This show is brilliant. If you didnt catch it on Five, catch it online its hilarious. I felt obliged to blog this one and once you read it you'll see why.
R
Season 1, Episode 5
“LOL”
Written by: Susan McMartin
Created by: Tom Kapinos
Hank Moody: “Thank you, um, but it’s more like pissing outta my ass than anything else. You know? It’s just… things bother me and I vent, I write it down.”
Henry: “Well what’s your latest obsession?”
Hank Moody: “Just the fact that people seem to be getting dumber and dumber. You know? I mean, we have all this amazing technology, and yet computers have basically turned into four-figure wank machines. The internet was supposed to set us free, democratize us, but all it’s really given us is Howard Dean’s aborted candidacy and 24-hour a day access to kiddy porn. You know? People don’t write anymore, they blog. Instead of talking, they text – no punctuation, no grammar, ‘LOL’ this, and ‘LMFAO’ that. You know, it just seems that it’s just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people in a proto-language that resembles more what cave men used to speak than the King’s English.”
Henry: “Yet you’re part of the problem. Yet you’re out there blogging with the best of them.”
Hank Moody: “Hence, my self-loathing. You know? (Takes another swig out of his airplane-mini-bottle of whisky.)”
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Travel Journal '06
I felt it was about time I wrote something new on here. Well now that I have got round to it....here is my eventual response to a long standing request and demand for me to transfer my LiveJournal Travel Journals I wrote while travelling across Europe and Russia over onto my Blog Page. Ill post them all in the one Blog just like the Diary so yes as always it will be long but whats new from me eh. Don't drink it all at once (unless you really want to). Oh and excuse the spelling etc they were all first drafted in net cafe's! With time I may also start transfering over all the pictures from Photobucket. Only a couple of thousand or so should...take....long.....but I recon it looks better with pictures embedded into the journal which is what ill do I think instead.
Good memories.
Enjoy :)
R
[Aug. 4th, 2006|11:15 am]
[ Current Location | Munich ]
Decided it is best to create one of these journals online rather than to read back on my written journals that even I myself cannot understand with my infamously shocking hand-writing.
After my brief weeks vacation to Rhodes Island, Greece I now write from Munich, after 2 days in Frankfurt. Time is about to expire on here so ill add more later in the day.
Rory
[Aug. 5th, 2006|03:47 am]
Finally found a cheap internet cafe in the centre of Munich where ive been able to book a few hours at least to write something meaningful.
So where do I start, my week in Rhodes was brief but memorable. Faleraki was a bit mental for me. It’s up and coming but sure to be the next Benidorm. Avoided the majority of the bars that just screamed trouble yet still attended all the major events like the massive Beach Party(claiming to be the biggest in Europe) that went on all night and where I met hundreds of people and a Foam Party which, in short for those of you who have been to one - was nuts. The rest of the week I spent relaxing at the local pool bar and talking nonsense with the locals. I was taken aback by how friendly the locals were. I have always made an assumption from my holiday in Cyprus a few years ago that the Greeks were very rude and not friendly at all. But I was wrong. Anyway, overall Greece was everything I was looking for, a time to relax and do almost nothing, but on the side have a bit of fun and try(and of course fail) not to spend too much money. To get more up to date, I fly back after a week and 2 days later im off to Frankfurt with Del.
After landing in Frankfurt we had our first shot at being tourists, looking completely lost and failing to find anyone that speaks English. This was just the simple (not for us) task of finding the right bus to go from the Airport to the Centre. Eventually we figured it out and then found our hotel was situated in the middle of the red light district.....which was interesting. A warm welcome to the city. Only spent a few days in this city. Known as 'Mainhattan' for all its skyscrapers (has something like 9 out of the 10 largest in the country which were impressive to look at). In short we just drank some good beers and got lost a lot trying to get back to the hostel a bit mashed. On the 3rd we leave for Munich.
The train journey is lengthy but comfortable, at least up until before the kids behind us start crying once a start dozing off. Not had much of a chance practicing our limited German so at least now we make a fool of ourselves testing it out on someone who speaks perfect English. The last few days in Munich have been amazing. The beer gardens are immense (some seat over 5000) and of course the beer is just unbelievably good. Derek and myself have gone a little over budget already with our expensive addiction to Stine's, which if are basically large jugs of 2 and a half pints worth of quality beer.
Yesterday we visited the Deutch Museum which was just huge, with loads of interesting stuff like fighter planes V2 Rockets and U-Boats. Got lost of course in the maze of weird German stuff, but eventually found Derek again about an hour later outside. Last night we followed an Australian tour group and went around a few beer halls which were just nuts. Walked around and got free trams all over the place, ending up in a youth hostel which to our surprise and luck was right round the corner from our hostel. Met a few Australians, really loud and a little too crazy. Still trying to get used to the fact that everyone seems to smoke here. Most likely because I was getting used to the Smoking Ban back home.
Today we visited a market and saw weird fruit and ate surprise surprise, more sausages. We meet Maja in an hour, who might be able to translate half the stuff we are clueless about and show us the more student areas. Possible bar crawl later, certainly a continuation of our daily diet of beer and sausages which ill pretend at least for now is good for you. Forgot to bring the USB cable so all the pictures will have to be uploaded at a later date. Hopefully my next post won’t be so lengthy.
Cheers for now
Rory
[Aug. 6th, 2006|07:37 am]
Yesterday we were shown around Munich by Maja, had some traditional food and saw the University. Food was good, but it was raining for our outdoor adventure and without a jacket, made me miserable. Got the underground back, which was an experience, the place is huge, whole world under there. Not as complex as London though.
Today we visited Dachou, one of the oldest and the first of the concentration camps. A little heavy going, but interesting none the less. Anyway, decided id keep this post a little shorter and ive spent most of the time adding all the photos so far to the Gallery. Some are horizontal im afraid but net cafe won’t allow me to edit them but when I find somewhere I can, I will. In response to Simon, our next stop will be Salzburg, Austria in a couple of days, Tuesday to be precise. Place of birth of Mozart and of course the setting of the Sound of Music (cringe).
Tata
Rory
[Aug. 11th, 2006|02:42 pm]
[ Current Location | Vienna ]
[ mood | determined ]
Ok I give up now before I end up smashing this PC. I attached image tags to my gallery however it seems you need an account to view the pictures....ill find a way around it eventually. Ok, just to update you since my last entry, it’s been a while so I don’t think ill be brief this time.
For our last day in Munich surprisingly we avoided the beer and sausages and met with Maja again early and went to the Olympic Village. Here was an impressive stadium, swimming pool, lake and more. There was also a tower where we went to the top and could see around the whole of Munich. Made us realize how huge the city is and how little of it we have seen. We then went to a Chapel that she liked where del and I were instantly stunned by what was to see inside. Judging by our silence Maja assumed we weren’t interested but it’s definitely one of the most breathtaking sights we have seen as of yet.
After a bit of lunch we went for a walk around Palace Gardens(ill add the name once I remember) which was certainly a change of scenery for such a busy city. Maja continually questioned my silence and thought there was something wrong, but I was fine. It was peaceful and reminded of my frequent trips up to Lewis when I was younger (which I only wish I could go so often these days), going for that very same reason - a little peace from the intensity of city life. Even though this was only for a couple of hours, it certainly paced things down a little and gave us time to relax and for once not have to be getting a train somewhere or booking accommodation here and there. It was definitely worth it. Maja had to leave us after our walk so we said our goodbyes and went to book our accommodation for Salzburg, Austria. This 'simple' task took between us around 7 hours of internet searches and a helpful hand from our hostel owner to find what we needed. We were at each others teeth for the majority of it and Derek kept pressuring just to go directly to Vienna instead and eventually gave up and went to bed, yet I was intent on staying in Salzburg at least for a day and eventually found a hostel in the woods beside the Austrian Alps. Not central but close enough and ended up staying two nights.
Salzburg is renowned for its beautiful architecture and home to Mozart and of course the Sound of Music. On the train we got a private cabin, which was great, constantly reminding us of a James Bond Film(cant recite which).The scenery en route from Munich by train was breathtaking and could easily match or even top the scenery at Loch Lomond and Glencoe. However the main reason for going here and one of the main aims for out strip was to see the Eagle's Nest.
The Eagle's Nest is located in the Bavarian Alps in Berchesgaden (yes in Germany but alike Salzburg in Austria its right on the border). There’s so much history but im not here to write a novel so ill keep it short (at least this section of my post). It was Hitler's teahouse given to him as a present for his 50th birthday. There was breathtaking scenery on the bus journey up the Kehlstein road and then we took a luxurious brass elevator up through the rock into Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest). For fellow Band of Brothers fans, this was the last point taken by the infamous 101st Airborne. Their signature's can still be seen engraved in the fire place in the main room. 1834 meters up the air was thin and it was foggy resulting in a disappointing zero visibility.
However, that aside we were in awe by just being there and decided to be adventurous and walk back down instead (of course going in a circle first of all. These German signs don’t make sense, honestly). Having gone 4 miles down a mountain we are still in agony today. It was certainly worth it though as when we got lower down we could see the Alps and across both Germany and Austria which was breathtaking. So many pictures of course, but ill attach once I have more time.
We ended our stay in Salzburg that night with a walk around the town randomly finding amazing architecture all around. In short, we both agreed it was the most beautiful city either of us have been to as of yet. We went to a low ceiling, very dark bar which reminded us of the Brunswick Cellar but so much better. This night of course ended in shock as we returned to our dorm to find 4 more people in our room which, to begin with was just the 2 of us. They were of course Italian and spoke no English so the light went back off and neither of us slept all night. This being our first experience of shared dorms since a decade odd ago in the scouts. Next morning, we set off for Vienna.
After sleeping for the majority of the train journey we woke up grumpy and moaned for the majority of the evening. Once we had settled at the hostel we bought beers and whisky (four roses for Del of course) and relaxed. Here we met an Irish girl who to date is the more friendly of fellow travelers we have met so far. Played some switch, gin rummy and a few random other card games I swore she just made up off the top of her head as neither of us ever really knew what was happening. Fun none the less, so it was worth it.
Today we slept in but eventually set foot in the centre of Vienna and did the whole touristy thing and saw some of the cities main sites. Lot of nice architecture and certainly one of the weirdest things we have seen so far - a swimming pool attached to a boat, on the Danube Canal. Anyway, walked through a few parks and took a lot of pictures of buildings/statue's/fountains. Then on way home watched an interesting group break dancing in one of the main square's beside a medieval church. Impressive, well at least I thought it was.
Ok, so definitely the longest journal to date, but my fault entirely as ive not updated it for something like a week and at least now that’s us up to date. We have booked accommodation for our next city, Budapest which we well set off to tomorrow afternoon.
Hope your all well
Rory
[Aug. 22nd, 2006|12:47 am]
[ Current Location | Prague ]
[ mood | peaceful ]
Ola.
Once again it’s been a while since ive posted, but it’s been a little crazy over the last week or so to say the least. Overall we were a little disappointed with Vienna and weren’t sorry leaving it the morning after my last journal entry. In all fairness we didn’t experience the night life that anyone defending Vienna seems to rave about, but we're not traveling Europe purely for its architecture and it just gets a little boring after seeing over 15 churches in just one city alone.
So, next morning we headed for Budapest, Hungary. First city we were en route to that we knew nothing about apart from its 'up and coming' night life scene, which was only by word of mouth and not in any of our books. On the train we met a guy from DC, Josh (who has now traveled with us to Krakow and now to Prague). He's traveled over both this year and the last so lot of travel hints here and there has helped us on the way. Our train stopped on the border between Austria and Hungary with intimidating passport checkers storming into our cabin (our first experience of this). They then threw off an Italian kid in the cabin next to us at the next stop which was somewhere in the middle of nowhere which made us nervous. Arriving in Budapest, we knew we were no longer in the Europe we knew. Or in Josh's words 'not in Kansas anymore'. Everything was very Eastern European. Very rural. Some very run-down slum areas. We were almost ready to get the train straight back to Vienna already. Once we reached the train station in Budapest, it was full of backpackers (the most we have seen in one building). We then continued to avoid the drunk that approached us asking 'Are you guys Scottish?' which we immediately replied no, even though he was the friend of the guy at our last hostel who said he would set us up with accommodation in Budapest, he was just bad news so we avoided that and went with Josh to his hostel. We got on the tram going the wrong way to the hostel, then failed to find anyone who could put us in the right direction, even the guy that drove the tram. But got there eventually, didn’t get accommodation there though he called up a friend and got us accommodation elsewhere.
Budapest took us by surprise given our first impressions. We lived like kings eating at an Argentinean Steakhouse we didn’t deserve to eat in and drinking ridiculous amounts of alcohol for ridiculous prices. We spent our first day generally walking around the entire city (6 miles odd) and discovering the Sziget festival (week long festival with countless bands, e.g. Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, Prodigy, Placebo). Radiohead played that night though so regretfully we missed them. Budapest has endless amounts of night clubs and bars so I decided to ask a local Hungarian girl where it’s at. Not surprisingly she recommended against a lot of the clubs as they were too expensive, so we went by her suggestion and went to Rudos Romerskt, an outdoor club catering for all tastes. Met a group of Irish and Australian girls in our hostel that night that ended up coming out with us, along with Ed, guy from London. So it ended up being 10 of us out rather than the original 3. Great night, especially when I got lost trying to get Josh back to his hostel. Exchanged numbers with one of the Australian girls Anna, as they are in Berlin same time as we are and want to meet up.
We spend an extra day in Budapest, to then get the night train to Krakow. This train went through Slovakia then into Poland so there were around 4 Border checks which were un-expected. In short Krakow was beautiful, especially the central square and ridiculously cheap to eat and drink. My wallet was stolen on one of our nights out, but there was next to nothing in it apart from one hundred Polish doo daa's which is around 20 quid and more just an inconvenience no longer having my cards which were all blocked. Now just have my money wired to me by my parents via Western Unions which are located all around the world (many in one city alone) so I guess that keeps me strictly to a budget.
Next was our trip to Auschwitz. The place was huge in proportion to our visit to the last camp, Dachou (around 10 times the size). It's hard to believe that anyone on earth could be capable of such atrocities. Our tour guide speed walked us around the camp which really disrupted just trying to take in what we were seeing (in some cases he told us to 'hurry up' which really pissed us off). It also seemed like the guy didn’t really know much apart from what we could read on the plaques and didn’t even explain anything in Berchinau (unbelievably huge) where just a few million people were murdered. We wanted to email a complaint but forgot the guys name so not much point, but in general our anger over-shadowed what to take from the trip to Auschwitz. Although, it still lay heavy in our minds all night and we found it hard to put it aside most of that night.
Went out to a Jazz Rock Club the next night which was like the Cathouse but with more music variety and nicer people. On our last night went to a proper Live Jazz Club. Hearing some famous songs like Sweet Home Alabama in Polish and All Along the Watchtower in a Polish Accent was different but to me any live music with talented musicians is good enough.
Thought id keep this journal a little shorter. I’m writing to you from here in Prague. Our hostel's designed with Soviet architecture so Derek wont shut up about it but its different (ridiculously huge dining hall and high ceilings in all the rooms). We spend our day of arrival walking around the old town and taking pictures and up until the present are drinking in the hostels bar. The clubbing option went out the window as we head for Berlin in the morning to meet David.
Cheers
Rory
[Aug. 27th, 2006|04:02 pm]
[ Current Location | Berlin ]
[ mood | relaxed ]
I now write to you from Berlin on our last day here before we take the sleeper train to Warsaw. After updating the journal in the hostel bar in Prague both Derek and Josh had gone to bed so I just stayed up too late talking to the Barmaid who was of similar age and studied languages at Charles University. We mostly spoke of the night life in Prague which in the end there was an offer to go to a club but checkout was at 9am that morning and it was already almost 4. So I went to sleep and the next afternoon we took the train to Berlin.
Josh decided not to join us and take the train via Frankfurt to Amsterdam where he flew back home from on the 25th. It was good having another traveler tag along with us and we had good times drinking with lengthy discussions about politics and film. On the train we were interrupted by four Italians who insisted on sharing our cabin so we were stuck with them talking aloud when I just wanted to sleep for the 5 hour journey. To our surprise David met is off the train in Berlin, yet not to our surprise he had got lost from the time he arrived getting on platform 9 to who knows where rather than the S9 train. He met us in the end though, which is all that mattered and it was good seeing a familiar face. The Berlin Haupbanhof (Central Station) is ridiculously huge and only just been constructed. It took us a while to find the correct platform to get to our hostel but we got there in the end. The Berlin S-Bahn system is the most complex we have experienced yet but after getting off at the wrong place a few times we got the hang of the journey from our hostel, which was located east of the center, and back again.
The Generator hostel was huge in comparison to anywhere we have stayed so far in our trip. One of the biggest in Europe and one of the top rated in the world. Something like 900 rooms and its own bar and an Internet Cafe that worked. A little more expensive than our usual nights accommodation but we had single rooms and comfortable beds which for me led to a good nights sleep for the first time in a month. We spent 5 days in Berlin. Visited all the sites - Brandenburg Gate(where there was a Kurdistan Hunger Strike but we couldn’t understand why as on their posters they couldn’t spell), Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler’s Bunker(now just a car park for apartments but still there), the Reichstag(which was huge but we were disappointed when we were only allowed up to the roof where the dome is rather than inside it), Museum Island(didn’t visit but walked past and forgot to take a picture of the buildings still laden with bullet holes and general bombardment from the 2nd world war), the Sony Center and(only Derek and David) visited the Sachsanhausen Concentration Camp which had a huge Soviet Memorial. I felt id seen enough concentration camps and decided to just stay at the hostel that day to read and drink. Most of our nights were spent in the hostel drinking either in our room or the bar, where we met a bunch of Irish seniors that were good fun but a little young and on their school trip and among others a group of Scottish guys on their stag weekend. We went out one night to the Matrix Club which was said to be one of the biggest in Berlin but certainly wasn’t the best. It was an interesting task trying to get back to the hostel via the S-Bahn when lets just say not sober.
Overall Berlin was expensive but great fun (even though it rained the majority of the time, just like Munich). We were back to our German Beer and Sausage Diet (or in David's case Beer and Margarita's). Staying somewhere a little longer than one or 2 nights let us fully unpack and relax a little more. Also went to the cinema to see Miami Vice which much to my disappointment, being a fan of Michael Mann and all, was terrible. The cinema was also ridiculously hot which didn’t help.
So that’s us about up to date I think. I will update my journal again either in Warsaw or Riga before we enter Russia on 1st September.
Hope we are all well
Rory
[Sep. 7th, 2006|03:18 pm]
[ Current Location | Moscow ]
[ mood | anxious ]
Greetings from Moscow. Yes, I know I know, no update for over a week, you all thought we were stuck at the Russian Border or somewhere in the Baltic State's trying to bribe officials with Vodka and Onions. We made it and far easier than we thought (getting across the border that is, not the journey getting in).
However, first things first. We took the night train from Berlin to Warsaw and arrived early morning. Still raining of course like most of our journey so we were tired and miserable. Greeted by Hostel Info people we were given accommodation quickly and driven to the door for free which was a relief. Slept a few hours then walked around Old Town which was fairly unimpressive (similar to our overall impression of Warsaw). Staying in a mixed dorm we met fellow backpackers, two English girls who had came to the end of their trip and had the 'seen it all and nothing you can say will interest us' attitude which in all fairness they had but that’s not the point. We got on a lot better with two Canadian's, Lindsay and Scott, who were just at the beginning of their trip around Europe and a lot of fun.
Watched some films in English (Pulp Fiction, Lost in Translation...not dubbed like everywhere else) and drank some cheap polish beer and vodka. Next day went to Old Town again to try and be impressed but it rained so we just got wet. Only highlight of Warsaw was the Ice Bar (bar made out of Ice) which we had all heard about (not the one in Warsaw) and was an impressive first time experience for all of us. Our clothes were still wet so they froze solid (like we did) which was hilarious. Got a bit drunk, exchanged emails then got on the sleeper train back to Berlin.
On finding out the day before that we couldn’t get a train through Lithuania and Latvia to St Pete's for the 1st of September we had to figure out(with help from our parents thankfully) how we would get there on time. Ended up going back to Berlin after 3 nights in Warsaw, then flying to Tallinn in Estonia, spent 5 hours there overwhelmed by certainly the most preserved Old Town's (13th - 14th century) and impressive of the many Old Town's we have visited on our trip. Had some great Estonian Cider (can’t remember the name but need to find out). Really wanted to stay overnight but had to return to the bus station where our luggage was locked in the luggage store that we didn’t know closed an hour earlier than usual. Moment of Panic but it happens all the time with fellow backpackers apprently so a guy kindly opened it up again.
Then comes the horrible overnight 9 hour bus journey with crazy Russians in unbearable heat, guy on front of me practically sleeping on my lap in his chair but I just listened to some Boards of Canada (Derek has me hooked now) and Radiohead Amnesiac which kept me sane, into St Pete's where we were on the border confused by papers we had to fill out but unable to understand as it was all in Russian. Thankfully we weren’t the only tourists who were lost and a Russian guy helped us out and we were across the border without any real problems (surprisingly).
St Pete's reminded us of Budapest, very Eastern compared to modern western cities and well, so Russian. Looks like the 80's. All driving Lada's and driving like maniacs (they overtake on the tram tracks and don’t stop for pedestrians. Crossing the road even has a 20 second timer, sometimes just 10 for you to cross the road that’s like crossing a formula 1 track before the race begins. Drivers nervously reving their engines..crazy). There were also a lot of homeless people inspecting the bins, right outside our apartment also which was horrible. Had a lot of trouble finding our accommodation in St Pete's so had to call the owner who was nice and gave us a free upgrade to an apartment style mini hostel which must have been way beyond our budget, but at no extra charge so didn’t matter.
Spent our first day walking around St Pete's 46 Islands (nope, we didn’t know either). Only saw a small portion of the huge city but it was impressive (and not raining, wow). There was a huge fountain in the middle of the river and being a Saturday, 8 weddings at the bay simultaneously which was strange but we found from local knowledge its tradition for Russians on their Wedding Day to visit all of their Country/Cities main sites. Went to the artillery museum which was cool, saw the Hermitage, Winter Palace, Summer Palace (but didn’t go in, Derek did the following day but I didn’t as it was expensive without student ID). Said it was amazing inside but didn’t take any pictures. Wewanted to return the next day but regretfully wasted it with delay getting my passport registered and unable to get help for train ticket to Moscow.
Quite simply they don’t give a shit about tourists. Don’t want to help. Real big change to anywhere else. Of course there’s even more trouble with the language. Alphabet is mental. Triangles and shit in there. Got lost trying to find a Club that used to be a bunker, saw a girl on a horse in the middle of the road, drinking a beer of course which was like something out of Lost. Struggled to sleep at all during the nights as it was so loud outside and needed the windows open as it was unbearably hot if we closed it. Cold outside but lot of Mosquito's which I didn’t expect (first bite in Warsaw, another 50 here). In short, like all cities we have visited, so much to see yet such little time.
Eventually took the overnight train to Moscow where we were of course at the end carriage of a mile long train which was crazy. Shared a sleeper cabin with two Russians, one a student(Alena) who could speak English and Roma who didn’t but studied Scotland and thought he was the Russian Robin Hood, or something. Me being me ended up talking to them through the night or, well, Alena translating everything for Roma but we had a nice selection of random conversations.
Arrived Moscow station spaced and impatient. People in our hostel gave us simple directions(but seemed like rocket science in our state) We were then introduced to the palace-like metro stations which certainly woke us up. The Trans Siberian Hostel we are staying in, which is where im writing from now is smaller than expected but far more homely and cozy and forces you really to socialize with fellow backpackers, the majority heading further east on crazy 5 day train trips(we thought 15 hours was a record) to Mongolia, China etc.
We have 6 nights here in the last city of our trip which already easily has the potential to be the best. Able to chill out, relax a little unlike anywhere else (aside's from maybe Berlin). Bars and clubs waiting for us, along with the majority of the friendly company in the hostel, including the French owner, Francois who is the modern day Napoleon and the very friendly Darya who has been keeping me company while hungover and trying and failing to watch Russian Dubbed Films.
We have around 500 photo's collectively , not including David's photos from Berlin, to upload when we return home(fly back on 9/11 of all days) so you can all look at the pictures and see everything im talking about.
Good news is my next entry will be shorter and concluding our trip, appart from Derek's additional comments that will probably never be added.
Take Care
Rory
[Sep. 12th, 2006|08:49 pm]
[ Current Location | Home ]
[ mood | accomplished ]
[ music | Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy ]
I write to you now from Glasgow, Scotland. Home at last, after 6 nights in Moscow of seeing all the sites(Red Square, Kremlin, St. Basil's etc) and for the first time in our 6 weeks of traveling being able to take it easy and relax. The Trans-Siberian Hostel we were staying in was excellent and we can only rate it higher than its 95% rating on HostelWorld.com. It’s an uncommonly small, homely, cozy hostel and with the social kitchen area right outside the dorms all staying there are forced to socialize which is really what we were looking for as an end to our trip. Nights in to chill out with fellow backpackers with of course the odd night out and a few crazy traditional Vodka and Pancake parties courtesy of the wonderful Darya.
We had a few memorable moments in Moscow. The two Australian girls Kerryn and Fiona who continually questioning everyone who 'this guy Chi' was. We eventually found out they meant Che Guevara (had to be there I guess, but it was hilarious);Fiona spaced out forgetting her shoes and having to take her bag out of the luggage store twice for her camera and her keys (lady at the store wasn’t happy) then having to go back to the hostel for her student card to get a discount on the ticket to the Kremlin; Walking around the Kremlin with them spaced out unable to identify what anything was and doing daft poses outside all the main monuments; The American Derek convinced that he was from Kazakhstan; Talking to Kate(an Irish Film Student) about film all night and ending up getting no sleep before our journey home.
We met a lot of brave backpackers doing the trans-siberian tour, traveling for months on end(some for years), 5 day train journeys and in general such a grander scale of a journey compared to the short lived, condensed trip we have had. Exchanged emails with many of them who I intend to stay in touch with for an almost certain 2nd trip next year (some of them will still be traveling by then). Think 6 weeks is a long time? Some of them have been traveling for years.
So im at home now, with no excuse or any reason for a delay in uploading all the pictures, so ill get to that over the next couple of days and leave a link at the bottom of this post once they're all up. With many more to come as I receive them by mail. All in all there should be around 700 photos for you all to feast your eyes on.
So I hope you have all enjoyed reading my journal as much as I have writing about our adventure and of course experiencing it. I've gone back and edited everything so that its more readable and with no spelling mistakes. Seen so many places of which I intend to return to in the future. Met so many amazing people who I would never have met if I hadn’t taken this journey and of who I intend to keep in touch with for journeys to come. Derek may eventually add some of his input to our journal, but I doubt it.
"This is not the tale of impressive deeds. It's a piece of two lives taken in a moment along a given path, with identity of aspirations and a conjunction of dreams"
-Ernesto 'Che' Guevara de la Serna
*Ive uploaded all of mine and most of David's pictures so far onto my Photobucket Galleries.Ill tag pictures into each journal entry and properly name the pictures once I have more time. Thought id just get them uploaded for you guys to see first. Here's the link, enjoy:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n241/Rorxy/
Rory
Good memories.
Enjoy :)
R
[Aug. 4th, 2006|11:15 am]
[ Current Location | Munich ]
Decided it is best to create one of these journals online rather than to read back on my written journals that even I myself cannot understand with my infamously shocking hand-writing.
After my brief weeks vacation to Rhodes Island, Greece I now write from Munich, after 2 days in Frankfurt. Time is about to expire on here so ill add more later in the day.
Rory
[Aug. 5th, 2006|03:47 am]
Finally found a cheap internet cafe in the centre of Munich where ive been able to book a few hours at least to write something meaningful.
So where do I start, my week in Rhodes was brief but memorable. Faleraki was a bit mental for me. It’s up and coming but sure to be the next Benidorm. Avoided the majority of the bars that just screamed trouble yet still attended all the major events like the massive Beach Party(claiming to be the biggest in Europe) that went on all night and where I met hundreds of people and a Foam Party which, in short for those of you who have been to one - was nuts. The rest of the week I spent relaxing at the local pool bar and talking nonsense with the locals. I was taken aback by how friendly the locals were. I have always made an assumption from my holiday in Cyprus a few years ago that the Greeks were very rude and not friendly at all. But I was wrong. Anyway, overall Greece was everything I was looking for, a time to relax and do almost nothing, but on the side have a bit of fun and try(and of course fail) not to spend too much money. To get more up to date, I fly back after a week and 2 days later im off to Frankfurt with Del.
After landing in Frankfurt we had our first shot at being tourists, looking completely lost and failing to find anyone that speaks English. This was just the simple (not for us) task of finding the right bus to go from the Airport to the Centre. Eventually we figured it out and then found our hotel was situated in the middle of the red light district.....which was interesting. A warm welcome to the city. Only spent a few days in this city. Known as 'Mainhattan' for all its skyscrapers (has something like 9 out of the 10 largest in the country which were impressive to look at). In short we just drank some good beers and got lost a lot trying to get back to the hostel a bit mashed. On the 3rd we leave for Munich.
The train journey is lengthy but comfortable, at least up until before the kids behind us start crying once a start dozing off. Not had much of a chance practicing our limited German so at least now we make a fool of ourselves testing it out on someone who speaks perfect English. The last few days in Munich have been amazing. The beer gardens are immense (some seat over 5000) and of course the beer is just unbelievably good. Derek and myself have gone a little over budget already with our expensive addiction to Stine's, which if are basically large jugs of 2 and a half pints worth of quality beer.
Yesterday we visited the Deutch Museum which was just huge, with loads of interesting stuff like fighter planes V2 Rockets and U-Boats. Got lost of course in the maze of weird German stuff, but eventually found Derek again about an hour later outside. Last night we followed an Australian tour group and went around a few beer halls which were just nuts. Walked around and got free trams all over the place, ending up in a youth hostel which to our surprise and luck was right round the corner from our hostel. Met a few Australians, really loud and a little too crazy. Still trying to get used to the fact that everyone seems to smoke here. Most likely because I was getting used to the Smoking Ban back home.
Today we visited a market and saw weird fruit and ate surprise surprise, more sausages. We meet Maja in an hour, who might be able to translate half the stuff we are clueless about and show us the more student areas. Possible bar crawl later, certainly a continuation of our daily diet of beer and sausages which ill pretend at least for now is good for you. Forgot to bring the USB cable so all the pictures will have to be uploaded at a later date. Hopefully my next post won’t be so lengthy.
Cheers for now
Rory
[Aug. 6th, 2006|07:37 am]
Yesterday we were shown around Munich by Maja, had some traditional food and saw the University. Food was good, but it was raining for our outdoor adventure and without a jacket, made me miserable. Got the underground back, which was an experience, the place is huge, whole world under there. Not as complex as London though.
Today we visited Dachou, one of the oldest and the first of the concentration camps. A little heavy going, but interesting none the less. Anyway, decided id keep this post a little shorter and ive spent most of the time adding all the photos so far to the Gallery. Some are horizontal im afraid but net cafe won’t allow me to edit them but when I find somewhere I can, I will. In response to Simon, our next stop will be Salzburg, Austria in a couple of days, Tuesday to be precise. Place of birth of Mozart and of course the setting of the Sound of Music (cringe).
Tata
Rory
[Aug. 11th, 2006|02:42 pm]
[ Current Location | Vienna ]
[ mood | determined ]
Ok I give up now before I end up smashing this PC. I attached image tags to my gallery however it seems you need an account to view the pictures....ill find a way around it eventually. Ok, just to update you since my last entry, it’s been a while so I don’t think ill be brief this time.
For our last day in Munich surprisingly we avoided the beer and sausages and met with Maja again early and went to the Olympic Village. Here was an impressive stadium, swimming pool, lake and more. There was also a tower where we went to the top and could see around the whole of Munich. Made us realize how huge the city is and how little of it we have seen. We then went to a Chapel that she liked where del and I were instantly stunned by what was to see inside. Judging by our silence Maja assumed we weren’t interested but it’s definitely one of the most breathtaking sights we have seen as of yet.
After a bit of lunch we went for a walk around Palace Gardens(ill add the name once I remember) which was certainly a change of scenery for such a busy city. Maja continually questioned my silence and thought there was something wrong, but I was fine. It was peaceful and reminded of my frequent trips up to Lewis when I was younger (which I only wish I could go so often these days), going for that very same reason - a little peace from the intensity of city life. Even though this was only for a couple of hours, it certainly paced things down a little and gave us time to relax and for once not have to be getting a train somewhere or booking accommodation here and there. It was definitely worth it. Maja had to leave us after our walk so we said our goodbyes and went to book our accommodation for Salzburg, Austria. This 'simple' task took between us around 7 hours of internet searches and a helpful hand from our hostel owner to find what we needed. We were at each others teeth for the majority of it and Derek kept pressuring just to go directly to Vienna instead and eventually gave up and went to bed, yet I was intent on staying in Salzburg at least for a day and eventually found a hostel in the woods beside the Austrian Alps. Not central but close enough and ended up staying two nights.
Salzburg is renowned for its beautiful architecture and home to Mozart and of course the Sound of Music. On the train we got a private cabin, which was great, constantly reminding us of a James Bond Film(cant recite which).The scenery en route from Munich by train was breathtaking and could easily match or even top the scenery at Loch Lomond and Glencoe. However the main reason for going here and one of the main aims for out strip was to see the Eagle's Nest.
The Eagle's Nest is located in the Bavarian Alps in Berchesgaden (yes in Germany but alike Salzburg in Austria its right on the border). There’s so much history but im not here to write a novel so ill keep it short (at least this section of my post). It was Hitler's teahouse given to him as a present for his 50th birthday. There was breathtaking scenery on the bus journey up the Kehlstein road and then we took a luxurious brass elevator up through the rock into Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest). For fellow Band of Brothers fans, this was the last point taken by the infamous 101st Airborne. Their signature's can still be seen engraved in the fire place in the main room. 1834 meters up the air was thin and it was foggy resulting in a disappointing zero visibility.
However, that aside we were in awe by just being there and decided to be adventurous and walk back down instead (of course going in a circle first of all. These German signs don’t make sense, honestly). Having gone 4 miles down a mountain we are still in agony today. It was certainly worth it though as when we got lower down we could see the Alps and across both Germany and Austria which was breathtaking. So many pictures of course, but ill attach once I have more time.
We ended our stay in Salzburg that night with a walk around the town randomly finding amazing architecture all around. In short, we both agreed it was the most beautiful city either of us have been to as of yet. We went to a low ceiling, very dark bar which reminded us of the Brunswick Cellar but so much better. This night of course ended in shock as we returned to our dorm to find 4 more people in our room which, to begin with was just the 2 of us. They were of course Italian and spoke no English so the light went back off and neither of us slept all night. This being our first experience of shared dorms since a decade odd ago in the scouts. Next morning, we set off for Vienna.
After sleeping for the majority of the train journey we woke up grumpy and moaned for the majority of the evening. Once we had settled at the hostel we bought beers and whisky (four roses for Del of course) and relaxed. Here we met an Irish girl who to date is the more friendly of fellow travelers we have met so far. Played some switch, gin rummy and a few random other card games I swore she just made up off the top of her head as neither of us ever really knew what was happening. Fun none the less, so it was worth it.
Today we slept in but eventually set foot in the centre of Vienna and did the whole touristy thing and saw some of the cities main sites. Lot of nice architecture and certainly one of the weirdest things we have seen so far - a swimming pool attached to a boat, on the Danube Canal. Anyway, walked through a few parks and took a lot of pictures of buildings/statue's/fountains. Then on way home watched an interesting group break dancing in one of the main square's beside a medieval church. Impressive, well at least I thought it was.
Ok, so definitely the longest journal to date, but my fault entirely as ive not updated it for something like a week and at least now that’s us up to date. We have booked accommodation for our next city, Budapest which we well set off to tomorrow afternoon.
Hope your all well
Rory
[Aug. 22nd, 2006|12:47 am]
[ Current Location | Prague ]
[ mood | peaceful ]
Ola.
Once again it’s been a while since ive posted, but it’s been a little crazy over the last week or so to say the least. Overall we were a little disappointed with Vienna and weren’t sorry leaving it the morning after my last journal entry. In all fairness we didn’t experience the night life that anyone defending Vienna seems to rave about, but we're not traveling Europe purely for its architecture and it just gets a little boring after seeing over 15 churches in just one city alone.
So, next morning we headed for Budapest, Hungary. First city we were en route to that we knew nothing about apart from its 'up and coming' night life scene, which was only by word of mouth and not in any of our books. On the train we met a guy from DC, Josh (who has now traveled with us to Krakow and now to Prague). He's traveled over both this year and the last so lot of travel hints here and there has helped us on the way. Our train stopped on the border between Austria and Hungary with intimidating passport checkers storming into our cabin (our first experience of this). They then threw off an Italian kid in the cabin next to us at the next stop which was somewhere in the middle of nowhere which made us nervous. Arriving in Budapest, we knew we were no longer in the Europe we knew. Or in Josh's words 'not in Kansas anymore'. Everything was very Eastern European. Very rural. Some very run-down slum areas. We were almost ready to get the train straight back to Vienna already. Once we reached the train station in Budapest, it was full of backpackers (the most we have seen in one building). We then continued to avoid the drunk that approached us asking 'Are you guys Scottish?' which we immediately replied no, even though he was the friend of the guy at our last hostel who said he would set us up with accommodation in Budapest, he was just bad news so we avoided that and went with Josh to his hostel. We got on the tram going the wrong way to the hostel, then failed to find anyone who could put us in the right direction, even the guy that drove the tram. But got there eventually, didn’t get accommodation there though he called up a friend and got us accommodation elsewhere.
Budapest took us by surprise given our first impressions. We lived like kings eating at an Argentinean Steakhouse we didn’t deserve to eat in and drinking ridiculous amounts of alcohol for ridiculous prices. We spent our first day generally walking around the entire city (6 miles odd) and discovering the Sziget festival (week long festival with countless bands, e.g. Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, Prodigy, Placebo). Radiohead played that night though so regretfully we missed them. Budapest has endless amounts of night clubs and bars so I decided to ask a local Hungarian girl where it’s at. Not surprisingly she recommended against a lot of the clubs as they were too expensive, so we went by her suggestion and went to Rudos Romerskt, an outdoor club catering for all tastes. Met a group of Irish and Australian girls in our hostel that night that ended up coming out with us, along with Ed, guy from London. So it ended up being 10 of us out rather than the original 3. Great night, especially when I got lost trying to get Josh back to his hostel. Exchanged numbers with one of the Australian girls Anna, as they are in Berlin same time as we are and want to meet up.
We spend an extra day in Budapest, to then get the night train to Krakow. This train went through Slovakia then into Poland so there were around 4 Border checks which were un-expected. In short Krakow was beautiful, especially the central square and ridiculously cheap to eat and drink. My wallet was stolen on one of our nights out, but there was next to nothing in it apart from one hundred Polish doo daa's which is around 20 quid and more just an inconvenience no longer having my cards which were all blocked. Now just have my money wired to me by my parents via Western Unions which are located all around the world (many in one city alone) so I guess that keeps me strictly to a budget.
Next was our trip to Auschwitz. The place was huge in proportion to our visit to the last camp, Dachou (around 10 times the size). It's hard to believe that anyone on earth could be capable of such atrocities. Our tour guide speed walked us around the camp which really disrupted just trying to take in what we were seeing (in some cases he told us to 'hurry up' which really pissed us off). It also seemed like the guy didn’t really know much apart from what we could read on the plaques and didn’t even explain anything in Berchinau (unbelievably huge) where just a few million people were murdered. We wanted to email a complaint but forgot the guys name so not much point, but in general our anger over-shadowed what to take from the trip to Auschwitz. Although, it still lay heavy in our minds all night and we found it hard to put it aside most of that night.
Went out to a Jazz Rock Club the next night which was like the Cathouse but with more music variety and nicer people. On our last night went to a proper Live Jazz Club. Hearing some famous songs like Sweet Home Alabama in Polish and All Along the Watchtower in a Polish Accent was different but to me any live music with talented musicians is good enough.
Thought id keep this journal a little shorter. I’m writing to you from here in Prague. Our hostel's designed with Soviet architecture so Derek wont shut up about it but its different (ridiculously huge dining hall and high ceilings in all the rooms). We spend our day of arrival walking around the old town and taking pictures and up until the present are drinking in the hostels bar. The clubbing option went out the window as we head for Berlin in the morning to meet David.
Cheers
Rory
[Aug. 27th, 2006|04:02 pm]
[ Current Location | Berlin ]
[ mood | relaxed ]
I now write to you from Berlin on our last day here before we take the sleeper train to Warsaw. After updating the journal in the hostel bar in Prague both Derek and Josh had gone to bed so I just stayed up too late talking to the Barmaid who was of similar age and studied languages at Charles University. We mostly spoke of the night life in Prague which in the end there was an offer to go to a club but checkout was at 9am that morning and it was already almost 4. So I went to sleep and the next afternoon we took the train to Berlin.
Josh decided not to join us and take the train via Frankfurt to Amsterdam where he flew back home from on the 25th. It was good having another traveler tag along with us and we had good times drinking with lengthy discussions about politics and film. On the train we were interrupted by four Italians who insisted on sharing our cabin so we were stuck with them talking aloud when I just wanted to sleep for the 5 hour journey. To our surprise David met is off the train in Berlin, yet not to our surprise he had got lost from the time he arrived getting on platform 9 to who knows where rather than the S9 train. He met us in the end though, which is all that mattered and it was good seeing a familiar face. The Berlin Haupbanhof (Central Station) is ridiculously huge and only just been constructed. It took us a while to find the correct platform to get to our hostel but we got there in the end. The Berlin S-Bahn system is the most complex we have experienced yet but after getting off at the wrong place a few times we got the hang of the journey from our hostel, which was located east of the center, and back again.
The Generator hostel was huge in comparison to anywhere we have stayed so far in our trip. One of the biggest in Europe and one of the top rated in the world. Something like 900 rooms and its own bar and an Internet Cafe that worked. A little more expensive than our usual nights accommodation but we had single rooms and comfortable beds which for me led to a good nights sleep for the first time in a month. We spent 5 days in Berlin. Visited all the sites - Brandenburg Gate(where there was a Kurdistan Hunger Strike but we couldn’t understand why as on their posters they couldn’t spell), Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler’s Bunker(now just a car park for apartments but still there), the Reichstag(which was huge but we were disappointed when we were only allowed up to the roof where the dome is rather than inside it), Museum Island(didn’t visit but walked past and forgot to take a picture of the buildings still laden with bullet holes and general bombardment from the 2nd world war), the Sony Center and(only Derek and David) visited the Sachsanhausen Concentration Camp which had a huge Soviet Memorial. I felt id seen enough concentration camps and decided to just stay at the hostel that day to read and drink. Most of our nights were spent in the hostel drinking either in our room or the bar, where we met a bunch of Irish seniors that were good fun but a little young and on their school trip and among others a group of Scottish guys on their stag weekend. We went out one night to the Matrix Club which was said to be one of the biggest in Berlin but certainly wasn’t the best. It was an interesting task trying to get back to the hostel via the S-Bahn when lets just say not sober.
Overall Berlin was expensive but great fun (even though it rained the majority of the time, just like Munich). We were back to our German Beer and Sausage Diet (or in David's case Beer and Margarita's). Staying somewhere a little longer than one or 2 nights let us fully unpack and relax a little more. Also went to the cinema to see Miami Vice which much to my disappointment, being a fan of Michael Mann and all, was terrible. The cinema was also ridiculously hot which didn’t help.
So that’s us about up to date I think. I will update my journal again either in Warsaw or Riga before we enter Russia on 1st September.
Hope we are all well
Rory
[Sep. 7th, 2006|03:18 pm]
[ Current Location | Moscow ]
[ mood | anxious ]
Greetings from Moscow. Yes, I know I know, no update for over a week, you all thought we were stuck at the Russian Border or somewhere in the Baltic State's trying to bribe officials with Vodka and Onions. We made it and far easier than we thought (getting across the border that is, not the journey getting in).
However, first things first. We took the night train from Berlin to Warsaw and arrived early morning. Still raining of course like most of our journey so we were tired and miserable. Greeted by Hostel Info people we were given accommodation quickly and driven to the door for free which was a relief. Slept a few hours then walked around Old Town which was fairly unimpressive (similar to our overall impression of Warsaw). Staying in a mixed dorm we met fellow backpackers, two English girls who had came to the end of their trip and had the 'seen it all and nothing you can say will interest us' attitude which in all fairness they had but that’s not the point. We got on a lot better with two Canadian's, Lindsay and Scott, who were just at the beginning of their trip around Europe and a lot of fun.
Watched some films in English (Pulp Fiction, Lost in Translation...not dubbed like everywhere else) and drank some cheap polish beer and vodka. Next day went to Old Town again to try and be impressed but it rained so we just got wet. Only highlight of Warsaw was the Ice Bar (bar made out of Ice) which we had all heard about (not the one in Warsaw) and was an impressive first time experience for all of us. Our clothes were still wet so they froze solid (like we did) which was hilarious. Got a bit drunk, exchanged emails then got on the sleeper train back to Berlin.
On finding out the day before that we couldn’t get a train through Lithuania and Latvia to St Pete's for the 1st of September we had to figure out(with help from our parents thankfully) how we would get there on time. Ended up going back to Berlin after 3 nights in Warsaw, then flying to Tallinn in Estonia, spent 5 hours there overwhelmed by certainly the most preserved Old Town's (13th - 14th century) and impressive of the many Old Town's we have visited on our trip. Had some great Estonian Cider (can’t remember the name but need to find out). Really wanted to stay overnight but had to return to the bus station where our luggage was locked in the luggage store that we didn’t know closed an hour earlier than usual. Moment of Panic but it happens all the time with fellow backpackers apprently so a guy kindly opened it up again.
Then comes the horrible overnight 9 hour bus journey with crazy Russians in unbearable heat, guy on front of me practically sleeping on my lap in his chair but I just listened to some Boards of Canada (Derek has me hooked now) and Radiohead Amnesiac which kept me sane, into St Pete's where we were on the border confused by papers we had to fill out but unable to understand as it was all in Russian. Thankfully we weren’t the only tourists who were lost and a Russian guy helped us out and we were across the border without any real problems (surprisingly).
St Pete's reminded us of Budapest, very Eastern compared to modern western cities and well, so Russian. Looks like the 80's. All driving Lada's and driving like maniacs (they overtake on the tram tracks and don’t stop for pedestrians. Crossing the road even has a 20 second timer, sometimes just 10 for you to cross the road that’s like crossing a formula 1 track before the race begins. Drivers nervously reving their engines..crazy). There were also a lot of homeless people inspecting the bins, right outside our apartment also which was horrible. Had a lot of trouble finding our accommodation in St Pete's so had to call the owner who was nice and gave us a free upgrade to an apartment style mini hostel which must have been way beyond our budget, but at no extra charge so didn’t matter.
Spent our first day walking around St Pete's 46 Islands (nope, we didn’t know either). Only saw a small portion of the huge city but it was impressive (and not raining, wow). There was a huge fountain in the middle of the river and being a Saturday, 8 weddings at the bay simultaneously which was strange but we found from local knowledge its tradition for Russians on their Wedding Day to visit all of their Country/Cities main sites. Went to the artillery museum which was cool, saw the Hermitage, Winter Palace, Summer Palace (but didn’t go in, Derek did the following day but I didn’t as it was expensive without student ID). Said it was amazing inside but didn’t take any pictures. Wewanted to return the next day but regretfully wasted it with delay getting my passport registered and unable to get help for train ticket to Moscow.
Quite simply they don’t give a shit about tourists. Don’t want to help. Real big change to anywhere else. Of course there’s even more trouble with the language. Alphabet is mental. Triangles and shit in there. Got lost trying to find a Club that used to be a bunker, saw a girl on a horse in the middle of the road, drinking a beer of course which was like something out of Lost. Struggled to sleep at all during the nights as it was so loud outside and needed the windows open as it was unbearably hot if we closed it. Cold outside but lot of Mosquito's which I didn’t expect (first bite in Warsaw, another 50 here). In short, like all cities we have visited, so much to see yet such little time.
Eventually took the overnight train to Moscow where we were of course at the end carriage of a mile long train which was crazy. Shared a sleeper cabin with two Russians, one a student(Alena) who could speak English and Roma who didn’t but studied Scotland and thought he was the Russian Robin Hood, or something. Me being me ended up talking to them through the night or, well, Alena translating everything for Roma but we had a nice selection of random conversations.
Arrived Moscow station spaced and impatient. People in our hostel gave us simple directions(but seemed like rocket science in our state) We were then introduced to the palace-like metro stations which certainly woke us up. The Trans Siberian Hostel we are staying in, which is where im writing from now is smaller than expected but far more homely and cozy and forces you really to socialize with fellow backpackers, the majority heading further east on crazy 5 day train trips(we thought 15 hours was a record) to Mongolia, China etc.
We have 6 nights here in the last city of our trip which already easily has the potential to be the best. Able to chill out, relax a little unlike anywhere else (aside's from maybe Berlin). Bars and clubs waiting for us, along with the majority of the friendly company in the hostel, including the French owner, Francois who is the modern day Napoleon and the very friendly Darya who has been keeping me company while hungover and trying and failing to watch Russian Dubbed Films.
We have around 500 photo's collectively , not including David's photos from Berlin, to upload when we return home(fly back on 9/11 of all days) so you can all look at the pictures and see everything im talking about.
Good news is my next entry will be shorter and concluding our trip, appart from Derek's additional comments that will probably never be added.
Take Care
Rory
[Sep. 12th, 2006|08:49 pm]
[ Current Location | Home ]
[ mood | accomplished ]
[ music | Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy ]
I write to you now from Glasgow, Scotland. Home at last, after 6 nights in Moscow of seeing all the sites(Red Square, Kremlin, St. Basil's etc) and for the first time in our 6 weeks of traveling being able to take it easy and relax. The Trans-Siberian Hostel we were staying in was excellent and we can only rate it higher than its 95% rating on HostelWorld.com. It’s an uncommonly small, homely, cozy hostel and with the social kitchen area right outside the dorms all staying there are forced to socialize which is really what we were looking for as an end to our trip. Nights in to chill out with fellow backpackers with of course the odd night out and a few crazy traditional Vodka and Pancake parties courtesy of the wonderful Darya.
We had a few memorable moments in Moscow. The two Australian girls Kerryn and Fiona who continually questioning everyone who 'this guy Chi' was. We eventually found out they meant Che Guevara (had to be there I guess, but it was hilarious);Fiona spaced out forgetting her shoes and having to take her bag out of the luggage store twice for her camera and her keys (lady at the store wasn’t happy) then having to go back to the hostel for her student card to get a discount on the ticket to the Kremlin; Walking around the Kremlin with them spaced out unable to identify what anything was and doing daft poses outside all the main monuments; The American Derek convinced that he was from Kazakhstan; Talking to Kate(an Irish Film Student) about film all night and ending up getting no sleep before our journey home.
We met a lot of brave backpackers doing the trans-siberian tour, traveling for months on end(some for years), 5 day train journeys and in general such a grander scale of a journey compared to the short lived, condensed trip we have had. Exchanged emails with many of them who I intend to stay in touch with for an almost certain 2nd trip next year (some of them will still be traveling by then). Think 6 weeks is a long time? Some of them have been traveling for years.
So im at home now, with no excuse or any reason for a delay in uploading all the pictures, so ill get to that over the next couple of days and leave a link at the bottom of this post once they're all up. With many more to come as I receive them by mail. All in all there should be around 700 photos for you all to feast your eyes on.
So I hope you have all enjoyed reading my journal as much as I have writing about our adventure and of course experiencing it. I've gone back and edited everything so that its more readable and with no spelling mistakes. Seen so many places of which I intend to return to in the future. Met so many amazing people who I would never have met if I hadn’t taken this journey and of who I intend to keep in touch with for journeys to come. Derek may eventually add some of his input to our journal, but I doubt it.
"This is not the tale of impressive deeds. It's a piece of two lives taken in a moment along a given path, with identity of aspirations and a conjunction of dreams"
-Ernesto 'Che' Guevara de la Serna
*Ive uploaded all of mine and most of David's pictures so far onto my Photobucket Galleries.Ill tag pictures into each journal entry and properly name the pictures once I have more time. Thought id just get them uploaded for you guys to see first. Here's the link, enjoy:
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n241/Rorxy/
Rory
Filming, Tarantino, No More SMO - 132 Days Ago
I have to say I knew very little about Kilmartin. Noone seemed to know where it was or even recognise it’s name – Kill what? Did you say you killed Martin? Martin who? After 2 days off work with a touch of a bad cold, I wait for my taxi to arrive at home. It’s past half 10 and my laptop has just restarted itself randomly – while I was in the middle of FINALLY sending that email that Catriona has emailed me daily to remind me about. Think I spent a fresh half hour writing out in far much more detail than required, a Gaelic Academic Blog if you like, notes on all 10 of the attachments I was sending away as evidence of work.
We set off for Kilmartin and we arrive at the museum 2 hours later – roughly. Have lunch. The scenic Kilmartin after 2 days, 2 nights and a morning filming at the museum and out and around at Dunadd Fort, Standing Stones and the Stonehenge of the north – Templewood where I rip my jeans on a wall so bad that the leg is hanging off. Gaffer tape it up. Job Done! Accomodation we stay in is pretty scary. Middle of nowhere. A Norman Bates-like character who runs the place with his wife. Claims they are both Italian while we are at our breakfast and I almost spit half my food out and fail to hide laughing – this guy does not look Italian AT ALL. Like Bill Gates – geeky, glasses, pale skin, shorts, weird t-shirts, knee high white socks. Funny stuff. Seems to be a real struggle at night also where we order beers. 2 Pipers Gold and 2 Fraoch ta. 2 + 2 = 5 yeh?
Next up is Kelvingrove on Friday and Saturday. Was really looking forward to filming here. It’s great. Get a chance to go free with the camera and film whatever. Few Lock-Off’s, I get some shots of Glasgow Uni and the City from the roof. Literally on the edge. Only an 80 foot drop so sure it was safe……wrap party afterwards. Indian food is great. Lismore after where we bump into Ken MacQuarrie(head BBC Scotland), Donnie Dotaman and Carrie’s mum. The first 2 give us a smile and a nod. Speak to Carrie’s mum for a bit. Not seen her in years. Have a bit of drunken chat with bossman Les about travelling, Russian Mafia and the rest I fail to remember. Think I expressed interest in working with them when my course was done but it’s ok he doesn’t remember what we spoke about either.
Film The Lemings gig at BOX.with Cailean – 3 Camera’s, 2 HH (myself and Cailean at the front) – look forward to seeing it in the Edit. Should be great. Ronnie came out for the gig also so we go for a walk and catch up. End up going to Steak and Cherry for tea and pancakes and talk about this that and everything.
Dinner with Ewan at Chinaski’s. End up going to the QM after – not been for years. Play some pool and down the Kopparberg. End up playing double’s against some Freshers. They all look about 15 and I feel like their parents. We win almost every game. Good times. Even the guys fancy us we’re that good. They’d all been working at Retrofest – a girl I recognise as she works at the Art School – sad isn’t it. Guy Rob who asks us for a game is pretty smashed but clearly pretty good at pool./ clenches onto his empty bottle of magners for at least half an hour. Holding onto it like his life.
Meet ross after work and we go for a drink. Ronnie’s on the way into town but takes ages. Must have ben grooming that fantastic handlebar moustache. He eventually joins us in Failte and we debate where we’re going for dinner. 10 minutes of debate later and we decide to go to Ad Lib Bar and Grill. Great food. Good Service. Get a text from Joanne saying Derek Carol and herself are out at Driftwood. We decide to go join them….which by the time we reach Sauchiehall they are in Campus………yeh so few drinks in the magic of a place then we decide to head to the Ben Nevis……not exactly nearby so it’s last orders pretty much by the time we get there. Great being out with Ross and Ronnie never get to hang around with schoolfriends once your all grown up and gone your own way. Good being out with Cursa TV also….everyone seems far happier and less stressed being free from the course and major stressbowl that is SMO. Actually cannot be fucked with Graduation in October so if I cannot just graduate with Absentia ill just not bother fuckin going!
Slept in for work the next day as I was still drunk in the morning and half asleep I assumed the sound of my alarm was….something else. It’s Friday! I decide at around 12 while in work trying very hard to be busy doing fucking transcripts that I’m gonna go to Inverness for the weekend to see Kirsty. Yes. Lets do it. Fuck the transcripts. Fuck Glasgow – just for the weekend. City boy that I am I need a bit of time away to chill too just like everyone else. I leave work early. 4.45. Im already late in whats going to be a bit of a tight schedule. I put on some Sigur Ròs on the Jukebox (my personal Creative Jukebox that is) which really doesn’t help in terms of getting a move on to the train station. But I make it in time for the 4.55 train. Home by 5.15. I take fucking ages getting stuff packed. My bus from Buchanan Bus Station to Inverness leaves at 6.45. Quite the challenge to pack/shave/shower/changed/GET there. Once I get round to showering it’s already 6.20 once im out and dressed. FUCK. My dinner is ready. I have to put it in a container to eat in the car. Can of coke also to wake me up! – what are mums for eh? I arrive at the bus station at 6.44 and 54 seconds. Quite simply if the bus was ACTUALLY there I would have missed it. It eventually took a further half an hour before it arrived. Infact no 40 minutes. 7.25 it left. During the ridiculously long wait I go to the shop and see some right Chav’s running towards me. I clench my fists momentarily incase they decide to have a go….but they run right past. Guess what mad shit they’re getting down to tonight? Jumping the barrier to get into the Bus station toilets! Mental. Pure wide. It costs all of what….20p to get in? An aged im-mature-and-have-a-respectable-job-and-i-no-longer-do-coke guard see’s an opportunity to deck the wee fucks. Shouts ‘HAW YOU’ then jumps in after them. I enter the shop, grab myself a cheeky Bounty bar….some chewing gum and a bottle of Evian…how naïve. When I arrive back at stand 52 some crazy extremely foreign sounding Gouranga-dressed lady approaches. She smells so bad I can taste the salt. Mumbling a lot of nonsense…all I could make out was 53. I turned her away assuming at first she was offering her body. But no she was just asking if she was at right stand. I take a look at her ticket and realise she’s ready and waiting for her bus that’s leaving the stand in……5 hours. I tried my best to explain but naw naw she was staying. Sitting patiently. Aye whatever….left her to it. A bus pulls up at 7.15 and we’re all pissed off with the waiting (there’s a full bus load of people waiting impatiently along with me here). After the call for Inverness…the bus then pulls out and drives off – WHAT THE FUCK?! Will be back in 2 minutes the neddy sounding lady tries to say reassuringly….10 minutes later another bus pulls up. Finally we fucking board. Jesus. The joys of public transport. Some guy sniffing continuously from Glasgow to Perth. I turned round every now and then hoping he’d give ma a smile and that he was only taking the piss but no…..I almost ended up smothering the guy with my jacket…or perhaps kisses…that might shut him up.
You ever feel like the whole world is revolving around you? I do. Things like…..on the bus from Perth to Inverness the girl behind me listening to her Ipod music selection of: Coldplay – Scientist and Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars – I was listening to both these songs that day. Ok not exactly unique they are both fairly regularly played songs but im paranoid ok? The weekend with Kirsty was great. Quiet B&B in Inverness. Time away from the Big City. Don’t realise how intense it is until you’re a bit more out of the loop you know….We go out for drinks and meet with friend Andy who I met up in Stornoway. He comes out with friends David and Claire. David who’s studying media also so we get into chats that noone else can really understand. Geeks yes. He talks of a Lost Series Spoof that him and his mates in College made. I later find them on Youtube and have to say they are pretty good! Good chat and we all get drunk in Johnny Fox’s. According to Claire I look like hmm guess....James Van Der Beek, Dawson from Dawson’s Creek. Aye very good…first one to come up with that eh. But wait just to add to it, I have a Richard Gere mouth. What does that mean?!
The bus journey home is sheer comedy. The bus stops somewhere between Inverness and Perth and the driver announces AT some Chinese guy how his bin bags have blood pouring out of them and all over the Undercarriage – people beside me start freaking out and some quietly scream ‘oh my god, bet it’s a dead body’. Aye ok. Turns out it’s a bag of fish and it stinks like FUCK. My bag was on top of others so im happily fishgut free. Have a good laugh about it with a young student girl sitting beside me who same as me just wants to get to Glasgow. Driver gets back on the bus and shouts ‘Does anyone want to make a complaint?’ and I was just saying slightly aloud ‘em aye, complaint about you…we just want to go fucking home mate’. But then, wait, what can he actually do? Say he’s sorry? Or get a letter sent out saying that Citylink and Megabus are ‘sorry’ ? He can’t do shit and it’s not like City Link will refund. It’s not their problem. Plus they are the tightest bastards on the planet. That time there was a Mudslide and there was NO BUS to Glasgow for a week…they wouldn’t refund my ticket…even after sending a letter to London. Wankers. There is then a hold up ahead because of something going on in Gleneagles. The driver stops the bus again and tries acting the hero asking if anyone knows some alternative route. Probably a dirt track with low bridges to kill us all. ‘I don’t know the route but I’ll do it’ – what does this guy want. A Medal? We eventually make it home like an hour late. Thank you City Link.
On Monday at 12 I go to Virgin Megastore during my lunch break. Buy the Tarantino Screenplay of Death Proof, £7 which resulted in a sexy wrist band for the Tarantino signing this afternoon/evening 5-7pm before his Death Proof Premiere and Q&A at the GFT – wasn’t lucky enough to get tickets for that. After an hours wait outside Virgin in the cold with friends Davyd and Simon – who didn’t manage to get himself a wristband in time – we’re in the door and out comes the camera. We could see Tarantino from outside but hey it’s a little different seeing him close-up in the flesh. We have a bunch of right moron’s in front of us and I quote:
”Haw mate, mate *calls over one of the guards* it’s the score here. You tryin tae tell me that aw these people in here have wan ae these badboys? *points at wristband* Merr than an oor I’ve been waiting here. Kill fuckin Bill aye? I’ll fuckin Kill Him in a minute. “
Fuck. Ok so right when we’re at front of the queue Tarantino is gonna walk out because of these guys. His mate’s face looks like a bag of zips, clearly cut open or chibbed as they say in the G. Scary stuff.
Anyway im up at the desk and Q.T’s right in front of me.
Q.T: Hey man!
me: Hey *shakes hand*
Q.T: Hey, where you get that t-shirt? I love it. *points at my cartoony pulp fiction t-shirt* Noticed a few people have them. Whats your name?
me: Rory. I’m a media student just want to say your films have been a real inspiration. Being a media student they’ve really encouraged me to keep writing.
Q.T:Hey thanks that means a lot man. Really. So you go to film school?
me: Well no im just finishing a trainee course placement. Thinking about film school but im not sure.
Q.T: Hey man with enough passion and a belief in what you have to say, just keep writing. Hell, thats what I did! *signs screenplay* Davyd got some great photo’s of me with Tarantino and I of him. He even turned to pose with me for one. What a guy. So yeh advice from Tarantino what can I say eh?! I think I’ll do what the man says….and maybe at a push send him my T-Shirt too.
I wake up 6.25 to be ready steady go for Faye picking me up at 7 to go to Fort George for our next museum on our list - The Highlanders Museum. I get a call from Faye around 10 past and like anyone else who is not familiar with the streets in the west end, she can’t find my stret. I direct her on the phone – not easy to explain. She arrives around 20 past and we go off to pick up Derek and set off to Inverness
Fort George is well hidden. Unable to see anything, even close up as it’s covered by high walls. Still an active barracks for sending people off to Iraq. Film this that and whatever. Nazi memorabilia/lighter with bullet hole, world war one periscope for trenches. Eerie streets and lane’s remind me of Aushchwitz. I decide to skip dinner with the crew and set off to the Cottage Bar where Kirsty works. I have to wait 20 minutes until the next Service 25 bus at stance 5 going to Dingwall. But im getting off at Marybourgh. I take out my signed-by-Q.T Screenplay for Death Proof. Got about 20 pages in rather quickly it’s pretty damn good. Tarantino as always on top form ith his genius in natural dialogue. The bus arrives – Single to Marybourgh please. There’s only me and 2 others sitting downstairs on the bus. One of those being a young, id say 16 y.o max sitting across from me. What does she decide to do as I read? Turns on her phone like a fucking stereo and starts blaring out DJ Sammy, fucking Tiesto I dunno its ALL shite. I give her my infamous ‘what the fuck?’ facial expression. She recognises it instantly and thinks im flirting with her. I try to block it out but it’s just so fucking irritating. Clearly I need someone to explain to me the reason – any reason at all – to why I should tolerate this bullshit. Why the fuck am I being tortured by this girls TERRIBLE, but rather predictable taste in music for a Non Educated Delinquent. First song has now finished. Here comes the next number – FUCK off it’s a remix of who else but U2. That shitey With or Without you thing with that woman that looks like a man or more politely put, a burst baw. There’s my stop. I give the retarded jungle music girl a fake ckeeky smile and she smiles back thinking she’s scored big time. Made me laugh. Aff the bus.
As I enter the rather picturesque cottage house the bar is full of old men dressed in tartan – it’s the Scotland France game…which regarding the latter we won 2 nill. Eilidh came to meet us 0 eventually after I had a rather excellent Chicken dinner. We speak of SMO, the banter, the bitching, the grading. Eilidh – “What does Glaiked mean? Simple Eilidh. It means SIMPLE
End up going back to Kirsty’s rather than many miles and costly taxi back to the Redcliffe Hotel where along with the crew I have a very small bed/room. So tired from a long long day that im not awake for very long at all. End up having a great sleep. Breakfast in the morning made by Kirsty. I have a far-too-early-in-the-morning-but-nice conversation with Kirsty’s dad and then parents later into the conversation about my work/my life/De-a-Nis and all things Gaelic. Im sad to see my taxi, having arrived early, waiting outside. I don’t want to leave but im needed for another day at Fort George’s Highland Museum. For all of that journey, ignoring the small talk from the taxi driver, I was tempted to ask him to turn back. Fuck it! Take a day off. Tell Caledonia I have to go see about a girl. But im an idiot. I arrived at the hotel while they were all still busy at breakfast.
Today in Fort George to start with im on photography for the crew. Caledonia-at-work shots. Few interesting ones in there. Arty perhaps. Ill post them up later. Then throughout the next half of the day we are in the Indian Mutiny room. Then to the WII and WWI room. One of the big highlights being the Hitler Youth Knife. Getting to hold it. Scary stuff. Engraved on the blade is ‘Blut und Ehre’ meaning 'Blood and Honour’ in German. Filmed some of my own stuff with the DV Camera again. Some footage from outside. Alternative camera angles and Lock-Off’s. We finish at 5.15 as the Museum closes and then headed for Pitlochry.
At the rather large Scotland Hotel, crawling with Old mainly American Couple’s, I accessed my emails from the Wifi Lounge. Nothing interesting really. Some Bebo activity, yet another email from Catriona – I’ve to call Eilidh Grant about Graduation. I don’t of course. I’m working and Catriona of all people should know that. The next morning we head for Anstruthers Fisheries Museum. It is indeed ‘biger than you think’. The usual Camera Assistant/PA/2nd Camera involvement throughout the day. We film a scene using the Wally Dolly – A device invented by an Australian Cameraman. Basically it’s your poor man’s Dolly. You lay aluminium pipes like tracks and stick your Tripod and Cam on top of a T-Joing with wheels and can track smoothly across. Ended up being a great shot. We had dinner in the award winning Anstruther’s Fish Bar. Have to say I have had better though. Wasn’t worth the 40 minute wait in the queue certainly. The next day I shot some footage of the crew going out to sea on The Reaper – a 100 foot, 100 year old ship. Filmed it going out of the Marina, out to sea, putting up it’s sail. Lot of great shots. Good shots of the boat returning into the Marina also. With lighthouse in the background and slow zooms A La Jaws minus the Great White. We then film in the Boatyard which is attached to the side of the Museum. Full size ships and boats in there. Rather impressive…..but not so much after being stuck in a room with them filming GV’s for the rest of the Afternoon. I enjoyed the last 4 days of filming. The last location filming of my placement which in 4 days will have come to an end. I’m not going to lie, I am indeed very nervous of where I go next. What to do, who to work for, who to apply for, who to accept. Who not to accept? One thing I know for certain is that I’ll not rush into anything without thinking carefully about my choices. It is, after all, my future and noone elses. Id like to think also that I deserve a bit of a break! 2 months travelling, 1 week home, 6 months SMO Skye, 2 weeks Christmas, 3.5 months Stornway then an amazing 2.5 months back home. Holiday time though. The very many 2nd weekend return home wasn’t quite the same until I was ACTUALLY home just over 2 months ago and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The friends, the family and of course the social life that a city boy like myself deserves. I will graduate with absentia. Fuck going back to SMO. No accomodation and just a lot of hastle getting there getting back. Is it worth it? No. Reunion coming up on the 28th of this month should be good. Kirsty’s birthday at her new flat in St Andrews the day after should also be good. Can’t say I’ve ever been to St Andrews aside’s from just passing through. Or may I was there in High School but I like to think im good with my memory and that I’d remember.
First day back working in Glasgow and I batter into those good old Transcripts again – yay……..I meet Ewan for lunch at the usual Chin Spankies or Tune Arse Keys (Chinaski’s) for a gourmet Chicken Burger and a pint – classy eh. Back to work a bit more relaxed then I decide to have a bit of a film marathon. Two films out I want to see – 3:10 to Yuma and Superbad. So I decide on both, text Davyd/Simon/Ewan and D bails out saying he’s out of town but Si and EOH are on the ball and up for it. Ewan doesn’t finish until half 8 though so he arranges to meet us after 3:10 for the 8.45 showing of Superbad. 3:10 is great – gritty western remake starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale and a special surprise, Ben Foster who was fantastic. Loved his character in Six Feet under and a number of films that I fail to remember the title of. Crowe and Bale of course being in the top 5 A list of actors so putting the two together was just genius. James Mangold directing also. Director of Walk the Line and Girl Interupted. The Academy love to throw Oscars at the guys films seemingly and of course why not give Crowe yet another nod just for laughs? Maybe Bale too but word on the street is Bale is tipped for his lead role in Rescue Dawn. Still to be released in the UK.
Anyway, after 3:10 Si and I go get a bite to eat in Walkabout. Good old Awesome burger gets us going. Tennents Tops too just to add a buzz to the mix. We head back for Superbad and buy Ewan’s ticket as he’s running late. We make it in just in time though and sit up the back where there are complete morons laughing like Snow White on speed to we go down to the front left aisle. Not my ideal front centre spot but it’s good enough. Fucking funniest film I’ve seen in years I kid you not. Up there easily with Napoleon Dynamite and other favourites. We laughed all the way through it. Drinks after and we end up in the Brunswick Cellars for a few and then to Box where the music is so loud I can’t hear myself think. I spot a stray umbrella though and take it with us upon exiting the premises. Pose for a picture and look like a fag. Call the Canny Taxi and we’re aff hame. Work the next day is pish ‘cause Faye is not in and Les is stressing about the transcripts needing done. Chill man….i’ve done like 15 today already and there’s still millions to go. I find it very hard not to be annoyed at this chat we’re having given the only reason I’m typing up all these transcripts is because Les, bossman and Peter ,Editor, don’t speak Gaelic. Meh. Anyway I get as much done as I can and you know what? Just to please his ass take the rest of the unfinished stuff home to get it done after hours. Cause you know what? Tomorrow is my last day not just of the placement but the course air fad so id like to do a little dance, make a little love ta. Maybe offer me a job too eh? Cheers darlin’…
My last day is surprisingly good…even though noone in work seems to know that it’s my last day until Faye sends Les a text about it! I finish off transcripts then watch through all my Kelvingrove footage. Then Fort George and Anstruthers – Les is impressed and claims my footage might make the Intro to the Anstruthers Fisheries Museum Episode in the Series which is great to hear. They buy me a book on Roman Polanski which is nice and we go down to the Butterfly and the Pig for a beer – somewhere I go quite regularly so it’s a bit odd going here with the bossman! So I don’t get offered a job straight out but I don’t expect to be either. Truth is it’s very hard for any of many of these companies to employee new Gaelic Media Trainee’s especially in the BBC because of doubt of the infamous Gaelic Channel. Although I do express my interest at least in maybe working again with them soon on the final 3 episodes of their Museum Series. Also keen to be involved in their next project which is a film on Cunningham Graham, for which filming would take place in Argentina, Mexico, Taxas and a few other South American hot spots. Truth is though…I don’t even know if they like me? Or want me to work for them? Or enjoyed any of my time with them? I don’t seem to know very much do I…..so that’s the placement over. Finishd. No more SMO. Done. Not quite sinking in yet….a fancy dress party where I reach the glorious stage of drinking wine out of the bottle….then, according to Marianne, refilling it with water to drink out that out of it too. CLASSY eh? Death Proof the next day with Simon and Ryan – it’s fantastic fuck what all the critics slate about it. Whats the bet that majority of them haven’t even seen Vanishing Point hence unable to understand the relevance or….ok ill shut up now. Dinner with Simon in Chinaski’s (where else?) with Simon where we bump into Marianne and her friend Andy….Box after for some live music…..then fail, again, to get into Derek’s work. Too casual. Wanks. Bier Halle instead. Southern Comfort and Lemonade’s. Stop on Buchanan Street to listen to a ridiculously good guitar player. But I think he was just playing a CD…but 3 days of partying later and it’s a hungover Sunday into the September weekend. Im supposed to go to a party tonight but I think ill give it a miss and watch a film. Oh got the green light for Directing the HisGirlFriday Music Video. Kevin Boyle, mate from schools band. Filming sometime over the next few weeks. Along with some time off of course! I decide im going to finish writing up this rather novelesque blog of mine. If you have reached this point? Lets get married baby.
Here’s looking at you, kid :)
R x
We set off for Kilmartin and we arrive at the museum 2 hours later – roughly. Have lunch. The scenic Kilmartin after 2 days, 2 nights and a morning filming at the museum and out and around at Dunadd Fort, Standing Stones and the Stonehenge of the north – Templewood where I rip my jeans on a wall so bad that the leg is hanging off. Gaffer tape it up. Job Done! Accomodation we stay in is pretty scary. Middle of nowhere. A Norman Bates-like character who runs the place with his wife. Claims they are both Italian while we are at our breakfast and I almost spit half my food out and fail to hide laughing – this guy does not look Italian AT ALL. Like Bill Gates – geeky, glasses, pale skin, shorts, weird t-shirts, knee high white socks. Funny stuff. Seems to be a real struggle at night also where we order beers. 2 Pipers Gold and 2 Fraoch ta. 2 + 2 = 5 yeh?
Next up is Kelvingrove on Friday and Saturday. Was really looking forward to filming here. It’s great. Get a chance to go free with the camera and film whatever. Few Lock-Off’s, I get some shots of Glasgow Uni and the City from the roof. Literally on the edge. Only an 80 foot drop so sure it was safe……wrap party afterwards. Indian food is great. Lismore after where we bump into Ken MacQuarrie(head BBC Scotland), Donnie Dotaman and Carrie’s mum. The first 2 give us a smile and a nod. Speak to Carrie’s mum for a bit. Not seen her in years. Have a bit of drunken chat with bossman Les about travelling, Russian Mafia and the rest I fail to remember. Think I expressed interest in working with them when my course was done but it’s ok he doesn’t remember what we spoke about either.
Film The Lemings gig at BOX.with Cailean – 3 Camera’s, 2 HH (myself and Cailean at the front) – look forward to seeing it in the Edit. Should be great. Ronnie came out for the gig also so we go for a walk and catch up. End up going to Steak and Cherry for tea and pancakes and talk about this that and everything.
Dinner with Ewan at Chinaski’s. End up going to the QM after – not been for years. Play some pool and down the Kopparberg. End up playing double’s against some Freshers. They all look about 15 and I feel like their parents. We win almost every game. Good times. Even the guys fancy us we’re that good. They’d all been working at Retrofest – a girl I recognise as she works at the Art School – sad isn’t it. Guy Rob who asks us for a game is pretty smashed but clearly pretty good at pool./ clenches onto his empty bottle of magners for at least half an hour. Holding onto it like his life.
Meet ross after work and we go for a drink. Ronnie’s on the way into town but takes ages. Must have ben grooming that fantastic handlebar moustache. He eventually joins us in Failte and we debate where we’re going for dinner. 10 minutes of debate later and we decide to go to Ad Lib Bar and Grill. Great food. Good Service. Get a text from Joanne saying Derek Carol and herself are out at Driftwood. We decide to go join them….which by the time we reach Sauchiehall they are in Campus………yeh so few drinks in the magic of a place then we decide to head to the Ben Nevis……not exactly nearby so it’s last orders pretty much by the time we get there. Great being out with Ross and Ronnie never get to hang around with schoolfriends once your all grown up and gone your own way. Good being out with Cursa TV also….everyone seems far happier and less stressed being free from the course and major stressbowl that is SMO. Actually cannot be fucked with Graduation in October so if I cannot just graduate with Absentia ill just not bother fuckin going!
Slept in for work the next day as I was still drunk in the morning and half asleep I assumed the sound of my alarm was….something else. It’s Friday! I decide at around 12 while in work trying very hard to be busy doing fucking transcripts that I’m gonna go to Inverness for the weekend to see Kirsty. Yes. Lets do it. Fuck the transcripts. Fuck Glasgow – just for the weekend. City boy that I am I need a bit of time away to chill too just like everyone else. I leave work early. 4.45. Im already late in whats going to be a bit of a tight schedule. I put on some Sigur Ròs on the Jukebox (my personal Creative Jukebox that is) which really doesn’t help in terms of getting a move on to the train station. But I make it in time for the 4.55 train. Home by 5.15. I take fucking ages getting stuff packed. My bus from Buchanan Bus Station to Inverness leaves at 6.45. Quite the challenge to pack/shave/shower/changed/GET there. Once I get round to showering it’s already 6.20 once im out and dressed. FUCK. My dinner is ready. I have to put it in a container to eat in the car. Can of coke also to wake me up! – what are mums for eh? I arrive at the bus station at 6.44 and 54 seconds. Quite simply if the bus was ACTUALLY there I would have missed it. It eventually took a further half an hour before it arrived. Infact no 40 minutes. 7.25 it left. During the ridiculously long wait I go to the shop and see some right Chav’s running towards me. I clench my fists momentarily incase they decide to have a go….but they run right past. Guess what mad shit they’re getting down to tonight? Jumping the barrier to get into the Bus station toilets! Mental. Pure wide. It costs all of what….20p to get in? An aged im-mature-and-have-a-respectable-job-and-i-no-longer-do-coke guard see’s an opportunity to deck the wee fucks. Shouts ‘HAW YOU’ then jumps in after them. I enter the shop, grab myself a cheeky Bounty bar….some chewing gum and a bottle of Evian…how naïve. When I arrive back at stand 52 some crazy extremely foreign sounding Gouranga-dressed lady approaches. She smells so bad I can taste the salt. Mumbling a lot of nonsense…all I could make out was 53. I turned her away assuming at first she was offering her body. But no she was just asking if she was at right stand. I take a look at her ticket and realise she’s ready and waiting for her bus that’s leaving the stand in……5 hours. I tried my best to explain but naw naw she was staying. Sitting patiently. Aye whatever….left her to it. A bus pulls up at 7.15 and we’re all pissed off with the waiting (there’s a full bus load of people waiting impatiently along with me here). After the call for Inverness…the bus then pulls out and drives off – WHAT THE FUCK?! Will be back in 2 minutes the neddy sounding lady tries to say reassuringly….10 minutes later another bus pulls up. Finally we fucking board. Jesus. The joys of public transport. Some guy sniffing continuously from Glasgow to Perth. I turned round every now and then hoping he’d give ma a smile and that he was only taking the piss but no…..I almost ended up smothering the guy with my jacket…or perhaps kisses…that might shut him up.
You ever feel like the whole world is revolving around you? I do. Things like…..on the bus from Perth to Inverness the girl behind me listening to her Ipod music selection of: Coldplay – Scientist and Snow Patrol – Chasing Cars – I was listening to both these songs that day. Ok not exactly unique they are both fairly regularly played songs but im paranoid ok? The weekend with Kirsty was great. Quiet B&B in Inverness. Time away from the Big City. Don’t realise how intense it is until you’re a bit more out of the loop you know….We go out for drinks and meet with friend Andy who I met up in Stornoway. He comes out with friends David and Claire. David who’s studying media also so we get into chats that noone else can really understand. Geeks yes. He talks of a Lost Series Spoof that him and his mates in College made. I later find them on Youtube and have to say they are pretty good! Good chat and we all get drunk in Johnny Fox’s. According to Claire I look like hmm guess....James Van Der Beek, Dawson from Dawson’s Creek. Aye very good…first one to come up with that eh. But wait just to add to it, I have a Richard Gere mouth. What does that mean?!
The bus journey home is sheer comedy. The bus stops somewhere between Inverness and Perth and the driver announces AT some Chinese guy how his bin bags have blood pouring out of them and all over the Undercarriage – people beside me start freaking out and some quietly scream ‘oh my god, bet it’s a dead body’. Aye ok. Turns out it’s a bag of fish and it stinks like FUCK. My bag was on top of others so im happily fishgut free. Have a good laugh about it with a young student girl sitting beside me who same as me just wants to get to Glasgow. Driver gets back on the bus and shouts ‘Does anyone want to make a complaint?’ and I was just saying slightly aloud ‘em aye, complaint about you…we just want to go fucking home mate’. But then, wait, what can he actually do? Say he’s sorry? Or get a letter sent out saying that Citylink and Megabus are ‘sorry’ ? He can’t do shit and it’s not like City Link will refund. It’s not their problem. Plus they are the tightest bastards on the planet. That time there was a Mudslide and there was NO BUS to Glasgow for a week…they wouldn’t refund my ticket…even after sending a letter to London. Wankers. There is then a hold up ahead because of something going on in Gleneagles. The driver stops the bus again and tries acting the hero asking if anyone knows some alternative route. Probably a dirt track with low bridges to kill us all. ‘I don’t know the route but I’ll do it’ – what does this guy want. A Medal? We eventually make it home like an hour late. Thank you City Link.
On Monday at 12 I go to Virgin Megastore during my lunch break. Buy the Tarantino Screenplay of Death Proof, £7 which resulted in a sexy wrist band for the Tarantino signing this afternoon/evening 5-7pm before his Death Proof Premiere and Q&A at the GFT – wasn’t lucky enough to get tickets for that. After an hours wait outside Virgin in the cold with friends Davyd and Simon – who didn’t manage to get himself a wristband in time – we’re in the door and out comes the camera. We could see Tarantino from outside but hey it’s a little different seeing him close-up in the flesh. We have a bunch of right moron’s in front of us and I quote:
”Haw mate, mate *calls over one of the guards* it’s the score here. You tryin tae tell me that aw these people in here have wan ae these badboys? *points at wristband* Merr than an oor I’ve been waiting here. Kill fuckin Bill aye? I’ll fuckin Kill Him in a minute. “
Fuck. Ok so right when we’re at front of the queue Tarantino is gonna walk out because of these guys. His mate’s face looks like a bag of zips, clearly cut open or chibbed as they say in the G. Scary stuff.
Anyway im up at the desk and Q.T’s right in front of me.
Q.T: Hey man!
me: Hey *shakes hand*
Q.T: Hey, where you get that t-shirt? I love it. *points at my cartoony pulp fiction t-shirt* Noticed a few people have them. Whats your name?
me: Rory. I’m a media student just want to say your films have been a real inspiration. Being a media student they’ve really encouraged me to keep writing.
Q.T:Hey thanks that means a lot man. Really. So you go to film school?
me: Well no im just finishing a trainee course placement. Thinking about film school but im not sure.
Q.T: Hey man with enough passion and a belief in what you have to say, just keep writing. Hell, thats what I did! *signs screenplay* Davyd got some great photo’s of me with Tarantino and I of him. He even turned to pose with me for one. What a guy. So yeh advice from Tarantino what can I say eh?! I think I’ll do what the man says….and maybe at a push send him my T-Shirt too.
I wake up 6.25 to be ready steady go for Faye picking me up at 7 to go to Fort George for our next museum on our list - The Highlanders Museum. I get a call from Faye around 10 past and like anyone else who is not familiar with the streets in the west end, she can’t find my stret. I direct her on the phone – not easy to explain. She arrives around 20 past and we go off to pick up Derek and set off to Inverness
Fort George is well hidden. Unable to see anything, even close up as it’s covered by high walls. Still an active barracks for sending people off to Iraq. Film this that and whatever. Nazi memorabilia/lighter with bullet hole, world war one periscope for trenches. Eerie streets and lane’s remind me of Aushchwitz. I decide to skip dinner with the crew and set off to the Cottage Bar where Kirsty works. I have to wait 20 minutes until the next Service 25 bus at stance 5 going to Dingwall. But im getting off at Marybourgh. I take out my signed-by-Q.T Screenplay for Death Proof. Got about 20 pages in rather quickly it’s pretty damn good. Tarantino as always on top form ith his genius in natural dialogue. The bus arrives – Single to Marybourgh please. There’s only me and 2 others sitting downstairs on the bus. One of those being a young, id say 16 y.o max sitting across from me. What does she decide to do as I read? Turns on her phone like a fucking stereo and starts blaring out DJ Sammy, fucking Tiesto I dunno its ALL shite. I give her my infamous ‘what the fuck?’ facial expression. She recognises it instantly and thinks im flirting with her. I try to block it out but it’s just so fucking irritating. Clearly I need someone to explain to me the reason – any reason at all – to why I should tolerate this bullshit. Why the fuck am I being tortured by this girls TERRIBLE, but rather predictable taste in music for a Non Educated Delinquent. First song has now finished. Here comes the next number – FUCK off it’s a remix of who else but U2. That shitey With or Without you thing with that woman that looks like a man or more politely put, a burst baw. There’s my stop. I give the retarded jungle music girl a fake ckeeky smile and she smiles back thinking she’s scored big time. Made me laugh. Aff the bus.
As I enter the rather picturesque cottage house the bar is full of old men dressed in tartan – it’s the Scotland France game…which regarding the latter we won 2 nill. Eilidh came to meet us 0 eventually after I had a rather excellent Chicken dinner. We speak of SMO, the banter, the bitching, the grading. Eilidh – “What does Glaiked mean? Simple Eilidh. It means SIMPLE
End up going back to Kirsty’s rather than many miles and costly taxi back to the Redcliffe Hotel where along with the crew I have a very small bed/room. So tired from a long long day that im not awake for very long at all. End up having a great sleep. Breakfast in the morning made by Kirsty. I have a far-too-early-in-the-morning-but-nice conversation with Kirsty’s dad and then parents later into the conversation about my work/my life/De-a-Nis and all things Gaelic. Im sad to see my taxi, having arrived early, waiting outside. I don’t want to leave but im needed for another day at Fort George’s Highland Museum. For all of that journey, ignoring the small talk from the taxi driver, I was tempted to ask him to turn back. Fuck it! Take a day off. Tell Caledonia I have to go see about a girl. But im an idiot. I arrived at the hotel while they were all still busy at breakfast.
Today in Fort George to start with im on photography for the crew. Caledonia-at-work shots. Few interesting ones in there. Arty perhaps. Ill post them up later. Then throughout the next half of the day we are in the Indian Mutiny room. Then to the WII and WWI room. One of the big highlights being the Hitler Youth Knife. Getting to hold it. Scary stuff. Engraved on the blade is ‘Blut und Ehre’ meaning 'Blood and Honour’ in German. Filmed some of my own stuff with the DV Camera again. Some footage from outside. Alternative camera angles and Lock-Off’s. We finish at 5.15 as the Museum closes and then headed for Pitlochry.
At the rather large Scotland Hotel, crawling with Old mainly American Couple’s, I accessed my emails from the Wifi Lounge. Nothing interesting really. Some Bebo activity, yet another email from Catriona – I’ve to call Eilidh Grant about Graduation. I don’t of course. I’m working and Catriona of all people should know that. The next morning we head for Anstruthers Fisheries Museum. It is indeed ‘biger than you think’. The usual Camera Assistant/PA/2nd Camera involvement throughout the day. We film a scene using the Wally Dolly – A device invented by an Australian Cameraman. Basically it’s your poor man’s Dolly. You lay aluminium pipes like tracks and stick your Tripod and Cam on top of a T-Joing with wheels and can track smoothly across. Ended up being a great shot. We had dinner in the award winning Anstruther’s Fish Bar. Have to say I have had better though. Wasn’t worth the 40 minute wait in the queue certainly. The next day I shot some footage of the crew going out to sea on The Reaper – a 100 foot, 100 year old ship. Filmed it going out of the Marina, out to sea, putting up it’s sail. Lot of great shots. Good shots of the boat returning into the Marina also. With lighthouse in the background and slow zooms A La Jaws minus the Great White. We then film in the Boatyard which is attached to the side of the Museum. Full size ships and boats in there. Rather impressive…..but not so much after being stuck in a room with them filming GV’s for the rest of the Afternoon. I enjoyed the last 4 days of filming. The last location filming of my placement which in 4 days will have come to an end. I’m not going to lie, I am indeed very nervous of where I go next. What to do, who to work for, who to apply for, who to accept. Who not to accept? One thing I know for certain is that I’ll not rush into anything without thinking carefully about my choices. It is, after all, my future and noone elses. Id like to think also that I deserve a bit of a break! 2 months travelling, 1 week home, 6 months SMO Skye, 2 weeks Christmas, 3.5 months Stornway then an amazing 2.5 months back home. Holiday time though. The very many 2nd weekend return home wasn’t quite the same until I was ACTUALLY home just over 2 months ago and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The friends, the family and of course the social life that a city boy like myself deserves. I will graduate with absentia. Fuck going back to SMO. No accomodation and just a lot of hastle getting there getting back. Is it worth it? No. Reunion coming up on the 28th of this month should be good. Kirsty’s birthday at her new flat in St Andrews the day after should also be good. Can’t say I’ve ever been to St Andrews aside’s from just passing through. Or may I was there in High School but I like to think im good with my memory and that I’d remember.
First day back working in Glasgow and I batter into those good old Transcripts again – yay……..I meet Ewan for lunch at the usual Chin Spankies or Tune Arse Keys (Chinaski’s) for a gourmet Chicken Burger and a pint – classy eh. Back to work a bit more relaxed then I decide to have a bit of a film marathon. Two films out I want to see – 3:10 to Yuma and Superbad. So I decide on both, text Davyd/Simon/Ewan and D bails out saying he’s out of town but Si and EOH are on the ball and up for it. Ewan doesn’t finish until half 8 though so he arranges to meet us after 3:10 for the 8.45 showing of Superbad. 3:10 is great – gritty western remake starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale and a special surprise, Ben Foster who was fantastic. Loved his character in Six Feet under and a number of films that I fail to remember the title of. Crowe and Bale of course being in the top 5 A list of actors so putting the two together was just genius. James Mangold directing also. Director of Walk the Line and Girl Interupted. The Academy love to throw Oscars at the guys films seemingly and of course why not give Crowe yet another nod just for laughs? Maybe Bale too but word on the street is Bale is tipped for his lead role in Rescue Dawn. Still to be released in the UK.
Anyway, after 3:10 Si and I go get a bite to eat in Walkabout. Good old Awesome burger gets us going. Tennents Tops too just to add a buzz to the mix. We head back for Superbad and buy Ewan’s ticket as he’s running late. We make it in just in time though and sit up the back where there are complete morons laughing like Snow White on speed to we go down to the front left aisle. Not my ideal front centre spot but it’s good enough. Fucking funniest film I’ve seen in years I kid you not. Up there easily with Napoleon Dynamite and other favourites. We laughed all the way through it. Drinks after and we end up in the Brunswick Cellars for a few and then to Box where the music is so loud I can’t hear myself think. I spot a stray umbrella though and take it with us upon exiting the premises. Pose for a picture and look like a fag. Call the Canny Taxi and we’re aff hame. Work the next day is pish ‘cause Faye is not in and Les is stressing about the transcripts needing done. Chill man….i’ve done like 15 today already and there’s still millions to go. I find it very hard not to be annoyed at this chat we’re having given the only reason I’m typing up all these transcripts is because Les, bossman and Peter ,Editor, don’t speak Gaelic. Meh. Anyway I get as much done as I can and you know what? Just to please his ass take the rest of the unfinished stuff home to get it done after hours. Cause you know what? Tomorrow is my last day not just of the placement but the course air fad so id like to do a little dance, make a little love ta. Maybe offer me a job too eh? Cheers darlin’…
My last day is surprisingly good…even though noone in work seems to know that it’s my last day until Faye sends Les a text about it! I finish off transcripts then watch through all my Kelvingrove footage. Then Fort George and Anstruthers – Les is impressed and claims my footage might make the Intro to the Anstruthers Fisheries Museum Episode in the Series which is great to hear. They buy me a book on Roman Polanski which is nice and we go down to the Butterfly and the Pig for a beer – somewhere I go quite regularly so it’s a bit odd going here with the bossman! So I don’t get offered a job straight out but I don’t expect to be either. Truth is it’s very hard for any of many of these companies to employee new Gaelic Media Trainee’s especially in the BBC because of doubt of the infamous Gaelic Channel. Although I do express my interest at least in maybe working again with them soon on the final 3 episodes of their Museum Series. Also keen to be involved in their next project which is a film on Cunningham Graham, for which filming would take place in Argentina, Mexico, Taxas and a few other South American hot spots. Truth is though…I don’t even know if they like me? Or want me to work for them? Or enjoyed any of my time with them? I don’t seem to know very much do I…..so that’s the placement over. Finishd. No more SMO. Done. Not quite sinking in yet….a fancy dress party where I reach the glorious stage of drinking wine out of the bottle….then, according to Marianne, refilling it with water to drink out that out of it too. CLASSY eh? Death Proof the next day with Simon and Ryan – it’s fantastic fuck what all the critics slate about it. Whats the bet that majority of them haven’t even seen Vanishing Point hence unable to understand the relevance or….ok ill shut up now. Dinner with Simon in Chinaski’s (where else?) with Simon where we bump into Marianne and her friend Andy….Box after for some live music…..then fail, again, to get into Derek’s work. Too casual. Wanks. Bier Halle instead. Southern Comfort and Lemonade’s. Stop on Buchanan Street to listen to a ridiculously good guitar player. But I think he was just playing a CD…but 3 days of partying later and it’s a hungover Sunday into the September weekend. Im supposed to go to a party tonight but I think ill give it a miss and watch a film. Oh got the green light for Directing the HisGirlFriday Music Video. Kevin Boyle, mate from schools band. Filming sometime over the next few weeks. Along with some time off of course! I decide im going to finish writing up this rather novelesque blog of mine. If you have reached this point? Lets get married baby.
Here’s looking at you, kid :)
R x
Hame, Caledonia, MNE, Runrig and Museums - 163 Days Ago
Fat Ginger Big Issue Seller (F.G.B.I.S) :
Big Issue. Big Issue. Awright kiddies want a copy? Fresh aff the Press
Us:
No thanks you’re alright mate
F.G.B.I.S:
Oh go on, helps the homeless an aw that. Go on wit about you pal?
Ewan:
Na sorry mate, students you know….
F.G.B.I.S:
But it’s for a good cause. Helpin the homeless an aw that. Awright wit about you darlin’?
Natalie:
Na you're alright thanks
F.G.B.I.S:
Aye what about you then pal? Wit age ur yae?
Me:
Eh, hard sell isn’t quite working is it. We’ve already said not interested mate. Doesn’t matter what my age is
F.G.B.I.S:
Right, so you’re a fanny then aye?
Ewan:
:o
Natalie:
Eh, that’s a bit harsh
Me:
Eh, aye ok mate
F.G.B.I.S:
Cause you’ve got a huge fuckin cranium aye. She’s far prettier than yae. Ya wee wank. *walks off*
WELCOME TO GLASGOW
Don’t you just love it. Im so proud to be Glaswegien. If in doubt just act like a total prick to people an you’re bound to get your own way in the end. At least that’s what the guy thought. Said the exact same shite to the people beside us in the Bier Halle Beer Garden.
Week 1
First week home I have off work and I decide to go nuts and do…..wait for it…waaait for it…..absolutely nothing. Except watch 24 and drink some foreign beers. Think in the end I watched a Season and a half. Ridiculously good. And yes correct that’s roughly a whole day’s worth in hours watching Jacky B strutt his stuff on that LA Takedown Dancefloor of Hardcore Action. Yas.
Week 2
Monday and I begin work at Caledonia TV. It’s great. Really nice people. Very welcoming into the team and I pretty much get stuck right in there with their Museums series ‘Ulaidhean’ taking over where Colette left off. I finish off her shooting notes then do some transcripts. Not exactly best of fun but that leads onto shadowing the editing of the first six episodes of rushes later in the week. And that’s all ill say about work. I meet Si and Jo that night and go see the Simpsons film. Pretty funny but not as great as everyone seems to be saying it is. Ends up being a bit of a night out. Was Joanne’s introduction to the Glasgow nightlife. Or something. Go around most of the best bars in town. Get drunk a little too quickly but its all good in the hood. Early hours and I stagger home and realise my Amy Macdonald signed copy has arrived. It’s ACE everyone buy it now.
Tuesday night I meet with Davyd and we go see Transformers – aye CGI’s very nice but I could have came to that conclusion from just watching the trailer. I hate Michael Bay. All looks very pretty but the scripts are always laughable and the plots always ridiculous. Howbout you stop letting this guy make 200 million pound movies and give it to me. Anyone. With that kind of money anyone could make something easily as ‘impressive’ as Michael fuckin’ Bay. Many Staropramen down the hatch in the Bier Halle with Davyd and we decide to make a short film. Still in the works so ideas still in early early pre-production stage. Tbc at later date.
Wednesday I promise myself im going to be sensible and just go straight home after work. Aye right. Strolling along Bath Street and who do I see/hear but Jen from the City Inn days chatting with crazy friend Annie in Bar Bloc. Original 2 drinks then home idea very soon disappears when I random meet with kev boyle from school. We talk music. His band His Girl Friday are excellent. Another addition to this random meet is my bosses daughter Kirsty. I try very hard to behave myself and be all professional etc but aye right like im going to pull that off. We decide to head to the west end. Ewan joins is in Brel on Ashton Lane. Drinks till late. £4.25 for a Kronenbourg Blanc. Loaded obviously….shit.
Thursday I go for lunch with Ewan in Chinaski’s. many beers after end up in firewater chatting up underage girls for a laugh. 2 more in Magic Cafe to share their pizza onion rings. keep calling one billie piper and she hates it because she’s Australian. Or was it South African. Who knows. Later she spills donner sauce on my jeans. Aye cheers.
On the Saturday I go see Die Hard 4 with my dad. So much better than I thought it would be. Beats 2 and 3 certainly. Can’t beat a bit of John MacLean over the top beating off fighter jets with his bare hands and using cars as weapons to take down helicopters – car takes it out in mid air. As you do. After the showing we go out the wrong exit of the cinema. Front and back entrance/exit look identical. Rather hilarious moment almost losing dads car. Being 24’d out of my nut my first thought was ‘what would Jack Bauer do?’. Was fully prepared to go over to the ticket desk and demand to speak to head of security, demand CCTV footage of the car park adjacent to the building, cross reference any ID’s made with any unsolved car thefts over the last 6 months. But then we realise we were in the South Car Park, not the North. Oh well. Was looking forward to that aswell…
Week 3
Monday I go for a meal and screening of Thomas Telford at Les Wilson, the boss’s house. Dinner is great. Some fancy Jamie Oliver recipe. Les is quite the entertainer. Tuesday is Annie’s 22nd Birthday Party with Del and Jen. Met a girl Jen who is the face of a Belle and Sebastien album cover or something – whatever. Spoke to Sarah, Jen's mate about possible flat and
arranged for viewing Wed. Went back to Del's after and watched Jackie Brown and fell asleep. Woke up half 5, 2 hours sleep until I had to go to work.
Wednesday I do lunch with Simon at the beloved Chinaski's. Plan for cinema later. Flat viewing at 7 and it looks great. Ewan and Natalie come too but decide to maybe look at few others before we decide to move out. Go to bier halle for dinner and few drinks with Si Nat Ewan. sit outside at first but get hastled by cheeky ginger big issue guy see above) that calls me a fanny because I dont tell him my age and that his hard sell is failing miserably. Ewan and Nat go home at 10 Si and I go
Stavka for a few. Pub Quiz - whats worse than a maggot in an apple? being raped……had to be there I guess…
Thursday's a quiet one I go home finish 24 season 5 and sleep. Friday I do lunch with Ewan in The Hall. The scream burger is ace and get to play some pool but get a bit too excited and rather tipsy from downing the pint and prancing about with the pool cue that we are both drunk and late on return to work.
On the weekend I decide to do next to nothing which is great as ive not really had a break since being home. Sunday night late we play some poker at Del's. Not played in months. Good to be back. All get a bit drunk and Derek freaks out thinking Craig has ran off....later find out he was lying at the end of the
bed the whole time….Del yer a tit.
Tuesday I go to the bier halle with dad for dinner. Staropramen and Spicy Sausage Pizza for me, Krusovice and Hawaiian Pizza for dad. Talk of applying for jobs. Ideas and ambitions. What is the meaning of life. All that jazz. Ewan joins us post-dinner - orders Staropramen - for chat about developing his cv more - Tich from 999 design suggests writing it like a cd - tracks etc. since it is cd cover art and design work that he wishes to pursue. few more drinks and ewan's girlfriend natalie arrives - raspberry beer - few more drinks and we grab a taxi home.
Wednesday is Bourne Ultimatum premiere. Jo Banana's very kindly skips the queue for me, working there and all, to get me a ticket. The queue is so long is queueing outside and round the corner to where Walkabout is. Film is excellent. Best action film i've seen in years - tops that of Casino Royale. Think bathroom fight scenes. Two words - Hardback Book.
Week 4
This week im with MNE working on a Runrig feature. It’s about the fans not the band. Work Work Work Runrig Runrig Work - Thursday we find we have 20 Gaelic Contributors and 15 Crazy Fanatic Foreigners travelling from around the world for 1 band playing live on home turf. They have interesting names of course. The Kockums amd the Kuhnt's. Were really keen on getting those two together. From a fan bellydancing to An Toll Dubh, to a blind Danish lady who has been to 97 Runrig Concerts. I mean I feel guilty seeing a band twice. Is she mad?!
Friday and we're off. I wake up to 9 missed calls on my phone. All from numbers I fail to recognise....until I read the texts - they are from Contributors to our show. I cross-reference (my attempt at being Jack Bauer cheers thanks) these missed numbers with other contributors and find they are all people we were unable to get in touch with the night before. Made the calls, we now have hmm 40 people meeting us for interviews within the space of an hour.....bring it.. Wellies - Check. Z1 - Check, Gear and laptop and other unnecessary items - Check. We leave MNE around 1. We leave an hour behind schedule. Which of course does not take into account the 2000 fans are also trying to get to the same place we are going to? Hence the traffic jams and generally crazy german/danish/italian dunno ALL of Europe fuck it. I was of course delighted, at the time , to meet many of these fanatics at the Green Welly Shop.
We arrive in Fort Augustus back of 6 and go for dinner. Asked at the bar if I want a drink I mistakingly automatically say yes, quick tap check and ask for a Kronenbourg Extra Cold. Around 3 seconds later I do a turn and realise im 1 of the 2 out of 10 people in our crew thats having a beer with their dinner - the FUCK am I doing? Jokes are made at the fact I have a beer - but of course they really think 'who the fuck's this guy? not that they are paying me anything apart from the food but....yeh not a good thing to do when your there with a crew as a trainee. All decent people though, which really matters when your filming festivals - it's all about getting into the swing of things - the atmosphere, the music, the banter. so that it shows clearly on camera. so that your not just a pro presenter that can make anything seem fabulous - this is actually something we're all there for and enjoying it - 11, quit a large crew might I add. Your asking the viewer to come party.
Wasn't much required in the first night though. Just covered bits and bobs from the Karaoke, some PTC (pieces to camera) with the presenters and plenty of GV's from campsite - day and night to compensate for any reason to have to cut out of interviews. show a nice pretty picture. whatever! Donald’s band Achnasheen Airport play also. They sound great. night ends at midnight. heating in car is so strong we all fall asleep. back to richmond house hotel and there's some kind of party. 8 piece random band. I drop off my bags in room and go join with rest of crew which very quickly changes from the planned 1 pint then bed to...4 pints and bed can wait. Few real old school characters in the bar. they get to stay late and attend a lock-in with us (the guests) as he is probably the main source of income that keeps their place going when business is low ie an alcoholic.
Saturday morning I get up early and watch The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon, Robert De Niro and Angelina Jolie, Directed by Robert De Niro about the beginning of the CIA. Ill admit it looks great and Matt Damon is always great but it’s just a tad boring….not much happens in it in the end. I look outside and the weather is miserable. Pouring with rain. Wind. So I pack my waterproof’s. We pick up our Triple A (Access All Areas) passes and head backstage, setup our camera’s – we have 2 crews. We are told that the Vatersay Boys have been drinking through the night. A brief look into their porta-cabin and I see they are downing Port out of a Vase! We interview Julie Fowlis and Aberfeldy. Then head out into the main field just as people start to enter. A group of around 20 fans race from the back of the field all the way to the front barrier of the stage. Very nice guys but Runrig aren’t for hours yet! It’s still raining heavily. We notice immediately that the Merchandise Stall where we had arranged to meet all these fans…….wasn’t in the middle of the field beside the sound desks like it said on the map. Next problem was EVERYONE had fucking umbrella’s so was impossible to find anyone. Or more importantly it was impossible for them to find us.
Ended up having to just go around and do Vox Pops as only 3 or 4 of the contributors actually found us at that point as we waited beside the sound desks in the centre of the field. Pretty sure it worked out well in the end though. Camera I had didn’t have a waterproof cover so ended up using a plastic bag. Started getting wet on the Viewfinder so I had to just put it back in the van and shadow the Z1 Camera Crew instead. Spot a good number of people with Gaelic who do us a favour and say a little bit about why they are here etc. Got a lot of interesting festive footage with the mud fights etc and were able to get the camera up and stage and in front of the main barrier during Runrig’s set which was quite impressive but what can I say….im a Donnie fan in the end. During the encore I go to the toilets backstage to find Iain Bain (the drummer) beside me at the Urinal. We join the afterparty in the tent backstage after the gig and I meet Carrie from school who is a roadie with the Vatersay Boys. Good to see her not seen her in years. So nackered by this point. It’s been a long day. Head back to the hotel and a few drinks with the crew then I collapse in bed.
Sunday I wake up early but my phone got some water in it through the day so it crashed and shows the time on the screen as half 3. I panic and rush to get ready but then check my watch and I still have an hour in bed. Best news ever. We head back out to finish off the rest if Ishi and Cailean’s PTC’s then we drive back to Glasgow. I lose my sunglasses – Raybans bought brand new the Thursday before somewhere between the Hotel and home. FUCK.
Monday I go see Bourne Ultimatum again. This time with Simon. We have dinner in Bunker. Monday Munchies – 5 pound dinner. Not bad. Film is great again of course. Go for a drink in Pivo Pivo and witness a film crew filming Taggart in an office building across the road. Join Del in Brick next who’s there already for the pub quiz and he’s smashed talking about how great a barman he is and how he’s going to go to New York and prove us all wrong. Or live in China and teach English. One of the two. Tuesday I plan Fridays trip to Edinburgh Museums.
Wednesday I hear Tarantino will be in Glasgow for a Q&A in September. Tickets went on sale the day before and sold out minutes after. Still trying to get a hold of a ticket before he’s here in 2 weeks. I go to Kelvingrove Museum and do a Recce – check out whats good and whats not. There’s millions of stuff but I just pick out the stuff that stands out – Dali’s Christ on the Cross, Rembrandt, Van Gough and a whole number of statue’s and antiques. Today im back there again just to finish taking notes on everything I was looking at. About 10 pages worth in the end. Tomorrow I go through to Edinburgh and visit 3 museums. Going to be chaos considering there are currently 2 festivals also running there at the same time. Might go see a few shows while im there. Kirsty’s coming down for the weekend so should be good . Month left in my course and it’s all starting to get crazy. Have to send off some of my work over the last 6 months to Catriona as evidence. To email Chris Young my CV with ideas and aspirations. Fingers crossed ill get some good advice from that. Still to hear back from Sigma films. Filming on location almost every day of the week for the next 3 weeks.
Stay beautiful. Stay gold.
R :) x
Big Issue. Big Issue. Awright kiddies want a copy? Fresh aff the Press
Us:
No thanks you’re alright mate
F.G.B.I.S:
Oh go on, helps the homeless an aw that. Go on wit about you pal?
Ewan:
Na sorry mate, students you know….
F.G.B.I.S:
But it’s for a good cause. Helpin the homeless an aw that. Awright wit about you darlin’?
Natalie:
Na you're alright thanks
F.G.B.I.S:
Aye what about you then pal? Wit age ur yae?
Me:
Eh, hard sell isn’t quite working is it. We’ve already said not interested mate. Doesn’t matter what my age is
F.G.B.I.S:
Right, so you’re a fanny then aye?
Ewan:
:o
Natalie:
Eh, that’s a bit harsh
Me:
Eh, aye ok mate
F.G.B.I.S:
Cause you’ve got a huge fuckin cranium aye. She’s far prettier than yae. Ya wee wank. *walks off*
WELCOME TO GLASGOW
Don’t you just love it. Im so proud to be Glaswegien. If in doubt just act like a total prick to people an you’re bound to get your own way in the end. At least that’s what the guy thought. Said the exact same shite to the people beside us in the Bier Halle Beer Garden.
Week 1
First week home I have off work and I decide to go nuts and do…..wait for it…waaait for it…..absolutely nothing. Except watch 24 and drink some foreign beers. Think in the end I watched a Season and a half. Ridiculously good. And yes correct that’s roughly a whole day’s worth in hours watching Jacky B strutt his stuff on that LA Takedown Dancefloor of Hardcore Action. Yas.
Week 2
Monday and I begin work at Caledonia TV. It’s great. Really nice people. Very welcoming into the team and I pretty much get stuck right in there with their Museums series ‘Ulaidhean’ taking over where Colette left off. I finish off her shooting notes then do some transcripts. Not exactly best of fun but that leads onto shadowing the editing of the first six episodes of rushes later in the week. And that’s all ill say about work. I meet Si and Jo that night and go see the Simpsons film. Pretty funny but not as great as everyone seems to be saying it is. Ends up being a bit of a night out. Was Joanne’s introduction to the Glasgow nightlife. Or something. Go around most of the best bars in town. Get drunk a little too quickly but its all good in the hood. Early hours and I stagger home and realise my Amy Macdonald signed copy has arrived. It’s ACE everyone buy it now.
Tuesday night I meet with Davyd and we go see Transformers – aye CGI’s very nice but I could have came to that conclusion from just watching the trailer. I hate Michael Bay. All looks very pretty but the scripts are always laughable and the plots always ridiculous. Howbout you stop letting this guy make 200 million pound movies and give it to me. Anyone. With that kind of money anyone could make something easily as ‘impressive’ as Michael fuckin’ Bay. Many Staropramen down the hatch in the Bier Halle with Davyd and we decide to make a short film. Still in the works so ideas still in early early pre-production stage. Tbc at later date.
Wednesday I promise myself im going to be sensible and just go straight home after work. Aye right. Strolling along Bath Street and who do I see/hear but Jen from the City Inn days chatting with crazy friend Annie in Bar Bloc. Original 2 drinks then home idea very soon disappears when I random meet with kev boyle from school. We talk music. His band His Girl Friday are excellent. Another addition to this random meet is my bosses daughter Kirsty. I try very hard to behave myself and be all professional etc but aye right like im going to pull that off. We decide to head to the west end. Ewan joins is in Brel on Ashton Lane. Drinks till late. £4.25 for a Kronenbourg Blanc. Loaded obviously….shit.
Thursday I go for lunch with Ewan in Chinaski’s. many beers after end up in firewater chatting up underage girls for a laugh. 2 more in Magic Cafe to share their pizza onion rings. keep calling one billie piper and she hates it because she’s Australian. Or was it South African. Who knows. Later she spills donner sauce on my jeans. Aye cheers.
On the Saturday I go see Die Hard 4 with my dad. So much better than I thought it would be. Beats 2 and 3 certainly. Can’t beat a bit of John MacLean over the top beating off fighter jets with his bare hands and using cars as weapons to take down helicopters – car takes it out in mid air. As you do. After the showing we go out the wrong exit of the cinema. Front and back entrance/exit look identical. Rather hilarious moment almost losing dads car. Being 24’d out of my nut my first thought was ‘what would Jack Bauer do?’. Was fully prepared to go over to the ticket desk and demand to speak to head of security, demand CCTV footage of the car park adjacent to the building, cross reference any ID’s made with any unsolved car thefts over the last 6 months. But then we realise we were in the South Car Park, not the North. Oh well. Was looking forward to that aswell…
Week 3
Monday I go for a meal and screening of Thomas Telford at Les Wilson, the boss’s house. Dinner is great. Some fancy Jamie Oliver recipe. Les is quite the entertainer. Tuesday is Annie’s 22nd Birthday Party with Del and Jen. Met a girl Jen who is the face of a Belle and Sebastien album cover or something – whatever. Spoke to Sarah, Jen's mate about possible flat and
arranged for viewing Wed. Went back to Del's after and watched Jackie Brown and fell asleep. Woke up half 5, 2 hours sleep until I had to go to work.
Wednesday I do lunch with Simon at the beloved Chinaski's. Plan for cinema later. Flat viewing at 7 and it looks great. Ewan and Natalie come too but decide to maybe look at few others before we decide to move out. Go to bier halle for dinner and few drinks with Si Nat Ewan. sit outside at first but get hastled by cheeky ginger big issue guy see above) that calls me a fanny because I dont tell him my age and that his hard sell is failing miserably. Ewan and Nat go home at 10 Si and I go
Stavka for a few. Pub Quiz - whats worse than a maggot in an apple? being raped……had to be there I guess…
Thursday's a quiet one I go home finish 24 season 5 and sleep. Friday I do lunch with Ewan in The Hall. The scream burger is ace and get to play some pool but get a bit too excited and rather tipsy from downing the pint and prancing about with the pool cue that we are both drunk and late on return to work.
On the weekend I decide to do next to nothing which is great as ive not really had a break since being home. Sunday night late we play some poker at Del's. Not played in months. Good to be back. All get a bit drunk and Derek freaks out thinking Craig has ran off....later find out he was lying at the end of the
bed the whole time….Del yer a tit.
Tuesday I go to the bier halle with dad for dinner. Staropramen and Spicy Sausage Pizza for me, Krusovice and Hawaiian Pizza for dad. Talk of applying for jobs. Ideas and ambitions. What is the meaning of life. All that jazz. Ewan joins us post-dinner - orders Staropramen - for chat about developing his cv more - Tich from 999 design suggests writing it like a cd - tracks etc. since it is cd cover art and design work that he wishes to pursue. few more drinks and ewan's girlfriend natalie arrives - raspberry beer - few more drinks and we grab a taxi home.
Wednesday is Bourne Ultimatum premiere. Jo Banana's very kindly skips the queue for me, working there and all, to get me a ticket. The queue is so long is queueing outside and round the corner to where Walkabout is. Film is excellent. Best action film i've seen in years - tops that of Casino Royale. Think bathroom fight scenes. Two words - Hardback Book.
Week 4
This week im with MNE working on a Runrig feature. It’s about the fans not the band. Work Work Work Runrig Runrig Work - Thursday we find we have 20 Gaelic Contributors and 15 Crazy Fanatic Foreigners travelling from around the world for 1 band playing live on home turf. They have interesting names of course. The Kockums amd the Kuhnt's. Were really keen on getting those two together. From a fan bellydancing to An Toll Dubh, to a blind Danish lady who has been to 97 Runrig Concerts. I mean I feel guilty seeing a band twice. Is she mad?!
Friday and we're off. I wake up to 9 missed calls on my phone. All from numbers I fail to recognise....until I read the texts - they are from Contributors to our show. I cross-reference (my attempt at being Jack Bauer cheers thanks) these missed numbers with other contributors and find they are all people we were unable to get in touch with the night before. Made the calls, we now have hmm 40 people meeting us for interviews within the space of an hour.....bring it.. Wellies - Check. Z1 - Check, Gear and laptop and other unnecessary items - Check. We leave MNE around 1. We leave an hour behind schedule. Which of course does not take into account the 2000 fans are also trying to get to the same place we are going to? Hence the traffic jams and generally crazy german/danish/italian dunno ALL of Europe fuck it. I was of course delighted, at the time , to meet many of these fanatics at the Green Welly Shop.
We arrive in Fort Augustus back of 6 and go for dinner. Asked at the bar if I want a drink I mistakingly automatically say yes, quick tap check and ask for a Kronenbourg Extra Cold. Around 3 seconds later I do a turn and realise im 1 of the 2 out of 10 people in our crew thats having a beer with their dinner - the FUCK am I doing? Jokes are made at the fact I have a beer - but of course they really think 'who the fuck's this guy? not that they are paying me anything apart from the food but....yeh not a good thing to do when your there with a crew as a trainee. All decent people though, which really matters when your filming festivals - it's all about getting into the swing of things - the atmosphere, the music, the banter. so that it shows clearly on camera. so that your not just a pro presenter that can make anything seem fabulous - this is actually something we're all there for and enjoying it - 11, quit a large crew might I add. Your asking the viewer to come party.
Wasn't much required in the first night though. Just covered bits and bobs from the Karaoke, some PTC (pieces to camera) with the presenters and plenty of GV's from campsite - day and night to compensate for any reason to have to cut out of interviews. show a nice pretty picture. whatever! Donald’s band Achnasheen Airport play also. They sound great. night ends at midnight. heating in car is so strong we all fall asleep. back to richmond house hotel and there's some kind of party. 8 piece random band. I drop off my bags in room and go join with rest of crew which very quickly changes from the planned 1 pint then bed to...4 pints and bed can wait. Few real old school characters in the bar. they get to stay late and attend a lock-in with us (the guests) as he is probably the main source of income that keeps their place going when business is low ie an alcoholic.
Saturday morning I get up early and watch The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon, Robert De Niro and Angelina Jolie, Directed by Robert De Niro about the beginning of the CIA. Ill admit it looks great and Matt Damon is always great but it’s just a tad boring….not much happens in it in the end. I look outside and the weather is miserable. Pouring with rain. Wind. So I pack my waterproof’s. We pick up our Triple A (Access All Areas) passes and head backstage, setup our camera’s – we have 2 crews. We are told that the Vatersay Boys have been drinking through the night. A brief look into their porta-cabin and I see they are downing Port out of a Vase! We interview Julie Fowlis and Aberfeldy. Then head out into the main field just as people start to enter. A group of around 20 fans race from the back of the field all the way to the front barrier of the stage. Very nice guys but Runrig aren’t for hours yet! It’s still raining heavily. We notice immediately that the Merchandise Stall where we had arranged to meet all these fans…….wasn’t in the middle of the field beside the sound desks like it said on the map. Next problem was EVERYONE had fucking umbrella’s so was impossible to find anyone. Or more importantly it was impossible for them to find us.
Ended up having to just go around and do Vox Pops as only 3 or 4 of the contributors actually found us at that point as we waited beside the sound desks in the centre of the field. Pretty sure it worked out well in the end though. Camera I had didn’t have a waterproof cover so ended up using a plastic bag. Started getting wet on the Viewfinder so I had to just put it back in the van and shadow the Z1 Camera Crew instead. Spot a good number of people with Gaelic who do us a favour and say a little bit about why they are here etc. Got a lot of interesting festive footage with the mud fights etc and were able to get the camera up and stage and in front of the main barrier during Runrig’s set which was quite impressive but what can I say….im a Donnie fan in the end. During the encore I go to the toilets backstage to find Iain Bain (the drummer) beside me at the Urinal. We join the afterparty in the tent backstage after the gig and I meet Carrie from school who is a roadie with the Vatersay Boys. Good to see her not seen her in years. So nackered by this point. It’s been a long day. Head back to the hotel and a few drinks with the crew then I collapse in bed.
Sunday I wake up early but my phone got some water in it through the day so it crashed and shows the time on the screen as half 3. I panic and rush to get ready but then check my watch and I still have an hour in bed. Best news ever. We head back out to finish off the rest if Ishi and Cailean’s PTC’s then we drive back to Glasgow. I lose my sunglasses – Raybans bought brand new the Thursday before somewhere between the Hotel and home. FUCK.
Monday I go see Bourne Ultimatum again. This time with Simon. We have dinner in Bunker. Monday Munchies – 5 pound dinner. Not bad. Film is great again of course. Go for a drink in Pivo Pivo and witness a film crew filming Taggart in an office building across the road. Join Del in Brick next who’s there already for the pub quiz and he’s smashed talking about how great a barman he is and how he’s going to go to New York and prove us all wrong. Or live in China and teach English. One of the two. Tuesday I plan Fridays trip to Edinburgh Museums.
Wednesday I hear Tarantino will be in Glasgow for a Q&A in September. Tickets went on sale the day before and sold out minutes after. Still trying to get a hold of a ticket before he’s here in 2 weeks. I go to Kelvingrove Museum and do a Recce – check out whats good and whats not. There’s millions of stuff but I just pick out the stuff that stands out – Dali’s Christ on the Cross, Rembrandt, Van Gough and a whole number of statue’s and antiques. Today im back there again just to finish taking notes on everything I was looking at. About 10 pages worth in the end. Tomorrow I go through to Edinburgh and visit 3 museums. Going to be chaos considering there are currently 2 festivals also running there at the same time. Might go see a few shows while im there. Kirsty’s coming down for the weekend so should be good . Month left in my course and it’s all starting to get crazy. Have to send off some of my work over the last 6 months to Catriona as evidence. To email Chris Young my CV with ideas and aspirations. Fingers crossed ill get some good advice from that. Still to hear back from Sigma films. Filming on location almost every day of the week for the next 3 weeks.
Stay beautiful. Stay gold.
R :) x
Short Film Announcement - 185 Days Ago
Ill keep this one short and sweet. Over a few Staropramen or 5 in the Bier Halle last night Davyd and I decided to combine our creative minds (pfft!) and begin further development on a number of our ideas for a Short Film set in and around Glasgow. Been holding back on the idea for just a little over 3 years now since my first short in Uni. So why not eh.
However, all is subject to change at this stage so all ideas and suggestions for us to steal from you and credit as our own we welcome with open arms. For those of you keen to be involved in any way at all, do get in touch.
Hope all is well
R :)
However, all is subject to change at this stage so all ideas and suggestions for us to steal from you and credit as our own we welcome with open arms. For those of you keen to be involved in any way at all, do get in touch.
Hope all is well
R :)
T in the Park, Heb Celt, Eilidh's 21st and Welcome Home - 195 Days ago
Once again I leave it a day or two then 3 weeks later it's a month on and still no blog update. Top of the deck of course is the news of my rather epic return to the home that is Glasgow. I got the call last week from my tutor that I was finishing off in Stornoway end of the week and returning home to work for Caledonia TV and with MNE on their feature on the Runrig Loch Ness concert at the Beat the Drum festival next month. But first things first. Lets not get too excited already.
T in the Park was unbelievable beyond explanation. Possibly the craziest week ever in preparation for it given I found out I was going (cheers Dale) 4 days prior to the event. Only way it worked out in the end was with a rather large thankyou to a ridiculous amount of people I used and abused (big thank you, you know who you are) to get me there in the end. It all sounded so easy of course. The flight down to Glasogw, taxi here, bus there and lets ge the party started. Of course I didnt take into account the fact the Airport had been car bombed a week prior. That the T shuttle bus stopped running an hour before my plane landed. That there was no special service to T just for me...not even Me guys. Could you believe it?
So my plane lands at 8.30 on the Friday night of T. The acts have already started (lilly Allen to be precise). I almost immediately hear of huge traffic jams en route to T and a few texts later find that almost everyone I know going is still stuck in that jam - many of those being people that have been travelling all day while I was still at work up in Stornoway - NOT a good sign! But I get a taxi anyway. Get in touch with Jo Banana's (my T partner in crime) to check she is well on her way to Buchanan). Our plan is either to taxi it (£55 if's clear roads all the way which is clearly not the case), or do get a bus to Edinburgh getting us closer to Balado. I meet my mum at Buchanan Bus station to exchange a small bag of valuables for 3 larger bags and of course a tent and wellies. Jo's bus is late but she stroles in casually just short of 40 seconds before the Edinburgh bus departs. Like the style.
Ruth's boyfriend Michael very kindly agrees to give us a lift from Edinburgh to as near to Balado as he can. Just as we start to see the big wheel and the main stage from a far we begin to debate how far away we actually are in this endless queue of traffic. Having not moved more than 10 inches in half an hour we decide to join a number of others and walk the remaining what was to be 5 miles (not 1. The big wheel ended up being very big and a lot further away than first anticipated...). I start to worry realising everyone else seems to have at least 3 or 4 large bags than us. I check at least 5 times within the space of 10 minutes that we have a tent - check / we have clothes - check / we have wellies - check. Im so glad of course that I decided not to buy that crate of beer as we'd never have been able to walk the distance or anywhere near it if I had!
It's now midnight and we arrive otside the T grounds where the mud is just starting to get interesting. I decide to change into wellies as im noticing more and more trainers that have been lost in the mud. Im expecting bodies next of poor little people who just werent prepared and were just too small to survive in this cruel cruel world. We get through the gates and collect our wristbands with ease and are told that White Red and Blue Campsites are full, Yellow and Green are flooded so.....aye best of luck!
We walk for another hour which seemed like 10 miles with all that mud up to our knees. I send round a multi text to everyone I know at T - half of whom still didnt make it there yet. I felt like we cheated or something having only travelled for less than half the time everyone else had. Decided to pitch up our tent in Purple 6 - in the dark. Some very kind people clearly noticed our immense struggle to pitch this tent - that wasnt even ours and had no instructions and offered to help us. Ended up being them who put it up as it's just been too many years since my Cubs/ Scouts days! We find out that we have missed all the Friday night acts - Arctic Monkeys, the Coral and Lilly Allen I wasnt too fussed about but sad to hear that we had missed Bloc Party.
The tent is up and we've heard from Ross Campbell - not seen him in like 2 years - and agree to meet him at the main gates. 2 hours later and he turns worse for wear shall we say but his usual self and full of comedy. We meet with his ex Sarah and go mud sledging. Walk around most of the campsite looking for a tent.....Ross's monkey?? and other such crazy things that still dont make any sense. Briefly met up with Morag also but think she was a little freaked out by Ross and his drawn-on-by-mud beard. Good to see her though! Entertaining as ever.
It's Saturday morning and we are just going to sleep in our rather impressive tent. Too bad the sleeping bag I had must have been toddler size as I failed miserably to fit in it! Or maybe im just getting fat? A few good cries and Zee's later and we are up again and ready for quite an eventful day - Arcade Fire, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Razorlight, James, James Morrison, The View, Albert Hammond Jr. Rufus Wainright and Brian Wilson and the special of them all - Amy MacDonald in the T-Break tent. Sure to be huge in the very near future. It was a little surreal choosing from so many good bands. Best band of that day though had to be Arcade Fire. Been dieing to see them live for years and they were just as good as I anticipated. Caught the last few songs by The Killers to end the night but can't say im their biggest fan. Had a bunch of Chav's who climbed the fence, keeping all of Purple Campsite awake all night. Talking absolute shite about the Germans invading, jumping on our tent and kicking a football at others. No idea how we managed to get to sleep with all their nonsense and the cold outside but by morning they were gone and the sun was shining.
Sunday arrives and we are set for another epic day of music - Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, Kings of Leon, The Fratellis, Paolo Nutini, Goo Goo Dolls, Editors, Badly Drawn Boy and even Avril Lavigne who's gig we turned up for early to get a good spot for Goo Goo Dolls on next on the main stage. We were a few rows from the front centre barrier before Goo Goo Dolls - lead singer singing passionately to a Blow-up Doll...guy standing beside me sang into the mic for Iris. I shook his hand. They played an amazing set. We remained at the front against the barrier for Paulo, Fratellis, the Kings - Jo caught a drumstick, ended up staying for the Scissor Sisters - missing the Editors, Queens of the Stone Age and Badly Drawn Boy. But we couldnt loose our place! Stayed there from midday to the end of the night! Exhausting but was worth it for a memorable hour and a half of Snowpatrol ending the night and the festival Who continued to run the show even with thousands of glowsticks / trainers / wellies being thrown at them and an entertaining negotiation between Gary Lightbody and the man in the Spiderman Suite to climb down from the ridiculously high speaker scaffolding in the middle of the crowd. He climbed down with plenty of police waiting at the bottom. The night ended with a lone piper without a mic but it didnt matter as the crowd sang it so loud you wouldnt have heard her play anything anyway. Fireworks were set off as Jo ran for the toilets after a 2 hour long must-have-been-painful wait.
We end the night by helping our new friends who helped pitch our tent finish off their alcohol so that they had less to carry home. We manage to leave the Campsite back of 9 for our bus home. Realise very quickly that ticket or no ticket we had to wait in a mile long queue. That plus endless traffic out of Balado resulted in me missing my plane back to Stornoway and my backshift at work that night. With my BA ticket being non-refundable and instantly cancelled in my failure to get there, had to buy a brand new one for a small fortune to fly back next morning to return on the 20th to Inverness for Eilidh's 21st.
My mum and my sister were up in Stornoway same week as the Heb Celt. Was filming at the Heb Celt on the Friday for a Rapal feature then caught the end of the Seth Lakeman set and walked out halfway through the Proclaimers set....sorry guys just not that fussed really. Had the car so went fishing with my sister catching some trout which impressed the granny and had a visit to Dal Mor, one of the nicest beaches on the Island. Mum and Sister left on the Saturday. Decided to make use of my Press Pass and headed down with Joanne to catch the Peatbog Fairies - an odd mixture of celtic music and dance. I was rather impressed actually. Then after meeting with Jane from MacTV and her friends went back to the flat for a few drinks and decided to blag my way into the Festival Club with a press pass. So funny since we were told a number of times we wouldnt get in. Yas. Only caught last 20 minutes of Skerryvore's set but was worth it. Met Janice Ann on her way out but she was so smashed I dont think she'll remember me saying anything to me. Can't say I was that impressed with Heb Celt Festival. May seem amazing for the Islanders but it's hard to appreciate any festival given I had only recently returned from T in the Park - the biggest and arguably the best in the country.
The news of me leaving Stornoway was hard for my gran to understand at first but I made time to get over there on the Thursday night after a nice lunch treat from the BBC that day at the Thai restaurant. Bought a bottle of wine for my gran and a bottle of Grouse for my Great Uncle. Alcohol is the answer for all of life's problems. Explained that its about my future. That other opportunities arise. Working at Cale TV in Glasgow was just one I couldnt say no to. Joanne asked me on the Thursday night if Stornoway changed me. Did it? Don't think I have the intelligence to answer that question but id like to think it did in a way. Certainly moving into a flat and fending for myself so far from home was far more challenging than if you compare to the initial plans of moving out into a flat with mates in Glasgow. Bit of a culture shock also but think I remained sane from my Air Discount Schemed fortnightly flights home. Expensive but worth it. Been quite the jetsetter over the last few months. So was rather gutted giving away our dream flat to Colette and Chris(straight swap with Joanne and I) but saves at least £750 of rent pay to the flat we no longer live in.
Jesus christ this blog is taking me FOREVER to right but I think im almost there. Friday was my last day in Stornoway. Half day at work was great. a brief handover with the Rapal team then off to the pub with Niall Iain in the Carlton Beer Garden. Free of any luggage. All 6 bags, 2 of Joanne's and my Big TV all Heb Haulaged set to arrive that night and Monday. Had a good few drinks with Niall Iain. Shame I didnt get to see more often in my time working here. Was almost persuaded to cancel flights and stay for the BBC Barbeque but I had Eilidh's 21st to attend to and 5 mintues to get to the Airport. On arrival at the Airport I quickly find out that my plane is delayed and join Calum and Seonag in the lounge. Next minute we're drinking Gin and continue to do so on the plane over. They very kindly give me a lift to the bus station and im sure to miss them along with other but will try my best to keep in touch in the days to come.
I catch my bus to Dingwall and drop off my bags at the B&B. Steven very kindly picks me up to take me to Oscars with the party's already started. Im greeted by the TV course upon arrival and hand Eilidh her bottle of Moet Rose and wish her a happy birthday. I go chat with the ever-entertaining Donald and help guard the Buffet. Next I know it im freestyling on he dancefloor to some mixture of Ceilidh music with Eilidh and Kirsty. As I fall asleep on the couch in Eilidh's house drinking someone elses beer I very quickly realise im not going to make this magical Megabus home that leaves in like 2 hours. But no matter as ive no rush to get home and dont intend to sleep anytime soon. I end up getting the 4pm bus from Inverness and arrive home back of 9. Steak for Dinner. Welcome home.
Begin to watch the Aviator with the family but halfway through im called out to a party by Ewan down at Devonshire Gardens. Shona's must-be-loaded sister asked her to look after her apartment with a TV bigger than my house and a grand hall longer than my street. Maroon carpets Chandeliers and all that comes with it. Few drinks and usual chat with Ewan Stu and others who's names ive already forgotten. It's good to be home. I dont intent to leave anytime soon. A week off which is already overbooked with absolute mayhem. Can't wait.
Roll on Glasgow
R x
T in the Park was unbelievable beyond explanation. Possibly the craziest week ever in preparation for it given I found out I was going (cheers Dale) 4 days prior to the event. Only way it worked out in the end was with a rather large thankyou to a ridiculous amount of people I used and abused (big thank you, you know who you are) to get me there in the end. It all sounded so easy of course. The flight down to Glasogw, taxi here, bus there and lets ge the party started. Of course I didnt take into account the fact the Airport had been car bombed a week prior. That the T shuttle bus stopped running an hour before my plane landed. That there was no special service to T just for me...not even Me guys. Could you believe it?
So my plane lands at 8.30 on the Friday night of T. The acts have already started (lilly Allen to be precise). I almost immediately hear of huge traffic jams en route to T and a few texts later find that almost everyone I know going is still stuck in that jam - many of those being people that have been travelling all day while I was still at work up in Stornoway - NOT a good sign! But I get a taxi anyway. Get in touch with Jo Banana's (my T partner in crime) to check she is well on her way to Buchanan). Our plan is either to taxi it (£55 if's clear roads all the way which is clearly not the case), or do get a bus to Edinburgh getting us closer to Balado. I meet my mum at Buchanan Bus station to exchange a small bag of valuables for 3 larger bags and of course a tent and wellies. Jo's bus is late but she stroles in casually just short of 40 seconds before the Edinburgh bus departs. Like the style.
Ruth's boyfriend Michael very kindly agrees to give us a lift from Edinburgh to as near to Balado as he can. Just as we start to see the big wheel and the main stage from a far we begin to debate how far away we actually are in this endless queue of traffic. Having not moved more than 10 inches in half an hour we decide to join a number of others and walk the remaining what was to be 5 miles (not 1. The big wheel ended up being very big and a lot further away than first anticipated...). I start to worry realising everyone else seems to have at least 3 or 4 large bags than us. I check at least 5 times within the space of 10 minutes that we have a tent - check / we have clothes - check / we have wellies - check. Im so glad of course that I decided not to buy that crate of beer as we'd never have been able to walk the distance or anywhere near it if I had!
It's now midnight and we arrive otside the T grounds where the mud is just starting to get interesting. I decide to change into wellies as im noticing more and more trainers that have been lost in the mud. Im expecting bodies next of poor little people who just werent prepared and were just too small to survive in this cruel cruel world. We get through the gates and collect our wristbands with ease and are told that White Red and Blue Campsites are full, Yellow and Green are flooded so.....aye best of luck!
We walk for another hour which seemed like 10 miles with all that mud up to our knees. I send round a multi text to everyone I know at T - half of whom still didnt make it there yet. I felt like we cheated or something having only travelled for less than half the time everyone else had. Decided to pitch up our tent in Purple 6 - in the dark. Some very kind people clearly noticed our immense struggle to pitch this tent - that wasnt even ours and had no instructions and offered to help us. Ended up being them who put it up as it's just been too many years since my Cubs/ Scouts days! We find out that we have missed all the Friday night acts - Arctic Monkeys, the Coral and Lilly Allen I wasnt too fussed about but sad to hear that we had missed Bloc Party.
The tent is up and we've heard from Ross Campbell - not seen him in like 2 years - and agree to meet him at the main gates. 2 hours later and he turns worse for wear shall we say but his usual self and full of comedy. We meet with his ex Sarah and go mud sledging. Walk around most of the campsite looking for a tent.....Ross's monkey?? and other such crazy things that still dont make any sense. Briefly met up with Morag also but think she was a little freaked out by Ross and his drawn-on-by-mud beard. Good to see her though! Entertaining as ever.
It's Saturday morning and we are just going to sleep in our rather impressive tent. Too bad the sleeping bag I had must have been toddler size as I failed miserably to fit in it! Or maybe im just getting fat? A few good cries and Zee's later and we are up again and ready for quite an eventful day - Arcade Fire, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Razorlight, James, James Morrison, The View, Albert Hammond Jr. Rufus Wainright and Brian Wilson and the special of them all - Amy MacDonald in the T-Break tent. Sure to be huge in the very near future. It was a little surreal choosing from so many good bands. Best band of that day though had to be Arcade Fire. Been dieing to see them live for years and they were just as good as I anticipated. Caught the last few songs by The Killers to end the night but can't say im their biggest fan. Had a bunch of Chav's who climbed the fence, keeping all of Purple Campsite awake all night. Talking absolute shite about the Germans invading, jumping on our tent and kicking a football at others. No idea how we managed to get to sleep with all their nonsense and the cold outside but by morning they were gone and the sun was shining.
Sunday arrives and we are set for another epic day of music - Snow Patrol, Scissor Sisters, Kings of Leon, The Fratellis, Paolo Nutini, Goo Goo Dolls, Editors, Badly Drawn Boy and even Avril Lavigne who's gig we turned up for early to get a good spot for Goo Goo Dolls on next on the main stage. We were a few rows from the front centre barrier before Goo Goo Dolls - lead singer singing passionately to a Blow-up Doll...guy standing beside me sang into the mic for Iris. I shook his hand. They played an amazing set. We remained at the front against the barrier for Paulo, Fratellis, the Kings - Jo caught a drumstick, ended up staying for the Scissor Sisters - missing the Editors, Queens of the Stone Age and Badly Drawn Boy. But we couldnt loose our place! Stayed there from midday to the end of the night! Exhausting but was worth it for a memorable hour and a half of Snowpatrol ending the night and the festival Who continued to run the show even with thousands of glowsticks / trainers / wellies being thrown at them and an entertaining negotiation between Gary Lightbody and the man in the Spiderman Suite to climb down from the ridiculously high speaker scaffolding in the middle of the crowd. He climbed down with plenty of police waiting at the bottom. The night ended with a lone piper without a mic but it didnt matter as the crowd sang it so loud you wouldnt have heard her play anything anyway. Fireworks were set off as Jo ran for the toilets after a 2 hour long must-have-been-painful wait.
We end the night by helping our new friends who helped pitch our tent finish off their alcohol so that they had less to carry home. We manage to leave the Campsite back of 9 for our bus home. Realise very quickly that ticket or no ticket we had to wait in a mile long queue. That plus endless traffic out of Balado resulted in me missing my plane back to Stornoway and my backshift at work that night. With my BA ticket being non-refundable and instantly cancelled in my failure to get there, had to buy a brand new one for a small fortune to fly back next morning to return on the 20th to Inverness for Eilidh's 21st.
My mum and my sister were up in Stornoway same week as the Heb Celt. Was filming at the Heb Celt on the Friday for a Rapal feature then caught the end of the Seth Lakeman set and walked out halfway through the Proclaimers set....sorry guys just not that fussed really. Had the car so went fishing with my sister catching some trout which impressed the granny and had a visit to Dal Mor, one of the nicest beaches on the Island. Mum and Sister left on the Saturday. Decided to make use of my Press Pass and headed down with Joanne to catch the Peatbog Fairies - an odd mixture of celtic music and dance. I was rather impressed actually. Then after meeting with Jane from MacTV and her friends went back to the flat for a few drinks and decided to blag my way into the Festival Club with a press pass. So funny since we were told a number of times we wouldnt get in. Yas. Only caught last 20 minutes of Skerryvore's set but was worth it. Met Janice Ann on her way out but she was so smashed I dont think she'll remember me saying anything to me. Can't say I was that impressed with Heb Celt Festival. May seem amazing for the Islanders but it's hard to appreciate any festival given I had only recently returned from T in the Park - the biggest and arguably the best in the country.
The news of me leaving Stornoway was hard for my gran to understand at first but I made time to get over there on the Thursday night after a nice lunch treat from the BBC that day at the Thai restaurant. Bought a bottle of wine for my gran and a bottle of Grouse for my Great Uncle. Alcohol is the answer for all of life's problems. Explained that its about my future. That other opportunities arise. Working at Cale TV in Glasgow was just one I couldnt say no to. Joanne asked me on the Thursday night if Stornoway changed me. Did it? Don't think I have the intelligence to answer that question but id like to think it did in a way. Certainly moving into a flat and fending for myself so far from home was far more challenging than if you compare to the initial plans of moving out into a flat with mates in Glasgow. Bit of a culture shock also but think I remained sane from my Air Discount Schemed fortnightly flights home. Expensive but worth it. Been quite the jetsetter over the last few months. So was rather gutted giving away our dream flat to Colette and Chris(straight swap with Joanne and I) but saves at least £750 of rent pay to the flat we no longer live in.
Jesus christ this blog is taking me FOREVER to right but I think im almost there. Friday was my last day in Stornoway. Half day at work was great. a brief handover with the Rapal team then off to the pub with Niall Iain in the Carlton Beer Garden. Free of any luggage. All 6 bags, 2 of Joanne's and my Big TV all Heb Haulaged set to arrive that night and Monday. Had a good few drinks with Niall Iain. Shame I didnt get to see more often in my time working here. Was almost persuaded to cancel flights and stay for the BBC Barbeque but I had Eilidh's 21st to attend to and 5 mintues to get to the Airport. On arrival at the Airport I quickly find out that my plane is delayed and join Calum and Seonag in the lounge. Next minute we're drinking Gin and continue to do so on the plane over. They very kindly give me a lift to the bus station and im sure to miss them along with other but will try my best to keep in touch in the days to come.
I catch my bus to Dingwall and drop off my bags at the B&B. Steven very kindly picks me up to take me to Oscars with the party's already started. Im greeted by the TV course upon arrival and hand Eilidh her bottle of Moet Rose and wish her a happy birthday. I go chat with the ever-entertaining Donald and help guard the Buffet. Next I know it im freestyling on he dancefloor to some mixture of Ceilidh music with Eilidh and Kirsty. As I fall asleep on the couch in Eilidh's house drinking someone elses beer I very quickly realise im not going to make this magical Megabus home that leaves in like 2 hours. But no matter as ive no rush to get home and dont intend to sleep anytime soon. I end up getting the 4pm bus from Inverness and arrive home back of 9. Steak for Dinner. Welcome home.
Begin to watch the Aviator with the family but halfway through im called out to a party by Ewan down at Devonshire Gardens. Shona's must-be-loaded sister asked her to look after her apartment with a TV bigger than my house and a grand hall longer than my street. Maroon carpets Chandeliers and all that comes with it. Few drinks and usual chat with Ewan Stu and others who's names ive already forgotten. It's good to be home. I dont intent to leave anytime soon. A week off which is already overbooked with absolute mayhem. Can't wait.
Roll on Glasgow
R x
St Kilda, Youngfilms Placement and After Party - 221 Days Ago
I feel so ill.....but no wonder. Think i've drank the recommended weekly alcohol intake daily for the last 4 days straight. So, on Ewan's grand entrance to Stornoway after over a decade since his last visit here we were off to work on the St Kilda project. In short, a play broadcast live on the web across the world. Ewan and I given the glorious title 'Cable Bashers' or in my case 'crowd control' as I had a guy hold the cable for me - luxury. Also, with news of Ewan recieving a second class honors in his BA in Digital Arts and Animation - bring out the Champagne!
We were keeping the surrounding area of the two camera's mounted on peds clear on the main floor with the ability(aye right) to move around anywhere in the studio. That is of course before you add 250 people and then start moving almost every section of the stage throughout the 1.5 hour long play. Madness, but long story short it was rather impressive considering how fed up we were after 2 nights of such fun. 3 for me as I filmed the rehearsal Wednesday night for the director to script the show the next day.
Thursday night we started at MacNeils for open mic night but we got there late so it was so crowded (as always) we decided to go to the Lewis. Met with some of the large group of SMO now home. Been a long day though so dont stay out too long. Go back to flat where we have a crate of Miller waiting. Manage to get them out of the fridge but wake up next day with the bottle still sitting there on the table unopened. Ewan then tells of how he went sleepwalking into flatmate Joanne's room in the middle of the night. We cross paths later on in the day and no eye contact or any words are exchanged - think we might have made a bit too much noise last night,
Friday morning I wake up with a call from Ishbel - she gives news of me not getting the Internship...but that Chris was impressed and is offering a placement with Youngfilms. Once again, bring out the Champagne! During the day still wasted after night before we celebrate and go for lunch at HS1 (again, but this time they get Ewan's order right) and keep coming up with shit loads of random ideas - generally the most offensive things we could possibly say/do while amongst the crowd during the live broadcast of the play. We found this hilarious of course but don;t think our fellow HS1 diners were so impressed with our language. Swearing that is, not Gaelic.
Friday night was when all the fun really started. After Party in an Lanntair after the show. Ceilidh where we met Marina, Janice Anne, Michelle and Catriona. Noone was dancing so we finished our drinks and left to go to the Heb for a laugh but it was shut so we go to the Lewis. We don't stay long though before moving on. Plus worst move ever a girl seated nearby asks what we do and I say BBC and we end up having some EMO guy who loves himself saying he wants to be famous - FUCK OFF
We end up in the Clachan but on the way I spot Sarah Rankin who I recognise pretty much from Bebo so I drunkenly tell her this and she sees it as an offer to join us for a drink. Close up im instantly not impressed that I said a word to her so we buy her and her mate shots and lose them. We watch Marina......dance.
End up getting chucked out...cant remember why but bouncer let the girls back in but not us so after a moment of rage I just walk Ewan back to the Royal where he is yet to stay in the room his dad paid for. I go back and find Janice Anne Marina and Catriona and we stumble back to the flat with the food order(not theirs) they grabbed from the takeaway. The girls are so drunk they just start falling asleep so I recommend a taxi and off they go.
Saturday is of course the big one. BBC now gone its the big show finale without camera's - we dont attend. 3 days of it in a row is enough so thanks but no thanks. We go out for Dinner at Eleven with the SMO girls. Cajun Chicken is so spicy I almost cried. One of the girls serving is friend that was with Sarah Rankin. We claim she owes us a drink but will probably never see her again. Infact thats a lie, ill probably see her out this weekend. Stornoway isnt that big....
The girls go to the big show without us. Ewan and I go back to the flat, finish the beers down half of our litre of Vodka far too quickly while listening to Massive Attack and talking away about random nonsense. We venture back out to join the girls after the show. Do the usual pub circuit with average banter until we reach the Sea Angling....not my choice but everyone was there. Can't remember everything from here but we met Marina Stuart and Rob in there and played terrible at Pool upstairs. Also met Iain who's up here on placement at the hospital but since I know him through friend of friend of friend of friend conversation is limited and he's generally freaked out and doesnt understand Ewan's humour. A fight breaks out on the dancefloor so we do our usual and investigate almost end up in the middle of it. I give Janice Anne her phone back (she forgot it in flat night before) and we hear of St Kilda Afterparty and drunkenly leave to go find it.
10 phone calls later and we're there. Uninvited along with almost all of the big names in the Gaelic world. Kathleen Macinnes, Cathy Ann Macphee, Calum MacAulay, Carina Macleod, Catriona Lexy Campbell, Donald John Macleod, Kenny Iain Macrae, Ruairidh Maciver, Simon Mackenzie, Alasdair White, James Graham, Jenna Cumming, Mairi Louise Napier to name a few. Could there be a better chance to piss that many people off at the same party? We get started by helping ourself to some wine - at first straight out of the box but then start recieving an absurd amount of abuse, mainly directed at Ewan from some random woman. I ask the guy next to me who this nut is and he tells me she's his mother.
We feel the need to find more people so go into the next room and start chatting away to Kathleen MacInnes - it's a little vague what I say here but clearly from lack of sleep and too much drink I struggle with any meaningful Gaelic. I recieve a gold star for efford though. Plus think she just loved myself and EOH's charm.....or maybe not. Ewan recieving career advice from Cathy Anne MacPhee has to top them all though! Next up Jenna Cummings. I fail to explain to her about how we met before at a Gaelic debate thing in school.....so yeh that fails, we head upstairs. In a room is Catriona Lexi and a band playing their music. They are crap so we feel the need to sit in laugh to ourselves by how bad they are but are too drunk to say anything out loud and seem to stay in this room where they're all doing pot for at least an hour.
We decide to go back downstairs and everyone is gone. Except Mairi Louise Napier and Simon MacKenzie outside. Think Ewan required a cigarette was our originally reason for joining them outside in the cold but it's around 5am by now and light outside. End up chatting away to Simon about the future of Gaelic - how its came too late. He tries to take the piss out of Ewan in Gaelic forgetting I speak it fluently so we tear him apart....so much he cant handle us and ends up leaving. Mairi Louise just smiled the whole time and mumbled stuff randomly throughout the debate or whatever was going on - aye whatever mate.
Late night...morning rather. Wake up on the couch in the flat freezing cold and realise Ewan's got the bed - dick. Realise we're running out of time and go to HS1 - again for a drunkenly lunch before Ewan's flight at 5. Waiter is shocked that we are drinking - again and so early. It's party time though and we just slowly recall all the madness from the night before. Including so many things we could have said that will have to be kept for next time - from the classic do you know who I am? approach to claiming to be the Brad Pitt of Gaelic TV (just not yet as channel is still to start). Plane leaves, bye EOH. Few tears on the walk back to the lat. I go back to bed. It's now Tuesday morning and im still recovering.
Lessons Learned:
Don't tell anyone you work for the BBC
Never speak Gaelic after 5 pints. You think you sound great but your talking a loada shite
Wear dark clothes if you expect people not to complain when pushed out of the way for the camera
Always attend after-parties Uninvited
Don't order a double burger from HS1
R :)
We were keeping the surrounding area of the two camera's mounted on peds clear on the main floor with the ability(aye right) to move around anywhere in the studio. That is of course before you add 250 people and then start moving almost every section of the stage throughout the 1.5 hour long play. Madness, but long story short it was rather impressive considering how fed up we were after 2 nights of such fun. 3 for me as I filmed the rehearsal Wednesday night for the director to script the show the next day.
Thursday night we started at MacNeils for open mic night but we got there late so it was so crowded (as always) we decided to go to the Lewis. Met with some of the large group of SMO now home. Been a long day though so dont stay out too long. Go back to flat where we have a crate of Miller waiting. Manage to get them out of the fridge but wake up next day with the bottle still sitting there on the table unopened. Ewan then tells of how he went sleepwalking into flatmate Joanne's room in the middle of the night. We cross paths later on in the day and no eye contact or any words are exchanged - think we might have made a bit too much noise last night,
Friday morning I wake up with a call from Ishbel - she gives news of me not getting the Internship...but that Chris was impressed and is offering a placement with Youngfilms. Once again, bring out the Champagne! During the day still wasted after night before we celebrate and go for lunch at HS1 (again, but this time they get Ewan's order right) and keep coming up with shit loads of random ideas - generally the most offensive things we could possibly say/do while amongst the crowd during the live broadcast of the play. We found this hilarious of course but don;t think our fellow HS1 diners were so impressed with our language. Swearing that is, not Gaelic.
Friday night was when all the fun really started. After Party in an Lanntair after the show. Ceilidh where we met Marina, Janice Anne, Michelle and Catriona. Noone was dancing so we finished our drinks and left to go to the Heb for a laugh but it was shut so we go to the Lewis. We don't stay long though before moving on. Plus worst move ever a girl seated nearby asks what we do and I say BBC and we end up having some EMO guy who loves himself saying he wants to be famous - FUCK OFF
We end up in the Clachan but on the way I spot Sarah Rankin who I recognise pretty much from Bebo so I drunkenly tell her this and she sees it as an offer to join us for a drink. Close up im instantly not impressed that I said a word to her so we buy her and her mate shots and lose them. We watch Marina......dance.
End up getting chucked out...cant remember why but bouncer let the girls back in but not us so after a moment of rage I just walk Ewan back to the Royal where he is yet to stay in the room his dad paid for. I go back and find Janice Anne Marina and Catriona and we stumble back to the flat with the food order(not theirs) they grabbed from the takeaway. The girls are so drunk they just start falling asleep so I recommend a taxi and off they go.
Saturday is of course the big one. BBC now gone its the big show finale without camera's - we dont attend. 3 days of it in a row is enough so thanks but no thanks. We go out for Dinner at Eleven with the SMO girls. Cajun Chicken is so spicy I almost cried. One of the girls serving is friend that was with Sarah Rankin. We claim she owes us a drink but will probably never see her again. Infact thats a lie, ill probably see her out this weekend. Stornoway isnt that big....
The girls go to the big show without us. Ewan and I go back to the flat, finish the beers down half of our litre of Vodka far too quickly while listening to Massive Attack and talking away about random nonsense. We venture back out to join the girls after the show. Do the usual pub circuit with average banter until we reach the Sea Angling....not my choice but everyone was there. Can't remember everything from here but we met Marina Stuart and Rob in there and played terrible at Pool upstairs. Also met Iain who's up here on placement at the hospital but since I know him through friend of friend of friend of friend conversation is limited and he's generally freaked out and doesnt understand Ewan's humour. A fight breaks out on the dancefloor so we do our usual and investigate almost end up in the middle of it. I give Janice Anne her phone back (she forgot it in flat night before) and we hear of St Kilda Afterparty and drunkenly leave to go find it.
10 phone calls later and we're there. Uninvited along with almost all of the big names in the Gaelic world. Kathleen Macinnes, Cathy Ann Macphee, Calum MacAulay, Carina Macleod, Catriona Lexy Campbell, Donald John Macleod, Kenny Iain Macrae, Ruairidh Maciver, Simon Mackenzie, Alasdair White, James Graham, Jenna Cumming, Mairi Louise Napier to name a few. Could there be a better chance to piss that many people off at the same party? We get started by helping ourself to some wine - at first straight out of the box but then start recieving an absurd amount of abuse, mainly directed at Ewan from some random woman. I ask the guy next to me who this nut is and he tells me she's his mother.
We feel the need to find more people so go into the next room and start chatting away to Kathleen MacInnes - it's a little vague what I say here but clearly from lack of sleep and too much drink I struggle with any meaningful Gaelic. I recieve a gold star for efford though. Plus think she just loved myself and EOH's charm.....or maybe not. Ewan recieving career advice from Cathy Anne MacPhee has to top them all though! Next up Jenna Cummings. I fail to explain to her about how we met before at a Gaelic debate thing in school.....so yeh that fails, we head upstairs. In a room is Catriona Lexi and a band playing their music. They are crap so we feel the need to sit in laugh to ourselves by how bad they are but are too drunk to say anything out loud and seem to stay in this room where they're all doing pot for at least an hour.
We decide to go back downstairs and everyone is gone. Except Mairi Louise Napier and Simon MacKenzie outside. Think Ewan required a cigarette was our originally reason for joining them outside in the cold but it's around 5am by now and light outside. End up chatting away to Simon about the future of Gaelic - how its came too late. He tries to take the piss out of Ewan in Gaelic forgetting I speak it fluently so we tear him apart....so much he cant handle us and ends up leaving. Mairi Louise just smiled the whole time and mumbled stuff randomly throughout the debate or whatever was going on - aye whatever mate.
Late night...morning rather. Wake up on the couch in the flat freezing cold and realise Ewan's got the bed - dick. Realise we're running out of time and go to HS1 - again for a drunkenly lunch before Ewan's flight at 5. Waiter is shocked that we are drinking - again and so early. It's party time though and we just slowly recall all the madness from the night before. Including so many things we could have said that will have to be kept for next time - from the classic do you know who I am? approach to claiming to be the Brad Pitt of Gaelic TV (just not yet as channel is still to start). Plane leaves, bye EOH. Few tears on the walk back to the lat. I go back to bed. It's now Tuesday morning and im still recovering.
Lessons Learned:
Don't tell anyone you work for the BBC
Never speak Gaelic after 5 pints. You think you sound great but your talking a loada shite
Wear dark clothes if you expect people not to complain when pushed out of the way for the camera
Always attend after-parties Uninvited
Don't order a double burger from HS1
R :)
Uist Week, Paintball Pains, Skye-Ness Adventures and St Kilda Project - 227 days ago
It's VERY long.....you've been warned!
Definitions of Crazy:
brainsick: affected with madness or insanity; "a man who had gone mad"
foolish; totally unsound; "a crazy scheme"; "half-baked ideas"; "a screwball proposal without a prayer of working"
marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness; "she was crazy about him"; "gaga over the rock group's new album"; "he was infatuated with her"
possessed by inordinate excitement; "the crowd went crazy"; "was crazy to try his new bicycle"
bizarre or fantastic; "had a crazy dream"; "wore a crazy hat"
intensely enthusiastic about or preoccupied with; "crazy about cars and racing"
someone deranged and possibly dangerous
Think the last one fits best. Thought it was about time I updated this thing as quite frankly I can't afford to call and text each and every one of you chipmunks what exactly is happening these days in the crazy world of me. Plus of course the simple fact I have a slight obcession with Blog Entries ever since my rambling travel blog days.
So - where do I start? Last week I was filming behind the scenes and session footage for a showreel to be used on the BBC website. Much fun beginning the week with Rapal on Monday - some great music from Jamie Campbell, Sounds Like April and Pipe Fusion. Didn't stay whole week though so went back to Lewis for Tuesday Wednesday to return again on the Thursday to setup for yet some more sessions and behind the scenes stuff for Program Choinnich/Morig and Caithream Ciuil. This was the longest day of filming and starting early morning after a night of being fed alcohol (for free of course) by our scary hotel owner who I think wanted to marry me by the end of the night - poor guy's just a little lonely out there in the middle of nowhere without his wife - still no excuse for being aff yer rocket though eh pal.
I thought id do the right thing - waited until he went to his room to get fuck knows what then made for my room WITH the bottle of wine of course. Who knows how I made it all the way down that corridor as I was pure burst as old friend Michael Barrymore (not the star with a dead body in his pool) used to say. What followed as always was the good old drink and dial. I fell asleep on the phone waking up with it stuck to my ear while still holding on tightly to that bottle of wine now half spilt over the bed - fuck . Calum MacKinnon - guy from Randan - 's banter on the night and then day of filming certainly made up for it.
Anyway, next up is I put on a brave face and fly home from Benbecula for yet another eventful weekend. Friday night Bevvy and Banter with EOH can't be beaten. Slept for almost 3/4 of Saturday to make up for my last months long insomnia. Saturday night went out to Ashton Lane with Jo. Weekend of the West End Festival resulting in this being a DAFT choice. Then met with Derek and Colette in Jinty's. Good seeing them. Spoke a bit of Gaelic though which added to Jo Banana's permanent state of confused insanity. We then hitch the Campus Schoolbus to end up in the middle of a punch-up in Sauchiehall - warm welcome home as always to then go to Firewater where we all couldnt hear a word each other said due to the loud music but are drunk enough to just play nice and smile and nod. Crashed at Jo's M I L E S away in Newton Mearns. Cool kittens in the cupboard. Interesting 20 squid taxi the next morning after very little sleep for some Paintball. -
When I arrived home Iain was still asleep and Ruth was clearly hungover and not really knowing whats happening. But neither did I. Called Derek and Trains were fucked - nothing new so we were gonna taxi it and pick him up on the way. Here enters the man himself all clad in the Team Zissou hat. Bus journey to Delta Force was full of banter but I think I was still drunk at the time so don't really remember what was funny about it. It probably wasn't at all actually now I think about it. We enter the main holding area outside all the Arena's and quickly realise after scanning the Billboard that this is going to be a very expensive day.
The teams are chosen - Ruth, Iain and I are of course placed on the reject team with 4 girls, 2 czec guys that spoke no english and as always a big fat guy who lets just say isnt the most mobile and looked like he'd rather eat the paintballs rather than shoot them. Lot of anger there you know to let out all that rage on scrawny people like me - for being fat and all. Not me, the fatman. Derek, Mason and other wannabe pro's but some pretty damn good actually - all having played before of course. Team Blue, surprise surprise, all newbies. However, bring it on. Out comes the Credit Card - one Rambo pack please honey. All suited and booted like Mr. Paintbaws himself. Let the games begin - or ill stop you right there -long story short, our team lost all games(there are 2 games in each of the 6 arena's). Close quarter Battles, Bus Bombings, Pyramid's and Hut Invasions. Even though we only one like 1 game it was still great fun. Got to unload half of my rambo pack on derek in the Jungle Arena also so hell yeh that made my day alone. Paintball tip - bring shit loads of paintballs that you bought yourself CHEAP anywhere else. Think I took out a mortgage at the place the amount of times I had to go back and buy more Paintballs. With of course 3 dud Smoke grenades, a flash grenade that didnt even work.
Couldnt walk all day monday. Some nice pretty bruises on my arms that - after returning to work after a weekend home - all my workmates look at and just go he's from Glasgow..... I get a call Monday afternoon from Producer Chris Young about this film Internship im being considered for. Initially flying down to London for a panel interview with himself, Director and Simon Miller and Chief Exec of Soda Pictures. Nope not anymore, i've to go to his house in Skye to meet him instead. At this point everyones thinking yeh well that makes more sense being closer to home well AYE RIGHT yer havin' a laugh. It's the black spot of I dunno possibly all of Europe. Impossible to get to from anywhere - even on the Summer Timetable. Of all days of course, theres only a 11.50 ferry on a Tuesday from Tarbert to Uig. No ferry back later that day and no Wednesday morning ferry that I can get catch to then make it to work at least for a backshift.
So, 5 seconds away from me calling Daddy to borrow his private jet, I decide that my only option to do it in a day is to go back to Inverness on the bus after the Interview, meet Nina that night, stay I dunno SOMEWHERE then fly back on the Wednesday morning flight - Thats keeping it simple. I get the bus to Tarbert at 10 like a right happy bunny. All us well and I get ferry on time- then theres no Bus meeting the ferry at Uig. So do I wait until half 3 for the Bus heading towards Glasgow to then miss my interview cimpletely and the bus to Inverness? Useless. So I hitch to Portree then hitch again to halfway between Portree and Broadford. Random village don't ask me what it's called. I then flag a taxi - nice old guy named Davey takes me all the way to SMO Campus at a heavily discounted price. I go to the lap, fail to log in. Be all nicey nicey with the receptionist and she prints it out for me. Then im at Chris Young's house for the Interview im clearly not prepared for but fuck it - it actually went really well. He thinks that perhaps the Film Internship (learning how the undistry works and attending film festivals and help promote the debut feature Gaelic film Seachd) and that a placement with Youngfilms would maybe fit better into my category. Sure, why not. Said he'd be in touch. Interview ends abruptly however, as we are both late. I taxi it to the EI to then end up driving past Pol in his car at a layby where he can get mobile reception. We go to the EI which would initially have been only for 15 minutes but in not very much needed persuasion I get Tara and Pol to join the bandwaggon. We enjoy some quality fine dinning at the EI alongside MJ behind the bar. Few shots of Vodka and we're off the Inverness.
We arrive in Inverness at 10 and walk into Slice where Nina works. Much to her surprise given she had no idea that Tara and Pol were coming. The fact that she didn't notice us for the first 5 minutes added to the humour. Few beers later we take 5 in Hootenanny's and end up in Johnny Fox's where Doc Livingston is playing some very hish-standard covers. Interesting acoustic version of Gnarles Barkley's Crazy. I mention BBC Music Researcher and out comes the card. High on demand with gigs all round the country but he's certainly interested in being part of the show (Rapal) even though I may quite possibly be leaving very very soon. We have no accomodation, but Tara has a nice friendly cousin thats more than willing to allow us to invade her home far too late into into the early hours of Wednesday with an unopened bottle of Rose.
This has been a long day of course so after about half an hour of hardcore arguementative chat with Nina who wanted to go visit her sick boyfriend in Hospital - visiting hours at 3am eh NAW I fall asleep. Of course I do, it's what im best at when the night has only got started. Well, the morning technically. Great seeing them, but I wake up with Nina long gone and Pol and Tara saying bubye now on their slightly mental journey back to Skye to go straight a dh'obair (translation - work). I sleep for a bit longer forgetting the fact im in someones house ive never met. Awkwardly leave while somehow telepathically saying thanks for letting me crash. Pol texts saying theres a taxi rank up near Ogilvies if you turn LEFT after you leave the flat. So What do I do? Look at the sign blankly and fail to make the connection then go RIGHT which gave me a nice tour of I think at least half the city.
Taxi it to the Airport - have liquids in my hand luggage so the smelly women clearly raging about her job chucks my Shower Gel, Deoderant and Toothpaste(just bought). I mean clearly highly dangerous weapons of mass destruction that I considered on using to hijack the flight to list my demands from Stornoway police......stupid bint. Anyway, so I fly back to work. Jetsetter that I am. Told 5 minutes later that im filming Project Hiort rehearsals tonight. I'm involved with the project over the next 3 days but this comes as a surprise, yet a handy one as noone seems to know exactly whats going on with this rather HUGE European celebration of St Kilda (Hiort in Gaelic) or something. Here's a link to save me failing to explain what exactly the project is all about: http://www.stkilda.eu/
Think thats us about us up to date. Oh think of the amount of money ive saved eh. Although not really ive told almost everybody most of what ive written in the last week - dafty
Hope we are all well. Certainly if we were able to make it to the END
R x
Definitions of Crazy:
brainsick: affected with madness or insanity; "a man who had gone mad"
foolish; totally unsound; "a crazy scheme"; "half-baked ideas"; "a screwball proposal without a prayer of working"
marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness; "she was crazy about him"; "gaga over the rock group's new album"; "he was infatuated with her"
possessed by inordinate excitement; "the crowd went crazy"; "was crazy to try his new bicycle"
bizarre or fantastic; "had a crazy dream"; "wore a crazy hat"
intensely enthusiastic about or preoccupied with; "crazy about cars and racing"
someone deranged and possibly dangerous
Think the last one fits best. Thought it was about time I updated this thing as quite frankly I can't afford to call and text each and every one of you chipmunks what exactly is happening these days in the crazy world of me. Plus of course the simple fact I have a slight obcession with Blog Entries ever since my rambling travel blog days.
So - where do I start? Last week I was filming behind the scenes and session footage for a showreel to be used on the BBC website. Much fun beginning the week with Rapal on Monday - some great music from Jamie Campbell, Sounds Like April and Pipe Fusion. Didn't stay whole week though so went back to Lewis for Tuesday Wednesday to return again on the Thursday to setup for yet some more sessions and behind the scenes stuff for Program Choinnich/Morig and Caithream Ciuil. This was the longest day of filming and starting early morning after a night of being fed alcohol (for free of course) by our scary hotel owner who I think wanted to marry me by the end of the night - poor guy's just a little lonely out there in the middle of nowhere without his wife - still no excuse for being aff yer rocket though eh pal.
I thought id do the right thing - waited until he went to his room to get fuck knows what then made for my room WITH the bottle of wine of course. Who knows how I made it all the way down that corridor as I was pure burst as old friend Michael Barrymore (not the star with a dead body in his pool) used to say. What followed as always was the good old drink and dial. I fell asleep on the phone waking up with it stuck to my ear while still holding on tightly to that bottle of wine now half spilt over the bed - fuck . Calum MacKinnon - guy from Randan - 's banter on the night and then day of filming certainly made up for it.
Anyway, next up is I put on a brave face and fly home from Benbecula for yet another eventful weekend. Friday night Bevvy and Banter with EOH can't be beaten. Slept for almost 3/4 of Saturday to make up for my last months long insomnia. Saturday night went out to Ashton Lane with Jo. Weekend of the West End Festival resulting in this being a DAFT choice. Then met with Derek and Colette in Jinty's. Good seeing them. Spoke a bit of Gaelic though which added to Jo Banana's permanent state of confused insanity. We then hitch the Campus Schoolbus to end up in the middle of a punch-up in Sauchiehall - warm welcome home as always to then go to Firewater where we all couldnt hear a word each other said due to the loud music but are drunk enough to just play nice and smile and nod. Crashed at Jo's M I L E S away in Newton Mearns. Cool kittens in the cupboard. Interesting 20 squid taxi the next morning after very little sleep for some Paintball. -
When I arrived home Iain was still asleep and Ruth was clearly hungover and not really knowing whats happening. But neither did I. Called Derek and Trains were fucked - nothing new so we were gonna taxi it and pick him up on the way. Here enters the man himself all clad in the Team Zissou hat. Bus journey to Delta Force was full of banter but I think I was still drunk at the time so don't really remember what was funny about it. It probably wasn't at all actually now I think about it. We enter the main holding area outside all the Arena's and quickly realise after scanning the Billboard that this is going to be a very expensive day.
The teams are chosen - Ruth, Iain and I are of course placed on the reject team with 4 girls, 2 czec guys that spoke no english and as always a big fat guy who lets just say isnt the most mobile and looked like he'd rather eat the paintballs rather than shoot them. Lot of anger there you know to let out all that rage on scrawny people like me - for being fat and all. Not me, the fatman. Derek, Mason and other wannabe pro's but some pretty damn good actually - all having played before of course. Team Blue, surprise surprise, all newbies. However, bring it on. Out comes the Credit Card - one Rambo pack please honey. All suited and booted like Mr. Paintbaws himself. Let the games begin - or ill stop you right there -long story short, our team lost all games(there are 2 games in each of the 6 arena's). Close quarter Battles, Bus Bombings, Pyramid's and Hut Invasions. Even though we only one like 1 game it was still great fun. Got to unload half of my rambo pack on derek in the Jungle Arena also so hell yeh that made my day alone. Paintball tip - bring shit loads of paintballs that you bought yourself CHEAP anywhere else. Think I took out a mortgage at the place the amount of times I had to go back and buy more Paintballs. With of course 3 dud Smoke grenades, a flash grenade that didnt even work.
Couldnt walk all day monday. Some nice pretty bruises on my arms that - after returning to work after a weekend home - all my workmates look at and just go he's from Glasgow..... I get a call Monday afternoon from Producer Chris Young about this film Internship im being considered for. Initially flying down to London for a panel interview with himself, Director and Simon Miller and Chief Exec of Soda Pictures. Nope not anymore, i've to go to his house in Skye to meet him instead. At this point everyones thinking yeh well that makes more sense being closer to home well AYE RIGHT yer havin' a laugh. It's the black spot of I dunno possibly all of Europe. Impossible to get to from anywhere - even on the Summer Timetable. Of all days of course, theres only a 11.50 ferry on a Tuesday from Tarbert to Uig. No ferry back later that day and no Wednesday morning ferry that I can get catch to then make it to work at least for a backshift.
So, 5 seconds away from me calling Daddy to borrow his private jet, I decide that my only option to do it in a day is to go back to Inverness on the bus after the Interview, meet Nina that night, stay I dunno SOMEWHERE then fly back on the Wednesday morning flight - Thats keeping it simple. I get the bus to Tarbert at 10 like a right happy bunny. All us well and I get ferry on time- then theres no Bus meeting the ferry at Uig. So do I wait until half 3 for the Bus heading towards Glasgow to then miss my interview cimpletely and the bus to Inverness? Useless. So I hitch to Portree then hitch again to halfway between Portree and Broadford. Random village don't ask me what it's called. I then flag a taxi - nice old guy named Davey takes me all the way to SMO Campus at a heavily discounted price. I go to the lap, fail to log in. Be all nicey nicey with the receptionist and she prints it out for me. Then im at Chris Young's house for the Interview im clearly not prepared for but fuck it - it actually went really well. He thinks that perhaps the Film Internship (learning how the undistry works and attending film festivals and help promote the debut feature Gaelic film Seachd) and that a placement with Youngfilms would maybe fit better into my category. Sure, why not. Said he'd be in touch. Interview ends abruptly however, as we are both late. I taxi it to the EI to then end up driving past Pol in his car at a layby where he can get mobile reception. We go to the EI which would initially have been only for 15 minutes but in not very much needed persuasion I get Tara and Pol to join the bandwaggon. We enjoy some quality fine dinning at the EI alongside MJ behind the bar. Few shots of Vodka and we're off the Inverness.
We arrive in Inverness at 10 and walk into Slice where Nina works. Much to her surprise given she had no idea that Tara and Pol were coming. The fact that she didn't notice us for the first 5 minutes added to the humour. Few beers later we take 5 in Hootenanny's and end up in Johnny Fox's where Doc Livingston is playing some very hish-standard covers. Interesting acoustic version of Gnarles Barkley's Crazy. I mention BBC Music Researcher and out comes the card. High on demand with gigs all round the country but he's certainly interested in being part of the show (Rapal) even though I may quite possibly be leaving very very soon. We have no accomodation, but Tara has a nice friendly cousin thats more than willing to allow us to invade her home far too late into into the early hours of Wednesday with an unopened bottle of Rose.
This has been a long day of course so after about half an hour of hardcore arguementative chat with Nina who wanted to go visit her sick boyfriend in Hospital - visiting hours at 3am eh NAW I fall asleep. Of course I do, it's what im best at when the night has only got started. Well, the morning technically. Great seeing them, but I wake up with Nina long gone and Pol and Tara saying bubye now on their slightly mental journey back to Skye to go straight a dh'obair (translation - work). I sleep for a bit longer forgetting the fact im in someones house ive never met. Awkwardly leave while somehow telepathically saying thanks for letting me crash. Pol texts saying theres a taxi rank up near Ogilvies if you turn LEFT after you leave the flat. So What do I do? Look at the sign blankly and fail to make the connection then go RIGHT which gave me a nice tour of I think at least half the city.
Taxi it to the Airport - have liquids in my hand luggage so the smelly women clearly raging about her job chucks my Shower Gel, Deoderant and Toothpaste(just bought). I mean clearly highly dangerous weapons of mass destruction that I considered on using to hijack the flight to list my demands from Stornoway police......stupid bint. Anyway, so I fly back to work. Jetsetter that I am. Told 5 minutes later that im filming Project Hiort rehearsals tonight. I'm involved with the project over the next 3 days but this comes as a surprise, yet a handy one as noone seems to know exactly whats going on with this rather HUGE European celebration of St Kilda (Hiort in Gaelic) or something. Here's a link to save me failing to explain what exactly the project is all about: http://www.stkilda.eu/
Think thats us about us up to date. Oh think of the amount of money ive saved eh. Although not really ive told almost everybody most of what ive written in the last week - dafty
Hope we are all well. Certainly if we were able to make it to the END
R x
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