New Food #28: A fry up delicacy

At the weekend my family and I went to The Hermitage with my Grandad aka Lord Studman to celebrate his 90^th birthday. He’d never had breakfast out before and between us we managed to have nearly everything off the menu.

I went for a full English, which included black pudding. I’ve had plenty of cooked breakfasts, but never had black pudding. So what did it taste like? Well in small forkfuls it doesn’t taste too bad, a bit like stuffing you get with roast potatoes. But if you go for a big mouthful like I did towards the end, it starts to turn on you.

So if it’s on my plate in the future, I’ll remember to eat it in small amounts.

Writing 29 pages of a screenplay per month #5: Big Screen Legends

The latest screenplay I’ve been writing is a 6 part light hearted series called Hea-Van which is about Platinum Heaven, the next step up from normal heaven.

The last time I did some writing on it I had written episode 1 and half of episode 2. Now I’ve completed all of episode 2 and episode 3. Each episode is 20 minutes in length and a minute on screen is one page. Episode 2 explores another area of Platinum Heaven called S.A.O. which is Signs and Opportunities. This is where people in the land can go in front of a panel to create a sign or an opportunity for a loved one back on earth to make their life. The panel I created for the episode consisted of John Lennon, Elizabeth Taylor and Amelia Earhart.

The problem I’ve started to have with some elements of the series is I have ideas for this new land, but once they are down on paper they don’t last as long as I think they should, so that’s proved a challenge.

Also sometimes when you write, even if you have everything planned out in your mind what you want to happen, it go in a different direction. Which is what happened in episode 2. I put Heath Ledger in the first half of the episode to play off one of the main characters, and I created a good rapport with him and the other character that I did a second longer scene later in that episode. I've already got ideas as to how Heath Ledger can feature in the series finale.

The third episode was all about reunions and big arrivals. For this episode I focused on the arrival of Robin Williams and how people would react. I focused on the friendships that would be reformed. John Belushi and Christopher Reeve were best friends of Robin Williams, and Belushi passed away in the 80’s and Reeve over ten years ago. So it was interesting to think about how it would be to have a reunion with someone I hadn’t seen in over 10 years or even longer.

For a couple of characters which I’ll discuss in further detail in another blog post I had to create a very emotional reunion, so out came the sad music and I found one song that got me in the right sad mood. So I had to play this one song which was the Glee version of Pure Imagination on a loop until the scene was written and yes you've guessed it, it was stuck in my head for the rest of the next day! 

New book #23-25: Recommendations

Over the challenge my friends and family have given me many recommendations and the last few books I’ve read have been recommendations.

Love, Nina was recommended by Charlotte and it was a girl called Nina who was a nanny in London during the 80s. The book is letters she used to send her sister during this time about her adventures working. It’s a popular book and upon finishing it, it was announced that they were making it into a TV series. I liked the format of the book and found some of it amusing but I didn’t find it laugh out loud funny like others had.

I also read Miranda Hart’s book Is It Just Me? which was recommended by Charlotte and my sister Lisa. This book was funnier and I liked how Miranda talked directly to the reader all of the time and then went off and talked about random things from time to time.

Lisa also lent me Looking for Alaska which is by John Green who wrote Fault in Our Stars. I’d read that book and seen the film and liked both, however Looking for Alaska I just couldn't get into. I couldn’t connect with the characters and I think it also might have been a case of me being too old to read the book as I think the target audience is probably teenagers.

New Phrases #22-23: International events

At work I try to find a funny news story every day for me and my colleague Austin to talk over as it’s a way of breaking up the day. Yesterday however Austin randomly said to me on the subject of funny stories that it’s international talk like a pirate day at the weekend. And would you believe it google confirmed this was true!

There’s a whole website dedicated to the day and yes you’ve guessed it there were some pirate phrases to learn! I opted for a pirate phrase in German so ‘death and evil’ is Tod und Teufel in German.

With the rugby world cup starting yesterday, and New Zealand always having a big impact I learnt what welcome is in New Zealand is from my mate Tom who is living there at the moment. It’s ‘Haeri Mae’

So Happy talk like a pirate day!!! Arrrgghh!

New People: What I have learnt from people that I’ve met

Looking back over the people that I’ve met during the challenge, two words come to mind: randomness and opportunity. Usually I’ll add in the end of the category blog posts what the best part of the category was, but I don’t think you can do that with people.

Going on holidays always provides an opportunity to meet new people and going to Rome and the Brecon Beacons did just that. I met people from all walks of life with great stories to tell.

Other people I’ve met I admired from afar, like Mary Berry and Freddie Flintoff and even though there wasn’t much of an opportunity to say much I’m glad I met them.

People can make a good evening out great, they can add entertainment value when you least expect it, like Darren who I met on the tube who loudly asked me out. And meeting Louise and Punita at Davina McCall's empowerment evening meant that it was nice to share a new experience with like minded people.

I’ve met people who are the keys to my friends’ happiness, like Ayden is to Humaira and Rob is to Laura. And then sometimes you meet people who become one of the keys to your own happiness and for 6 months this was Matt.

Over the challenge I had in my mind that I was going to meet due to some opportunities I created, but they fell through. Not all plans work out. I thought I would meet Bradley Cooper after seeing Elephant Man (thinking it would be easy like meeting Jake Gyllenhaal in New York) and I was due to meet a Bath rugby player as well, but that didn’t materialise.

Until very recently I thought that a guy I met a few weeks ago would be the perfect happy ending for the people part of the challenge. But after three dates and the first lasting from 8pm-2am and both of us not wanting it to end, he met someone who blew him away even more. Yes it was only three dates, so no time at all really, but sometimes you just have a feeling something is different. And for me that rarely happens, I try not to get excited too quickly (unless it's to do with Australian Masterchef.) I am after all the person who would only get excited about a holiday when I’m sitting on the plane ready for take-off.

There have been great highs and unexpected lows during the time I’ve been doing the challenge. Meeting new people have distracted me from the bruises in life I’ve got and help me back together again and become stronger. Jane Fonda, the main inspiration for this challenge said in her master class about studying muscles, that they can tear but they build back stronger. So I guess meeting people this past year has helped me build up muscle.

While I’m talking about meeting new people I thought I’d share one of my favourite quotes; ‘People are in your life for a reason, season or life time.’ And at the end of this part of the challenge this quote couldn’t be truer.

New Comedians #16-20: TV favourites and recommendations

After a non stop week of physical work on the National Trust holiday I wanted to have a chilled out week, so thought it was great opportunity to watch some comedians.

Rob Brydon was first up and I’ve seen him in Gavin and Stacey and the odd interview, but not much else. His stand up was pretty good and about everyday things which people could relate to. Like Dara O’Briain what impressed me was his ability to remember audience members names at the end of the show. I also liked how at the start he saw two empty seats near the front and got two members of the audience who were in the balcony to come on down and take them.

John Cleese was another person who again I’d heard of, but apart from Will & Grace I hadn’t really seen him in anything. I know it’s shameful I haven’t seen Fawlty Towers or Monty Python. His stand up was based on the fact that he had to do it to fund his divorce. The stand up material was different to others that I’ve watched as rather then getting the audience involved it was more a history of his life, which was really interesting. Although it would have been good to see some interaction with the audience to give it some uniqueness, otherwise he’s doing the exact same thing every night. Not that he needs any advice from me!

The next two comedians were recommendations from a guy I met recently. And although we only saw each other three times, he seemed to get my sense of humour spot on. He recommended I watch Kevin Hart’s Laugh at My Pain stand up show and it was one of the funniest stand up shows I’ve ever seen. I was laughing non stop. I’d seen Kevin Hart in the challenge already thanks to seeing the Wedding Ringer film, but his stand up is so far the only stand up I could quote to you days after seeing it. So if you’ve seen it, if I say; ‘stay in your lane’ pineapple’ and ‘alright, alright, alright’ you’ll know what I’m going on about.

The second comedian I was recommended was a guy called Bill Burr. I watched his show called You People are all the Same. It wasn’t as funny as Kevin Hart but Bill had one of those voices that make anything sound funny which is always a winner for me. He reminded me a lot of an actor called Charlie Day who has one of those types of voices.

Then I watched Sean Lock’s stand up DVD which was lent to me by Matt. And to be honest I didn’t find it funny at all. There wasn’t much interaction with the audience and there wasn’t anything original, I felt like I had heard it all before. I think Sean Lock maybe one of those comedians that work well on a panel show as there are other people to work off, but maybe not on his own. Although saying that the audience at the show he was doing found him hysterical so it might be he doesn’t match my sense of humour.

New Places and Activities: What have I learnt and what was the best

Going through the list of new places and experiences I’ve noticed there were no theme and a great deal of variety.

In terms of new places I’ve been to this past year, I wanted to go to the Gold Coast to see my friend Jasmine, but my finances took a turn. In fact the only place abroad I went to was Rome for a long weekend. I did however see more of the UK then I thought, with trips to; Bath, Stone Henge, Salisbury, Abergavenny and Whitney. All of which were very different. There were a couple of places I went to which I thought should be on the list, but after checking with my parents and friends it turned out I’d already been to them years ago.

Some of the experiences I had no idea what to expect going in; my first new activity in Chessboxing were completely random, but one turned out to be one of the best nights and one of the highlights of this part of the challenge. The same goes for the edible horror farm and seeing Cool Runnings on an ice rink.

The pole photo shoot, taking part in a parade and a festival tested the nerves but the end result was worth it.

Some of the new experiences were quite small and not as big as I predicted doing. Originally ice climbing, circus skills and going on Europe’s longest zip wire were going to be part of the challenge, but life changes and the people I had planned to do these activities with didn’t follow through. Instead making something from Pinterest and jump starting my car were part of my challenge.

The best experiences in the challenge were ones I experienced with people. Taking my dad to a rugby match was particularly special as he hadn’t been to Wembley Stadium before and the last time he went to a rugby match was in the sixties. I loved making brunch for my friends as there’s nothing better than people enjoying food I’ve cooked.

Thanks to meeting Matt, and him being obsessed with rugby, the sport is now on my radar. I went to the Rugby 7s festival which was a great present for my friend Ro (as she loves rugby players) and we had a really fun weekend.

I have no plans in stopping doing unusual activities that have no rhyme or reason. In fact I already have an idea for a series of activities to do next year!