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.

I’ve just got in from another night of many a laugh with Lisa - this time in the form of a fine pub meal followed by a viewing of Hot Fuzz ont’ big screen.

The portion was large (ooer!), the film excellent and company adequate. Ha ha, no Lisa was as delightful as ever - and the night was the boost I needed after my hellish penguin play of late.

Lisa has presented me with the hat I oh so craved. I am complete.

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.

I watched Four Rooms last night with Lisa. I’ve wanted to see it for years for the Rodriguez & Tarantino segments but it went on that long list (of Things to Maybe Do at Some Point in the Future if Time and Money Are Allowing and Nothing Else Takes Priority™) and didn’t get done. Although, evidently, it did get done - and now I’ve lost the list.

’twas ingenious anyhow. Tim Roth really camped it up, which entertained to no end. And all in all, the film was a masterpiece. I wasn’t too fond of the first segment, but it’d be far better if the ridiculous breath-of-fire was removed; that was just plain silly.

Like the true girlie that she is, me bird, Lisa couldn’t handle her chicken madras last night in our belated Valentine’s celebrations. But hey, what she didn’t finish I polished off this morning - so I’m not complaining.

I felt so guilty for being ill on the actual day - even though we’d planned (before I got ill) on celebrating last night anyway. But we had a really lovely night and watched the most romantic of films, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

No, we didn’t watch that - don’t be silly. ’twas a perfect night though, laughs aplenty.

In the three years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve never struggled to write a post as much as I have with this one. I’ve actually spent six hours (and written over a thousand words) over the last four days on what would have been this post. Yet I’ve ditched all of those efforts because it didn’t feel right.

So here it is, the simplified version of my lengthy morality tale - simplified to save my head from exploding:

I knew someone for two years. We were completely different - interests, values, morals et cetera. I wouldn’t say we disliked each other (not quite), but we weren’t best buds either. A love-hate relationship was how it was oft-described by peers.

A few days back I somehow stumbled onto this person’s profile on a popular online community, and I read on out of pure curiosity. And by the time I’d finished reading, my opinion of this person had changed completely.

This is where the difficulty has been in writing this post, as now that I’ve seen a new side to this person, I really, really can’t remember what it was two years ago that saw us mutually almost disliking each other for two whole years.

So surprised at the new side I’d seen of this person, I messaged to say hello and share my eye-opening moment with them. I felt it a little daring; I fully expected to get laughed at - by the person once described by others as my “nemesis”. But I couldn’t understand how I got them so wrong.

I consider myself a fair person and a good judge of character, and generally don’t dislike people unless there is very good reason. So I asked around to see if I’d somehow fabricated a false memory of the two years we knew each other. And everyone has spoken of a constant friction between us - how we always clashed. But they also said that this person did come across as a hardened, wild and somewhat cold-hearted individual towards all.

This was of some comfort to me, as how I perceived them was clearly the impression they wanted to give off. But I can’t help but feel guilty now, as despite our supposed mutual ‘disliking’ of each other, we spent hours at a time in each other’s company (through choice) and never took the time to get to know each other properly.

It’s weird: only in recent days have I consciously recognised that there was something there. We even shared a ‘moment’ at a party once. Once.

I know that everyone has feelings - no matter how deep down under hardened shells they’re hidden. But I never knew this person to be so human, warm and affectionate; I really like this version of them and wish I’d seen it before. Still, we’re in contact again now and have both discovered new things about the other, so, I suppose, all is sweeet.

Fin.

To end my busy two week stint of traversing London from early int’ morning until considerably late int’ evening, I spent yesterday afternoon moving about London with Katherine McK. (who has surprisingly not got FAT despite having just returned from a year in America - although she is still a ginge), ending the day with a viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

It was great finally catching up with Katherine in the flesh and the film was sensational - the ultimate in cool. The extortionate ticket price of £12.50 didn’t impress either of us, although getting reasonably good seats, the film being exceptionally long - a digital print at that - and being an awesome film to boot was of some comfort.

Ah, I really want to see it again now. I’ve never seen the same film twice at the cinema, but I’m almost tempted to go again as I know waiting for the DVD is going to be painful. As is waiting a whole year for the final instalment of the trilogy, dammit.

I got tickets to see That Mitchell and Webb Look being filmed some time ago but have feared not seeing it all of this week because of yesterday’s planned rail strike. Thankfully the strike was called off on Thursday, and I got to see the legendary duo in all their physical glory last night as intended.

I was really looking forward to the evening, as I absolutely love the radio version of the programme - and indeed all of the pair’s work. I didn’t expect the majority of the programme to literally be just a televised version of the radio show (word for word identical), but it transferred brilliantly to screen. The new sketches, however, were excellent. And what’s more, I got to see my Mitchell and Webb favourite, Big Talk, being filmed in entirety.

Hats off to Robert Webb as Raymond Terrific is all I’m going to say on that one - he nailed all but one of the lengthy spiels in one take.

Atul K. and Paul B, whom I took with me, also seemed rather impressed with the material. But then again, Paul laughs at Father Ted so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was actually funny.

Well that certainly was a gripping series finale, wouldn’t you agree?

That’s an understatement, clearly. But I didn’t write down my immediate thoughts after the episode aired as I had Atul K. round to watch it together in our pants.

I was livid when I accidentally stumbled across the biggest spoiler ever on the official Doccie Who site a week ago. It really was a biggie, giving away exactly what happens to Rose. But it turned out to be a TRICK - a fake line of dialogue planted to fool the world. Boy was I pleased when I realised I hadn’t ruined the ending for myself. And a fine ending it was too.

Wizard! Although the 3D specs do suit me much better.