Thank you and goodbye! *curtain falls*

Nell

So this is my final blog. I think a grand total of 30 people have visited this page, so this is for you, my loyal fans. Friday the 5^th is my last day in the Enquiry Unit which means I have worked here for 1 year and 2 months in total. Seems like only yesterday I was starting clearing and was absolutely terrified of going on the phone. Time flies eh.

Life is an open book for me right now, no direct path just lots of opportunities. I’m still doing my part time acting course and I’m also looking at full time work and have 4 interviews lined up and 1 job offer so I know at least I’m not going into unemployment J  I feel that I will be going down either the retail or marketing route and although my degree is neither of these, it’s still a first degree and I’m sure it will help me in the long run. I know after this year I’ll want to move somewhere more exciting than Mottingham, like Scotland or Cornwall but my main goal is America. When I’m rich and famous and winning an Oscar I’ll mention you all in my speech.. *cough*.

Aberforth also send his farewells. Well, no he doesn’t as he has the IQ of a grape and only lives to eat, but the sentiment is still there. He’s all settled in to our new flat even though he is now mortal enemies with next door’s cat and has lost three collars running away from this animal; I have no idea how to fix this problem. All I know is this means he’s inside more, which means annoying me more.

So thank you all, from my colleagues to my supervisors; this job has been a life saver as it has actually provided me money for food on more than one occasion and thanks to my Clearing team of 2014, the best one I’ve had J

Graduation and Moving On

Well I graduated with a first degree. Don’t ask me how as I am still unsure myself… Basically I originally got 65% for my dissertation so overall I was due to get a 2:1. Then a day before results letters came out the exam boards boosted it up to 68% making my entire degree jump from a 2:1 to a 1^st. Happy days. No idea what I’m going to do with this degree but I’m pretty certain I’m not going to be working in film or television this year. I’ll work for a year, ‘discovering’ myself, and then hopefully start a Masters course in something I want to do in September 2015.

On a different note, Aberforth has been a complete idiot. He has a low IQ as it is but he’s really excelled himself this time. He got stuck in a window. I open my kitchen window slightly and he uses it as his cat flap. One day next door had their window open and Aberforth decided to attempt to climb in just like he would at his house. I came home from work to find him somehow wedged in next doors window, before proceeding to fall and slice his paw open. Safe to say he got his mashed potato for dinner to cheer him up. He has cost over £200 in vet bills and was kept in for a week with a cone on his head and he was near suicidal. When he was let out the other week it was like a scene from Billy Elliot, I half expected him to start dancing with glee.

Cats and Decisions

I have decided that the area I currently live in, Bexleyheath, is the place I’d like to set up home. I’m a person not keen on change and now that I’ve lived here 2/3 years I’ve gotten used to it, so I feel that I should stay after I graduate. Where I can’t stay in is my current house as I currently live above Tescos and that particular neighbourhood is rather dire.

The problem is that I’ve got a lot of decisions to make. First of all, do I want to do a masters? If so, do I try and find one nearer Bexleyheath or find one in London and just bother to travel… Should I do full time? If so, how do I get money etc...Part time? That way I could work at the same time, but would it be physically possible? If I am finding a job, where the heck will I work… doing what? I’ve scoured the BBC and other production companies and it’s safe to say the South East/Kent area is not inundated with television jobs.

I’ve looked at houses and there are some nice rooms to let in the town so finding somewhere to live will not be too difficult, except for Aberforth, as I have to bring the moron with me. Not many accept pets, let alone a deranged, “would eat human flesh if he could” cat.

So, my mind is a whirl. I fail miserably at making decisions, I get others to make them for me, so I’m really struggling with what to do L

I had my first ever night shift at Samaritans on Saturday, which was very eventful! Due to confidentiality, and my memory, I can’t discuss in detail anything about the calls, but they were tough ones that night. It makes me feel worthwhile and the Samaritans is one of the reasons I want to stay in Bexleyheath (where it’s based). I’ve made quite a few friends there already.

Update on Aberforth: He is apparently allergic to something in branded cat food, thus he has to eat organic. I went to Pets at Home to buy him food and the total came to £22 for 1 month’s feed. That’s all I need to say on that subject. On a lighter note, he’s discovered a new position to sleep in which literally takes up the entire bed; I woke up at one point and noticed that I was half off the DOUBLE bed. As I care not for his comfort, I am forever shoving him to his blanket and stretching out myself, to later find him sprawled across my feet. ARGH.

Auditions and Competitions

 Hi guys, sorry this is a late one, been busy busy busy. Samaritans have been good; I go to training once a week and I've learnt so much about people’s psychology. I've realised I’m emotionally stronger than I give myself credit for; people can sometimes take their lives on the phone to Samaritans and we just simply have to be there with them.

Currently applying for postgraduate degrees and it’s difficult; the application forms are so detailed and time consuming I feel like I’m applying to the army and quite frankly I can’t make up my mind where I want to go…or what to do.

I've applied to several drama schools, even got into one… Got my LAMDA audition in April and now I’m considering flying off to Belfast to study, start again and all, but still worried about whether I can go through all of that again.

I’m off to a cheerleading competition tomorrow… I’m in the dance squad and I’m pretty nervous and there’s one step I JUST CANNOT GET and it’s rather frustrating. I look like one of those dancing elephants in Fantasia…or were they hippos? Regardless, that is me, depressingly. And being surrounded by perfectly perky blonde perfect body cheerleaders for 3 days, I definitely feel like a lump :S

As requested, an update on Aberforth. I went away for a couple of days to return to a cat the size of a small boulder. Whilst checking his stomach it felt very, very odd, thus I took him to the vet. Turns out he had eaten an ENTIRE pigeon. A whole pigeon. With most of the bones. And several feathers. He went through some procedure to get someone of it out and had a jab in case he got an infection from the flying rat, overall costing me £175. I hate this cat.

Lots of Uni work & future dreams as a Development Producer... :)

Hello peeps, numbero dos blog from yours truly. Starting university this week… only in on Tuesday. Whoo! Even though I’m in for one day doesn’t mean I’m not busy; tutor hated my first draft of my dissertation so I have to write it ALL again. I've had nightmares, I really have.

Problem is that my subject area is hard to analytically research. It’s about how directors and screenwriters adapt literary and video game characters into film. Without actually speaking to them, I’m finding it hard to actually find why and how they adapted them. I tried talking to Emma Thompson’s agent, for sense and sensibility, but she politely declined….so I still like her. Essentially I am spending this week searching the small dark corners of the internet for my impossible information.

Moving on from that depressing thought, I have paid TV work on Wednesday! I did work experience for BearKatt, who make documentaries, and they want me in again this week because I’m unbelievably fast and trying not to blow my own trumpet…well okay, yes I am, I’m good at being a runner. Generally I’d make the best personal assistant ever. However I don’t want to stay as one forever, my dream job is a development producer who think up new programmes for TV, I just have a long way to go before I get there :S

I’m going off to do an MA in Acting, probably at East London University, and I will do it part time so I can have a full time job to fund it. Although I am toying with the idea of moving to Wales, but that would be another huge step of moving, finding a job, meeting new people and it can be draining. I’ll see how I feel in a few months.

On a lighter note, well a more annoying note, my cat Aberforth got into my flatmate’s sock draw and ate his socks. And I mean ate. This is a cat that ate an entire bowl of mincemeat (cooked) then moved onto a LOAF OF BREAD before being stopped. And recently he was in a cattery and the owner, after every meal time, gave him the leftovers from the other cats and he ate it ALL. There were 35 cats. So having found him eating the socks, I then had to quickly replace them before being noticed. I hate this animal.

Nell's first blog :)

Hi dudes and dudettes.

I study Film and TV Production at Greenwich and I can tell you this right now; I am a living encyclopaedia when it comes to media. You know how you’re watching a film or a show and you think ‘Oh my god, who is that actor? I recognise his face! What’s he been in?’ I could tell you the last 5 films he’s in, who he’s married to, if he’s won an Oscar… even his height if needed. As sad as I am, I can spend hours on imdb.com just scanning information on actors, directors and films.

I do like this course at uni. I’ve met many people, some annoying and some not, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed many elements, such as TV studio and cinematography. I’m in the process of filming my final third year project, which absorbs all of my energy to the point I’m too tired to play The Sims at night. Which is devastating.

I thought for my blog I could talk about my annoying cat as well, Aberforth. He’s black and white; just like the one my avatar is holding, however he kinda has a small Hitler moustache. I say kinda because it’s slightly off centre, if it was centre I could make a fortune as I could make him the new ‘grumpy cat’ but call him Kitler instead and he’d be all over the internet in gifs and the like. But no such luck. Essentially this could become Nell & Aberforth’s blog.

He’s an idiot. He feel out the window and didn’t land on his feet. He pushed me down the stairs (he waited on the top step in the dark and as I walked over him he stood up and I fell down. He planned it.), he eats his own body weight in food a day and still complains for more… essentially this cat is the bane of my life, but I’m stuck with him as no one else wants him. Granted we do have good times, can’t think of any at the moment, be we do have them.