A ridiculous week

That was a daft old week, last week. Having had my first day off in a very long time on Sunday, Monday was back to 9 lessons in 9 different locations. My car started making 'that' noise again, the one that was fixed by the garage but clearly not fixed because on Tuesday morning, on my way to teach, it started again, even louder.

Overtaking a lorry in the fast lane of the A14, my car lost power - red battery light flashed on, followed by all of the others, and it went from just under 70 miles an hour to 10. I honestly feel like I should be dead, and I'm so grateful for the awareness of all the other drivers around me, all of whom backed off as I struggled across three lanes to a hard shoulder before the AA could come out to help. The AA were great, there in under 45 minutes, diagnosed it as the automator (why didn't the garage spot this?) and got me home. Borrowed father-in-law's car again for a few days. With my battery charged up to give me about half an hour's worth, which is enough to get it to Halfords, I set off to get it fixed on Thursday morning only to get stuck in heavy Cambridge traffic and the power to cut again. The first to go was the steering, meaning I couldn't turn as I mounted a curb, surrounded by screaming children. Eventually, somehow, the car scraped its way to the mechanics who had it fixed within a few hours. Halfords in Cambridge are wonderful, a certain garage in Sawston aren't.

The next day, I was due to be filming in Dorset. My dear friend, Josie, was concerned that my car wouldn't make it, so very kindly offered to join me, and drive me, to the filming, where she would spend the day working on her latest assignment and join the team for drinks in the evening. Apart from being awake since 5am, the first day of filming was great - I'm the lead in a new feature film by a top director. Ambitious to film the whole thing over three days, even with a very small team (cast of two, plus 7 heavily featured supporting artists, crew of just three), a few technical faults but the whole thing was so wonderfully thought through we just bashed through it. Evening drinks with Josie, culminating in her losing her phone and us having to try and find it on the beach at 4am, which we did. I was, inevitably, knackered and missed the very start of filming the next morning which wasn't well received, but I had been awake for 23 hours. I made up for it by really upping my game on day 2, and Josie and I barely drank that evening, just one pint in a nice pub over dinner. Up at 6am for the final day, although we didn't start filming until 9am, but it felt like by being up so early, I'd made up my time that we'd lost on the second day. It's tough filming external scenes by the sea with the weather so horrid, and it all overran by several hours. 

Eventually we had everything in the can, and as I said goodbye to the crew - Steve, Yvette and Dean, I almost felt emotional. In those three days, we'd been on quite an adventure together, hopefully with a good film in the bag. They're lovely people, who never switch off. Josie got me home, via picking up her dog from Vikki, and I was back by 11pm. Exhausted, brain overflowing. 

Today I taught for 12 hours. Back in my comfort zone. I could do with a slightly quieter week...

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