Don't Upset the Roomba

Here is the back story. On Sunday Tinseltroos was out of the flat for of her regular Bollywood marathons so it was just Murphy and me. Murphy is a regular little trooper but he only has enough puff to vacuum half of the flat in a single charge after which he has to go and have a little rest. I needed to go and do some shopping so I set Murph off to do one half. Later on I went out again to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull again (I make no apologies, I love it) so Murph got to clean the other half of the flat. The little guy did an admirable job and we had a nice clean flat.

On Monday Tinseltroos, not realising that Murphy had already done both sides of the flat, set him off to do the hallway and living room again. Murphy took umbrage at this, I suspect he felt it was slight on his workmanship from the previous day and duly when I returned home it was to a scene of a devastation. Murphy had scattered the neatly arranged collection of recycling everywhere. Cans, beer bottles and milk containers littered the entire flat. In a final, desperate act of self destructive rebellion Murphy had knocked his own power supply out of the wall and driven himself on top of it: a clear plea for help I think.

I carefully untangled the unhappy little robot and plugged his charger back in. After petting him a little and reassuring him that he was still very much loved and was a very good little robot I plugged him back in and went about the flat picking up the remnants of his day long bender.

We haven't had the heart to ask him to clean any of the flat this week. With luck he will have forgiven us by tomorrow.

The Long Walk

I've been feeling sluggish recently. Partly this down to the completely knackered condition I find myself in following the ongoing slog that getting this current film done has turned out to be. There's more to it though and I think I have finally pinpointed the other aspect. When I used to live in Camberwell I had an hour and ten minute walk into work, which I did daily. Since moving to the centre of town my walk has diminished to ten minutes, not enough to qualify as exercise and certainly not enough to have a think and stretch my back.

This week, even though it has rained torrentially on two mornings, I have been taking a circuitous, if pretty, route to work. From Schossadlerflug I walk to the Bank of England and from there over London Bridge. I then wander along the south bank of The Thames to Waterloo Bridge where I cross back onto the north bank. From there I wander up though Covent Garden and into Soho. There's plenty to see as I trundle along. When there's a morning without rain I'll take a camera and upload a few snaps from the route.

There's also a certain perverse delight in being fairly sure that you're the only person listening to The New York Dolls as you pass all the pin-striped suits jostling to get into their offices around the Bank of England.

...Robot Update...Robot Update...Robot Update...

This morning we left Murphy to clean up the hall as we went out to vote and then work. When we returned home we found a couple of scattered beer bottles and Murph' had passed out having climbed half way up one of my guitar stands. He was completely unconscious, resting on one wheel. I think he must going through a period of teenage rebellion, experimenting with drink and today he got caught out.

As gingerly as I could I carried him back to his bed to have a charge and sleep off the worst of whatever he's imbibed. Tomorrow we shall have a frank conversation about the dangers of drinking too much, especially on a school night.

Lonely Chair

Lonely Chair, originally uploaded by Mr Atrocity.

Another picture because of another weekend in the studio. We're now at day 21 without a day off and there is no let up in sight. I actually can't remember the last time this happened. There was certainly a time on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where I seemed to be working most weekends but I don't remember it being as relentless as this. I did a lot of very late nights on the last Potter film but I did seem to have at least one day off each weekend. Despite it, I'm reasonably compos mentis still, I do feel incredibly tired and quite sluggish but I'm not about to go postal (yet).

Much Better

We are still stuck between a rock and a hard place work-wise at the moment but thanks to a good night's sleep I'm feeling much better about things today. I realise that the more tired I get, the more my mood swings exaggerate. Yesterday was a low ebb day. Today is no different in terms of what needs to be done in too little time and yet I feel much calmer about things. I wish I better understood what causes all of this as it might help me change my habits to feeling more relaxed and less stressed but somehow I suspect that it isn't as straight-forward as that. I also found a bit of rock guitar last night helped too. A few big power chords can't help but raise the spirits. Right, time to reapply my nose to the grindstone. Here's another totally unrelated photograph to fill up space and assuage my guilt in writing so little: