I woke up on Friday not only a 21 year old but a 21 year old with very bad sinuses. I managed to drag myself up through present excitement and Beki just sat there wide-eyed and told me in which order to open them. Looking back I don't know what sense the order she chose made but it made it interesting anyway.

I got a load of great great stuff. Beki got me a Wii with Sports, Zelda and Sonic and Batman collection and Die Hard trilogy box sets. My parents got me an iPod nano (that's right, the search for the iPod is truly over) on top of everything else. People got me DVDs and money and vouchers. It was the best collection of stuff I've ever received I think.

Me and Beki battled on the Wii for a while but I began to feel worse and worse. I went back to bed for an hour or two but she woke me to tell me we had to be ready to go to the lunch she had organised. I got up, threw up and went back to bed. Ten minutes later I tried again; I got up, threw the shower on, threw up and went back to bed. Last try and I get in the shower and push through the headache. We got a taxi to Buffalo Grill and had a great lunch, I ate the El Diablo Burger.

We then went to H&M so I could get some clothes to wear to my party at night. I started with the feeling ill again and we did not stay long. We got a taxi back to Stockbridge and I bought a load of flowers, we went past San Marco's and Vinny came out to chat for a while, we convinced him to come to my party after he finished his shift. We went into Kim's hairdressors and I gave her the flowers and she cut my hair up. I really liked the outcome. Beki's hair got washed and blown and styled by one of the girls too.

We taxi'd home and got ready and I battled my sister on the Wii some more and my Dad. Soon it was time for my party at the Learmonth so we taxi'd up (I think I got about 7 taxis in total).



I really enjoyed the party, it wasn't packed but it wasn't quiet, which is great because I pretty much forgot to give out any invites (in any form) and then scrambled a few at the last minute. I had the printed for like a month and a half but got lazy. The presents I got were great too; Muz, Bobby, Mikey and Dave got me a bunch of presents - they tried to give one for every year I have been alive but I'm not 30 on last check. I thought it might just be 'joke' stuff but some of it was really cool - a bunch of DVDs (Sleepaway Camp trilogy anyone? Steel Dawn maybe? Well I own them!), some cool books, Home Alone (The PS2 Game!), a large Beatles picture, Lego, Playmobile, gentlemen's wear and loads more. I was very impressed. Steve and Cheryl came through and gave me a great Zippo and so many people gave me other nice gifts I can't list them all. Vinny turned up at the very end with a homemade Vinny's special voucher and a bottle of Moet.. What a star.



My Dad carries a Scotland flag most places in case of weird opportunities to look like a nationalist or something. Bob and Roddy gave me a retro Scotland strip with my name and 21 on the back so we took another.



Mikey and Lisa gave me the present of an in-joke in tshirt format.





After the party died down a bunch of us headed to Henry's Jazz Cellar. I was expecting a cool jazz atmosphere. I was not expecting a glow-stick friendly new-wave rave. It turned about to be a great place and Ryan and folk turned up there too. It was already getting late on but Me and Mikey and Lisa decided to goto Dario's for an Italian meal. Me and Lisa shared pizza/pasta.

I got home at like 5am and working on Saturday was not great. I was jumpy and at one point slipped and threw a knife at the 'In case of fire break glass' red thing and it broke and the fire alarm went on and would not go off... Andy won't stop calling me schoolboy now.



At the party there were cameras on the tables and people had their own digitals too.. Expect photos of people at the party soon...

I'm back from the dead. Here are the things that have kept me from posting since a week and a half ago:

1) I Work, A Lot - Since getting a new job that I like, I have been doing anywhere from three shifts to six nights/week. And I stay after and socialise and all that, and when I'm not there I can be found

2) At College - It's my last term and I have to do my two final, final films which will decide my grade and, more importantly, show off how proficient I have become as a filmmaker. I am going to be shooting my short film hopefully as soon as next week.



3) I Finally Got An Interview At ECA - I spent the last two years trying to get in, I applied and past through the question phase and yesterday I had an interview to get straight into second year - I spent the days building up to it on my showreel and treatments and storyboards and photos and synpses. There is so much competition to get in and I don't know my chances but at least I can say I got this far (but what the hell am I gonna do next year if I don't get in, I ask you?).

4) Tomorrow I turn 21 - I am having a proper party for the first time I guess and I have high hopes for the whole day. It will be good blog fodder, I hope.



I'm also swithering as to whether I should buy an expesive Mac Pro so that I can edit at home at high speeds. I have saved enough for it but now people are telling me that I am getting on and should have some money put away, but I don't believe them.



Today's photos have been brought to you by Vikki, from the dates stated. I do not have a beard like a crazy person anymore. I was going to use it for my ECA interview but I just couldn't work with an unruly beard - I would never hear the end of it.

I spent the whole of the Easter Holiday on the shoot or at work. I was infinitely more busy than I am when not on "holiday". I spent a whole bunch of the holiday not typing up anything on this blog. I have spent the whole of today trying to work with scripts, ideas and stories and becoming annoyed, procrastinating, having some good ideas and watching the whole of an Evening with Kevin Smith (1 & 2). You know what, I don't know if I really like any of his movies that much at all, but still find the idea of them interesting.

It's like Doctor Who. I can remember watching a few of the old black and white ones a little and I think of the whole show in a very certain in loving way, but I do not watch it ever. I love the show in theory. I know that if I go anywhere near it that it will spoil it for me. Maybe one day I should be allowed to do a one-off special of what I think Doctor Who is.


My dad dug out all of his old photography books for me. There are a lot and some of them are great.

The shoot was a really good experience. It was pretty boring to get up early and not really have creative input into the short but Minttu was pretty happy to answer anything and everything I threw at her and I tried to study whatever she did. I didn't pay as much attention to the directing, funnily enough. I am real confident about making my final films of my final semester on this course now.


The great walls in the cafeteria at the high school we shot at, done by the kids.

At one point, when the director, Graham, went with Minttu to look at the next classroom we were gonna shoot in, I was chatting to our bafta-winning lead. I was grilling her on her bafta and all the stuff she's been in (and will she be in a film if I write one that she could star in). Turns out- she was the lead little girl in one of my favourite favourite short films ever, Little Sisters.



Minttu puts away some diffuser while some of the crew look at the equipment at the very end of the shoot.

Ideas for documentaries come to every few hours when I am thinking hard about it. They come to me when I go get a glass of water and try and take a few minutes break. I run back to the laptop I sit at right now, jot them down in one of the pads of lined paper I have lying around, start typing and BANG, no more ideas, no more interest, the idea turned sour. Funny thing is, I have an ever-growing list of things to do but not right now. Things that, I guess, I would need funding for, I would need certain actors, be allowed to butcher an institution or two.

If you live near me then you will probably know that Friday, the 13th was a foggy one in Edinburgh. I love spookyness, I would like to be Spooky Mulder. I had an idea to have a proposed ghost tour on this very day way back in November of last year. It finally came to pass and Becky and I met the family in Frankenstein's (good stuff there, the Frankie that appears has got better and the food is good - good setting to start the meal). We then went on the Mary King's Close tour, it's not nearly as spooky as I was expecting but the first ever ghost story told in the pitch dark with a few surprises did the job.

Every so often I decide to get a job. Around about that time I become exceedingly busy for some other reason and that's what happened since I got back from Italy. I have been working about 6 nights a week and I have been shooting this film during the daytimes.



The film is a short by Graham Drysdale, with Minttu Mantynen DOPing. It's the most pro shoot I've been on and it's great to see what they do, I learn a lot. Ihave a pretty good job on it but, problem is, there is that much to do. There are tons of kids from the high school we are shooting at that are runners and things and a lot of the time, after the delegation has begun, I feel a like a third wheel. At least I get to watch and, being the camera assistant, I get to ask Minttu questions.



Last night, after shooting had ended for the day, I had my only night off for the whole of the Easter break. I hadn't seen Beki much since I got back from Bari and I had to keep cancelling on her for reasons of work, shoot and fishing, so we decided to go out. We met in town and went to Tonic for a while, but cocktail barmen bug me so we went to Grand Cru where we were told Danielle's birthday party was, plus my cuz Holly was there and Ryan too.

They had booked out a few tables and everyone was talking away. After a couple of hours we headed to Liquid Rooms to see the comedy night. I didn't see any comedy or the much-talked-about musical statues but it was pretty fun anyway.