18 April 2009

March round-up

Balcony view from our new home:

Anna and I have both been super busy with our jobs, and settling into our new digs. There's an unbelievable amount of admin involved in moving flat in the UK, and the service providers here seem to think it's their job to make things more difficult where they can. So, having stayed home one day to donate extra furniture to charity, arranged movers, cleaners, and a time for the inventory check, then transferring power, water and council tax accounts, then setting up a new phone line for our internet provider, then being told our internet provider can't provide a connection to the new flat, then suing the internet provider for the cost of installing a now-useless phone line, to making sure we get our security deposit back from the old flat, plus securing a refund of over-paid council tax, plus returning the internet service providers modem, and doing the inventory check in the new flat - phew!

I made this process more fun by booking several events at the BFI on the day of our move, but they had a special "Blade Runner" day that I wasn't going to miss for the world. Ended up seeing a panel discussion with the producer Michael Deeley, a screening of the Final Cut with Rutger Hauer in discussion, and a special interview with (hold the press!) Sir Ridley Scott himself, at which he was presented with a BFI fellowship. Amazing to be there for such an historical event. Even more amazing to realise that Sir Ben Kingsley was sitting in our row in the theatre!

So what else did we get up to in March? I had a couple of social events at Yahoo!, a night of cocktails and pool with one of our law firms (and saw a nearby building burning down), and a karaoke binge to farewell a colleague. That was a lot of fun. I sand a few duets, "Summer Lovin" (under duress), "Moonlight Shadow" and "Head Like a Hole" - plus a rousing solo rendition of "Killing in the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine. Hell yeah. I also caught up for drinks with a few of the old gang from Sohonet.

We bid adieu to Wes and Mon, who are back to Australia, though hopefully not for long. 

I went for a trip to Croydon to visit Andy, Megs and Ollie. We all went to the old Croydon Airport, now represented by a single art deco terminal building. As I keep discovering, history always runs just under the surface in London. This unassuming little spot, in an unassuming suburb, was actually the site of the world's first international airport, London's original main airport, and the first airport to introduce air traffic control. During the First World War it was used as a base to stave off Zeppelin raids, it was the home of British Airways during the 30s, and a fighter station during the Battle of Britain.

All in all very interesting, in a pokey sort of way. The place was pretty empty, and run by a staff of retirees, and only opens one Sunday a month! Ollie was very well behaved, though he did keep throwing Andy's sandwiches on the floor. We capped the day off with a couple of pints in the Casablanca-style diner out the back.

Finally I've kept the momentum up on my film projects. Spent an evening in the rain filming Dan Kitchener doing freehand graffiti on Portobello Road, and working with a sterling VFX artist on the grading and other spot effects for my spy film.

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