The Great Wasp Saga

So there was a HUGGEGEE wasp in my room. Like MASSIVE. So big that the word "huge" needed two extra Gs and a further two extra Es. It was like the size of my thumb. How it got in here is completely beyond my comprehension. My window wasn't open at all in the night, and in fact wasn't open yesterday. So that means that this bastard wasp has just been hanging out in my room for like two days. What was it doing? Just chilling out on the window sill? Probably.

What's the point in this story, you ask? Well, I had to tell the story of the most traumatic experience I've ever had with a wasp.

Like I say, this huge wasp was just chilling out in my room. It was on the curtain when I discovered it just before I was going to make some breakfast. I could see it walking downwards towards the ground, and it disappeared. I wondered where it had gone, and it started climbing up the back of my of my computer. It then just started chilling out on the back of my PC, near one of the cooling fans. I was gravely concerned at this point. If it were able to get into my room without my noticing, perhaps it could also sneak into my PC, at which point it would certainly die. I could not let this happen. I bravely found a tupperware box and tried to sneak the wasp inside. When I thought I had it, I placed the lid on, happy with my efforts.

The following events may shock and disturb.

I could hear the wasp struggling. It was all like, "BUZZZZZZ" and I was concerned. I looked at my new pal, only to discover that he'd tried to escape from the box, and was subsequently caught in the lid. I was mortified. I couldn't bear it. It was obviously in so much not-pain, since bugs don't really feel pain (at least not on the level we do). It was wriggling, and I was so scared that I was killing the poor thing. In an instant I dropped the box and opened the window. Thankfully the wasp flew out the window, looking back as if to thank me. We shared a brief moment of sorrow, and then he went on his way.

I don't think I made a new friend today. Gosh it was horrible. Now I know to simply invite the wasp out into the open where it can frolic, instead of imposing my harsh tyrannical justice upon it.

Woe is I. Hopefully you've learned something from this too. Make friends with wasps, don't fear them, and don't let them fear you.

Pete out.

Escapism

I'm sure everyone in the world has a desire to run away from home, to get away from people and noises and the horrid stench of the city. Well, I guess people who don't actually live in cities don't really get that, but you know. Everybody wants escapism.

The last few days have been absolute bliss. Over the Easter I didn't really have any time off. Sure, I got drunk a lot, but I wore myself out with all my working and my projects and all the stuff, all the time. So when I got the chance to actually take some time off, I took that and probably did all the best stuff I could with it.

On Saturday we started production of episodes 2 and 3 of News Man. Added to the cast this time round is Natalie Castka, whom you may have noticed has been mentioned in other posts. She came all the way to Leicester to act in a silly little project for free. I know, right? It's crazy. To think there exists at least one person out there who wants to do things for fun and for the benefit of other people. Mental.

Anyway, the day was filled with lots of fun and excitement and laughter and some acting. I can't give anything away just yet, because of spoilers, but know that me and co-producer Chris Devey were very impressed with Natalie's acting talents.

So that's the first bit of escapism. Making movies, for fun. Chris and I don't expect News Man to ever hit the box office, and to be honest I don't think I'd ever want it bound by media law and budgets and stupid Hollywood shit.

Then, of course, we went to the pub. Natalie and I had a few drinks and a good natter before she had to catch the train home. All in all, it was certainly one of the happiest days that I've had in a very long while. Thank you.

On Sunday, I didn't do very much at all. Yusef moved in properly, which was cool, and otherwise I just monged out. Didn't do much of anything. I caught up on some of my uni editing, which was less cool, but needed doing because of all the monging out I've been doing as of late.

Speaking of monging out, Monday I actually went into work. I saw my manager for the first time in a month and we had a very positive catch up. It's usually very much, "It doesn't seem like you've got enough, so let's bring down the number of hours you're doing." Sigh. BUT YESTERDAY she said, "Sounds like you've got it all sorted. Let's boost your hours," YAAAAY! MONEY!!

By midday of yesterday, I'd gone home. Yesterday was quite a special occasion though, what with it being the 20th of the 4th. Mike and I had a lunch time of not so much sobriety, and then I chilled out all afternoon, getting some bits of work done. I'm not even sure what I did. In the evening, Mike came home with a Ray and we got even less sober. It was wonderful.

I woke up this morning completely at ease. I'd planned to have today off to continue my escape from life and I sure as hell did. After a hearty breakfast I hopped on my bike and decided to go north along the River Soar. And I'm bloody pleased with what I found.

Ducks! What with it being spring time, all the crazy-colours animals came out to play. I've never seen a duck coloured like this before, with a green face thingy. Isn't it cool?

I also found a neat little waterfall. There's a heron in that picture somewhere.

This is the main event, really. My cycling had brought me to the lakes of Watermead Park. It was bliss. Tranquil. I'd escaped from the city and found somewhere beautiful.

These last few days have been everything I've needed. I was feeling pretty shitty about myself over Easter, but now that I've well and truly chilled the fuck out, things are looking up. This year was meant to be about this sort of stuff. The whole year was meant to be easy and fun and not with my family. Winter totally sucked, what with working at Argos and barely having enough money to survive. Now I actually don't have any money at all until the start of May, but who cares? There's some pretty pretty stuff in the world. And I can see it.

I'm now in my last four weeks at DMU, and so all guns are going to be blazing for a little while, I can imagine. But after the 15th of May, I can do whatever I want. I'm gonna go cycling a lot. Film loads of News Man. Make some new projects for myself. WHO KNOWS?! As long as I can run away and be with my friends, I'll be happy.

Pete out.

Velcro Works on My Beard

Yup, Sure does. I'm pretty certain that I'll be able to make use of this soon enough.

I also just spent the last couple of hours of my Saturday evening sprucing up my bike, Polly, adding new bits, giving her a bit of a buff. Oil. Lots of oil. She certainly needed a good seeing to, though, having spent the entire winter in a shed. Poor thing. I bet she's well happy now that she's able to frolic around the streets and fields of Kettering again, her new wheel working more beautifully now than it did out of the shop.

You know, for the last year I've been struggling to think of what I'd class as my "hobby". Because while throughout uni, videos were certainly my hobby, they've now become my life. At the moment, I spend the weekends and some weekdays working at Wicksteed Park, and then in the evenings and every other moment of my life I'm making videos. DMU pays me a wage to make them. So now it's my profession. Don't get me wrong, it's what I always wanted, but some of the magic and sparkle has gone away. It's no longer the activity I use to break away from the world and enter this magical realm, where anything can happen. That said, News Man certainly falls under the "magical realm" banner, what with it being completely off our own backs where no one makes any money. Not even our professional actors.

So yeah, I'll admit that turning a hobby into a profession kind of bummed me out a bit when I thought about it. But there I was today, with my workshop clothes on, oily rags in hand, sprucing up the current love of my life. It may sound simple and not at all exciting, but I may make cycling my new hobby. It's been years since I took my bike out for a good thrashing around Pitsford or wherever. The other week, I took my other bike, Cyborg (named as such because I built it last year as a spare bike), on a half hour sprint north along the River Soar, and that was great. I was run-over of course, due to the lack of breaks on Cyborg, but otherwise it was a nice getaway. So now all I have to do is hope that there are some really nice cycling routes around Kettering that don't require a car to get to. There'll be something, I'm sure. And hey, sling my DSLR on my back and I can take some pretty pictures too. That'd be nice. I like pretty pictures.

My life is going to take a pretty weird turn soon. I've lived in Leicester for four years, three of which have been because of uni. I do find it a bit odd that I now work at said uni, but it is a massive stroke of luck. But yeah, soon I'm going to finish my stint at DMU, and then my tenancy is going to end on my house in Leicester, and then I don't ever intend to return. I'm going to move back to Kettering for a while, but do I want to stay there? I have some pretty cool Kettering-based projects coming up, so for the time-being at least I will be. I know living back in this relatively cramped house with shitty internet is going to annoy me, but I do need to save some dollar and start driving really.

You know, when I started writing this post, it was meant to be a complete rip-off of my friend, Natalie's post about finding happiness in the life you live, even if it's not where you wanted to be. Many of you will know that I've never been a particularly positive person, and sometimes I can be downright miserable, but her post did inspire me to try and find these little nuggets of happiness. Perhaps in May, I shall keep a journal each day of the things that made me happy that day. Hopefully "alcohol" won't appear too often. This paragraph definitely isn't finished yet, what with the point made in the first sentence not being completely resolved.

So for the last few days, I've woken up feeling pretty shit about myself. And unfortunately, that happens on more mornings than I'd care to admit. But fortunately, when I'm alone, there's a logical part of my brain that usually tells me to cheer the fuck up and get on with my life, because negativity can only kill you quicker. Of course, when I'm with friends, it's all good. They do that for me. And the last couple of days have been a tribute to that, really. Yesterday I was tearing down the road on my bike, swearing at every driver who came an inch too close to me, and being almost too willing to cut up cars on that busy roundabout. I didn't particularly fancy being alive, to be all honest with you, but the positivity of my buddy Richard started to rub off on me a little, and we just had genuinely nice customers. Well, a couple of awkward assholes, but hey, it's part of the job. Today, I was sort of feeling the same, but I was on a ride with Natalie all afternoon, and there's just no way that anyone can be miserable around that woman.

This brings me back to last week, actually. There were these pikey kids who were terrorising us and the customers, and when they made a derogatory comment about two little girls, I lost my shit and shouted at them, "DO NOT SAY THOSE THINGS. GET OUT AND DON'T COME BACK," and they didn't come back. I was fuming. A few minutes later, I saw the two little girls again, with beaming smiles on their faces and they gave the most heart-warming "thank you" of all time. They didn't half make me feel better about myself, you know. And then the day after, I was letting a middle aged woman and her son onto a ride, and I went through my usual spiel, to be met with, "thanks, sexy" (from the woman, thankfully). I was completely taken aback. I fumbled about, completely lost my train of thought and totally messed up my verbal instructions. "Thanks, gorgeous," she ended on. Christ.

So uh... I'm not really sure what the moral of this story is. It hasn't really been a story, to be honest. Hopefully you've learned something new about me, I certainly have. Two things, really.

1. I can totally velcro things to my beard.

2. There is at least one woman out there who thinks I'm attractive.

I'm going to chalk that up to a win.

I want to go on an adventure. And write about it. And take pretty pictures while I'm on said adventure. Yeah.

Pete out.