The late shift, the first weekend home and a musical Saturday

So now I'm running a good 2 weeks behind on this.... bugger... this is either gonna need to be very brief or very rambling and over long... maybe both...

Right, well, first week of late shift... shift starts at 4pm and goes on until everyone else in the building has gone home. This could be by midnight, could be half 10, could be 7am the next morning. You stay until its done.

I intentionally screwed by body clock up over the weekend by staying up late so I could lay in on Monday and feel fresh for my shift. Got up around middayish, headed in to work around 2pm so I could do some training before the start of my shift.

The next area of the building I'm aiming to work (I dont intend to be a runner for any longer than I have to be!) in is the Machine Room - this is where the support team work from, basically doing all the data grunt work for all the vfx ops in the rest of the building. Support prepare the suites in the morning, ensuring that all the needed art, footage, files etc... is on the relevant machines, once a job is done Support are the guys who quality control the output (making sure it meets all legal requirements for broadcast and whatnot), they handle any encoding needed ("this needs to be sent here as a broadcast-able file, here as an email for approval, and here as a master backup copy"...) and at the end of each day they stay late to archive all the work that was done that day so that, should anything go wrong, nothing is lost.

The first thing they've started training me on is the use of these machines. Basically they're fancy VCR's, but these are what record all of our work off to tape. Its important to be precise with everything that you do, its all attention to detail with these bad boys!

Training went well and off I went for my first late shift.

Where as on a day shift you have the lunchtime rush, nights get the dinner rush, staff working late get a £9 meal allowance each day and its our job to go get it! Mostly there will be maybe 1 or 2 ops working late, but the majority of staff left after 6pm are the support team (usually 3 or 4 guys by this time) doing their evening work.

There are quite a few options for yer £9 meal allowance, but my first option was the much revered "Balans Burger" - This thing is legend among runners in Rushes and those who finish its mighty beefy core are champion. (yes, i finished!)

Evening/night runners also have to tidy the rest of the building, making sure all the suites, client areas, and all departments are clean, clear of stuff and ready for the next day. Basically a whole bunch of carrying dirty cups and glasses followed by a whole lot of washing up... luckily our dishwasher is working again!

The basics of my whole week were; get up, go train for an hour or so, get a few dinners then clean and tidy til I got to go home! Monday I got out at half 1, Tuesday was half 11 (an early one!), Wednesday was midnight on the dot and Thursday was another half 1.

One comedy thing of interest this week, mid clear up I opened a cupboard door only to have the whole thing leap off its hinges and literally fall in to my arms... Could've been a lot worse, but luckily ReeceWithDrill was on hand to fix all - even if the only fix was to put it back on the other way up!

The last jobs before leaving are to order cabs for the last few members of staff (yourself included), and then lock and alarm the building. The first time doing this is NERVE RACKING to say the least.... Hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of equipment in that building and if you screw up the locking up it stands a chance of being compromised! little intense to say the least!

Wandering round the empty building gave me a chance to snap off a few quick photos to show you more of where I work:

The Roof Garden.

The Film Storage in the basement!

One final thing I achieved with this week was completing what is so far my proudest and most fun photoshop project to date! - I found a tutorial on how to create a steampunk style picture from just a regular portrait so I got Robby (a big fan of Steampunk) to send me over a few shots of himself for me to play with and I ended up with this:

Friday I had booked off - The Associates had a gig booked down in Folkestone and it'd been a full month since I'd moved away - a much needed trip home and a good long weekend to enjoy!

I'd not finished til half 1 on the Thursday, so I didn't end up home and asleep until around 3am... I was back up at 9 to catch my train home - I wanted to make the most of the long weekend!

(Brief Version of weekend home.... GO!)

I got back to folkestone around middayish - headed to Kate and Jordo's and had a coffee and some lunch, about 3ish Ellie finished Uni so I went to hers for a few hours and then we headed back out around 6ish to go to the gig. Booze was bought and stashed at Kate and Jordan's for the after party (of course) and then the drinking began. I had a few pints before we went on, and was handed a shot of Jager literally as we walked on stage... As far as I can remember the set went well, I know I went nuts! Lots of friendly faces turned out for the show, including one or two who I wouldn't have expected to see that night which was really nice.

After the gig I stuck around with the rest of the band, Ellie and her friends and we watched the rest of the show, whilst everyone else headed to Chambers... They all came back around 11ish when the final band finished and we all piled back to Kate and Jord's to continue drinking... From this point I cannot remember any more....

The next morning I woke up at Ellies and couldn't really remember getting there (or indeed where I was for a few seconds!) Saturday was then filled with a trip to Mums for a breakfast, a clear down and disposal of an old PC, a quick mow of the lawn and to retrieve my car... Then a swift drive to Ashford took me and Ellie to see Dad, the car was left here (he's taking charge of selling it for me) and then back to Folkestone for a viewing of Avengers Assemble at Folkestones finest cinema! - WHAT A FILM!

Sunday was a far lazier day, I saw a few other friends while Ellie had some work to do and then came back to hers in the late afternoon to cook a roast for all.

Bank Holiday Monday I also spent in folkestone, again a very lazy day with time in the evening to go and watch Ellie perform in one of her friends musical theater assignments - I was very impressed despite her insistence that her bits went wrong.

And then Tuesday morning was my return to London and return to work. My shift didn't start until half 1 in the afternoon (this week I was assigned the 1.30-9.30pm shifts) so I figured I'd make the most of Folkestone and stay until I really HAD to leave!

This week has been an odd one.... The 1.30-9.30 shift is weird as when you arrive you catch the tail end of the lunch rush... so you dont have to go out to get anything, but theres a tonne of washing up to do... and then you get the evening dinner rush and the beginnings of shutting the building down - but have none of the responsibility of ensuring everything is finished when you go!

Being another 4 day week it has flown by again, barely giving me time to think, I've been heading in early again to continue my training in support. I've got a good grip on how the tape decks work now, and have had a go at encoding, uploading and a variety of their other day to day tasks. I intend to keep being there for at least an hour or so each day until a job comes up there at which point I will hopefully be able to escape the kitchen!

Only thing of real note to happen this week is the insane scolding of my leg.... I had a couple of rough nights sleep where I was waking up coughing up a lung, so decided to get up a little earlier one morning and steam my head in the hope of clearing my self out... I picked a suitable size bowl, boiled up the kettle, took all upstairs and got myself in position - cross legged on the floor with the bowl infront of me (I'm still in my dressing gown at this point). In goes the water and a reach up for a towel to sling over my head and BANG, the bowl explodes from the boiling water and my leg is drenched... I leap back and up on to the bed and quickly take stock... I'm burnt, theres shattered glass everywhere, and a puddle on the floor in my bedroom.... That didn't go well.

Friday I'd swapped shift with someone so was on the 4pm-close instead of 1.30-9.30 - This was fine as everything was done by 11ish for a change! So I got out nice and early - Win!

Saturday was a good day for music in London! The London Symphony Orchestra were playing for free in Trafalgar Square and Kent band Feed The Rhino were playing a show in Soho. Both were ace in their own way, and you cannot much further apart on the musical spectrum!

I snapped a couple of cheeky videos of the two events, as I think it'll probably be easier than trying to explain!

London Symphony Orchestra playing the Final Hymn from the Firebird Suite - any prog rock fans will know that this is the section of music that Yes always come on stage to!

Feed The Rhino opening their set with The Butchers at The Borderline in Soho - the place went NUTS...

Well - we're back up to speed, next week I'm on 12-8's and plan to continue training!