I guess it would have been nice...

...for someone to have maybe mentioned it to me before today, rather than me finding out by accident.

But nobody did.

36

36 years old - rubbish!

Yep, it's my birthday, and it's not something I really want to celebrate! There's nothing great about getting older - you're basically running out of time to accomplish the things you always hoped you'd do, and the likelihood of them happening just gets less and less.

Anyway, in true tradition I'm spending my birthday working late in the office... we've got a job that needs to be finished for the morning, so I've got to stay until it's done, and might be a few more hours yet.

To be fair, as a kind of birthday treat to myself, I'm off to see Delirious play in Liverpool on Wednesday night - it's their last UK tour, so I'm hoping it's a really good gig. I first saw them live back in 1995, and have seen them many times since then, so will be weird knowing it'll probably be the last time.

A year on...

It's a year today that my dad died, and if I'm totally honest, I still don't think I've properly felt anything abut it. I commented after the funeral that I hadn't really had much of a reaction to it all, and maybe it'd come further on, but it hasn't really. Maybe that makes me heartless - I don't know. But maybe now isn't the right time, and it's still something I'll deal with in the future.

Also, nan's been taken into hospital this weekend, and I'm not sure what's going to happen with that. When I first found out on Thursday, it sounded like it was really bad and everyone was fearing the worst, although mum's texted me today to say that she's improved, and is now eating and drinking (she hadn't eaten in a week before being taken in), but they don't know whether she'll be allowed home or not. I guess it's just a case of waiting really.

Blackadder and babies

Been a bit of a gap since my last post, so need to do a bit of a catch-up!

Firstly, tonight on G.O.L.D. (it used to be UKGold until this week!) there's a documentary about one of the funniest shows ever - "Blackadder Exclusive: The Whole Rotten Saga", and we did the graphics for it.

It's on at 9pm (and I think is repeated throughout the week, as is the way with digital channels), although there's another show next Thursday night at 9pm called "Blackadder's Most Cunning Moments" where we provided a lot more graphics, as well as doing the background images for the interviews.

It'll be quite strange seeing it, because we were working on it back in May and June, so seems like ages ago now! I won't forget it though because it coincided with James' paternity leave, and the week it had to be delivered I was juggling that along with the Drama Trails 3D stuff! Fun! The programme was originally going to be aired in the summer, but then it was decided that they'd save it for the channel relaunch which happened this week, hence the gap between working on it and it now being shown. I've watched some of it on DVD, and they're actually really well put together shows, so hopefully the viewers will like them!

Other news... a couple of weeks ago I was down in Tamworth for Brandon and Chloe's dedication service.

They looked cute - Brandon had a little suit with a waistcoat and cravat, and Chloe was wearing a dress with little flowers on it, and a sparkly headband!

They were really well-behaved and seemed to enjoy themselves, although Brandon does manage to be sick at pretty regular intervals!

Both are really happy babies - they seem to laugh all the time, and really know how to pose to the camera! I guess they've got pretty used to having people taking pictures of them all the time!

And it's amazing to see how quickly they grow up... obviously I don't get down there that regularly, so when I see them each time, I can see how much they've changed!

Anyway, it was a really nice day, and it was good catching up with my cousins again, and also getting to see Dave & Tanith's baby Evie, who's a similar age to the twins, but it was the first time I'd seen her for real, and not in a photo on Facebook!

And to carry on with the baby theme, we had a bit of a random day in the office last week... Helen turned up with Jess and James' mum on Wednesday afternoon, so it was really nice to see them. I hadn't seen Jess since July when she'd last come in, so she really had grown since the last time I'd seen her, and she's really got her own personality now, and pretty cute smile!

Then, about an hour after they left, Brandon and Chloe turned up with Vikky and my mum! They'd been up in Manchester for a photoshoot for Littlewoods catalogue, and popped in afterwards before travelling home.

As you can see, we made sure we put Jess, Brandon to Chloe to work on some doodledoMOTION projects!

Getting things sorted

After six months of us moving into our office, we've finally (almost) finished sorting it! I say 'almost' because we've still got a few little jobs to sort with the edit suite like some internal skirting boards, and some shelves that need putting up, but now we've got some pictures up on the wall, it feels like a really nice place to work in.

Also, we've just launched the proper version of our website - www.doodledomotion.co.uk. There'd just been a single page there before now, but I think the new one looks great. Our biggest challenge with it is to make sure we find the time to update the blog, and keep our portfolio up-to-date! Also, due to some music and copyright restrictions, we can't put examples of everything we do up there, but hopefully we'll be able to get a good range of the kind of stuff we do.

Work's been a little bit less hectic over the last few weeks, though there's enough to keep us occupied. Drama Trails really took its toll - I ended up doing 63 days in a row which wasn't ideal! Not had a chance yet to have a proper break, but it's been nice to get my weekends back!

A couple of Sundays ago I went down to Reading to catch up with some old uni mates - Ali, George, Hazel, and Helen & her new blokey! It was really nice day (although the train journey down was a bit of a rubbish one - an hour late to start with, then decided to terminate at Birmingham rather than Reading!)

We went for a pub lunch, then for a nice walk alongside the canal, and it was a really sunny day which definitely helped! Then in the evening I went to Bristol to kip over at Ali's house, then back up to Stockport on a very overcrowded train on the Monday. You can check out the photos from the day here.

Work's been quite busy...

Well my excuse for not having updated this blog since February is that I've just been too busy with work! And it's pretty true to be honest! I've not had a day off for over six weeks now and I'm feeling pretty knackered! I'm currently in the middle of doing a load of 3D graphics for a series that starts on ITV3 this Wednesday night at 9pm called Drama Trails. I'm actually really pleased with how our stuff's all looking in it, but it's a 10 part series and I've still got 5 more episodes worth of graphics to do, so it'll probably be a few more weeks until I get a day off!

The show's being made by Tiger Aspect, and we've also just completed graphics for another of their programmes - a Blackadder special which is going out on UK Gold in September, so I'll probably blog about that a bit closer to the transmission date!

I mentioned a while ago that we were going to be moving into an office - well that happened at the end of February, and it's great have a proper space to work in. It's not 100% finished yet... we've still got to put the finishing touches to the edit suite, but I think me and James have done a pretty good job with it!

The picture here shows mine and James' desks, which is currently where we spend most of our time. To the right of the bookcase, we've got a little seating area, and to the left of the shot is an edit suite that we built ourselves using lots of wood and plasterboard! Check out my photos to see how we did it all!

In my last blog, I announced the birth of my little nephew and niece - Brandon and Chloe. Well they've certainly grown a bit since that week! This first picture of me holding both of them was taken as they were about to leave hospital, and they were just 4 days old. You can see how tiny they were by the fact I could hold both of them at once!

They're now 19 weeks old, and I last saw them a couple of weeks ago when I made a fleeting visit to Tamworth for my mum's birthday, and they've really grown into little people, and are definitely developing their own characters. I don't know how my sis copes with looking after 2 babies, but she seems to be doing a pretty good job!

(Brandon & Chloe - top: 6 weeks old, bottom left: 11 weeks old, bottom right: 17 weeks old)

Staying on the whole baby thing, James is now a daddy!

Helen gave birth to Jessica Grace on the 4th June, nearly 2 weeks overdue, but if I'm really honest, I was so glad that the baby held on those 10 days, because work was crazy, and we'd have struggled to get it done otherwise!! (sorry Hel!!)

Anyway, James brought Jessica to the office for a visit when she was just a week old, and she's so cute - though as is the norm with babies, she didn't do much more than sleep and cry!

I haven't discussed it with James yet, but as soon as she's old enough - 18 months should be fine - we'll be training her up on After Effects to take the workload off us a bit...

I'm an uncle!

Late last night, Brandon David and Chloe Amy were born into the world!

My sis was 27 hours in labour, which sounds like a heck of a long time to me - I think it was a pretty rough one. Brandon was 5lbs 6oz and Chloe was 5lbs, so those are pretty decent weights for twins born a month early!

I'm going down on Saturday to see them - and hopefully they'll all be out of hospital by then (not a big fan of hospitals myself!)

Amazing

Just got back from my mum's - Vikky has been in hospital since Friday night because she wasn't feeling well, and also because her blood pressure had pretty much doubled!

I went to visit her this afternoon at Good Hope hospital, and by the time we got there she'd been moved into a delivery room, going through the final stages before getting ready to give birth! By that point, she was only supposed to have her birthing partners there - Damien and my mum - but they got permission from the midwife for me to visit because I'd not seen her since the beginning of January.

I couldn't believe how big her bump was when I saw her - it was massive! She's supposed to have 4 more weeks to go, but there's no way she could go much longer with 2 babies in there! Her blood pressure has now come down a bit, but I think she still feels quite uncomfortable.

Anyway, they hooked up some pads to her stomach to monitor the babies' heartbeats, and the whole thing was just amazing. It sounded like a train with both hearts beating just out of sync with each other, then for short periods they'd match up making a really strong beating sound. And it was really weird seeing them kicking really hard - I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before - seeing something living, moving so much just under the skin... really freaky to watch, but brilliant at the same time!

By this time tomorrow, I might well have a new nephew and niece!

Work's going really well...

It's been a couple of months since my last post, so I thought I should bring my blog up-to-date with stuff that's been going on.

The big project we worked on at the end of last year was 'The Vicar Of Dibley's Greatest & Top 40 Moments', made by Tiger Aspect for UK Gold.



We did the titles, interview background graphics and studio backdrops, plus the animated stings to appear before each clip as they counted down - basically anything graphical in the two 90-minute shows! Our work got a really good reaction, and UKTV said the show was one of their highest rating original programmes which was good to hear. And the show was repeated loads over Christmas, so it's sure to have been seen by a lot of people! And we should have another show from Tiger Aspect to work on from March - this time a series for ITV, so a busy time ahead!

Also before Christmas, I spent a lot of time working with Rob editing the Cannonball 8000 programme. It was a pretty big job because we had to deliver an hour long episode for ITV1 and ITV4, as well as re-cutting it all into 4 half hour episodes to go out on the Extreme channel later this year. There were a lot of late nights, and I was even editing on Christmas Day and Boxing Day!

Then, at the beginning of this month, we had to produce 2 commercials for Channel M which are running on Granada this week. It was a crazy turnaround time, with us doing the recee in between Christmas and New Year, and then we shot one of the commercials in James' house, and the other one we made using clips from the news programme, with specially recorded pieces-to-cameras from the reporters.

Both the commercials we produced came out really well I think, and Tim did one for music which also looked great - especially in the time we all had! I think they should also be running again in a few months time, so watch out for them if you miss them this week!

The final bit of work news is that we've found ourselves an office! It's in an old converted mill in Stockport, and we're going to be renting one of the units on the top floor. The plan is to move in sometime next month, and we want to try and build an enclosed edit suite in the space, so we need to try and find time to do that before we move all our kit there!

Other news - I forgot to mention on here before that my sister Vikky (and her husband Damien of course!) are expecting twins! She's due in March, and when I was down in Tamworth just after New Year, her bump looked pretty big! I think it was a bit of a shock when everyone first found out they were having two babies - it's going to be a busy time for them when they're born! Also, James and Helen are expecting a baby this year - in May - so we need to try and make sure we don't have any major jobs happening when theirs comes along! I've offered my services for babysitting, but I'm not sure I'll have the time with all the work we have! I think we need to make sure James trains the baby up in Avid and After Effects as soon as they're born!

Dad's funeral

Just got back home after being down in Tamworth today for my dad's funeral. He'd been ill for a very long time but it's still weird when it actually happens, because no matter how much you're expecting it at some point, you don't know how you'll react.

I guess I still feel a bit numb over it all... today was really hard, especially the funeral service itself. There were a lot of people there - loads that I didn't recognise, and some faces from the past that I hadn't seen for 10 - 15 years. As part of the service, a song that my sister recorded with him a few years ago was played, and it was difficult hearing him sing at his own funeral.

I don't know if I'm going to have some proper reaction further down the line - it feels a bit bottled up at the minute. In the last few years I'd not really been close to him and we'd had a lot of disagreements, but at the end of the day he's my dad, and he's now no longer with us, and I know I should react in some way.

Just not sure how at the moment.

Ste & Julie's wedding

Thought it was time for one of my not-so-regular blogs! A couple of weekends ago, my brother Steve got married to Julie, so that leaves me as the only one not married!!

It was a nice day - they'd asked me to film it for them, so it kept me busy and gave me a job to do! Not sure when I'll get a chance to edit it though... I've still need to do Vikky and Damien's one from last September! It was a bit weird, because apart from family, I didn't really know anyone else there - Vikky knows a lot of Ste's mates, but being up in Manchester means that I lose touch with all stuff like that. There are photos of the day here.

It kind of makes me think about my own life a bit though. Both my brother and sister are now married, and I'd always hoped that the same would happen to me, and that I've have my own family and all that, but as I'm getting older, I see all that slipping away from me which makes me really quite sad at times. Also, I suppose as you see your mates around you getting married and having kids, it just reinforces it to you all the time. I know I've wasted my life a bit over the last few years... I've let my head get totally screwed up twice by someone I really liked (going back for more heartache obviously wasn't the wisest thing I could have done - but sometimes you don't act rationally!) It's a bit weird how much your emotions can switch from having really strong feelings for someone to then never wanting to lay eyes on them again, especially when at the end of the day, the problem is mine not theirs... there's no law that says they have to feel the same way! Even now though, I'm still struggling to put all that behind me and move on, but by never having to see her again, that should at least mean I can just wipe that period of my life away, and try to move forward. It is totally rubbish though - 5 years of spending your time thinking about one person is such a waste - but it's a lot easier to say you're over it than it actually being true!

Wow - that was all a bit more open and honest than I planned... though sometimes it's good to get things off your chest!

Well, that's the summer done!

Wow - I can't believe so much time has passed since I last blogged on here!

It's been quite a busy summer - I've just got back home after being away working for a couple of weeks down at Soul Survivor. I spent 10 days in the Underground venue doing visuals for the venue, so spent most of the time either down the side of the stage or in our make-shift edit suite! This year I had Tom Steward helping me - it was pretty last minute because both Andy and Kate weren't able to come this year - but I was really impressed at how quickly he picked it all up, and the stuff he was shooting on stage every night was brilliant.

Some of the video features we did can now be viewed on Youtube so check them out!

So we finished there on Thursday morning, and then I headed up to Bristol to meet up with Ali, and on Friday went with her and some of her friends to Greenbelt.

It's the first time I've ever been to the festival, though obviously I've heard lots about it over the years! It's very different to Soul Survivor - much more of an arts festival - and in some ways I found a lot of stuff really watered down, although there was a lot of passion for environmental issues and the like, which isn't a bad thing. It's quite a political event really, and the bands that appear are from a really wide spectrum - from Delirious and Matt Redman to Chas & Dave!! Not sure whether I'd go again, but I'm glad I checked it out.

Work news - me and James are now officially joint directors of doodledo MOTION Ltd which is pretty exciting! We got all the stuff finished for the BBC2 series 'British Film Forever' though it went on a bit longer than we expected - we thought the edit would be finished at the end of July, but James was still having to render graphics whilst I was at Soul Survivor! It was a good job for us to do because it was quite high profile - they even advertised the programme on a big board with some of our graphics on the front of the BBC building on Oxford Road! I think all the stuff we did looked really good when seen in the context of the whole show, and it's a good job to stick in our portfolio!

We're now working on some titles and programme graphics for a 'Vicar of Dibley' special going out in October on UKTV Gold. It's basically a showcase of the 40 funniest clips from the series with interviews from the cast and celebrity fans.

We went down to Tiger Aspect in London back in July to meet with the production team, and the meeting went really well, and hopefully we should be able to deliver some really good work. The plan is that we're going to do background images for each of the interviews, plus animated stings to introduce each of the clips. There's been talk of us doing some titles as well, but I'm not sure what's happening with that yet... we'll probably find out last minute!!

We've got some other work lined up as well, so hopefully we can make a real success of the new business. It's going to be hard work, but I think me and James work really well together, and it'll be good to focus our efforts in building the brand and expanding what we do. Watch this space!

Oh, and after a lot of phone calls and form filling, I managed to get my money back after the betting incidents... going to be checking my bank statements a lot more regularly from now on!

I hate gambling...

...especially online gambling.

I got a call from my credit card company a couple of weeks ago asking if I'd been using it on various betting websites - which obviously I hadn't(!) - so they cancelled my card and paid back the few hundred pounds that had been charged to it.

Then today, I decided to just have a look online at my bank account and I saw that two payments had been made on Wednesday to an online betting website for a total of £500! Unbelievable!

I phoned up the bank and they've now cancelled my card, but I've got to contact the fraud department on Monday to convince them that the payments weren't mine... but it just really annoys me that I'm a victim of fraud (through no fault of my own), but it could well be up to me to prove it. I've no idea how this could have happened on two of my cards - I always have them with me, and I follow all the basic security measures that you can do when using them. It just seems really weird that it can happen to me twice within as many weeks.

Arghh... I'm quite angry about it!

Too old for clubbing!

As per the title really! Although I can't deny that I really had a great time! It's just that after getting back at 3am, then grabbing a few hours sleep on the floor, I feel like I should really have gone through all this 10 years ago - though I'm not saying I wouldn't be up for it again! It came about from going with James to the end-of-year art show at Manchester Met, which had its private viewing on Friday night. I've been a couple of times before, and it's a really good place to get some inspiration, and also to see potential artists who we could maybe get to do some work for us in the future.

So we spent a couple of hours at the show with James' mum, as well as his aunt and uncle, and then I kind of gatecrashed a family meal at Felicinis on Oxford Road - a really nice Italian restaurant that had just enough English food to ensure I got a good meal!

So after that, we headed over to Greenroom to meet up with some of the other guys who work on the course that James teaches on, then when we got chucked out of there made our way over to Sub Space which was absolutely packed and really hot and sweaty! But the music in there was really funky, and it was just a very good atmosphere, and whereas normally I'd feel a bit out of place being somewhere like that, I totally enjoyed it. I've never really got into going out clubbing and stuff - even at uni - but I'm kind of realising that if I'm in the right mind for it, I can actually have a good time.

Also, this weekend saw a programme I've recently been working on go out on The History Channel - I'd edited a documentary on the Vulcan bomber which was being featured because of it being the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war. It was quite weird watching it because I edited it to a guide voiceover, and this was a first time I'd seen it in this version, so it did seem like I was watching a different programme! I thought the show turned out well though, and I'm sure it will get repeated many times over the coming months!

Other stuff... I caught up with Jamie a couple of weeks ago when I went for a barbeque at his with Dean and Sean. It was quite an impromptu thing... I'd been round at James' doing some work when he gave me a call to see if I was doing anything, so I went straight to his from there, because unsurprisingly I didn't have any other plans! The food was slightly charred, but it was okay and filled me up! I hadn't seen Jamie for quite a while - he's got back into his climbing again which means he's away from Manchester a lot more. It's great for him 'cos he's really into it, but for me it's a bit of a shame because I'd enjoyed the couple of times we'd been out riding together and was hoping to be able to do a lot more of it, but I know it's going to be really difficult to find any time that we can. My bike's been sitting idle since February, and there's no-one else I can really go with, and I'm not overly keen on just going out riding on my own.

Finally, I mentioned in a earlier blog about some potentially exciting developments work-wise. Well, there's still a lot to be finalised, but it looks like things are moving forward. I'll post more information about it when things are more definite. But in the meantime, we're currently busy working on titles and stings for a 7-part BBC2 documentary which is going out on Saturday nights from July. It's probably the biggest job we've worked on to be honest, but hopefully it's a good sign of things to come!

Radio 1's Big Weekend

Well yesterday I went to Radio 1's Big Weekend in Preston, and I have to say it was excellent!

I nearly didn't go because it seemed like everyone already had plans for the day, but at the last minute Ajay said he'd be able to take a break from his work and come along.

The weather forecast for this weekend was pretty bleak so I was expecting to get wet and muddy, but it didn't rain once, and though it was a bit muddy in places, we did really well weather-wise! We got in at about 12 o'clock and had a look around before heading over to the outdoor arena where Westwood was DJing. Now I've never been a fan of his - either him on the radio or on MTV's 'Pimp My Ride', but the first thing I noticed about him was his inability to open his mouth with a string of obscenities coming out! He obviously thought it was cool, but to be honest I just thought it was pretty boring, and made him seem even more fake.

Anyway, we headed over to the Main Stage and saw the beginning of Jamie T's set, but it wasn't really my thing so we went to the 'In New Music We Trust' stage to watch The Pigeon Detectives. I wasn't really aware of them before, but I knew Ralph likes their stuff, and I did actually recognise one of their songs. They were really good though, and the lead singer was really energetic, and I reckon I'll take a listen to their future stuff.

We sat outside the tent whilst The Twang were on, and then made our way into the crowd of the Main Stage to watch the rest of the line up. Natasha Bedingfield was on next - I wasn't sure what kind of reaction she'd get. Personally I really like her stuff, but I think a lot of people are quite hostile to her. But quite cleverly, Chris Moyles who was introducing her got the crowd to build up to a big cheer in sections as she came on, which meant that her set got off to a really good start. She started off with her 'Babies' song which I wasn't keen on when I first heard it, but now I do like it! She also did 'Unwritten' as part of her half-hour, and when the gospel-singing bit kicked in at the end, it sounded brilliant!

Next up were The Fray - complete with a baby grand piano! I'm quite into their stuff - I bought their album recently, but haven't listened to it enough to know that many of their songs other than 'Over My Head' and 'How To Save A Life'. Then after yet another half hour of waiting (as the stage was re-set and various music videos were played on the screens) we were treated to The Fratellis. I'm not a massive fan of theirs, but I did think they were really good, and the crowd were singing along to all their songs, and I joined in on the couple I knew!

Kasabian were next to hit the stage, and the lead singer seemed to be quite hyped up and excited to be there! They produced an amazing sound actually, and probably got the best reaction from the crowd all day I reckon. Then the last band we saw on the Main Stage was Razorlight who reeled off all their big hits. To be honest, I was quite surprised at how many songs I knew well, and I thought they were excellent, although my legs were aching quite badly by this point having been standing in the crowd for about 5 hours!

We didn't bother staying for Scissor Sisters, but instead headed over to the other stage to catch some of Groove Armada's set. They were okay, but I didn't really know any of their stuff, so we left about 10 minutes before the end to make sure we didn't get caught up in the madness of 20,000 people all leaving the park at the same time!

Anyway, to sum up, these are the 5 things I'm taking away from yesterday...

1. I'll definitely be buying The Pigeon Detectives album when it comes on on May 28th - they were good.
2. I must watch more music videos - there are some really good ones out there at the moment that might well inspire me in my work!
3. I need to get along to more gigs - live music is great.
   
4. I can't wait for the smoking ban to come in - I was getting so peed off with people blowing smoke in my face yesterday whilst in the crowd!
5. Westwood is an arse.

Manic fortnight... and the future...

We're into the final stages of our manic Preview-filming-fortnight! Did three shoots for the next DVD last week (with two in London), yesterday we shot an interview here in Manchester, and then me and James set off for Liverpool this morning at 7am to film some stuff for Liverpool Council's Sportslinx. It was an incredibly packed schedule with 11 interviews plus shooting various activities!! We didn't get a chance to break for lunch until about 5 o'clock(!) and we got back home tonight at about eight!

So I've just watched this week's Apprentice (there really are some horrible people in that!!), and now I'm packing some clothes because we're off to London tonight to do some more Preview filming tomorrow and Friday. We were going to originally leave really early tomorrow morning, but James suggested we drive down halfway tonight, so we're staying in a Travel Inn at Watford Gap, so we'll only have about 80 miles to drive in the morning, and hopefully it means we'll be a bit more awake and less arsey by the end of the day!!

Have chatted more with James about future ideas with regard to the work we both do together, and it looks like there might be some good developments ahead. Not going to go into much detail yet, but I'm quite excited about and I'm really hoping it all works out.

Other news - I found out this evening that I've got a pair of tickets to Radio 1's Big Weekend next Saturday! I applied online and didn't really expect to get any, but out of the 500,000 who applied, I was one of the 8,875 who got tickets for the Saturday!! The bands there that day include Razorlight, Kasabian, Scissor Sisters, The Fratellis, The Fray, Natasha Bedingfield and Groove Armada! I definitely want to go, but I just need to find someone to come with me because I don't fancy going on my own really.

Work stuff and tbwnn album launch

Been pretty busy the last few weeks - last week I had a meeting with some guys from Liverpool council about some work that me and James should hopefully be doing for them soon, and also had a lot to do on trying to get the latest Preview DVD finished (am pretty close now, and managed to get the bits they needed for New York in time!)

Also, on Saturday I was asked to film thebandwithnoname's launch for their new album and it was a really good gig. I listened properly to their new stuff on my iPod during the Reach weekend, and it really is an excellent album. Anyway, for the gig I was down at the front of the stage, and we also had a fixed camera at the back of the venue so hopefully I should be able to produce a decent edit of it... I just need to try and find some time to do it now!

Obviously one of the reasons that it's been a bit busier these last two weeks is that James & Helen are on holiday in Australia at the moment so it's been a bit more intense... and I'm not at all jealous that they're on such an amazing holiday at the moment! Though I heard from James by email yesterday and they had their campervan broken into this week, and had a few bits and pieces stolen, including his iPod and his phone, so that's not great. Hopefully the rest of their time out there will be amazing and will wipe out the crap stuff!

Catch up

Quite a bit's happened in the last few weeks, so I thought I'd better do a quick catch up and write about some of them... I'm manically busy with Preview stuff at the moment - got to try and get it all done for Monday because they need it for a presentation in New York, so that should be fun!

In my last post I mentioned that I had a 'possibly interesting weekend ahead'... well I ended up in Wales at Cefn Lea for the Reach weekend away, which I suppose was interesting in a way! The last time I went on it was back in 2004, and there were quite a few people there who I hadn't seen for ages, which was quite strange, but I guess in a way, I am glad I went on it, though it was pretty tough at times. I'm not sure what I was really expecting from it all, but maybe that's something I need to reflect on over the coming weeks.

One cool thing about the weekend was that I managed to catch up with Russ (from uni and who I used to share a house with in Birmingham) on the Saturday night - he lives a few miles from Cefn Lea so popped over to say 'hello'. We had a really good chat, and I can't believe it's about 3 years since we last met!

I may write some more about the Reach stuff in the future because I know I've been a bit vague - (or I may not!) - but I think I'll leave it there or the moment, except to say that I've put the photos that I took here.

Then last Friday, I met up with Jamie who just wanted to get out of the city for the evening so we planned to go for a walk in the evening up by Kinder reservoir in Hayfield. But we got stuck in traffic going into Glossop and by the time we parked up the car to walk up to the reservoir it was already pitch black! We'd taken torches because we'd expected it to get dark whilst we were walking, but I wasn't expecting there to be no light from the start! We did an hour walk, up to Kinder reservoir, where we could see a big house lit up on Kinder Scout (Jamie reckoned they were just showing off 'cos they'd really gone over the top with the floodlights!), then we headed off west over some moorland to get ourselves heading back towards the village. It was great actually - being out in the middle of no-where (without even a phone signal!) and seeing the countryside only lit by the moon and stars was cool.

We made our way back down towards the village, and the original plan was to get a meal in the pub there, but they'd just stopped serving food which was a bit annoying! So we grabbed a pint and crisps before heading back here for takeaway (which was a bit grim - Jamie's kebab was particularly rough!) Had a great night though - I'd love to do more stuff like that... it can get so boring just working all the time - although I usually end up feeling knackered after going anywhere with Jamie!! He's much more active than me!

And finally, last weekend was both James' and Helen's birthdays, and I went along to a pub meal they arranged on Sunday afternoon in Didsbury. The plan changed twice because it's quite difficult to find somewhere to eat for so many on a Sunday lunchtime! But we ended up at the Old Cock Inn and it was actually a pretty nice pub - I always had the impression that it was a bit of a smoky old-man's pub, but I think they must have done it up recently, because I'd definitely go there again.

There were about 15 of us there altogether, and again it was nice spending time with some of the guys I don't see all that often really. I took some photos on my phone and they're now here.

Dodgy wiring

I know generally posts in my blog go on about how busy I am with work, and how tired I am(!) and that's still true, and I may touch on that in a moment!

But I thought I'd write something that happened on Sunday that was a bit dodgy... I'd noticed recently that the mains switch for my shower could get quite warm sometimes, but assumed that it was normal, and just made sure I only switched it on when I was actually using it. But when I flicked the switch on this Sunday, it made a bit of a crackle, which I thought was odd, and then a few minutes later it did the same without me even touching it.

So I turned the power off and removed the plate to look behind the switch, and discovered that the live wire from the shower had welded itself into the terminal, and had burnt quite badly, and that the earth wire had melted through the plastic covering of the live!

Now I'm not an expert on house wiring but I'm guessing that's not particularly safe! A quick trip down to B&Q to buy a new switch, and I now have electrics that hopefully won't burst into flames! What is a bit worrying though is why it did it in the first place, and also why the mains didn't trip when the earth melted into the live wire... need to get that sorted really.

Work's still incredibly busy... have got quite a few projects on the go at the moment, and I'm desperate for some time off! I want to try and get some work on my house sorted but I just haven't had the time. Hopefully next month should be a little bit quieter.

Right - need to get on with some work that was supposed to be done yesterday! Have a possibly interesting weekend ahead... may post about that later...

Slippery slope...

Thought I'd better do an update for February considering it's the last day of the month!

Anyway, I've been really busy with work, and a lot of my time has been taken up with working on 'The Soul Shutter' (notice there's a 'The' there now... I only discovered that after doing the opening titles!) I think I've now finished with all the CG work - there's a meeting that Hamish and Rob are going to on Thursday to get feedback, but to be honest, I don't really have any more time to work on it, and I've already put hours more work into it than I originally thought I'd have to. It's fine because it does look really good, but they're getting a really good deal!

Went for another bike ride with Jamie on Sunday afternoon which was good. We rode along the Longdendale Trail which is a route that goes runs alongside 5 reservoirs and follows the old Manchester to Sheffield railway line, and in all we did 14 miles there and back! I really enjoy going out on the bike, though I need to get some proper cycling shorts to wear under my trackie bottoms because I got quite sore from the saddle! It's cool spending time with Jamie as well 'cos we don't get to catch up that often.

At the beginning of February, me and James went down to London for a couple of days to attend this year's Video Forum event which was really good. Got to go to a few good production seminars, and saw loads of kit I'd like to buy! Did actually spend a bit of cash buying a better head for my tripod and a remote zoom unit for my camera which should be useful.

We stayed in a Travelodge in the city centre, and the room wasn't the greatest! It had a double and single bed with probably the worst mattresses in the world (I went for the single because it seemed slightly better!), only 3 of the 5 lightbulbs worked, and the walls and ceiling were covered in Artex which game the room a distinctly 70s feel! In the evening we went out for a meal at a restaurant in Kings Cross, and I had my first lager (a couple of bottles of Peroni on James' recommendation), and it was very good! It's kind of weird because obviously I've never really drank alcohol, but this year I've decided to start to do so (responsibly of course!)... my reasons for not drinking before have always been about not wanting to lose control, but I came to the conclusion that at end of the day, whether I get myself into that situation is of my own making, and by having a drink every so often doesn't mean that I have to give up any control of myself! Though the next night we met up for a meal with Cathy and Frank and I had a pint and a coffee with a double Baileys in it(!) so it may look as though I've become a hardened drinker all of the sudden, but I was able to still walk in a straight line afterwards!!

Not enough hours in the day!

I've been really busy so far this year! This last ten days has seen me working in the capital for four of them, and then the rest of the time I've been working on stuff here in Manchester. Last Thurdsay I went down with James to London to do shoot some interviews for Preview, and we drove back on Friday night after negotiating the mad traffic!

Then after my bike ride with Jamie on the Saturday, I spent the rest of the weekend working on with various other jobs that have deadlines looming, before getting up at 4.30am on Monday morning to drive back down to London for more Preview filming. James came down later in the afternoon (he had to go to a meeting in the morning, so got the train down) and we spent an 'exciting' evening in the Travelodge (which has to be said aren't the most luxurious of hotels!) The Holiday Inn that we stayed in on the Thursday was really nice, but this one was a little bit shabby, and the two single beds were so close together, it was pretty much like a double bed but with 2 matresses! It's a good job we know each other pretty well!

Tuesday morning we drove over to Reading to film an interview with the world's first cyborg! He was a really interesting guy actually - he's a professor who's experimented with having a microchip inserted into his arm and connected to his brain so that he could control stuff remotely, and also communicate 'telepathically'! Weird stuff, but he's convinced it's all going to happen in the not-too-distant future!

Another day's filming in Wednesday - this time in Manchester - but since we didn't get back until 11.30pm the night before, I found it a pretty tiring day. Then the rest of this week, I've been editing stuff for the new DVD from thebandwithnoname. It comes out next month, and the master is being driven down to Milton Keynes tomorrow afternoon, and I've still got quite a lot of stuff to do for it!! I'm just rendering some stuff at the moment, which is why I'm writing my blog now, but I have a feeling there might not be too much sleep happening tonight! I still haven't actually taken any proper time off since I went freelance (apart from a few days at Christmas) and I'm feeling like I could really do with a break! Can't see that happening in the near future to be honest, and the thought of me going off somewhere on my own really doesn't appeal to me.

On yer bike

It was back in November 2005 that I blogged about buying myself a mountain bike... well I'm kind of embarrassed to say that today was the first time I've actually ridden it!!

I went with Jamie into the Peaks, and we did a ride around Ladybower, Derwent and Howden reservoirs. It was about 15 miles in all, which is quite intense when you've not been on a bike for 16 years! I was quite apprehensive to start with - the longer I've waited to do it, the more I've convinced myself that I wouldn't be able to ride any more!

We started off on a reasonably quiet road and I was soon able to ride without wobbling too much, and then quite soon we went onto a track around the valley which was pretty muddy and rocky in places, but generally wasn't too much of a nightmare. It took me a while to get used to the gears again... it's crazy because before I got a car, I used to cycle everywhere, but I suppose it was nearly half a lifetime ago!

Definitely plan to do it again soon, although I am starting to feel the after effects of it all now... my legs are aching and it's painful when I sit down!

The past

When I started this blog, I decided that I wanted to try and be pretty honest on here, and that the thing I'd never do would be to go back and either change stuff significantly, or remove stuff from posts.

Very tempted to break that second rule though...

Anyway, new year, same old everything else...

A nice glass of red...

I drank alcohol this evening and the world didn't end...

Goldeneye was fun too!

It's Christmas Day!

Well Christmas Day is almost over, and to be honest it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be! Still wasn't the greatest day of the year, but it was better than last year's - I didn't actually work during this one!

Anyway - first off the Christmas dinner!! It was delicious! I cooked turkey with sausagemeat stuffing and cranberry sauce, sausage with bacon, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, boiled potatoes, swede, leeks, peas and sprouts. And I did more than I needed so I can have the same tomorrow!

And it's been turkey sandwiches for tea tonight so I've definitely had a traditional Christmas as far as the food's concerned!

Got some cool prezzies as well. Got some cash off my mum (which is always a good gift!), and from James and Helen I got an iPod dock which is really smart... although I had bought myself a more basic one a few weeks ago, and had also bought the same for James! I need to work out what to do - he said he's still got the receipt so I might change it for something else for my iPod... just typical that we both had the same idea! Also, I got a DVD of James Bond - "Goldeneye" off Sa. I've only ever seen two James Bond films in my life (the 2 most recent ones) so this is part of my education in the phenomenon of Bond! The current plan is to meet up on Wednesday to watch it (and drink my birthday wine - woo!) so will report back on Bond (and first alcohol!) progress!

And I had another present to open which was from Rob, and it was a slightly bizarre one - a USB light and fan set! He said it's for the next edit we do together... to cool me down when we're getting a bit too close to the deadline, and to help us see the light at the end of the tunnel! Makes total sense now! I've still got two more to come - Vikky and Damien have bought me the Superman Returns DVD which I'll get when I pop down to Tamworth on Thursday, and Jamie's got me something as well, but forgot to drop it in before he went back to Sheffield!

I managed to avoid being totally reclusive today! I spoke to my mum first this morning, and then after dinner, Sarah called so we chatted for a bit. Luckily the present I'd got for her went down well - I had been concerned that potentially it was a bit random! I'd remembered she'd said a while ago that she's always wanted to visit the Himalaya region, so I bought her the Michael Palin book of his Himalaya travels, as well as compiling the series from TV into a special little box-set thing... but my concern was that her comment might have been a bit throw-away, and so she might not have been that interested in it! But she seemed really pleased so that's good. Then not long after I'd spoken to Sa, Rob popped round on the way round to Claire's parents so I did him a brew and we had a natter! And finally Doctor Who in the evening with a bit of Strictly Come Dancing! Not as bad as it could have been I suppose!