Dorking at Dusk

Yesterday we went for a walk a couple of hours before the sun set. We hadn't ventured east of where our house is where Glory Woods are, an apparently large woods where my brother-in-law often goes walking with his neighbours. On the way back from our walk I saw a cherry blossom creeping over the fence of our next-door neighbour's garden and had to take a photo of it. I like the silhouette of the roof top in the background and the sun low in the sky. I can't believe I took it with my camera phone!

MB pic

Early in 2007 whilst I was filming the documentary series on the mounted police branch in Manchester we went out to witness two police officers on horseback leading the Gay Pride March across the city centre. It was a really enjoyable experience, everybody was in high spirits and even the police officers would encourage the crowd to cheer since they were the first people all the waiting crowds would see. Well, they were the second people half the time; I would be running up on ahead so that I could get shots of the horses approaching camera (the position I am in above) so I'd be charging up an empty road full of people waiting for half naked men to be dancing on moving trucks, like a mini 'Carnaval' of Rio de Janiero, and instead they'd see me! And they cheered!

Danielito

I took this photo of Juanita's friend while I was following him through a toddler's indoor playground, and I've been carrying it on my mobile with pride ever since I took it months ago! I realise he's slightly blurred, but I love the black figure against the explosion of colour.

How we met

When I met Rosario in the school we worked in together I thought she was gorgeous. Unfortunately it wasn't good timing for me because I'd just come out of a long-term relationship. When we started meeting each other randomly in the school corridors I would feel nervous and excited that such a good looking girl would make the same eyes at me, but because I was still mixed up inside about my previous relationship, being such a purist, I thought I'd just take things nice and slowly and see what happens. But I just appeared to her like I was being hard-to-get, and my apparent disinterest only interested her more.

I couldn't believe she was giving me all the positive signs, being as attractive as she was. We'd go out for coffee regularly, we'd connect on different levels and our relationship developed quite quickly. I was thinking about changing careers and she encouraged me whole-heartedly, giving me an intelligent energy and positivity I wasn't finding anywhere else. Then one day I received loads of texts in one go and was taken back at how confident she was - over the months she was playing all the cards in the flirting game!! One night we somehow ended up in Bar Madrid where after a few drinks and a few more dances she surprisingly decided to leave early. I told her I would accompany her to the main entrance which she was surprised at (or did she just feign surprise?) and then I took her in my arms and kissed her goodnight. I remember the scene quite clearly. There were two bouncers at the nightclub door looking at us, it was a warm summer's night in the middle of London, cars whizzing passed and none of it shaking our stare; mouth open, her eyes staring up at me almost in disbelief. That night determined all others that followed.

But being the indecisive Libran that I am I wanted to play things my way, and was often taken aback by how 'open' she was. I wanted to feel like I was in control of how our 'flirting' was progressing, but she was making all the moves! It was understandable since I was taking so long to make up my mind. However, upset at not feeling in control, I told her I just wanted to be friends and predicted she'd back off a little but be just as keen. Well, she did more than that; she disappeared. No more cheeky texts, no more calls, no more coffees after work. Gone.

That's when I realized I wanted her. After a month of hearing not even a whisper, I called her. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Paso este meme a Uchi, Marie y Entretanto.

Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

...is Juanita's favourite song at the moment!! By Ian Dury and The Blockheads. She doesn't quite say the first few words of the title correctly, but I'm certainly not going to correct her!

Second coat

We've finally moved in to our new house after months of waiting. I quite enjoyed the stress of the whole thing to be fair - driving the hire van, seeing the new house empty with all our plans for it ahead of us, watching the girls run free from room to room, and enjoying the fact that Rosario and I could ask each other "which room are they in?". But the thought of painting really didn't attract me. It's so laborious, messy and smelly! But it had to be done. Rosario and I chose colours immediately to lift the terribly boring wood panel formica of all the cupboards, so we chose sky blue to cover them, and a strong red for a couple of shelves. But I had to put a 'primer' on first otherwise the blue wouldn't stay on them for very long. That was long and boring work, proving to me just how loathing I was of the task, my reluctance to do the job made me less inclined to do it properly. Then I gave them to Rosario and she put the first coat of blue on.

My brother-in-law Clive came round and gave me a quick lesson in painting. "Are you going to give it a second coat?" he asked. I told him I didn't really feel like it, it's fine how it is isn't it? "Oh no you *must* give them all a second coat, they won't last a month after getting hit and scratched all the time!" That evening I left all the protective newspaper on the floor so I could continue the next day. After dinner I heard Rosario go into the kitchen for something, and then her scream "oh no Juanita!!!!" I rushed in to find a solitary confident red brush stroke on six different cupboard doors. Juanita had sneaked into the kitchen, and found the brush Rosario had been using just to help mummy and daddy. We went mad. Whilst Rosario yanked Juanita out of the kitchen kicking and shouting I took to cleaning the red off frantically. It just about came off, but the decision to paint a second coat was confirmed.

So came the moment when I had fine-sanded down the cupboards painstakenly, and was carefully stroking the brush up and down listening to BBC radio2 on a Saturday afternoon, warm inside our spacious new flat whilst it gently snowed outside the kitchen window, and Rosario and the girls laughing together in the living room. I felt oddly content.

So what the f*** happened to my irresponsible youth?!!?

The devil makes work...

I like to think of this week ending in the solitary 29th February certainly as fortuitous if not anything else. The previous week I had filmed for a large production company that specializes in football reports across Europe as a test to my skill, alongside ten other seasoned cameramen, with the hope of repeat work in the future. At the end of the evening I was frustrated and angry. I barely caught the one goal of the match, I couldn't fully anticipate the ball's arrival when passed from player to player, and other cameramen had experience shooting hockey, cricket and golf. Competition was high. Aside from that our house move was continually delayed, and more things were demanded from us for banal legal reasons which delayed everything further and further. And finally, I agreed to help someone out by filming a pilot for a cooking series involving African food with a suspiciously naive approach to organising the filming day. I had a lot on my mind.



On Thurdsay plans were finally put into place and we exchanged contracts, so now we're definitely moving to Dorking and the family awaits us eagerly. On Friday I recieved an email from the producer who organised the football filming and said my footage was among the best he'd watched that evening! I couldn't believe it. He valued my fluent Spanish as an asset and said he'd be calling me soon for work! As for the pilot, I was a little nervous because we were filming in a tiny kitchen with no room to put lights up. After trying and failing with several options, I placed a pole between two walls and hung a light from it and solved the problem. As the day carried on I realised that I was directing everybody and they were all following my instructions without question. It's not as if I want to be a Director, but when nobody else quite knows what to do I have to start telling people. At the end of the day after the equipment was packed away it dawned on me I am actually quite good at what I do, and it had been hard to remember such things after an empty winter and too much time to think about it. Just as the devil makes work for idle hands, being busy keeps me sane.