Fidgit Bottom

Got to Brean, then got to drive back to Bristol and then back to Brean... Then back home. My bum hurts from all the driving but I got plenty of motorway practice which is a plus. I really do think I've re-listened to most of my Tom Waits albums now as I oddly find it to be great driving music. Picked up a new appreciation for Swordfishtrombones and Mule Variations, both are the ideal length for my daily drive too. Plus when I'm working from home Rebecca vetoes his music so I gotta get my fill while I can.

Guilt Quesidillas

Best part of my day: eating homemade quesidillas. Worst part of my day: the pangs of guilt I felt when I ate too many homemade quesidillas... Whenever the opportunity to save food for tomorrow's lunch arises I instead get greedy and just want to eat everything straight away, always have and I probably always will. 

The day surrounding dinner was fine too. Went for a brief walk across the foogy Bristol streets while catching up on all the episodes of The West Wing had I been working socialble hours last week... Just one more week of Brean ahead of us, then it starts getting cosy again - I already cannot wait.

City Slackers

Rebecca and I took a load off today. Couldnt even be bothered to do the weekly shop so we lumped it until tomorrow. Instead we had a very busy day of doing nothing, and we're better people for it. In fact, we felt so lazy that we ordered pizza and watched Scream with red wine tonight. I don't think a human being is capable of 'switching off' any moreso than we did today, if you think you've ever done a better day of slacking off then all the more power to you.   

Out of Gas Canisters

Though I had to make a brief excursion out into the street of Bristol today (our forklift apparently ran out of gas in the middle of our warehouse a doorway so I took the trip to get more canisters), I saw the day through from the comfort of my desk. We learnt that Rebecca cannot stand the sound of my phone vibrating when I get notifications, which turns out to be quite frequently, so I kept it close to scoop up any calls for myself. Quite an odd way to end a work week though, didn't even get to do the drive home where the anticipation of the work week begins bubbling away on the inside. I just logged off turned around and hey-ho, I was home. Guess I shouldn't complain, got the whole weekend ahead of me now with only lockdown inhibiting my imagination.

Ace Scraper

The temperature dropped dramatically today, to the point where I had to scrape the ice off my car after finishing work. Every time I use the ice scraper Rebecca convinced me to buy I end up feeling very grateful. Got me out of Brean anyway and for that I'm eternally grateful.

Work itself was a pretty manic one, late night for me again with the rushes but it gives me a great excuse to sleep in tomorrow.

Double Screen Life Saver

Tell you what, two monitors really is better than one. While working from home today I settled into doing some really mind-numbingly boring logging work and having a good desk set up made the work at least manageable. Coffee and Rebecca's company kept me going today too - though it is undeniably nice to work from the comfort of my own home, I do feel like I'm missing out on the action a little bit... especially when the day's lunch menu gets put up on our group chat. Missed out an a homemade Madras Curry tonight!

Bring me a Hire Love

From the get-go, the day was pretty full throttle. Just while I was eating my breakfast I was taking calls and formulating a plan for the day. On the drive down to work I had plenty of time to prioritize everything, when I finally stepped onto our truck I begun making a flurry of calls. In just two hours I managed to:

• Schedule a courier to France
  
• Hire two luton vans from two different hire companies
• Hire a scissor lift

All the while I was elected to be office DJ for the day, so I had the added pressure of having to read the room and pick tunes to suit the vibe. Honestly, that was the most stressful part!

Big Rigs Part Deux

Headed to work not in a car today, but in another big old van. Picked it up in Bristol and drove it all the way along to Brean. I didn't want to hoof it all the way there so I stuck to the left hand lane where I could, though we I had to go for a sneaky overtake I was happy to. Best part was how I was actually in an elevated cab while driving, at long last I could share and eye-line with other truck drivers. When they saw me overtaking them, I like to think they turned their head to look in awe at the chap passing by. Instead they get to see a 20-something in a cardigan that badly needs a haircut.

Crimbo Cake

Plucked the first of my lemon tree's lemons in aid of adding some more zest and juice to our Christmas cake. Rebecca and I have never baked one before so we thought we'd give it a go. I was in charge of boiling down the booze and dried fruit, within moments, the whole house smelt like Christmas came early. We were helping ourselves to a generous number of taster spoonfuls of mixture, plus a few crumbs of the final product. Just got to keep feeding it brandy for the next and then we can tuck in!

Speaking of cake, we took our weekly pilgrimage to up to North Street to check out the Sunday Market, we'd never seen the chimney cake man before so it felt rude not to sample his treats. We plucked coils of cinnamon-sugar cake while queing to get a coffee from mynold cafe. They'd recently had an exodus of staff (all for wholesome reasons) so they were more delighted than usual to see me. Made me miss the barista life a little bit, but I was proud to tell then my new job was going well.

License to Chill

Licence to chill today. No emails, no phonecalls. Just the weekly shop and some hoovering, after that it wasa free for all. Spent some time with Rebecca, played games online with Mark and Dan and watched more if The West Wing - perfect Saturday.

I even opted to make fajitas for dinner, a well-loved meal in our house, but this time I wanted to try and make it extra special by making my own torlilla wraps. We had all the ingredients lying around (minus the lard, never bought that in a supermarket til today) so whipping up a batch wasn't too strenuous. The end result was incredibly tasty and well worth the effort, I made them all about 1/4cm too thick so they were more like Middle Eastern flarbreads, but that honestly wasn't a bad thing. Already know how to make the second batch even better.

Counting Muddy Sheep

Took the trip back to Brean today. I thought I was being all clever and sneaky by setting my sat nav to avoid the disruptive road closure, but though most of the journey was brand new, Google Maps spluttered me back to the same junction, with the same road closure sign. Wearily, I swallowed the 20 extra minutes it added to my journey, and turned onto the alternative country road. Two minutes along that, I saw something that looked just like a herd of sheep on the road, and sure enough, it was. I was literally driving into the 'road trip from hell' cliche. A pair of farmers were desperately trying to wrangle two dozen sheep while pulling two out of a ditch in the road. I just laughed it off mostly and caught this wonderfully surreal snapshot:

Despite the long trip, the day went well. Got plenty done again and the day went quick as a result. About to drive back home with the rushes in tow, then I'm off to bed for a well-deserved 2 day weekend.

Unbeatable Commute

Quite relieved to be working from home today, for no other reason than having access to stable internet for the day. I managed to get loads done as a result, including taking care of a taxi order gone wrong. I won't bore you with the details, but I did get to write a shirty email to a cab company demanding a refund. I rarely get the chance to get my sassy attitude out so that was a bit of fun. It is weird working from home until 11:30 at night though. Had my dinner up by my desk while Rebecca sat in her office chair to join me. Right now, Rebecca's gone to bed and and I've only just signed off at work. So while it is weird, you just can't beat the commute home. Better cherish it though, another late night tomorrow, after that though it's a whole two day weekend!

Blown Away by Brean

Between fighting road closures, dodgey internet and gale force winds, we had our first big day down in Brean. Once we got settled though, the day wasn't so rough. I was mostly chasing up emails and counting radios to return. There was a lot of chat about homemade mince pies at work which got me thinking about my baking efforts last year. Perhaps I'll have to make a new batch...

Mail Boy

Our last day in our studio for a while was today, with the crew so nearby I basically became the mail boy for the day. Just got to run around with parcels and wrestle with photocopiers today while everyone else was rocking and rolling in front of, effectively a massive green screen. Not to say I didn't getto have my own brand of fun today. I set the wheels turning on a long term game our Production Truck can enjoy in the lead up to Christmas that'll result in some fun debates.

Tomorrow, I head to Brean for a loooong old day. Feeling positive about it though, we all gotta keep on trucking.

Ebb and Flow of Film Work

Later start at work today so I took my sweet, sweet time getting out of bed. Treated myself to a few video games with breakfast too, I budgeted plenty of time to try and complete a game I'm working through at the moment. All was right in the world. Then in the span of 90 seconds I got 2 phonecalls and a text message and an email, 4 separate jobs that needed my immediate attention. So I booked a skip to get collected, arranged a taxi cab, sent a confirmation email and called ups ome people who had gone to the wrong place... Then I went back to video games... 

Then I got another email telling me I had 10 minutes to get to work to pass a package onto a courier. In a frenzy, I made it to work (Mark wasa legend though and stood on  standby for me while I drove in). Then the courier didn't even show up! Rubbish!

Rest if the day moved at a steady clip, had loads if jobs to do which kept me busy well into the evening. Then when it quietened down a bit, the production team snuck in a few cheeky games of Dobble. Manic one moment, still waters the next - welcome to the world if filming.

Where did my Sunday Go?

Aside from going for a little walk, I fulfilled my dream of turning into a coach potato this Sunday. All I did was eat, nap and eat some more, by the evening my healing was complete. Just as begun settling into the groove of my weekend I realized it was in fact Sunday and work starts up again tomorrow. One more day if filming our first block tomorrow, then we change director and a few other members of our crew, we're all keen to see how the new unit will function. But not as keen as I am to go to sleep right now.

Heading East of Eden

Felt a bit like a mother hen as I walked into the Production Truck, arms full of Lucosade, paracetamol and coconut water. Last night's drinking session took a tiny toll on a few of us this morning, but we quickly bounced back to complete the final day at the Eden Project. You could tell there was an eagerness in the air for everyone to just finish the day and get home - I know I felt that way anyway. Did the drive home fairly late tonight, thankfully the journey felt quick and the roads were incredibly clear. I'm now tucked in bed with Rebecca already dreaming about a lazy Sunday.

Party at Eden

My biggest job of the day was buying enough alcohol for our 'almost done in Eden' party. I queued up at the supermarket with £100+ of booze and I had to quietly explain that we weren't having an illegal drinking party, we were responsible, negatively tested adults who have been working crazy hard for 2 months. The check-out lady looked like she'd seen it all already though and gave me no trouble.

With beers in hand I spent the evening unwinding with the team and getting to know them all a little better. I've spent so much time isolating in the truck I'd almost forgotten there was another 30 humans working their collective socks off to try and bring this project to life. Between beers and board games, I felt humbled to be in their presence.

Big Eden Day

This was the big day. The big Eden Project with 200 extras day. I donned my Runner hat once more to help out with the crowd, while being briefed by the 2nd AD he flippantly said 'It's gonna be like Vietnam' - I couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

There I was, stationed inside the humid Eden Project dome with double PPE on, moving swathes of people around set. I was part of a massive team though and as a result of plenty of prep and hard work it felt like we totally nailed the day. I'm knackered now though, but chuffed to have such a big day under our belt.

Beach Beats Bake Off

Clawed my eyes open this morning all for the sake of watching Bake Off on catch up. There I was, scrambling around trying to plug a my laptop into the hotel TV in my pants, I thought I'd be polite and listen to it on my headphones. Shock horror, I left my headphones in the boot of my car. Reluctantly, I got dressed, and groggily pawed my way outdoors trying hard not to make eye contact with any contact with my early bird colleagues (I was wearing yesterday's clothes). Mission failed, I bumped into a Runner who started talking to me. "I'm heading to the beach to go surfing, wanna come along?" Impulse kicked in, hell yeah I wanna go to the beach. So I did.

30 minutes later I was strolling along a windswept coastline, poking my head into caves and watching the waves. Very lucky I left my headphones in the car - got to enjoy a bit of the seaside all before work!

I had a fairly easy day compared to one of my team. They got up at 5am to drive to Bristol and then back to Cornwall, with 30 minutes left of her journey her car's clutch broke on the motorway. Worse still, it'll be £800 to repair it. Glad I wasn't her.

Getting Lost in Lostwithiel

Writing this blog while I'm still in the production truck - we just called wrap but I'm sticking around to help put people into taxis if need be.

I set my alarm for 8:15 this morning with the full intention on riding my snooze button long into the early hours of the morning. For whatever reason though, I bolted awake immediately and found myself sat in my hotel room with 4 hours to kill. Fortunately Lostwithiel is one of the better places to be marooned in, the Sun was out and it beckoned me outside for a stroll. So I did just that. Went for a walk along the river bank, saw the famous Tudor Bridge and waltzed around the perimeter of the town. Felt very lucky to be able to do that today, it was certainly a lovely way to start the day.

With just over an hour left before I needed to be at work I decided to give my Grandmother a call and it was great to chat with her. We chatted about our gardens, she's been offloading potatoes and strawberries like it was going out of fashion apparently, made me wish I was her neighbour! I signed off wishing her a good day and she did the same back, I think some of that well wishing made a difference because my day went rather well. Smashed all the job I had to do today and I'm in a good position to do the same tomorrow. 

Back to Eden

My first 'flying solo' trip down the motorway went just like every journey does: it lasted a little longer than is comfortable. It was a breeze in all honesty, just got a bit fidgety during the final hour, but glad to say I did it.

Immediately after the ling drive it was right into the thick of it. Another full on day, tempered with the exciting thought that we were indeed, filming at the Eden Project. Through all the long days, stressful times and tough moment, it all felt worth it once I got the chance to wander freely around the Eden Project at night time. It's not open to the public because if Covid so we basically have the run of the place. You know in movies where a friend of the main character let's them into a museum after hours - same kind of magic.

Just arrived at my hotel, thrown my shoes off and hooked my Switch up to their TV. Sleep now but I'll enjoy a late start and some games in the meantime.

Motorway Ready

Tackled another one of life's first this morning, I say this fully aware that this isn't something a 27 year old often celebrates, but here goes: I drove for the motorway for the first time ever today. With Rebecca riding shotgun and acting as my guide, she showed me the ropes and offered several helpful tips and tricks. Though I was tense to start with, I eased into the journey quickly and swiftly got the measure of how it all worked. Tomorrow I'm due to make a big trip down to Cornwall for filming so that'll be the real test, but as it stands, I have no quarrel making the trip. I've pre-made a lengthy playlist of catchy music to keep my mind occupied too (It is a 2 and a half hour journey after all so I'll need something) just hope my phone doesn't overheat while acting as my GPS, otherwise I'm all happy.

The hardest part about being away from Rebecca over the next week won't be the fact I'll be living in a hotel by myself. It'll be lying to her afterwards about how I definitely did not watch any of The West Wing without her. In all but name, we've been binge watching that show all weekend and it's going to be tough going cold turkey on it for the next few days - guess that'll be the glistening light at the end of the tunnel.

The Northern Slopes Take 3

 Next week I'll be down in Cornwall for work so I wanted to spend some quality time with Rebecca. Though I opted out of doing the weekly shop with her (I cited new Covid, 'one person does the shopping' legislation, but in reality I was just feeling lazy) but otherwise I wanted to do some nice things together that defined us. That mostly entailed watching The West Wing while getting take out, but towards the latter half of the day I wanted to show her a nice view I found on a walk I did a few months back. I've mentioned The Northern Slopes here a few times now, but I've finally managed to pinpoint exactly where the core beauty spots are. My intention was to take us out on a Wintery picnic on the highest hill that overlooks Bristol while the sun sets with coffee and Portuguese tarts. Though the view was nice, it was hazy on account of people having weekend Bonfire Night's, plus the day itself was a little dreary. So while we enjoyed the coffee and the grey skyline, it wasn't as magical or transformative as I'd hoped - she had a nice time, but I just wanted it to pack a bit more of a punch.

One Way System

Gotta love Bristol's one way system. I was out and about doing several drop offs this afternoon and got to learn first hand just how long it takes to get anywhere in this city. Don't get me wrong, as a 98% pedestrian, I love it, but when I've got timed deadlines to hit, having to drive for 15 minutes when my sat nav tells me I could walk to the same place in 12 minutes is a bit demoralizing. That was my day for the most part, even though I've only technically been back at work for the past few days, it feels like a whole weeks worth has blown through me within 48 hours. Despite it being lockdown, I want to do something cute with Rebecca this weekend.

Almost Forgetting the 5th of November

Didn't even skip a beat as we all headed back into the groove of filming. I settled back into my space on the truck and it was like I never left. We were working into the early evening, all the while we could hear the almighty thunder of fireworks as every house in Bristol seemingly celebrated the first night in lockdown. There was so much smoke in the air I legitimately considered putting my full beams on while driving home. Shame to have missed out on the festivities, but I got to see some fireworks from a glance at least.

Up and Down to The Studio

It was all systems go at my desk this morning. Had plenty of jobs to keep me occupied and arguably not enough time to do it all in. I drove up to our studios on three separate occasions, once for my new speedy Covid test (I tested negative woop-woop), the second time I was doing drop offs and fixing a printer and finally I went in the evening to collect the day's footage so our editors have something to play with. Tomorrow marks the first proper day of returning to filming and I'm actually kinda excited for it, free breakfasts help but I've made some bonds with the crew now and I miss their faces.

The Slow Return to Filming

Creeping into the last few days of working from home before we get back to filming. News about the lockdown has actually had very little effect on us, in fact, in many ways it's a benefit. Several of our locations are public spaces but with everything shut down now we have free rein over plenty of spots. Naturally our Covid precautions are going up a bit, me and the rest of the crew are getting tested again tomorrow just to be on the safe side, been feeling pretty healthy over the last few days so I've got a good feeling about the result.

Enjoyed the final night of having Louis and Rachel over for Bake Off before lockdown strikes again. Going to miss being able to have people over in general, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. May need to start thinking about new virtual pub quiz rounds too...

Falling for The West Wing

Sacked off using my laptop today in favour of using my hefty PC. One of my first jobs of the day was cross referencing a pair of spreadsheets so my two monitors made short work of it. Sadly, the one thing a dual screen set-up can't do is locate a modestly priced Luton van to hire in Bristol. Seems like everyone is scrambling to hire them before we get into lockdown 2.0 so they were in short supply. We sourced a workaround though and all was right in the world.

Rebecca and I started watching The West Wing over the weekend and we've already fallen head over heels in love with it. Feels oddly timely with the US election coming up, whatever the outcome of that, at least we have a fictional president who's everything we could hope for.

A Whisker Away

A civil war wouldn't have disturbed Rebecca from her slumber this morning,so I snuck out if bed to get a head start on enjoying my Sunday. Mostly virtual sailing in the high seas once again, followed by more games by myself.

I did spend the evening watching a newish film with Rebecca though. Netflix's 'A Whisker Away' is an anime film about a Japanese schoolgirl who can turn into a cat. Simple and charming enough premise, but somehow the film struggled to win me over. Somewhere between the odd pacing, brash characters and uncomfortable sexual undercurrent it just failed to engage me. If anything, it made me appreciate just how easy Studio Ghibli projects make anime filmmaking look.