An Impossible Knot

Batted away a massive curveball that came out way and solved a last minute logistical problem for tomorrow. I obviously impressed someone because half an hour later I got lumped with what could be an impossible knot. Looks like our car and van hire isn't coming along as quickly as we would have hoped so I've been put on the case... Unfortunately it's such a late request now I can't actually see a good solution. I'll try and work some magic but I may have met my match here. 

To take my mind off the pressure I met up with Mark in central London. Though we planned to have some Mexican food we ended up eating a New Orleans inspired burger, followed up by a sweet from Chinatown - culture capital of the world! Was great to see him though and chill out with a close friend in the big city. He's out there for a few months now, he'll practically be a local once his job is over.

Rolling back into Malory

First day back on Malory and I already got more emails in a day than I did in 5 weeks on my last job! Slowly trying to piece everything together and glean all the information I can off our shared documents. But although it was busy, it was a lovely Monday. The director and DOP from the last season came into the office and remembered my name, then it was someone's Birthday and a cake was produced, then I was offered a beer at 4pm! Talk about work hard, play hard!

The Big Breakfast

For my farewell breakfast I decided to rustle up a full English with all the trimmings... Only as I was plating it all up I remembered just how much *stuff* there is in a traditional brekkie. Eggs, sausages, bacon, toast, hash browns, mushrooms and black pudding. Perhaps it was a little much, but it's hard not to want everything when you make your own fry up.

I packed my bags and caught the MegaBus up to the Big Smoke. I put on a brave face saying goodbye to Rebecca as the hours apart grew I became increasingly glum. I take for granted how nice it is to hang out with someone every night. I'll be on my lonesome for a few days as I settle back into my new job. Though it's exciting, I'm already looking forward to being back home in Bristol.

More Mead

Upfest was in full swing and I'v never seen North Street so busy. Funny because everyone knows it's a graffiti art festival so the weekend crowd are all taking pictures of every single thing that fits the bill, even if its work that been up for well over two years. I sniggered to myself while walking to meet an old filming friend from my days in Sanditon as he's going to be my replacement on the job I just left. He's never done any work in Production before so he wanted to check in with me and ask about the ropes, I have full confidence in him and I know he'll fit in well with my old team.

In my last evening with Rebecca before I start my next big project I showed her how to play the board game Inis. It's long been one if Louis' favourites, I borrowed a copy off Mark to play, relaernt the rules and dove into it with Rebecca. It was even better than I remembered and we both had a blast! Sipping mead and listening to Celtic music helped too, but we were lost in the game's vibe, really hoping we can play more sometime down the line.

Farewell Wine

A bottle of wine was awaiting me when I returned from a long shopping stint. A card full of well wishes was sat next to it, I looked around the office to see people I made a small bond with. It was such a sunny evening too and everyone left work an hour early, it reminded me of leaving school all those years ago in the long Summer days. Drifting away, never knowing if I'd see those faces again. I'm already reading scripts for my next job and mentally kicking it up a gear for next Monday - no rest for the wicked. I'm ready to take it up a notch and really shine.

Start As You Mean To Go On

My mad dash for the bus this morning paid off. I was the first one in the office with plenty of time to leisurely unpack my bits and make a pot of coffee. It just let me feel ready for the day and gave me a shield of confidence that persisted til quittin' time. I was back at making ID badges for the crew, handing them out in person to many grateful faces - all of which where gutted to hear it's my final day tomorrow. Though it's mad busy for nearly everyone, no one ever forgot how to be kind to one another. Gonna miss the great personalities on this job, but I'll be moving onto pastures green.

Whimpering WiFi

Fought with the office wifi for every working hour of my day. Half an hour before quitting time it magically connected and I got to see exactly how many emails I missed out on... Which was zero. Because I'm making an exit by week's end they haven't saddles me with any major responsibilities outside of buying the Producers their lunch. That meant the first trip to my favourite Pret a Manger in 2022 (no one remembered me behind the counter but that's fair).

Went out for the last time in a while to the local board game night. Ticket to Ride was produced and I went into silent beast mode. Quietly I amassed points and hid my intentions but stormed up the leader board by the end, securing first place. I didn't let up how fast my heart was beating, but it was a thrill. Said my timely farewells to the owner there, 'see you in a few months time!' I'll be in Devon/Cornwall soon but when I return I'll certainly be back for more board game nights.

Badge Holder in Brewing

Set the bar unexpectedly high for coffee once again in the office... But that's what you get when you hand grind you beans to order before work. My colleagues are enamored with my brews but only today noticed the scales I use to measure it all out - now they know it's a hobby they're all eager whenever I flick the kettle on. "I'm gone in a few days" I keep telling them but that only makes the problem worse.

I'm entrenched in ID badge printing once again, having to chase crew members for an informal selfie seems like a lame reason to badger someone over email but my team are eager to get it all done by the end of this week. Just gotta keep pushing.

Cat Friends

Back to my shipping container to start printing bespoke ID badges for every member of crew. If course, all great palns come from great spreadsheets, so I spent the morning prepping a master list of everyone while wrestling with the internet to download their selfies. My final week will pass by with a whimper it feels like, I can't really be given any meaty tasks anymore as I'll just have to palm it off onto my successor, guess I'll just have to enjoy the company of my coworkers while I still can.

Louis and Rachel popped round tonight bfir a very adult meal and wine kinda night. Mostly we wanted to see how Edi reacts to them (especially as we might need them to feed her very soon). Thankfully, she was very calm and even appoached Louis when he had food outstretched. They'll be the best of buds in a years time.

Summer Dresses and Straw Hats

Wapping Wharf beckons on warm Sundays and no visiting trip to Bristol would be complete without a lunch from a cargo container. Mark, Dan, Lucy and I all got a bespoke beer and a raman bowl while enjoying the sunny outdoors and the crowds of people in their summer dresses and straw hats. Rebecca joined us for bowling and ice cream, then before we knew it the day was over and Dan had to go home. The Sunday blues ring true again tonight with my final week at my current job approaching - what mysterious delights are on my horizon over the next five days?

Mark Sols

Daniel came down to Bristol for Mark's Birthday weekend. That mostly meant a bit of day drinking and board games over at Mark's house with some great home cooked food. Such a joy seeing Dan again too, though it's been over two years since I last hung out with him in person it feels like no time had passed.   The main event of the day was 'Mark Sols' - a brutal introduction of the Dark Souls games for Mark in which he had to drink some beer every time he died. It was fascinating to watch him go through it, the stages of emotions he went through were endearing, that game has a spell that entrances new players into Stockholm Syndrome. The cries of defeat crossed with the roars of victory are familiar sounds to even the most seasoned of Souls players. Mark pushed himself through his fair share of deaths and fought off gradual inebriation  to take on the game first real boss. Ever the persistent underdog, Mark picked himself up time and time again before announcing 'this will be my last try...' He stroad into the boss chamber with fire in his belly, emboldened by beer and a lucky run up towards the fight. He barrled head first into the Taurus Demon, his audience cheering him on. With only a slither of life for both himself and his foe, Mark slew the beast and let out an almighty war cry. The rest is history. 

Feng Shui

I actually got to do a bit of work on my laptop again today, no longer was I Production's Man with a Van... At least not for the first few hours of the day. I was given a mighty shopping list of cleaning supplies to round up and a Makro card, that was my afternoon! Always fun to visit bulk buy supermarkets and admire 50 liter mayonnaise paint pots and giant Haribo tubs. 

I retired the van this evening, saluting it for it's weeks if service with me schlepping back and forth to Cardiff. One more week on my current job now, and I like to think I've left them in a good place now their new office is up and running. Hopefully they'll think of me fondly whenever they look around and admire the Feng Shui of the portacabin.

Dog Tired

Shut the van doors on the final wave of furniture from Cardiff and made a sentimental trip down the M4 for the last time. There is a smack of sarcasm there because now the job is Bristol based I won't have to drive for yonks first thing in the morning - I'll enjoy a brief lie-in first thing tomorrow. Which is good because I was dog tired this afternoon. I was shifting a bookcase down a flight of stairs by myself, got halfway done the staircase and just... Leant against it and closed my eyes for a whole minute. The effort has been worthwhile though as I'm getting showered with praise for all the hard work. I've basically moved an entire office solo and now we're all set up I can start to really weave my magic.

Arty Board Games

I was on schlepping duty all day, hauling our stuff once again out of Cardiff into Bristol. Did the double trip today for the first time, I was shocked to discover that I knew the route by heart, a route that after tomorrow I'll hopefully never have to do again!

Visited mt local board game meet up again tonight but it was just me and the owner there for the first hour or so. We're pretty friendly now so we chatted a fair bit and I sampled his homemade spiced rums before settling into some games. A visiting friend if the owner turned up which brought us up to the player count for Modern Art - a game I bought along with me and was chuffed as chips to play in a real life art gallery. They really liked it too! Might have to bring it along next week now.

Sod's Law

Life does like to throw little curveballs my way. My entire day plan was turned on its head the moment I stepped into the office as a new inventory of stuff to take to Bristol appeared out of nowhere. I once again had to wait a lot longer than I wanted to before I could hit the road and do all my afternoon jobs, many of which were time sensitive. Did my best headless chicken impression and got it all done, albeit a few hours after my usual ending time, all because I was waylaid at the start.

The second curveball arrived as I was effectively head hunter for not 1, but 2 job roles that would sort me out until the end of the year. Both are extremely attractive right now too, just have to figure out what is best for me to do. Always nice to be needed, but sod's law all the requests suddenly come in at once!

WiFi Warrior

 The Cardiff Exodus is in full swing at my office, I'm still doing a lot of the actual labour involved with that but my team are super busy with everything else going on. I set up most of our Bristol space now, which is once again based in a shipping container... I have plenty of experience setting them up now at least. In between all the leg work I'm occasionally summon towards the laptops of some very important people as they ask me how to get onto the company wifi or use the printer. I always have the answers and they're always delighted I can fix their problems.

 Tomorrow and Wednesday is the last push out of Wales so I reckon a lot of driving is on the cards - wish me luck. 

Everything Everywhere All At Once

 After dropping our weekend guest off at the train station to return home, Rebecca, Louis, Rachel and I headed off to see Everything Everywhere All At Once at the Watershed cinema. Conditions for film watching were perfect: an idle, rainy Sunday afternoon - everyone else had the same idea as the screening was sold out. An electricity was in the room as the ads and trailers played out as a hungry audience prepared themselves for something very special...

What a crazy ambitious film this was. A Chinese immigrant struggles to pay her taxes and get embroiled in a bizarre scenario that results in hopping between multiverse. Tonally the film walked along the knifes edge of absurdity and sincerity, it's set pieces too were occasionally too bizarre to even believe they were unfurling in front of your eyes. On paper, the film should have been an incoherent mess, but it finds a way to layer in it's sci-fi shenanigans and bonkers moments in a way that's consistently entertaining and geared to blindsided you with its pathos. Like the best Edgar Wright films, every unscrupulous detail has purpose amidst the chaos. Your along for the ride as it hops genres and moods because the beating heart of the film is constantly in focus and relates to every human being on the planet. It surprised me a hundred times over and aptly for a film about dimensions shifting, I'm proud to live in a universe in which this film exisits.

Strong Second

Took our houseguests up and along North Street to buy baby toys of all things. One of our friends has relatives who just gave birth so it was an ideal excuse to go toy shopping in the weird and exciting world of children's stuff... Debateably I'm still a man child anyhow so it all appealed to me. 

Back home we prepped for Eurovision by sourcing pens from around the house and cooking dinner. I've been wanting to make a nacho platter for yonks now and now was the time. Even before it went into the oven I knew we were onto a winner - I even beckoned people into the kitchen just to look and sample some of it. When Louis and Rachel came round everything was served up, Eurovision came on and the UK did better than it ever had done within my lifetime. It was such a real rush to see us go so far up the charts, the energy was palpable in our living room and the goodwill was flowing. It felt right that Ukraine won tonight but living through a strong 2nd for the UK was like seeing Halley's Comet.

Ratchet Straps

Washing machines a heavy. I relearnt this fact while trying to haul one into my van with the help of someone without great muscles. The only thing more challenging than loading up a heavy appliance is remembering how to use ratchet straps. They've always been my Achilles Heel when it come to transporting stuff, either that get tangled or messed up beyond repair when I lay hands on then. But miraculously they played ball today and the illusion of confidence was cast. Got to fake it til you make it after all.

I was beat after a heavy day of work, but the promise of a great weekend carried me through the day. We've got friends staying with us until Sunday, mostly for Eurovision tomorrow night, but spending time with old chums is always invigorating.

Black Wrap

Our new offices are being built at the moment and I'm the lucky fellow who gets to kit it all out... Including doing all the bizarre and quirky jobs that come with it. In order to make our set build a little more discreet I was asked to roll out and cable tie a bunch of blackout around the fences on the perimeter. Arguably it actually now brings more attention to itself now but if it keeps the bosses happy I won't complain. Costume also eyed me up and noticed I have rather exact measurements for a lot of the male characters. I got a pair of trousers made up for me so they could check sizes and how easy it would be for the cast to move around in... Honestly though, it feels like I always get roped into being in front of camera somewhere down the line.

Scuppered Schedule

 Suffered a real false start today which scuppered me for hours later. I had a beautiful travel plan in place in which I'd collect a bunch of furniture from Cardiff and drop it off in Bristol before midday. Instead, I was still waiting on the greenlight from our parent company, pending the approval of our assest application. It's all paperwork basically, tedium for the sake of it. To make matters worse, the single person who can give us access to a neighbouring studio doesn't have the greatest sense of urgency. All in, I got to Bristol for 16:45, considerably past my estimations. For a doer like me, sitting in the waiting room unjustly is torturous.

Red Tape Everywhere

Found myself cacooned by strands of red tape. We are moving out of an office site and are expected to leave the venue as an empty husk, yet there's a bunch of decent office furniture around us that we could take with us to our new offices. The company the furniture belongs to is our parent company, so in a roundabout way we own the stuff... But it all still needs to be logged, photographed and officially requested before they consider releasing any of it to us. It's just incredibly frustrating because there's about 3 middlemen all obstructing us getting ahold of some broken office chairs and water damaged tables - I thought we were doing them a favour hauling it out but they're incredibly protective of their tat.

Several Swivel Seats

The rule of bringing baked goods into any office is that it takes forever until someone in is bold enough to take the first treat. Then once word of mouth get round, everyone wants to get in on the action. My brownies went down very well, lifting the spirits of our busy, busy team, all of whom are working a lot harder than me. I'm prepping for the mighty office move later this week, starting with an inventory of all the furniture we can steal from our current site. I got halfway through counting big office desks before spotting a double fridge, shelving units and more swivel chairs than I could count... One thing was clear, I was going to need a bigger van. With all my evidence ready, I'll make that case to my coworkers first thing tomorrow.

Guilt Baking

Next weekend we have guests staying round ours so it's been nice using this Saturday and Sunday enjoying the eye of the hurricane. We had plenty of time to do our chores at a leisurely pace, and once they were done I got busy in the kitchen. Because I'm not staying on with my current Production I figured I should at least bake them something so there's no hard feelings. A batch of my stellar brownies cooled on our kitchen counter while I made Rebecca and myself a Ceasar salad. I somehow made the best bacon and chicken I'd ever done for this meal... Naturally our cat wanted to get involved in the good eating but we held her back as we ate outdoors in the good weather. Can't believe I'm walking around without a jumper or socks on again - bring on the Summer.

Worse for Wear

'Worse for wear' is the euphemism I'd like to use to describe myself this morning after, perhaps, one too many stouts last night. It was the right call to half drink my last can and stick it in the fridge as that would have tipped me from the euphemism into something a little more dire. Fortunately, we only had a very idle Saturday planned with a small shopping trip deep into the afternoon. By chance I spotted our dream salt and pepper grinders - something we'd been hunting for ages and are already delighted with them. Feeling better in the evening we watched Netflix while I laid on my back on the sofa. A curious cat decided she wanted to lay down on my tummy, so for about 15 minutes the cat and I stayed very still and watched a film together. I think Rebecca's jealous...

Taproom Funtimes

 Admired our freashly painted wall for longer than I care to admit. The workroom space is really coming together, even moreso now the Art Department have moved in. Once I got back to Cardiff and returned the van I surprisingly got let home early. Perfect because I was due to meet a friend for a few drinks at a fringe taproom - perhaps drink more than I should have but we'll find out tomorrow. My friend was really delighted with our presence though, so much so we're in already planning another meet up in a few weeks time.

Painting Pals

Did a flyby visit to our Cardiff office while taking a couple of coworkers (plus one of their dogs) into work in my van. We must have looked like a real motley crew to anyone looking over at us on the M4. I quickly had to return to Bristol with some more desks and chairs... And so I could paint a wall. Costume Department were put into a room with a blood-red back wall they wanted white. I rolled up my sleeves and alongside another chap we smothered the crimson. Took three coats to cover it all up, which got a bit desperate towards the end as we only had a small bucket of paint. But we made it work,  everyone was dead impressed and I only got a bit of paint on my sock - all good days work.

Studio Set Up

Schlepped a bunch of desk chairs and office furniture out of the biggest film studio in Wales. Seeing the old sets was a thrill but my job today was mostly all about setting up new offices. I hoofed chunky desks up catwalks and hoovered many communal spaces, kept myself busy which is the best thing and it all looks the better for it.

Headed out again to the board game night a venue up the road hosted, there's a small dedicated following of 6ish people turning up most night now which is lovely to see. They guy who runs it clearly gets a lot of kicks out of playing games with strangers - I think it's a great way to ingratiate myself into the Totterdown community.

Redcoat

Got the whistle stop tour of our new Production Office... It is perhaps a little 'incomplete' but that's where I slot into this puzzle. Tomorrow I'll be doing office furniture runs and plenty of lifting and shifting in an effort to get us up and running in full force. 

It's always good to reflect on old projects though and Rebecca and I have started making our way through series 2 of Sanditon. We landed on the episode with my cheeky Redcoat cameo, awkward acting and all. Really proud to have been a part of that project, it was an uphill battle at the time but looking back it was all worthwhile.

Speedy Van Man

I blinked and the whole day passed me by. One moment I was sat at my desk, the next I was loading 30 fire extinguishers into my newly hired van. The task I grappled with the most was driving out to Westbury to pick up a jumbo sized sink - the trip just took forever for some reason. Going down country roads in a chunky be transit takes a fair amount of mental bandwidth and I was exhausted when I finally got home, I felt useful though which is a big plus.

Cash Crunching

Sundays are best spent doing the North Street Shuffle. Hitting up the bookshops, board game shop, Zero Waste shop and of course, the Sunday market - those arancini balls are too hard to pass up, especially if Rebecca's buying. 

Mark and Lucy were our dinner guests once we brought the house back into a presentable state. We introduced them to the cat, Edith, who was incredibly well behaved amidst strangers. Went all out on bean burgers as a veggie meal for all which lined our bellies for board games later on. Mark Mum infamously likes this very dated game called Masterpiece which is all about paying players to secure expensive art... Mark hates it because it's got some shonkey design but I dug the theme. Enter Modern Art, the game where an artist's worth is determined by the players - its more number crunching/market manipulation vibes which I though Mark and Lucy would gel with. Was sad to see them off at the end of the night as Monday beckons. I don't get the Bank Holiday off either so it's a bit of a blow... I do get to drive a van tomorrow though so that sweetens the deal a mite.