Hassleback

Woke up and had coffee just like I do every morning. I like to give myself a leisurely 49 minutes each morning before heading out to work, a chance to calibrate and steel myself for the day ahead. I figured out what bus to catch the previous night, but I figured checking again wouldn't hurt. But it did hurt. I now apparently had 10 minutes to dash out the house to catch the only bus running on a Saturday that would get me in on time. I was in a grump but an unlikely colleague approached very early in the morning with a tote bag. 'I have a game I want to show you'. He produced a crudely painted wooden box with slots cut into it, some poker chips and a single dice. He explained how his Brother came up with the game as he taught me the rules. We played a round and It was indeed a cute dice game with a fun twist. We finished and I thanked him for the game. 'That's for you' he then said. I was caught off guard by the generosity, but touched none the less. Here I was, just white knuckling my way through a working Saturday and a ray of sunshine entered my world. My outlook changed and my day seemed all the brighter.

False Friday Stupour

I legitimately thought Friday was going to be a nice normal time, instead I once again found myself running on my hands to keep up with the day. To add insult to injury, the shooting crew wrapped fairly early, leaving me and the Production team in the office still scrambling to get everything sorted. Because I'm working tomorrow I couldn't quite bring myself to go out to play board games so I stayed indoors and enjoyed a Friday night all to myself. If anything, I accidentally pulled myself into a false Friday stupour, it was only much later I re-remebered that tonight was a school night. Early rise for me again tomorrow, but Saturday can't be so bad right?

Moth Missionary

Rebecca is once again out of town which can make me a little glum, but tonight I was super glad she was away. Not just because I had another big gaming session with Mark and Dan, but because the cat brought in another present in the form of a jolly massive moth. Alive too - the fella had antennas, walked around a bit all while the cat just stood admiring it. I couldn't join the fan club however, instead I dashed for the Hoover, assembled it to give the most distance between myself and it, pressed go and prayed. This moth was honestly almost bigger than the nozzle so it was a bit touch and go. Thankfully it ended up in the dust chamber and I carted it out of the house. A freighting way to close the day.

Tray 8

 I once again found myself chasing my work tail a fair bit. While trying to do the important stuff, urgent things kept coming up, and by then the important stuff had become urgent. I never know if I'm working as hard as I should be or if I'm just bad at managing my time. Rebecca tells me I must be doing better than I think which hopefully is true. But right now it could afford to slow down a peg or two.

I've put in the 8th tray into my mouth now, whole doing so I caught a glimpse of my teeth in the mirror and I noticed the change. It's been 14 weeks with these braces now and the improvements are finally bearing fruit. I'm still a ways off from the estimated half way point but seeing the results has remotivated me.

Studio Schnanigans

First in means I deal with all the shenanigans that came with our first studio shoot day. Dodgey WiFi, malfunctioning printers and fire lane farces were all part of my morning scurry session. Once the workload plateaued it turned into a nice little day, plus the caterers are only down in the car park so we were well fed. We've got through all the teething issues of this morning so we should be coasting after today.

Wet Roller

 My last day of painting saw me divorced from my beloved Grinch roller (he didn't quite dry out overnight, he is a shaggy boy after all) so I had to settled for a battleworn roller that is probably on its final tour of duty. The second coat went on though and it all looks crisp and clean. Rebecca is doing the finishing bits over the next couple of days so we can share before and after pictures when they're good and ready.

But the real heart of the day was being with Louis and Rachel for her Birthday. She rustled up a bountiful roast dinner, including some of the plumpest bits of chicken I've ever tasted. Louis made some slapping focaccia and then the homemade cake was the ultimate send off. I know Rachel loves to cook a meal but we couldn't help but feel a little guilty she did all that work - best we could do was the washing up at least! We caught the latest Wes Anderson film together too, it may not have been my favourite but we had a good time watching as a group.

Rolling with the Grinch

We're sleeping in the spare room while the main bedroom is being decorated, but we managed to make a little nook here. Some hastily assembled reading lamps were all that the space needed to give it a warm and cozy glow. The cat clearly wasn't a fan though as the first thing I woke up to was one of those lamps colliding with my face. Luckily we had no instances while painting where the cat ran into the room, otherwise we ran the risk of suddenly having an all white cat.

We did the first two coats of ceiling paint before moving down to the walls. Our very best roller is this thick, green fella that's reminiscent of one of those mechanized car wash pillars. I dubbed this roller 'The Grinch' and he made light work of the afternoon. We got a whole base coat on the walls too so now we have a good idea of what the room is going to look like once all is done. Despite visiting B&Q three separate times to debate shades of off white, we ended up coating the room in a pretty standard shade of white 'with a suggestion of grey'. Jokes aside, it looks nice and I can't wait to sleep in a room again where I'm not assaulted by flying lamps.