OnePlus Nord 2

Though I was beyond shattered by the end of last week, I still found myself waking up at an early hour today - my bodyclock won't let me forget the 5am weekday starts it seems. 

I got to play around with my brand, spanking new phone for most of the day. My old one is just over 6 years old now, still going fairly strong mind, but since work gave me a hefty allowance to buy job-related tech I figured I was due an upgrade. I'm always blown away by just how far technology has progressed each time I get a new phone. The cameras on this one are especially welcome, I've been experimenting a little bit already, getting sneaky pictures of Rebecca when she wasn't looking, and I'm super pleased with the results. I know I always say I'll put more pictures on this blog and now, I'm more inclined to do so.

Loving My Cards

Got to talk cards once again with the cast and the director, this time I felt like a real big wig though. I basically sat in at a meeting that was all about discussing character and themes - all the stuff I love basically. They genuinely listened to my advice and they even responded with 'I love that' so some of my suggestions to how the scene should play out. After such A long and demanding week, that hour was the definite highlight.

Speeding for Pizza

 Pushed through another long and busy day of work so I could see my Mum and celebrate her Birthday this evening. She popped down to Bristol today and I had just enough time to see her, Louis and Rachel at our new favourite pizza place. It was only a brief meet up (early to bed again tonight) but lovely nonetheless.

Coffee for the Stars

I've learnt to make masses of coffee first thing each morning now as the cast drinks orders all come flooding in around 7am. I'm there with a small cafetiere makes brews for the stars. I even got to knock on the doors to people's trailers to hand deliver them. What a glamorous life I live. Otherwise, today was business as usual, I'm starting to feel the long days starting to get to me now though, I'm weary when the day draws to a close and all I can think about is when I'll be back in bed.

Whist

Got to put my 'games advisor' hat on once more by teaching our Block 2 director and DOP how to play Whist and 21. Oddly enough, Whist was the easier game to teach, we had a good laugh, blocked through the actions and it all went really well. They literally never heard of 21 which I thought was crazy. Apparently the writers didn't know either because they got the order of play completely wrong too. I spent a good half hour trying to convince the DOP that all players need their cards dealt to them first up so they know what they're plylaying with. 'Wouldn't it be cooler if...' Was the question they kept asking and I kept shooting them down by saying your audience will call you out immediately if you play a well known game like 21 in some bizzarro way.

Honestly, don't writers do any research these days?

Cake for the Lucky Boy

Minced into my Monday without anything outstanding on my 'to-do' list. The world finds a way to give me the funny job first thing though. Out top billed actor effectively passed me £100 and said 'I want to buy some cakes for the Fire Marshall as it was his Birthday yesterday' nice gesture, but guess who had to make this a reality. I called up several bespoke cake shops in Bristol, finally finding one that had spare sponge cakes, plus a vegan one for good measure. Then my boss flagged the Covid risk in sharing a cake and then bunting had to be bought... The whole thing was a polava I could have done without first thing in a Monday. But when it was all in place, the Fire Marshall was apparently very touched by it all. A lot of the time my role is to be invisible, and I'm more than happy to silently enjoy others being happy thanks to my efforts.

Soulful Breakfast

 The foresight to make overnight, no-kneed bread is only truly appreciated the following morning. We woke up to freashly baked bread topped with my new and improved scrambled eggs and a half pint of single origin coffee in my mug. This was a soulful breakfast that raised our spirits. Even the occasionally daunting visit to B&Q couldn't dampen our spirits. We picked a new lampshade out and even settled on a colour to paint our house with a high five to seal the deal. Rebecca and I just... took it easy again today. My weekend as a whole felt unusually still, it was only about an hour ago I realized I'd accidentally turned off nearly all notifications off on my phone. I booted up WhatsApp to a torrent of gaming session opportunities and memes that completely passed me by. Gingerly, I turned them all back on, no doubt my phone will be in high demand again on Monday morning.

Sushi Saturday

Thunderclaps jolted Rebecca and I from our slumber at 6am this morning. 'Here comes that rain we're promised' I said, though we hardly got more than a passing shower throughout the day. No bother though, we had mentally prepped to stay inside today to watch films and eat good food. Rebecca bought a sushi making kit months and decided that today was the day. She did all the research, got all the authentic ingredients and knocked it out of the park. Never in my life had I become full after eating sushi, but today I chopped through well over 10 portions and started to feel a bit sorry for myself. Next time Rebecca makes them I'll employ a little more self control.

Dice Master

 I effectively walked onto set with the title of 'Dice Master' - a monika that hasn't been attached to anyone living outside South America since the '70's, but there we go. Today's scene revolved around a dice game called Hazard which has fallen woefully out of fashion, so I stepped up to be the games historical advisor. I re-wrote the script in places so the scene would reflect the game accurately (or well  enough to keep angry correspondence away from ITV) and gave tips on the game throughout. I got to sit at the big boy table between the Director, cast and Script Supervisor and that was a real rush.

 The show got a bad piece of news moments later. Aot of out extras had pulled out last minute so they needed willing members of crew to step up... Guess who made that shortlist the remainder of the afternoon was spent pretending to gamble in a sweaty room alongside some very talend actors.

Only thing left to do is wish my Mum a Happy Birthday. I was so rushed off my feet today that the only opportunity I had to call her was later in the evening when no doubt she was halfway though a Birthday meal out. She's headed to Bristol next week when Louis and I will shower her with gifts, in the meantime my gift to her is the ability for her to anecdotally say 'My son stars in a Jane Austin adaptation'. Happy Birthday Mum!

Fan of Locations

Left the stressful aura of the studio behind and drove on out to out first location. Vibes were immediately more chill, just a lot less people chatting in my ear overall and I actually had a chance to catch up on some work I put on the backburner. Had a nightmare trying to buy desk fans for someone though as the whole of the UK drained the nation's stock of them after this heatwave, but managed to wangle something after some desperate phone calls. 

Lots of people on the Production Truck were having a giggle at the fact I'm going to be on set tomorrow as a historical games advisor to the cast and director. I'm on the callsheet as exactly that which made me smile. Moving up in the world, one weird job at a time.

It Gets Better?

Another very long day for me, we keep telling ourselves 'today is going to be better' but each subsequent day just seems busier. Did a lot of tech support and an emergency water purchase, lots of favours like that. Everyone is exceptionally grateful when I help them out though which makes of worthwhile. Each night I just can't wait until I get to sleep these days.

Sweltering Day 2

Out of the oven, into the frying pan that is our unsheltered car park where I'm stationed at work. When I wasn't trying to beat the heat I felt like beating up our WiFi which just didn't play ball almost all day. I turned my hand instead to helping out the Assistant Directors team physically, I lifted loads and spirits with my sunny demeanor. Day 2 and people are already taking a shine to me which is nice. Long day again though, just as we get into a working groove a new unforseen element creeps in and throws us all out of sorts. The scripts team gave us some dodgy files which was a pain to rectify. Still, we get over it and come out as a stronger team.

When you Wish Upon a Whist

Thought I'd be a do-gooder and turned up to work half an hour early to help out. Feels like the entire crew had exactly the same idea. The first day was manic, loads going on all at once while I was paired with the most maddeningly slow internet to deal with it all. Jobs were piling in faster than I could tick them off the list, thankfully, towards the days end, everything got a little calmer and I just about caught up. I found some time to search for a local Whist player (for an upcoming scene) and had the most charming conversation with an 80-year old teacher. He sounded very keen too bless him. Chatting with him really picked my spirits back up after a relentless day one.

Scrambling up a Storm

Ive had to put aside my fondness for cooking a fair bit recently on account of the odd hours my job demands. Today however, I was in full swing within the kitchen. Made the classic Sunday scrambled egg with a minor, but impactful twist: I got the pan up to temperature first, then added my egg mixture with tiny cubes of butter inside. This mean there was a range of textures in the final product due to the different cooking temperature of parts of the mixture - it was a winner.

In a similar vein, I tried to make burgers again using a different supermarket type of beef and with a secret ingredient: sauerkraut kimchi. It was meatly, pickley and zingy all at once, it would give restaurant burgers a run for their money. 

Not the kitchen is packed down I can focus on the big day tomorrow, shoot day 1. There's always teething issues on day one, I just hope it goes well. Early stary too tomorrow, that's going to be a recurring treat too.

Asda State of Mind

Felt oddly irritable for most of the morning. Rebecca and I both think I over did it a bit yesterday and my brain is still recuperating. At the risk of sounding like an old man, Asda's new layout only served to exacerbate the issue as my shopping run took longer needlessly as I could no longer find what I was looking for. Its bizarre in there now, the pic 'n mix is next to the tinned fish, while lightbulbs are opposite the frozen pizza. 

My mood improved after the shop though, I got a chance to unwind properly by playing Smash Bros with Louis through the power of the internet. Plus, Rebecca and I dived headfirst into some retro games, something I thought she'd never be up for but we had a blast. Gotta make the most of the weekend, especially as shooting starts very soon.

Job for Two Men

 The final day of prep is always manic, but today I was run ragged. Our other Runner called in sick and I was left to pick up the slack. That slack being having to buy 40 bespoke lunch orders for all of our on site crew - it was a mammoth task that I frankly, didn't really have the time to do. No matter though, I smashed that job and started moving kit into our new Production bus. I'm quite the veteran at this now, as I was kitting it up the Base Runner even verbalized that sentiment. I only learnt late this week that I'd be on the road, touring the South West in that bus, just like I had been on all my other shoots. I was delighted when I found out - I wouldn't be hanging around buying Pret baguettes now for months on end. Finished the day late , along with everyone else but we are as ready as we'll ever be for Monday. Shoot day 1... Felt like light years away, but its right on our doorstep.

Well-Packed Sleeping Bag

This time last week I was neatly packing down my make-shift bed as I left the room I was isolating in. 'I shan't be needing this again in a hurry', thought I, as my hands tightly rolled up my sleeping bag. A week later to the day, I find myself marveling at how well I packed up my sleeping bag as I prepared to sleep in the spare room again. Rebecca came into close contact with someone who recently tested positive, as a precautionary measure I'm distancing myself from her until her NHS test comes back clear. Bless her heart, the last round of isolation was taxing on her brain and now it's happening to her it's all the worse. I tried to put on a brave face, but after an unusually long and tiring day at work I found my typical optimism to falter and I got dragged into a stupor. Fingers crossed her results come back a-ok. 

Dice Game... Corrected

In my ongoing quest to find experts in historical card and dice games I quickly discovered... There isn't any. Instead, I took it upon myself to learn eaeach game's rules inside out so I could act as that advisor. In fact, I started learning one game so well I spotted that in the script, the game the characters play could never have happened: a historical inaccuracy I have the power to amend before it becomes a problem!

2 Well Wishers

'Its so good to have you back in the office, Theo' these well wishes came from two sides. The first being my workplace chums, friends I'd made on previous jobs and folks who get me through the day. The second side came from my boss, who said this statement, paused for a breath and then dumped a weeks worth of odd jobs onto me. Now that I'm back, I'm hopping into lunch runs again and ordering stationary like a madman - that's what they pay me the big bucks for.

Doomed Meeting

Didn't have to take notes at the meeting I attended today - instead I was technical standby for anything that could go wrong on an impossible tech day. We had 32 socially distanced people chatting and presenting to people on a Zoom call, microphones were essential but they couldn't quite make everyone loud enough for the whole meeting to hear. It was frankly a rather fruitless endeavor, I think people realized just how awkward it was going to be about an hour into the meeting, at that point everyone just had to suck it up and live with their mistakes. People were happy enough though and I mostly missed with the jolly hotel staff - it was a fun day out.

The Perfect Roast

Just before packing our bags for heading home we all tucked into one of Dad's famous roast dinners. He's cooked a lot of them, but this one had some immesurable quality that made it so much more delicious. With bellies full of chicken and Summer pudding we packed up the car and drove through th rain, watching our Sunday draw to a close. Next week will no doubt be busy for me, but it'll be good to be out in the field again and not just tucked up on my computer at home.

Piggy Wiggies

Enjoyed a slopey morning eating freshly baked bread and reading my book. Can't remember that last time I felt so chilled out, no doubt I'll be craving this feeling once worm kicks in again this week - but until then, I'm just going to go with the flow. We did a long walk up to the nearby farm to spot some piglets. These little guys were TINY! Never have I seen pigs that could be lost in the tall grass, they were the living definition of the word adorable. 

Just before dinner I at long last got to play a game of Root with more than two people and it was a total blast. Rachel famously wins every board game she plays anf today was no different, even with a competitive Rebecca hot on her heels. Eager to try it out with some other friends now.

Granny Sue's Funeral

Polished my shoes and re-taught myself how to tie a half-windsor knot so I looked presentable for Granny Sue's funeral. Though Covid lessened the number of people that could attend, I was still overwhelmed by the number of people from the local community that attended and offered their well wishes. Even the Mayor of Newbury showed up! The service itself was lovely, Granny Sue couldn't have dreamed of a nicer send off. Louis did an expertly judged speech (I could never do what he did so, once again, I have undying respect for his courage.) Seeing our close family at the wake afterwards was really comforting too, lots of them I hadn't seen in well overa year now, it was really great to catch up and tell them about my recent strokes of luck in working within the TV industry. 

After the guests all left, only the core family group remained. All emotionally drained, we turned to a KFC dinner and flopped around on the sofa and chatted/read books/laughed the evening away. So lovely to be with my family again.

How I'm Feeling Now

Did a midday Covid test and got a negative result. The second the builders left this afternoon I figured I didn't need to punish myself any further, I threw back the spare bedroom door and sniffed air that didn't smell like me for the first time in almost a week. The worst part about leaving the warm embrace of my temporary bedroom was walking downstairs, my legs almost lost the muscle memory for how stairs work! Felt incredible to see the rest of my house though, I won't go outside until tomorrow as that's still the law, but my living room might as well have been the Caribbean.

My beard grew out a fair bit too, I think this picture of me aprlt summed up how I felt over the past week, notice the vacant but exhausted look in my eyes.

 

 

Feeling peachy now though.

 

Cacoon

Contrary to the rest of the week, I found myself rushed off my feet with work from the get go. First up, I had to find historical advisors for obsolete dice and card games, I managed to find a board game consultant for film and TV tucked away online though so I reckon that covered all bases. After that, my team decided they didn't want the meeting room I sourced earlier on so I quickly found another one for next week and penciled in a booking somewhere more to their liking. In the middle of this I brainstormed how to arrange 50 socially distanced people in a venue hall while simultaneously making it accessible to Zoom callers. I had to phone a friend and ask Mark for some sage advice. our ideas were ultimately rejected by my team who are strong arming their approach which will (quite frankly) fall right onto it's face. Won't be my problem though, I wrote up a big 'Don't make me say I told you so' guised as a balanced review of the situation. I was beat by the end of the day. I keep day dreaming about emerging from this room with a beautiful, newfound perspective on the little things in life. I'll admire leaves and their capillaries, I'll think about the life cycle of a piece of rubbish and I'll fill my lungs with the sweet scent of fresh air. Instead, I'll get over it and busy my mind with something hardly worth fussing over.

But for a moment, I'll feel like I'm living in this song.

Return To Vegetables

 In between waiting for email responses at work, i turned my hand once again to writing some lines of dialogue for Louis' vegetables. I'd actually forgotten just how much I enjoy writing, its something I truly felt like I honed during the first lockdown. I'm grateful for all the work that's come my way since in the TV industry, but it leaves little time and brain power to write recreationally - being stuck at home with a lighter work load means that once again I can pick up a pen and help Louis out. His game is getting so far along in development now, it's incredible watching it grow over the years, I'm just happy to lend him my words and to bolster his world just a little bit more.

Radio Support

All I could offer was my radio support at work today. Every now and then I got a call from my superior asking for a quick favour and I'd do my best to resolve it. I've come to realize that all my jobs are food and drink related. I wrangled a hot breakfast for 45 people out of thin air with two weeks notice, but now they want me to figure out a way for feed the same number of people for lunch tomorrow, and they handed me this at 5:30pm. 'Just wing it' was basically my advice and fair play, they accepted it. I cannot wait for our catering team to properly start, then I won't have to stress myself out over feeding the masses.

One Is the Perfect Number of Players

Rebecca came in to give me a ration of coffee and spotted me teaching myself how to play a board game by enacting two players. I must have looked like a crazy man, hunched over a playing board and rule book and in bad need of a shave. Managed to imprint a lot of the game's rules on my brain now though, when I finally get out of here I'll be able to teach people like a guru. 

The one thing that seriously threatened to make this isolation ordeal even worse for Rebecca and me was the fact our internet dropped out for a spell. In fact, a whole side of house lost power spontaneously, and without a very specific plug in the house, our wifi was conked. Some thrifty teamwork eventually got us back up to near full power, but it was almost the straw that broke the camel's back for us both. 

Good news to end this post though, my PCR test came back negative and I'm still showing no symptoms. I'll keep testing of course over the next few days but fingers crossed there's nothing but blue skies and off-white walls lining my future.

Split Screen Board Games

Actually got to step outside the confinement of my room to go for my legally permitted journey to seek a PCR Covid test. Thankfully I still have no symptoms whatsoever, but this test will really let me know if I'm in for the long haul, or if I can be released on schedule. The car ride was glorious, I took my time and felt the wind on my face while dreaming of what I'd do first once I'm no longer under house arrest.

In the interest of trying to still make the weekend feel special, Rebecca and I played a board game of ours virtually. I rigged up my webcam to show a constant feed of the game while I moved all the pieces for us both. Though it took a little longer to play, it was a fun novelty that made the evening fly by. 

 

Brilliant Bedside Manner

I likely didn't hit a double digit step count by the end of today. My work load was predictably neutered too thanks to working from home, in truth, I spent a fair amount of time playing games while waiting for a member of my team to give me a job to do. Bless Rebecca's heart though, she prepped me all my meals and coffee, I don't deserve her level of patience or her generous bedside manner.  

Happy to say that my home covid test came up negative today and I'm actually feeling perfectly normal. I've booked myself in for a PCR test tomorrow morning to be on the safe side. I was told that if I did catch the virus my symptoms would start showing between today and Sunday, each passing healthy, feeling hour makes me all the more confident that I'm doing A-ok. Aside from going stir crazy, but you can't have everything.

Orpheus

 About halfway through a Zoom call meeting I was hit with a message that I need to self isolate at home. By the sounds of it, one of my colleagues has tested positive for Covid and I, along with a few others are being told to isolate for the mandatory 10 day period. 

As such, I am now house-bound. More specifically, I am shutting myself away in my spare room so as not to be in close contact with Rebecca. Since she's been home she's been passing me through some bits of food and running away very quickly. Every time we speak now it's behind a closed door. Even though we are so close to one another, we are so very far away. I feel like Orpheus, forbidden to look back at his lover in fear of damning her. 

Supposedly if I have caught the virus I'll start showing symptoms as of tomorrow/Saturday. I'll be doing home testing virtually every day from no on too. From here on out, I'll be coming to you live from my spare room, same place, same time, every day until next Friday. These 4 walls are going to feel pretty familiar after a while, I can tell you that for free.