Big projects this weekend. First off we had to jetwash the patio. Well Mia had to, cos she likes doing it, even though it makes her cold and wet. But that meant we had to shop for a new jetwash machine. Our old one was a cheap model and after a few uses developed a leak in the pressure nozzle which meant that the water came squirting out sideways. So we had to do that.

In order to do that we had to move the old washing machine which is in our garden, so I brought home a sturdy sack truck from work and shifted it into a more convenient corner. Then we bought the jetwash. The Karcher ones are the best and their cheapest one looked the best for the price, and it was good too. Real sturdy and workmanlike. But then Karcher just kinda make jetwashers for a living so it has to be good.

Next up was the toilet seat. Our wooden one in the upstairs loo was a little broken. Looks kinda grubby as well no matter how many times you clean it so we bought a new one, in a colour which matches the other wooden stuff in the room.

We also bought two bins for washing which replace a three pocket washing frame we've had for years. Just having those two new bins in the utility room gives it a lift, makes it look more organised. Same for the bathroom. New toilet seat at the centre makes the whole room look better. Anyway these bins are real hi-tech new Curver bins and they rock. They are white and grey rather than the cream colour here, but you get the idea. Is it wrong to be so pleased with a laundry bin? Tsk, huh? The life I lead, eh...

Plus I bought a small plastic three way drawer for under my desk. I occured to me the other day I have NO storage space for my stuff and I got a LOT of stuff. So I got this little three drawer filing system thingie from Homebase where we got the jetwash and the bins. It's kinda cool. (Couldn't find a picture of the actual one but it's kinda like this...

Plus I hoovered (long overdue and with three fluffy animals in the house essential) and Mia cleaned and shined. Plus we reorganised my desk. Now I don't own a desktop PC my computer desk is really not desktop computer oriented anymore. I have a laptop, and so we took everything off it, put the stuff in the drawers, and cleared the top so I can put my Powerbook on the desk and hook up the mouse, Skype phone, external drive and music interface and external monitor. Now I have a place to work again and it's kinda cool. I really appreciate Mia's help in putting it together but I was too tired to show any appreciation at the time. The moment's passed, but if you're reading this, THANKS BABY!!!

As I wrote this I'm not sure if all this took place on Saturday... maybe we did some of this Sunday. Either way I was pooped.

Fell asleep watching "House" season 2 again. Really good show. Hugh Laurie has never been as good as he is in this show.I hope he's earning a bundle from it.

Friday. Thank god. My Skype box and Hattie's phone arrived. As did my copy of "Sin City" Unrated, Recut and Extended from the US. It's a teriffic disc, lots of really cool features. Including a total green screen cut of the film so you can see how it was shot. Really cool.

Timetable was posted and I'm working Monday and Tuesday. Great. Well good, but um, need to do a little research into FCP as I'm not totally sure of how to use the program yet. Fortunately I have a subscription to Lynda.com and can brush up on stuff over the weekend.

Looking forward to being at the Studios again. I feel totally at home over there.

Back again, cold again today and not really much fun to be outside. SPent a bit of time out shopping today. Went to PC World. My retro bell driven phone arrived and I wanted to get some kind of Skype box to connect it to the PC on my desk. No dice at PC World. They are really useless these days.

Sent the order through to CPC, my hardware catalogue of choice. They got everything and you order it one day it's here the next. Got a Trust Internet Phone Station for £35 and a Skype phone for Hattie (a kind of Un-Birthday gift) for about £19.

Can't wait to use my phone. It's has a reassuringly retro feel. Can't wait till more of my buddies get a skype phone.

Back at school for a while. I'll be back over at Christchurch next week don't really know when until the timetable is posted on Friday.

Lots of stuff to do which has accumulated since I went away. Been away from school for four straight days and it's frankly a little bit weird to be back here.

Managed to keep a fairly low profile all day, and caught up with any work which has built up. Unlocked any computers which froze as soon as I exited the building, giving truth to the lie that most of the users here believe; I'm psyhchically connected to the network and when I leave it dies. I think some of the older patrons think I work it with my foot.

Fully recovered from the abcess now, only a little bump and a bit of soreness. Still feeling a bit weird but that'll happen I guess.

Bumped into Robin Lawrence, one of the actors at school who also is going to be in the movie. We went and had coffee and traded war stories about being old. He is 47 I'm 46 and we both date women who are 15 years our junior. Turns out we've both had experiences of talking to our partners about stuff which has happened in the past only to realise that it happened before they were born and they have no memory of it. Sigh. Happens with the students at school too. We laughed about it a lot then went to work.

Today's final story in the edits of the first year video project was a serious story about a couple who break up quite acrimoniously, but meet up on the internet and meet again and get to say sorry to each other.

It's a fine little story but the filming of it was quite gruelling. Really cold day and so many scenes outside we all froze to death. Plus I'm coming to the conclusion that students who have no idea what they want from a film, and not much interest in the process, are easier to teach how to make a film. This lot are very keen, highly technical, and totally committed to the story. Which means they raced ahead when we filmed, rolling tape and cutting too fast, moving on to the next setup without properly considering if they had enough coverage, and in the edit they were trying to do a fine cut as they went along doing the rough cut. It was torture. Fiddling with a single edit for ages when they should have been just lobbing clips into the timeline and worrying about the details later. Ah well, I guess they will learn eventually.

Last day over at Christchurch Studios for a while. Shame because it's like a little holiday working there. Much more easy environment. Looking forward to shooting the first bit of my film here.

Went shopping on the way home for groceries and spotted CDs by The LA's for £4.96 and Harry Connick Jr. for £1.94 in Tesco. Gotta have 'em. Threw in a Goth compilation for good measure. Oh yeah and it was a blizzard too. Really proper snow. Mia was unimpressed. Okay she had to say that was proper snow but she still says that was nothing... just a light sugar frosting compared to the old country. She's right.I've been in Helsinki in Winter and it's like a different planet. Minus 30 and dry. So cold your brain starts to ice up. And snow drifts up the side of buildings, not kerbs. So yeah no comparison, but still. I love it.

Got home and listened to my CDs while drinking hazelnut flavoured coffee. Mia had her friend Tonya over for the evening and they watched "Lost" on Divx while I wrote this blog and listened to my music. I'm real tired, though.

Fell asleep watching Family guy again. That show just gets better and better.

Third edit day. This group has a little story about two guys who try and get out of a surprise by their geeky friend and go to a Red Hot Chillie Peppers gig instead, then find out the geeky friend had planned to take them to the gig.

Had a haircut today on my way in. There's a trendy barbers on the corner of the street in Clifton Village where I'm working and I nipped in to have a trim while I was waiting for the studio to open. Had a nice chat about kids with the attractive lady barber, who from what she says is way older than she looks.

Starting to feel a bit better. My face is going down and the abcess is nearly gone. I feel a bit weird though, kind of sore, but in a good way, the way you feel after surgery like you are healing up.

Popped in to school on my way home to fix the principal's computer which had gone rogue and dropped itself off the network for no good reason. Changed the plug in the router and it started working again. I don't know why it stopped and I don't know why it started again, but all I care about is that it's working.

Got up early and did my usual thing, had a cup of something and read for a bit but then went back to bed! I actually slept through till about 11am.

Spent most of the day cooking. I cooked US style pancakes with blueberries for breakfast, McDonald's style Egg McMuffins for brunch, then later on I cooked spinach and mushrooms which Mia added to feta cheese for us to make toasted sandwiches.

Bought a load of mushrooms to make that Jamie Oliver mushroom soup recipe we love so much but didn't get around to cooking that. Maybe later in the week. We have so much food in the house at the moment that it's really not a problem. Loving having some money again, and making sure everyone has a good time. That means having lots of food in the house so people don't go hungry.