French New-Wave Nemesis

Caught up on writing my Letterbox reviews for all the films I've seen recently. I also made a little list of all the remaining films I haven't seen from Roger Ebert's 'The Great Movies' volume one. There's only nine I haven't seen so I'm quietly using that as a North Star whenever I fancy an old movie with gusto (there's a pair of hefty pick from the 1920's which will be fun). There was a short Jean-Luc Godard one I glossed over so I gave that a watch today... In doing so I remembered why I don't like his movies. I guess I just struggle with French New Wave, thankfully that's not a problem that affects my day-to-day. Only 83 minutes long and I was still counting down the seconds... Maybe I need to read Ebert's thoughts to see what he sees in it.

Obsession

Did a top to bottom house tidy, which was much needed after a week of DIY, but especially important because we had a bevvy of guests over for another movie night. This group has kinda turned into a 'lets all watch a modern horror film together because there's safety and comedy in numbers'. Obsession was tonight's film which was a remarkably intense viewing. It was virtually all in the central performances which were spellbinding, I didn't want to look away... Until I had to because I was too chicken to keep my eyes on the screen. We all had a hoot though, that was the key thing. It's always fun doing group movies sessions, always takes me back to the days of Film Friday.

Glue, Clamp, Oil

Operation shelves has entered it's final phases. I took some of the excess wood to get trimmed down into bookends which I then glued & clamped. Once bonded, Ioved onto oiling them all. I basically had a little assembly line of bits that I checked on every half an hour as I did other stuff. As a byproduct of this however I never really settled into anything. Even when I was done for the day, my mind couldn't settle on one thing for more than 30 minutes. I was antsy and fidgety for no good reason. The shelves will all be done tomorrow though as a result of my hustling - we can't wait to see them in action!

Manchester Motorhead

A very early night yesterday set me up well for my day of paid courier work for a TV job... At least, I'm cheaper than a courier and I get to keep all the profit! My car was packed out with costume returns heading to Manchester for a pre-9am drop off. This meant my alarm went off at the same hour you might expect when you go to catch a cheaper flight. Even in the middle of Summer I found the nighttime and was even driving in it for almost an hour. I low-key wish the trip out was actually worthy of an anecdote, but I drove there, dropped off, and drove home. Considering I'd been driving for seven hours and messed up my eating pattern I felt close to ok when I got back. The key lag bit me just before supper, but nothing a long sleep won't sort tonight.

Better yet, when I got back my Screwfix order was ready for collection. Rebecca's shelves needed some boards glued together which was a new experience for me, but now they look more robust and premium now. Our replacement internet box also arrived so after three days off grid I can finally doomscroll to my heart's content! 

The Incident at Galley House

 Got totally engrossed in the hottest detective game of July. The Incident at Galley House is a very cool little murder mystery game about stepping into the past to figure out the timeline of suspects and victims. It's plays around with the Agatha Christie whodunnit formula while peppering in a we'll judged amount of Sci-fi. The end result drip feeds 'ah-HA' moments to the point where it's hard to put down... I was so absorbed I almost forgot to drill in Rebecca's bookshelves!

The Odyssey

We bucked our circadian rhythm, had a big, late breakfast and headed to the cinema at 11am. The Odyssey was almost booked up when we went to get tickets yesterday, but this early screening actually was a blessing in disguise as we got to see the movie on a massive screen and a thumping sound system... So much so that I think my ears are still ringing a bit after watching some of the more intense action sequences. The film was ace though, I actually enjoyed it substantially more than I expected which is always a treat.

Speaking of treats, we decided to keep a good thing going after the film and went out for pizza and then a taproom for a drink. I realised one of my favourite things about our city break holidays is trying out the best foodie spots, and it's nice to treat my home city in the same way sometimes - makes you appreciate it all over again. Lastly we did some prep work on building Rebecca's bookshelves. I'm now ready to drill holes and mount everything on the wall. It's been a long time coming, but I'm really excited for the results.

WiFi Woes Part 2

Wifi is down in the house again, it won't get replaced til Tuesday at the latest. I never realised how shoddy the data coverage was in our home til today either. Internet in the living room? Fuggetaboutit! I spent 45 minutes on the phone with a technician unplugging and replugging wires into boxes behind bits of spider web caked furniture to no avail. All that was left to do was wait for the new router to arrive. 

Thankfully we had a big evening activity tonight that soaked up our WiFi free existence: a friend's BBQ - specially her Book Club BBQ (but partners were allowed over too). So we just hung out and socialised, surprisingly I didn't get roped into the grilling this time so I just sat back and drank beer. 

Farewell Brolly

Did my final day as a Travel and Accommodation assistant out in Cardiff. I did the last of my TMO's and left with a tiny fanfare from the Production Team. I got a bigger response from the Transport Captain who gifted me a really good umbrella just as I was leaving the studio. Old friendships always bear fruit. I'm waiting to hear back on my next set of ventures now - I got a day's work next week, but otherwise I'm freewheeling til I hear back from another big gig I've been optioned for. Things are slowly rejuvenating in Bristol it seems.

I was low-key invited to a wrap party for a job I only worked on for 8 days. Free bar was tempting but the driving this week really took it out of me so Rebecca and I just went up to our local board game place instead. I stayed behind after hours and got a rum in the house - everywhere I go there's a free bar.

Flimsy Firestick

Penultimate day temping and I got to do a but if a fun one today. My colleague and I went to the hotel where one of our cast members is staying so we could say hello, check out their room and make sure they were comfortable. Things came to ahead though when we plugged in a brand new Amazon Fire stick into the hotel TV, we brought it with us so they had access to Netflix etc and to help them set it up. Trouble was we connected to the slowest internet option known to man and the thing had a monster update to do right out the box. So we all just hung out together while we waited for a tiny progress bar to fill. While the activity it took us away from our desks, it was actually quite a bizarre and fun hour out of my day. One more day now, I reckon most people will want to scarper off sharpish on a Friday, fingers crossed I get to join them.

Bye Bye Bear

Back out West for me, putting in my time out in Cardiff. It always tickles me how many friendly faces pop out of the woodwork on jobs. The 1st AD made a point of coming over to me to shake my hand and I've rekindled an old relationship with the Transport Captain. I'm staving off the tiredness more and more too, as if my body clock is re-adapting to long shooting days and the associated drives. 

Down time this week has mostly been dedicated to finishing off the final series of The Bear, which has been a real delight. I was firmly in the crowd of 'I'm glad they're ending this show' before watching it, but this last season was a great homage to everything that came before, reminding us why we all fell in love with the show.

Travel and Accommodation Intern

Been in travel and accommodation for two days now and my head already feels hot with information loading. Massive respect going out to my boss and all the others who get people from A to B. I'm just hoping I'm doing my part enough to support those guys. I'm still booking trains, writing movement orders and filling up logs. It's like I'm on an intensive training course though and I'm trying to make it count.

Cardiff Calls

Ah yes. The early get up. The hour long drive to work. The ten hours without a break. Then driving home for another hour. Welcome to the glamour of working in TV.

In all seriousness, it's actually been quite nice to be back inside a production office again. I slowly remembered all the steps and got into the swing of things. I'm only doing cover work so I don't need to be mega onboarded with all the job's various ins and outs, which is a little refreshing. The drive to and from Cardiff is a bit of a bore though, I blazed through the one podcast I was excited to listen to, now I need something else... 

Gourmand Cat

We felt a bit guilty once we got home only to find the cat's automatic feeder didn't go round for her while we were away for 24 hours. We opened up the case and just let her go mental and gorge herself on a buffet of wet and dry meaty bits. Otherwise I did the routine packing of my work bag before starting on another few days of work. I'll be up in Cardiff next week doing some days in a Production Office, hopefully it all goes well. I've had the Sunday scaries for most of the week now, I've been off the wagon for a while now and I just want to do a good job.

Stasis til Curry

Back on a London bound coach to meet up with Rebecca and her family. I managed to finish up the last few chapters of my book club read on the journey and while enjoying some quiet time in the living room. Mostly I was in stasis til the main event if the evening: a curry with some family friends. When the meal was all done they came back round to the house to watch the football game, and the post match commentary. I can't say I was especially excited by the footie but it was a fun evening.

La Dolce Vita

There's an evolving answer to 'best film I've never seen'. Until today I suppose I would have said La Dolce Vita (I guess I'm doing pretty well if I'm scraping the barrel with Italian Neorealist works). I'm working again next week so I thought I'd sieze the day and give the film a shot. I've always heard it's either a self indulgent mess or a masterpiece, and thankfully I lent rather favourably to it. 

I rode that high for most of the day til the evening. A few jobs in Bristol were preparing to wrap up this week and by proxy I got invited to drinks. Somehow I ended up at a wrap party for a job I didn't even work on, I couldn't help spending the whole time giggling to myself about how the hell I got to free karaoke, but I didn't question. It sure is a sweet life I'm living.

De-hermitting

With Rebecca out of town I found myself home along (minus the cat). While I always manage to find ways to busy myself, I must confess that I felt like I've become a mite reclusive this week and needed some human interaction. I was delighted then when Lucy said she'd be in my neck of the woods this afternoon and wanted to grab coffee. We're both going through small patches of unemployment, but as chance would have it we also both just caught wind of some very promising opportunities. I expected us to commiserate over coffee, but we actually did some early celebrating which was lovely. As a double whammy, I played with a group of 12 other people online to do some social deduction. There were a bunch of new people tonight but I got stuck in and chatted away with everyone (when we weren't trying to murder eachother). 

Consider myself de-hermitted.

England VS Argentina 2026

There was electricity in the air all day leading up to the big semifinals. Just moments before kickoff I waved Rebecca goodbye, she's heading up to London before me so I'm staying home with the cat for a couple of days. The first half hour I spent figuring out which device had the most 'live' version of the match. Eventually I settled on the iPad because I remembered that I live in a neighborhood where everyone cheers loudly at their TV's. If anyone started shrieking, that was my cue to turn my head and watch the next time-delayed 30 seconds to see what all the fuss was about. Our goal caused a ruckus, our defeat caused groans, then silence. England's dream died once again at the semifinals. 

Baby Steps

Jamie is currently staying over at ours for a few days and we've both been enraptured by a game I picked up called Baby Steps, in which you control a blubbering man-child up a treacherous mountain. Catch is, the controls and the obstacles are designed to test your patience. You operate each of his legs individually while also influencing his centre of gravity. This means that every step is an ordeal, and every fall while going uphill is a potential catastrophe. In spite of it being intentionally infuriating, it's compelling in a bizarre way. We filled all of our spare time playing it today it felt like. Laughing when we made a slip, undoing several minutes of progress.

Operation Bookshelf, Continues

Operation Bookshelf continues at full force. I went to collect the wall brackets from a nearby Screwfix, I already knew they were too long to take in the car so I had to go by foot, all the while carrying home a pair of 2m white rails. Thankfully it's cooling down a lot around here so it wasn't too nasty a trek. All that's left to do is mark and drill some holes, all the while I'll remember that age old maxim: measure twice, drill once.

I have a week of quite intense sounding work coming up next week so I'll take this opportunity to be kind to myself prior to pulling my hair out. Got some movies to watch, games to play and bits to write - all of my favourite things. 

Ever Expanding Social Circles

Left Newbury with our usual gaggle of four in the car and pootled back to Bristol. The remainder of the Sunday was the definition of lazy in all the right ways. Rebecca and I had depleted a lot of our social batteries recently so this afternoon was a chance to recharge fully. Right before going over to a friend's house for board games! We're slowly making friends with a couple who live up the hill from us who we met at the board game meetup we go to each week, it's been really swell hanging out with them from time to time. They say making friends past your 30's is tricky, but my social circle has literally exploded in the last year or so it feels. Guess we're just lucky people.

Long Distance Family Garden Party

Did a fair few miles today, all in the name of making it to my Uncle's 60th birthday party. It's been a long time since I've been to a family garden party, the kind where all generators mingle and kids splinter off to find their own amusement. I mostly stood in the shade, enjoyed some drink and nibbles and made small talk with relatives, pretty dreamy event all told.

Coming home we discussed watching England play in the Quarterfinals. I couldn't bring myself to acrew the sleep debt required to watch the whole game so I slunk off at halftime to bed. I'll wake up and learn if we went through or not. 

Bye Bye Boat

Enjoyed our final breakfast on the boat before packing our bags and returning to dry land for good. For the rest of the day we felt the phantom pain of motion, even when standing deadly still the urge to rock gently from side to side was powerful.

Rebecca and I drove back to Bristol to check in on the cat (and to cut our cat-sitting bills right down). The rest of the day was spent doing the classic 'recovering from our holiday' - a chance to recompress and return to the world of land lubbing. 

Hardships: Endured

We all set our alarms for an early rise in a bid to beat the sun. Sure enough though, it found us. We somehow managed to endure every hardship we could on this holiday. A heatwave, running around, getting stuck on the wrong side of the boat, shearing off our TV antenna. But we all did it as a unit, emerging stronger, but just a little more battered each time. 

It's our last night on the boat, all the while temperatures continue to soar. I'm still shattered from all the work of the day so hopefully the rocking of the water will lull me off to my slumber.

 

Working on the Waterway

You know in old American movies they show chain gangs all bashing rocks together on the highway. That was us today, in the unkind heat as we laboured through more locks than we would have liked. We also clocked onto the fact the boats topside is basically sheet metal, the perfect conductor for the heatwave so sitting inside was akin to bring in a greenhouse. We muscled through it though, in spite of swing bridges and no shade. Once we finally moored up we somehow stumbled into a really remarkable curry place that threw a big reversal in our once dour mood. Same again tomorrow, at least we know what's coming though.

Lazy Accusations

Rebecca heckled me virtually first thing this morning for not leaping out of bed the literal second she did. Called me lazy, so I spent the rest of the day proving her wrong. Today I:

- Made her porridge (I didn't have any so it really was made specially for her).

- Finished reading the second half of my book.

- Did 30 locks back to back, in the full blast of the Summer heat.

- Undertook a pilgrimage to a supermarket to help carry some groceries back to the boat (Rebecca napped while we did this).

Spite, as it turns out, is a powerful motivator. 

Summertime Hibernation

Exhaustion gripped me throughout yesterday, even as I tried my best to style it out. It was the first day of our family holiday out on the canal boat, the first step was a drive out to meet Mum, Dad and Louis who already had a couple of days out on the water. I just slept the whole car ride and once we arrived I made a bee-line to the nearest coffee shop. That made me feel slightly more human, but news that we were about to ascend the biggest flight of locks in Europe (30 back to back) sapped my strength. I put on a brave face though and helped out where I could. Once all was said and done though, I collapsed into bed and never wanted to wake up again.

I end today in a similar stupour, not because I'm tired but because I ate so much fish and chips that my body has entered a hibernation period. Unusual for Summer I know. I'll sleep it off though and we'll be back chugging along the river... Back on the return route now. An encore for the 30 locks. 

Background Check

Alongside an entire cohort of ex-co-workers, I played wingman today. We share a friend who had a potential new romantic partner come over from the States just to spend the 4th of July with her. It was a sweeping, romantic gesture that demanded the call to arms. Or maybe it was just a good excuse to get bladdered on a boat. Either way, I played my part in day drinking and getting friendly with a perfect stranger from the US. We gave a glowing character assessment back to our friend and kept a good thing going by boating all the way into town for more drinks and dancing. Walking home now and I've held hiccups the whole way home.

On the Horizon

Halfway through my day of not working I got a text asking if I could jump in to help out on a project in Wales for a week. I ain't got much else going on so I said yes and now I'm starting to really look forward to it. The only other big job to do before then is sort out Rebecca's bookcase and we"re making even bigger strides now. I sanded down the boards so their ready to use, I got a ScrewFix basket full of all the other bits and bobs ready to collect after our holiday next week.

 Lots to look forward to. A week of work, a boat holiday and some new shelves. 

Superb Shelves

I actually ended up doing one little bit of work for people first thing this morning, but after that I basically took the day off to good off. We're all off on a family holiday in the next couple of days so my attention is being drawn to packing and prepping for that. I also went over to Lucy's brother's place to go pick up some pieces of plywood. A very late Birthday present from me to Rebecca was a set of shelves for her ever growing library of books. What I really struggled with was finding bit of wood that fit the bill that didn't cost the earth and it's moon. As it happens, Lucy's brother has access to a few off cuts and very generously offered to cut it all down to size for us. We're thrilled with how it looks, now it just lies with me and a power drill to make the dream a reality.

Day's Up for Daily

Finished up my last day of temp cover on a shoot. I surrendered my access card and my spot on the production truck, I ate my last crew lunch and waved farewell as I collected the rushes. It wasn't super impactful of course, they're still going on for a little while yet, but it was nice to have joined them for a spell. Back to the yonder of naught for me now.