February 2025

The A's

ALL IMAGES OPEN IN TECHNICOLOUR

2 March 2025

Morning... or is it nearly the afternoon.

11:31 am it says on my PC.

I was up and at 'em at 8:15 am - however, I think the late nights have caught up with me.

Last night, I spent an hour or so looking for lost files.

The external hard drive is the problem. I know I copied them to it but they aren't on it.

Highly annoying.

And I gotta admit, this external software is getting very hit and miss, in that sometimes it's out of this world and the next it's utterly shite.

I had a system, a sequence, and it's gone from being quite consistent - to not.

I know the file size has something to do with it, but even then...

I did an animation with the Gaynor character asset sat on the floor listening to the record player and it was nothing short of fantastic.

The contrast of colours, her expressions - brilliant.

I then tried elaborating on the animation with dialogue and it went to shit. In fact, every bit of dialogue I did after that was the same.

I'm not sure why.

Again, highly annoying.

The one thing about this particular external software I've been using, is that for pure animation, it is Top Rank and it is the main one that I will run with especially as I have been loading it with files larger than 10MB and it has been accepting them.

(Still writing up the blog).

1 March 2025

Morning

I got up at 7:30 am.

Not bad, considering that I didn't get to bed until 2:00 am.

I was watching the President of the U.S.A cutting off the billions to the corrupt President of the Ukraine in a meeting in the Oval office.

You need to watch the whole 40 minute meeting and not just the selected forty-second-to-two minute clips that the mainstream media are continually regurgitating and pushing in your face to suit their narrative.

Wars are bad - but good for those who wish to make money.

You will see that in The A's, as that is how Jacob Gotleib and to an extent Simeon Cartier Bloem and Zeffy Rosenstein make their money - all of who are bankers.

As we are now in March, I'll create a new page.

Just hit the button, as the actress said to the vicar!

Yesterday was a sort of nothing day.

When you are trying to be good, the weekends are the worst as your social life doesn't just go down the pan - it's non-existent.

Nobody had any dinner yesterday as nobody was bothered. It was the same with my two hours cardio. I did 60 minutes on the cross trainer and thought Fuck It.

Julie was in bed at 7:30 pm with a book and I was downloading 3D assets and animating using the inferior software - practice more than anything.

The pub calls on a weekend but I'm now on Day 21 and I don't want to bollocks up all the hard work.

Music. I was working in the study yesterday, so I didn't hear anything on Radio Caroline.

Saying that, they have just played Jon Vangelis' I'll Find My Way Home, which is a Lovely track that sort of takes me back.

I had a bit of a conversation with John Welsh regarding him submitting his Top 15 to the station, but the rigmarole you have to go through to submit it is if I am being honest - quite pathetic.

The station play people's top 15's every day of the week.

Half John's Top 15 aren't even on their database of music, which I find as being strange, as they are supposedly, the album station.

28 February 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

Not bad considering I didn't get to bed until 12:40 am.

I'm due to take my car for a service this morning.

Day 20 of me being dry.

For me, it is some achievement.

Hurrah.

Lesley - one of the staff at The Red Lion pulled Julie up outside Gravell's Fruit and Veg shop in the Market Place.

"You two have been missed - where've you been?"

The same was asked by a guy called Mike Stott who Julie bumped into on the dog walk.

Mike is something of a socialite and boozer, but uses a different drinking hole to me.

His landlady is a convicted coke head; mine was jailed for fraud - both pubs of which, obviously have a different name on the license.

Even Broken Arm Sue has sent the posse out.

I can't go out with her and The Cuban (Her husband, Pete) without having eight pints and a couple of brandies - so, we'll leave that one for a bit.

We are out of the UK, not this Saturday - but next. 8 March 2025.

I've no fucking idea how that's gonna pan out, as by then I'll be 28 days dry, and I wouldn't like to ruin it as I'm feeling not too bad.

Cyprus isn't really the orangery of the Mediterranean... well it might be - I've just never seen it.

I'll get the car insured for the year so we can go over to Turkish Cyprus (The north of the island), which will be handy for our Jamie and Lianne, as they are going over in June.

So that'll take up half a day.

I can jet wash around the pool and the drive, weed the garden, and wash the car, which will take a couple of hours.

That still leaves six and a half days!

To be continued.

Yesterday, was interesting as I had a text from an old mate sort of out of the blue.

Paul Grainger.

He was a character when he was younger.

We were out every weekend until the small hours. Great times.

He's slowed down a bit now and recently had a brain hemorrhage following a bad fall.

Hopefully, it's a setback he can totally recover from.

I did what I said, and had two hours cardio - 30 minutes on the rower and 90 on the cross trainer

I might try 60 minutes on the rower and 60 on the crosser later.

From an animation stance, yesterday, was interesting as I learned how to break the video from the audio and insert different imagery whilst the audio was still in flow.

You can see a bit of it in action in the 65 second video below.

I can't wait until I can use Mocap to dictate the video and audio, but as I keep on saying - the 300 day preconstruction phase is all about me learning.

I need to learn to walk before I run.

Still, I like the video - so, I'll leave it up as a big screen!

Music. I kept on board with the B2 yesterday as Radio Caroline fucked me off with a BBC approach to music.

Fuck Bruce Springsteen: The Gary Lineker of rock.

Tosser!

I just let the B2 play and got quite a rangy mix of music each time I came in for a coffee.

Simply Red's 1991 Stars album; The Rolling Stones' Rewind - which is a 1971-84 compilation album; Dubstar's 1995 debut album - Disgraceful; and Madness' 1992 compilation album - Divine Madness.

Dubstar were quite a good indie band fronted by Halifax-born Sarah Blackwood, with Anywhere and Not So Manic, Now both being lovely songs.

Sometimes, I get mixed up with Dubstar and Jagz Kooner's The Aloof - the British electronic band who released One Night Stand in 1996 - me always thinking it was Dubstar, who sang it.

Nevertheless, it is a cracking song.

Whilst doing my two hours cardio I played Lush's 1994 album, Split, and the 1996 album, Lovelife.

I gotta admit - I love track 12 off Lovelife. Olympia.

It has a ring of Renaissance's 1978 hit, Northern Lights, yet it doesn't. It's brilliant how the two girls play with harmonies.

It also mentions Notting Hill where part of The A's is set.

Mason and Gaynor use the fictitious bar - The Knights Templar.

I played the Yeah Yeah Yeah's 2022 album Cool It Down after dinner, which was half decent - the opening track being Spitting Off the Edge of the World.

I love music.

(Above) Here is Jack Thiam.

Jack is the next door neighbour of the Milz's and lets two rooms to Joanne Lynskey and Chrissy K.

He is a great friend of Mason Green and at one time was part of The A's.

Three years older than Mason, he dropped out of the programme when he was 12 years old, after throwing one of his foster parents children out of the upstairs window of a flat. Peter or Paul Mower. Not sure which!

He is a character and his O.C.D is quite funny.

Jack doesn't have a full-time job, he just grifts.

It is something he excels in.

An update on the Pre-construction stage - DAY 63

(Above) A 65 second animation of Gaynor giving an update on Day 63 of the pre-construction stage.

What was interesting about this video is that I had to edit the picture from the sound in several places and replace the footage.

Everything is a learning curve.

27 February 2025

I got up at 7:10 am.

Day 19 and I'm still dry.

Roxy Music are currently on the radio doing the John Lennon cover, Jealous Guy, which they took to the top of the charts following the big man's murder in December 1980.

Yesterday was a nothing day as all I was doing was downloading 3D assets, one after the other, after the other, after the other, and I'm still nowhere near finishing.

I should do them straight after they've been bought, and it was a fairly stupid idea not to.

There must be over 1,000 assets still to download.

Not to worry. I will get it done.

I did some cardio - but only an hour on the cross trainer as my mind was wandering.

I'll make sure I do two hours today.

Music. I was working in the study all day, so I couldn't really hear Radio Caroline, which was just playing to the dog, although I did hear David Bowie knocking out Suffragette City, when I nipped in to make a coffee.

Bowie did some great stuff - Heroes, probably being my favourite.

He also wrote Mott The Hoople's All the Young Dudes, which is an absolutely awesome track.

Could I use it?

Outside of background music playing on the fictitious Capitol City Radio, I've really no idea where.

I played Lush's 1992 debut album - Spooky, a couple of times and it is very listenable - Nothing Natural, For Love and Superblast! being very good.

I still feel that their two stand out tracks are Lovelife (from the 1994 album, Split) and I've Been Here Before (from the 1996 album, Lovelife) - the latter of which in my humble opinion is a sort of latter day Waterloo Sunset albeit from the perspective of a bitter young girl, and is, how you say... Very facking Landan.

I've never really thought about actors as it's far to early in the process, but Emma Anderson and Miki Berenyi (from Lush) would make a great Maureen (Mellor) and Ana (Reung) as their accents are bang on the money.

They are also a similar age, and quite often singers make great actors.

Everybody raves about Tom Hardy, but I thought Gary and Martin Kemp's portrayal of The Kray's in Peter Medak's 1990 version, was very good acting and certainly the more convincing.

At least they looked the part.

Tom Hardy is only five foot seven and hardly intimidating. Gary Kemp on the other hand, was very scary.

One can dream, I suppose.

Anyway, I'm getting too far ahead of myself.

I've just turned Radio Caroline off.

Bruce Springsteen was on, and before a track he was about to sing, he was spouting his holier than though political rhetoric.

He was never that good when he was good.

The Boss?

You must be joking.

Very overrated.

John Mellencamp was much better.

Smalltown and R.O.C.K in the U.S.A from his 1985 album Scarecrow are very punchy tracks.

26 February 2025

I got up at 7:10 am.

I've got some work stuff to do first thing and then I'll set aside four or five hours to download some 3D assets that have been sitting there ready for download since four of five months ago.

It is tedious work, but like most tedious things in life - it still needs doing.

I've been having a think about The Characters page on the website.

I really need to break it up into Series 1 and 2 and include Series 1 and 2 sub pages for the minor characters as there are quite a few.

I'll have a think about that.

Yesterday was a good day.

Apart from taking The Beast into the garage and the new slimline Johnny Hanson - the owner, telling me that it needed a new fan, I did more or less what I wanted.

I knew that I wanted a storyline for Jenny Mellor and yesterday I got that.

As Gaynor intimates in her introduction in The Characters section - there are some not very nice people in the story and I have to keep a balance.

Mason shielded Gaynor from a lot in Series 1 and he was still there for her in 2.

Needy?

Maybe.

In between, Jenny had nearly seven years not knowing who Mason actually was, whilst hearing and indeed seeing a lot of things, that she shouldn't have.

On finding out that Mason was her dad, along with the life he and her mum had, and which she left behind was, however - a lot to process, and she often becomes overwhelmed.

Jenny looks around and she can't understand why what happened - happened.

"Why did mam leave? Why didn't dad stop her? Mam loved dad, and dad loved Mam. Everybody said."

Watching her friendship with Elsie evolve is quite nice, as she becomes focused on things other than her parents.

You have to watch for it - but as cute as Jenny is, she - like both her parents, is extremely manipulative.

Music. I had Radio Caroline on all afternoon whilst I worked from the laptop in the dining kitchen.

The music was okay, but nothing really jumped out at me and smacked me in the chops and said, "Oi, what about me. Can I be in your thing?"

Neil Young's Like a Hurricane; Elvington Bishop's Fooled Around and Fell in Love; and Heaven's The Fire You Know were all okay, but certainly nothing I'd certainly want to use.

Angie by The Rolling Stones was played in the early afternoon and Johnny Welsh hit me on WhatsApp to tell me that it was written about David Bowie's wife.

Angie was a single off their 1973 album Goats Head Soup - which I have on the B2.

I love the song - which I'm sure would be great given that Angie Mellor is one of the lead characters.

The A's, however - isn't a series that could accommodate any track by The Rolling Stones, given the storyline and how I intend to show it. That's even if I could afford it.

I did two hours cardio. 30 minutes on the rowing machine and 90 on the crosser, had a bath and came down and had my dinner - which was great.

I played Lush's 1994 album - Split.

My verdict - I enjoyed it, but I like music I can both think to and which can take me to a different place.

This is why I like some of the stuff Ladytron have knocked out.

Music such as this is sometimes referred to as Dream Pop.

I like the Lovelife track. It has a John Barry feel about it, in the way the tune moves up and down. It's quite beautiful in a 1960's kind of way..

If I'm allowed, I will use tracks from both Lush and Ladytron within the series.

25 February 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

Not bad seeing as though I didn't get to bed until 12:30 am.

I took the dog out through the woods, and got back in for a drive into Crowle to drop one of the the cars off at the garage.

Yesterday, was a productive day.

I signed off the magazine and did what I said I'd do, and jet washed outside and cleaned all three cars - including The Beast.

The Beast is our name for the dog's car.

We bought it during the back stages of the pandemic for something to haul the dog around in, as neither Julie's nor mine can have a dog in. Julie's because it's a two-seater, and mine, because there is no way on earth I'm having a fucking dog in it - ever.

In fact, I picked (my mate) Tim's daughter up at Ferrybridge Services just before Christmas as she was spending the night at ours, and she rolled up with a Costa Coffee or a milk shake in mitts, or whatever it was - no idea really, only that it was a carton with a straw in it.

"James'll not let you get in his car with that," her dad told her.

He was dead right.

On me, seeing her I said, " You wanna get that drunk 'cos there's no way you're getting in the car with that."

"I told you," Tim said.

It may make me sound like a git, but she did get spoiled when she stayed.

On buying The Beast, the first thing I did was get new alloys and bang a private plate on it. It looked well for a bit, but it's since got a bit neglected sat under the silver birch on the front drive collecting green grime on the roof.

...And somebody clipped it in the car park outside Matalan a few months ago.

Anyway, yesterday it got cleaned, and today it was taken to the garage as there's a loose wire somewhere, as the heaters only work when they want.

When it comes back I'll valet the interior.

Animation. I've been chucking up 5 second clips for The Characters page, and which is slowly filling up.

They look quite good if I'm being honest, more so on a laptop or PC, as viewing websites on iPhones, mobiles and the like, is shit.

I also need to revamp The Episode pages with better animated clips, which is on my To Do list.

I had a few CD's arrive.

I'd say that Tony the postman dropped them through the letterbox, but that wasn't the case as I was outside jet washing.

They were the Yeah, Yeah Yeahs, Lush, Ladytron and The Wombats - all of which I ripped to the B2.

I played Ladytron's Velocifero album with Ghosts, Burning Up and Tomorrow all being decent tracks, along with their Light and Magic album, which is nowhere near as good as their other albums.

If I'm being brutally honest, some of the tracks sound like they were being played by the German band Trio.

Trio were a short-lived 1980's band comprising Stephan Remmler, Kralle Krawinkel and Peter Behrens and had a hit in 1982 titled Da Da Da.

My opinion of them? Da Da Da sold 13 million copies worldwide and I was one of those who never bought it.

After those played, the B2 jumped on to Velvet Revolver's Contraband album.

It must have heard me on about them the other day, regarding them ripping off Pete Shelley's Homosapien intro for the third track on the album - Big Machine.

I only managed 60 minutes on the cross trainer as Julie fancied a curry at Omar's (The Curry Leaf).

16 days on and I'm still dry.

It was weird going in there and not shifting six or seven pints of Cobra. Saying that, I could actually taste the food.

On the plus side - we aren't grounded anymore, as Julie jumped in the car straight after and dropped the kids a takeaway off.

Let's see what today brings.

24 February 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

I think everything has caught up with me...

Julie had already been through the woods with the dog and was back in the house and had a coffee waiting for me when I came downstairs.

I must have been sock on as I never heard her get out of bed.

Hopefully I can get the magazine signed off at the printers this morning, and get outside and jet wash.

The flagstones, patio, and both drives etc., are absolutely filthy, including all three cars that are parked on them - all of which are white!

I'm told we've got a gardener coming to shift some ivy at some point. That's great news as I don't have to do it.

I hate gardening.

Yesterday ended up being a steady day.

After Julie had returned from the nursing home from seeing her mum, who I've mentioned before, has Alzheimer's - she made us poached eggs and toast.

I'm not a breakfast person, but seeing as the day before I only had a bowl of Shreddies with fresh raspberries to eat - it was more than welcomed.

I managed two hours cardio.

The rollers on the rowing machine hadn't worn down and de-rounded. One of the rubber buffers had perished and got trapped underneath them. 10 minutes to sort.

This was followed by 30 minutes on the rower and 90 on the crosser.

Dead easy.

I made dinner. Fried chicken, bacon and mushrooms in a Chicken Consommé which was tasted up with a roll of French Roule cheese.

It was shite and more like a pie filling.

I'll certainly not do that again.

I managed some animation and the building up of some 2D vignettes.

The animation included some right bloopers which were on par with the animation I did of Gaynor dropping a tray of eggs in the flat and running off at 40 mph a few weeks ago.

Sometimes the software just does what the hell it wants.

After thinking about it, I've decided to save all the major bloopers - just in case this takes off better than I think, and people can see the absolute crap I was animating!

Talking of crap animation.

As of 7:26 pm last night - Gaynor the YouTube star, has 26,369 views of her about to take her dressing gown off in the bathroom.

I did that 36 days ago. Unbelievable!

The two sisters have a right following of perverts.

Music. I played Lush's Lovelife album on the B2, a couple of times.

Lush are another London-based It Girl band who were fronted by Emma Anderson and Hungarian-Japanese, Miki Berenyi until the suicide of drummer Chris Acland in 1996.

Jon Lee - drummer with the rock band Feeder, did the same in 2002.

Both suffered from depression - and both died by hanging.

What a waste of fucking talent.

Lush's Lovelife album is extremely good.

I've always liked the songs that charted, 500 (Shake Baby Shake) and Single Girl, but for me the stand out track is I've Been Here Before. It's very good.

Could I use it in The A's? Maybe.

I also played Ladytron's Witching Hour album, which compared to what I've heard so far - is quite heavy - the first track High Rise, being shit hot.

Could I use it in The A's? I'd love to.

These are a very good band.

Different.

23 February 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

I'm cream crackered. I didn't get to bed until 1:20 am.

What a day, yesterday was. An absolute fucking dog of a day!

I didn't get wrapped up with my day job until 11:00 pm and I'd been at it solid since 8:00 am yesterday morning.

Thank god it's done for this month.

I don't mind working, but it seems to be getting more fucking monotonous with every day that passes.

I changed publishing software at mid-point last year, and although it is very high-tech and better in the long-term, they do over-complicate things.

I'm no graphic designer, and that's the type of profession it's geared towards. You know - the geek.

Anyway, we never went out for our curry.

My fault totally.

I only managed 75 minutes cardio as the rollers on the rowing machine gave up the ghost 15 minutes in and need changing.

It's only a 10 minute job, but it's one that you shouldn't have to do if they designed the things properly. I mean, plastic covered steel rollers? It's obvious that they're going to wear down.

Anyway - that totally pissed me off in that I couldn't be arsed to get ready and drive into Scunthorpe just to sit around drinking water until they decide to fetch out your food.

Weekends are definitely the worst.

14 days without alcohol, now.

The last time I went that long was... I can't remember but I'm assuming it's a while, maybe 5, 10, 15 years. No idea.

Even when I had chronic bronchitis and Co-vid I never went longer than 5 days without a beer and I was popping pills like some druggy.

So, I never ate anything all day until I came in with the dog around 11:40 pm. And that was a bowl of Shreddies with fresh raspberries.

I would have taken a photo but I was starving.

Anyway. Music. I was listening to Radio Caroline in the morning and they played a track by the B-52s. That's the American male-female band that seem to have been around for all eternity, but who peaked in 1989, when they released the album Cosmic Thing.

Although I've heard a bit of stuff by them, the only song I could really associate them with, was Love Shack, which I would imagine is their signature song.

However, it was The B-52s Roam that they played, and I thought. Yeah - wow. That is good.

The way Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson intertwine their vocals is nothing short of amazing, and which is something that looks even better when you see them do it live.

(Above) Here is Maureen Mellor.

The mother of Angie and Gaynor, the wife of John - and the grandmother of Jenny.

Maureen had Angie when she was 30 years old which makes her 53-years old when the story starts - and 60, in Series 2.

Her husband John is a year older.

Maureen worked as an accounts manager in a business recovery and insolvency practitioners before the pandemic and retired after the business was taken over.

There are other reasons too - but that's all part of the story.

Maureen is an extremely inquisitive person with a heart of gold, and a lady that absolutely adores her family.

No one knew this more than Mason Green.

She is also a practicing Catholic and often has the priest - Father Maloney, call to the house, much to the disdain of her husband.

Both daughters were brought up the same way - something you will see in the story on the night of 24 December 2022.

(Above) Here is John Mellor.

The father of Angie and Gaynor, the husband to Maureen and the grandfather of Jenny.

John is a geotechnical engineer who has run his own company - AGM Mellor-tech since Gaynor was a little girl.

AGM - (Angie, Gaynor, Maureen) supply specialist geotechnical and ground engineering plant - props, shoring, piling equipment - such as sheet piles, trench sheets etc.

John is a steady fellow, who - like Maureen adores his family.

The relationship with his youngest daughter and Mason, at times - literally drives him insane...

And does he mind?

(Above) Here is Ana Reung.

The grandmother of Mason and therefore, great grandmother to Jenny.

Ana is extremely street savvy and very well-connected.

Born in Vietnam, her family were displaced by the war and fled to Laos. She came to the UK when she was just 16 years old and fought for everything she achieved.

She had Mason's mum - Thereze, when she was just 17, and when the story starts, she is just two years older than Maureen, at 55 years old.

She owns a florist shop-cum-garden centre in the fictitious Little Brittany area of Hammersmith and lives nearby at 24 Boelyn Mews - in the flat below her grandson.

Ana is a straight-talking, no nonsense woman, who absolutely adores Gaynor, which you will see all the way through Series 1.

There is a lot of work that she does in the background, and Gaynor and indeed, Maureen often come to see her for advice.

With Maureen it's regarding quite serious subjects - with Gaynor... Well, it's just everyday Gaynor things.

In Series 2, her part in the story isn't quite as prominent as in the first.

22 February 2025

I got up at 7:10 am.

I was working until gone 11:30 pm and then took the dog out around the churchyard.

Now. Coffee time!

Tonight we are going for a curry.

I've still not broke and I'm still dry.

Yesterday, I was very busy, but managed 60 minutes cardio on the cross trainer.

Deadline day for the magazine is always a bitch. It's not hard work - just constant, and very long hours.

Julie had her hair done the other day, and yesterday it was time for her nails.

The good thing about where we are - in Epworth, North Lincolnshire, is that everyone knows us... and the respect you get from the younger generation is nothing short of immense.

Some of that has been written into The A's, most notably the Code of Conduct that exists within The Hammersmith Vaults, which is not only passed on, but it is part of everyday life.

Without going into too much detail - as I don't want to spoil it, you will see it in Series 1, but more so in 2, with the likes of Pat and Angie's nephew, Marvin Marshall (and his mates) having it explained to them - firstly by Mason, and indeed little Jenny Mellor after she found out what a face was.

"A face?" Jenny asked, with an exaggerated whisper, whilst looking around. "What's a face?"

Her character is so cute. I do hope I can pull it off.

Anyway. Julie's hair was done by a girl by the name of Hannah Spearing at Rapunzel's in Crowle, and her nails by Bethany Hughes at her own self-named Beauty Salon opposite St Andrews Church.

We have known them both since they were fourteen or fifteen years old - Beth(any) being the ex-fiancée of our Jamie, and who for a time, virtually lived at our house.

Again - nothing is lost on me.

Beth's dad - Roger Pryce, is a solicitor.

The main solicitors in The A's are Kingdom, Temperton & Price - with the character of Roger Price being a senior partner at the firm (Photo of the exterior opposite).

And as for Rapunzel, she (the book) is more than mentioned in Series 2.

Ideas stem from everywhere and anywhere!

So - back to Beth...

Julie told her what I had been doing and lo and behold she visited the internet to have a look at The A's...

Beth is not only an extremely pretty young woman, she's also a professional beautician, so she knows what looks good and what does not.

And her opinion of who is the prettiest female character?

Angie Mellor.

Music. Tony the postman dropped five CD's through the letterbox along with another fucking speeding fine - me doing 57 mph on the M1 in a 50 mph zone at 5:25 am on my way to Luton Airport, on 1 February.

Trawl back the blog to 1 February. I mentioned all the fucking cameras on the motorway.

It wouldn't be bad if I was actually a menace on the road, but I'm not. That's £200 and six points now, in three months.

The CD's hiding the speeding fine were Ladytron, Lush, the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Father John Misty.

I'll play them when I rid this anvil (my day job) from around my neck!

In other music. I have the Buzzcocks greatest hits compilation - Singles Going Steady, which isn't a bad listen - however, yesterday I dropped on their lead singer, Pete Shelley's 1981 banned hit Homosapien.

It never charted, so I'd never been in a position to express an opinion one way or the other - although I had heard it before. Or I thought I had.

On 20 March 2008, I took our Jamie and one of his mates to the S.E.C.C in Glasgow, to see a hard rock band called Velvet Revolver - who had Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots and Slash from Guns N' Roses in its ranks.

For me their stand out song was Big Machine.

Play that against Pete Shelley's 1981 hit Homosapien and see what you think.

(Above) Here is Joanne Lynskey.

Joanne is a Hammersmith girl who moved to Brentford Lock with her parents, tried it for a couple of months, hated it, and came back.

She is one of the two female students that lodge in the house owned by Jack Thiam. The other student is Chrissy K.

Joanne is the same age as Gaynor and is in the Upper Sixth form at Hammersmith Academy and, providing her grades are good enough to get her into university, has been promised a placement as a paralegal at the Hammersmith law firm of Kingdom, Temperton & Price (Photo above).

She is one of the scooter girls and earns pin money running bets for the bookmakers Essen & Pope - as well as doing spread betting for Mason Green.

Gaynor's mum always refers to her as "Her with the hair and the short skirts".

In Series 1, Joanne comes over as being full-on, but is highly insecure around Gaynor. She sees Gaynor as not only having everything but also someone who oozes confidence.

In Series 2, you see a completely different character... and in more ways than one.

21 February 2025

I got up at 6.45 am.

I'm tired. I didn't get to bed until late as I was working until 1:00 am.

This morning I was on dog walking duties.

It wasn't raining which is a good thing.

Here is a photograph that I took this morning of the dog sat in front of the grave of Rev. Samuel Wesley.

He was the father of the founders of Methodism, John and Charles, the latter of whom, comes into most family homes at Christmas.

Rev. Charles Wesley part-wrote the carol - Hark, the Herald Angels Sing in 1739.

I say, part, as some of the words were altered by Anglican minister Rev. George Whitefield in 1758.

Anyway, trivialities aside - the soon-to-be fed, hound!

Yesterday, I was mega busy all day with my day job, so I didn't have time for anything.

My monotony was broken by an Iceland delivery, as I'd noticed that we were running low on milk. Plus I also fancied some sparkling water, so I did the deadly deed and made an order online.

Iceland is great if you want same day delivery.

However, if you don't eat frozen crap and want nice food, then you're wasting your time.

Outside of milk, butter, eggs, dry pasta (Ragu) and coffee, there's nothing really worth buying.

To bulk up the order I bought a pair of chickens and a pork loin.

The chickens were... fucking little is what they were! And the pork loin looked like it was worth about £5 less than the £8 I paid for it, and was only good enough to go in the dog.

Ruff Ruff, I thank you.

That's off Steptoe & Son - 1973 Christmas Special, where they used one of those plastic Guide Dog collection-things that you used to see outside shops, as a swear box and Harold pats it on the head.

Trivialities aside. I basted the lot and slung them in the oven and kept my fingers crossed in the hope that it'd be edible if I cooked it long enough.

Wrong. It was the worst meal of the year.

Music. Tony the postman pushed two CD's through the door - both by Republica.

I played the self-titled Republica album after I'd done two hours cardio. 90 minutes on the cross trainer and 30 on the rower.

If I'm being honest nothing jumped out at me, and the only good tracks are both their singles - Drop Dead Gorgeous and Ready to Go.

I was speaking with Johnny Welsh over WhatsApp early yesterday, regarding some stuff that was on Radio Caroline, as there had been a lot of covers being played of The Kinks. That and the fact that he hates Paul Simon as much as he likes Rod Stewart!

I'm not one for covers, as I tend to prefer the original, although there are exceptions.

Cat Stevens wrote First Cut is the Deepest, and when he sung it, it wasn't that good.

PP Arnold - the black female American soul singer gave the song the credibility it deserved, as it is a very good song. And then Rod Stewart took it to a four-week stay at the top of the charts ten years later in February 1977.

Both good covers.

In my humble opinion - First Cut is the Deepest, You're in my Heart, and Maggie May are easily his best songs.

So, a good cover song?

The Rolling Stones did The Valentinos It's All Over Now in 1964, and that was extremely good.

Denise was a song written by Neil Levenson and sung by the American doo-wop group Randy & the Rainbows in 1963. Blondie rehashed it as Denis and took it to No. 2 in 1978.

They weren't done there either.

They did the same with the Paragon's 1967 song The Tide is High, which went one better and hit the top of the charts in December 1980.

My favourite cover, however - is by the California based indie band Freedom Fry, who are fronted by Marie Seyrat and Bruce Driscoll.

They released a French-language cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit, which I think is the best cover that I've heard.

Sheryl Crow also did Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child of Mine, which wasn't bad either.

Once I get my day job signed off, I'll do some animating.

(Above) Here is Maybelline Antrobus, who is known as Bebe.

Although a year younger than Gaynor, Bebe grew up, attended the same grammar school with her, and was in the Lower Sixth Form at 40 Martyrs College, when the story begins.

(Gaynor and Anita Pallenburg are in the Upper Sixth)

Bebe's mother is Elaine - the sister of Felicity Pike, who is the best friend of Angie and Gaynor's mum, Maureen.

Bebe isn't a popular girl, but neither really is Gaynor - that is until she meets Mason.

In the early parts of the story, Bebe often looks at the mad pace of Gaynor's life from the outside - however, it isn't until the night of The 101 on Archway Road, that Gaynor fully lets her in.

And although she has never really spoken with him before - it is Mason who she becomes enamoured with.

This is because he listens to her and pays her some attention, when not many others do.

It's quite nice really - not that Gaynor appreciates it.

"You surely can't think Mason would be bothered about someone like, Maybelline," shrugged Gaynor's mum.

This was after Bebe had popped in to drop something (trivial) off when Gaynor wasn't in, and Mason had given her a ride home.

"Mam - that's not the point," snapped Gaynor.

Even though she rarely achieved it, Gaynor liked control of everything around her.

Bebe's cousin is Pammy Antrobus - another main character in The A's.

20 February 2025.

I got up at 7:00 am.

I made the bed, went downstairs, put Radio Caroline and the coffee on, emptied the dishwasher, and sorted the dog out her breakfast.

Groundhog Day.

Did I like it better when I was on dog walking duties?

Er - sometimes.

It was absolutely hounding down at 12:40 am when I took the dog around the churchyard for her last walk. And it wasn't rain - it was sleet, so I didn't like it last night. I was drenched.

Yesterday, was definitely a work day.

My day job. I'm on Deadline.

In between, I managed to start a Characters page on the website, and rather than use the photographs - I'm using 5 second videos, as they look much better.

Hit the button below and have a gander.

I'm sorry they are a bit small.

As I said yesterday, each day I will add a different character.

Today, it's Jenny Deal, who is in both Series 1 and 2.

Music. Tony the postman dropped me eight CD's off around 11:00 am.

These were Father John Misty, The Wombats and Ladytron - the latter of whom still have me scratching my head a bit.

Technopop?

I shouldn't like it but I do.

Zmeyka. It's a nothing track, but it would make fucking great incidental music. And Mirage - wow.

The thinking person's music in that it takes you to a different place.

I can see why some of their music is used on these video games - PlayStation etc.

I can't believe I'd never heard of them before yesterday.

The same goes for Father John Misty, who sang Mr Tillman.

Weird.

Just as the day before, I managed 90 minutes cardio - just the cross trainer and not the rowing machine. I then had a bath and made some tea - Chili-Con-Carne, and watched an episode of 30 Rock.

It's still not that funny, but certainly watchable.

I was racking my brains regarding American sit-com's and that they all tend to be similar in humour - from Everyone Loves Raymond and King of Queens in the now, to Cheers and Frasier back in the day.

I can, however - name two that broke the mold - big style, and these were made in the 1990's, and were aired by Channel 4, fairly late at night.

Dream On starring Brian Benben, followed the life of book editor, Martin Tupper; and Action - this starred Jay Mohr, and followed the life of Hollywood producer, Peter Dragon.

I have both boxed sets on DVD.

Both dark comedies, very risqué, and as funny as hell.

Channel 4 were the station that ran with the cult series, American Gothic starring Gary Cole as Sherriff Lucas Buck around the same time.

They did some great stuff. It's a shame what happened to it. That woke mind virus has ruined a lot of things.

In other news, I'm still dry.

No Peroni, Neck Oil, Moretti, IPA Punk, no nothing.

I know that I'll be mega busy all day today, so don't expect too much.

(Above) Chili-Con-Carne - the easiest meal to make.

Fry a couple of onions, bung in some minced steak and brown it.

Chuck three cans of tomatoes in the blender, along with half a bulb of garlic, 15 dried red chillies, some chives and give it some wallop.

Chuck the blend into the pan with the meat and onions. Add some black or red kidney beans and a tub of mascarpone cheese, and cook for 30 mins.

A great meal to come into when you're shitfaced.

It tastes great but the mess you make both on the table and on your clothes is unbelievable!

(Click the image to open in colour)

________________________________________________________________________________

(Above) Here is Jenny Deal.

Jenny - who was christened, Cecila, possessed an I.Q in excess of 250 and was one of The A's - a gifted child, that was under the supervision of Marylebone-based Dr Miriam Jones.

The daughter of Simon and Jennifer, she lived with her parents in Morden, South London.

She was ambidextrous and loved music. She was also in love with Mason Green.

Everybody who knew thought her to have a look of Gaynor.

Mason, however - thought she possessed similarities to Angie.

She died in February 2022 aged 15-years old.

19 February 2025

I got up at 7:00 am.

It's very cold outside, as it was last night when I walked the dog around the churchyard around 11:30 pm. 1°C.

Julie did the honours this morning.

The Jam have been a point of conversation, as their drummer - Rick Buckler, has just passed away.

My mate's, John (Welsh) and Tim (Bright), have both mentioned it this morning.

John's story was that he bought Going Underground from Angie's Records, which was on the corner of Doncaster's Arndale Centre back in 1982. Tim's was that he wasn't allowed to like The Jam as he was a punk!

Mine? I bought Strange Town as an ex-jukebox single from the village paper shop maybe a couple of years earlier for 50p.

Even now, all I have is Snap! a 1983 compilation album - my favourite track being That's Entertainment.

In The A's, I was going to have a bar on the river called Eton Rifles, but I opted for a Vespa dealers named Hammersmith Rifles instead. This is owned by a character by the name of Rod The Mod, who I based on Rod Stewart. He also owns the fictitious Speedibar cafe and diner in Hammersmith.

Speedibar was a café on Doncaster's East Laith Gate that was frequented by Mods / scooter boys in the early-1980's.

Yesterday was a work day, although a cut a couple of animations - one of which I had to cannibalise as half the time, the software was doing what the heck it wanted.

All three providers have updated and there are teething problems. I am reliably told that it will be better long-term.

The two pro software providers were down again at 9:00 pm.

Music. The house is quite large, and to hear Radio Caroline in the kitchen is a bit hard when I'm working in the study, even when it's on at a decent volume.

Nevertheless, I caught a song around 3:30 pm when I was moving around a bit and thought: "Who's this?"

It was Estonia from the 1997 This Strange Engine album, cut and performed by the Fish-less and Aylesbury-based neo-prog band, Marillion.

I was never a fan, and basically thought them crap.

However, and if you want some history...

The song was written after singer Steve Hogarth met the only British survivor of the sinking of the cruise ferry Estonia in the Baltic Sea on 28 September 1994 - a tragedy which killed 852 people.

As crap as I thought/ think they are, it's actually an awesome track in the style I would say of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb; Led Zep's Stairway to Heaven; and maybe Lynyrd Skynard's Freebird.

Even though it is long track - it is very listenable.

Could it feature in The A's?

No - but that doesn't mean it's not good enough.

One that could is Ladytron's Mirage.

The band have a way of bending sounds and creating haunting melody's and as such it could capture the mood of ups and downs in the storyline. And believe me when I say it - there are plenty of them.

(Above) Here is Chrissy K.

Chrissy is one of the two female students that lodge in the house owned by Jack Thiam. The other student is Joanne Lynskey.

The idea: A Chrissy and Jo shared a flat in the 1970's British TV sitcom, Man About The House, which was created by Brian Cooke and Johnnie Mortimer. I used that.

It starred Richard O'Sullivan, Paula Wilcox (Chrissy), Sally Thomsett (Jo), Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy.

Whereas Jo never had a surname in the sitcom and Chrissy (Plummer) did - in The A's it's the opposite way around.

The diminutive Chrissy - she's around 5'1, is originally from Luton and studies law at Hammersmith Academy. She is one of the scooter girls and earns pin money running bets for the bookmakers Essen & Pope - as well as doing a fair amount of spread betting for Mason Green.

18 February 2025

I got up at 6:30 am.

I didn't get to bed until 12:20 am.

I heard my phone beeping downstairs at around 6-ish. Johnny Welsh on WhatsApp complaining about Radio Caroline and them playing The Police again.

I'm on Fire by Kasabian is playing as of now!

Yesterday, was a busy day, although I did manage two hours cardio - 30 minutes on the rowing machine and 90 on the cross trainer. And more to the point - no alcohol.

I'm slowly but surely becoming a right sad bastard.

Day 11 today.

That wanky, gluey cough that I'd had since well before Christmas, however - has gone, which just goes to show that exercise is key.

Am I feeling fitter?

No, it doesn't happen like that. Stick to the regime and you'll know when you know. Keep fit, gym, or whatever, is like saving up. Once there's a bit in the pot, the easier it gets.

I say that from experience. I used to both go to the gym; and I owned a gym... many moons ago, however.

My son, Jamie caught the bug the other year - and as of now he is extremely dedicated.

I cut a few animations whilst I was working and ended up binning a few. I love the Angie character asset, but as I said - the animation software breaks its fucking neck to try and make her look far eastern.

It's really frustrating!

The contrast of colours was bad, which didn't help.

I also tried with the Gaynor asset - and the contrast of colours were brilliant - and you know what? The animation software just did whatever it wanted to do.

Gaynor animates brilliant with the pro software. Not last night she didn't.

There was fuck all control over it. And then the software went down, which tells you everything. It was the same scenario last Thursday night.

To be continued.

Music. Now here's a break from the norm.

I was on YouTube sort of on and off yesterday afternoon and I gave some different music a listen to.

I like The Breeders, Elastica, Sleeper, Echobelly et al, so I get a lot of female fronted indie bands come up on my feed - one of which was Ladytron, who if I'm honest - I've never ever heard of. The other was Republica - who I have.

Just about everyone knows Republica's big hit: "I know my ex-boyfriend lies; Oh, he does it every time; It's just his permanent disguise; Yeah, yeah, but he's drop dead gorgeous."

Anyway - they are totally different bands.

Ladytron were a Liverpool-based electronic band fronted by Helen Marnie, who after reading up on her, comes across as extremely talented.

The songs which jumped out at me, and which I remember, were Playgirl and Ace of HZ. And I know there's better out there.

As I said, totally different to what I generally listen to.

Republica were an in-your-face technopop punk rock band fronted by Samantha Marie Sprackling (Saffron) - and were not unlike Elastica.

The hits you'll probably know are Ready to Go and of course, the one I mentioned - Drop Dead Gorgeous.

I ordered all the albums from both bands earlier, in the hope that I might find some gem.

After dinner, I switched on the B2 and put on the Kaiser Chiefs Employment album, which, when it finished, jumped onto Kasabian's I.D album - both of which are very listenable, along with Ciao! which is the best hits of Lush. They were an indie band who were who were fronted by Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson.

I ordered all their three albums too.

I worked on building up a 2D exterior asset - that being the offices of Kingdom, Temperton, & Price.

These are the solicitors who Mason uses.

I already have the interiors in 3D, so its just the exterior I need.

(Above) A 26 second animation of Angie and Gaynor Mellor in 10 Riverside Gardens - Angie and Pat's new house, which is located on the banks of the River Thames in Chiswick Green.

Never think that Gaynor does all the talking as she does not.

Gaynor was always happy for Angie... and sometimes that happiness was never reciprocated. Angie saw it as that she (and Pat) worked hard for what she got; and she saw her younger sister do absolutely nothing for much more. Or so she thought.

This animation was done with the supposed lesser software as the pro software was down again.

17 February 2025

This morning, I was up at 7:00 am.

I had been tossing and turning since about six, but Julie got out of bed first and took the dog for her walk through the woods.

More dog walking is part of her fitness regime... that is until she gets up and it's slinging it down with rain.

Yesterday, I planned to chuck some animation up on the site - however, that never happened as I got involved in some day-to-day work stuff, which dragged me away from The Project, and then I did my cardio and copped some tea.

So, sorry about that.

There is, however - some animation for you opposite of Angie Mellor, which was rendered on the new updated pro software. I also have her speaking.

I can't wait for them both to speak with a West London accent, that much is for sure.

I did, however - finally complete the first high-res 2D vignette - that being the exterior of the front of Boelyn Mews and the peripheral wall that surrounds part of Ravenscourt Park opposite.

At 770MB and 300 dpi it is nearly four million pixels (3,995,461) and measures 713.84cm by 401.23cm. In feet that is: 23'5 by 13'16 inches.

Massive, eh? They'll not all be that size, it's just that this is an important 2D asset.

Quite a few more to go.

Music. I've listened to quite a lot over the weekend - especially on Radio Caroline, but again, nothing really jumped out at me to say: "Hey, can I be in your thing?"

About 9:15 pm, The First Picture of You by the Liverpool-based new wave band The Lotus Eaters was played. Now, that is a really nice song from the early 1980's - not that it will be used, however.

I like quite a lot of 1980's music.

I've already mentioned a couple of songs by female artists of that era. However, if you want cool, then look no further than Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Rattlesnakes, Perfect Blue (both versions) and Mr Malcontent being great tracks.

A very underrated band who came at the wrong time and went just before the Indie scene took off.

Any similarities to The Smiths?

The front men of both bands looked similar, but The Commotions music was much better.

On Radio Caroline this morning, Manfred Mann's 1966 hit - Pretty Flamingo was playing. Now that is an Ace track.

You want a random factoid?

The guy who wrote it was Mark Barkan.

Who?

He wrote Connie Francis' (And Kylie Minogue) Christmas hit, It's Going to be Warm this Winter, and more to the point - the Banana Splits' Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana).

More to the point?

Now, here is the interesting bit.

In Series 1 of The A's, Gaynor and Mason are invited up to The 101 on Archway Road by the owner... Gaynor wants some me time with Mason - however, that idea gets severely gate crashed, and 29 of them end up going.

On the last tube back into Central London, they are all rather worse for wear - and as the Tube pulls into Victoria Underground Station, all the people waiting on the platform can hear the commotion and indeed the noise coming from one of the carriages.

The noise? The Banana Splits' The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) is being sung ...and at volume.

All this was already written up and is just a coincidence!

I wanted a song that everyone could join into - a bit like the Greyhound bus scene on the Thanksgiving comedy-film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

You know - the one that stars John Candy as the motormouth curtain shower clip salesman, Del Griffith; and Steve Martin, who has the nagging wife at home with the long whiny face.

These casting directors... I mean - why?

16 February 2025

This morning, I had a lay in and got up at 8:00 am.

It may well be Day 52 of me learning the fine art of animation but it is also Day 9 (not Day 8 as my last drink was on Friday 7 February) of my clean living lifestyle, and up to now I haven't broke.

I worked until around 1:30 pm yesterday.

No animation as such, just the construction of huge exterior 2D sets (Vignettes) that an asset can move through, and which are being built in Adobe Photoshop 2025.

The Boelyn Mews street set is over 715MB in size and over 3.34 million pixels. In feet, that is: 21'6 by 11'9 inches.

You can, however - zoom into it, and the detail, clarity and resolution all the way through (120m down the street) are nothing short of fantastic.

And I need quite a few of these - including the rear of Boelyn Mews, as that is where the majority of drama takes place.

The downside, is that these high-res vignettes are extremely time consuming to construct and the idea, is always - never to rush.

The easiest way of bypassing this is to just take a photograph with a high-spec camera, but being as some of these locations are fictitious, I can't really do that.

I started the exterior of a bar in North London yesterday morning - The 101 on Archway Road. Even though this is only a small part of the story, it is still a part of the story, and therefore, still needs doing. I gotta admit - it looks the bollocks. Even John Welsh said: "That definitely looks like a bar that I could go into."

I'm glad about that as it's a John Welsh that owns it!

There are the exteriors of other bars, such as The Knights Templar in Notting Hill, The Metropolitan in Hammersmith and of course The Vaults, that also need creating.

Mason and Gaynor were always out somewhere, so there are also the exteriors of numerous restaurants and eateries to do as well - most notably Facchetti's.

This is a high-class Italian restaurant, which Gaynor and her crowd refer to as Judy's, as it is owned by Guillietta Knock (Judy) - the daughter of Italian immigrants Benito and Isaobella Facchetti. The father died years ago but Isobella is still knocking around and is some character. You wanna see her interact with Gaynor. Very funny!

Again - I could bypass it, but the attention is in the detail and it is pointless doing something if you aren't going to do it right.

I mean - it took me a good 30 minutes to decide on a style of letter box for number 28 Boelyn Mews and I don't even know who lives there!

After work, I was asked if I fancied a drive to Home Bargains, which is located in the Skippingdale Retail Park off the A1077 north west of Scunthorpe.

Julie said that we were low on shower gel, toothpaste and deodorant and that she needed some scour pads amongst other things. £330 later.

And there was no beer in that lot, just four jars of Nescafe Alta Rica at £3.75... which, if I may say, is a reasonable price to pay.

Again - I only managed an hour on the cross trainer as the clock was ticking and we had a table booked in a curry house at 6:00 pm. The Imperial Mahal.

I've never been there in my life and low and behold ...I not only knew the head waiter - I also knew the owner.

Naj and his brother Ali.

It is indeed a small world.

The owner used to be a waiter in The Khyber in Epworth around 15 years ago. A lovely kid.

The curry - Chicken Saag Vindaloo, was first class and a totally different taste.

Asian food varies in taste wherever you go.

We once called to one in Nottingham city centre after dropping our Jamie and his mate off at the Ice Rink to see the punk band Blink 182, and it was totally different to anywhere I've been. It wasn't bad - just different. There, the Jalfrezi was supposedly the hot one.

At the Imperial Mahal, I'd say it was a Sheffield curry - similar to what we used to get at the Gulshan Balti House on The Wicker, and Zeenat - which was oposite the Omega Massage Parlour in the Attercliffe area of the city.

Really good.

15 February 2025

It is Saturday morning and I'm up at 5:30 am.

I was zonked out until the dog started barking an hour ago. I went downstairs to let her out and give the patio a once over with the high-powered torch that I use when a walk her... and? It was an Owl hooting in the trees to the rear of the White Bear. That's the pub opposite.

So, I'm back at the kitchen table, Radio Caroline on in the main kitchen, with a cup of tea and the fire on behind me, five and half hours later.

...and two of my mates are up - Tim Bright and John Welsh. Tim texted to say that he is just taking the dog out, and Johnny to WhatsApp me a playlist, and for me to end up having a conversation with him about Mike Batt of all people.

If you don't know - he wrote the theme tune to The Wombles and penned the hit Bright Eyes for Watership Down.

Well, I was right.

The world of animation stalled on me, Thursday night / Friday morning - my Day 50, as all these major companies updated their websites to accommodate shiny new technology - and rather strangely, that includes Adobe, who are about 12/18 months behind.

I thought there was something happening.

By December, I am hoping that the advance in audio technology will be able to run in tandem with the video animation. Fingers crossed eh?

Yesterday, I started creating 2D sets for the series.

Boelyn Mews is the fictitious street in the Ravenscourt Park area of Hammersmith, where Mason Green lives. No. 24A.

Rather than create several vignettes as they call them, I thought I'd build the full street, which at the moment is looking like one big fuck off .png file.

Why?

Because, as when and needed, I can just zoom into the part of the street I want, and cut a 16:9 segment, and paste what characters I want into it.

For example, I can have Mason walking the full length of the street broken into different clips, not only keeping the character asset in tact (the eyes), but giving a continuity without shooting at length and losing facial detail. However, and more importantly, both the detail and resolution of the street set will never be compromised.

I know what I mean, which is the main thing!

Still on with yesterday. It was a day not much different to the previous days, whereby my sobriety and healthy life took precedence - although I only managed an hour on the cross trainer.

I'll rectify that later, when Julie gets up to take out the dog. Her decision - not mine.

I had prepared the dinner before I did my cardio, copped a bath, and then came down and cooked it.

The boredom factor is weighing heavy, as it's the weekend.

We are used to going out all the time, so to be grounded is highly frustrating. Therefore, tonight, we said fuck it! and we're going to have a drive to some curry house in Scunthorpe, that has nothing but good reviews.

The Imperial Mahal.

No doubt, there will be somebody serving on that I will know. These waiters tend to be journeymen holding down a few jobs... and I know a lot of Asians, mainly through Omar at The Curry Leaf and a town centre gym and fight club that I owned around 14 years ago.

I'll just grit my teeth and drink sparkling water.

I had Radio Caroline on both before and after my dinner as we did in another episode of 30 Rock, which is still watchable, but nowhere near as funny as comedies such as The Inbetweeners, The Peep Show, Phoenix Nights and The Detectives.

I suppose it's just a different type of funny.

Music. I heard Father John Misty's Mr. Tillman for the first time, which is an absolutely lovely track, and very 1969.

I've just ordered four of his albums off eBay.

Again, it's very good - a sort of a cross between the Grateful Dead and America.

14 February 2025

I was out through the woods with the dog at 7:30 am and came in to a coffee... I'm on my third one now.

Anyway. Day 50. The first watershed.

From not knowing a thing about animation on 27 December 2024, to now. It has been a huge learning curve, which has been frustrating at times, and no more so than last night.

Why?

All of my animation generation software providers were fucking about - two of which, were down, leaving me with the software that is only any good if you are doing close up animation. And even that was all over the place as they had made changes to their website.

I thought it worked fine how it was.

I tried using it on Claire and AJ Milz standing outside their home in Hammersmith and it was fucking pants. They both looked like each other for 2 seconds and then it went to shit.

I then tried a close up, which turned out sort of okay, but for some reason it initially wouldn't let me access it until I removed the pop-up blocker on my laptop.

I'm not happy with the proportions, but that was me rushing and not the software.

Tech is always frustrating the more high-end you go, so much so, you need a fucking degree to work it.

I said at the beginning of the year, that the technology would get better. It has... sort of - hence why I suspect the sites have been down. I'll find out later, no doubt.

Bitching aside.

Music. Last night, I switched off Radio Caroline when I came downstairs after my gruelling two hours of cardio - 90 minutes on the cross trainer and 30 on the rower, which was quickly followed by me guzzling two bottles of water and a hot bath.

I was bollocksed.

Julie had made us a beetroot salad with shredded roast chicken breast from yesterday (we did two chickens) and prawns.

On Saturday, the idea of this healthy lifestyle looked as appealing as a slim gorgeous blonde slithering into a white two-seater sports car.

On Day 6 it looks like some fat skank with black teeth, who is wearing a pair of similar coloured Crocs and scratching her arse.

On the food front, I have to admit - we are slowly running out of ideas and six pints of Neck Oil and at the moment, a shit curry from The Tandoori looks even better than that bird in the white car.

I gotta admit - even Julie looked suicidal this morning.

"I can't be having veg' again - I need a curry," she said.

Unfortunately, it's bacon and new potatoes and broccoli, sprouts, Savoy cabbage, and green beans, I'm afraid.

Anyway, whilst eating dinner (tea), we have started watching a series on DVD - 30 Rock, which was written by and stars Tina Fey. I'm nearly two episodes in and it's watchable.

Back on to music. The Visage CD - Fade to Grey, that I'd ordered, came, so I stuck that on the B2, which ripped it to its library, and I listened to that. It was okay.

After that had finished, the B2 jumped on to an album called Fallen by the American rock band Evanescence, who are fronted by Amy Lee.

I think this was an album my son left at the house when he moved in with his then-girlfriend, as I certainly didn't buy it. To be honest it wasn't bad.

This was followed by a playlist of Faron Young, who if you don't know is a Country singer that sung Four in the Morning and Hello Walls.

Stand out tracks today that I'd not hear before?

The instrumental, Prince Buster by The Preacher, Sermon or whatever he (it) is called, caught my ear and would be a good tune to play in the fictitious bar crudely named The Jungle. I've not thought that one out yet!

The Frost's 1969 song Black Train, caught my ear. I don't think it would be something I'd use - but it was certainly listenable.

Anyway - I've chucked up some animation.

One lot is some stuff that is a few weeks old in which I used video transitions to piece it together. That is me being lazy.

The other is of AJ and his wife.

I'll put some more up later, providing the software is up and running.

(Above) This is a 15 second animation using the lesser software of Arthur (AJ) Milz and his wife, Claire.

When shooting in 2D the proportions are a bitch. In 3D I won't have that problem.

30-year-old AJ is an architect with his own practice on the south of the river and Claire is a financial director for some warehousing firm over in Aldgate. They live next door to Jack Thiam and his two lodgers - students Krissy K and Joanne Lynskey.

They are very feast and famine when it comes to money, as AJ is an insane gambler.

Claire loves him as much as her mother hates him. And her mother doesn't beat about the bush in letting her feelings be known.

A point worth noting is that AJ is around 6'2 and Claire a bit smaller than Angie and Gaynor at 5'3.

Great characters.

13 February 2025

I got out of bed at 7:15 am.

Julie was already out and through the woods with the dog.

The morning's are starting to get lighter, that much is for sure.

The big debate this morning, was what we are having for dinner. Generally, it's a hurry up from work and we can get up to The Red Lion or get in The Curry Leaf for 5:30 pm.

Sad eh?

Julie mentioned that now we've eased off with drinking, we should jump in the car and go for a meal somewhere different. In theory that sounds great - however, me going into a bar or restaurant just to drink water is... meh.

We used to do The Wicker in Sheffield, way back.

We were the first white people to go to the Gulshan Balti House back in the early-1990's, and were there the first Sunday afternoon it ever opened. That was a no alcohol place; as was Chiman's across the road, which was owned by the same person after he'd sold out circa 2008/9.

Sadly, neither are there anymore.

That aside, I'd say the thought of parking up a nice car around the dimly lit backstreets of Stanley Lane or Wicker Way in these strange times, isn't the best idea.

Yesterday, was much the same as the day before.

I said my wastage was minimal. That was a mistake as the last two clips I did were absolute shite.

My problem? I keep on trying to shoot at distance and I know that it rarely works. This time it wasn't the eyes - more the proportions. If it isn't one thing...

Another thing is that my 500GB laptop is full, which means that I will now have to use an external 10TB or 15TB hard drive.

You start generating images and videos and you will soon see how fast they wolf the memory of your computer!

I kept to my super-healthy new lifestyle, and did 30 minutes on the rowing machine and 60 on the crosser. If I get 30 minutes spare during the afternoon today, I'll get the rower out of the way, and lift some free weights in the evening before I do the crosser.

That would be 2 hours training each day, which is about right.
Music. After dinner - which was roast chicken - again, I worked off my laptop on the kitchen table as Radio Caroline was playing.

This pleased the Alsatian enormously, as the night before she rebelled a bit, and slung her blanket out of her basket. They call them bitches for good reason!

The stand out track on Radio Caroline was Sour Girl by the Stone Temple Pilots, which is certainly good enough to use in The A's.

Rather interestingly, I already have a track by the same band penciled in for The Project. The song: I Got You.

If I get permission - that will go well in a split scene, 12 months apart with John and Maureen in the kitchen, and a 17 and 18-year-old Gaynor, eavesdropping their conversation(s), whilst sat at the top of the stairs.

Quite an upsetting scene in a nice kind of way.

I also created a wardrobe for the Milz's - Claire and A.J - or Arthur, as Gaynor calls him.

Claire is as sexually inquisitive as Gaynor and Angie's mum, and even though she is 27-years-old, appears to have a bit of a thing for Mason, which literally drives Gaynor insane.

Hers and Gaynor's is an extremely funny relationship.

As for A.J - he is the ultimate boy. A talented architect with his own practice south of the river, who is an absolute degenerate gambler. He does not give a fuck.

I was going to keep his hair how it came - brown, which made him look mid-thirties and boring - however, I gave him a short cropped blond cut, and - I gotta admit - he looks the bollocks, and certainly someone who would bet his house on a three-legged dog.

The Milz's live next door to Jack Thiam in Hammersmith.

Anyway, I'll put another animation or two up later in the day.

Hopefully, there is no wastage!

(Above) A 25 second animation of Cyril Pope and Arthur (A.J) Milz in the back room of the Hammersmith Vaults after a score.

Cyril is the bookmaker - A.J the gambler.

Both are great friends with Mason Green - however Mason is barred from playing cards in The Vaults.

There is continuity, and more importantly, there was no wastage.

However, if you check the frame - you'll notice that I didn't extend the horizontal part of the frame to 54cm.

On here it is 52cm.

The reason? I was working too fast for the PC.

I extended the frame in Adobe Photoshop 2025 and saved it, and went straight to the animation - however, the file in Photoshop didn't save as I'd run out of disk space.

At least I now know what the problem is/was!

12 February 2025

I had a late sart this morning as I didn't get up until 7:30 am - but nonetheless, I started work earlier than normal.

The reason: I didn't go to bed until 1:15 am.

Today is Day 5 of my sobriety and clean and healthy living.

Yesterday, I managed 30 minutes on the rowing machine and 60 on the cross trainer, and with no beers.

And the fridge is crammed full of the things.

Madri, San Miguel, IPA Punk, Hazy Jane, Elvis Juice, Moretta, Jaipur... I even have a crate of Peroni in my DVD library.

I will do the same again.

I came downstairs post-purgatory (cardio), took the leg of lamb out of the oven, prepared and steamed the cauliflower, broccoli and leeks, made the cheese sauce and bunged it in the oven.

And whilst Julie did her fantastic impression of being Jamie Oliver's bitch, I managed a bath and shave.

I had a bit of a breakthrough day with the animation.

I have various pieces of software for doing different things. All in all I'm now using a minimum of six lots on a regular basis.

I can see how I'm doing with the amount of clips that aren't being dumped.

In the first two weeks, well over half of them ended up in the bin. Over the last couple of days it is less than 10%.

A lot of the problems was knowing what I can and can't do - and those things that I can do - it is about doing them consistently.

Just recently, I have been creating lettering on buildings and structures - such as the solicitors in Hammersmith - Kingdom, Temperton & Price; the Tokyo Investment Bank - which is the the workplace of Angie Mellor; and the street name of Boelyn Mews - the place in the Ravenscourt Park area of Hammersmith where Mason Green resides.

My first cracks at it were absolute garbage.

The first successful job was etching a gravestone in County Galway over looking the North Atlantic. And even that took me a few goes.

Those 47 days have been a lot of trial and error.

Music. Radio Caroline was playing until I switched it off at 11:30 pm to take the dog out - the last song playing - (White Man) in Hammersmith Palais by The Clash.

The Clash feature in The A's.

Not their music, but as part of the story.

Jacob Gotleib reminiscing.

There were a few decent tracks that were played, such as The Needle and Spoon by Lynard Skynard, My Oh My by Sad Café, and Straight Lines by New Musik, but nothing that I'd use in The Project.

The 1979 hit, If I Had You by The Korgis was also played, which if you want to listen to a love song, well...

What I didn't know was that the song's melody is supposedly based on Variation 18 of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 1934 concertante work, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Sometimes, tracks mature with age; and sometimes at that point in time, the band and its image maybe damages the chances of the song doing better than its No. 12 chart position suggests. Who knows?

The 1997 hit - Angels, which was sung by Robbie Williams, and which not unlike Sinead O'Connor's Nothing Compares to U, is one of those timeless tracks, that you wouldn't hesitate about playing in company ...Now if it had been sung by say, Michael Bolton or Barry Manilow, nobody outside of those two's fanbase would have ever heard it.

Anyway, I'm digressing.

(Above) A 24 second animation in High Definition of the Gaynor Mellor character calling to the flat belonging to Mason Green after college.

This was undertaken using a supposed high-end software.

I used an old clip of the Gaynor asset that I'd created maybe 14 months ago, but sized it within a frame at 300 dpi and in the 16:9 - widescreen specifications (30cm-high by 54cm wide).

The repro was sound enough but I was left with a frame on both the top and the bottom.

I'm not sure why that is, as I followed my sequence. It has to be the sizing on the repro or maybe YouTube.

I'll work it out.

In Series 1, Mason lives above his gran - Ana Reung, at 24A Boelyn Mews in the Ravenscourt Park area of Hammersmith.

In the early part of the story, Gaynor's insecurity issues were through the roof, which was partly brought on by the fact that her boyfriend appeared to live a dual life.

Gaynor wanted an exclusive relationship and part of that - and to keep her quiet, involved Mason giving her a key to the flat.

Within a month, they were virtually living with one another - her at his, him at hers.

The relationship drove both Gaynor's dad and Mason's gran to despair.

The reason?

I'm not telling you.

(Above) a 40 second animation of the Gaynor character in a room in 24A Boelyn Mews that is being decorated, and who is on the phone and admiring her new shoes... I think.

That is actually in the story - the decorating - however, non of these clips will be part of it as it is just me trying to master the animation and its editing.

This was an interesting animation as I chose to shoot the scene from distance and blow into it.

The small files the software accepts is still a bug bear even though I am knocking the product out in 4K. I know it will get better, but the clock is ticking.

I also need to think about transition frames a bit more as opposed to aiming for the continuity of clips.

A random factoid regarding Gaynor and her sister: They are both left-handed.

11 February 2025

I got up at 6:40 am and did a trawl through the sludge with the dog and as always, came in to a coffee. However, this particular morning, I had my wife telling me that Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears had given her a thumbs up-cum-love heart to some comment that she made on Facebook last night.

If you don't know - they were a very popular band in the early-1980's - Mad World, I feel, being their stand out song.

Yesterday, wasn't my greatest day as it was Day 3 of my detox.

My day job took precedent with only a Tesco's delivery around 11:00 am to break the monotony.

Julie got in from work around 5:00 pm and did her second walk with the dog.

I'd say it pleased me, but I had the thought of doing something that I hate on my mind - namely the cardio that I'd promised myself.

I managed 90 minutes on the cross trainer and whilst operating the levers and pedals (or whatever they are), I kept on looking down at the rowing machine and thought, Fuck that.

Numerous times.

Substituting four or five bottles of Peroni (or similar) for an hour and a half walking up and down in the bedroom and going nowhere isn't my idea of fun.

Still - I did it. I'll do the rower today.

I came downstairs post-purgatory to find that Julie had been cleaning out the cupboards.

When I'm miserable, I like to pass that feeling around.

Still - she did a cracking job.

For dinner (or tea) we had Tesco's finest cod and parsley fish cakes, prawns, and a nice green salad with freshly grated beetroot. It was sound enough, but it doesn't taste the same without a beer.

Music. I repeated the last couple of nights by working on the laptop at the table in the kitchen and keeping the dog company, whilst Radio Caroline played in the background.

Visage's Mind of a Toy was played which I hadn't heard in years. That's Midge Ure's band from the early 1980's, which was fronted by Punk icon, Steve Strange. A very good song.

I haven't got any albums by Visage, which surprises me as I quite liked them along with Teardrop Explodes when I was younger.

I've just bought their singles album off eBay as we speak.

In the Cut by The Bluetones was also played, which is a track that I can't say that I've heard before, which again, was really good.

I cut a 24 second animation of Angie and Jenny Mellor in Angie's kitchen earlier, and chucked it up on the website opposite.

I should concentrate a bit more on Angie.

After a massive reality check post-getting married, she and Pat worked hard to keep things afloat and make their marriage work.

They are both absolutely lovely characters - and Angie is such a pretty asset. I also need to extend her wardrobe a bit more - as compared to their Gaynor, it's not that extensive. Like most pretty females, the colours she most stands out in is without doubt, white.

I'll also try out some different hairstyles as I've not firmed up on a style for Series 1 when she's 23.

With Angie at 30-years old - in Series 2, and much like Gaynor, I can make her look more conservative and a blonde bob-cut (as you see in the clip opposite), will do that.

We are having leg of lamb today with cauliflower and broccoli cheese, kale and roast potatoes.

Something to look forward to apart from the rowing machine

I'll chuck up some other Angie animations on here later in the day... and check the lovely contrasts of colour!

As Benny Hill told Jenny Lee Wright in the park (1971) -"I'm learning all zer time."

(Above) A 24 second animation of Jenny Mellor doing some homework, whilst her Auntie Angie gets the dinner ready for her Uncle Pat coming in from work.

This would be from Series 2.

Jenny's relationship with her only aunt and uncle is first class, as both spoil her.

Auntie Angie buys her new clothes and Uncle Pat's lets her watch Netflix - which is something that never happens at home, as her mum, Gaynor - is quite strict.

Jenny likes the Fargo series - which she rather defectively describes to her mum as just some Christmassy-thing with lots of snow, and appears quite intrigued by the man that looks like Elvis who drowns people under the ice.

(Above) An 11 second animation of Angie Mellor at work in the Tokyo Investment Bank in Canary Wharf.

Her hairstyle possibly suggests that this takes place in Series 2.

Angie left Santander on Chiswick High Street and went to work in Canary Wharf in Series 1.

Confidence (and lack of) may have been a feature with Angie - however, you'll have to draw that conclusion yourself.

Mason described her as just being happy and comfortable sat behind a counter in a place everyone knew her - a limelight job.

"You make me sound a right sad cow," she told him.

10 February 2025

It slung it down all through the night. I caught the beginning of it when I took the dog around the church for her last walk of the night around 10:00 pm.

This morning, however - Julie got up around 7:00 am and decided to nudge off her healthy month with a bang, and did a brisk dog walk through the woods.

She came back in the house looking like a drowned rat.

Yesterday, I did nothing but work and that includes me doing my day job. I have a really busy week ahead.

Like the night before, I was on my laptop at the kitchen table until late, keeping the Alsatian company, with Radio Caroline playing in the background.

Some tidy music was played from 4:00 pm until I took the dog out, including - Do Ya by ELO, which is my favourite track by the group that evolved Out of the Blue (sic) from The Move.

We had Tuna and prawns with salad for tea and I also racked up my second day without alcohol.

I might do some cardio today.

I have a gym in an upstairs room in the house, which I've neglected.

A promise to myself. I'll do 90 minutes on the cross trainer and 30 on the rower.

John Welsh aka Honest John, was messaging me on WhatsApp from early doors, with one of his Spotify playlists.

I told him that I'll give them a listen.

He's dropped me a couple of songs off in the past that I've quite liked: Frankie Miller's When I'm Away from you and Terry Hall's Sense spring to mind.

I cut an animation of two character assets last night - Cyril Pope and Jack Thiam, the latter who I've cut before.

I wasn't happy with his hair as when he was animated it was all over the shop and looked very untidy, and for some reason, that got passed on to the rest of his body, most notably his fingers.

The perils of shooting a scene at distance and using small files.

I now know that backgrounds have to be well chosen, which from now, is something that I have to bear in mind.

The Cyril Pope character looks like a unit, but in the story he is anything but, and is just a really nice guy who absolutely loves Mason.

Heavy gamblers tend to rub off on one another as they have a lot in common. Winning (and losing) money.

Towards the end of Series 1, he becomes a friend of Angie and Gaynor's dad, which is a nice part of the story.

The reasoning?

That is part of John Mellor's story, which I can't really divulge as it would give some of the plot away.

Always remember this: John and Maureen are very family orientated, which is something that Mason clocked on to early doors. As did his family.

Mason said to his daughter in Series 2, "Your granny and granddad are two of the nicest people that I've ever known."

And Mason's relationship with Maureen wasn't always plain sailing!

That, however - is all part of the story.

Work beckons...

(Above) This is a straight 10 second animation of Jack Thiam and Cyril Pope in the Hammersmith offices of West London bookmakers, Essen & Pope.

A perfect animation, which the contrast of colours and the continuation is, I feel - fucking spot on.

And it took literally just a few minutes to produce.

I used a bright background - the offices, and made sure that both characters, were wearing decent clothes that are a good contrast against the background. I also made sure I got shut of Jack's shit Rastafarian haircut and replaced it with a short cropped bleach blonde style, which stands out much better..

Some history: Jack is the younger stepbrother of Cyril.

They were both brought up by the Mower family - Eric and Sue (May), a couple who have a dark past.

(Above) Prawns and tuna salad ...and no alcohol.

It may well drive me insane, but I need to ease up on it a bit and 30 days off should put me in a better place.

The takings at both The Red Lion and The Curry Leaf will be down - that much is for sure, as we do around £500 a month in the former and maybe £600-£700 in the latter. We probably do around £120-£150 a month at the Tandoori takeaway too.

It just goes to show how much money you can piss away on next-to-nothing.

(Click the image to open in colour).

9 February 2025

Yesterday evening was a day where I indexed almost everything that I have created. I should have done it in Cyprus - however, the flash drive I transferred the 42GB of images and videos on to, only had half the files copied on to it.

On one hand Technology is fantastic - but never think it won't ever let you down - because it will. Often.

To alleviate the problem, always try to buy a name that you can trust.

I have dozens of flash drives. With the lower memory stuff - 8MB to 32MB - most brands are okay. As soon as you get to 128MB to 256MB and over, however - the only ones that haven't let me down are the red and black SanDisk.

The failing flash drive: Lenovo.

The Lenovo laptops are garbage as well.

I had one ages ago that just died on me. And Julie bought one from Stephanis on April Avenue in Paralimni a couple of years ago that is utter shite.

The Stephanis chain of stores is the biggest electronics retail chain in Cyprus, but still, they sold us a dog. Or skylí, rather.

Anyway, all the files transferred over to the 128GB SanDisk okay.

I also created wardrobes for a few different characters and I have chucked up another animation of Jenny Deal (Cecilia) as she is integral to the story.

Here, she is opposite with Leoni Middleton (Please note - and I keep on saying it, non of these clips will appear in the series - it is just me getting au fait with the software).

Jenny Deal let very few people in, and outside of Mason, Leoni perhaps knew her the best

As regards the output, I am not happy regarding the textures on the faces on both the Leoni Middleton and Jennifer Deal (Jenny / Cecilia's mother) assets.

In 3D I can add 4K textures to their faces, so neither will be a problem. I'm also not fussed about the hairstyles of both Jenny Deal's parents, which is something that is quite easily rectified - even in 2D. I might have a look at that later.

As a person, I like to see a female's hair tied up or back as opposed to... well, opposed to down and all over the place, as their beauty stands out more - especially the neck and face.

You will be surprised how much hair and good clothes changes the appearance of the character. Even the males.

Music. I had Radio Caroline on all last night, whilst working with the laptop at the kitchen table until around 11:30 pm - mainly to keep the dog company, as she has missed us.

A 10-15 second segment of music has been advertised over the last three or four weeks, which sounds very much like The Faces.

The Condriacs' Mama Please.

A very good song.

I have just been in touch with the main man on All things Rod, that being Honest John - a.k.a John Welsh, and asked for his opinion..

"Really like it pal - reminds me of Ooh La La," he said.

I've just been in touch with the band.

I'll try and use it in The A's.

In other news - I took down a video - the 3:08 minute effort I made in The Alps. The failed Recreation of The Beatles 1965 Help! album cover.

Why?

Even though I am still very much practicing with the software, it looked slow and amateurish.

After my 50 day watershed, I'll have another look at it.

8 February 2025

The alarm went of at 2:00 am.

Julie put the immersion heater on for the hot water, whilst I uncoupled the battery on the FTO.

It's going to be a long morning of travelling. All being well we should get home for 1:00 pm.

Yesterday, I worked until 4:00 pm and created wardrobes for Jennifer and Simon Deal - the parents of Jenny (Cecilia) amongst other things. Splitting my foot open on the wardrobe door in the spare bedroom for one. There was blood everywhere

Last night, we dropped on a great place for food. A Bulgarian open kitchen a few doors down from The Lionheart bar. I think they call it Mister Food.

I'll check next time.

We shared plates of whitebait, pork liver, chicken liver, chicken breast - and Julie tried their lamb soup. €42.

Unbelievable.

This morning, however, I could drink a sea dry, so, I'm assuming they use a bit of salt in their food.

It's 5:00 am and we are now in the Skala Lounge.

Skala in Greek means dog, so I've no idea why they named it that as it's not that bad. Rather interestingly the word Skata means shit. Put them both together and it's what I am feeling like this morning.

Just checked: Skala means staircase; skylí means dog. It's just pronounced the same.

I've just had two bottles of sparking water and I'm now drinking a Cappuccino as I've just finished drafting the end of The Alps scenes, where Gaynor nonchalantly waltzes in to her classroom at the 40 Martyrs College on Monday morning nearly two hours late.

I enjoyed writing that.

Got back in the house at 12:45 pm. It is absolutely freezing.

Did a power shop for some fresh food at the Co-0p and have just basted a couple of chickens and bunged them in the oven.

7 February 2025

I was up at 7:45 am.

I had been restless for a hour or so through the night, but I said to myself that I wasn't getting up at stupid o'clock again.

Yesterday, I knocked off at 4:00 pm and as most days we called up to Fosis Coffee Shop - the only interesting thing up there being the presence of The Rottweiler Man, who we hadn't seen in over 12 months.

Fosis - the owner, said that the reason we haven't seen him is that he prefers to buy blow (Cocaine) than pay a couple of Euro's for a beer. That is sad.

We left there and called in some cheap and cheerful Kebab shop opposite the Church of St. Barbara on Protaras Road in Paralimni, which, when we last went, around 20 years ago - had changed dramatically.

What was strange is that there was an old Cypriot guy in there that knew us.

"Hey - you go in Fosis," he said.

You cannot do anything in Eastern Cyprus without someone knowing your business.

Fair play though - he made sure he poured me a Cyprus Whiskey, which is a drink known as Zivania.

I told him that I didn't particularly like it, however - he was insistent. Ouzo is the much better drink by a country mile, and to be fair, gives you a similar hangover.

I had to admit that the menu was basic - Chicken, Pork or Sheftalia in Pitta bread. Souvlaki, they call them - however, he also did us mushroom's and courgette's, which I have to say were brilliant. €40.

Sometimes, you can unexpectedly just drop on great food.

A few years ago at the Salamis bar in Avgorou, Anthony brought us out some lemon potatoes and rabbit's liver as a kind of free Tapas.

Again, if that had been served at the quaint and rather sophisticated Epworth Tap just up the road from us, on a nice plate with a £50 price tag, no-one would have batted an eyelid.

The most of yesterday, I created a wardrobe for the Jenny Deal character, who again - is integral to the story.

Her real name was Cecilia - named after the song by Simon & Garfunkel, however - she hated it.

She was the only child of investment banker, Simon Deal and his wife Jennifer, who was also in finance, but it's never mentioned what exactly she did.

From being nine years old Cecilia asked to be called by her mother's name and therein, she was known as Jenny.

Ring a bell?

Jenny possessed an inordinate I.Q, and it was during the failed A's project run by Dr. Miriam Jones, that she met Mason.

Without giving too much away, Jenny fell in love with him around the time she was 12 or 13 years old, and a relationship began - Mason being 14 months older than her.

Her parents had a kind of Cosmopolitan-albeit- Bohemian lifestyle and Jenny went from loving her mother to possessing a hatred for her on a massive scale - Jenny's only outlet being Mason.

"She never wanted to be a doctor or prime minister or anything like that," her father told John and Maureen Mellor.

"All she ever wanted, was to have children with Mason and to live by the sea."

How did he know?

He heard her telling Mason exactly that when she was 14 years old.

Jenny committed suicide in February 2022.

(Above) A 26 second animation of Jenny Deal

All the five children in the failed project were dysfunctional, non more so than Jenny Deal.

In Series 1, whilst Anita Pallenburg and Leoni Middleton were in conversation down at the Speedibar cafe and diner in Hammersmith, its owner Rod the Mod described her as being High as a Kite and One Hundred Miles an Hour.

"She loved her music and bossed the jukebox like nobody's business," he told them.

Her favourite band: Feeder.

One of Jenny Deal's traits was that she not only had O.C.D, she was also ambidextrous and could speak fluently in reverse.

(Above) a 25 second animation of Jenny Deal, with her mother, Jennifer outside their home in Morden, South London.

At times, Jenny resembled Gaynor in appearance - and everyone that had known her, thought so. However, she resembled Gaynor's elder sister - Angie, even more.

She was smaller than Gaynor by a few inches, and possibly due to her O.C.D, only ever wore black and white.

Jenny was also highly strung and very bad tempered - especially with her mother.

There was a reason.

Jenny Deal's story, is a sad one.

6 February 2025

I was up at 2:30 am.

I've been tossing and turning for the last hour.

Yesterday was a miserable day and in the afternoon it slung it down, which was obvious that was going to happen, as during the morning I had washed the car.

This time of year the weather in Cyprus can be a lottery of sorts. I once remember when we had a place in Frenaros, of getting up one morning in early January to see everything iced over. It is generally sunny, but they are short days, and just like in the UK - it gets dark early.

The hottest I've ever known it, was one summer when I drove into Ayia Napa to get my mate's daughter a football shirt, and the temperature was 54°c.

Yesterday, we did the Red Ruby, and I went all Bangkok - and had Thai prawns in a black pepper sauce followed by the same in a Thai red curry.

It was okay, but Thai food is a bit sweet for my liking - the red curry, being a watery version of a beefed-up Pasanda at our local curry house.

We then went to the Lionheart bar and had a few beers, the highlight of which was watching the owners under-nourished Alsatian - Avatar, chasing two black kids around the pub. The dog saw them and went absolutely apeshit.

We got back to the house and did in around four episodes of the 1995 Series 3 of The Detectives starring Robert Powell and Jasper Carrot.

I forgot how funny it was.

I've chucked up a couple of short clips on the site today along with a 28 second shot to show how faces can change when you shoot in 2D, and a 22 second shot with me testing out different ways to export high-resolution media files.

There is also rehashed one of Gaynor walking in the airport terminal, which I've gone in close to get her face in the shot and to remove the long shot, in which her eyes didn't correlate properly; and a lovely 5 second clip of both main characters returning from Switzerland.

Well, I went back to bed at 6:40 am and resurfaced at 9:00 am to the sound of Julie doing the pots, which was music to my ears.

Talking of music, I've not listened to much since getting off the plane.

Deejay 95 - the Cypriot radio station, has been on and if I'm being honest the only song that has stood out was Lenny Kravitz's song - Human., which is a bit Motown-ish.

I quite like some of his stuff. Fly Away is also a cracking song.

There was a selection of garbage playing last night in The Lionheart, with the standout tracks being from the 1980's - which weren't that good when they were supposedly good.

Queen - They are utter fucking shite.

You want a Doppelganger? Watch Mad Men and seek out Don Draper's second wife, then watch Freddie Mercury pushing around the vacuum in the Queen video, I Want to Break Free.

Bar the handlebar moustache you can't tell them apart!.

A good 1980's song? If you want the ultimate It Girl song that I'd take for The A's then Transvision Vamp's Baby, I Don't Care would probably be it. That would be followed by Sinead O'Connor's Prince-penned Nothing Compares to U, which was a 1984 song, but which she didn't release until January 1990.

Totally different tracks but both great!

In other news - the sun is out.

Today, I'm hoping to finish those scenes and come tomorrow, I'll chuck up some different characters.

(Above) A 5 second animation of Mason Green and Gaynor Mellor coming out of T2 after returning from The Alps that in my humble opinion, is just perfection.

Why do I like it?

Because the characters interact exactly how I wanted them to.

This would be February 2023 in the series, when both kids totally relied on each other.

As I have already stated - none of the animated clips you see on this site, will be part of the series. This is just my way of learning the animation process and software from scratch.

5 February 2025

I was up at 4:00 am.

It is still dark outside but not for long.

I had to get up as my mind was buzzing as yesterday I started drafting up the several scenes in The Alps.

Whilst I am doing that I created the 21 second animation opposite, of Jenny Mellor with her best friend Elsie Gabbitas, which would obviously be part of Series 2.

Jenny is integral to the second series as she creates lots of different angles and arcs and therefore helps keep the story flowing. Her friendship will Elsie was initially a forced one, as Elsie was tasked with looking after her - however, it didn't take long to blossom, and some of the stuff Jenny relays to Granny Maureen is extremely funny.

I was going to do the school uniform in Royal Blue as a sort of throwback to my time in school - however, that was used in the very funny and groundbreaking coming-of-age series - the Inbetweeners.

I therefore settled on beige jumpers and white shirt / blouse, which are - for girls, I think, a much nicer and a far more stylish combination.

I am now working to the 1920 x 1080 mm - widescreen specifications (30cm-high by 54cm wide), set at 300 dpi.

It takes longer to set, but I need to be consistent.

Yesterday, I had the Clara Margieson character walking with the full body - head-to-toe, and without the sunglasses on to hide those annoying things such as the character possessing dead mans eyes.

Hopefully, this is part of my goal for consistency.

I just wish the software would help me out and do the fucking same as it can be really annoying.

Yesterday evening, we visited friends who own the Salamis bar over in Avgorou, which is the Cypriot village that we lived for 5 years.

The bar is only a sideline of sorts, as Anthony is a haulier and his father, Paneas, a farmer.

Anthony, we nickname Manga - as that is what he calls me - (check it out); and his dad - Mafioso Mrs Peabody.

Mrs Peabody was a name Julie made up for a guy that goes in Fosis Coffee Shop who had a resemblance of the actress Anna Way. She starred as the diminutive Mrs Hall character in the 1975 Gourmet Night episode of Fawlty Towers, and the father is his spitting image with one major difference. Paneas often comes in the bar wearing a leather jacket ala John Travolta's Chilli Palmer character in the 1995 American gangster comedy film Get Shorty.

The house we had in Avgorou was quite large with a galleried landing and which possessed a 30 foot swimming pool - however, it was old and needed regular maintenance. To own a house that size, you really need to be living here permanent. And the pool and getting someone to clean and maintain it was a right nightmare.

This house - which is relatively new, suits us a lot better as it's easy to maintain. The only real downside is that Levanda Hills is nestled away from all the restaurants and bars... and is obviously, up in the hills.

The nearest are the Tulum Beach Bar which is located between Famagusta Sailing Club and the church at Agia Triada, and The Cottage, which is down on the main coast road between Kapparis and Panera, neither of which are open out of season.

Tonight, it is more than likely another visit to the Red Ruby.

(Above) A 21 second clip of Elsie Gabbitas and Jenny Mellor sat on bar stool's in Elsie's mum's kitchen, studying for a Horrible Histories project at school.

Like her father, Jenny is blessed with an inordinate I.Q and has been moved up three school years at the Christ Is King All Girls School in Chelsea.

Elsie - who is Form Captain, was tasked with looking after Jenny.

Rather interestingly, the two girls friendship has Jenny's granny (Maureen) scratching her head, as some of the innocent gossip her granddaughter relays, is often off the charts.

4 February 2025

I was up at 7:30 am.

The door is open, the sun is shining, and I am sat at the kitchen table on my laptop with a cup of coffee.

We have been here since Saturday night and there is no sign of T.C the cat, which is a bit upsetting as he's been calling round for 4 years. We just hope he's okay, as the last time we were here - 3 weeks ago, he virtually lived with us.

I'm sure I need a new mobile. I got in last night and the thing was on 12% charge. A drop from 100% in just a few hours.

It has never been right since I went to Bahrain with work last summer. It went absolutely wappy and I had to reset it and lost half my contacts. Now it's dramatically losing charge.

Yesterday was a blur.

I had been up all night creating animation of for the 3:08 minutes of footage in The Alps.

If I'm being honest, I binned a lot of clips and some of the time the pro software performed less than the other. Nevertheless, I'm getting much quicker at it.

I now have the full body of the assets not only walking, but dancing too, which is good, as in Series 1, Gaynor's crowd often visit the fictitious bar that is The Metropolitan (The Met) in Hammersmith.

It was a great learning curve - especially the editing software.

Things to note are the sizes of the video frames. I need to be consistent in sizing them as even in the Help! cover promo I have noticed a couple of two or three second frames in there with black edging.

That means I've not cut them to the right size and I've not fitted them properly within editing software. They need to be 1920 x 1080 mm - widescreen (30cm-high by 54cm wide).

It will not happen again.

Around 4:00 pm we went up to Fosis and had a few beers. There were a few people in gambling, including Tony the Barber, The Man with One Eye and Fosis son Bambos - the latter of who we nickname The Prodigal - and who could probably usurp Cameron behind the bar at The Red Lion for utter laziness.

The Prodigal was in a car accident when he was younger and was disabled. It is something that he plays on when he doesn't want to do any work. And when Fosis complains and starts raising his voice, The Prodigal starts exaggerating his limp, which goes from a mere hobble that you hardly notice, to a full blown half-yard limp with him dragging his leg round the bar like some dead weight. The limp doesn't discriminate either, as it moves to and from different legs. I'm not sure if Fosis has worked that one out yet.

Anyway, we called in at the Silly Man Bar on the way home and Julie had Sheftalia's - which are probably the best on the island, and I had something of his so-called Special's Board.

Keftedes and Rabbit!

I'd have to be starving to eat rabbit, so that was never happening. And Keftedes is Cypriot food that parades as meatballs.

Cypriot food is bland with a capital fucking B.

"How was the Keftedes?" he asked.

You are never going to un-bland any Cypriot dishes unless you alter the recipe. Even with me shaking pepper all over them, they were pretty tasteless. They were certainly shaped like balls, but there wasn't any meat in them as such.

In Series 1 of the story, Mason and Gaynor use the odd Greek restaurant through the week as she dislikes cooking just as much as she does the washing up.

After I managed to chew through the Keftedes we called in at The Lionheart bar and had a few beers where some new Expats introduced themselves to us.

We've had a place in Cyprus since August 2001 and Expats are some of the biggest wankers you'll ever meet.

They are generally running away from something and once in Cyprus they can pretend to be who they want. That is until they get found out of course.

As a rule, we try to keep them at arms length, but in The Lionheart, they tend not to be that bad.

So, today?

Today, I'll be writing but I'll chuck some animation up on the website throughout the day.

3 February 2025

Yesterday I had 20 hours in front of the computer, breaking off only to nip to the Red Ruby in Ayia Napa for a curry and to watch a 1979 first series episode of Minder - Aces High and Sometimes Very Low.

Julie wasn't happy.

I created a wardrobe of clothes for Jack Thiam, Augie Doggie, BAM BAM and extended Mason's a bit.

I also had the idea for the recreation of the cover for Help! which I've chucked up on the site.

My biggest job yet and only 38 days in.

I was up all night and went to bed around 6:40 am and got up at 11:00 am.

I'm done for the day here and we're off up to Fosis Coffee Shop for a few beers.

Monday is garbage in this area of Cyprus as half the restaurants are shut, so it may be a case of chucking a couple of pizza's in later as well as two packs of Clam and Scallop chowder (or whatever) we bought the last time we were here.

To be continued,

Well, I hope you like the video.

(Above) A 187 second (3:07 minute) animation on The Alps.

A big frigging job!

The idea was to recreate the cover of The Beatles 1965 album, Help!

It can be done, but not really in 2D, so I did the best I could and put together some clips of Gaynor Mellor, Clara Margieson and the four lads - Mason Green, Jack Thiam, Augie Doggie and BAM BAM whose real name is Adam Bamford, having a go at doing the Help! signal in the snow.

The surprise about this was, that you can use The Beatles music on YouTube.

Strange one that, as I did a clip when I first set off animating, with the Super Furry Animals' Something for the Weekend, and I was immediately walloped with a copyright claim and a take the fucker down notice.

Anyway - to date this is the biggest piece of animation that I've done.

I'm still not happy with the end product as a couple of the frames need adjustment and I should use Adobe Photoshop 2025 to size them properly.

Gaynor and Clara look Wow! and the dark suits against the snow are really good.

2 February 2025

I was up at 4:50 am.

I was travelling yesterday, so I did absolutely nothing bar stick on the headphones and listen to music.

A wasted day?

Regarding The Project, not really.

Listening to music always generates ideas.

This time last year, I was purchasing 3D assets whilst writing the screenplay, and suddenly this deal came up. It was some ski bundle with some 75% discount.

My thoughts at the time were that I didn't need it, but as it was so cheap I bought it anyway.

Fast Forward to yesterday, and as the plane was flying over The Alps, my mind wandered to a scene in the The Beatles 1965 film, Help! where they were in Switzerland.

My thoughts were to use the idea.

Series 1, is for Angie, a part of her life where she leaves the comfort blanket of her family to start on her own journey with Pat. However, and as she finds - it isn't plain sailing.

As for Gaynor, her life becomes one hell of a rollercoaster.

The history, is that Angie was prepped for greatness from being a young girl. She was (and still is) very pretty, and she was always going to get everything she wanted, including the handsome husband. She was also granny's favourite.

Gaynor was the complete opposite. An awkward looking girl who had braces in her mouth, wore glasses and was cumbersome. Geeky, if you like.

It is mentioned once in the story about how Angie had lots of attention as she grew up, whilst Gaynor had none in a kind of mirror, mirror on the wall scene where Gaynor verbally hits out at her sister. This is in Episode 4: The Spat, where Angie tries to put her younger sister in her place.

The thing was, that Gaynor always knew her place.

She loved it that her big sister was popular and pretty, and was happy watching how her mum pandered around her and boasted to all her friends about what a beautiful elder daughter she had.

The upshot was, that Gaynor was a happy and willing passenger in The Angie Show.

And then she met Mason.

It was then she decided that she wanted her own show.

So - The Alps.

My idea, which I'll drop into the screenplay, and which will mean me altering some copy later on in the story; as the past always dictates the present and future, no matter what the morons in the MSM (mainstream media) would like you think - is to create a weekend away.

It is just another one of the many things for Angie to get pissed off about.

Now, that last bit may paint Angie as quite a cynical character, however - that's not the case.

After the wedding, Angie is lost, and looking at her younger sister's mad life, she starts to have a bit of a reality check to who she both was and indeed, is.

A scene in The Alps will help me enforce that a little bit more...

Last night was a bit of a blur as I was tired.

We got in the house around 6:00 pm Cyprus time.

I recoupled the battery on to the FTO and she kicked up as sweet as a nut, which had me thinking that the starter motor had been on its way out for some time. And by sometime, I mean three or four years.

We went up to Fosis Coffee Shop in Vrysoulles, which was quite full, both with people and cigarette smoke - as the no smoking rule doesn't apply there. Well it does, it's just that no fucker takes any notice.

Turkish George was there, who I used as a character in the I Am Sam Trilogy, along with Marios the drug dealer and Manos - who is a huge unit of a guy, who worked the doors at The Castle nightclub in Ayia Napa for years.

It was nice to see him as we've not seen him since before Christmas. And he's such a polite lad.

As I've said, we tend to give names to everyone.

Unlucky Alf was in. His real name is George but he's as clumsy as hell. The 1000 year old woman - who is a guy who once tried telling us the story about ...a 1000 year old woman; the Man with one eye ...who has one eye as someone shot him in the face; and the King of Vrysoulles - a guy who lived with his parents until he was thirty and then built the biggest house in the village on the plot of an old refugee bungalow.

Trivialities aside, the idea was to come back home and chuck a couple of pizza's in the oven, but as it was our 39th anniversary, we stopped of at the Silly Man Bar just off the Paralimni - Derynia roundabout, and we had liver, egg and chips amidst some Cypriot family party.

If you ever want a vision of the blue Mediterranean Sea with the Greek fishing harbour, and the white painted restaurants with the tables covered with their blue checked table cloths - then put on some headphones - let Never on a Sunday play, and close your eyes and let the music take you there.

(Above) A 27 second animation of Gaynor and Clara drinking Martini Rosso's in The Alps.

I animated this with very little thought as I just wanted to chuck a clip up on the website. Not very professional, I know.

I used the pro software as opposed to the other - however, I really need to use high resolution backdrops.

I've not had chance to write up the six or seven scenes as yet, but all I know at the moment, is that the Switzerland scenes will be the Friday until Sunday the following week after Gaynor's 19th birthday bash - with bash being the optimum word.

What I do know is that Gaynor and Clara were the greatest of friends.

Clara owed a lot to Gaynor.

If it was not for Gaynor, Clara wouldn't be where she is in Series 2.

However, the story is that Clara cut Gaynor off, and they never spoke for 7 years.

(Above) A 14 second animation of Mason Green, Jack Thiam, BAM BAM and Augie Doggie knocking back beers and Schnapps chaser's on their first night in The Alps.

Augie - whose real name is Dorian Ogley, is the boyfriend of Clara Margieson.

The problem with small animating small files at distance, with a low resolution pre-generated background; lots of stuff going on, such as all four of the characters moving together, shooting stars in the night sky and the pin striped suits, gives a shitty reproduction - and this is with the pro software.

A high-res background and the ability to handle larger files would help immensely.

1 February 2025

I was up at 3:00 am.

A drive down the M1 to Luton Airport beckons as we are outbound on the 10:55 am flight to Larnaca.

As I am writing this, I'm backing up all my work onto a external hub so I can take it over to Cyprus and transfer it on to my laptop.

Just this week I've created 42GB of image (jpg, png) and video files (mp4), which is staggering.

I'm assuming the traffic won't be that bad being that it's Saturday - not that the cameras ever do you any favours, as half the length of the motorway from the end of the M18 to Luton has a 50 mph limit.

It's 8:55 am and we are now in the priority lounge at the airport. Not because we pay, as no lounge I have ever been in is worth it. It's due to Julie having an American Express Platinum Card (AMEX) - and with it comes a Priority Pass.

As a rule we never use credit cards. She got the AMEX solely due to the great travel insurance that came with it. Recently, however - they have stopped it, and all we are left with for the extortionate annual fee, is the card for the lounge.

Julie's advice - never get one.

As a rule, we never have breakfast, but here you have to make it crack, therefore I've just had two sausage and egg rolls and a latte macchiato. If it was nearer midday, I'd be banging the Peroni's (or similar) - that's for sure.

My worst UK airport lounge? Leeds Bradford.

A few months ago, I put the Anita and Jenny characters behind the windscreen of a car. It was shit imagery which I did to just make a photo for the website.

Yesterday, I wasted half an hour trying to make the fucking thing move, and I had to admit, it did have me shaking my head.

In Series 2 of the story, Anita drives an array of vehicles - which is possibly due to the job she has, but her main one on a weekend is an Italian sports car. I'm not sure what sort as it's never been mentioned in the story, but it will certainly not be the one that you see here.

In 3D, everything is what they term as rigged - therefore, you can open the doors and place your assets inside - which are known as poses. As it is rigged, the wheels rotate etc. In 2D, it is a totally different ball game. You just get them behind the windscreen and hope for the best.

I'll reset the image this week and try and make a professional job of it. Not because I want it, as I don't. I just need to understand the problems so I can overcome them. Basically, it's no different to anything in life.

My advice - try your best and never let anything beat you.

I also had another look at the Gaynor animation at the graveside.

One of Julie's best friend's is a lovely lady by the name of Margaret Godley, who resides in Tickhill near Doncaster, and manages the manned offices at the nearby Airport.

I've had offices there for 14 years - however I've never been there for ...er, 14 years.

Margaret saw the animation - and firstly mentioned the clothes. And if this takes off the way I hope it will - everyone will be mentioning the clothes as they will blow everyone away!

She also mentioned the Church scene in Co. Galway, where Gaynor, dressed in a white mini-dress, goes to lay some flowers at the grave of her great granny, amidst a storm brewing over the Atlantic.

"You'd have thought he'd have made her wear a coat," Margaret said - and by he, she meant me.

That made me smile.

I have to do a character based on her.

One of the things about Margaret aside of her worldliness and clipboard efficiency, is that she'd pass for being much, much younger than she actually is. Even now, she's a bit of a babe.

Back to the graveside scene, I needed Gaynor to crush the grass as she knelt down.

As I keep on saying, this is just the pre-construction phase, where I learn to understand the assets, the animation, the filmography and indeed the huge amount of software.

It's a lot to learn.

NO PART OF THIS WEBSITE MAY BE REPRODUCED OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS.

FEBRUary 2025

The A's

ALL IMAGES OPEN IN TECHNICOLOUR

The March 2025 blog is now on its own page

2 March 2025

Morning... or is it nearly the afternoon.

11:31 am it says on my PC.

I was up and at 'em at 8:15 am - however, I think the late nights have caught up with me.

Last night, I spent an hour or so looking for lost files.

The external hard drive is the problem. I know I copied them to it but they aren't on it.

Highly annoying.

And I gotta admit, this external software is getting very hit and miss, in that sometimes it's out of this world and the next it's utterly shite.

I had a system, a sequence, and it's gone from being quite consistent - to not.

I know the file size has something to do with it, but even then...

I did an animation with the Gaynor character asset sat on the floor listening to the record player and it was nothing short of fantastic.

The contrast of colours, her expressions - brilliant.

I then tried elaborating on the animation with dialogue and it went to shit. In fact, every bit of dialogue I did after that was the same.

I'm not sure why.

Again, highly annoying.

The one thing about this particular external software I've been using, is that for pure animation, it is Top Rank and it is the main one that I will run with especially as I have been loading it with files larger than 10MB and it has been accepting them.

(Still writing up the blog).

Day 65

Music

(Above) A 45 second animation of Gaynor listening to a 33 rpm vinyl on a beat up old record player.

The A's - The characters

Each day, I will put up a 5 second animated video of one of the main characters in The A's.

1 March 2025

Morning

I got up at 7:30 am.

Not bad, considering that I didn't get to bed until 2:00 am.

I was watching the President of the U.S.A cutting off the billions to the corrupt President of the Ukraine in a meeting in the Oval office.

You need to watch the whole 40 minute meeting and not just the selected forty-second-to-two minute clips that the mainstream media are continually regurgitating and pushing in your face to suit their narrative.

Wars are bad - but good for those who wish to make money.

You will see that in The A's, as that is how Jacob Gotleib and to an extent Simeon Cartier Bloem and Zeffy Rosenstein make their money - all of who are bankers.

As we are now in March, I'll create a new page.

Just hit the button, as the actress said to the vicar!

Yesterday was a sort of nothing day.

When you are trying to be good, the weekends are the worst as your social life doesn't just go down the pan - it's non-existent.

Nobody had any dinner yesterday as nobody was bothered. It was the same with my two hours cardio. I did 60 minutes on the cross trainer and thought Fuck It.

Julie was in bed at 7:30 pm with a book and I was downloading 3D assets and animating using the inferior software - practice more than anything.

The pub calls on a weekend but I'm now on Day 21 and I don't want to bollocks up all the hard work.

Music. I was working in the study yesterday, so I didn't hear anything on Radio Caroline.

Saying that, they have just played Jon Vangelis' I'll Find My Way Home, which is a Lovely track that sort of takes me back.

I had a bit of a conversation with John Welsh regarding him submitting his Top 15 to the station, but the rigmarole you have to go through to submit it is if I am being honest - quite pathetic.

The station play people's top 15's every day of the week.

Half John's Top 15 aren't even on their database of music, which I find as being strange, as they are supposedly, the album station.

Day 64

The A's - The characters

Each day, I will put up a 5 second animated video of one of the main characters in The A's.

Meet the Layne's

(Above) Teddy Layne is married to Alice and lives at 6 Marquis Gardens and are the next-door neighbours of John and Maureen Mellor.

In the early part of Series 1 Teddy had just come back from the Persian Gulf and was somewhat lost.

He possessed a violent past and was known as a volatile personality that needed a dog to kick.

That changed after he met Mason.

It changed even more when Pat Marshall knocked on his door.

(Above) Alice is the cousin of Louise Pallenburg - Anita's mum.

In Series 1 and outside of Teddy, you don't see much of the family - however, in Series 2 you do. Especially the two daughters.

(Above) Jeannie Layne is the eldest daughter of Teddy and Alice.

In Series 1 both daughters are young kids who are only seen a couple of times.

In Series 2 Jeannie has a decent part.

(Above) Jody Layne is the youngest daughter of Teddy and Alice.

As with her elder sister, in Series 1 both daughters are young kids who are only seen a couple of times.

That changes.

28 February 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

Not bad considering I didn't get to bed until 12:40 am.

I'm due to take my car for a service this morning.

Day 20 of me being dry.

For me, it is some achievement.

Hurrah.

Lesley - one of the staff at The Red Lion pulled Julie up outside Gravell's Fruit and Veg shop in the Market Place.

"You two have been missed - where've you been?"

The same was asked by a guy called Mike Stott who Julie bumped into on the dog walk.

Mike is something of a socialite and boozer, but uses a different drinking hole to me.

His landlady is a convicted coke head; mine was jailed for fraud - both pubs of which, obviously have a different name on the license.

Even Broken Arm Sue has sent the posse out.

I can't go out with her and The Cuban (Her husband, Pete) without having eight pints and a couple of brandies - so, we'll leave that one for a bit.

We are out of the UK, not this Saturday - but next. 8 March 2025.

I've no fucking idea how that's gonna pan out, as by then I'll be 28 days dry, and I wouldn't like to ruin it as I'm feeling not too bad.

Cyprus isn't really the orangery of the Mediterranean... well it might be - I've just never seen it.