The green belt

It’s Saturday and I’ve spent the morning having a much-needed laze around. It’s been a heck of a week. I don’t really have much to say about it because I’ve had my head down, working flat out on 100 Faces. I spent much of my time in the offices at UK Jewish Film. I have most of my faces now, but am still looking to find Jewish people born in about ten separate years. I’m pretty sure the more recent ones will be okay, but I am struggling to find someone born in 1920, 1926, 1933 and 1940. I’m not sure that my blog has a particularly sizeable Jewish readership, but if anyone reading knows of a Jewish person based in the UK who is born in one of these years, please, please get in touch!

The rest of my time has been spent composing. I’ve made a start on the piece of music which will form the basis of the film. To say I’m putting a lot of pressure on myself is the understatement of the year! I feel an extreme weight of responsibility. I absolutely have to get it right. So, I’m taking things very slowly... which is very unlike me. I have blocked out the composition so I now know how the melody twists and turns throughout the piece. It’s a complicated jigsaw because some of the 100 faces are singers and others aren’t, so I have to take all of that into consideration. New phrases of music have to start with people born in certain years. I’ve always considered myself a hopeless mathematician but actually rather a lot of music is maths. Especially when you’re working to such specific timings.

Nathan has been in Rhodes since Monday, teaching people how to knit. He was meant to be there all week, but he managed to double book himself, so had to return on Thursday night. The poor bloke’s plane was delayed by four hours, so instead of arriving home in the wee smalls, he got home at 7am yesterday, so exhausted, he was physically shaking.

He was off again early this morning to a gig somewhere in Wales!

This afternoon I ventured out to the very Northern tip of London for a walk in the countryside with Michael. It’s easy to forget how astoundingly rural the green belt is. We were up towards Elstree, which is only a 25-minute drive from Highgate, but it’s like another world, filled with charming, ancient cottages, village ponds, common ground and corn fields. The walk was a little wet under foot at times, but after the spectacular storms in the early part of the week, I was pleasantly surprised by the weather. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a great pleasure to be out and about, although the air was thick with pollens. I never thought I’d become the sort of person who is sensitive to pollens. I’ve no idea how this has come to pass.

I’ve come home and am watching the TV Soap Awards, which is about as excruciating as it gets, not just because of the weird screams from the audience, but because I haven’t watched a soap in ages so have no idea who they’re screaming at!