March 2025

The A's

ALL IMAGES OPEN IN TECHNICOLOUR

Right - I've done on this page so

Click the button above to go on to a new page for April 2025

31 March 2025

Well, that was interesting.

I did an 18 hour shift with the magazine but to no avail.

I heard Julie's alarm go at 2:00 am and she came downstairs to see me sat at my desk in the study proof reading Page 37.

We were due to drive down to the airport at 4:00 am.

The magazine is completed bar 14 photos - but only proofed up to that page.

I told her that I would complete it in Luton Airport on the laptop - but she wasn't having it.

I went to bed at 3:15 am and Julie went on Wizz Air's website and changed the flights for tomorrow.

£89 + £2.25 each to change it.

I got up at 10:20 am - semi-fresh.

I'm just sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen on my laptop with a coffee.

I'll go back into the study and complete the magazine - possibly by 2:00 pm, and have it signed off by tonight.

To people who aren't in the same business, it is a hard one to explain.

It is a job that you just can't rush and at times it's like trying to move a mountain of coal with a spoon.

Slow, arduous and very frustrating.

Anyway. Let's see what today brings.

After I've wrapped this up I'll chuck some animation up opposite.

30 March 2025

I am bollocksed.

I had an 18 hour day, yesterday doing my day job and didn't knock off until 11:55 pm.

Now, I'm up at 7:45 am - but with clocks going forward and all that, it should really be 6:45 am.

Anyway - I'm back at it.

This is nothing compared to when I first started out publishing a magazine. Sometimes it was a series of all-nighters - and I remember just getting home in time for the taxi to pick us up to take us to Manchester Airport and in one instance - I remember completely running out of time and missing a flight out to Cyprus.

Anyway - I'm moaning.

This morning I did the dog walking duties.

A nice walk through the woods and round the circuit in the spring sunshine - with the daffodils very prominent in around the paths of St Andrews Church.

As I've said before, I'm extremely thankful where we live. That possibly comes from being brought up in a successions of ratholes in a rough mining area. It does make you appreciative of what you have.

I should complete everything today and get everything signed off by tomorrow

In between - I'll chuck up a couple of character animations.

(Above) Mason Green with Anita Pallenburg.

They married around three years after he split up with Gaynor.

It was then Gaynor left London.

Running away is how Gaynor dealt with the things that she couldn't cope with.

Their Angie referred to it as "Her hiding in the cupboard-thing" as when her granny - Maureen O'Hara, verbally scalded her when she was a child - that is exactly what she did.

Sad really.

Mason told her quite a few times: "We don't run away - ever."

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29 March 2025

Morning.

I was up at 6:40 am.

Another busy day.

It is deadline weekend on my day job.

I need to pull my finger out a bit and play catch up, otherwise I'll not be making the early flight out of Luton on Monday morning.

Yesterday, I was very busy.

After work, I managed 80 minutes cardio.

50 on the crosser - before my left ankle totally went, and 30 on the rower. I then threw the dumbbells around a bit.

My ankle felt like someone was sticking a knife in it.

The animation opposite was done in January, and just edited late last night to chuck up on here.

I'll put some thought into the animation next week as I'll have more time - which is something that I've not got at the minute.

If you look at the treadmill animation - that has been done with the pro software, but at distance - so the asset characters face isn't the best resolution.

It is also flat, being that it is 2D.

Shooting in 3D you can show different angles and with everything in proportion.

With 2D you have no fucking chance.

You either zoom in or out; and if the software does as it is asked, you can pan the camera either left or right; but even then, you have to watch for the proportions and facial changes.

On the Galway animation - the timing between 9 and 13 seconds has been done with the pro software - the rest on the non pro.

There is a big difference.

So, why use the non-pro software?

Because it is cheaper (less expensive is a better word) and at the moment I am in the preconstruction phase and just learning; meaning that no animation I chuck up here will ever appear in the series.

Music. I downloaded the 2021 album What If by a band called Moonlight Parade, as I'd heard a track on Radio Caroline called No Way of Knowing, which on the first time of hearing it I thought it was half decent.

Apart from that, all I've been listening to is the playlist on my phone while I've been doing my cardio.

Ben Kweller's 2004 album On My Way was playing on the B2, as were The Beatles - however, I am at the other side of the house working in the study, so I didn't really take that much notice.

Today is 50 days dry - I think. Well 7 weeks, anyway.

For us, and given our lifestyle - this is a massive achievement.

28 March 2025

I was up at 6:30 am.

Julie was already out with the dog and shouted me up as it was her who did the coffee's and got the dog her breakfast.

She'd been awake all night coughing.

She reckons that it's the blood pressure tablets she's on.

Her BP yesterday morning was 114/89 - which is shit hot.

When she went to Grimsby hospital the other week and got put on the treadmill it rose to 230 and the doctor nearly had a coronary.

Her blood pressure has always been high.

I had a long day yesterday which ended with 60 minutes cardio - 30 apiece on the rower and crosser, along with a bath.

It was 11:40 pm when I'd done.

Deadline week is always a busy time.

My left ankle is still playing me up. 10 minutes on the crosser and the pain came back.

Maybe a weeks rest in Cyprus might help.

In between working, I followed Julie up to Johnny Hanson's garage in Crowle, as she needed two new rear brake discs and pads, which is what happens when you don't change your brake pads when they actually need changing.

£215.

I didn't do much animation as my day job was calling the shots.

In all honesty, I'm looking forward to trying out 3D.

As I keep on saying - 2D is very flat and the proportions are rarely right once you start animating the characters.

3D will be a whole new learning curve, but some of the assets I have got - property and such, are out of this world.

I still have a load of indexing to do as well.

I have to admit. The groundwork for this is never ending.

Anyway, there's some animation opposite.

The Gaynor animation was some that I did a while ago. All I did at 1:00 am this morning was edit it using the internal publishing software - Adobe Premier Pro.

And there's some morphing of Robbie and Annie Coulthard's two kids that Mason and Gaynor used to sit.

The story there is quite nice, as when Annie was a teenager she used to sit Mason. However, Annie got paid - Mason did not.

27 March 2025

Morning.

I got up at 7:00 am.

I put the coffee on, and got the dog's breakfast.

No pots to shift out of the dishwasher this morning, as we ate out at The Curry Leaf last night.

It was quite full... and of people we didn't know, which is a bit weird being that we tend to know everyone, and vice-versa.

It's a decent restaurant in a nice market town so people travel quite a distance to eat there.

I mean - I travel 12 miles to Scunthorpe for a curry and the town is a shithole.

Anyway, I'm digressing.

I've chucked up some animation. A 50 second segment of Mason's mum and Jenny Deal.

As stated, Jenny's story is heartbreaking.

For me, it is awkward chucking up animation whilst trying not to give too much away!

Yesterday was a work day and in between we had loads of deliveries including DPD, Yodel and Amazon Prime along with Tony the postman.

The dog enjoys the deliveries..

She's an Alsatian, therefore one of her hobbies apart from dog walks and eating us out of house and home, is barking.

You want to hear her on her night walk if the bell ringers are at it in St Andrews Church. She goes ballistic, and even starts howling.

I think that stems from when we had the house in Frenaros in Cyprus.

Lucy was the next door neighbour's puppy and was tied to a chain outside, and there was a Greek Orthadox church nearby that clanged its bells on a regular basis, so I think it takes her back to a time that she doesn't want to revisit.

Julie moved heaven and earth to get the neighbour's to let us have her, and to sort the dog passports, all the inoculations, and the flight to the UK etc.

Cypriots tend to treat their dogs disgracefully and Lucy was a case in point.

When we went over we walked her and fed her, but generally she was tied to a concrete block in all weathers.

She was two when she came to live with us.

I did 60 minutes cardio - all on the cross trainer, the pain in my ankle kicking in after 30 or so minutes and chucked some dumbbells around.

Music. I listened to the Red Heaven (1992) by Throwing Muses and Doppelgänger (1992) by Curve, which are both sound albums.

The Visit by Throwing Muses has a sound of Judith Durham and the The Seekers... possibly their 1965 hit - World of Our Own, without sounding like it.

Strange, as when I listened to Seether by Veruca Salt - part of the intro had a twang of The Kinks' All Day and All of the Night.

(Above) A 50 second animation of Mason's mum with Jenny Deal.

Mason's mum - Terri Green, had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease just before her son's thirteenth birthday.

This culminated in Terri getting frustrated and extremely depressed.

One of her greatest friend's was the daughter she never had - that being her son's then-girlfriend, Jenny Deal, whom she adored.

Jenny often helped dress her, brushed her hair and put on her make-up, and would often tell her: "When me and your Mason get married, I'll look after you and you will get better - I promise."

"What about all those children you're on about having," Terri would mutter. "It'll be a lot of hard work."

"No, it won't - I'll have you."

Jenny was only 15-years old and used to get very upset.

There were videos with all this on, and which Gaynor found in Mason's flat in October 2023.

She knew none of this.

A week or so after Vincent and Terri died, Jenny would take her own life.

(Above) A 13 second animation of Gaynor Mellor supposedly walking from the toilets in The Jap's Eye Sushi Bar in Hammersmith.

Supposedly, being the optimum word as the only actual 2D sets I've done is Boelyn Mews; Kingdom, Temperton, & Price Solicitors; The front of Hammersmith Vaults; and The 101 on Archway.

In reality, this was a crack at shooting the Gaynor asset at distance and making her walk towards the camera without her appearance altering.

As with the Angie character, the external animation software loves to turn them far eastern!

This animation was done a few weeks ago.

26 March 2025

I was up at 6:40 am.

Julie was already out with the dog - getting back in the house at 7:11 am.

First task of the day is putting up an ergonomic office chair for Julie to take in to work.

It was a lot easier putting it up than trying to fit in The Beast, that much is for sure.

As stated, The Beast is the name we gave the dog's car. The white Fiat Punto we bought during the lockdown to horse her around.

On putting in the chair, I noticed that some wanker in a blue car has scraped it, which was probably done in the office car park at Doncaster Airport as it certainly wasn't there yesterday.

I'm just glad it wasn't mine otherwise I'd be trawling through the CCTV footage with a vicious end game in mind.

That is three times we've had a hit and run - twice in the past few weeks.

Today, will be another day of work as I have to hit a weekend deadline as we fly out to Cyprus on Monday morning.

It was me who booked the flights, which is the first time in quite a while. Possibly 14 years.

There is a reason behind this.

Back in the day, we used to chase the cheapest flights - flying out with any airline and from any airport. Stupid really, as it's always best to travel from the nearest airport, which at the time was Humberside.

Anyway, I booked with this online flight agent - Skyscanners or whatever they called them.

It was a cheap flight - sort of £250 and a bit each - flying out from Manchester.

I didn't realise until I had booked the thing, that the return flight was coming back into Glasgow, and would they fuck change the flight for me.

I remember waiting in Glasgow city centre for a bus to Manchester Airport at 10:30 pm as we had parked up there.

A near-on six hour bus ride. That was a long day!

Yesterday, I managed 60 minutes on the cardio - all on the cross trainer.

My ankle held firm for 49 of those minutes.

I then threw some dumbbells around.

My web provider's server was down most of yesterday evening therefore the only animation I did was opposite.

That is Mason and his father.

Mason's story is a sad one. Not just his parents dying but the way his and Gaynor's relationship broke.

His gran, Ana Reung told her. "He gave you everything and what he couldn't give you - we gave you."

Gaynor's mum intimated the selfish side of her youngest daughter's personality quite a few times - not at least during Series 2 - however, not as much as Anita Pallenburg, who flipped one Saturday morning on picking up Jenny.

That is a good scene.

Anita is the greatest wife that you could imagine and is not only very protective of Mason - but also of Jenny.

I'll put some characters up later.

25 March 2025

Good morning.

I was up and at 'em at 7:00 am.

I have loads of work to catch up with today. My day job.

Yesterday, was one of those days where I nearly broke.

Like the Boomtown Rat I'm not, I don't like Monday's.

Well, I certainly didn't like yesterday.

Julie got in from work, we had a coffee - and debated going to The Curry Leaf, as on Sunday night we had nipped to the Co-op and bought some fillet steaks and about eight packs of fresh fish - me keeping most of the the fish in the fridge and bunging the fillets in the freezer.

That fish had been hanging over my shoulder all day like the fucking Grim Reaper.

"I don't fancy the fish," I told her.

"We'll go for a curry then," she replied.

"And I don't fancy spending sixty-odd quid on a curry that I don't want," I said.

Obviously, I was being awkward.

I just fancied jumping in the bath, chucking on some rags, and going up to The Red Lion and getting wrecked, and calling in at the Tandoori on my way back and picking up a shit takeaway.

45 days of sobriety.

From being something of a hard drinker to nothing, I sort of have days like this.

On Sunday night - whilst in the Co-op, there was some flaky puff pastries filled with cream in the dairy section.

Julie said: "They look nice."

They did.

I could have murdered one.

My ultimate alcohol substitute is chocolate and sweets.

We went home without them and all I thought about all Sunday night was that bun.

And last night all I was thinking about was that bun.

I did 60 minutes cardio - 40 on the rower and 20 on the cross trainer. I would have done more, but my left ankle kept on giving way, which pissed me of no end.

As I have over the past few days, I also threw some dumbbells around without over exerting myself.

The idea is not to do like I did with the cardio and fuck myself up.

The problem I have, is that in my head I still think I'm thirty-odd years old, and that I can do now, what I did back then.

I've gotta admit, Julie is looking really well.

She had a mad day on Sunday and cleared some of her wardrobes of handbags and clothes to make way for some new stuff, and whilst I was working, she came into the study in an array of different dresses that she'd never worn - all of which fit her now.

She's lost 18lbs and her blood pressure was at 120/90 the other day, which for Julie is very good.

"Another eight pounds and I'll be happy," she said.

Maybe not having that cream bun and eight pints of Neck Oil was a good thing?

Animation.

I was wanting to show some 2D sets that I'll use in the series, but I had the Gaynor character asset narrating them and the animation output was rubbish. I can understand tech over time getting better, but not worse.

I've tried different resolutions, different contrasting of colours and using larger files but the talking animation just does what it fucking wants.

Roll on 3D and Mocap (Motion capture).

I'll just stick some more characters up for the time being.

Music. I'm still listening to those albums that I uploaded on to the B2 - Throwing Muses and Veruca Salt, which as I have already said, is the type of music that I can sort of fall into and which takes me to a different place.

The A's.

I'm hoping I can use I Don't Know Where it Comes From by Ride (1994).

These were an Oxford-based indie band comprising Andy Bell and Mark Gardener, drummer Laurence "Loz" Colbert and bassist Steve Queralt, who recognised as one of the key pioneers of shoegaze, an alternative rock subgenre (Psychedelic 1960s, Dream pop) that emerged to prominence in early 1990s.

Another track that I'd like to use is The Eurythmics' Better to Have Lost in Love (Than Never to Have Loved At All) (1985).

Whether or not this would be possible, I'm not sure.

As a song, it was far ahead of its time.

Where I would use the song is towards the end of Series 1.

Anyway. Until tomorrow.

(Above) Here is David Bowie lookalike - John Welsh.

He called in at The Metropolitan one Friday night and within minutes of him trying to tap up Clara Margieson, he got shuttled off the dancefloor and into the toilets by the scruff of his neck, and where, after having his wallet removed, he eventually meets Mason Green.

"You're on bail," Mason says, whilst running a check of him through his phone.

John had been the subject of a failed car-jacking and had been charged with dangerous driving and manslaughter - temporarily having his driving licence and liquor licences suspended.

"How does he know that?" he asked.

"He owns a club in north London," said Mason whilst looking at his phone. "The 101 on Archway."

"How do you know that?" John shrugged. "I mean - who are you?"

_____________________________________________________________________________

24 March 2025

Morning.

I was up at 6:40 am and went out with the dog and through the woods.

It's quite a nice morning.

Opposite is a huge part of the story.

Mason's mum and dad.

Mason was never the most outgoing lad, which was something everyone picked up on - especially Gaynor's mum and the students at the 40 Martyrs College in Chiswick.

And opposite is maybe the reason why.

Gaynor managed to bring Mason out of his shell and got him talking - not only about his mum and dad, but also about Jenny Deal.

When Gaynor brought up the idea of their Long Term Plan, Mason told her how much his mum would have loved a grandchild.

"It's all she ever talked about, when she was poorly," Mason said.

It was Gaynor's mission in life, therefore, to bring everything forward.

"I want two little girls - to be brought up exactly like I was - and I want to have them young so we can all enjoy them," she told her mum - Maureen.

Or words to that effect.

Maureen had been putting some underwear away and had come across a bank book in Gaynor's underwear drawer which raised concerns as there was quite a lot of money in it.

Maureen tasked John with having a word with Mason.

It is quite a nice part of the story as John and Maureen are truly great characters and come across as lovely people.

Anyway...

Yesterday was one of those typical Sunday's.

I managed 60 minutes cardio - 30 apiece on the rower and crosser, and threw some dumbbells around.

I would have had longer but my ankle was on fucking fire.

I gave the dog a long walk around 9:00 pm to try and make up for it and listened to some great music on the headphones.

Yeah Man and Get Back by Veruca Salt are great tracks, but to be honest - Resolver and American Thighs are both extremely good albums in that you can just let them play.

Eight Arms to Hold You, is another great album by the band - but is totally different.

It makes you wonder why these bands never did better than they did as I have to admit, they are shit hot.

(Above) This is Vince Green.

Vince and Terri died in a car crash on the A4 Hammersmith Flyover in February 2022, before the series starts.

Vince was a hardworking man who loved his family - and that includes his mother-in-law, Ana Reung.

Vince owned 50% of Greenford Developments and was one of the 12 per centers in The Hammersmith Vaults - his best friend being Albert Hands, who he looked up to as a father.

Why?

Because for six years Albert lived with Vince's mum (and Mason's other gran) - Amy Green.

23 March 2025

Sunday morning.

That was a song by The Velvet Underground from their 1967 debut album with the iconic banana on the cover, which was drawn by Andy Warhol.

It's 7:40 am and it has rained all night and Radio Caroline has been playing up since around 9:00 pm last night. Technical problems - they say. The peril's of broadcasting from a boat, eh?

Yesterday was six weeks of no alcohol - however, last night was the third night we've been out for an Indian this week, so we are sort of getting back into it a bit.

We went to the Imperial Mahal in Scunthorpe and I copped a Chicken Saag Vindaloo. It was sound. It would have been even sounder if there would have been more chicken in it.

I did tell Naj, and fair play - he did offer to go get me some more.

Next time I'll have to be more specific.

"Can I have a Chicken Saag Vindaloo and this time can you put some fucking chicken in it?"

That should work!

I managed 90 minutes cardio. 30 on the rower and 60 on the crosser, with my left ankle still in pain.

I thought I'd wear it off, but nope. It's still hurting.

I did a bit of indexing last night as the external animation software has been extremely fucking frustrating.

When it's actually been working it's been slow and all over the place. And as for the the talking animation. I can't wait to bin it as it's shit.

I'll just chuck up some character animations of The Pallenburg's today.

What should be noted is that all four daughters have volatile personalities including Anita - who takes zero shit from any of her sisters.

In one particular story, which she relays to Jenny, she wrapped a hairdryer around Cheryl's head when she was 15-years old.

"Why?" whispered Jenny.

"For being a bitch," Anita winked.

There is also one of the Catholic priest that often visits The Mellor's home, who is a cracking character.

Music. With the radio station being on the blink, I played some of the new stuff that I uploaded on to the B2.

A few tracks jumped out at me.

The Juliet Dagger were a punk band led by Erin Roberts, who did a song called Sooper, which is track that was released in 2005.

Belly were an indie band that was fronted by the talented Tanya Donnelly, and in 1993 they did a song called Feed the Tree, which is a bit Country & Western-ish without it being Country & Western - if you know what I mean.

That aside - it's very good.

As I like 1960's psychedelic type music (Shoegaze) -the Curve's Horror Head (1992) and Allison by Slowdive (1992) are very listenable.

(Above) This is Father Ken Maloney.

Heavy into Anglo-Irish politics, a serial gambler on the gee-gee's, and a regular boozer down at the Gravediggers Arms south of the water - Ken (as Mason calls him), is never short of an opinion.

He does, however, do a bit of God's work... and in Series 1 plays the fixer-upper with Gaynor, and tries to get her hooked up with a "nice Catholic lad" as he terms it.

Gaynor, however, is having none of it.

Since having her braces removed and a new hairstyle, she has come out of her shell quite a bit, and after receiving his advice, gives him as good as she gets, and all the blame for her newly found forthrightness, falls on her new boyfriend. Cue Mason Green.

"Mmm - I reckon I'll have to have a word with this lad," he says.

Gaynor's mum might be worried - but her dad certainly isn't.

John can't wait.

"Just leave him to the lad - he'll run rings around him."

(Above) This is Cheryl Pallenburg.

Cheryl is the worst one out of all four daughters.

As Gaynor grew up with Anita, Gaynor felt the wrath of Chery's tongue quite a few times - some of which wasn't nice.

Jenny Mellor was sat pondering one day (in Series 2) about something that she'd overheard Cheryl say, and relayed it to Olaf one morning when they were out fishing in the Chiswick Cut.

"She said that my dad isn't my dad," Jenny mumbled.

"I'm sorry that you had to hear that, Jenny," Olaf replied. "And Let me tell you now - Everyone knows that your dad is your dad."

When Anita got told, she went absolutely ballistic.

Anita may be only slight in physique, but she is extremely capable of holding her own, which you will no doubt see on Gaynor's 19th birthday in February 2023.

Cheryl is extremely envious of Anita.

_____________________________________________________________

22 March 2025

The weekend is here. Not that it matters.

To me, one day is much the same as the other.

I tend to get up at the same time and I work every day.

I was up this morning at 8:00 am.

Julie took out the dog whilst I did what I generally do, and that is to feed the dog, empty the dish washer of last nights pots and get the coffee on..

Yesterday was another nothing day, and just involved me doing my day job and that is writing up a magazine.

In between, I downloaded eight albums and uploaded them on to my B2.

Red Heaven (1992) and University by (1995) by Throwing Muses; American Thighs (1994), Eight Arms to Hold You (1997), Resolver (2002), IV (2006), and Ghost Notes (2015) by Veruca Salt; and Doppelgänger (1992) by Curve.

Now, That's What I Call Music!

I even took the dog on a long walk through the woods for her last walk of the night, just so I could listen to some of the music.

All the external animation software sites were acting up last night, my thoughts being that the Friday night traffic was a bit mad.

Therefore, at the moment there's just some short animation of Jenny Mellor meeting Robbie and Annie Coulthard's daughters.

This actually happens in Series 2 of the story - and as stated - theirs and Robbie and Annie's stories blows Jenny's mind.

It's quite nice. I just hope I can capture it on screen.

21 March 2025

Good Morning.

I was up at 7:00 am.

I hope today is better than yesterday, as yesterday was a really shit day.

Julie's mum - who is in the mid-stages of Alzheimer's, had a fall in the care home that's supposedly looking after her, and she was rushed to Barnsley Hospital with a suspected broken hip.

It is one calamity after the other!

Fortunately, nothing was actually broken.

Alzheimer's and falling, go hand in hand. It was the contributing factor to her having to go into the home as one Sunday afternoon in late-September, she had a fall on our front drive and split open her head, which was made ten times worse by the fact she was on blood thinners and she kept on poking the fucking thing and making it bleed.

Anyway... Yesterday.

As there was no-one in the house, I was tasked with the tea-time dog walk - 1.5 miles through the woods and around the fields and managed to get on my cardio when Julie got in, which was around 6:00 pm.

I had to admit - I felt like going up to The Red Lion and getting absolutely blasted as it had been just one of those days.

The fact that I didn't was good.

I managed 90 minutes cardio - 30 on the rower and 60 on the cross trainer, which after 10 minutes on the former, my left ankle felt like someone was sticking a hot knife in it.

We were supposed to be having sausage, bacon and eggs for dinner, but I chalked "Fuck" on it, and we nipped round to The Curry Leaf and we had a separate grill of sorts.

Mine was Tandoori King Prawns, Chicken Tikka, Shami Kebabs (The flat burger-shaped ones) and Saag Aloo (Potatoes in spinach) along with half a gallon of sparkling water.

It was a good decision!

I got back in and took the dog around the churchyard for her third walk.

The good part about dog walking and cardio is that you get chance to listen to music and think.

I dropped on some good stuffc.

Twinstar by Veruca Salt (1994); and Not Too Soon and Shimmer by Throwing Muses (1991 and 1993) are quite good.

Anyway, I've chucked up two animations of politicians.

The Characters section is looking nice and full now!

20 March 2025

Hello.

I was up at 7:30 am and out with the dog.

Day 40 of zero alcohol.

Generally the morning dog walk has been Julie's job, with my morning task being simple.

I make the bed; get the dog's breakfast ready; empty the dishwasher... and sometimes I'll bung some washing in!

Oh yeah - and I get the coffee's ready.

Mine is two spoonful's of Nescafe (Red top), Julie's is a spoonful of Nescafe Alta Rica.

Both white with no sugar.

I prefer the dark roast and black roast, but at the minute - it's the red top Nescafe that's open.

That aside - what a beautiful morning. Hopefully, it's the sign of things to come. The sun shining makes everyone happy.

Last night was a strange one.

I managed 60 minutes cardio and chucked up a few pairs of dumbbells.

I felt a bit spaced whilst on the crosser. That is definitely not like me as I can go on forever, providing I have something to listen to.

I was probably just tired as 5 hours sleep isn't the greatest way to rest.

I'll catch up today.

The animation has been a bit samey - which I'm not happy doing, but it's a needs must scenario for the website.

I've not really wanted to engage in putting in substantial animation up, as I don't want to give anything away, therefore, I have a bit of a conundrum.

Anyway - I was talking about adult scenes the other day - and I thought - go on, I'll chuck an adultish scene up on the site and stick some music under it as I need the practice.

I've used an alternative version of the Gaynor character and the Maurice Blum character as they were to hand.

What should be noted is that none of this happens in the story. It's just me wanting to keep my hand in so to speak.

Tony the postman dropped me of three CD's yesterday morning. These were by The Thrills - who are an Irish Band.

So Much for the City (2003); Let's Bottle Bohemia (2004); and Teenager (2007), with One Horse Town off their first album maybe being the stand out track, and Not for All the Love in the World on the second album being quite good.

One Horse Town bar the middle bitI could probably use in The A's.

I also liked a couple of Indie tracks that jumped out at me while I did my 60 minutes of purgatory on the cross trainer.

Fait Accompli by Curve (1992) and Geppetto by Belly (1993).

Both not bad.

(Above) A 2:30 second animation of me trialing a love scene as part of the preconstruction of The A's and using the Gaynor and Maurice Blum characters as props.

Well it's not really Gaynor - as Gaynor has blue eyes... it is just an alternate version of the Gaynor character.

Please note: This doesn't happen in the series.

It was fairly easy to put together, but love scenes, sex scenes or whatever, are rarely this intense at 2:30 seconds.

You overegg them and it's a bit perverse, that's why they tend to be sporadic or broken into much smaller segments.

I recall a long drawn out one in a very good series which was The Vikings, and where the main dude - Ragnar Lodbrok, does a lot of foreplay in a bath tub with this Far Eastern bird and after a minute - the scene is lost and it ruins it.

Music: Why I Love Country Music by Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, 1985.

Again, this was a short track, which was to hand and won't appear in the series.

19 March 2025

Morning.

I was up at 6:30 am.

Not bad considering I didn't go to bed until 1:30 am.

I managed 90 minutes cardio - 30 on the rower and 60 on the crosser.

With the bad ankle as well.

Julie called in at the chemist and got me a support sock, which didn't appear to do too much until I'd done, and then it didn't feel too bad.

Certainly, not good, but not too bad!

Julie has dropped over 16lbs in weight and is wanting to firm up.

She hates the treadmill - and the cross trainer and rower are a bit hard going for her, therefore, she fancied some small dumbbells to exercise with.

Therefore, at around 5.00 pm Yodel dropped off several pairs of Hexagon-shaped rubber-ended commercial ones, which, I have to admit - look the business.

Not the full set. 2.5kg; 5kg; 7.5kg, 10kg; 12.5kg and 15kg.

She trialed them by doing ten stars with the smallest set and pulled her neck.

I need to get her some smaller 1.5kg 'bells.

To be honest, I forgot how heavy two sets of 15kg bells are.

When you are into the gym, everything appears the norm.

I never went big on the dumbbells, but I regularly turned the 20kg and 25kg ones, so much so, that in the end I couldn't get any shirts to fit me.

As I said yesterday, my left elbow always held me back.

I had another crack with the talking animation, which I have to admit is starting to wind me up a bit.

One day it's okay, the next it's fucking garbage.

Late, last night it went full on with the flapping arms and shit resolution again.

Why? I have no idea.

I listened to some more music whilst doing the cardio as well as three albums by Echobelly after dinner.

Everyone's Got One (1994); On (1995); and Lustra (1997).

Echobelly, who were fronted by Sonya Madan, were a really good band.

Whilst on the crosser The Amps' - Pacer jumped out at me. They were a one off. Basically - The Amps are The Breeders... or Kim Deal, rather.

I reckon their album will be either obsolete or stupid money on eBay, so I'll convert the YouTube files and download the tracks on to the B2 as MP3's.

Kim Deal is an interesting musician.

The Dandy Warhols sung about her on their 1997 album, Come Down.

The song: Cool as Kim Deal. It's very good.

18 March 2025

I was up at 6:30 am.

It's very cold outside with frost on the roofs of the neighbouring properties.

Day 38 of no alcohol.

We were going to have fillet steak last night - however, I couldn't be bothered with messing up the hob of the cooker - therefore, we just had fishcake and prawns, with a green salad, cous cous and coleslaw.

It's definitely chicken breast tonight.

That will have to be in a creamy pepper sauce as there is no fucking way on earth I'm ever being conned into using a chicken and mushroom consume sauce again.

Christ - that was rank!

Fresh cream and crushed black pepper. You can't go wrong.

Music. I've listened to quite a bit of stuff over the last few days one of which was an American alternative post-punk band by the name of Throwing Muses who were fronted by Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly - the latter of whom joined the multi-talented Kim Deal (from The Pixies) and formed The Breeders.

Another one was Veruca Salt who were named after Roald Dahl's spoilt brat character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and who are a very similar type of band, albeit very in-your-face, that were fronted by both Nina Gordon and Louise Post.

The others were Belly, The Juliet Dagger, Curve, Cranes and Slowdive.

I have to be honest, there is a lot to decipher, as whilst listening to them on Sunday night and last night, I was doing a 2 hours, and a 90 minute stint of cardio respectively.

Therefore, I couldn't really concentrate on the music as I was doing something I fucking hate!

I would have done the extra half hour of cardio last night, but I'm getting a twinge in the ankle ligaments of my left leg, and it was aching a bit.

I'd tell you it was an old football injury but I'd be lying.

The gym and cardio tends to hit the weakest links - the Triceps resistance machine in the gym always made sure that my left elbow was the first to go.

You keep working through the pain barrier and it will eventually wear off. That is unless I snap my ligaments, which would be the ultimate pisser.

You're just using muscles that you don't use and after a bit you stop feeling the aches and pains.

As I used to say to the kids: "Stop crying - it's only pain - it'll be gone in a minute."

Animation. I spent a few hours downloading 3D assets and doing a bit of indexing, which is all time consuming stuff that needs to be done.

Things like hairstyles, clothes, properties, characters and morphs.

It is really interesting, however.

In 2D you can create whatever you want, but the visualisation is very flat, and the proportions are always a bit out - and the bloopers? Don't even go there.

With 3D I'll get a consistency.

Take the Mason character asset.

He looks the same looking straight at him. Turn him to the side and each time you get a slightly different shape. Similar, but different. It is the same with them all - although the pro software is getting better, so it's now not quite as noticeable.

There are a few adult scenes in the series, which will be interesting as those will have to be animated manually.

The character assets aren't human - they just look a 1,000 times better and the upshot is that they do whatever you want them to, which is pretty fucking awesome if I'm being honest.

"No arguing, just do as I tell you."

Christ - I'll be power mad!

In all honesty, apart from one particular scene near the end of Series 1, I've really not thought too much about these at present.

These will obviously land on certain characters - with the Gaynor character asset getting perhaps the most visual attention.

17 March 2025

Morning.

I was up at 6:20 am, Julie taking the hound for her walk through the woods.

My phone had already gone three times around 6:00 am - Johnny Welsh hitting me via WhatsApp regarding Depeche Mode and Bowie being played on Radio Caroline... and Bowie's performance at Live Aid, and why Rod Stewart never played it - the latter of which is an interesting story.

It's started getting strange walking the dog - especially through the first part of the churchyard.

With everything that happened with Julie's parents last year - her dad dying, and us having to cope with her mum in the mid stages of Alzheimer's, Julie wanted to put things in place, so our Jamie and Lianne don't have to deal with the shit, that she and her sister had to.

Julie's idea was to sort our funeral and reserve a plot, which I thought was fucking very Christopher Lee and was something I wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.

I've done my bit already, sorted a will and given them over half a million more than anyone's ever given me, so I thought I could sleep easy. Not so.

My death plot is right in the corner of the churchyard. Hopefully, I won't be moving in any time soon.

I'm on the breakfast bar at the moment, typing this up and listening to the Fleetwood Mac knocking out The Chain on the radio, whilst Julie is making pack-up for our Jamie... and his mate, Paul?

This is a first, as she has never been tasked with making additional cheese and egg sarnies before.

Last night we ate out, and called in to see Omar at The Curry Leaf.

I had Tandoori King Prawn starter and a Chicken Saag Vindaloo. Not bad. I would have preferred to have had five or six pints of Cobra lager with it, however!

We are doing a bit of Surf and turf tonight - Fillet Steak and prawns - meaning green salad minus the fruit, as the latter has been playing havoc with Julie's IBS.

Music. I mentioned Fleetwood Mac earlier.

The first song, I thought of for The A's was off their 1977 album Rumours, and was the B side of their mega-hit, Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow) - that being the parasitical ditty - Gold Dust Woman.

Without giving too much away, it was a song that Mason put on the jukebox in The Vaults on him first taking Gaynor there, and the latter saw it as their song.

She spent half of the following Saturday morning digging out her dad's old records looking for the Rumours album, with her mum - Maureen saying: "A first song, eh? That's nice."
Or words to that effect!

(Above) This is Judy Knock - nee Guiliana Facchetti.

Judy - the daughter of Isobella Facchetti, was married to the notorious west London gangster, Frankie Knock, who died of cancer prior to the story.

Judy owns Facchetti's Italian Restaurant in Hammersmith and is extremely close to everyone in The Hammersmith Vaults, not at least Albert Hands - who was the best friend of her husband.

She is one of the people that holds the story together and is also the mother of one of the main characters - who she had when she was just 16-years old.

I can't tell you who though, as it's part of the story!

16 March 2025

I am absolutely knackered.

I went to bed at 8:50 pm got out of my pit exactly 12 hours later.

Travelling and having no sleep certainly takes it out of you.

Back to reality.

Radio Caroline is playing the Top 15 of some gadgy called Les Wainright, whose Top 15 sounds exactly like someone called Les Wainright put it together.

John Welsh was right on the money when he told me that you can't submit your proper Top 15 as you have to submit songs from their database, and half of what you want isn't on it - which is strange as they play some stuff that I've never heard of.

Opposite are two short animations of The Blum's.

They are undergoing something of a turf war with both Cyril's - Pope and Essen, when the story starts and which escalates once they find out that Mason Green has been spread betting through every one of their shops and has taken them for a lot of money.

However, that wasn't known until one night when the gaming machines in the 201 Casino had been continually paying out and Cyril Pope's stepbrother Jack was one of the Hammersmith Faces who was collecting.

And the only person who was capable of rigging a slot machine was a 17-year old boy from Ravenscourt Park who was regularly seen in both The Vaults and The Knights Templar with the posh girl with the blonde hair on his arm.

The Blum's - Maurice in particular, possessed one hell of a reputation.

There's also an animation of Tom Tom Turnaround - a character I named after a conversation with an old mate by the name of Alan Cook.

He once told me the story about his mum singing along to a song by the same name which was released by New World in 1971.

Characters in my stories come from all kinds of different places.

Check out their lead singer on YouTube. He's a dead ringer for the serial killer Fred West.

15 March 2025

It's 2:30 am (4:30 am) and I'm in the Skala Lounge in Larnaca Airport.

It's a long day when you're travelling back to the UK.

Not so much the 4 hour 30 minute flight, but all the other stuff including the journey from Luton up the dreaded M1 with its Smart motorway system and multiple 50 mph limits.

I've just had three double macchiato's and a bottle of tonic water and some scrambled egg, bacon and mushrooms from the buffet.

I'm on 5 weeks / Day 35 alcohol free.

The idea is to get to 60 days and I'll be happy.

I was looking at the flights back out here yesterday and you would be surprised at the difference in cost.

For 7 days - 2-8 April, WizzAir from Luton comes in at just under £300, whereas Jet2 from Leeds Bradford is £822.

How they can justify that, I have no idea.

I pity the couples with kids trying to get away.

14 March 2025

Morning.

I've been up since 6:00 am.

The sun is out and the back door is open.

It's just like an English summer morning.

Hopefully, today mirrors yesterday's weather, which averaged 24°C.

This made the walk along the seafront and to the coffee shop in Kapparis quite nice.

A busy day today. It always is the day before we travel home, plus I have to leave the car at the body shop in Derynia.

I think Julie is wanting to pick some Easter Eggs up to take back for the kids.

Unlike in the UK, the Cypriots go a bundle on Easter.

Last night we drove into Vrysoulles and called and had a Cypriot coffee and a tonic water in Fosis Coffee Shop and had a meal at Yiannis Restaurant.

I had 10 grilled King prawns and a Feta salad.

I was going to have a fillet steak as well, but that would have just been greedy.

Fosis was in a bit of a mood, however - that could have been because his wife was working in the bar last night.

Back when we lived in Vrysoulles, his wife ran her own café/restaurant around the corner and it used to get rammed. I can remember the outside area packed to the rafters - even in late-February.

So, what happened?

Times change, of that there is no doubt, but in all honesty, I think she got complacent and lazy. One time, me and Julie called and it took her over an hour to serve us and after that it became the norm, therefore we stopped going in.

I've chucked up some more character animations on the website.

M&M and Jack Harrington were 12-year old kids in Series 1 and are 19/20-years old in Series 2.

Both lads were going nowhere fast.

Cue Mason Green.

And I've just stuck another dialogue animation up of Gaynor doing a guided tour around the 2D set of Boelyn Mews.

(Above) here is Matthew Paignton - One of The Faces who goes in The Vaults.

Matthew was a young kid wanting a start at the Greenford Group.

One particular day he rolled up to the yard and saw Mason stacking geotechnical equipment that had been offloaded.

"Is there a Teddy Layne here," he asked.

Mason said that he was out on site looking at a job.

"Why don't you go get some overalls out of the dry room and come and help me with this?" said Mason.

He did.

Matthew had no idea who Mason was.

It was the greatest career move ever.

13 March 2025

I didn't get to bed until late therefore I had a lay in and dragged my carcass out of be at 8:00 am.

I was working on the screenplay of The A's until 1:00 am.

I was awake earlier after having a dream where I conned my way into this massive old house to take a statement, me obviously pretending to be a policeman.

It was one of those dreams where I went back to sleep to try and finish it, and which never happened.

My head. The ITV of dreams.

The back door is open and it's absolutely glorious outside.

No doubt, we'll have a walk along the sea front and around the harbour and along the beach in Ayia Trias, and into Kapparis later, and have a Macchiato.

We opted to go to the Sashiko Asian Fusion Restaurant on Kennedy Avenue last night. This was after Julie read some decent reviews about it.

The place itself was nice enough.

I remember going to it in its previous lives over the past 20 years - mainly as Tassos Tavern - a steak-cum-grill house, and some wanky Chinese restaurant.

Like most restaurants - the waiters are on you as soon as you sit down, which is something that I have to tell Nickolas - the Lebanese waiter up at the Red Ruby off for time and time again.

"Oi - give us five minutes will you - you're hovering round the table like a fucking traffic warden."

You think I'm kidding?

Ask him!

Anyway, I looked at the menu - which was all over the place and consisted of bits of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian.

As I said, it was a very nice place with an open kitchen, and with the five or six kitchen staff resembling a set off Enter the Dragon I went for the top Japanese order at €48 - a 32 piece sushi platter whilst Julie had duck miso dumplings and a type of garlic prawns, which were Korean, I think.

After you've had sushi about 50 times you know what's good and what's not.

It used to be good fun, going to a sushi bar where the conveyor transports the red, silver and gold ringed cartons around the bar and you pick and choose what to eat, whilst knocking back 330 ml bottles of Japanese lager.

In this place, the table - was fucking miniscule, and waiter delivered 32 pieces of rice, crab and whatever in a massive wooden boat-type thing that you had to fucking dismantle to get at your food - not at least the strips of ginger and wasabi which had been tucked away in the corner on some fucking vine leave which collapsed as soon as I picked it up.

Talk about a bad idea!

And the sushi was in four rows of eight, meaning eight of the same sushi - fucking four times.

I shifted around 20 of them and had the waiter bag the rest up for Julie to feed the feral cats at the end of the street.

A crap meal.

Some restaurant owners overthink things.

Three ideas for a good restaurant?

Serve great food, keep the owners or waiters out of your face while you're eating, and keep the prices reasonable.

Serving sushi in some wooden boat that's as big as the table you're sitting at is sheer stupidity!

I'm having fillet steak and King Prawns tonight up at Yiannis restaurant in Vrysoulles.

12 March 2025

I got up at 6:20 am.

It's very sunny outside, and Julie is out and armed with the brush and sweeping up leaves from the fast growing palm trees. It sounds like she's doing a great job.

I've been having a few late nights and last night was no different.

Yesterday was good as I have been doing quite a bit of fine tuning of the story.

If I'm being honest, there are not enough hours in the day and you start splitting yourself into doing, this, that and the other and you literally end up doing nothing.

Animation is a lot of trial and error.

The thing with it, is I know what I want, yet it still does what it wants rather than what I want.

What you are now seeing, since Day 68 - The Chelsea Girl, is a fine tuned animation, with consistency, even though I'm still using the external non-pro software and still in the infancy of learning the internal software on my system.

I added to the Jenny Deal animation that I did yesterday, speeding it up and slowing it down and adding audio.

As I said, everything is trial and error.

I'll not put it up, as I don't want to bore my miniscule YouTube following.

Yesterday, we did the Red Ruby and I had another Indian meal - this time Prawn Masala beefed up into a Vindaloo.

I wasn't happy about it as the prawns were undercooked, but I rarely complain. It has to be bad if I do. The same goes for putting negative comment on Trip Advisor. If I do, it has to be a really bad experience.

We once went for a Sunday lunch at one of these franchise pubs in the Xscape reatail park in Castleford called the Winding Wheel.

We only went as it was a half way spot to meet my mate Tim and his wife, and then-eight-year-old kid.

It was shit. Everything about it was shit including the overpriced garbage that paraded as food.

I never put it on Trip Advisor, as my motto is: if you can't say anything nice, don't say it at all.

I did make a negative comment after an experience at a priority lounge in Leeds Bradford Airport, however.

It was either that or drag the purple haired skank by the scruff of her neck and stick her head down the toilet and flush it.

She was a right horrible bastard and someone who shouldn't be let loose near the public.

Anyway, I'm digressing.

Music? We've had Deejay 95 on in the house, which is more to do with sentimentality than to do with the fact that it's any good.

Around 8 or 9 years ago they played some good stuff. Now, it's just the general garbage that is fast-fed down the throats of morons.

I still remember first hearing Thievery Corporation's 2018 track Voyage Libre and The Beloved's 1993 hit Sweet Harmony and thinking - Hey, this isn't a bad station!

Saying that - Jerk It Out has just come on in the background, which is a half-decent song, that was a minor 2002 indie hit by the Swedish rock band Caesars.

What is it today? Day 32 of zero alcohol?

11 March 2025

I'm up.

What time is it? 7:30 am.

I'm sipping at my coffee and trying to fine tune a storyline for part of The A's.

The back door is open and the sun is up over the Mediterranean.

It sounds great doesn't it?

Well, that's exactly how it is.

As I have said before - we have the greatest of lives.

I'm on with some editing and a bit of a rewrite on the third episode of Series 2 - Exorcising the Ghost of Jenny Deal.

This is a strange one for me as I'm not really into stuff such as this.

I once watched the 1966 film Prince of Darkness when I was a kid and it must have really hit me.

Christopher Lee as Dracula used to give me regular nightmares. I still can't watch him, even now.

I've no idea what it is, but I just don't like him - although Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga in the 1974 James Bond film, The Man With The Golden Gun was awesome. So, it's not the actor!

Big Scott's kids used to laugh about the Dracula-thing after I once failed to show at a Halloween party where their dad - standing 6'10" tall, was dressed up as The Count.

"James doesn't like Dracula does he?" stated his eldest son, Blade.

No, James definitely does not.

Therefore, I've never really been into horror movies.

However, I don't mind films or series that cover the unexplainable.

My thoughts are that Bruce Willis is not a very good actor, although he's been in some watchable films.

In fact, he's made a great career from being a box office draw as a sort of cool mumbler - the 1988 film Die Hard and the 1994 film Pulp Fiction spring to mind.

It is, however, the 1999 American psychological thriller, Sixth Sense - that I feel is his stand out film. Not that he's any good in it as he isn't. I mean it was nominated for six academy awards, and Willis as lead actor, never made any shortlist.

There is also the 2011 five episode mini series Marchlands, which I thought was extremely watchable.

Therefore, the idea was to incorporate something similar into the storyline, being that both Mason and his daughter Jenny, both have inordinate I.Q's which comes with some rather strange gifts.

The Jenny Deal story is a sad one, and it is her namesake who she comes to comfort when she is feeling upset - however, Gaynor and Mason's daughter doesn't really see it like that.

Anyway, that's what I've been on with!

Other stuff.

I did one of the two things that I promised myself yesterday, and going to the gym wasn't one of them.

I took the FTO to the body shop and the guy quoted me €500. I've known him a while as I've taken it there a few times prior.

I'll drop the car off Friday teatime and pick it up when we are back out here in three or four weeks time.

We had a walk into Kapparis and called at Kara's Fish Restaurant.

I had the €48 cold Seafood platter - Prawns, Mussels, Clams and Oysters; and Julie had grilled octopus and garlic prawns - with a Feta Salad to share.

It was sound enough, but I could have chucked a better platter together with £25 worth of shellfish off Doncaster fish market. And clams are a waste of time. There's absolutely nothing about them.

The octopus and prawns - however, were very good.

On our way back towards 31 days without alcohol, we called in at The Coffee House at 52 Kapparis Avenue and I had a Macchiato, which was probably the best cup of coffee I've had.

Very good.

I'm going to try for 60 days and then I'll have a drink.

(Above) "I love Jenny, Jenny Mellor," Mason used to tell his daughter before she found out that he was her father.

"My name's not Mellor, it's Green," she would reply.

"Like a bogey, eh?"

"No, like the grass!"

A 35 second transition clip between 17-year old Mason Green and 18-year old Gaynor Mellor in Series 1; and their daughter in Series 2 - the nearly-seven-year old Jenny Mellor.

Who does she look like?

Everyone tells her she's pretty like her mam and clever like her dad... however, during the transition clip she looks quite like her father.

______________________________________________________________

10 March 2025

I got up at 6:00 am.

This is Day 30 of me being dry.

Yesterday was very hard. The hardest yet.

Fosis Coffee Shop, Town Square, Vrysoulles.

To go into a bar that you've been frequenting one week out of five for the last 17 years, and have left in all sorts of states, seen lots of friends pass, and countless things happen, and not have a drink, when it's fully expected...

"You okay, Jamie - you not ill or nothing?" asked a concerned Fosis.

I was tempted to at least have an Ouzo, yet I did not.

A Cyprus coffee, which generally tastes like shit, a soda water and a tin of Bokka (brand) black coffee.

He must have felt sorry for us and gave us a plate of Dolmades. That's mince and rice wrapped in green vine leaves.

They are as bland as hell if you get them from a tourist trap in either Protaras or Ayia Napa - but Fosis wife - Andrullah, is quite a decent cook and she'd done the mince with tomatoes.

I could have murdered a bottle of Keo!

We had our drinks and copped a meal around the corner at Yiannis Restaurant.

I had 10 grilled King Prawns and a Feta Salad and Julie had Swordfish and green salad.

Hardly Egon Ronay tackle - but it was nice enough.

Anyway.

Today, I have to call at the body shop / car sprayers or whatever you call them.

Some shithead must have reversed into the FTO outside the Lionheart bar on the last day on our previous trip out here and drove off, me only noticing when we got here.

It doesn't just happen in Cyprus. It happens in the UK too.

My dad used to say, "Having a car is like having another woman", obviously meaning the cost of the MKII Cortina he had.

He ought to have had four of the fucking things - he'd have had a heart attack.

XWC 170F was the registration number on his extra marital bit on the side.

I'm putting that plate on Jacob Gotleib's car in The A's.

Apart from the character animations that you see on here, I did nothing on The Project yesterday.

Today it will be different, as I need to fine tune the story.

9 March 2025

I had a great sleep. I needed it.

I went to bed at 8.45 pm and got up at 7:00 am.

This is Cyprus time. We are 2 hours ahead, therefore it is 5:00 am in the UK.

I've opened the back door and the sun is out. It's very nice. March is a nice time to come to Cyprus.

I'm on Day 29 - and still no alcohol.

I have to admit, last night it was hard.

Julie and myself are social animals and it is hard to go into a bar and not have a beer and a glass of wine. And have a beer and a glass of wine. And another...

We went to the Red Ruby last night and I had two large bottles of Perrier water and Julie a Diet Coke and we ended up shifting our respective meals within an hour and getting back home.

It's not how you do it, but as I said - not drinking for people with lifestyles like us, is extremely hard.

The curries we had - mine a butter chicken vindaloo with pilau rice, was sound enough, however.

There is a gym in Derynia - which is the next village to Paralimni, that I used to go to many moons ago. I'll call in on Monday and do some cardio as I can't let all the hard work go.

I've not been in a gym since I sold the one I had back in 2012, so it'll seem weird.

At home, I have the middle one of five bedrooms as a gym-cum-exercise room, which for the past god knows how long, has just been collecting dust.

It has the cross trainer, rowing machine, an exercise bike, a treadmill along with a bench press with around 125 kg of free weights - not that I can bench press that lot!

The most I have ever benched was three reps at 117 kg in the gym 13 years ago.

I had around 20 or so commercial resistance machines on the ground floor - each one of which I could totally max out, however.

Do I miss having a gym?

No. As good a gym as it was, it was a pain in the arse. Any business that you have, that deals with the general public I would imagine would be the same.

No matter what you do, how hard you work, and how nice you are - it means absolutely fuck all to some people.

I sometimes feel for my mate Omar, who has the restaurant in Epworth. He has to deal with problem customers - not all the time, but has to deal with them all the same. And when they have had a drink, which is never good.

I ended up selling the gym to a pair of weed dealers / growers from Grimsby who obviously wanted a place to launder their cash.

They didn't actually tell me that, but I knew what they were as soon as I met them. Especially when they paid me half the money in cash... that smelt of weed.

And the stories I got back, post-sale of the business, reinforced those thoughts 100%.

Drugs. I've never touched them, and in The A's you will not see any either.

So, I'll drop a couple of animations on the site throughout the day.

(Above) This is the conundrum that is Isiah Kingdom.

Isiah is a background character in that you rarely ever see him, but you certainly know he is there.

Isiah - a year younger than his sister, is a criminal solicitor and has a practice (if you can call it that) in an office over Robbie Coulthard's gym in Ravenscourt Park.

Isiah is a drinker, a womaniser, and a gambler - and the most unscrupulous lawyer you could imagine. He is also very close with Mason.

Mason's gran - Ana doesn't like it, nor does Jacob Gotleib... and if Gaynor really knew him, nor would she!

______________________________________________________________

8 March 2025

I got up at 3:00 am.

Today we are out of the UK.

Cyprus beckons.

Got down the M1 with no fuss. Hopefully there'll not be another speeding fine this time!

The flight was on time and we got to the house for 6:30 pm Cyprus time.

Julie's just hanging up the washing that we brought in before we left 28 days ago.

I've set the laptop up for tomorrow and rigged up the 12TB external hard drive.

Generally we go to Fosis Coffee Shop (Gambling Den) on our arrival, but it's pointless going up there if I'm not having a drink... yet.

I'll couple up the FTO and we'll nip up to the Red Ruby.

So... I'll see you tomorrow.

I did the same sequence with the Leoni Middleton asset and it looks a bit cumbersome.

That, however - is possibly down to the shoes that she's wearing.

Leoni is a good character. Funny.

On other stuff, it was me that was tasked with the three dog walks as Julie had been house sitting for our Jamie - and I managed 90 minutes cardio. 30 minutes on the rower - 60 on the crosser.

As for music - the only thing that jumped out at me whilst in and out of the kitchen, whilst Radio Caroline was on was a song from off The Dandy Warhols' 1997 album Come Down, which is a fantastic album by a great band.

The song being played was Every Day Should Be a Holiday, which is an okay song, but there are much better on the album.

Good Morning has an awesome intro - and which their lead singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor compared the track to the style of Lloyd Cole.

Not sure where?

Be In is very psychedelic.

(Above) This is a 147 second animation of Astrid Karcherr and her model.

This has been done with the non pro software and rendered in 4K.

If you get close enough, and the lighting and colours are okay, there is very little difference with this and the pro-software.

As soon as you put a bit of distance in between the CAM and the subject - however, you begin to lose the definition of the teeth first, and then the eyes and fingers.

I'm assuming it will get better by time.

In the 69 days I've been doing it - lots of things have happened that have made things better. However, perfection is what we need to attain.

We really need the software to take 100MB files and keep the resolution intact.

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6 March 2025

I got up at 7:00 am.

I didn't get to bed until very late.

2:20 am.

There was no-one in the house bar me and the dog, and Julie did me some sandwiches, so I worked in the study until gone 10:30 pm.

Just animation and indexing.

I tried doing a very long shot - possibly 4m, of the Gaynor character asset walking through a Japanese bar.

Her eyes were perfect - however, by the time she got to the camera she looked like she'd aged around 10 years and grown 12 inches.

It doesn't look bad - it's just not Gaynor.

That fucker can go in my Bloopers file!

I did 60 minutes cardio - on the cross trainer, took the dog around the churchyard and got a bath and brought the laptop and the 12TB external hard drive into the dining kitchen - basically to keep the dog company until about 2:00 am.

Strange one this?

I was walking from the church down High Street around midnight, and the dog was walking as though she was pissed. Stop, starting and stumbling.

She always chases stuff - rabbits, squirrels, deer's, foxes, partridges, pheasants. You name it and she'll go after it.

On going up the church path on our way round, she did a short burst over the farmers field.

I put the torch on but I couldn't see what she was chasing. More than likely it was a rabbit, as that is what she generally chases.

I'm wondering if she just overdid it a bit?

Anyway. Post-indexing I found all my lost files... The wardrobes.

Dickhead.

You live and learn!

Music. I played Bleed Like Me - the 2005 album by Garbage - the American grunge band fronted by Shirley Manson.

There are some steady tracks on it.

I also played Feeder's 1997 album Polythene and their 1999 album Yesterday Went Too Soon.

5 March 2025

I got up at 7:00 am.

Not bad considering I didn't get to bed until 12:30 am.

I've just had two messages off Johnny Welsh - totally complaining about Radio Caroline playing Paul Simon.

Homeward Bound and Sounds of Silence are nice enough songs from when he was with Art Garfunkel, back in the day - circa 1966. Outside of that, I'm in total agreement.

As John says - dreadful boring voice and wank lyrics.

I'm on my own for a couple of days as Julie is house (and dog) sitting for our Jamie and Lianne down in Ealand as they are off down to Crufts for a couple of days.

Which means me back to walking the hound.

Yesterday, was another nothing day apart from me practicing with the internal software, which I finally got working.

Check out The Chelsea Girl opposite.

That was a 10 second video that I panned out to 25 using the pro software in several stages.

It took longer to render in 4K than it did for me to actually create it.

She looks good - doesn't she?

I have to use the pro software when shooting at distance and make the asset continually focus on the camera, as has soon as its focus goes, the eyes are all over the fucking place.

The non pro software is only good for 1m shots.

The Chelsea Girl was shot at 3m.

I never ever thought I'd ever get to this stage when I first sat down at the kitchen table in Levanda Hills and drafted the idea for the series.

Two attractive sisters with a bit of sibling rivalry and The District Line on London's Underground as the location.

Now, I know exactly where I'm going with it.

I had to basically create a new wardrobe for the Gaynor character as for some reason I mislaid all her new stuff.

It will be on an external flash drive somewhere.

I'm a git for not indexing straightaway.

All the clothes you see in The A's are designed by me.

Hugo Boss eat your heart out!

When I go to 3D that won't be the case, although I can change fabrics and the colours - which will be another learning curve.

Music. I had Radio Caroline on, but if I'm being honest, nothing jumped out at me - but I've been working at the other side of the house, so I've heard very little apart from when I've been nipping into the kitchen to make a coffee.

I did two hours cardio - 60 minutes on the dreaded rowing machine, and 60 on the crosser.

Piece of piss.

I very much doubt that I'll be enrolling for Iron Man anytime soon, however. So I'm feeling better.

Let's see what today brings!

4 March 2025

I got up at 7:30 am.

I was actually up at 5:00 am with dog barking.

I came downstairs, let her out and had a look around the drive and patio, and nothing. Must have been a cat.

You have to get up just in case.

When we were first married I ignored the dog barking and got up to find that the kitchen window had been barred open.

Nothing had been taken as the dog had scared them off, but nevertheless, it had been foolish to have ignored her barking.

I never did it again.

That dog was also a female Alsatian. Snowy, and very much like the one we have now. Lucy.

Yesterday was a nothing day.

An afternoon in the cardiologists at Grimsby Hospital.

Not me - Julie.

I just drove her there and had a tuna melt and a bag of crisps while I waited... and waited.

I hate hospital's.

Full of lazy people seemingly walking around doing nothing.

And you ought to have seen the cleaner dusting down the waiting room. So useless!

I bet her house is a right tip.

I remember taking Julie to the cardiologists at Doncaster Royal Infirmary a few years ago, and this so-called heart specialist was left scratching his head, and gave her what every specialist says. You know - their stock answer.

Stop drinking and lose some weight.

The irony was that he looked like a busted cushion weighing in at fuck knows what.

Julie's suffered from high blood pressure since being a bin lid.

It's an hereditary problem.

I gotta admit, it's dropped dramatically since we've not being drinking.

Generally it can be over 180, but recently she's regularly had it down to 120.

Anyway.

I animated nothing, just continued downloading assets which I'd already bought.

Music. I listened to the 1993 album Ring - by the American alternative band the Connells, with 74-75, being the stand out track and relistened to Lush's debut album Spooky, whilst in between, Duran Duran's 1982 album Rio was played on the B2.

I'm still dry. Day 24.

I need to do two hours cardio today as I only managed 60 minutes yesterday - all on the cross trainer.

3 March 2025.

I got up at 7:30 am.

The weekend has gone.

We went for a curry Saturday night. The Imperial Mahal in Scunthorpe.

The jungle telegraph must have been in motion as Big Scott was on Facebook sat in there last night, with his second eldest son, Hunter. And with their coats on - as the only downside about the restaurant, is that it's fucking freezing in there.

I'm still dry and still doing cardio.

90 minutes last night. 30 on the rower, and an hour on the crosser.

I'm on Day 23 now.

Animation was certainly interesting yesterday as I felt like putting my foot through the computer.

Not only was the external software playing up, the internal software on my system wasn't doing what I was asking too.

I've just chucked four short clips of Robbie and Annie Coulthard's family up on the site.

Robbie and Annie are great characters and have two accident-prone kids who Mason and Gaynor sit from time to time, and who have a tendency to just say it how it is.

Annie, was the only friend that stuck with Gaynor when things went bad.

Music. Nothing has jumped out at me and I've had both the B2 and Radio Caroline playing all weekend.

In the Gaynor and the record player animation from yesterday... that is Lush playing Track 12 from their 1996 Lovelife album - Olympia.

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.

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 later.

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.

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

MARCH 2025

The A's

ALL IMAGES OPEN IN TECHNICOLOUR

Right - I've done on this page so

Click the button above to go on to a new page for April 2025

31 March 2025

Well, that was interesting.

I did an 18 hour shift with the magazine but to no avail.

I heard Julie's alarm go at 2:00 am and she came downstairs to see me sat at my desk in the study proof reading Page 37.

We were due to drive down to the airport at 4:00 am.

The magazine is completed bar 14 photos - but only proofed up to that page.

I told her that I would complete it in Luton Airport on the laptop - but she wasn't having it.

I went to bed at 3:15 am and Julie went on Wizz Air's website and changed the flights for tomorrow.

£89 + £2.25 each to change it.

I got up at 10:20 am - semi-fresh.

I'm just sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen on my laptop with a coffee.

I'll go back into the study and complete the magazine - possibly by 2:00 pm, and have it signed off by tonight.

To people who aren't in the same business, it is a hard one to explain.

It is a job that you just can't rush and at times it's like trying to move a mountain of coal with a spoon.

Slow, arduous and very frustrating.

Anyway. Let's see what today brings.

After I've wrapped this up I'll chuck some animation up opposite.

Day 94

The A's - The Characters

Each day, I will put up a short animated video of one of the main characters in The A's.

(Above) Here is Dipika Agate or Dippy Egg as the kids used to call her at Hammersmith Academy.

In Series 1 Dipika gets brought into the fold, whilst in Series 2 she is working for the Greenford Group as a quantity surveyor, and under the wing of none other than the Group Procurement Director, Anita Pallenburg.

There is a story of why Mason Green kept her so close.

30 March 2025

I am bollocksed.

I had an 18 hour day, yesterday doing my day job and didn't knock off until 11:55 pm.

Now, I'm up at 7:45 am - but with clocks going forward and all that, it should really be 6:45 am.

Anyway - I'm back at it.

Anyway - I'm moaning.

This morning I did the dog walking duties.

A nice walk through the woods and round the circuit in the spring sunshine - with the daffodils very prominent in around the paths of St Andrews Church.

As I've said before, I'm extremely thankful where we live. That possibly comes from being brought up in a successions of ratholes in a rough mining area. It does make you appreciative of what you have.

I should complete everything today and get everything signed off by tomorrow

In between - I'll chuck up a couple of character animations.

Day 93

This is Mason Green - Series 2

(Above) 24-year old Mason Green.

His life was full-on in Series 1. It is even more so in Series 2.

(Above) Mason Green with Anita Pallenburg.

They married around three years after he split up with Gaynor.

It was then Gaynor left London.

Running away is how Gaynor dealt with the things that she couldn't cope with.

Their Angie referred to it as "Her hiding in the cupboard-thing" as when her granny - Maureen O'Hara, verbally scalded her when she was a child - that is exactly what she did.

Sad really.

Mason told her quite a few times: "We don't run away - ever."

____________________________________________________________

The A's - The Characters

Each day, I will put up a short animated video of one of the main characters in The A's.

(Above) Here is Pammy Antrobus - Cousin of Bebe and the niece of Felicity Pike.

The rather ballsy Pammy works for the Greenford Group - firstly as Plant Manager and then as Director of Manufacturing.

She swears a bit.

29 March 2025

Morning.

I was up at 6:40 am.

Another busy day.

It is deadline weekend on my day job.

I need to pull my finger out a bit and play catch up, otherwise I'll not be making the early flight out of Luton on Monday morning.

Yesterday, I was very busy.

After work, I managed 80 minutes cardio.

50 on the crosser - before my left ankle totally went, and 30 on the rower. I then threw the dumbbells around a bit.

My ankle felt like someone was sticking a knife in it.

The animation opposite was done in January, and just edited late last night to chuck up on here.

I'll put some thought into the animation next week as I'll have more time - which is something that I've not got at the minute.

If you look at the treadmill animation - that has been done with the pro software, but at distance - so the asset characters face isn't the best resolution.

It is also flat, being that it is 2D.

Shooting in 3D you can show different angles and with everything in proportion.

With 2D you have no fucking chance.

You either zoom in or out; and if the software does as it is asked, you can pan the camera either left or right; but even then, you have to watch for the proportions and facial changes.

On the Galway animation - the timing between 9 and 13 seconds has been done with the pro software - the rest on the non pro.

There is a big difference.

So, why use the non-pro software?

Because it is cheaper (less expensive is a better word) and at the moment I am in the preconstruction phase and just learning; meaning that no animation I chuck up here will ever appear in the series.

Music. I downloaded the 2021 album What If by a band called Moonlight Parade, as I'd heard a track on Radio Caroline called No Way of Knowing, which on the first time of hearing it I thought it was half decent.

Apart from that, all I've been listening to is the playlist on my phone while I've been doing my cardio.

Ben Kweller's 2004 album On My Way was playing on the B2, as were The Beatles - however, I am at the other side of the house working in the study, so I didn't really take that much notice.