After a casual walk, with a very loud suitcase on wheels, my Iphone battery failed so despite being within two minutes of the St Giles Hotel I had no idea in which direction. A slightly upmarket hotel reception looked like a good source for tourist info and also provided a chance for a quick visit to the gents. I checked into my St Giles single room with the hope of simply putting my feet up and watching a little tele - earlier in the day lighting cameraman to the stars Jonas Abbott had pointed out how nice it was to sometimes just watch tv when away on shoots. Sadly I had a dodgy aerial cable and could only get hold of BBC2. Slightly miffed with the situation and having not eaten food since lunch I went to explore the options within the hotel. There was a casino which I poked my head in and then I discovered a bar with food menus. To my pleasure I could see they had Hoegaarden on tap - £5 a pint mind - en route to which I could hear a lot of northern chatter and then upon studying the menu saw nuggets and chips being a main meal option. It wasn't for me so I went over the road to Sainsbury's bought some bread, olives, cheese and a couple of pints of Cravendale milk.
The next morning I met the crew and pr team opposite the London Eye. EDF Energy were now responsible for it and Myleene Klass was to make an appearance and 'turn on the lights' so to speak. There were a high number of snappers and z1 / Video journo types keen to get images of Myleene in front of the Eye. When it was our turn we were about to turnover when the lights on the eye started to go mental - it was giving cameraman Jonas Abbott a few more grey hairs so in a moment of terrifying power we were offered the chance to change the lights to our suiting. "Back to the previous volumetric white lights please" we cried and so it happened, as well as an extended duration - I asked for six minutes, we agreed on four but seemed to get more....
Following the shoot we went for a fry up and upon checking the edit was sorted it was an early well deserved wrap. Although, I had agreed to go talent scouting for some filming to happen this Friday - so I put a call in to an old Pal "Paul". We hadn't seen each other for a shocking two years (this is not a man of facebook) and whilst I only called to see if the man would be keen to star in a video he suggested we meet for a drink - having finished my work for the day how could I refuse. As I was waiting to meet him at Liverpool Street an IC3 male with strange bright coloured clothing staggered towards me, I didn't fancy loosing my iphone so began studying his movements from the corner of my eye. He whipped out a massive roll up and began to smoke what clearly wasn't standard 'backy'. A nearby builder clocked the situation and asked the man what tobacco he was smoking and that it was 'strong' stuff. I smiled under my beard and within seconds had been reunited with my old friend Paul.
We drank quite a lot of red wine - the only two non suited men in Corney and Barrow we were a sensational hit with other extended lunch time drinkers - exchanged a business card and met someone once employed by someone who still hires me.
Keen to get home in time to see Ipswich play the gunners I made a last minute dash for the 18:30 train and found myself standing in First Class. A french man was banging on about some new technologies and was disparaging towards Iphones. I waited until close to the end of my journey before making a point of plugging my phone into a power socket and making a public joke out of the battery life. Once it was charged I decided to point out to the French man (and his corporate blackberry friends) the benefits of the iphone - he remained unconvinced showing me some crap nokia with a 3.2 meg camera _yawns_.
So Ipswich didn't win but I had a nice curry whilst watching the game with friends. Today we shot an editorial video with Oz Clarke (legend). Upon wrap we cracked open a bottle of Colchester white wine, Bacchus, and raised a toast to Colchester. Happy days.
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