Hindsight.

***

So as 2010 nearly expires, I thought I'd do the cliche thing of looking back over the year and reflecting. Recover from some of my errors, learn and above all celebrate what an awesome year it's been. I was going to look at everything from news stories to new developments, but it seems every mainstream TV channel has that covered.

Instead I'll go through my blog, finding the highlights of my year from the array of blog entries I have written over the past 12 months, (well.. 11.). So here it goes, I'll try and make it as interesting as possible for you, adding extra reflective thoughts and maybe a few illustrations and other types of media. Enjoy!

-January-

So I started my year off in 'Varsity'; a bar in Loughborough. I was the designated driver of the night so I remember seeing everyone getting progressively more and more drunk, and therefore more and more ridiculous. A rather good experience I have to say!

Here I am that night, looking nice and ginger for the new year! I won't be celebrating that hair style disaster!

So on the third of January, I left Loughborough to go back to London. I arrived back at around 5pm and went straight back into student mode; eating noodles. This was followed in true student style by going to Wetherspoons in Greenwich.

Other notable things from the month were the birth of 'The Flantastic Podcast' which has content much too unsuitable for this output medium. There was also the Pendulum launch party at the o2, a lecture from the compositor of Alice in Wonderland and the death of 'Robert' the head of Youth Arts who taught me everything I know about stage lighting.

There was also my epic essay about 'Love me if you Dare' and the theft of 'Gregory' the road bollard who has been with me ever since.

Now I'm on to February, I no longer have to traipse through a year of statuses on Facebook, I can just grab things off my blogs - win!

-February-

Feb was a pretty low month. I began to realise the changes of social groups since everyone had gone away, and it started to get me a little down. On top of that, the on going fiasco of a certain ex girlfriend was getting me down again. In all honesty my whole blog for February is rather depressing and I wouldn't really go there. I'll see if I can find some pictures from the month to liven up the mood!

Here's a good one, taken late February. This was the night of Ronnie's 21st birthday, where I went, let's say a little overboard. By a little bit, I mean gave myself alcohol poisoning. Looking back, maybe my way of stepping out my reality for a while. I'm pleased to say I've learnt from said night and have never done it again.

My only other device to dilute all this February angst is a timeless anecdote involving a power hungry security guard and vodka.

'I went to source some good, yet relatively cheap vodka. The first place I went to was Lidl. A fine, cheap food and drink vendor on Eltham High Street. Standing on the alcohol isle, eyeing up the cheap booze, a security guard approached me. He obviously made the assumption, from my small stature and young looking features that I was not of the age to buy alcohol and questioned what I was doing. I told him; I said 'I'm looking for vodka.', to which he gave me a bemused and slightly aggravated look, followed by the 'How old are you?' question. I told him '18', and he looked at me in slight amusement and asked if I was sure about that?

By this point I was getting rather annoyed. 'Urmm... yeah I think so... last time I checked...'. This was obviously the wrong thing to say to the power hungry security guard. He threw me out the shop, despite me offering to show him my ID. Apparently, my ID is 'probably off the internet'.'

I think we should move on swiftly from this rather depressing month!

-March-

March was a fun month, full of fun filled times with mates and whatnot. Apart from the initial part - student debt. It was the first time I had got into financial trouble on my own accord since being at university, and I was panicking a bit. I didn't want to use my overdraft, but in the end caved in a realised it wasn't a bad thing, not at the moment anyway! The panic slowly disappeared and was replaced by acceptance, and a final realisation, as well as the embrace of student life.

This involved building up more debt and buying my ticket for 2010's V Fest. A silly move at the time financially - but life isn't all about money is it?

There's nothing quite this picturesque in London - of course I was back home again. Back In Loughborough after term 2 at Ravensbourne. This was the terrible holiday where I forgot my laptop charger. Needless to say, I've never done that again!

Back to London for Term 3.

This was what we were faced with by the end of March - the start of Talent Showdown, a project that would take over our lives for the next 10 weeks. Depicted above is a pile of 11 tapes, all mislabeled, without timecode, ready to be digitised due to the vision mixer failing on the shoot day. This was the start of a very, very long project...

-April-

As I said, Talent Showdown took over our lives; enough that for the first time since I started my blog, it remained silent for the entire month. I could, once again go over Facebook statuses finding out what I did, but I can tell you now. The month consisted of late nights, early mornings and head banging stress as myself, Ray and Andy blasted through Talent Showdown, making sure it would be ready for the following month. Here are a few pictures to demonstrate the months work...

-May-

May was another hectic month. Being the month of Rave Live itself, it was all systems go at Ravensbourne. However, the quote above is very true. May was also the month of the famous diet. I always do this - have a massive blast of healthiness, involving good food, exercise and general healthy living. It never lasts though. This one lasted 3 weeks before I gave in to the almighty burger and convenience food.

However, having said that, my new years resolution is to resume that lifestyle... this plate does look rather tempting!

Back to Rave Live. Rave Live is the UK's biggest student broadcasting event, showcasing students work on Freeview, over 2 channels for 1 day per year. This year was my first, and along with Ray and Andy I was truly thrown in at the deep end. Talent Showdown was one of the biggest programmes of the year, and the biggest live show.

Many, many hours preparation went into the show and it all came together on the 25th of May. You can view the final broadcast of 'Talent Showdown' here, as well as the results show here.

And that was it - the end of year one at Ravensbourne, and the start of a long, long summer...

The end of May saw 'Glastonbudget', a music festival in Leicestershire where I had volunteered to work. I went alone, which to be honest was slightly out of character. Regardless of my ever-fading shyness, I met some amazing people, Dom, Mickayla, Toir, Steve, Maddie, Joe. It was a wicked weekend and has spurred me on to work at more festival in the new year.

-June-

Ahhh June.... the first month of the break, and thoroughly enjoyable. I had the house in London to myself for the most part, and I spent most of my time sitting around blasting music out and catching up on some much needed sleep.

I received my contact lense in June as well, which I have now... 'misplaced'. Writing of that.. I do need to sort that out soon! Having said that, the lense was very good and helped my sight out a lot!

Finally, June saw the Rawlins Film Showcase, a year on from when we won it. The night ended with Duncan, Guy, John and I getting horrendously drunk in front of our old teachers and walking through fields to Loughborough. Not a great night! Having said that, the films were really good and I enjoyed that part! I assume we'll be going again in 2011 as long as I'm not busy!

-July-

July was another tolerable month of the holiday, well, sort of. It was moving month, and let me tell you now, moving house isn't particularly easy! I assume it's rather easy when you've got nice, easy going estate agents who sympathise with you for being new at this whole 'house thing', but trust us to go with the cowboys of Greenwich!

So of course, the first major event of the month was the infamous sofa. The sofa that was refashioned, rehomed in 3 houses over one week, dragged through Eltham and flown through the borough of Greenwich on a roof rack. That's enough about that, I feel as if half of my year has been spent talking about this sofa, so here's a picture and we shall move on!

I also started my direct payment work over the summer, which was a fantastic experience, and I'd love to do it again next summer as long as nothing more relevant comes up. This meant that I was back and fourth between London and Loughborough for the duration of July.

Then the long awaited move came. That was exciting, and for a week or so it was just me and Andy living together... which was like some kind of surreal sitcom.

Finally, I left for Loughborough and stayed there for quite some time. It was filled with direct payment work, voluntary work at Rainbows and a lot of catching up. Of course it was my birthday, too, which involved just chilling with the family and having a meal. Of course me being me; it then extended into the night at the pub followed by sitting around a playground talking absolute rubbish with some great friends.

Then of course came the main celebration - the celebration to end all celebrations. My first house party (and my last). So with mum and Mark out for the week, I took it upon myself to do the right thing a throw a party. It was an awesome party - full on lights, loud music, alcohol and of course excellent company, followed by a trip to McDonalds at the crack of dawn. The party did, i'm afraid get a little messy for some over indulgent guests, but it didn't dampen spirits. If anything, it probably increased them, as depicted below.

Oh what a hoot....

-August-

It didn't start well. Well... I look back on it now as a timeless story which I will never live down, however at the time it was somewhat frightening. The night I shouted 'prick!' at a 'boy racer' which ended with a car chase... only I didn't have a car. Cutting a long story short, I jumped over a few fences and hid in a bush for a while. Word has it, the guy is still looking for the assailant who happens to have the same name as my new alter-ego - 'Steve Ashley'.

Half way through August, and dare I say it... just half way through the break from uni, I went back to London, ready for V fest.

I would try and fit V fest into this blog, but I would never manage to portray the sheer potency of my emotions as I did in my actual blog posting straight after the event. I therefore urge you greatly, if you haven't already to look it up by clicking here. If you have read it, here are a few pictures to jog your memory.

And that was August. Socialise central, right?

-September-

September began in.... Warwickshire! Surprisingly not Loughborough or London for once. So I was at my Dad's for the bi-annual race weekend. I retained my title as 'loser' which was pretty good and got back to grips with digital Scalextric. This was followed by a short trip back to Loughborough to say farewell to people going away to uni at the NORMAL time. We know how to live, our last day was spent together at Waterworld. Yes.

It was then back to London, where I had acquired a freelance offline edit job for 'American Gun'. That took up mega-time, but it was definitely worth it, and due to be previewed on my Showreel in the new year.

I'd like the nickname for September to be 'the month of beer', as it was the month we started brewing our own beer. An awesome idea if I do say so myself!

Then... (keep up!) it was back to Loughborough again to finish off and deliver my video for Rainbows Hospice which can be seen below.

THEN I once again left Loughborough, and went to Warwickshire, and then back to Loughborough, and then back to London. September truly was a month full of travelling.

However, all this travelling didn't go without pay. Poor Esta the Fiesta took a tumble whilst on a trip in London and had to visit the garage for a hefty operation which was rather hefty on the pocket!

I couldn't finish September without mentioning one of the proudest moments, for me of 2010. Upon one of Chloe's visits to the Evelina, she managed to walk, unaided. She also tackled a flight of steps. It was amazing, and I forever hold that moment of joy within my memories. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have got my hopes up so much. The promising stretch of Chloe's near independent didn't last for too long.

-October-

The beginning of October was genuinely torturous. The 6 months seemed to repeat itself in the first 3 weeks of October, in the build up to going back to uni finally. So with the lack of things to do, lack of money and sudden burst of desire for things to do, I went and explored the borough of Greenwich. I stumbled upon the thames path, which I've visited on a few occasions since. It's so nice down there, and from January will be my new route to University each day, in my plan to become healthy. Lets see how long that goes on for... (stay tuned.).

Then there was a bit of an 'emotional judder' in the build up to going back. This involved me heading back to Loughborough for a week, which was fun, but in hindsight probably unnecessary.

Finally, Ravensbourne opened it's doors to Students for the new term. Reality resumed and the workload hit, excellent. As well as the workload, was the enhanced social life of the O2 and it's surroundings and an excellent new building. My life was complete once again.

-November-

For me, November was the month of months to destroy my liver. It of course started with Freshers week, the ONLY week, might I add that I went over budget. I'm quite proud of this fact. Freshers was a great way to start our time at the new building, and it felt like I was starting at a new uni all over again!

After all of that major indulging, I needed to crack on with work, and crack on I did. I sorted my DVD game with weeks to spare as well as our group doing our presentation 3 weeks early in a major 'cock up' on our part.

Ok, so I'm lying a bit, I worked in heavy sections and messed about for the rest of the time. This included going to see the recording of 'Russell Howard's Good News' at Riverside Studios, followed by a night out with Morena and Duncan who had come down for the night.

In that time, Chloe took a nose dive again and I was rather worried, amongst my workload. That didn't help matters at all, especially as it came to the 'stressfest' of...

-December-

*Sigh..* It's the final month of 2010. I've never realised how long a year actually is until this moment. Well by the start of December, Chloe was back on the up and had left the Evelina to go back to Loughborough. From arriving back she gradually got better and stabilised once more.

So I got back into the swing of things, and by that I mean I attended a 'Bubblewrap Party'. I'm afraid I'm not really very normal. However this was a fun party filled with bubblewrap and... bubblewrap. Here is a delightful picture for your amusement.

Then came the real work. First of all an edit which had a turnaround of 1 night. That was a fun, caffeine fuelled nights work. This wasn't the main event though, as part of our coursework, we had taken on 2 music videos. From script to screen.

I remembered why I decided to leave production and sit in a dark room and edit forever. A stressful week, but thoroughly enjoyable.

And then finally it was the end of term one at the new Ravensbourne. Back I came to Loughborough for Christmas and I had a lovely one. Seeing all the family and getting some really nice presents. That includes some new headphones which I honestly can't wait to edit with - they're gorgeous.

I've been at my Dad's this past week, and today I saw Matilda on stage. It was a really awesome production - thoroughly impressed.

I'm back to Loughborough tomorrow, with celebrations of the new year throughout the night with some friends, before travelling back to London.

So that's about it... the end of 2010, and a year of blogging just about.

It's been an amazing year, I've met some awesome people, done some wicked things and truly have been living the high life. (in my book anyway!)

I plan to try something a little different with my blogging habits next year, so stay tuned for that.

Hope you've enjoyed this absolutely epic blog, and happy new year!

Flan x

Home sweet home.

Well I honestly can't believe it's that time of year again. The last year has gone so horrifically quick that I can't quite remember what's happened..

So I could begin this blog by complying with the usual topic of conversation every blog, tv channel, radio show and general phatic discourse seems to be taking on; snow. However I'm not going to do that - it's winter, it happens every year and by now I would have thought that the novelty has worn off. I'm not saying that snow's a good or bad thing, it's not the snow that annoys me, it's the people. Do they really have to moan about it constantly?

Having written that paragraph I now realise that I have inadvertently conformed to the popular topic. Damn.

So moving on swiftly, I am back in Loughborough for the first time in 2 and a half months. It's the longest I've ever been away in one go, so it's rather bizarre being back. I'm having to get used to the bad public transport and pure air once again.

My first night back I went to a house party, which was a great opportunity to catch up with everyone. Again, surreal converging to different social groups, my two lives have once again confused me!

After the party I managed to get a lie in, the first for a long while and it was amazing. Honestly... it was so nice to relax after the past few frantic weeks of getting coursework done. However having said that, I can't just 'do nothing', so I started re designing my website which was really out of date. It's looking nice, but my web design skills are rather limited. Of course feel free to have a look, it's no where near finished yet though.

Well that's about it now until Christmas!

I'll finish with my picture of the week, a 'Snow Dan'.

Write soon, and Merry Christmas!

Flan x

Shoot, TV and just... getting there...

Wow. I've been busy... I've literally only just managed to grab a few moments to write a blog.

So I'll go right back. Last week my trackpad broke on my mac, just a few days before a big edit. Typical! I could go about this by outputting stupid cliche idioms like 'Oh! They don't make them like they used to!' but when I actually stop and think, my laptop has been used everyday for the past year and a bit. Besides, I really can't complain; mac being mac and providing their excellent customer service managed to book me into an appointment then next day and fix it the following day free of charge. Brilliant.

So on Thursday we did the first day of our music video shoot. This was based at mine and involved smashing up old electrical appliances, glass etc as well as burning stuff. Sounds right up my street, but for once I actually had an excuse! We got some really nice shots and all was good!

So then, Friday was the start of a long long weekend. It started by picking up equipment from Rave ready for the shoot over the weekend. We had a lot of stuff, and I can assure you it wasn't fun getting it all home!

The weekend was with the band 'Mekanizm' who are a metal band. This involved loudness and I do feel for my ears. They took rather a bashing. The shoot went really well and it was nice to go back to production again. I haven't been on a proper shoot since Rawlins. Having said that, I'd be quite happy not to be on a shoot again, I'm much happier in my dark room editing away!

Here's a few pics from the day.

The set.

Shooting the drummer, Ben's close ups.

The lead singer, Faust. I'm quite happy with this photo!

It was a tough weekend with little sleep, and that continued into this week.

On Monday I went to Television Centre to see the recording of 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year'. I went to see my Dad first whilst the others went and waited. They got there so early we were invited to go and see 'The Alan Tichmarsh Show' before hand and got reserved seats for Big Fat Quiz. It was rather bizarre in the Alan Tichmarsh Show; we were the only people under 50!

Big Fat Quiz was amazing. Before they actually started I got picked on by the warm up act (thanks to Ray..) who decided to try and set me up with some girls in the room. We had a good banter session in front of the studio audience, and I managed to get a spontaneous applause and laughter from the audience which I was rather proud of!

The floor manager came in to say we needed to wrap up, and suddenly Jimmy Carr was standing pretty much next to me. So surreal!

The record went on for 5 hours, and having had no sleep I was already really tired! None of the less it was really funny and definitely worth going! We left White City at about half 12, and all of the tubes had finished. We managed to get a bus back towards Westminster where we could get another bus from to get home, but about 15 minutes into the journey a fight broke out and someone decided it's be a fantastic idea to smash the bus door. We all had to get off the bus and we ended up walking.

We didn't get back till 3am, and I was up again at 9 ready to edit the music video.

And that leaves us the rest of the week, which has involved editing every day. It's going really well so far and we intend to be finished by Saturday.

Home on Sunday, so I'll write when I'm back!

Flan x

Render Render Render

It's 02.06 and I'm still up having just 4 hours sleep last night. I've been having trouble sleeping anyway due to the (lack of) routine in my life recently, and after getting an early night last night, I slept for 2 hours before waking up at 12 and staying awake until ridiculous o clock.

Today, myself, Andy and Ray had agreed to present a Blue Peter style show at college. That was amusing, and to be honest a pretty good experience. TV presenting is a lot harder than you think. Part of you has to concentrate on the people talking in your ear telling you how long you have to talk for, one part has to keep an eye on the floor manager and autoque and then you have to concentrate on actually presenting. Not easy at all, and I think that came across in our somewhat amateur performance. But never mind, it was a good day! I'll hopefully get a copy of it to post on here soon.

Now, you may be wondering the reason I'm still up at this time. Especially after having little sleep last night followed by an action packed day. Well upon arriving home we realised that we have an edit due in tomorrow, which none of us had started really. So since 5pm I've been working to get it done ready for submission tomorrow. Fun times.

Did I mention the fact that it's the worst project ever, documenting the history of the internet with comments from some of the most boring people on earth? (Excluding Steven Fry).

It has probably been the least enjoyable edit I've ever done, the cut aways arn't even relevant to the subject, and as I just said to Ray; if it were a live project, I'd tell them to go and shoot some relevant cut aways before I would touch it. How has people walking round a Ghanian town got ANYTHING to do with people abusing Wikipedia?

Now I'm just waiting for the thing to render, which will take 25 mins, yay. And then I plan to colour correct it. I would go to bed, but I've learnt that the body works in 4 hour cycles, meaning that if I sleep now I'll get 6 hours before getting up. At 6 hours the body is at its heaviest sleep and its bad to wake up then. You can get away with waking up after 4 hours and feeling ok to go and do what I have to do tomorrow.

Oh, did I not tell you that?

Yes, I've got to go in and have a meeting about risk assessments, and other boring paperwork ready for our shoot over the weekend.

To tell you the truth, at this stage of the term I am no longer grateful that it is 2 weeks shorter that usual.

Write soon, if I ever get out of bed ever again!

Flan x

A Sigh of Relief...

...and back to face the fallout.

It's been a tough week, to say the least, but at last I feel slightly relieved and ready to put pen to paper, or fingers to keys as the case may be.

As mentioned in my previous post, Chloe was due to come down to the Evelina again to be admitted. It didn't happen for sometime, but on Monday she was brought down.

Now usually when I go to see Chloe in hospital, I'm quite prepared; I think it's fair to say I've seen her in an array of conditions, from being tube fed for months on end, right through to her running away from me.

For some reason, this visit was different. For the past few months Chloe's been getting better and better and better. Almost too good to be true, and I'm sure my happiness has come through in my writing at each milestone.

To see her, only a month or so ago walk up a flight of stairs, to seeing her on Monday was a shock to the system. It was like looking back in time, back to 2008 before she had DBS.

This time, I felt I needed to be with her as much as possible, to monitor her progress, and also make her, and my mums long stay in hospital a little bit more entertaining. I'm not saying I danced around balancing chairs on my head, but you know what I mean. Tuesday wasn't much better, and the worry continued; talks of the probes in her brain moving, or her stimulator breaking were bouncing around our heads. It wasn't nice.

She had also turned her stimulator around for the second time! Mad how she managed to do such a thing...

They turned that back over, x-rays and all that palaver. So, what had caused her to 'go wrong'?keeping with the theme of bionic sister..

Was it the probes in her brain moving? Mechanical Failure? Condition Progression? Meds Withdrawal? We just didn't know.

Today was a different story. I arrived at the hospital in the afternoon, and Chlo wasn't uncontrollably flailing about the bed, she was still; relaxed. From the first second I saw her I knew my faith in Dr. Lins team had been boosted once again. They'd changed her settings again, back to what they were over the summer, and increased her dose of diazepam. 'Normality' is in sight once again.

So it's all very well being at the hospital all the time, but my room was a tip and my work slipping slightly. I kind of forgot about that part of my life! However, I've sorted my room and my work is due to be back on track very soon. Epic win.

So I'll stop bumbling on and tell you some anecdotes of the week, some actual shenanigans.

Last week saw the bubble wrap party! Picture a room covered in bubble wrap, as well as everyone in it. Thats a recipe for a fun night, and it was indeed!

Of course there's the topic of the week, snow, to talk about. We didn't get as much as everyone else down here in London, however it was enough...

... enough to have a midnight snowball fight much to the disgust of the residents on Heathwood Gardens, and also to make a tasteful snow sculpture in the garden. Fun times! So I'll leave you with my picture of the week, and grab some shut eye for tomorrow!

Write soon!

Flan x

Is that a grey hair?

Stress is a weird thing; there's good stress, and bad stress. An example of good stress would be knowing you've got lots of stuff to do and an increasingly alarming lack of time to do it within. It's like a challenge; a game. Bad stress would be an essay you're trying to write at the last minute, whilst next door are seemingly attempting to hoover up their cat whilst a small imp is poking you repeatedly in the rib cage. I'm pleased to say I'm suffering from good stress at the moment. (although I would like an imp).

In answer to my blog title:

Yes. Yes it is, along with a load more. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my Dad for this ridiculous gene that sends us grey at a stupidly premature age.

The reason I speak about these two irrelevant topics is that they're not irrelevant. (See what I did there?) If you're as incredibly intellectual and as near genius as I am*, you'd know that many believe that going grey can be a result of stress.

As I looked on my calendar yesterday evening, I realised that we have 4, going on 3 weeks left of this term, with 2 music videos to produce still, a documentary to edit and a presentation to.. well... present.

Luckily I finished my DVD game and got that one out the way. I've never known a project to be so time consuming. Ridiculous.

Not to worry though, it will get done and we'll all live happily ever after. (maybe.).

Speaking of stress, work hasn't been the only thing on my mind. Chloe's pretty bad again and she's coming back down to London yet again to stay. I have a lot of faith in the team at the Evelina, however it's always a worry, especially when I'm away from home. Of course it's the positives in every situation that matter the most; this one being the fact I get to see her again on Friday. Win.

On a slightly more fun, amusing and generally stupid note; socially, uni is going good! (The social life I do have at the moment anyway!) On Friday we had a house party which was alright. Not as many people as we'd hoped came, but it was still a fun night.

I'll leave you with my new thing which I've literally just decided to make a feature of.... my photo of the week! Which I took about half an hour ago. All my housemates have gone to sleep, and as you may have guessed from the odd way I'm structuring my sentences, and the aberrant choice of lexemes within this blog, I am in a slightly odd mood. I decided to make the most out of the vacated shared spaces. This is the outcome of said situation:

Write soon!

Flan x

*this entire sentence, if spoken out loud as an utterance would be littered with sarcastic intonation.

Apologies

Apologies for that awful last post, in all honesty I don't even remember writing it. I've been pretty ill in the last week, but the way I look at it, illness is like any other challenge in life. I don't just back down and let it take it's course, (which to be honest is probably the better option) I power on regardless if I can. Life's too short. However this attitude has meant a few days at college feeling like I was about to drop off the planet whilst coughing my lungs up. Nice.

Besides the illness, last week was a pretty good week,

contrary to how it came across in my last anomalous post. On Tuesday I was at Riverside Studios, watching the recording of Russell Howard's Good News for BBC 3. Proof:

It was a really good show and I really enjoyed it, especially as I watch it religiously every week on TV anyway! You'd think that would be enough good fun for one night; you'd be wrong.

I went to see Russell with 2 friends from Rawlins; Morena and Duncan. Morena lives in London anyway, but Duncan came down from Leicester. It was great to see them both again, and after the show we went out to a club called The Roxy. It was a pretty nice club and I had a wicked night, a little like old times again!

I got home at around 7 on Wednesday morning, and pretty much slept most of the day (luckily it was my day off!). In the evening I went back to my old house for one of the new tenants and my ex housemates birthday, which also tripled up as a belated Firework night. It was a good night as well, but after all that and my infection coming on I was ready to keel over.

It didn't stop there. The following day I had a meeting with a band in Bromley for our music video. It took about 2 hours to get there and was ridiculous! It was great meeting the band though and getting some creative juices flowing.

I feel like since then I've been pretty much working on my DVD game, which is coming along nicely. The graphical view showing all of the buttons and links looks really complicated though, and it;s not even finished yet!

Tomorrow Chloe is coming down to London to have her stimulator tweaked again. She's not doing well at the moment by the sounds of it. Not surprising really when she's come of a substantial amount of drugs in the last month. I hope to finish college early and go over to visit quickly. That'll be nice, I really miss Chlo!

Well, that's about it, I've filled in a few of the gaps that my last atrocious post failed to fill!

Write Soon,

Flan x

Nothing much to write.

I honestly have nothing much to write after this week. I've just been cracking on with work, and today I made quite a lot of progress with my DVD game.

I've appear to have come down with some kind of chest infection etc... it's pretty bad but I'll live! Also, I think I should probably talk a little bit about the game of catch that got a little bit out of hand.

The other night we started a game of catch. Obviously, catching a ball is not as entertaining as it used to be, we needed to add another element to it, for example, the same concept as a water balloon - if you drop it, you get wet. However, due to the lack of water balloons, we went for the next best thing - empty glass bottles. By the end of the game our kitchen was a pretty dangerous environment, and it took about 7 hours to clear it all up. Probably shouldn't do that again.

I'd like to point you to my brand new blog! This one of course will continue as normal, however, I now have a new splinter blog, entirely dedicated to documenting my dreams. You can check it out here - 'The Dream Journals'

Hopefully I'll have some slightly more interesting news next week!

Flan x

Recovery.

Well what a week it has been! Over the course of the week I've met some awesome people and chatted complete rubbish to them... ahhh freshers!

So the first night was the night at the SU. Our SU is the first bar in the O2. It has a bar downstairs, a restaurant/pub upstairs and a dance floor at the top. It was a good night, apart from when Andy decided to jump on me whilst I was on the stage, and we both fell off.... spraining his ankle. Oh dear. Actually, come to think of it; that was quite amusing as well.

I'm with some people... mainly first year post I believe?

Tuesday was another brilliant night. A pub crawl around Greenwich, as mentioned in my previous post. I don't need to say much about it.. I covered it last time!

Me on the Rodeo... for about 3 seconds!

Wednesday was the night at Inc Club in the O2. It was a really nice club and I had an awesome time with everyone. I think this was the night the glueing obsession began when we got home each night. We had some superglue, and whilst inebriated we found it hilarious to glue things to other things. For example a glass jar to the table and a shower fitting to the boiler. Amusing times!

Me, Ray and Andy in Inc.

Thursday was probably my least favourite night, surprisingly. I usually love foam parties, but this one was manic! It was was also a UV night which was quite cool, however I didn't have any cash on me, and the minimum spend for a card was £15! UV robbery! I also became so disorientated and inhaled loads of foam. We left pretty early that night, we think we'd began to flag after the weeks events.

For some reason the only picture of me on this night is me in the background of this one..

Finally, it was Friday. The 1920's boat party. It was a REALLY nice boat, however the water was really choppy that night and everyone was stumbling about! (not from alcohol intake.. I promise.)

The night panned out really well and I had a really good time aboard the Dixie Queen.

Me and Andy on the deck!

Unfortunately, our beloved friend Chloe was taken pretty ill, just in time for the week, so she missed out on everything. We're throwing a Freshers party for her soon, to make up for it - that should be fun!

So now comes the major detox. I'm pretty much recovered now, but I still need to take it easy for a while. Having said that, I'm off out tomorrow night with some mates from Leicester to see Russell Howard at the BBC followed by a bar in town. It will be a good night, but I'll maybe take it easy this time!

Today is my day off, and upon finishing writing this, I intend to get some actual work done, I'm starting my DVD game. I have a concept, and hopefully I can put it into practice!

Write soon,

Dan x

Freshers.

Just a quick one to sandwich between my strange, funny and unhealthy shenanigans of the week. It is of course Freshers week, and what a week it's been so far!

I feel as if I'm making up for the fail of a freshers last year, which although was fun, was nothing special. This means I'm going all out, every night, and for the time being my budget for this week is spoken for.

I remember using my card to pay for things on monday night after I'd spent the cash that I had. Halifax is so far refusing to tell me how much I actually did spend. Hopefully the damage isn't too bad! Hey ho, you only live once.

Last night was amazing, a pub crawl with a twist. Each pub had it's own challenge, and despite my appalling performance at each task, our group won. With our previous win at the pub quiz last week, we're on top form and need to keep up this winning streak!

Still, Friday is going to be the best. Bowler hat, shirt and bow tie, trousers and cigars. That's right - 1920's night, on a boat.

I can think of nothing better than spending fireworks night on the Thames, with some awesome people dressed like a complete idiot. Amazing.

On a note which doesn't include boozey antics, my foot may actually be in the door.

I've got the opportunity to go and work for a cable TV station for a couple of days, with the chance of further work in the future. Get in! Maybe I'll be able to pay off my Freshers debt!

I'd also like to name drop Joel from the band Athlete. He's coming in tomorrow morning to give us a lecture. Man I love Ravensbourne!

Write soon!

Flan x

Earlier than planned.

Yet again, the title says it all. Great, these concise titles that sum up what you want to say... except now I have to elaborate on precisely what's 'earlier than planned'; well.. it's this blog.

As you can probably tell from that strangely formed piece of self contained discourse; I'm in a blabbing mood, where I mainly blab about complete rubbish in an incredibly round about way. It's what I do best.

So the first week back at uni has been completed, and I've already had enough. I'm joking, it was brilliant to be back, surrounded by social interaction and cerebral stimulation. However, it was made very clear within that short space of time that this year is going to be hardcore! From having nothing to do on my 'to do list', I now have 2 music videos to produce, an interactive DVD game, a grading assignment, two research projects and the foundations of my dissertation to start. This is going to be a jam packed few months!

I mentioned the job on the Thames Clipper in my last job. I also mentioned how I wasn't going to get my hopes up, I was right. Nevermind! With all this work to be getting on with, I shall just tighten my belt and live without the burden of a part time job upon my shoulders.

Besides, I do get my freelance work every now and again.

I'm currently on a break from editing a short film. It's taken me at least 4 hours to just synchronise the audio with the video because the marker couldn't count so everything to was labeled wrong!

Now comes the fun bit of actually editing! Yay!

The mice in the house are still abundant. Not only has the the novelty value of the small creatures scurrying around now gone, but their numbers seem to be escalating, and their courage increasing. Last night they were just walking around the living room whilst me and Chloe were sat chatting. It wasn't even as if it was silent, they didn't seem to care about our presence at all. Arrogant little sods.

It's freshers week next week, which is why I'm battling to get as much work as I can done over the weekend. I won't be writing next week I don't expect, I'll show you why:

Monday: 8pm - 2am - Welcome to our SU night

Tuesday: 9.30am - 4pm - College, 8pm-2am - Pirates Pub Crawl

Wednesday: 1.30pm - 4pm - College, 10pm-3am - Inc Club in the O2

Thursday: 10am - 4pm - College, 10pm-3am - Foam and UV Party

Friday: 10am - 3.30pm - College, 8pm - 2am - 1920's Boat Party on the Thames.

This week is going to be amazingly fun, but at the same time is going to kill me! I actually only wanted to go to 2 nights, but after a bit of persuasion from the SU team, and a change of heart from me, I decided to buy a week ticket!

Write next weekend!

Dan x

Back to reality, but not necessarily normality.

Finally, the time has come to return to the magical place that is Ravensbourne. Thank God for that.

That's not the only thing that's looking up; my persistence of obsessive online job applications may have actually paid off, finally. I've got an interview for a job on the Thames Clipper. Not the most relevant or glamorous of jobs, but relatively easy, and nice cliche job for London.

Of course I won't get my hopes up too much. That'd be silly.

So I've had two days back in education, and it feels good! Once again I have a purpose, and not only a purpose in a bodged 70's building in deepest darkest Kent, but a purpose in a brand new lovely building in London. Although it has it's negatives (mainly the highly irritating alarm that goes off every 10 seconds because someones done something wrong with the security barrier), the new place is amazing, with an array of new, exciting and cutting edge pieces of kit for us to mess about with.

For instance, today we went into our new sound recording studio. It had many buttons, lights and faders, and hundreds of racks with various limiters and compressors etc. After trying to get it to work by pressing any button we could, we decided this state of the art ProTools HD desk had beaten us. I need to find the manual I reckon.

If you'd like to see a sneak peak of the new building, you can view this video which is pretty cool. (click here)

This year I have less money than last because officially I'm on the last year of my course, so I'm expected to have a full time job by May. That's not going to happen and is a small inconvenience, so I've set up a nifty little spreadsheet which works out how much money I have left per week. With this years enhanced social life (as we have a decent students union in the o2) I will need to keep track of the pennies and not over indulge too much!

Having said that, after yesterdays lecture, we went to the SU to celebrate the beginning of term. This started at about 2pm, and went on, with a move half way through to Wetherspoons, till about 9pm, where we decided we'd had enough and went to bed after acquiring a skateboard and a roadworks barrier. Tragic.

The 10am lecture on grading wasn't entirely appreciated by my brain.

So that's it! Back to reality (but not necessarily normality, nothing and no one is normal in this house!)

Write again soon!

Flan x

Blagging.

It's fair to say I came home at a great time, and whilst being here I've exercised the power of blagging as much as possible.

Blag (v)

British Informal

1. A violent robbery or raid

2. An act of using clever talk or a deliberate action to obtain something.

You'll be happy to know I haven't been holding up banks whilst wearing a pair of tights on my head.

During my week home, I will have gone out for 3 meals, obtained a free drink in a club and a free ticket to see 'The Social Network' at the county's best cinema.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to blag a free bus ride, unlike the girl yesterday who got onto her bus, fluttered her eye lashes and claimed that she had no money. Now that was good blagging. Oh to have a pair of breasts and an angelic voice...

Whilst being home I've also had my first glimpse of life in Loughborough without a car since I passed my test nearly 2 years ago. Living in London without a car is fine - there's ample transport at all times of the day and night and it's relatively cheap. Being round here in 'the sticks' by comparison is entirely different. Transport is expensive and relatively poor. I didn't really realise this until I got on a train for £4.50 for just 10 minutes. I didn't even get a seat! I don't think Boris would be very happy if he found out.

It's not just my blatant love for free stuff that makes me say it's a good week to be home (did I mention I also just got a free mcflurry?).

For the first time in a long long time, Chloe has walked independently. A lot. I honestly never thought I'd see that again, and it was amazing to be here to help and see her rapid progress. The other day she decided she wanted a drink. I told her she'd have to get it herself, so after a little help getting up, she walked into the kitchen and poured some coke... all over the floor. We found it hilarious. Mum was less impressed.

Back to uni next week! Finally...

Will write to let you know how it goes!

Flan x

Home straight!

I'm writing from my abnormally tall bed in Loughborough. You weren't expecting that, were you? Well, to be honest, neither was I.

After last years slow settle in to the hustle and bustle of London, I think subliminally, this year I felt as if I had to prove my self sufficiency to everyone (and myself) by leaving in a dramatic manner screaming I wasn't returning till at least Christmas. Well, not quite... however I didn't expect to be back in the home town quite so soon.

Let me make one thing clear. Living with other people isn't easy. I naively skipped merrily into this year thinking it was all going to be fun and games, which to be honest, it mainly is. However everyone has different ideas and ways of living, and inevitably this can cause friction. Especially in a house full of males where dominance is some kind of continuous battle. I'm losing.

Don't get me wrong. I adore my housemates and living in London, however with nothing to do, day in, day out, the most ridiculous and trivial things start to become like the riots between the EDL and their opposing union. 'It's your turn to do the washing up!' 'No it's not, it's yours!'

Now lets shut up and do the damn washing up! We did.

It's time to return to uni next week, and that will occupy us and offer us some structure to our lives. This takes me on to the topic of Ravensbourne College... Sorry! Not college; Ravensbourne Institute of Digital Media and Innovative Design. Wow that's a pretentious new title.

We had our induction last week and our first glimpses into our brand spanking new home located next to the O2 in North Greenwich. I've been quite sceptical about the move for the past few months. I've heard pretty negative rumours about the place and they seemed to set in. However after I'd actually seen the place... wow.

The new facilities we have are amazing, and literally every piece of equipment is brand new and industry standard. Post production I have decided is my new house, with the sound studio being my holiday home. Our new HD studio looks wicked and I can't wait to work with the footage coming from there.

Things are going to be very different from last year though. No longer will we be able to 'nip across' to the studio or the gallery to drop off a tape to the VT op, or to check a timecode. If we want to 'nip' we'll probably have to take around 15 minutes out of our schedule. Maybe these journeys will be unnecessary though with our new tapeless workflow and MAM.

It all works in principle, but will it in practise? Time will tell!

I can't wait to get started now, bring on the workload!

Write soon,

Flan x

Not much to report!

Nahh, the title says it all to be honest.

I hate waiting. I've always hated waiting, so this 3 week wait really does make the mic. That's right, whilst I watch friends having a great time at uni, I'm still sat here waiting for uni to start. On the up side there is enrolment and a tour next week to look forward to, even if I have lost the forms to enrol.. oops.

So this waiting around with lack of motivation started to get to me. I finally got out of the house last week to see my Dad in town. That was cool. He threw out a few suggestions and the next day I took them on. I woke up at a reasonable hour and went for a walk.. just following my nose. I walked up to the Thames Barrier and then along the river bank to Ravensbourne and back again. It was a really cool walk and I managed to grab some good photos along the way. They can be seen by clicking here.

I found it really weird how diverse the pictures were, from farm animals, to trains, to the thames barrier, aeroplanes, and city skyline. What an interesting place I live in! Excuse the dirt on the lens. I was most displeased when I saw it on uploading them to my mac.

Last night I went to pick up rushes for a new project which I intend to start on in a bit so that will keep me occupied for a while. In the meantime I think I'll sit here an continue listening to jazz. Brilliant :)

Whilst I wait the last stretch of these 'holidays' It has come to the point where I have run out of money. I would have been fine have my car not broken down.. Hmm. SO for now I'm on rations, it will probably do me good to be honest. The bank won't increase my overdraft limit - something about me 'being in too much debt' or something! Oh to be a student! Roll on the Student loan, that's all I can say!

Write soon!

Dan x

Rainbows, tears of joy, mice and ridiculous hours.

Well it has been a while! I'd like to start by apologising for the ludicrous style I know I'm going to write this blog in. Being up for so long sends me, to say the least, a little bit wappy. The reason I'm still up at 3.54am on a Wednesday night, I will make clear shortly. First though, lets start from the top!

So the last time I left you, I had just returned to London (I think..) and I stayed there for 2 weeks. Within that time, we did the usual stuff; dossing around, watching TV, sleeping etc. We also went to a party at my old house - this messed around with my head a little, seeing as I could no longer 'just put something in my room' or 'just go and make an abnormally large BBQ / bonfire'. It was weird, however a good night.

We also began brewing our own beer whilst I was ba

ck. I bought the ingredients from Wilko, which I've found out is pretty rare down here in London..

We then bought our 'Fermenting Barrel' in the form of a kitchen bin from B&Q. After a few days our beer, which we keep warm by wrapping in a sleeping bag and blasting warm air in a regular intervals, had started fermenting nicely.

Drifting slightly from the chronological theme of this blog, I can say that we have since tried the beer, which we store in lemonade bottles, and it is very nice! We currently have two batches done, and intend to acquire some more ingredients in the near future.

Back onto the road of time.

I went home for a week following the brewing excitement. This was for a few reason, 1 being I had a dentist appointment, which turned out to be in December, not September. Damn. I also needed to bring my car back, as I'm not keeping her in London this year to save money. I'm going to miss her very much!

Finally I went to finish a video about the new build at Rainbows Hospice. After a quick extra shoot and a furious day and night of editing I finished. Not one of my greatest pieces, however the people seemed thrilled, so I'm content! Here it is, incase you're interested!

I then left Loughborough, and embarked on a journey to Warwickshire where I'd arranged to stay with my Dad, to do some work for him. That was a monotonous task and a half, but there we are! That's my share of the TV license paid!

Monday evening, we both came to London. This notion seems pretty straight forward, simple and easy. However, adding a microwave into the equation made the experience somewhat challenging. I never knew how awkward and heavy a microwave could be until now. I'd love to see the CCTV of us on the tube, attempting to get out of the barriers.

Dad stayed at my house that night, and we got up early on Tuesday to visit Chloe who was having her annual check up at the Evelina. I have never been so amazed, seeing my sister, who not that long ago couldn't even sit up do this... (Click here..)

I literally had tears of joy seeing this, I haven't seen her walk like that for such a long time, so this was a really amazing experience.

On my way home I stopped at B&Q to get supplies for a newly noticed problem with our house to add to the list; mice. They're eating our food and weeing on our things so we are not overly pleased. My mum told me to get humane traps, but quite where I'd take a mouse to set it free in London I don't know...

We caught one earlier today and I couldn't help feeling bad. They have to go though, and this is the only way. Others have had lucky (or skilful) escapes too, as bait from the traps has gone missing without the trap being set off. I'd love to see how they do it... I've trapped my finger so many times in the last two days just setting them!

Finally, why I'm up so late; it's now 4.23am. I've been working on a project and the director said that he wanted to see the first cut tomorrow... or today now. It has been, admittedly a little more time consuming that I originally thought, I'm now moving into my 18th hour today, but at least I've finished. I'm just waiting for it to export so I'm ready to show it later on. It says it's going to take 4 hours... maybe I will sleep for a bit.

So anyway, I think it's time to round up, and maybe I should include an AOB section:

• A huge spider managed to climb into my bag, come with me on a 40 minute journey before springing upon me in a public place, causing mass panic.
• My car broke down after a journey through central London.
• During that journey I ticked a box on my list of things to do before I die - Driving across Westminster Bridge.
• Just to clarify from my previous story about the part at my old house - I did actually officially move out a couple of weeks ago.
• I acquired an ear infection.

Well then, I hope not to leave you in the dark for so long this time, it's been a mission catching up!

Write soon!

Flan x