My First Foray with Insurance

Had my first encounter with insurance companies today. Before I could officially hire out the filming equipment for the war film I had to do one of two things: Get insurance on the equipment (£50) or pay a deposit (£8000). Guess which we went for? Reading through the clauses on the insurance site I noticed that I may need to pay extra since they did not cover films with pyrotechnics in. This was a big issue since our war film was geared up to included explosions and shellings.

Ended up contacting the man in charge of our films special effects who told us that 'explosion' was a gross exaggeration. In reality we were going to use battery power air cannons to propel dirt within a 2 meter radius. Called up the insurance people for their definition of explosion and we got it granted to us!

Went out to celebrate at the Buffalo's open mic night and had an amazingly cracking time. Before heading out Jamie hosted a jam session with a few mates. They were all planning on doing a mini set together and were visibly itching to perform at our local, especially Jamie who wanted to put his new Cajón into action, he gave the honour of playing it to Ed, Jamie's manager at Wagamama.

For anyone who doesn't know, a Cajón is effectivly an 'all-in-one drum kit.' You just sit on it and slap the sides to make a snare or a bass drum sound. They are about the size of a footstool and a great little bit of kit.

So we all sat down and had a few pints. Someone offered to buy a round of 'fakerbombs' (a jägerbomb but with cheaper ingredients) and many festivities were had as we watched Dr Jazz play quite late into the night. After his set was over three guys picked up their instruments and sat down. We had seen them play before and they are always absolutely amazing. They played one song, looked around the pub, spotted the Cajón and asked the perfect question.

'Who plays the Cajón?'

Ed's face beamed at he rolled on up to play with the regulars. Me and Jamie were in stitches at this point. Ed was apparently a really good drummer a few years ago but has never actually played the Cajón until yesterday. We could see them now gearing up for their next song, Jamie and I were in great anticipation to see Ed's big moment, but nothing could have prepared me for their next song: 'I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow.' 

Oh yeah, this was the real deal. This was the New York Cheesecake of acoustic sets. From their on out the night maintained that level of excellence, everyone who came on was fun and great to listen to. Ended up staying until close and stumbled home with Jamie, both of us were still buzzing over what a great night we had.

Phone sweats

Spent most of today psyching myself up for more phonecalls with strangers. The butterflies just wouldn't stay down, spent the whole morning rehearsing what I needed to say. But once again I proved to myself that I needn't get so worked up about phonecalls as the person on the other side is often quite eager to help you out. So now I very, very nearly have all the war film equipment booked out for a reasonable price.

Now I just gotta get back to work on my essay. Very wisely decided to do my Harvard referencing as I went so it saves me a lot of hastle later. Found some quote goldmines today about sitcoms in a book called 'Sitcom.' Handy! 

Marsh Land Hiking

Back home safe and sound from a moderately successful hike! I say moderately since I, quite literally, fell into some trouble. There was a lot of wet marsh lands and streams to cross on account of the naff weather we had this weekend, one lake especially proved to be quite difficult to get across. Mark just hopped across on a protruding bit of gravel, it looked a bit wet for my tastes though and I spotted a log to walk atop. Mark took one look at the log and immediately told me that the wood was rotten through, as a result Dan went to find the footpath bridge a few feet over to save crossing on it. I however was up for a bit of fun.

"Screw the bridge, I'm here for fun!' I believe were almost my exact words. I said this moments after getting on top of the wood and realizing crossing it was in fact a very bad idea. I just really needed to convince myself otherwise. Halfway across Mark again pleaded 'It's rotten.' I sharply responded 'Your rotten!' I was too far through to back out now, I went to put my foot down in the centre and crunch.
Leg goes through, I lose my footing, trousers get wet and I feel stupid. It needed a 'Total Wipe-out' style replay to capture the swarm of emotions I went through in those few seconds.

I had one rule while I was hiking yesterday: Don't be a muppet. I am sorry to say that I broke that rule.

We did absolve our past selves of muppetry however. The first time we did this hike we very cleverly decided that crossing a dual carriageway was a suitable place to cross on foot all those years ago. Little did we know, there was an underpass we only discovered after going over the road and dodging 60mph cars.

Yesterday however, we took the low road.

Re-walking our DoE

This time tomorrow night I will be in a tent. Mark, Dan and myself have all decided that since we live relatively near the New Forest we should re-walk our Bronze Duke of Edinburgh hike. Mark kept our old plotted map and route cards from way back when so we cal almost literally, retrace our steps. We just need to buy the food and pack our gear tomorrow morning and then we are setting off for a hike, camp and then more hike. Shame about the weather forecast, we may be walking through a deluge by the sounds of it.

Home-booze

We started brewing our own beer a few days ago. After intensely cleaning out Dad's old kit with chemical cleaner (fighting off 12 years of attic dust) we got to work. Now we essentially have a very brown, heavy barrel in the corner of our kitchen that is slowly making us some very, very, affordable alcohol. Just pray that it actually tastes partway decent else I'm going to have to drink 40 pints of fermented cat pee.

Checking on it again this morning though, it seems to be coming along fine. Yeast has puffed up to the surface to make some kinda tiramisu topping which is really cool. Best part about 'home-brooze' is that it smells like my childhood. That may be the most red-neck thing I will ever say about my younger years.

Bulbs

Gack! Light bulb buying can be infuriating, tenfold when you are in the market for florescent bulbs. Mum and I spent a good hour attempting to replace the bulb in the kitchen with zero success, all we got was oily and sticky hands from touching the filament which hadn't been cleaned in goodness knows how long. But, we did manage to replace the fridge light! Everything look so much more delicious with that golden glow behind it, we all take that little bulb for granted but it does so much on a psychological level.

Happy Birthday Grace

I've now had two course-mates who have asked me for help on the next essay. I gave them some pointers while I was walking to and from a mini photo-booth for a new passport photo. I think I got the knack on how to look somewhat happy in your picture without breaking the rules. Smile before the picture is taken and slowly return yourself back to a neutral pose. Although it was still an unflattering snap, I reckon it came out 20% better than previous ones.

Just came home from helping out with some last minute Birthday preparations for my housemate to-be. Assembled and wrapped 20 presents (one for each year) and attached little labels on each one. We then hid them around her house with the first in plain sight, then each present gave a small clue on where to find the next one. This made a breadcrumb trail to the living room where we all stood in wait with her Birthday cake. The look on her face was worth every moment of pre-production and stealthy run between cars and houses.