Sodding Catherine Tate is going to be the doctor’s permanent assistant in the next series of Doctor Who. Arse wank.

In fairness, she wasn’t too bad in The Runaway Bride so she may turn out alright… in time. (I wasn’t keen on the idea of Billie Piper as an assistant yet she proved to be excellent.)

Freema Agyeman will also be returning mid-series as Martha Jones - as well as featuring in Torchwood. I can’t see why she was axed at all (if the rumours are anything to go by), especially if they’re bringing her back anyway. I thought she was really good.

Work is going splendidly by the way, I seem to have slotted straight into place. Ooer. And I’m doing proper projects too - none of that Fame Game nonsense.

Ricky Gervais has just performed the Freelove Freeway song with Mackenzie Crook at the Diana concert, then had to fill for television-eternity because of a technical error.

’twas so funny - you could tell he was bricking it. He said he’d never do Brent and/or the dance again, yet he did both through desperation.

—

I start at Paramount Comedy tomorrow. Huzzah!

Lisa and I caught an advanced screening of Shrek the Third tonight after the penultimate episode of this series of Doccie Who.

The episode was really good - John Simm’s performance was amazing. The resolution to last week’s cliffhanger was a bit poo, mind.

Shrek the Third was far better than I thought it’d be - having been quite disappointed by Shrek 2.

What with having a wonderful family, some fantastic friends, an absolutely perfect girlfriend - whom I get to spend such blissful time with - AND landing myself that dream job at Paramount Comedy, life is sweet.

My final hand-in at Racodac today felt very good. No more silly projects for me. (I hope.)

Paramount Comedy is supposed to be getting back to me by the end of the day. I just hope I’m not on the toilet when they ring.

My interview at Paramount Comedy this morning could not have gone better. Well, getting there could’ve done - the Transport for London website is possibly the most unreliable website I have ever encountered. But enough of that, the interview-proper went excellently.

My favourite answer was probably to the question: “In one sentence, why are you the best man for the job?” - to which I responded: “I am a confident, competent worker, with a good sense of humour and generally… a… nice… chap.”

My video work (including my completed Major 2 and previews of my Major 1 and Negotiated Group projects - which my tutors haven’t even seen yet) went down a treat. And until I stated otherwise the DVD covers I took to demonstrate my print skills were thought to be the genuine articles that I’d simply ‘brought along’. Perfik.

The rest of the day has seen me keying out footage for my Negotiated Group project. Looks pretty damn good if you ask me. And even if you don’t - which you probably won’t.

There, I’ve gone and answered that tree-falling-over-in-the-woods -being-heard-question now. It’s just not right. Not right at all.

Argh, so much to do - hence being so quiet of late. I’ve completely finished my Major 2 (The Times Crossword promo), have very nearly finished my Major 1 (elephant.co.uk rebrand) and have yet to enter production on my Negotiated Group project (DFES promo to encourages children to read more).

Not forgetting project reports, mounting work for display, promotional material for exhibitions et cetera. All due on 15th June - though I’m aiming to have most of the video work done by the 6th to show at my interview at Paramount Comedy on the 7th. Madness.

Today has been a day of mixed emotions - but all in all a good day. I didn’t go to bed until 5am and was up again by 7am to get all of my animation work together for submission at noon.

I don’t like leaving anything to the last minute but I’ve pushed my ability further & further with each Rave project so wind up working on the finishing touches as late as the night/morning before.

After the frantic dashing about and then missing the early bus, I texted Zehra A. to see how all was going her end. A tree had fallen on her train-line meaning it impossible for her to get to Rave by train for the deadline. So she’d hopped on the hourly bus in the middle of nowhere (where she lives) to the middle of another nowhere (not far on from where I live).

By pure chance, she was literally two minutes away from passing my stop on the opposite side of the road. Embarking on a journey to the unknown, her face was a picture the moment she recognised me standing there - more so as she got off the bus and made her way towards me.

Sharing the journey was what we both needed after our separate struggles for weeks on end. Though admittedly Zehra’s struggle *just* to make it in put my stress of the morning into perspective.

We made the deadline with plenty of time to spare and were then briefed on the next project. No rest for the wicked, eh?

Excellently, while helping a couple of mates in Convergence with their projects afterwards, Jordan A. relayed “Paramount really love you, Blake.” from a telephone call to his missus who’s on work experience there.

I was really hoping I’d made a lasting impression - they certainly seemed pleased at the time. But having heard such a comment from them almost a year later has filled me with hope for the near future. What with me supposedly entering the working world very soon and all.

A wee visit to Atul K’s this morning to rectify his lack of Internet connection was unexpected, but a pleasant reunion all the same.

As well as the usual geekish talk that you’d expect of us (the gloss-finish of his Spider-Man 2 poster being a fine example), he said that he’d seen my idents on the Paramount Comedy channel, which is just wizard!

Also amusingly, he thought this was a condom packet - because of the words “slant tip” above the phallic outline.

In fairness, he did add: “I wasn’t sure as I didn’t think condoms needed sharpening.” Bless ‘im.

This, too, saw us laughing muchly.

When it mattered, 2006 was a bit of a poo year; I’ve just neglected to mention the bulk of the bad bits on this here blog because - well, because I can.

Not that 2006 was without highlights, nay don’t be silly - there were loads of good things in 2006. It’s just the undocumented bad aspects far outweighed the good. And going on the goodness apparent in this post, you’ll see how bad the bad was.

Anyhow, being asked to stay on at Paramount for a second week, having dazzled them with my skills in the first, was definitely a high point of this year. That and Hob McD. saying that he’d actually seen the work I’d done there go to air. Fantastic.

English & Pockett was also a great company to work for, just sod’s law that I went for the one week of the year that supposedly saw very little work going on. ’twas a very insightful experience, and their name is perhaps the best for graphic design to have on your CV in the United Kingdom. So I’m not complaining.

My day in the Sky News studio was brilliant too, even if I did get trapped on the London Underground on the way there. Pirate’s motion control demonstration at their studio was also amazing, though I am a bit narked it wasn’t a week later when I could’ve had my photograph taken holding an Oscar. Bah.

Then, of course, there’s the vast amount of celebrities I saw at signings, live shows and generally walking about the place: Robert Llewellyn, Chloe Annett, Chris Barrie, Danny John-Jules, Russell Brand, Ricky Gervais, Sean Lock, Lee Mack, Stewart Lee, Robin Ince, Alan Carr, Matthew Holness, Richard Ayoade, Matt Berry, David Mitchell, Robert Webb and Shaun ‘Fat Baz’ Williamson. A ridiculously impressive list I’m sure anyone would agree. And let’s not forget bumping into fellow geek, Eugene Sully and the amusing - if not erratic - Nikki Grahame, both of which didn’t make it onto the previous list on account of not being proper celebrities. And perhaps even more impressive than all of that, I interviewed Peter Tyler for my dissertation. Boy did he come up trumps. Again.

Television, on the whole, wasn’t good. Life on Mars, which kick-started the year, was fantastic. Doctor Who was similarly splendid, though the Christmas special was a leetle bit disappointing - but generally a great episode. Torchwood was excellent - its series finale (apart from the rushed ending) beat the Doccie Who Christmas special hands down.

Not Going Out, Man to Man and Lead Balloon were superb new sitcoms; Pulling also being great, but not quite as funny as it could’ve been. Likewise Extras was hilarious in places, but in general wasn’t quite as sparkly as the first series. And That Mitchell and Webb Look, while funny, also disappointed, as so much of it was recycled material from their radio series.

Robin Hood was also thoroughly entertaining. And The Bill was as Billiant as ever. Oh, and I also fell in love with Firefly and Serenity having finally got around to watching the DVDs I’ve had of them for over a year. (Twat!) The Mighty Boosh and Nathan Barley also pleased me muchly having got them on a whim.

Film-wise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Saw III were the only films I saw at the cinema this year - both of which were excellent. I was fairly keen to see Superman Returns, but I’m that fond of the originals, I didn’t mind waiting until the DVD came along - although I still haven’t seen it. I am annoyed I never got around to seeing Clerks II on the big screen, though, so am desperately awaiting its release on DVD in February.

Food opinions in 2006 were varied. I discovered that potato salad was “mmmmm”, and that KP crisps far outshine Walkers and Golden Wonder for both flavour & freshness. But I also found out that cheddar cheese popcorn is a definite no-no - an absolute disaster of food that will stink out your kitchen, reminding you each time you smell it of the horror actually consuming the snack was.

What else to say? Oh yes, I invested in an Xbox console *just* to play Halo, which didn’t disappoint - but again, I’m a bit behind in only doing this in 2006. And in health: the bruises underneath my two big toe nails have yet to fully grow out. So that’s something to look forward to in 2007, along with:

More Life on Mars, Doccie Who, Torchwood, Lead Balloon and The Billage on the box. And theatrical releases of Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Spider-Man 3, Hot Fuzz, Live Free or Die Hard, Shrek the Third, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Simpson’s Movie, Sunshine and the film about Guy Goma - purely because the whole fiasco is so amusing.

And here’s hoping the independently made The Legend of Zelda: The Hero of Time gets finished, and that Red Dwarf: The Movie finally gets funded too.

It was my last day working at Paramount yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed my two weeks there. The work was great and a fair deal of what I did is actually going straight ont’ television. Excellent with brass knobs on!

Bidding farewell was a tad… odd, as I could really see myself staying there forever; I got on swimmingly with the team and altogether settled in unbelievably quickly. My guvnor, Chris W, was a right dude, providing many a laugh (and expertise) throughout the fortnight. “Don’t worry, I’ll rinse my mouth out with Blake’s semen,” is one of many gems that I shan’t forget in a hurry.

All in all the experience was fantastic. Most importantly, it has revitalised my desire to work in this industry - something I desperately needed to happen after previous experiences and institutions had clouded my sense of direction in generally being mind-numbing and spirit-crushing. And with any luck I’ll end up working somewhere as fun and rewarding as Paramount has been.

End.