Action! Biggles .... don't do that

I have just been extremely sinful. In a harmless way that is. So I am settling down to write this blog whilst digesting a large dish of golden syrup sponge pudding. I know – bad eh? I had quite forgotten, until the other week, that a quick mix of ingredients can produce a flashback to school puddings in no time at all thanks to the trusty microwave. To sit guiltily spooning the soft, gooey sponge smothered in custard into your mouth is a real trip down memory lane. Such delectation for your taste buds is just what is called for after a long day consisting of filming, followed by some finger exercise on the computer keyboard.

Much of today was spent doing a spot of filming for Jon’s Emily and the Big Cats so it was time for me to morph into a Joyce Grenfell/Margaret Rutherford/dotty ageing hippy chick character but all in the name of art and it is great fun. Poor Biggles got a bit confused I think, as he was a prop of sorts but never quite actually went anywhere poor soul. Sitting in the back seat of a stationary car, salivating at the thought of chewing the sponge windshield on the microphone (I hate to think what reaction will come forth when he sees the big furry one) is not much fun for a go-getter like him and there wasn’t even an on-set burger van to satisfy his never ceasing desire for something to eat. In fact, it is something that Emily and I are demanding before we carry on with any more celluloid shenanigans!

Poppy, my elusive tortoiseshell cat, even got in on the act. She hovered outside the gate as filming was going on but eventually got herself forever immortalised by lurking at the top of the stairs in one scene. Spider, however, slept through the whole affair – he is completely bored with the whole filming business.

The afternoon was definitely slightly different from that of Thursday though. I had spent some of the time after lunch listening to Peter Gabriel’s new album Scratch My Back and his voice, as usual, had left me in a tranquil state of mind. Until that is… BOOM, BANG, CRASH from the office as Jon decided he would listen to a rather odd concoction of musical arrangements – very loudly. As the flowers in the vase on my ‘desk’ began to sway back and forth with the vibration, I began to wonder whether they would lose their petals sooner than nature intended. I could add here that the picture behind me fell off the wall in protest, but that would be exaggerating – just a tad.

I am used to strange sounds escaping the confines of the office, from Country & Western to German opera, but Thursday’s were rather peculiar to say the least. Must have been the Director’s brain getting in gear for the other sort of directing he was to do today.

Bless – I wonder if Mrs. Hitchcock had the same problem?