Gareth Harrison

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!

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!

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.

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!!

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!

I drank alcohol this evening and the world didn’t end…

Goldeneye was fun too!

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!

Just got back from a nice meal at Jamie’s and I have to say that tonight I’ve seen probably the worst film ever! Well, 51 minutes of it because that’s all we could take!! It was Miami Vice, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, and it was dire! Bad script, bad dialogue, no character development… basically just shots of fast cars and speedboats!! Total rubbish – that’s time I’m never going to get back!! Apart from that though, it was really nice spending the evening with Jamie and Dean, and we ended up watching a DVD of Victoria Wood instead!!

Anyway, all this weekend I’ve been over at some mills in Compstall on the set of a short film called ‘Soul Shutter’, starring Georgia Taylor (who used to be in Coronation Street and has done some other big dramas since). It’s being produced by Hamish and Rob, and they’ve managed to rope in a load of people to give their skills for free to get it made. Somehow, I’ve been persuaded to do all the computer graphics stuff for it, and having been there all weekend directing the CG sequences, I’ve realised that it’s going to be a lot more work than I’d originally been led to believe!!

There’s a lot of action that takes place within photographs, so a lot of it was shot on a totally white set, and I’m going to have to key in loads of effects, as well as also doing moving images in photos on a wall, a bit like you see in the Harry Potter films… only with the budget being a few million quid lower!! Was a really good experience though, and I hope I can make it look expensive! I’ve got a load of photos from my phone of the shoot here.

On Friday evening I got a call from Jamie seeing if I was up to anything because there was a group heading off to do some bridgeswinging! I went with them a few years ago so I knew that there was no way I’d do it, but I said I could bring my Z1 and film them throwing themselves off the side of the incredibly high bridge! It was really cool and I got some nice shots of people leaping, though obviously because it was dark and my light can only really illuminate short distances you don’ really get a feel of the whole action. I’ll probably try and cut something together and maybe stick it up on Youtube or something.

I kind of wish I could summon up the courage to do it, but the thought of jumping into darkness really doesn’t appeal to me! Not convinced either that it would make the slightest bit of difference if I was able to see where I was jumping but maybe I should add it to my list of things to do before I die… just as long as I don’t die doing it!

Today’s blog entry is being brought to you from Bristol! I’m down at Ali’s for the weekend because she had a party last night which I came to… it was kind of to celebrate Christmas, to welcome her two new housemates Kate and Julie, and to be a get-together before she heads off to do some volunteer work in a Christian school in Lebanon in the new year (obviously the situation isn’t the greatest out in the Middle East at the moment, but apparently where she’s supposed to be going is quite a way from Beirut, off in the mountains!)

I got here about 5.30, and because I was a couple of hours early, I had the pleasure of helping to set everything up! We put up 2 gazebos in the garden, and decorated them with fairy lights and genuine Egyptian lanterns! I made a slight effort to look Christmassy… I had planned to wear a santa hat, but I couldn’t find the one I used to have, so just attached some tinsel to my jeans and shoes!

The only other person I knew here was Helen who was at uni a the same time as me and Ali, and she was here with her boyfriend Pete (boyfriend/girlfriend seem such odd words to use when you’re our age!) and he was a really nice guy. Spent a lot of the night chatting to both of them which was cool, and then they popped in this morning before heading off to Cornwall for a week’s holiday. I’m not jealous that they’ve got a relaxing week ahead of them!!

I’ve been out pretty much every night this week! After the Cannonball night on Tuesday, Wednesday night saw me head up just north of Bolton to watch a DVD with John Cieszynski, and it was a nice chilled out night. We grabbed some chips and just vegged out in front of Mission Impossible III, which I’d seen at the cinema but had kind of forgotten exactly what happened in it!

A film though that I have seen twice in the last couple of weeks (so therefore could remember most of the plot!) is Casino Royale. I went to see it the other week with Jamie, Sean and Selina, but Sarah hadn’t been to see it, and since everyone else already had, I said I’d go with her and watch it again!

We went to the Odeon in town, and I’d suggested we try out the posh seats in ‘The Gallery’ – which I’d never tried before but was keen to give it a go… and it was really cool!! You get up there and you’re welcomed into a bar where you can have free popcorn, nachos, chocolates and soft drinks (though technically you’ve paid for it with your more expensive tickets! ) There was even a little grand piano in there(!), and you can also buy drinks at the bar and take them in with you when you watch the film – which I didn’t do because I was driving, but it meant Sa could get herself a nice glass of red wine!

And then into the cinema itself… basically it’s like a balcony over the main cinema, with just four rows of seats – but these aren’t your normal cinema-style seats. They’re kind of blocked off into pairs, with a little arm-rest table either side, and they’re much bigger and more comfortable than regular ones, so we could just kick off our shoes and slouch in the seats with our feet up on the ones in front (which we probably weren’t supposed to do, but hey! ) And I didn’t mind watching the film again because it is really good, and it was nice to spend the evening with such good company!

So, it was a really good experience and one I’d definitely like to do again – just need to find another good film!

Well almost… I’ve got a job in the morning but I’ll forget about that for now!

I’ve just got back from the Sports Bar in Manchester where there was a big gathering to watch the Cannonball documentary go out on ITV1 tonight. The sound in there was really crap so it was hard to hear a lot of the speech in it (although I now know it all word-for-word!), but everyone really seemed to enjoy it. For some bizarre reason I got a bit nervous as we were waiting for the news to finish, and when it finally started I was quite relieved that we’d finally got it to air! I know I’m always over-critical of my work, and there were things that I could see that I probably would have liked to change a bit, but maybe I need to chill out a bit more and accept compliments from people… something I really struggle with to be honest.

James arrived for the last 20 minutes of the show which was cool (I didn’t think he’d be able to make it because he’d had a few late nights and didn’t want to disturb Helen when he got home, but he came straight from a Sheffield Wednesday match so would have got in late anyway!!) He did the title sequence for the programme, and I think he’s done an amazing job on them. I was originally supposed to be doing it, and had laid out the shots to the music, but realised I wouldn’t have time to do a decent job on them, so I basically sub-contracted them to James! And what he did with them was loads better than I would have done – he’s really hot with Flash animation and had used that to create some retro animated backgrounds. I’m so glad that I’m doing more and more work with James because he’s incredibly talented, and I think we make a good team because we seem to compliment each other with our skills, and I reckon we could do some really great stuff together. Anyway, that’s enough of the back-slapping – obviously a bit tired and emotional! It was a good evening, and Rob was really pleased with the final programme… I’m looking forward to hopefully working on more of his shows in the future.

One other event from today… me and James had kind of arranged to go swimming this morning, but I was working pretty late last night, so when James texted me at nine this morning to see if I still wanted to go, it was the message tone that actually woke me up! Anyway, I decided that I should still go because I really want to kick-start my fitness stuff again, and met James there just after half-past.

The swim was pretty tough-going… it’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve been and I found it really tiring on my arms this morning. We did some time in the pool, and then spent about 10 minutes in a hotter than usual jacuzzi before heading off to the showers. We’d been in there a couple of minutes just talking about work stuff when suddenly I interrupted James to announce that I felt like I was going to be sick! I’d suddenly become really light-headed and I knew that I could chuck up at any time! James didn’t really know what to say… he told me this evening that I’d come out with it so matter-of-factly that it caught him a bit unawares!

Anyway, I then had to quickly struggle to untangle my swimming shorts to get them back on again (they were screwed-up because I’d been washing out the chlorine, and I really didn’t want to be standing over a toilet being sick whilst totally naked! That wouldn’t have been be a pretty sight!!) but I wasn’t sick much in the end, though I did heave quite a bit – the smell of the toilet didn’t really help! Feeling totally okay now – I think it was probably down to not having had anything to eat or drink before going, and also only being awake for half an hour beforehand! Next time I go swimming in the morning, I’m going to make sure I have a slice of toast and juice before I set out!

Well I’m in bed typing this post on my new MacBook Pro. I finally succumbed to the world of Apple and ordered the newly released Mac laptop and it finally arrived this morning! I’m trying to get used to using the keyboard and trackpad… it’s quite different to my desktop and I keep hitting extra keys and it makes me look like I can’t spell anything!

Anyway, my other computer is currently rendering the grading for the Cannonball documentary and when all that’s done I can re-import it and then put it onto tape to send off to ITV. It’s really cool working on something that’s going out to such a wide audience. It’s on ITV1 next Tuesday at 11pm, and then will be repeated endlessly on Men & Motors – though to be honest I’m more excited about the national ITV showing!

Other stuff – went to see ‘Casino Royale’ on Saturday night with Jamie, Sean and Selina, and it was really good. It’s only the second Bond film I’ve seen, the other being ‘Die Another Day’, and this was a really good action film, but I think I preferred some of the tongue-in-cheekness of Brosnan’s Bond. Beforehand we went round the Christmas markets in Albert Square, and had a hot pork roll from a stall with a whole cooked pig on the counter! Was a really fun night, and I know I need to do more stuff like this, otherwise I’m going to end up turning into a total recluse who just works all the time!

…although it certainly feels like it! I’m basically spending most of my time at present editing the Cannonball 8000 documentary which is on ITV1 at the end of the month. Very long days, but it’s looking really good, and hopefully people will really like it.

Anyway, I have managed to do a couple of sociable things this week as well. On Sunday afternoon I went up to Middleton to do a bit of babysitting with Sarah… she was looking after Grace (who’s one next week) whilst Colin & Caroline took Olivia to see a kids musical, so I went along probably more to keep Sa company that be much use otherise! Grace was asleep when I arrived so we watched a bit of TV (the Top 20 Boy-Bands(!)… worryingly I did know most of them, but at least I wasn’t the one who knew all the words to the songs… hehe) and then when Grace woke up I helped keep her entertained with a toy shark and a beaker of water! It was good fun actually – I managed to steer well clear of the nappy changing… I don’t know how I’d ever manage to do that, but maybe if I have my own kids it would be a lot easier!

Then when I got back home, I got a call from Jamie asking if I wanted to go to the cinema – but they were already in the queue, and the film was starting in 15 minutes, so I had to move quickly to get there in time! Anyway, I managed to get there with a couple of minutes to spare, and found Jamie who was with Dean and Sean, and we went in to see ‘The Prestige‘ – a film about two rival magicians… I hadn’t heard anything about it beforehand, but I thought it was pretty good, although you had to suspend your disbelief to get over a pretty major part of the plot!

Then on Tuesday night, I went round for a meal at Jamie’s house. I had expected that we were going to go out and grab something to eat in town, but it was a really nice surprise to find he’d cooked, and that we were also being joined by Sean, Celia and Sarah. My fussy eating kind of made an appearance – Jamie had done rice with the chicken, but he suddenly remembered that I’m a nightmare to cook for, and I told him I didn’t mind just having it without, but he rustled up some mustard mash for me instead! And the main part was something I wouldn’t normally have had – he’d done the chicken in a slightly curried crème fraîche sauce, and although I did pull a bit of a face when I took the first mouthful, I did actually quite like it! Maybe this is another small step on the road to eating the same food as everyone else!!

Friday saw another year added to my age – woo! But more about that in a minute.

It’s been a full-on week with work, and there’s no sign of it slowing for the next couple of weeks at least… I’ll really appreciate some time off when it happens!

On the Thursday night after my last blog, I got back from a day’s filming in Bradford, and drove down to London with Rob so we could get to Docklands for our shoot at 9.30 on the Friday morning. Because Rob had been working late, we didn’t get to leave Manchester until about nine, and eventually got to our Travelodge at 1.30am! And then when we went to check in, we were told that they’d given away one of our rooms, so we’d have to share – so Rob had the double bed and I had the sofa! The trouble was, by now we were past our tiredness and couldn’t get to sleep so ended up talking until about four, which gave us less than four hours sleep before we had to get up!

The shoot went okay I think – it was a presenter in front of a greenscreen for a web tutorial I’m working on (although looking back at the rushes there are a few things I would probably have done a bit differently, but it’s a bit late now!) We got wrapped up by about three, but it took us about 2 hours just to get out of London and onto the motorway (although we did get to see most of the sights at the same time!) and then we didn’t get back home until about nine… so a very long couple of days! I managed to get a bit of a lie-in on the Saturday morning before heading over to James’ to finish off the cake animation we needed for Preview.

Sunday night I took a bit of a break and went out to see Rachael Kichenside perform at Oxjam which was being held at Joshua Brookes in town. I went on my own, but it was really good to hear her performing live with a full band. Was a pretty short set, but like I said, well worth hearing, and I stuck around to hear a couple of other artists as well.

Then this week, I had a final day at Leeds Bradford Airport on Monday (with a 6.30am start!), and the next couple of days saw us working again on Preview, firstly looking at the animation, and on Wednesday, after an early morning swim with James (aren’t we good!) we filmed a webcam interview which took a few attempts to get working smoothly, and then both headed over to Nottingham with Louise to interview one of the guys who’s created ‘Second Life’ – an online virtual world. We were filming in an internet / LAN-gaming cafe, and there were some real geeks in there! I’m sure most of them were fine, but there were a couple who looked like they could do with getting out a bit more! There was one guy who managed to sit right in the back of the shot for half the interview, and we had to ask him to turn around because he was just staring at the camera, and then whenever he got up or sat down, it became obvious that he really could do with a belt, because you got to see more than you really wanted to!

Then Friday was my 34th birthday. To be honest, I usually wake up with the expectation of it being another crap one, so I wasn’t really planning on celebrating it… but unknown to me at this point, that wasn’t to be the case.

I did have one slight mishap – I went into town in the afternoon for a meeting with Dave at Channel M and to pick up some tapes which was fine… however as I was coming out of the multistorey car-park’s mad helter-skelter type ramp, I was distracted for a second whilst sorting out my ticket to get out, and suddenly I heard a really bad scraping noise as I was clipping the concrete kerb on the inside of the spiral! I managed to manouvre away from the centre, but since I was coming down from the 9th floor, I still had a lot of it to get down. I didn’t check my car until I got home, fearing the worst, but luckily it looks like my wheel hub has taken all of the damage, and the paintwork seems fine! I’ll probably look at getting it replaced at some point but I guess there’s no rush to change it.

Whilst I was at Channel M in the afternoon, I got a text from James wishing me a happy birthday, and asking me if I wanted to go out for a drink in the evening. I hadn’t planned to do anything at all (as usual!) but I said yes, and he texted back to say he’d see if Jamie or Sarah were free that night as well.

So it was arranged that I’d pick up Jamie from Sarah’s, and then would go round to collect James and Helen, and then we’d decide where to go. I got to Sa’s at about quarter to nine, and she’d got a choc-chip muffin with a candle in it waiting for me – so I actually had a birthday cake! She’d also bought me a present which was a little bottle of red wine! We’d been talking recently about wine, and I was saying that the few sips that I’ve tasted in the past have always tasted like vinegar to me! So she’s decided that I need to be educated in the appreciation of wine, and this is the starting point! I will try it at some point, because it obviously must taste better than I think, otherwise no-one would drink it at all!

We had to wait about half an hour before Jamie was able to get over, and after picking up the Torry’s, we drove to Chorlton to a bar that was supposed to be pretty good (and smoke-free) but it was a bit busy in there, so we just had one drink before heading down to the Woodstock in Didsbury.

It was really nice hanging out with these guys – I’ve not really done that much socially with them for ages, and it made me realise a bit how much I’ve missed it. We managed to waste a few quid on a quiz machine playing ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’, ‘Pub Quiz’ and ‘Spot The Difference’…suffice to say, we didn’t win anything from it!! And the rest of the time we just chilled and had a really good time. Made a real change from my normal birthdays! There are a few photos of the night here.

Got back around 1am and managed to grab a few hours’ sleep before having to get up pretty early to be picked up for a filming job I was doing at a big meeting down at the NEC. It was a pretty long day – 12 hours including travelling, but at least I wasn’t driving! I even fell asleep on the back seat on the way back!

Lots of apologises are in order! It’s been over a month since I last blogged (and I had wanted to post more on here) and also I’ve got quite a few emails from people that I need to reply to that I haven’t had a chance to yet… sorry to all those people! Will reply soon!

I’m so busy at the moment it’s unbelievable. In fact, I’ve probably taken on a bit too much to be honest, but there’s nothing I can really do about that now… I’m currently working on 6 different jobs that all seem to have delivery dates within a few weeks of each other! This week is a pretty mad one… Monday I was editing a documentary on this year’s Cannonball Run for ITV1, and then yesterday I was filming for a safety video at Leeds Bradford airport – although it took us 5 hours to do the 60 mile journey!! We left Manchester at about quarter to eight, and came to a standstill on the M62 at 8.40am, and stayed parked there for over 3 hours!! There’d been an accident about a mile ahead of us, and we were stuck there until just before midday when they finally managed to clear the carriageway.

Then today I’ve been filming stuff for Preview with James – the bizarreness of this job is one day you can be filming airplanes in the fog, then the next day we’re animating vinyl stickers on a wall, and then filming the baking of a cake in James’ kitchen as a stop-frame animation to make it go from the finished cake back to it’s raw ingredients! I think it should look pretty good, though we ran out of time this afternoon because we both had to head to a meeting at Channel M, so we’ll need to shoot the filling and topping going on at some point… just not sure when yet!! Tomorrow morning I’m back up in Bradford to do some more airport filming (this time we’re leaving at 7am – woo!), and then tomorrow night I’ve got to drive down to London for a shoot in Docklands, and then I’m back in Manchester on Friday night, with a day’s work on the Cannonball waiting for me on Saturday!! And then I’m booked solid with stuff for the next few weeks! Arghhh! I suppose I should be thankful I’m getting regular work, but I really could do with a bit of a rest.

I’ve been trying to get in a couple of social things recently because my life has been so taken up with work recently. This evening I met up for a drink in town with John Cieszynski – we had planned to go to Jabez Clegg on Oxford Road, but I hadn’t realised there was internation football on tonight, so it was incredibly busy there, so we ended up at Dukes in Castlefield, which was a lot quieter. It was the first time I’ve really spoken properly to John – we’ve spoken loads on Messenger, but nothing really outside of that! It’s mad really how you can live so much of your life online!

And on Monday, Sarah came round for tea and showed my all her photos from her holiday to South Africa – and it looked totally amazing. It’s been so long since I’ve had a holiday, and I’d love to do something like that, but the opportunity never seems to materialise. Anyway, it was good to catch up, and I cooked a mean roast chicken meal and even made a sauce rather than my usual safe option of just mixing up some gravy! Not sure if I did it right – the sauce tasted okay I think… I had to get some white wine to make it, and not knowing anything about wine, I don’t know if it tasted good or not! But I liked it, and hopefully Sa did as well – or she was just far too polite to say otherwise!!

Right – I should really be getting to bed because I’ve got a looooong day tomorrow. Will try to blog more regularly once the workload’s gone down a bit!

I’m typing this at my mum’s house because I’m down in Tamworth today ahead of my sister’s wedding tomorrow, and it’s absolute madness! I’m kind of glad I’ve only been here for one day of it, because everyone’s stressed trying to get everything sorted in time! We had the rehearsal last night, and I hope I can remember what it is I’m supposed to do! I’m giving Vikky away so I’m walking down the aisle with her, and I have a moment where I have to say “I do”! I’m sure it will all be great tomorrow, but I realised some things are still last minute when we were helping Damien write his groom’s speech just a couple of hours ago!

Anyway, I guess I should post a quick update on all that’s happened in the last few weeks since I headed down for Soul Survivor. On the Tuesday, I went and visited Ali down in Bristol and it was really nice catching up with her again. We grabbed a pizza, chatted until late about loads of stuff, and I even tried to convert her into a Myspace junkie (but I seem to have failed with that!)

Wednesday lunchtime, and it was time to continue onto Shepton Mallet, where I met up with the 29 guys, and also with Kate who did the video stuff with me there last year. They’d moved us into a smaller venue this year, which was good because it helped make it look much fuller each night, although we were out of the way of the main venues a bit which I think meant some of the kids didn’t realise we were there until later in the week. Then for the second week, Kate had to leave because she was doing a course in London, so Andy Passey took over which worked really well. It was a great 2 weeks, and on the whole, the weather wasn’t too bad.

However, for the 3rd week, Soul Survivor was replaced by Momentum, which I was staying round for along with Andy, so we kept all the video and computer equipment in the room we’d been using as an edit suite, but put it all on the floor under the worktops to keep it out of the way of the Artshed guys who we were sharing it with.

That afternoon though, we had a major storm with torrential rain, and quite a lot of the site got flooded (although my tent was okay), but I kind of assumed the venue would be okay because it seemed above ground level. After the main meeting, I met up with Andy who’d been to the Passion For Your Name meeting in what was the Underground during the previous weeks, and he said that the water had flooded through from the back of there, right down under the stage!

Now panicking ever-so slightly, I headed off to site control who told me that the artshed had been ankle-deep in water, and the stewards had had to rescue stuff on floor level, but they weren’t aware of that storeroom! So me and Andy went down there, and we were so lucky, because right next to the storeroom was a fire-exit where the floor dipped down a bit, and basically the river had taken that route rather than flow into the storeroom! I then hastily moved all my stuff off the floor – no point taking chances!!

You can see all the photos I took here.

I got back to Manchester at 3am last Thursday morning, and it was so good being back in my own bed after spending 15 days living in a tent! Then on Saturday, I met up with Sa and we went round town looking for items for a ‘survival kit’ for Emma who’s leaving Manchester to study in Cardiff. The original plan was to try and find some Welsh items, but we struggled to find that much (surpringingly, in England!) so the main thrust of it is things to remind her of Manchester, including a beautiful postcard we found of Levenshulme’s high street – classy! Then on the evening, Jamie came and joined us and we all watched a DVD at Sarah’s. It was nice hanging out with them both again – it’s been a really long time since I’ve spent time with these guys, and it’s great to be able to do so again, after all that’s happened.

Anyway, I need to get off here to allow my sis to book a coach ticket to bring them back from the airport after their honeymoon… I’m driving them up to mine on Sunday afternoon ‘cos they’re flying from Manchester aiport early on Monday morning. Will post an update about the wedding later!