07/10/2007 by Steve.

The process of undertaking a decorating or home improvement project always seems to be the same. First you identify a need - maybe the living room looks a bit tired and it needs a lick of paint. Or you want to change the use of a room for practical purposes.

Our well-presented garden…the way it was

Next come weeks of discussions about how the improvement will be implemented - colour schemes, drawing of plans etc. If it doesn’t lead to a potential divorce, this can produce results over time. But the plan is never finalised until you…..START THE JOB!

Starting the job. Hmmmmm! When is the right time to start the job? A degree of commitment will be required, so when will you be clear to get started?

All kinds of excuses offer themselves up: you’re going on holiday; you have been working hard and need a break; you haven’t got the money etc.

But then one weekend, for no apparent reason, the day has come. A positive attitude has overcome you. You know you will get the job done by Monday! And it will be wonderful and you will soon be inviting your friends round to show of this greatly improved part of your property.

By 10am, the tools are all out and the job is underway. DIY! The great British weekend pastime…

But by 2pm the next phase has normally started. It’s the bit where, having started at long last…you really wish you hadn’t! Surprise, surprise! Clearing all the old stuff out is harder than you expected. Those people who put the old wallpaper up didn’t intend it to come down!

Just keep saying ‘it’s got to get worse before it gets better’

Or in our case….THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THE GARDEN-DECKING ACTUALLY DID A REALLY GOOD JOB. Remodelling our garden was not going to be a quick job!

And at the end of the weekend? I haven’t got all the decking removed, I’m knackered, the garden looks like a building site and I have a ton of wood to get rid of!

Anyone with a lorry having a bonfire party in the next few weeks….?

Is it too late in the year for a BBQ?

Posted in Work | 2 Comments »

03/10/2007 by Jen.

PUMPKIN!!!!

We had a rather strange ‘beanstalk’ (as quoted by a rather curious neighbour) growing right across our lawn over the summer.

First we thought it was a cucumber. But it grew a bit. So we thought, maybe it’s a squash? But it grew a bit more. OK we thought, maybe it’s a marrow? But then it slowly started turning orange.

It was this massive pumpkin!

Said pumpkin has now been harvested and is ready for pumpkin soup.

But, I hate pumpkin!

So, where did this strange triffid come from?

We had our Godson down last Hallowen. Having empied out the pumpkin of the seeds we had fun cutting out a scary face (modelled on Neil!). Seeds from last years pumpkin were put into the compost bin - say no more.

To give you some sense of it’s size, we took a picture of it next to Greebo (very difficult to have him sitting so still) and a enormous tin of Ginger Beer.

jb x

Posted in General | 2 Comments »

03/10/2007 by Neil.

Funny how things can go wrong all at once. On average, thoses inconvienient events, tend to spreed themselves out, but every now and again, you get problem after problem. Sometimes they can all be completely unrelated to each other, sometime as in my cae here, they are sort of linked.. You get a years dose in a period of a few weeks.

Well it seems thats happening to our motor at the moment. I was contemplating these thoughts last Friday morning whilst standing on the hard shoulder of the M3 in the drizzel waiting for the AA main to come do his stuff. I thought, things come in 3’s, this breakdown is the third and last I hope. Pahh !

I’d recently had two bulbs go on the car, spaced about a week apart. The problem with new cars, is that changing a headlight bulb, can mean taking half the engine appart just to get at the rear of your lights. You then need specialist tools just to get bulbs in and out. A new take on the “how many people does it take to change a lightbulb” gag. 3 men, a cabinet full of tools and a bank loan it seems.

Anyway, the AA man turned up and towed the car to the garage for me. He seemed confident that the large red light on my dashboard saying “STOP CAR NOW ! “, would turn out to be something minor and cheap to fix.

£460 later………. (not including the £126 for the hire car I’ve had for the past week) I thought what else can go wrong. I had, previous to the M3 event, ear marked the car for new brakes and disc to be done this week, as they were due. That itself would be a very un-pretty penny. So I was to say the least, not particulary overjoyed when I got home last night after picking the car up from it’s major surgery, to hear, as we walked to our front door, a hissing sound coming from a front tyre courtesy of wopping great screw !

It was dark by then, and pouring with rain. Always the best time to change a tyre. I think everyone should have to do it in such conditions at least once in their life, so can realise what a joy it is. The beer after was well deserved I thought…..

So this morning, driving to work, I sat listening to every knock, bang, creak coming from my car. Awaiting the next wallet lightening opertunity my motor would present to me…

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

02/10/2007 by Rob.

Dateline Sept 25th: I have just completed a marathon 18-hour day shooting a commercial  for a Polish beer named Tyskie:

Apparently the influx of Poles into the UK has meant that a lot of Polish products will be following them accordingly, and thus we have yet another beer on an already-flooded market.

And to top it all, I doubt if I’ll even be in the final result, as I only shot one scene, in the far distance, obscured by two pints of said brew in the immediate foreground. 12 mid-day Monday to 6am Tuesday morning, with only a light snooze in the middle to get by on…..still - could be worse - could be stuck in an office in front of a PC all day…..

Cheers

Rob

Posted in Work | 2 Comments »