A New Civilization Discovered

I take sincere pride in prepping the sides for everyone each day. I whiffle through the script, pick out the relevant scenes and print them for everyone ready for tomorrow. This morning I get the classic email that a fresh batch of script amends are in and they change the first scene if the day. Luckily I was already coming in early to help make a shed load if teas and coffee for cast but it meant I was dashing around like a headless chicken for the first 90 minutes.

A weird smell was prevailing around our truck too. Smart money was on the fridge, but I cleaned it within an inch of it's life a few weeks ago with little effect. I decided to bite the bullet and pull it out to inspect the shadowy underbelly of the 'fridge nook'. I saw our culprit. The fridge's drip tray was teaming with rancid... Everything. Honestly, it reached the point where mould was growing its own mould. I felt like Gordon Ramsay inspecting disaster kitchens for the disgusting storage habits. Cleaning it out was perhaps the nastiest thing I've ever had to do on a job, butbit was worth doing right if it meant neautralizing the stench. Just feel like I need to bleach my skin now.

Return of the V Car

Rebecca bid me farewell as I groggily threw the duvet back over my eyes. She's off to Spain for the rest of the week, well timed with my night shoots really because I'll be a social zombie for the next few days. I couldn't quite stomach a second day of chicken nuggets so a continental brunch did me well, it gave me all the energy I needed to push out lashings if coffee for our high cast numbers today. Costume Department cashed out a lot of their favours today by asking for a lot of last minute requests. They're always very grateful, bless them, but my heart always sinks when I see their emails land in my inbox. My last big job of the day was arranging taxis via V Cars. Everytime we use this company they always find new depths to slump into. In some fairness, we are in a tricky location to find, but when I ask for a car to hold 4 people, why in earth did they send me a vehicle that can only hold 3? I always say never again... Then just end up using them the very next day.

Drowning under a Rainbow

First day of late night shooting, it always sounds so manageable on paper, but by the end of the day you're always knackered. Printing was once again my main duty today as I battled against the colourful wave of script amends that have been threatening to engulf our first few filming weeks. Just about got on top of it now (though my desk looked like someone threw up a rainbow). Only other downside to working on split days is managing my sleeping and eating pattern. Had lunch at 1pm today, then dinner, then a supper much later - I shan't be hungry until this time tomorrow now.

Bumpy Shoot

 I've had smoother first days on film shoots, that's for sure. Our three week filming hiatus is over so I'm back in the truck, filming with all the gang again. This time with a new director and some other new faces - these new folks weren't even slightly the reason for the speedbumps though, just bad luck with the weather and a sudden family emergency for a high-ranking crew member meant that our wings were a little clipped. Even I felt a bit rusty today, I thought being back at work would be like riding a bike, but I forgot how to use the gears. We're getting a lot of sudden script amends that are having big effects on the program, in the short term though I'm suffering because I'm the one running around printing them all. Getting through my coloured paper a lot quicker than I'd anticipated, just got to pray there isn't more incoming.

Swiss Meringue

The good Lord may have rested on a Sunday, but I sure didn't. I promised everyone at work a coffee cake to enjoy on Monday, because I wanted to try an experimental icing I ended up making two coffee cakes, one is my classic butter icing beast, the second is a coffee-infused Swiss meringue icing. It was a right faff to make, but it produced a much lighter and delicate frosting which some may prefer. I just hope it travels well!

In the pouring rain, Louis, Rebecca and I all tried to squeeze a sofabed into my car. We just about got it in, though I had to push the drivers seat all the way forward - my knees were basically in my nostrils for the ride home! Our spare room is officially complete with it's inclusion, though there's an ongoing debate about its final position. I got the masonry drill off Louis too so I got to relive the trauma of putting up my coffee shelf again. Thankfully it was a lot less sweaty this time around and it wasn't much fuss. Now that it's back in action it fills my heart with so much joy. I cleaned all my coffee equipment too so it's all shiney and lovely. Taking a lot of pride iny home at the moment and that makes me silently content.

Coffee Butter

I was kitchen-bound for a large chunk of the day. I'm planning on making some coffee cakes tomorrow but wanted to try a new style of icing to top it with, one style calls for coffee-infused butter which I made myself this afternoon. Simmered a bunch of beans and some butter together for an hour and strained it off to make a compound butter that smelt like toast, hopefully it'll play nice with tomorrow's cake bake.

We hosted a cute little dinner party for Mark and Lucy tonight too. Now that our house is done up we can have guests round without suffering from 'home shame'. I whipped up a platter of filo pastry salmon parcels and made a self saucing chocolate pudding for dessert (I've been keen to make this for Mark for almost two years, lockdown meant I had to shelve that dream until today, luckily it was worth the wait.) Then in classic fashion we played board games into the small hours, I thwarted Rebecca's attempts at victory to her chagrin, all the while Mark bided his time to steal the crown. A sweet night for sure.

Pies of Praise

The Friday before filming starts again is always manic and I accidentally made a small rod for my back in the midst of the frenzy. Yesterday I bigged up Pieminister and offered to coordinate a lunch run for this lunchtime. I almost proved to be more trouble than it was worth, but when the pies all landed back in the office I was showered with praise. Good to know they were all grateful for a lunch that wasn't from Pret. 

All the while I was trying to print scripts and beat the post. Because I started early I managed to finish with a bit of time to spare. When I went up to announce I was posting scripts I was told there was a new batch if amends that also needed to go out, I broke into a cold sweat because I only had 20 minutes to print off everything and get it in a postbox. Stressful few minutes, but now we're all just about on track to start shooting again on Monday. Doesn't seem real, but here we go again... I guess