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.