09/10/2007 by Ness.

As I write this I am well and truly cream crackered - I have just attended my first (and possbly last) spinning class. No, I haven’t been out producing an attractive length of wool to knit something with - I have spent 45 gruelling minutes on a most uncomfortable exercise bike being shouted at to ’spin faster, push, climb the hill!!’ I know Nicky does this all the time (that explains the taut posterior) but I have let my fitness slip to such a low level that I was panting from climbing two floors to the exercise studio before the class even started. Oh well, I’d better book for next week, it’s now or never. When Nick and I go on our dance weekend in December I want to impress when we take up the pole dancing lessons, not get stretchered out with my legs in an emarrassing contortion. Ooer!

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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?

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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

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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 »

27/09/2007 by Paul D.

Two thoughts came into my head this morning (amongst others, obviously….) on my way to work.

One of them was of a very rare occurrence, the other was of something I’ve never ever seen or heard of before.

Both of them happened this morning, shortly after me thinking about them…

Based on the premise that ‘these things happen in threes’, I shall today be buying a EuroMillions ticket.

And having owned these shoes for several months and being constantly irritated by a loud and annoying squeek from the right heel at every step, (very embarrassing whilst cruising down the office) they have this morning, fell silent…..

A strange day indeed, and it’s only 9am.

P.

Posted in Weird | 5 Comments »

24/09/2007 by Neil.

Well lets start my first blog with one of those strange holiday stories.

As you all know we had a small trip to sunnier climes recently, a chance to top up on my sunburn, mosquito bites and liver deterioration. Jen had a relaxing time too.

We arrived to be greated by an Indian version of David Bedford. “got your number” we said to ourselves. (although I thought he looked a bit more like the Harry Enfield Scouser characters). Anyway, we had a little chuckle about this whilst filling in our registration card, which we then handed over to get our room key.

We were in room 118.

Oh boy here we go. And when we got to room, there laid out on the bed were our numbered beach towels, so we just couldn’t resist a photo opportunity. The moustashes are real by the way. Well it was a long journey and no opportunity to shave.

But to continue….. we unpacked and got the valuables put into the safe. One of those digital ones, where you set up your own code number, which we usually set to the first 4 digits of our phone number, which are………..

0118

Note, any potential thieves out there, who are planning to follow us on next hol’, and try to break into the safe using the above numbers, we will of course not use them again. we will use the last four instead.

So where else could those numbers crop up.

Palm trees.

Basically, every palm tree on the island is numbered (a way of keeping track of the coconut cropping we think). So on our first night, we go to dinner and we get allocated a table for the week. Ours was by the wall, where we could look out and see………….. a certain palm tree. I wont bother to tell you the number painted on it, but a photo is supplied.

I think we will be taking the hint and get some lottery tickets. How many derivertives of 118 can be used?

1, 8, 11 & 18 to start. 9, 10, 19 perhaps?……..

The rest of the holiday went as normal as a Maldivian holiday can go. Plenty of book reading, snorkeling, and attempting to work our way through the cocktail list. Of the 59 we got through 26 of them. Not bad for just a week. Many of the remainder were just the boring ones, Screwdriver, Bloody mary etc. They hardly count. Besides, the beer was ice cold, and more my cup of tea, or cup of beer…. Mind you drinking too many, can make you wear silly shirts. Look what I ended up in after a few dozen jars !

Should have stuck with the cocktails………..

Well thats it for now. I’m off to scratch and pick at my mosquito bites (well over 60 of them…….nice) usually, they always go for Di, but she not there !!! I was a suitable substitute it seems.

laters

neil

Posted in Holiday | 6 Comments »

24/09/2007 by Paul D.

I thought I’d try and post a pic for my first  contribution and this is the best I could find at short notice…..

}¬)

Mad woman attempts to ‘eat camera’.

Handy hints:

Click this thumbnail for a bigger image. (Are you SURE you want to?)

And hit BACK from that to get back here. Don’t hit X to close.

P.

Posted in Beer | 3 Comments »

24/09/2007 by Steve.

Bumping into an old aquaintance is one of those little moments in life which could be considered priceless. Such an event can never be planned so the surprise itself is significant. However the ripples from such a meeting could extend far beyond the moment itself.

This thought is on my mind because on Saturday I met an old colleague from my very first job. I probably haven’t seen him for 20 years or more. He recognised me through a shop window. At first I just saw some strange old bloke waving at me from the outside (my mind was elsewhere, lusting after an array of unaffordable equipment in the music shop). My first thought was ‘Who’s that nutter?’. But then that wave of recognition crashed over me and he no longer looked old - he looked exactly the same as I remembered him when we were both 20.

I went outside, we greeted each other and quickly talked through old and current times.
‘I saw Dave from ‘Security’ at a reunion 10 years ago’, he said.
‘I still see Jerry about twice a year’, I added.
Etc etc.

We compared family - mine was actually there, complete - the second-wife and two semi grown-up kids (we couldn’t have imagined a posse like that back then!) His wife is the same girl who I had known as just his girlfriend - they have been married now for 21 years! And they have two kids of the same age as our two….

A similar event occurred a couple of weeks ago when Vanessa met an old colleague in a shop. He came rushing round the end of an aisle and they both immediately recognised each other. Same old Michael, he was, always a story to tell, camp as ever and resisting 40 with a vengeance. It was like they had been working together just last week.

And after your chance meeting? You swap numbers and emails. You even get in touch and go out for a drink. But where does it go from there? Maybe it depends on who you meet, and when…

I think most people would enjoy bumping into an old flame. The spotty-faced youth that she remembers will have turned into a successful and wordly adult- a potential chance to impress not to be missed. Unless you are out with your wife at the time, of course!

Conversely, if you are unfortunate enough to have a ‘previous’ spouse out there somewhere, what would you do if their face presented itself to you out of the blue? It would be embarrassing enough if you were on your own but imagine if your current wife was with you!!! Would Wife 1 still pass as good-looking enough for your current standards? Has she aged well? And while Wife 2 might like to get to know Wife 1 better (for the purposes of comparison on ALL levels) you would probably rather curl up and die.

And finally, some people meet accidentally under some very unlikely circumstances. You occasionally hear stories of people walking down a street on the other side of the world and recognising an old neighbour. Given the billions of people in the world and the miles between them, it’s amazing that it happens at all!

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23/09/2007 by Rob.

Hello! Rob the Guinea Pig here. I shall start off my first entry to this blog by sharing with you lovely people a few exciting days from last week.

Thursday 13th Sept - up at 4am to get to Pinewood Studios in pitch darkness for 6am (joy!). (Got stopped by the police at 5.20am for weaving my way through the scene of a traffic accident, rather than turn back to find another route. I’d had four hours sleep - so sue me!)

I’m playing a ferry passenger in the new Batman movie, and am told to bring clothes that ‘a refugee would grab had they had to flee Gotham City in a hurry’ (does anybody actually flee slowly from anywhere?) - so I basically wore what I usually wear - black jeans and patterned t-shirt. Had to swap the t-shirt at Costume for a denim shirt instead, as that was said to be more American-looking (they found one that just about fitted my ample frame).

I then spent eight hours sitting on a baking-hot bus waiting to be called to the set, during which time I: (a) ate a cooked breakfast and dinner, (b) chatted to a few ‘femme fatales’, (c) snoozed a little, (d) read a few pages of my book (THE TERROR by Dan Simmons - excellent so far), (e) texted a teacher friend (Jeremy), and (f) visited the toilet portacabin twice.

It’s a life of glamour making films, I tell you.

Then at 3.15pm we got the official summons to Stage ‘S’, where the ferry set is in position. Can’t tell you anything about the scene, I’m afraid (owing to a confidentiality agreement we’re all obliged to sign), but one of the villains can be heard over a loudspeaker. Sadly, I doubt if you’ll see me in the finished movie, as I was right at the back of the room throughout filming.

We eventually wrapped at 6pm - a twelve-hour day. Still…beats nine-to-five in an office somewhere…

Friday 14th - interview with RES Ltd, who provide stewarding at Wembley Arena amongst other places. Given my current employment with CES at Wembley Stadium and QPR, I was accepted without qualm. I have an induction on Oct 3rd, and presumably will start work asap afterwards. I’d hoped to start work with them back in July, but they’ve been a little tardy with their recruitment programme. Still…some excellent shows coming up (Rush, Police, Bill Bailey, Hard-Fi) - don’t know yet how I go about registering for them. Should be good.

Sat 15th - rehearsal for OUTSIDE EDGE, the play I’m doing with Proscenium in Nov. I’m playing Dennis, the cad - interesting part, as I’ve never played a cad before. Am summoning up all my memories of Terry-Thomas as I go through the lines.

Eve - games evening at Chrissie and Nick’s. Played Scattergories, and had great fun winding up Nick. Under ‘Famous Duos’ and the letter ‘O’, he had ‘Orville’. We discounted it, as he hadn’t written down ‘…and Keith Harris’, thereby nullifying the answer. He wouldn’t have it. ‘Who else would it be??’

‘Could be Wilbur Wright,’ his mate Steve replied, ‘but you haven’t written that down either. We’re not mind-readers!’

Suffice to say, he added a point to his score, and we all took it off at the end….

Sun 16th - took advantage of the London Open House Weekend and went down to Rotherhithe. Had a tour of the Sands Film Studios and the Brunel Museum, with an eye to organising an outing with the Arts & Heritage Club next year. Very good - will definitely suggest it to Head Office.

Also visited Soseki Museum in Clapham, after reading about it in The Book of Lists - London under ‘8 Unusual Museums’. Maintained in tribute to Natsume Soseki, one of Japan’s most famous writers, who live opposite the museum from 1900-1902 (the museum founders tried to buy the actual location, but as the owners wanted £5m for it, they thought again!). Most of the visitors are Japanese, but there were one or two Europeans dotted throughout the Visitors Book. A shame that he’s virtually unknown over here. The museum is actually a converted two-room flat - a little strange from the outside, but it works after a fashion. I doubt if anyone would be aware of it if you either (a) weren’t Japanese, or (b) hadn’t read The Book of Lists - London.

Mon 17th - another day’s filming, this time at Kempton Park racecourse for a Morrisons commercial, with Alan Hansen. Unusually, we were called at 10am for breakfast, didn’t start filming till midday, and then wrapped at 3pm, followed by a roast beef lunch. I was playing a punter comparing the odds in front of a line of tic-tac men, deciding which horse to back. I was in the foreground for this one, so may appear on-camera. All in all, very satisfying.

Tues 18th - stewarding at Loftus Rd for QPR. A little nippy, but a couple of free hot pies went down well. Moved to Directors Box for a change, instead of standing at the bottom of a draughty stairwell - much better!

Wed 19th - day off. Bliss!

And that’s it! Ciao for now!

R.

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