Thursday, 2 February 2012

DL Video Shoot - Photo Roundup

So I took about 400,000 pictures at the Daytona Lights video shoot last Sunday. Due to how cold it was my Canon battery could not hold a charge so the varying quality of these is due to a mash up of iPad, iPhone regular and Instagram.

Some of the highlights:
Sam, drummer (obvs)
Louis (guitar, obvs)



Laurence (bass guitar)







Some pretty amazing port...
The house that was the set for Lovejoy

Matt (guitar)
Danny (right - lead vocal)

One of the house dogs, tried to get into every scene
I suspect these may be first edition originals or something equally as impressive.
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My music video début

A very cold Sunday in January, stay at home under the duvet for a DVD day? Not for me and Daytona Lights (a band you may have seen in Hollyoaks should you be so cultured). They were filming their debut music video in the country and I was going along for the ride. Literally, after being picked up at 7am in a minibus. Rock and Roll.

The concept for the day was sort of Alice in Wonderland type experience whereby a whole manner of weird and wonderful things would be occurring in a manor house in Suffolk. And a very nice house it is too belonging to a very nice country gent named Charlie.

Notice the peacock on the roof? There were three at various points throughout the day



On arriving at the manor the first thing to do (after lighting a fire) was begin building a house of cards. I was amazing at this aided by a pritt stick. It did feel a tad like school though after having to keep reaching over people as they weren't sharing the glue...Here is our creation as used in the video...impressive eh?


The boys began the day of filming with solo acts. Taking place in varying locations in the stately rooms each would play their instrument (or sing in Danny’s case) along to the playback of the single. The song du jour was ‘My Place’, luckily my favourite song from the album - since I would be listening to it roughly 27,000 times throughout the day.

After the individual shots it was time for some outside (brrr), one of the outhouses of the building was apparently called the fornication room as this is where the master of the house would ‘entertain’ the milk maid. However this could have been a made up story, we aren't sure, but I'd like to think it was true. 

Thankfully it was then back inside for the black tie takeaway. Some other scenes to be filmed around this table, the mad hatters tea party and surgical removal of Sam's head with a chainsaw. Marvellous. 






One of the most hilarious sessions of the day was the princess’ knitting. How this came about and who dreamt it up I have no idea, but comedy value it certainly is. Myself and the crew totally forgot we were filming a music video and decided this could easily be a sitcom, producers and scriptwriters pay attention…
One of the most impressive scenes of the day came courtesy of the English National Ballet. 4 dancers elegantly performing in front of the impressive exterior of the mansion, how they managed to not show the pain on their faces from the cold is amazing. Seeing them dance is equally impressive.






A mere 15 hours later and it was time to head back into London and try and thaw out. I don't remember being that cold in a long time. The sort of freezing where you can't even imagine ever being warm again.

Once the video is ready I will post it on here, I did film a scene with two of the boys, If I am banished to the directors cutting room floor I will not be impressed. I want my 5 seconds of fame thank you very much...I think I can feel stardom beckoning. Today a freezing cold manor in the country - tomorrow the Hollywood walk of fame.

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Monday, 30 January 2012

Shop n Sushi

Saturday wasn't all doom and gloom. I did manage a nice browse and some lovely lunch. Probably my favourite food and definitely one of my favourite ways of eating...no waiting, everything right in front of you, a help button in case you need a top up of anything. Bliss. It is also a very acceptable way of eating alone. The belt can hide a multitude of sins...

Soy, wasabi, help, water. chop sticks...tip. of. fingers.
Come. to. me
Off belt - hot chicken yaki soba (probably the only disappoint thing I ate...too oily)
Salmon and avocado hand roll. Get. in. my. mouth
This little magic wand turns red when you press  for help
The food, isn't actually going THAT fast
 Yo! Done
 I couldn't resist taking these as they struck me from inside the shop when walking by, not sure I'd be brave enough to rock a pair though...

 Percy was looking very swish in these shorts - I'm also a bit unsure what 'percy pig flavour' chocolate will taste like
We may be seeing this bag again in the blog...It was hard to not buy it and I have yet to rule out the purchase. I'm oh so tempted. If only they had the zipped one in stock. Oh how my day could have been different.
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#Fail #EPICFail

So, I had a pretty much train wreck of a day on Saturday. I decided to go to Westfield (west, not east) to collect my Michael Kors bag that has been held captive at the repair unit since mid December. It started off OK, I picked up a couple of pieces in the French Connection sale (although I did try on 12 items and only two were deemed worthy of a purchase). I then went to collect my bag.

The girl I have dealt with over email and phone was on holiday, however the other lady in the shop was very helpful and immediately pranced backstage (to the store room) to collect my estranged love one. An uncomfortable amount of time later she reappeared with a carrier bag, out of it...not my bag. So, back she went this time less of an uncomfortable amount she reappeared, this time with the correct bag. Phew. I was however slightly disappointed with the service, it took over a month (granted it was over Christmas), but I thought maybe the bag would have been cleaned/polished/buffed to a pristine condition for my troubles, it wasn't. Still worse was to come...

I may be completely overreacting here, but since when haven't you been able to pay for goods in Boots with part Advantage card points, part cash/card? I had a couple of smaller items and a 3 for 2 offer on haircare. I also have almost £15 in points (around the same amount of the two hair products). My items were scanned and I entered my Advantage Card. I then stated I wanted to pay with points and was told I didn't have enough, so I said I'd pay the rest on card. This is when the trouble started.

I literally said it was the strangest thing I've ever heard, why couldn't I part pay? He didn't know. His genius answer was to pay for two of the haircare products on card then the rest with my points....errrr slight problem...it's a 3 for 2 deal! WHY would I want to pay for something that would be free should I buy it together? He said if I purchased the other smaller items on card I would have enough points to pay for my 3 for 2. So that's what I did. When it came to buy the rest I was 8 points short and he refused for me to make up the 8p in cash. So stupid. When I pointed out you always could pay part and part another clerk butted in to say 'yeah about 10-15 years ago'. I was so enraged I didn't buy the things. Seriously, that is such a stupid rule.

I then continued shopping and was pretty knarked off. I even went as far as to pull Boots a dirty look as I walked by (mature). I decided to go into Debenhams to look for a camera case. The camera I got for Christmas really isn't in the best 'hands' residing in one of my running gloves acting as a make shift case. When in here there were some nice gifty bits...I thought this would be a pretty good pressie for a relative named Bill.


This is the moment where I turned around and felt my bag of French connection goodies be blocked in it's path by something...a vase. It teetered while all I could do was look in despair. My reflex was to block it's fall with my shoe. It did actually cushion it a bit. Not enough. It then swayed joyfully on the floor as it smashed into a million pieces. Great. I am 'that' person, thank god I wasn't out shopping with my Mum, she always used to say 'careful you don't smash anything' and my personal favourite...'you'll have to pay for that.'

I looked around helplessly as no store workers rushed over to assist. There were however some children running around (no, I didn't think about blaming them) and a parent who looked at me with a 'Judgey von Holier than thou' face. I was therefore reluctant to step away from my mess in case a) a child got hurt or b) Judgey thought I was bolting. Eventually I had to leave the mess. I picked up the two biggest bits of glass and took them to a nearby till point where three cashiers were having a merry old chat and not serving any customers. I presented them with my smashed produce and asked for a brush. One of the young attendees said he didn't have one but walked off. I followed him and retreated back to my mess. As I was trailing in his wake I asked if I should pay for the vase. Thankfully the answer was a casual 'no' as if this happens all the time. And here was me with the fear of god in me I was going to banned/penniless/shamed.

I thought I should take my sorry arse home after this, but I wanted some nice dinner and a bottle of champagne having just received a bonus at work. I went to M&S first as they usually have a decent selection, but no. Nothing that tickled my fancy. I then deduced in Morrisons they would be very reasonably priced. After trawling the wine aisle three times I couldn't see any champagne. My eyes were literally deceiving me. I asked an attendant and champagne is actually kept, in this particular Shepherds Bush branch of Morrisons...behind the cigarette counter. Classy. I went over there, the selection was tiny and the queue was enormous. Cue my leaving. Tesco Express on the way home would have to do.

Somehow on the way home from the station I managed to MISS Tesco express. How? I have no idea. It has surely been moved. Thus concludes my epic fail of a day.
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