New Blog for 2011.

You can find my new blog here. That's your lot from Weekly Shenanigans. Thanks for reading!

Flan x

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.