Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
The world according to americans...
found this online and thought it a fine piece of japery -
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO AMERICANS
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO AMERICANS
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The world according to me, so far...
Travel map so far, 40 or so countries, about 120 cities... and the beat goes on...
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Banka Boats and Pandanon Island
Since my last post, Im feeling much more settled. Ive only been in the Philippines for about a week and half, but it certainly feels weeks longer. Work is becoming more of a routine now which is nice, as it means that Im finding my feet. Been kept busy working on ideas, and trying to iron out structural issues with potential shows. Im about to start shooting today which Im looking forward to, as it will be great to have my hands on some good cameras again.
I’ve still not actually seen much of the city. Had a few forays into the edges at night, but no wondering around during the day. Im hoping to do this soon, as in that sense, I still don’t really have my bearings at all.
Over the weekend, we took a Banka Boat over to Pandanon Island which is a beautiful island about 40mins sail from Cebu. A banka boat is traditional Philippine sailing boat, effectively with stabilisers buttressing off the side of the vessel. You can sit at the front and have your feet hang into the water for a rather pleasant old time!
Pandanon itself is fairly small, you could probably walk around it in an hour. It is split into 2 halves. One part just white sandy beaches, palm trees and little beach huts, the other a large village with a lot of houses on stilts. Along the coast of the Philippines, there are a lot of houses built out into the water on stilts, they are built there to avoid land tax which is pretty smart, but in bad weather, I wouldn’t fancy taking up residence in one!
There was a large group of us on the boat and we had a grand beach day with a BBQ. We found so many starfish in the water, some little creamy coloured ones, and then larger pinkyish ones with brown spots. Unfortunately I miscalculated my skins immunity to the sun and I have been suffering from the woes of sunburn, so I was forced to stay out of the sun quite quickly.
At sunset we took the boat back to Cebu island. I was furious with myself for not having my camera, as it was the most incredible sunset. As we sailed away the sun set behind the island creating the perfect silhouette. The sky was pink and orange, and behind us the moon, which may, or may not have been totally full, was coming up. We drank some rum, listened to some tunes and had a pretty relaxing journey.
So apart from that little adventure, we have generally been being pretty well behaved. Im trying to husband my last stretches of cash before I get paid, and so Im watching a lot of films. I’ve discovered that Nat Geo Adventure is probably the greatest TV Channel in existence. I want to work on all the shows! Other viewing highlights include Sword of the Stranger (Anime with a great story and a cute dog), Submarine (the directorial debut of Richard Ayode which I thought we really well executed) and my new favouritist cartoon, Adventure Time – truly inspired programme making!
Also, packs of instant noodles are only 7pesos. Qu'est une bargain!
I promise to take my camera out soon and start showing how beautiful this place is. I am being an extremely lazy photographer *smacks back of own hand*
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Supermarket Sweep
After a day and half of filling in forms and twiddling thumbs waiting to have projects to work on, I have now properly started working. There are no projects properly in production at the moment and so I am helping with pre-production. I have been coming up with challenge ideas for a new show that is being currently developed. Great to be thinking up ideas and using my creative muscle. The show actually has a lot of potential so its been a good introduction to working here.
I experienced my first Philippino supermarket trip. My favourite thing is that they have a queue specifically for senior citizens – the Philippinos are incredibly polite and I thought that that really summed up a lot about their culture. Whilst we were queuing, in an age appropriate line, we suddenly realised that everyone had stopped doing what they were doing as there was an announcement over the tannoy system. My first thought was that a national emergency had happened and was being announced, however, this just shows my knee-jerk reaction to imagine the worst, and infact a prayer was being said. I cant yet confirm, but I think that it must be a thing that they do daily at 6pm.
Last night we went back to Ayala mall for Greek food. The menus had lots of interesting facts about Greek culture, including a great piece under a picture of olive tree which told you what Greeks call olive oil. Turns out they call it... “oil”...
After dinner we went to Jokers bar, which is a British pub, yes Brits abroad indeed thanks very much! The strangest thing about this bar was a framed poster advertising a slave auction from the 1800s. Seemed rather ominous as one tries to enjoy a cold beverage. Talking of such thing, I sampled the local rum, Tanuay. After Caribbean rum and its incredibly potent affects on my memory and body, Im always wary of rum and try to avoid at all costs (unless there is no other booze, then obviously I shan’t be such a snob!) Tanauy is pretty cheap and seems to be the staple drink of the area. It tastes a lot more watered down than rum Im used to drinking, and as such, drinks go down far too easily.
Got in trouble at work for the first time, for talking to loud. Memo to self, Scottish people have a volume issue – work on this.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
trikes and thunderstorms
After a much needed 14 hour sleep (or thereabouts), we headed out to Portofino Beach resort, via trike.
This is not actually one of my photos, ive not yet had my camera out, but gives you an idea of what im talking about. Trike = fun. Kind of like a tuk tuk, but more rickety, if you were carrying really small skinny people you could probably carry 7 on 1 trike, but in reality, 4 at a push.
We sat on the beach for about 20 mins, until I experienced my first thunder storm. Really amazing. After about 2 drops of rain, the warning was given to head under cover, and right enough, the heavens opened. We sat in a beach bar and watched the storm, which lasted about an hour or so. Purple and orange lightning across the horizon, the rain blurrying the view across to another palm-tree covered island, and the rain moving in sheets.
We ended up sitting at the bar for a good few hours, having extreme film geek chat, which i utterly relished. The people ive met so far are really into film, have great knowledge, all very very funny and friendly. I think Im going to enjoy working with them. One of the guys is Nigerian and was telling us stories about his days in a Nigerian boarding school in the rainforest - his stories were ridiculous and made Glenalmond seem extremely tame in comparison!
It felt like such a treat to be able to sit at the beach bar whilst the sun went down - I always wished we could have done that when I was on ships, but as we always sailed about 5pm, you had to leave the beach by about 330pm latest. This always grated on me as you were constantly clock watching and you never really relaxed. To be able to suddenly look at your watch this evening, to be surprised by the time and know that you didnt have to rush anywhere, was an incredibly feeling. I keep having to remind myself that this is where Im living now - very surreal indeed. Of all the places Ive ever imagined spending a long time abroad in, I must admit, the Philippines, or Asia, was never one. It seems that everyone who ends out coming to work for this company says the same thing - everyone is still surprised at what a random turn their lives have taken.
We took a jeepany home and then ordered pizza and watched the Goonies. It turns out that in my building we have a screening room. Seriously, this screening room is better than a lot of cinemas Ive been to - a collection of massive lazyboys with HD projector and great surround sound. I can tell a lot of good times are going to be had in there. We are planning on doing a weeks worth of viewing where everyone shows a film that everyone else hasnt seen yet, preferably from their home country. Im still scratching my head as to what I can show... updates to follow im sure, suggestions also welcome.
So i should probably explain my building, its a bit like halls of residence as we house people who work for the company and some folk who study at the film school across the road (the film school is owned by the studio).
Anyway, I start tomorrow, we still dont really know whats happening as my boss is away in Taiwan until tomorrow and nobody Ive talked to so far knows what we will be working on. It seems they are developing a bunch of projects at the moment so we are going to be integral to pre-production - hopefully we'll find out what is that we have to pre-produce in the morning...
This is not actually one of my photos, ive not yet had my camera out, but gives you an idea of what im talking about. Trike = fun. Kind of like a tuk tuk, but more rickety, if you were carrying really small skinny people you could probably carry 7 on 1 trike, but in reality, 4 at a push.
We sat on the beach for about 20 mins, until I experienced my first thunder storm. Really amazing. After about 2 drops of rain, the warning was given to head under cover, and right enough, the heavens opened. We sat in a beach bar and watched the storm, which lasted about an hour or so. Purple and orange lightning across the horizon, the rain blurrying the view across to another palm-tree covered island, and the rain moving in sheets.
We ended up sitting at the bar for a good few hours, having extreme film geek chat, which i utterly relished. The people ive met so far are really into film, have great knowledge, all very very funny and friendly. I think Im going to enjoy working with them. One of the guys is Nigerian and was telling us stories about his days in a Nigerian boarding school in the rainforest - his stories were ridiculous and made Glenalmond seem extremely tame in comparison!
It felt like such a treat to be able to sit at the beach bar whilst the sun went down - I always wished we could have done that when I was on ships, but as we always sailed about 5pm, you had to leave the beach by about 330pm latest. This always grated on me as you were constantly clock watching and you never really relaxed. To be able to suddenly look at your watch this evening, to be surprised by the time and know that you didnt have to rush anywhere, was an incredibly feeling. I keep having to remind myself that this is where Im living now - very surreal indeed. Of all the places Ive ever imagined spending a long time abroad in, I must admit, the Philippines, or Asia, was never one. It seems that everyone who ends out coming to work for this company says the same thing - everyone is still surprised at what a random turn their lives have taken.
We took a jeepany home and then ordered pizza and watched the Goonies. It turns out that in my building we have a screening room. Seriously, this screening room is better than a lot of cinemas Ive been to - a collection of massive lazyboys with HD projector and great surround sound. I can tell a lot of good times are going to be had in there. We are planning on doing a weeks worth of viewing where everyone shows a film that everyone else hasnt seen yet, preferably from their home country. Im still scratching my head as to what I can show... updates to follow im sure, suggestions also welcome.
So i should probably explain my building, its a bit like halls of residence as we house people who work for the company and some folk who study at the film school across the road (the film school is owned by the studio).
Anyway, I start tomorrow, we still dont really know whats happening as my boss is away in Taiwan until tomorrow and nobody Ive talked to so far knows what we will be working on. It seems they are developing a bunch of projects at the moment so we are going to be integral to pre-production - hopefully we'll find out what is that we have to pre-produce in the morning...
Saturday, September 3, 2011
trains, planes and... jeepanies
So it turns out that I have been travelling around the world taking photos and filmming crap at the behest of people that will pay me small sums of cash to do so, for about 2 years now. Since 2009 I have "worked" over parts of 5 different continents, but as until now, have failed to write about said adventures. I have asked myself why this is and come up with a few hairbrained excuses about crap access to internet (via shitey maritime satellites onboard cruise ships) and lack of anything to properly write about. I am able to put my hand up and say that whilst these probably were contributing factors, in all honesty it was probably due to laziness and lack of vision, (saying that, if you had to deal with ships internet, you probably would have found yourself in an equally disagreeable set of circumstances)...
Anywhoo, I have now stumbled upon the next adventure/chapter, and finding myself in a more agreeable situation, I have decided to write about actually living abroad (as apose to living and working inside a large floating hotel). I have taken up employment with an american production company who have their main studio lot on the outskirts of the city of Cebu in the Philippines, and so this shall be some sort of testiment to my time here. There are a great many things that I have forgotten about from my seadays which are only roused from scratchy messages scrawled on the back of postcards, or collections of photos, and I am determined not to fall into such a situation once again.
So, now that i have formed some form of mission statement, I shall begin.
I departed from Edinburgh on Thursday and was carried to Euston Station on the hottest train in the world. Yes, this sun was clearly powered by raw solar energy. Moral of the this part of the story, dont travel on Virgin Trains.
After this sweaty, uncomfortable and somewhat vomit inducing sejourn down the length of Great Britian, I found Mr Euan Cherry who led me to Angel where we cosumed far too much booze, resulting in 1 hours sleep before catching a plane to Hong Kong. This flight consisted of broken sleep and a really nippy woman who kept moaning about nothing. What Fun. Then a 2 hour wait in HK before flying to Cebu - luckily this was an easy flight thanks to Cathay Pacifics fantastic idea to show session 5 of 30Rock on their inflight entertainment, and providing me with a window seat so that, in my childlike fasination, I could smoosh my face against the glass as I craned to view as much of the landmass below as possible.
The scenery was incredible. A collection of green, hilly islands with sandy beaches expanding out to reefs and turquoise water. I am now particularly excited about starting diving again, and hopefully doing my advanced PADI as its cheap as chips to get up to the next level here. what a win.
Anyway, landed (after listening to the wowful new Incubus album - oh Brandon Boyd how I love you, but this offering kindles my passions for you not...) passed through security, found the people I needed to find and got a taxi to the studios. Im living onsite, my room is large and air conditioned, en suite and all for the steal of 25quid a week. thanks for that, much appreciated. Had a good sleep and then headed out into the city.
So far Cebu is not how I imagined. I must admit that it being dark by the time we left suggests that I missed alot, but it seems far more developed than I imagined. There are a lot of really expensive looking malls that put a lot of our tawdry shopping excuses to shame. All the restaurants are extremely cosmopolitan, with everything from Mexican to Tepinaki - my food worries are starting to subdue. Saying that, it seems that Philippinos like to make very sweet food - everyone Ive talked to has complained of dishes being much sweeter than we are used to in the west, and I can concure that tonights veggie burger was hard to get my head around. Portions are also much smaller which is great. Our cooking facilities are pretty rubbish, so everyone at the studio tends to eat out 2-3 meals a day, this is due to social reasons and cheap food, but I am happy with this.
After dinner I was then taken to a bar called Suelanders (really pronounced Zoolanders, which makes me extrememly happy indeed). Great bar with a wide terrace a couple of stories up with views over the river and the citys 2 main bridges (Old Bridge, and New Bridge - clearly a lot of work went into naming them).
After the bar my first Jeepany experience - Jeepanies are a cross between a taxi and a bus. They are effectively small vans with 2 benches in the back, open windows, and are brightly coloured. They are the cheapest way to get around. They each take a specific route so you they cant go off course to take you somewhere particular. You can, at a squeee, have about 12 folk in 1 with 2 hanging off the back - i have heard reports of squashing 24 in, also that getting out of a full one if like getting out of an elephants arse (perhaps like a rudimentary version of the infamous Ace Ventura rhino scene...). Girls are not supposed to hang off the back, but at night it seems more allowed... So a typical jeepany ride costas about 8pesos. its 66 pesos to the pound, so clearly, its pretty cheap. Still cant get my head around the conversion - think its going to take quite a while...
Anywhoo... people seem really nice so far. Place is really great. Very excited to be here indeed. Jet lag is starting to kick in so sleep calls.
Until next time foul friends.
adieu x
Anywhoo, I have now stumbled upon the next adventure/chapter, and finding myself in a more agreeable situation, I have decided to write about actually living abroad (as apose to living and working inside a large floating hotel). I have taken up employment with an american production company who have their main studio lot on the outskirts of the city of Cebu in the Philippines, and so this shall be some sort of testiment to my time here. There are a great many things that I have forgotten about from my seadays which are only roused from scratchy messages scrawled on the back of postcards, or collections of photos, and I am determined not to fall into such a situation once again.
So, now that i have formed some form of mission statement, I shall begin.
I departed from Edinburgh on Thursday and was carried to Euston Station on the hottest train in the world. Yes, this sun was clearly powered by raw solar energy. Moral of the this part of the story, dont travel on Virgin Trains.
After this sweaty, uncomfortable and somewhat vomit inducing sejourn down the length of Great Britian, I found Mr Euan Cherry who led me to Angel where we cosumed far too much booze, resulting in 1 hours sleep before catching a plane to Hong Kong. This flight consisted of broken sleep and a really nippy woman who kept moaning about nothing. What Fun. Then a 2 hour wait in HK before flying to Cebu - luckily this was an easy flight thanks to Cathay Pacifics fantastic idea to show session 5 of 30Rock on their inflight entertainment, and providing me with a window seat so that, in my childlike fasination, I could smoosh my face against the glass as I craned to view as much of the landmass below as possible.
The scenery was incredible. A collection of green, hilly islands with sandy beaches expanding out to reefs and turquoise water. I am now particularly excited about starting diving again, and hopefully doing my advanced PADI as its cheap as chips to get up to the next level here. what a win.
Anyway, landed (after listening to the wowful new Incubus album - oh Brandon Boyd how I love you, but this offering kindles my passions for you not...) passed through security, found the people I needed to find and got a taxi to the studios. Im living onsite, my room is large and air conditioned, en suite and all for the steal of 25quid a week. thanks for that, much appreciated. Had a good sleep and then headed out into the city.
So far Cebu is not how I imagined. I must admit that it being dark by the time we left suggests that I missed alot, but it seems far more developed than I imagined. There are a lot of really expensive looking malls that put a lot of our tawdry shopping excuses to shame. All the restaurants are extremely cosmopolitan, with everything from Mexican to Tepinaki - my food worries are starting to subdue. Saying that, it seems that Philippinos like to make very sweet food - everyone Ive talked to has complained of dishes being much sweeter than we are used to in the west, and I can concure that tonights veggie burger was hard to get my head around. Portions are also much smaller which is great. Our cooking facilities are pretty rubbish, so everyone at the studio tends to eat out 2-3 meals a day, this is due to social reasons and cheap food, but I am happy with this.
After dinner I was then taken to a bar called Suelanders (really pronounced Zoolanders, which makes me extrememly happy indeed). Great bar with a wide terrace a couple of stories up with views over the river and the citys 2 main bridges (Old Bridge, and New Bridge - clearly a lot of work went into naming them).
After the bar my first Jeepany experience - Jeepanies are a cross between a taxi and a bus. They are effectively small vans with 2 benches in the back, open windows, and are brightly coloured. They are the cheapest way to get around. They each take a specific route so you they cant go off course to take you somewhere particular. You can, at a squeee, have about 12 folk in 1 with 2 hanging off the back - i have heard reports of squashing 24 in, also that getting out of a full one if like getting out of an elephants arse (perhaps like a rudimentary version of the infamous Ace Ventura rhino scene...). Girls are not supposed to hang off the back, but at night it seems more allowed... So a typical jeepany ride costas about 8pesos. its 66 pesos to the pound, so clearly, its pretty cheap. Still cant get my head around the conversion - think its going to take quite a while...
Anywhoo... people seem really nice so far. Place is really great. Very excited to be here indeed. Jet lag is starting to kick in so sleep calls.
Until next time foul friends.
adieu x