Stingray

This morning's rain was unbelievable. At about 9am, the heavens opened and a day's worth of rain dropped from the sky like a million ice bucket challenges. The sound on the roof in the attic was intense. I thought the windows were going to break. I actually had to force Nathan to delay leaving the house for five minutes, under the belief that rain simply can't keep falling at that velocity. I was right. The storm eventually subsided and the morsel of blue in the Western sky provided me with my cue to leg it up to Highgate Village, sweating profusely as I ran. It was hot, sticky and nasty.

Speaking of double entendres, I found myself trying to describe a keyboard sound for the Brass score this morning. Usually I end up writing words like "warm pad," "Wurlitzer," or "Hammond-like" to describe the sound I'm after, but this morning I simply opted for "dark, throbbing organ." It took me way too long to realise the error of my ways. I had images of musicians in the orchestra pit of future productions laughing so much they become too floppy to play properly. I thought about taking it out but I've obviously left it in. Just as every single film I've ever made has a rude-sounding fake name in the credits. Quite frankly, I can think of no better set of words to describe the sound I want to hear!

After a ten-hour day down at Uncle Archie's, we had dinner with Penny in Tufnell Park. We went to Stingray, my favourite eating place in North London. It's cheap and cheerful - you can get a three course meal there for £13 - but the atmosphere is lovely, the staff are hugely friendly and the food is surprisingly good. I always have the "Greek style" pasta and potato skins. Nathan once made a little film of Fiona and me sharing a meal there. We watched it again today and it's really rather fun. You can see it on YouTube here. Quite what we're doing with the basil leaves I'm not sure.

It was so lovely to see Penny. She was on great form. Penny is actually the woman I owe my career to. She commissioned the first film I ever made, the random, and somewhat embarrassing Hampstead Heath: The Musical, which I actually can't watch these days without feeling slightly perky! That was exactly ten years ago. Imagine that? But without that film, who knows what I'd be doing these days...