Busy Weekend

It's been a bit of a frantic weekend up until today, hence the lack of posting. It all began on Friday night with a Visual Effects Society meeting to help decide the nominations for this year's awards. It's the first time that the UK chapter has got to have a say so we were all on our best behaviour. It was actually quite stressful. After work those of us who'd volunteered to vote turned up at one of the London VFX houses where we were given an extensive briefing on what we were and were not allowed to do. I'd been allocated to the group selecting the shortlist for "Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture" and so having had a coffee and a Coke to keep me awake off we went to our screening room.

It was all incredibly strict. We weren't allowed to discuss any of the entries until after the voting process had concluded so we all sat in silence watching presentations from the long-list of nominees and taking notes. It was almost exactly like taking an exam. The hardest part came at the halfway point where we went and had a little dinner still under instruction not to talk about what we'd seen. This, as you might imagine, was incredibly difficult as it was the only thing on our mind and had had our undivided attention for an hour half. After eating our pizza and talking about the weather, what our plans for the weekend were and anything to keep us from discussing the work we went back to the hot, airless screening room for part two. After the screenings had finished we had to place our votes and then sign the envelope in which they were placed. Once the ballots had been checked were we free to talk. The relief was palpable, partially because we wanted to talk but also because we had so much caffeine and sugary drinks by this point to keep us alert that were all wired.

After this it was about 9 p.m. and I went home had a shower and felt really, really awake. At that moment I decided to install the new pick ups that had just been delivered for my guitar. I am not the neatest solderer on Earth but after an hour of careful work the deed was done reasonably tidily and most importantly it all still worked.

Saturday I worked until late afternoon when I wandered down to Waterloo and took a train to Twickenham to watch London Wasps play Leinster in the Heineken Cup. It was not a classic game of rugby union but I did see Josh Lewsey make an incredible run to set up the only try of the game scored, eventually, by veteran French player Serge Betsen. The game outing was organised through work so I met up with lots of work chums and that made the whole experience more fun. I did manage to lose them all in the walk back to the station after the game so I travelled home alone and did a little recording with my newly fettled guitar, the fruits of which I may post in due course once I've fiddled with them bit.

Today T and I did pretty much nothing. T made us a spiced toasted bread covered in mushrooms in cream thingy for breakfast and then we we took a mooch in the West End to get a couple of odds and ends for the kitchen, I for one can't wait to cook with baking sheets that don't warp at the first opportunity in the oven, tipping your food over the bottom of the oven. And that is it. I think an evening of reading and listening to music is in store. Yay.