Trouble at printers

Tried to post something from Sunday and it was all going well till I shovwd a photo in and now it's telling me I've got problems with meta tags.

Bloody stuff......

Return to Rutland

We spent he whole of yesterday in Rutland again. This time the full cast of Stag were present, with Laura and Steve, Laura's brother, helping out. I guess this means that whichever film wins Laura can claim victory by association.

We got a lot done and although Jon and I didn't turn up till lunchtime - the morning was spent filming scenes with Steve K, as he couldn't be there last time - it seemed like a long day. We filmed a couple of death scenes and also the first appearances by Chris as Rutland Nutter and the Beast.

At he end we all retired to the Plough and I ended up drinking Rutland Panther, rather appropriately. They let the dogs out in the pub at about midnight and we were treated to two large black energetic specimens that would place a dog chew or ball on your table and expect you to throw it for them. This was a game that had limited exercise value for the dogs within the confines of a small pub.

Today we packed up camp and headed back and the rest of Sunday has been spent, as it should be, relaxing.

WD - 40

It's Getting Serious

So today Rich suggests we all get together and visit the venue and assign tasks, or rather clarify the tasks that have already been assigned. This will also involve a trip to a brewery to ensure that the beer selected for the bug day is up to scratch.
The date suggested was a date I had pencilled in for going to Hull for the weekend but as I haven't heard anything further about that I am assuming it may not be happening.

WD - 53

A sort of homecoming

Went to De Montfort Hall on Sunday night to see Kasabian - last night of three. Enjoyed The Hours and Jersey Budd as support but I don't really 'get' Kasabian, even if they are the local band.

Gary and I rushed out during breaks to see Diane and Gill, who missed both supports and were standing outside in the fresh air. Diane was explaining that Steve would need somebody to assist with his make-up when we next go filming in Rutland. He really is taking this seriously!

WD - 64

Leave and Leisure

Took yesterday afternoon off to cut the grass. I would say mow the lawn but for a start I can't really claim it is a lawn and secondly it wasn't so much a mowing, more a flattening.

Stephen Fretwell at the Y last night, very good although it did turn into a bit of a long evening due to the misinterpretation of timings.

Tomorrow is scheduled to be warm, and after shopping I plan to sit in my garden and contemplate my 'lawn'.

WD - 69

Bank Holiday Monday - rain

That means putting off cutting the grass when it was 'too warm' yesterday may not have been such a great idea!

The last post - cue lone bugler - showed I was half way through my countdown so I thought I'd better review progress. But first a couple of explanations.

As i said at the beginning, no video diary but this now seems to have taken on a momentum of it's own. I may even miss it when it;s gone. Team Best Man were all assigned code names; Jason was Shepherd, Jon was Moses and I was Preacher - presumably because I have to say something at the wedding. Steve, who came is as the fourth member of TBM I don't recall being assigned a name, how about D'Artagnan!

So, wedding things.

I received the invite a month or so ago and that has to be returned by the end of this month. Done. This morning actually!

Reading was sent through by Laura last week. Wasn't sure what to expect as the wedding is not really religious, unless there is something I haven't been told. The reading isn't religious! Had a practice muttering to myself over the laptop and it'll be fine.

Speech. Apparently this has to be vetted. Not sure how that's gonna work unless it is videoed or they put me on some sort of delay. I can say what I like. Bwaaah hah hah. Etc.

Apparel. Laura has bought TBM ties. I need a shirt and suit. Apparently we can get a discount somewhere if we all buy suits together. Best to leave it as late as possible given the recent state of my waistline. The shot in the film of me coming out of the ten looked like a baby elephant breaking cover!

The next two filming sessions are booked so Stag is coming on well. Steve and Chris get to do their bits this time and there's a lot of dialogue and bloodshed to be filmed. Sounds great.

Out for a meal at Jones' on Saturday night which got hi-jacked and turned into a champagne celebration - more of which later. I had mussels with Stilton to start. Sea bass - two pieces - about four times what you would get in Watson's and then Creme Brulee to finish. All good and fairly cheap. The mint with the bill finished me off - why do they do that? Spent some time in the Black Horse, under new management, feeling like a beached whale and needing a crane to get up. Best not buy the suit too soon....

WD - 73

Gigs

Couple of gigs this week and a couple more next week - must be the countdown to the festival season.

Wednesday I saw the Hours supported by Glasslights at Stealth in Nottingham. It was dark, it was £3.50 for a small can of Red Stripe and it was cranked up way too high. Last time I used earplugs was at a Motorhead gig, for which I make no apologies, but I could have done with them on Wednesday. The support band I would happily see again and actually paid out some cash for a limited track CD, not a usual occurrence. The Hours were very good but the piano was humming - some low level reverb feedback type thing - which was extremely annoying and at times it was a bit uncomfortable.

On Thursday the Musician showed how it should be done with the Screaming Lights and Nine Black Alps. Two bands that you would categorise as loud but no feedback, you could hear all the instruments and vocals and I didn't come out thinking I was living in an underwater kingdom, possibly inhabited by one Homer J Simpson. The beer I had was a bit naff though and I quickly reverted to the default Guinness option. It's one thing they have trouble getting right.

Overall though,..

Musician = good - Stealth = not so good.

WD -75 (half way there and counting!)

Ties, Rushes and a Norwegian wimper

Yesterday I got up, breakfast, read the paper, mucked about on the PC for an hour did some washing and then before ringing Jones' to book a table decided to replace the batteries in the kitchen clock.

Just gone nine.

It was just gone nine, I'd left the alarm on work day time. Still that's three hours to compensate for what I lost on Friday after several pints of Bishop's Farewell....

Spent Saturday night watching the Eurovision Song Contest at Rich and Laura's. We had some wonderful food but I thought the contest wouldn't be the same without Terry. The game was pick your three favourites and see who did best. It would have been two easy to pick Norway, the bookies favourite, and after seeing it I wasn't impressed anyway. So Azerbaijan, Denmark 'cos it's near Norway and Germany because they had Dita von Teese. Since when has Azerbaijan been in Europe by the way....

Didn't win.

Earlier in the day went shopping to Tesco's, which always makes me feel a bit guilty as they are trying to take over the world. Steve K was explaining his 'costume' for the film, which sounds like it could be a cross between Marilyn Manson and Gene Simmons.

Laura showed us the ties that Team Best Man will be wearing. Very nice, purply effect things. All I need now is a shirt and a suit!

Rich demonstrated the rushes of what we had done in Rutland. They were pretty damn awesome. My garden may be spared as Rutland II may be an option. Just wondering how Steve's 'explosion in a Goth Factory ' look is going to work with continuity.

WD - 79

Unit B

Rich has confirmed that he has got some great footage from the Bank Holiday weekend. The only problem is he now wants to set fire to my shed and plough up my garden.

Not fair - I like my garden!

WD - 84

Lunch

Retrieved some barbecue burgers from the weekend's camping expedition. I thought 'Those will do nicely for a couple of lunchtime snacks.'

At least I know that the smoke alarm still works!

Back in Civilisation

The weekend in Greetham was wonderful.

Original Team Best Man (above - in costume), Unit A, Unit One, Unit Alpha or just me, Rich, Jon and Jason - whichever way you look at it we had a great time.

The last time I went camping I was able to walk out of the tent but his time I shared with Jon in what was billed as a four man tent. That would be four men who all knew each other very well and were all under five foot tall. Add to this the amazing deflating mattress and it was like spending a night on a bouncy castle. Not only that but putting your pants and socks on in such a situation is not easy and then you emerge backwards from the tent in the morning in a most undignified way.

The first night was cooking, barbecue stuff - this time it was the pig population of Rutland that were taking a caning. A couple of beers and then a night of figuring out how sleeping bags work and thinking 'I'm too old for this.'

Saturday was good weatherwise - we all caught the sun - and we got a lot of filming done, despite being two cast members down. Rich gives the air of a man who knows what he's doing and as none of us knew any better it all worked really well. Some creative methods of using cameras were applied and the whole thing went a lot better than I expected - not sure what I did expect, when I think about it! We managed a couple of beers at lunchtime and witnessed the arrival of a coach party full of wedding guests at the pub. Apparently Belvoir Castle had been booked for the wedding which had then been called off but they were going anyway. That may have been a more interesting subject to film than what we were doing!

Dinner in the evening and a couple of decent pints at the Plough and then on to the Wheatsheaf for a couple more and some of the worst pool playing ability the locals have probably witnessed for some time.

The bouncy castle seemed not to make so much difference on the Saturday night!

May the fourth be with you!

WD - 94

Act One, Scene One

So off to the wild woods to get this in he can, whatever that means.

It;s currently raining which really bodes well for a couple of nights in a soggy field.

However, I do have beer.

List

Things to do - apparently:-

For this weekend sort out what I'm wearing as a costume for the Stag Film. The character of vaguely dipsomaniac Welsh soccer fan should be serviced by a few football shirts some tinnies and pretending that I don't have a Welsh accent. Sorted.

I've aired out my sleeping bag, gonna pack a duvet and pillow, not as young as I was on Monday. Got a torch and we'll pick up food and beer on the way. This is a stag weekend after all as well as a film unit. Sharing a tent with Jon so no worries on having to acquire canvas at short notice.

Weather looks good so I'm looking forward to it.

For the wedding itself there are a few small matters to iron out - suit, tie, speech, transport but nothing that can;t be talked about in pubs for the next ten weeks and then panicked about properly at the last minute.

WD - 99

Weekends

Just spent a wonderful weekend in North Yorkshire - a part of the world I'm not really familiar with.

On the way to a Bed and Breakfast in Snape we stopped in Pickering and took the North York Moors Railway to Goathland. This is where Heartbeat was filmed and if ir wasn't I doubt anybody would go there which would probably please the locals no end. Excellent sausage and bacon cob (or whatever they are called in Yorkshire) on Pickering station.

On to Snape and a three course meal that ranks as high as any I have had in a while and fairly cheap too. The pub, which has rooms and does breakfast, is well worth a visit. Castle Arms Inn. Stopped off in Helmsley on the way back where there seen ed to be some sort of bike rally going on. The castle has seen better days as you will observe.

Wakefield for a very late lunch and then back to Leicester for comedy at the Firebug. Paul Sinha with what felt like a new show and Marcus Birdman with what felt like a hit and miss show,

Then on Monday the instructions arrive about next weekend. Well they did eventually - I've still got old school technology on the laptop. How to camp, where to camp who is camping. How the film is going to work - this being the famous Stag film for the wedding. Almost forgotten about the wedding. It's all starting to seem a bit more real and I'll spend tomorrow sorting out camping and filming gear.

Got a few days leave you see on account of getting older.

Anyway - Happy Birthday to me....

WD - 100

Pubs and Flowers

This is the sort of thing that should have happened last week.......

Pub

Some people are taller when you are sitting down

Spear of Destiny at the Musician last Wednesday. Got there as the second support band started and sat on posh red sofa with T lights on the table - and beer. Not very punk rock but none of us are getting any younger.

It was all very polite. We were only about ten feet from the stage but people appeared unwilling to stand in front of us. Not that Kirk and the boys do any somersaults or moon walking etc - so we weren't missing much anyway. A fine evening and set me up wonderfully for the two days of training scheduled at work....

WD - 102

D'Oh!

Today it works so it all goes a bit out of sync.

Like 'Lanark' only not nearly as good!

Errors

It;s really ticking me off. I finally start writing something and I'm getting a load of crap about html errors and meta tags,

Formalities

This is what I tried to post yesterday with pictures and links and everything. Oh! It would have been wonderful

I had a reminder the other week about the wedding as I got an invite. So that should have propelled me in to a frenzy of activity. No, didn't happen.

I've been to Hereford to watch Leicester City away, again. Finding some nice pubs in Ullingswick on the way there, for lunch and in Ledbury on the way back.

The weekend just gone it was all about clearing out the garage in readiness for a new roof. having said that i haven;t had a formal quote yet - so i haven;t formally started clearing out the garage. the lawn did get it's first decent cut of the year - well it's first cut and I have some lovely tulips and daffodils.

I guess the whole wedding thing will become more real in a couple of weeks when filming starts!

WD - 108

Tickets

What is it with paperless tickets where I get charged a booking fee and have to use my own paper to print them out!

They're also rubbish to put on your pin board - especially when all you get is a reference number - you don't even print that, just writeit on your hand and turn up. I'm not nailing my hand to my pin board just to show that I saw Kylie at the Pissed Up Parrot last Tuesday.

Or not, as the case may be.

WD - 133

Slight return

When I started this I thought it beats making a video diary, trouble is I'm not sure that I've got the dedication to keep it going.

I went to the Beer Festival despite another appointment at the Royal on Thursday. Blurred vision, without the beer and I was ordering by number, I have no idea what I drank but it was all good. Andy mentioned the ABH reunion and I thought there;s another blog. Ironic given the state of this one.

Then work, beer, another appointment at the Royal.

And now here I am. wondering who's nicked my mojo!.

WD - 134

Need a plan

Appointment at the Royal this afternoon means I'm struggling to see.

Plans to be made will be interrupted over the course of the next few days by the Beer Festival. Beer

WD - 149

It all started in Amsterdam...

December 31st 2007 was when Rich proposed to Laura. Fortunately she accepted otherwise the rest of the holiday might have been a bit of a downer. So six of us saw in the New Year in the Dam square and drank champagne on the streets whilst avoiding the batteries of firecracker's that were going off with no regard for Health and Safety at all. They do thing differently in the Netherlands.

I was asked to be part of Team Best Man at the wedding - three of us. I haven' t known Rich and Laura as long as some of my other friends but I was honoured to accept.

So briefly - part of the deal with this wedding is the concept of the Stag Film and the Hen Film.

Each team makes a film, short and entertaining which hopefully will be completed in time to show at the wedding and possibly in future. A meeting was called at the end of January to discuss best man issues and assign names - hence Preacher - we also had the first formal meeting to discuss the film. And got introduced to Phillip Roebuck. Little Bo Peep

At the end Rich announced that we should all from henceforth keep 'video diaries'. Don't know about everyone else but Jon seemed to be the only one who greeted this idea with enthusiasm. I have no idea what to video or what with, so I thought this might be an alternative method of marking progress and counting down the days until Rich and Laura are happily married, whether they have one, two or no films at the wedding. I guess Rich's alternative idea will be to make me video myself updating this blog.

So it's WD - 150.

Let's see what happens.