All work, a little play and a lot of food - 09/10/2006

Well I thought it was going to be busy this week and it was. Every day seemed to get progressively busier as we moved towards the launch date of this campaign we are working towards. We seemed to be either fighting fires, discovering things that hadn't been done or having to delay things as we waited for approval and swung dangerously close to deadlines that we couldn't miss. Through the shit and being messed around we all seemed to be working and pulling together more than usual. I felt in the thick of it and the shared experience was great.

I went in early a few mornings and stayed late quite a few nights. We seemed to eat lots of junk food to keep us going bacon sarnies, hot dogs, cheeseburger 'n' chips, KFC, endless teas and cokes. We had things being delivered, things being packed and prepared, delays with couriers and printers and a host of emails bouncing around from party to party. Despite the pressure we had fun and I downloaded the Hoff's new single 'Jump in my car' which although cheesy is good fun. I played this enough times for it to become synomonous with the end of the campaign. I really like the Hoff and I think a little piece about him in the musings/observation section of my site is in order.

By Wednesday we were kinda ready for the last push but couldn't start until some final items of print arrived so left at around 8.00ish. My brother came up and we watched the semi final double bill of The Contender. K9 vs Steve Forbes was the first fight. I like K9 though I confess he is more of a brawler rather than a silky boxer. He has a lot of power but he isn't very agile or quick and Forbes was out boxing him. The show seemed to be trying to make out K9 to be really bad for holding and punching to the head but it seemed that Steve Forbes was getting in close to tie up K9, leaving him no other resort.

Steve Forbes won and I gotta say that it was probably the right result. You could see K9 was initially disappointed at the result but showed his colours by complimenting Steve and embracing him at the end. The next fight was Norberto Bravo and Grady Brewer. I like Norberto and he did seem to be a good character though it has been hard in this show with such little un-manufactured exposure to the boxers to detect any characters. Norberto was this brave mexican and he put Grady on his arse in the first round, which was great. The next four rounds were tough to call but I thought they were level pegging with Norberto's knockdown likely to seal the win for him. Amazingly the judges scored all the rounds to Grady despite the knockdown. I thought it was the worst decision of the programme and we felt Bravo had been well and truly robbed.

Drove in with my brother on Thursday as he was working next door and we came in a little earlier. As we were coming through the village I spotted Mystery Girl. Amazing how they know just when to re-appear after dropping off your radar. The notion of seeing her again had slipped from my mind yet here she was. I tried not to excitedly check her out and my brother got a chance to see her. She still looked good and was wearing an interesting combo of puffy-ish skirt and some trainers. It looked different but she has the legs to pull it off. I wasn't mentally prepared and the traffic was moving slow enough that I wouldn't have time to get out and hand her the card. To be honest as well I wasn't feeling particularly self confident and thus don't think I would have done a good job. It was nice to see her again but frustrating that I know I probably won't spot her for another month or so.

Got into the office and it was onwards and upwards. We waited for the final items to arrive and got cracking. We were making up, collating and addressing boxes. My brother came round to help after he'd finished work and we formed a sort of chain as one of us would be responsible for putting certain items into the box, while another added more, someone else packaged them up etc. It was good fun though I did get hot enough that I had to pull off my jumper and work in my wifebeater. I know I didn't look like someone from an American boy band but it was either this or be sweating like a pig. We had music playing, naturally including the Hoff, and by working together managed to get it all finished by around 9.00ish, which was a lot earlier than we'd expected. Everything got tidied away and we tried to take the most unflattering looking shot of me in my wifebeater that we could. I'm sensitive about somethings but I know I've put a good few pounds on and thus am capable of laughing at myself when looking a little, erm, soft. We printed the image out and I've stuck it on the wall next to my desk to help motivate me when the office nut bucket is calling me.

The fact that we had managed to get these things done sooner than expected made it almost feel like a Friday night and I felt that I needed to reward my bro for all his help. I gave him the option of a takeaway and he went for the curry. Naturally I was heartbroken! Let's continue the week of gluttony I decided and it was very yummy. I'm glad I've rediscovered the pleasures of curry though I don't intend to have one every week from now on.

We had booked a van to take all the items we'd prepped the night before on Friday morning and after loading it with over 200 boxes we set to work tidying up the office. There were only four of us in and one of those was leaving after lunch but it was good to get the office cleaned, hoovered and returned to it's normality after the clutter and crap that had accumulated after the last three or so weeks. We finished in style with a pizza each and by golly mine was good. I normally go for a deep pan as I find the Italian thin ones are normally so thin that as you pick one up, the slice flops in half and all your toppings slide off into the box. On this one though (I'd gone for an Italian medium meat feast with extra pepperoni and mushroom) the crust was a little thicker and there was no 'floppage'. Every mouthful seemed to contain meat, juices and taste and it was great. All washed down with a cold can of coke and a post lunch conversation.

Thankfully because the cleaning had been done we didn't have to race around doing it so could let the food settle and talk about the campaign. The rest of the afternoon was fairly relaxing as we were down to just the three of us but with our late nights, early starts and all other manner of work I think we'd earnt a little 'down time'. I stayed late to complete two journal entries as my site had been forced to take a back seat what with our extra work load.

I managed to get the brake light for my car on Saturday. As you might remember the traffic had been an absolute pig the weekend before so I went an alternate route, parked up and walked to the garage. He couldn't track down which internal light I needed and hence I had to walk back to my car to get the manual to show him the one I needed. Needless to say the traffic today was fine and I could have easily driven to the garage. I got the brake light but after all the efforts to track down the interior light, they didn't have it in stock. Headed off to the town to put some money away and also get some shopping. I was going to attempt the start of the fitness regime so my idea was to cut right back on the amount of food I eat. I know some people like to diet and eat different things, cut things out etc but I'm more of I'd rather have considerably less and exercise considerably more. Shopping consisted of 6 eggs, sliced white loaf and a carton of orange juice. Onto the gym and it was good to be back. I had told myself I wouldn't go mad and I didn't, but I feel I'm cheating myself if I don't push myself. Managed to get out five miles on the running machine, one set on the main weight machines and a 15 minute burn on the cyclic trainer.

Wasn't in the mood for a big night out so simply went and saw The Departed with mate and bro. It was ok. I like Leo Di Caprio and he was good in this role along with some other big names including Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Martin Sheen. I always feel a bit uneasy with films about organized crime. I really hate bullies and they all invariably are, so I'm already feeling negative until they get their comeuppance. The story had a fair amount of twists, turns and surprises but I was conscious of it being a long film and the general consensus upon leaving was that it was alright but nothing more.

Sunday was the usual. Dug out a DVD from my collection, Batman Beyond, and watched that again. It's not bad and it's always good to see the Joker when performed by Mark Hamill but it's no Mask of the Phantasm. I was keen to keep up the exercise routine and donning my ipod went for an hour long walk. I think the puma trainers I wore were lacking in proper foot support and by the time I got back the left side of my left foot was rather sore. A ridiculously hot bubble bath went some way to ease this as did watching the film Glory again. Great film, which is all about the first black american regiment that was set up during the civil war. It's directed by Edward Zwick, the same guy behind The Last Samurai, and stars Denzel Washington (who won an Oscar), Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick. A really good film with rousing music and battle scenes.

Talk soon.