I wrote a couple of months ago about an upcoming weekend in May that was threatening to be absolutely massive in terms of being out and about at loads of different events.
As it turned out, that weekend has sort of become an entire week: this week. It started on Monday night with a Charlton v Swindon football match, then Tuesday was Flight of the Conchords at Wembley Arena. Tonight I’m heading to Camden for the Chemical Brothers, whilst tomorrow night is Faithless at Brixton Academy (which is probably what I’m looking forward to most).
Saturday is a friend’s birthday dans le pub, or maybe an afternoon out at Wembley for another football match if a mate has a spare ticket. If not, it’s football and rugby finals all day in the pub.
To cap it all off, Sunday will see 10 mates from back home coming up to London for a spot of daytime clubbing/carnage at The Church, which will just be plain messy, and then the final of Premier League Darts at Wembley Arena again. Yet more beers.
Three of them are staying at mine Sunday, so Monday morning will require a recovery breakfast of some sort, and then once I’ve shipped them out the door I’ll be needing some recovery sleep…
Woah. One of my good mates has just asked me to be the videographer at his wedding next spring.
This is massive. Wow.
I’m delighted to do it, really excited already. And also incredibly nervous. I might have to get some practice in over the winter so I’m on top form by April.
I’m also brimming over with ideas for what to do ahead of the wedding, such as DVDs for the bride and groom a few weeks beforehand. I’ve known her longer than I’ve known him, actually, so I can’t wait for this wedding. It’s going to be a great day.
Think it’s been blown out of proportion by the media though, there was some trouble outside but it’s easy to avoid and the pitch invasions just came from the fact West Ham were losing with 5 minutes to go and managed to turn it round. Wasn’t like the scenes at Millwall v Leeds in the play-offs where loads of Millwall fans headed straight for the Leeds players and fans. Walking back to the station though the road was littered with bricks and glass, glad we avoided that!
As he says, inside the stadium there was only a small pitch invasion, not any violence between the two sets of supporters. Outside, however, there were patches of incidents, but they were avoidable.
Fights of this size are inevitably organised, to some extent, and they take place away from the watching eye of police in the immediate vicinity of the ground. Yes, I’m sure they are shocking to witness, but the vast majority of fans won’t even know they’re happening…
I put this together from a load of clips that I took whilst a group of mates and I had a day of cricket the other weekend. It’s a tongue-in-cheek guide to playing cricket, basically mocking our uselessness. I’m in the blue shorts and white t-shirt with headphones on it.
I’m really pleased with how it turned out, and the quality of my little Flip camera continues to surprise me. The sound is sometimes a touch low, but in general it gives fantastic performance for such a small camera.
Definitely worth watching in HD as well. Especially as it took my computer hours to render, and then a further couple of hours to upload!
You know those days when you fully intend to go to the gym at lunchtime but then a mate texts you to say he’s in London and that he’s up for a swift beer at lunchtime and so you go to meet him and his brother for “just one” but then one swiftly turns into five and you get back to the office at gone 3.30 in the afternoon and are feeling a little bit pissed but you need to hide it because your boss is there and you still have to write the weekly report even though you’re struggling to recognise your own hands on the keyboard?
And this is how I spent my Saturday. I was back home, so all the boys took a day of playing cricket before going out in the evening. Of course, it was drinking all day long, so the night got very messy very quickly.
I had my camera with me, and eventually we found the ideal spot for it during cricket. This is a mate’s first ball, and he got bowled LBW absolutely plum in front of the stumps, but wouldn’t admit it.
The screen on my camera is pretty small, so I’ve edited the clip for all to see just how obviously he got out. Bit of an in-joke, I guess, but it was fun to edit and put together.
Oh, and I’m in the white t-shirt in the top-left corner.
I took my little video camera to the stag do I was on the other weekend, and since then I’ve been editing like a madman. Most of the footage is of us being drunken idiots, and will probably only amuse ourselves, but this one is pretty damn funny.
We found a bar that was doing JagerBombs for just £1 on a Saturday night, and I’ve genuinely got no idea how many we get through. This is an edited video from that night, and I’m very happy with how good the camera worked in low light levels.
My favourite bit is at 4:45 or so, the expression on a mate’s face as he downs the shot. So expressive, and fucking hilarious. Oh, and I look like a right tit at the end of the video. In HD too…
There’s a few more videos on my YouTube profile, and I’ve got a couple more to edit in the next few days. I’m the narrator for most of them, and usually the loudest voice, if you want to hear my dulcet English tones.
I’ve just been sorting out some work experience for a mate’s sister at my girlfriend’s newspaper, which seems to have been successful.
Unfortunately, in the media (as with so many other industries) it’s all about who you know when trying to get your foot in the door. Ability seems to count so much less than random cases of patronage or favours.
It’s one of those areas where you have no choice but to play the game, even if it pains you to do so.
He also proposed taking her to the game, which isn’t a bad shout if I can get hold of a ticket. He said that he’s done that on birthdays and a Valentine’s Day before, and, seeing as he is now married to her and trying for a baby, she can’t have been that offended.
About
Londoner, thinking and writing far too much about far too many random things. Wannabe photo-/videographer of my life. More likely to be found propping up a bar somewhere.
