Day 113: She has no machine

Oscar's first time in his new cot for a sleep in the day and he took to it beautifully.

Mummy is not *quite* ready to put him in his own room for a whole night though. She didn't mind me going in there when I had tonsillitis, what's going on in the world?

We visited Tracy and James from the NCT group who are several weeks behind us with baby Florence. I hope we reassured them that it gets easier!

Day 112: Long and winding road

I was at Abbey Road studios again for a 3D day with Paul Carrack. The Royal Philharmonic orchestra once again were superb. A loooooooooooooooong day. How come train tickets cost a million pounds if you want to get anywhere before 11 am?

Oscar had a mummy day and kept her occupied!

Did I mention it was a long day?

Day 111: Builder Centre

Built Oscar's new cot today. It's a Mothercare one. Despite the expense, it felt very much like Ikea to build. Looks nice though and the mattress is quite soft and comfy.

Dave from WRAS (Wildlife Rescue Ambulance Service) came to help build an extension to our chicken run. WRAS are releasing some fox cubs nearby and we have decided to keep the chooks in for a few weeks until they have dispersed.

Day 110: Tennis?

Having trouble tracking down the market seller who sells the wooden numbers we use for these photos. Mum picked them up a while back and we need another one in the next 9 days or it will be impossible to continue!

Day 109:

Oscar had a go sitting up in a bumbo chair. He liked it for about 4o seconds then told us in pretty clearly he'd rather be somewhere else.

I had to pass on an acting role in the web series 'down time' by superteam films. We were due to shoot this morning but my tonsilitus is still hanging around. I didn't think it was fair to risk infecting the cast and crew.

Day 108:

You know those films you see where lava is spewing into the sea deep underground forming sausage shapes and bubbling gas? Oscar has a poo in the bath today. It's basically the same thing.

Day 107: The owl's about that then?

Starting to recover.

Oscar seems to recognise the word 'up'. When we say UP! e lifts his head back and moves his shoulders ready to be pulled up into a sitting position. Marvellous. He is the ultimate interactive...activity.

We are hearing another owl in the field, seemly calling to plop, the rescue owl in one of the WRAS avaries. At least we hope it is calling and not shouting "oi! get out of my field!"

Day 106: Recovery mode

Legs feel stronger. I'm going to venture to the stairs. If the guards don't see me I might feel the sun on my face this day.

Day 105: Cooped up, souped up.

Still banished to Oscar's room, lest my spores be spread amongst the clean. Those fine people should not have to look upon me, my with my fat neck and four day growth.

Thankfully the wifi is strong here.

Every other time I had tonsillitis it seems I really had 'a sore throat'.

I'd never felt like this. Today I was looking at glass of water but I was not able to get up for it. A few hours later I could walk OK. Later on there I was on my back knocked out again. Weird.With any luck the penicillin will do it's job.

I made the mistake of googling the illness to find that it can lead to rheumatic fever and heart problems if not treated quickly enough.

By mid afternoon the healing powers of chicken soup are with me! Dad dropped off soup and 20mins later I felt like a different person.

Once again Mummy had to do everything. All I could do was watch (from a distance)*. I can pick him up again from 2.42pm on Friday. Exactly 48hrs from when I started taking the penicillin I will no longer be contagious. Whether Mummy will let me back in our room again is another matter. She's started talking about how well she slept and how it would be nice to redecorate, "to make it a bit more girly"

Good new today though, the Komodo Dragon shoot is postponed to September so it's back on!

*baby monitor!

Day 104: How not film your Dragon, in 3D

Day one of my incarceration. I have contagious tonsilitus and have been banished to the spare room with its bare walls, tiny barred window and stainless steel toilet.*

I must have no contact with my wife and son, so drinks are occasionally pushed around the door, when I may gaze upon another human's skin for a fleeting moment.

If someone could get word to my mother, perhaps salvation awaits.

I had to pass on a trip to film Komodo Dragons in 3D. Although having googled them and seen what they can do (and how FAST they are), perhaps the Panasonic AG3D-A1 doesn't have a long enough lens for safety.

Oscar had an enforced Mummy night and day, poor Mummy having to do all the feeds, nappies and sterilising...and look after me!

As an added bonus I was up most of the night vomiting. A really lovely feeling when your throat is like sandpaper. Nice combo.

*actually I'm in Oscar's room and it's rather nice. Still feeling grotty though.

Day 103: All's Swell

Mummy took Oscar off to guide camp today, so I got to catch up on this blog and finally get it up to date, sort of.

That was the plan anyhow. Part way through compiling the images I started to feel ill.

I'd had a rushing sensation in my right ear for the last couple of days and by the time Tasha got home I was pretty flakey.

Tonsilitus was upon me!

Mummy had to take the day's photo. Something was telling her there was a mistake somewhere, but she couldn't see it for a while. Took me a while to see too.

Day 102: Love Letters

BBQ for brother in law Matt's birthday. He works behind the camera for QVC at the moment. I'm sure I had some jokes prepared but forgot to use them.

We got Oscar's cousin Molly a set of M O L L Y letters to match the ones we have for Oscar. She seemed to like them. At least she made a lot of noise and waved her arms about!

Molly is a big girl, but Oscar is catching up fast.

Day 101: Let them eat cake. Sort of.

My nephew Toby's 3rd birthday party today so off we went for noisy toys and BBQ.

Later on, probably subconsciously inspired by the day, I had a crack at cake making. All the bits usually reserved for victoria sponge went in the bowl, but what came out was something else entirely. I think I was a little too cautious with the mixing as the result was a patchy mix of meringue, those little cakey biscuity things you use for trifles, caramelised sugar and a goey vanilla substance holding it all together. Drizzled in lemon juice and sugar it actually tasted OK. I called it Pudstrocity. Or Mooncake.

I actually prefer the pudding image if I put my glasses on backwards!

Day 100: Culture Club

Daddy's day today! Songs and stories in the morning, then off we went to see our friend Marie Stone (http://www.mariestone.co.uk/) at an exhibition of her photography. Marie travels the world shooting celebrities for Madame Tussaud's and takes landscapes, animals and all sorts of other images along the way.
I shot the photo for her new book's back cover, and you can buy it from Amazon if you don't get to visit the exhibition.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beauty-within-Marie-Stone-Photography/dp/095660580X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280749483&sr=1-2

Oscar has been doing a lot of 'talking'. We do that thing of replying and saying, "really?, then what happened?" at which point he usually continues. It's like we're having a conversation in two entirely unrelated languages. A bit like what we do with the cats.

Day 99: Flakey

Not a great night last night, Oscar woke up a lot more than usual, as did Mummy.

We put it down to the jabs making him feel a little bit under the weather.

Day 98: Quick jab to the left, quick jab to the right

Ouch! Is there anything more painful than watching someone make your baby cry? Worse still, you have to sit in the waiting room knowing what is to come, and that you are (partly) responsible.

Still, it beats a slow agonising death from the black plague or whatever those immunisations are for.

Oscar didn't like it at all, but two minutes later he was happy again and it was as if it never happened.

Took us a little bit longer to get over it.

Day 97: Section 44

Today I was nearly arrested for being a terrorist while filming Buckingham Palace with the prototype Panasonic AG-3DA1 3D camcorder .
Apparently the Queen is not too impressed by having an ominous black twin lensed possibly-a-rocket-launcher-on-a-tripod pointed at her house.
My customary wit and banter deserted me in the face of two armed police and a squad car, so I said "fair cop", and moved on.
More quizzically I was also asked to leave the surroundings of the London Eye. The camera looked 'too professional', I was told. (It does have a little 3D Professional badge on the side!). Professional people have to pay to film the wheel it seems.
I didn't think I looked all that professional in my shorts and star wars T-shirt, but I'd already got most of what I wanted by the time the rent-a-cops arrived, so again, I moved on without too much hassle.

Panasonic took over Trafalgar Square to mark '2 years until olympics' day, and I met up with Nigel and John who gave me the camera to rush off all over London getting stock footage for their promo.

Oscar had another Mummy day. We're having Daddy day soon.

Day 96: Three months and a baby

Three months have flown by, but on the other hand, I find it increasingly difficult to remember what it was like before we had Oscar.

Day 95: Once more unto the beach with friends (once more)

Today we ventured true Brit style onto Eastbourne beach despite the patchy sun and wind. We met up with an assortment of chums and had a picnic. Phil spent most of the day building a Canute inspired network of sand based walls in a vain effort to contain the sea.

It didn't really work, but then I'm pretty sure the journey was the destination.

Day 94: It's getting better every day

Tash thought Oscar slept from 9.30 until 7am. I guess Mummy didn't wake up when Daddy fed Oscar at midnight. Still 12-7 is good!

Day 93: Blur day

Neither of us can remember what we did today!

Day 92: But that I am forbid To tell the secrets... 22nd July 2010

Today I was asked if I wanted to visit Panasonic to see a new product they were excited about.

Hmm... would I be at all interested in getting my hands on what I had a big suspicion was going to be a 3D camcorder?

Yep!

As soon as I got there I had to sign an NDA, so for today that story is over.

After playing with the new toy I was asked to pop up to Paul Carrack's studio to shoot an interview about his new album with Peter Van Hook. It was pretty late in the day but PC still delivered a great interview and even bought me dinner!
This time I shot with the AG-3DA1 recording to a pair of P2 card recorders. They capture a 100mb/s data stream, far less compressed than recording to internal SDHC cards.

Oscar had another Mummy day.


*I'm a bit behind (about 10 days) with these entries so my review of the SDT750 has actually already been published here.