Me And My Girlfriend Don't Wear No Shoes

It's a slightly strange time at the moment, in many ways it's a rather transitional phase in my life and yet the changes are ones I must allow to happen when it is time and cannot rush headlong into. As a naturally can-do, get-stuff-done type this is difficult. Now I'm done with Harry Potter (unless I end up working on No. 6 - ye gods) I have to begin work on another project. I am pretty much assigned to a small chunk of a large show for the next few months or so. After that it's all a bit vague but we'll see what transpires. I'm looking forward to tackling my new show as the chunk I'm working on is small enough to be done by a tiny team which will mean less bureaucracy and a greater variety of work for me to do; two things I felt were amiss with the last eighteen months. It's also a very pretty sequence and the director is known for having a good eye stylistically which gives me confidence.

All of that must come in June however. All of May is mine and Tinseltroos'. We can do what we like. The upside of working so many weekends for the last 8 months or so is that we have accrued enough TOIL to take a month off work and it cannot come soon enough. As well as holidaying in New York we also have the delightful task of finding a flat for us to live in together. My days living in a shared hose with friends are over, and I'm glad really. The times has come to get a "grown up" house and now is perfect. We're hoping to move into our place in late June so we'll be looking during May. I'm sure it should feel scarier than it does; as it stands it just feels like exactly the right thing to do.

I also have another couple of little projects to occupy my time. One is the previously mentioned bicycle project. Thanks to eBay I now have a 1978 Holdsworth Championship in a box in our back yard. It's present state is this:


It used to look like this 30 years ago:


And by June I'm hoping it will look like this:


First I need to get one of the rear drop-outs straightened and I need to clean all the old paintwork and rusty patches of before it can get enameled and the fun of rebuilding the chain line for fixed-gear, single-speed cycling can begin.

I also have my short film idea to work on. I'm storyboarding it at the moment, but the idea seems to be coalescing nicely now so I'll be able to begin shot-work in earnest pretty soon.

Things that are making me happy now are:

1. The martinis at Two Floors. They make them just right and with Plymouth Gin (a personal favourite).
2. The Proms booklet arrived so I can plan this summer's concert going.
3. Lorenzo Villoresi's "Uomo". I smell nice.
4. The sunshine and low twenties temperature in London now.
5. The prospect of dinner with my beloved at my favourite restaurant tonight.
6. The thought of re-reading "Three Men in a Boat" for the umpteenth time.
7. The full-length portrait of Catherine Parr in the National Portrait Gallery.
8. Greg Bear's "Blood Music" which I've just finished reading.
9. All the trees now have rich green leaves on them.

By the way, the title of this post is inspired by Churlita's use of song lyrics for post headings, an idea I like so much I've unashamedly stolen it. There's a prize for the first person to guess the song and band...