin that we were all really proud of, but I just feel a tinge of guilt every-time I look at it. I might get a picture next time, plus it might look better in the dark!

Keeping On Friday

Life finds a way to derail my day - in a positive way sometimes! I mentally prepped myself for a day of writing, but a Runner job is saw being advertised on Facebook was just too juicy to pass up. Then I did a bit of self-promotion on Twitter and my post exploded - I ended up being invited into a private Discord server that was full of pretty high-end video game YouTubers. Met up with Louis too after lunch to chat about a poster design for an upcoming board game evening I'm organizing for work, I left with a few ideas and hopefully I can make something fun and eye-catching.

After all that, I cracked on with a smidgen of writing, I've set a few deadlines for my next video and that often gives me something to aim for.

Catering for Calories

It dawned on me just before I went to bed last night that I barely ate anything yesterday. I spent most of today making up for lost calories by eating a big breakfast and far too many chocolate fingers at a board game meet up in the evening. Feel right as rain now! Begun planning my upcoming week and how to allocate my time, this film-shoot on Tuesday is slap-bang exactly when I was thinking about carving my miniature army of pumpkins. Between work, filming and personal project, I think I've got a slot for 'Seasonal Delights' eg: pumpkin carving and spooky movies. Wanna do something for Halloween this year, last time I was home alone drinking sickly sweet ales and playing indie games in the dark. I'll have to gauge Rebecca's tolerance for all things spooky and go from there.

Rough and (Not So) Ready

The two way Megabus trip is taking its toll on me. I did a shoot like this last year where I went up and came back the same day and said 'Never again'. Forgot my own advice by the sounds of it though because I only have myself to blame for how rough I feel. Not even too sure why, the shoot was really easy, the crew were easy to get on with and I hardly did any actual running around - I just feel like a husk of a chap. Gonna try and get a handful of my forty winks in en route, I can already imagine the feeling of snuggling up the duvet to my chin as I sleep in my own bed, few more hours and that dream will be a reality.

Pumping Up Pumpkin Numbers

Mentally prepping myself for another film shoot tomorrow. I lucked out a bit with this one, the call time is 12pm so I can actually go from Bristol at a sociable time into London, then head back home once we wrapped. I'll be spending 6ish hours on a Megabus tomorrow so I'll get a case of 'stiff neck' but it'll be worth it.

I'm really going to get my fill of pumpkins this Halloween I reckon. I bought my personal one to carve, then Rebecca expressed a healthy interest in carving up her first ever pumpkin, if I did the guts beforehand that it. I also dragged in a XL pumpkin to work to show off, saying I'd be up for doing one for the cafe provided someone did the design for me. Then a college went and bought one of Asda's 'Monster size' pumpkins which dwarfs the combined size the other three - I'm going to get some practice in this year I reckon.

Runner Evolution

My morning regulars have certainly taken a shine to me, they genuinely sound interested in hearing about my weekend and I return the favour. I think they respect me because I can unironically ask 'the usual?' and nail it everytime - I've got a mental catalog of around 25 people's coffee orders and it always impresses folks when I know exactly what they want.

Rustled up some smash burgers for my dinner and I gotta say, I was pretty blown away with the results. Did a double patty burger with melted blue cheese, siracha mayo and home made pickles, if that doesn't sound good then check out the picture:

I am slowly approaching restaurant quality with my burgers now and I couldn't be more thrilled, my stomach was pleased too.


Best news to come out of today though, I got offered another day's filming in London next week, but not as a Runner this time but as an Art Assistant. This'll mark the first time I'll be on set and someone else will offer to make me coffee! Moving up in the world.

Creative Rut

The best thing about this morning's breakfast? Going out onto my mini balcony and picking some home-grown chives to scatter into the scrambled egg. That, plus the cast iron cooked bacon, single origin filter coffee and some of Rebecca's home-made blueberry muffins, made for a hell of a good meal to start the day.

I waved farewell to Rebecca and her Mum around mid-morning so I was left home alone for the rest of the Sunday. I blitzed through all my short jobs within the first hour and then... I just didn't really know what to do with myself. I watched Green Book which was a real treat, but other than that I found myself metaphorically bashing my head against a wall for a new project to crack on with. Personally, I feel like I'm in a bit of a creative rut right now. Last week I canned a new video concept I had because I didn't believe mankind would benefit from it's existence, by that I mean I couldn't figure out how to give it much of a point. I started brainstorming again today and nothing at all came to mind. Tomorrow's a new day though, who knows, I might end up feeling inspired when I least expect it.

Rushing for Rugby

Happy to say, the living room floor is actually pretty comfy. Wish I could've slept in it a bit longer but I had to be up early for work, which was deadly quiet to start with but after the rugby game finished it felt like everyone and their cat wanted a coffee. Luckily the A squad was on it with me today and we totally smashed it. Left the cafe feeling good, I bounces into Asda to prep dinner for Rebecca and her mum, rustled up a salad for them both seeing as they had been scoffing their faces with cake they fancied something a little lighter. Looking forward to making breakfast tomorrow, recently I've been loving nothing more than spending a bit if time cooking a great meal to start the day with.

Sleep Well Beast

Prepped the flat for the arrival of Rebecca's Mum, I even pulled out the fridge and scrubbed the floor underneath just in case she had a gander back there. We met her at the coach station and headed to a cafe I recommended nearby. In the midst of that meeting my first feature article for Sick Critic got published after some minor edits. I was buzzing for the rest if the evening! We headed out to the Victoria Park pub for a mighty fine pizza and beer, all the while chatting about the logistics of our house. We finished the night with a fly-by down the road we bought the house on which silently validated our choice even further.

For the first time ever, Rebecca and I are sleeping in our living room while her Mum gets the bed. It'll be interesting to see what the sleeping arrangement is like and how well we sleep. We subject our guests to this every time anyone stays round, hope we haven't been monsters by forcing them to sleep somewhere dreadful.

Joker

The country seemed to be swept up by Joker so I gathered up my Bro, Rachel and Rebecca so we could all go see it tonight.

It's kinda funny, I was totally on board with it for the first 30 minutes, I empathized with the character and their struggles, I was swept up in the music and Phoenix's dancing and it all combined into something entrancing. Then my interest in the film did a complete U-Turn and I daresay I was actually rather bored during most of the second half. It felt like the movie had contractual obligations to remind the audience that they were indeed watching a Batman movie, in turn this created a baggy sub plot that drained focus from the overall story. It's an hour long film drawn out to two and it's a pity because the premise is legitimately interesting and there are flickers of inspiration later on, but you gotta wade through a lot of scenes of Phoenix chuckling into an empty room.

Watch it if you want to make up your own mind about it, for everyone else, I'd recommend watching You Were Never Really Here instead seeing as it is literally everything Joker wasn't.

Singin' In The Dry

Maybe my coworkers readready blog yesterday because by some stroke of luck, I was actually sent home early which gave me the perfect chance to recuperate. Sent off some pending emails/invoices and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, my mood improved every hour until I felt like my normal self again, a good nights sleep will seal the deal.

But I didn't just lounge around all day! Rebecca invited me to join her to a amateur dramatics production of Singin' in the Rain, one of her old coworkers was in it so I said I'd tag along. I went in thinking it was going to be hard work on account of it being am dram, but it was a really excellent show! Clearly a lot of heart and work went into it and it played out senselessly - for its quality I would have happily paid more for the tickets. Only grivence - there was no rain. We headed to the pub with one of the cast members who told us about the technical problems rain brought so they had to axe it from the show, a very dry rendition of the story, but it didn't truly detract.

Revenge of the Burn Out

At about 9:30 this morning all the late nights and long working days suddenly hit me - I realised I was starting to burn out. Of course, this epiphany occurred at an inopportune time, I still have loads of little jobs I want to crack on with in the week but I know I should try and take it easy for a spell. Then whenever I put my feet up I start feeling guilty about all the work I'm neglecting. I think the answer is to take it down a gear for a day or two, doing small chucks of work when I can and enjoying some free time to the fullest.

Finding Furiture

The dark morning and the cold weather made it especially hard to get out of bed this morning, but I dragged my feet out into the cafe to be greeted to a busy, busy Monday. Couldn't wait to get home to be honest, when I finally did get home I tapped up another news article to keep Sick Critic's editors happy then chowed down to some sofa time. Rebecca has really ramped up her interest in furniture for our new home, she's browsing IKEA catalogs and the like, I do the typical blokey thing and shrug it all off, but I must admit, there is a giddy pleasure to finding furniture. She brought home a big template of the house's layout so we can map blueprints for our dream desk locations, the thought of having a dedicated office space is really making my heart sing.

Cupcakes and Coworkers

Even though it was my day off, I still woke up at 6:30 out of habit. I didn't get the lie in I was hoping for, instead I got up to crack on with the day, I played some games and pre-made some pancake batter for breakfast, once Rebecca was awake I rustled up some blueberry pancakes and coffee to greet the morning in style. I baked some little coffee cupcakes to take to my work's team meeting this evening, once we were done with the serious stuff my colleges and I headed out to a handful of pubs on North Street to say farewell to a handful of coworkers who were leaving us. Turned into a really nice night out, visited plenty of bars I hadn't been to before and I was keeping a mental note of how nice they all were.

Painting the Town Red

Muscled through a busy Saturday despite feeling less-than-rested after my shooting days. Once my shift was over I headed out with Rebecca to paint the town red. We hit up a nearby burger place for some grub, I ate far too much and then we decided to go drinking, just the two of us and I must admit, it was really lovely. This was our little way if saying 'Yay, we got the house' to each other, we both got home feeling sleepy drunk and Rebecca even fell asleep in my lap as we watched cartoons. Felt like a student again despite celebrating something so adult.

The Wind and The Rain

We were filming down by the wharf all day on a wet and windy one. Funnily enough, that's exactly the kind of scene we were filming. We used a wind machine to stop a lady in her tracks and a rain machine to drench some poor chap. The whole time I wish I brought some better waterproofs with me. We wrapped early though, but my late coach means I actually lost time overall but I'll be in bed before midnight. Got cafe work starting a little later so I'll have a wee lie in before I'm back to it.

Dogs and Derailment

Made my way to the Olympic Park to start setting up for our first location. What I can only describe as organised chaos ensued as a road closure meant that virtually everyone was a little late, a handful of construction trucks also needed to move between us throughout the morning so that made things a little challenging. But I was up to the task, fortunately the shots we had to do were hilarious simple so once we were set up it was just a case of getting the golden shot. Later on I got a chance to work alongside 5 dogs who behaved a lot better than the last bunch of animals I last shot with. It got to wrap and I thought I did quite a lot of steps since I really was on the go the whole day, sadly my pedometer app wasn't set up so we'll never truly know how much actual running I did - watch this space for tomorrow's step count though!

Impromptu Filming Job

Since the beginning if the week I've been kept in tender hooks about being on another filming job. I finally got confirmation that they wanted me on set while I was pouring a flat white, filming is happening tomorrow and Friday so after work I packed a speedy suitcase and coached to London. Its a pretty early call time tomorrow too, earlier for me too since I'm bottom of the ladder. I'm going to get some shut eye so I can tackle the day in style, we're outdoors all day so I'll need all the strength I can get.

Dirty Crockery

Claustrophobia set in at work for whatever reason and I couldn't seem to shake the feeling. Dirty crockery piled up in the corner of my eye and coffee grounds just kept getting under my fingernails, suffice to say I was glad when my shift was over.

I got about halfway through writing another news article when Rebecca called with news regarding the house we put an offer on. Her attempt at surpressing her excitement immediately made me realise what she was about to say: we got the house! By golly I was elated once I heard the news, I just went though most of my close friends and told them one by one. With any luck there shan't be any complications down the line and Rebecca and I will be the proud owners of a little home in the South of Bristol.

Homes Under the Hammer

Staggered through a jolly long day at work while deeply considering my potential housing arrangements. My lunch break was spent making calls to Rebecca and my parents after getting a small update on the house we put an offer on, long and short of it is they want out best and final offers tomorrow, we're amending our offer and crossing all our fingers and toes.

After dealing with ny own housing gubbins, I got a chance to see Mark and Lucy's new house and I gotta say, they've good a good thing going on. I was totally blown away by how lovely their new home was and even though they had bits to renovate and furniture to unpack you could see how they were beginning to put everything together. They both seemed genuinely relaxed too and a lot more at ease with life and it humbled me to know they had officially found a little slice of the world to call their own.

Taxi Booker

Ran around an awful lot at work today, we were busier than we all expected so that meant there was a hundred and one jobs to do at all times. One more thing I can add to my CV is 'taxi booker' a handful of Spanish tourists came in early this morning, bought a hilariously large breakfast, then asked about the best way to get to Bath. I ended up booking them a taxi after checking prices for all the transit links (taxi was inexplicably cheaper for a group for 4). They were chuffed as chips once the taxi turned up, they thanked me profusely and I got on with my day.

At the end of my shift Rebecca and I popped over to the East side of town to celebrate the Birthday of a good friend with board games and booze. Was a lovely night and a great way to spend a Sunday evening.

Happy 9th Birthday to the Blog!

So here we are, standing at 9 years of blogging and I find myself lost for words. So much has happened in my life over those years and it's bizarre to think that they've been chronicled here in some capacity. To me, writing a short blog post before bed has practically become second nature, in fact, I get a bit restless if I ever miss a post, its become a part of my daily routine and whenever I think about this blog in earnest it makes me immensely proud that it's continued for this long. Once again, I'd love to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's kept up with the blog for all these years, your readership means the world to me and it's forever a humbling experience to hear anyone say to me that they enjoyed one of my recent posts. Thank you all again for your continued reading and here's to making it up to 10 years!

In stark contrast to the last house we put an offer on, Rebecca and I found somewhere we both truly considered to be a dream house. Mum came around for the viewing and even she agreed that it was a great little home. Giddy with excitement, Rebecca and I put an offer in late this afternoon and crossed our fingers and our toes that we get accepted. Funny to think that on the Blog's Birthday another life-milestone may be in the works.

Terrible Tiramisu

Considering I've made tiramisu a handful of time you would have thought I'd have mastered it by now, if anything, the one I made this morning turned out to be the worst batch I've made yet. For whatever reason, the creamy layer wouldn't coagulate or set like its supposed to, instead my tiramisu was so wet you could use it to waterboard someone in Guantanamo Bay. Fortunately, the flavour wasn't torture to endure but once sugar, liqueur and mascarpone are all mixed together its pretty hard for it not to taste great. Better luck next time.

Mum popped down to Bristol to see Louis and I, we've got a house viewing tomorrow and Mum is chopping at the bit to come see it with us - we've got high hopes for this one.

Spicy, Spicy Coffee

Carried home two freebies from work, first was a kilogram bag of coffee that was almost past its best before date, gonna have a caffeinated month if I want to get through all those beans before they spoil. Second present was much nicer, a customer last week offered a hot chili pepper to me which I foolishly bit into, he was obviously impressed by my attitude towards al things spicy because he brought in a massive whopping bag of these chilis for me. They're all from his allotment too so they are insanely fresh and delicious looking, just need to figure out what to do with all of them now! Maybe a chili jam?

Wrote yet another news piece for Sick Critic which you can read here if you are so inclined. I've gotten pretty good at doing news articles now, certainly wasn't a skill of mine a few months ago.

Far From A Dream House

Once I finished up at the cafe Rebecca and I did two more house viewings, both of which were decidedly not our cup of tea. Spent the rest of my afternoon editing and proof reading a retro review for Sick Critic, got some great screenshots too and reading it back I think they'll be pretty pleased with the piece.

Homes Homes Homes

In between developing concepts for my next video Rebecca and I did two more house viewings. First was a brand new place that was nice but we both decided wasn't for us. The second viewing was a return visit to a place we really liked the look of over the weekend and in all honesty, it looked even better on a second visit. We've got a handful more homes to see tomorrow but after that it's crunch time, we'll have to make a decision if we want to put down an offer or not. I'm still massively on the fence about making such a big commitment, I'm not even 100% certain if I need a house just yet, but with the market ever inflating it makes sense, plus it would be nice to truly own our own space. Have to mull it over a bit more...