Good evening!

Week 10 coming right up.

As I am sitting in my bed after a full day of work on a Sunday, I am tired. No surprise here. I will keep my intro brief for that reason. First of all, hope everyone is doing well!

The Manchester experience this year is slowly approaching its end and I started to evaluate my overall performance and gain. I know I should not be too hard on myself, for many different reasons, but I am a perfectionist, so that is a rather difficult task. I am grateful fo all my lessons so far and I am hoping I can learn and grow from them. It has not been easy emotionally and physically, but I know it will be worth it in the long run.

This week has been good in many aspects, I know it, even though I don’t quite feel all the blessings at the moment. Let’s say it is because I am tired… Anyway, enough of my apathetic contemplations. I am a strong independent woman and here is my week:

Monday. It’s actually after minding already. Was a long day at work. Day 1 of this week done. Few interesting things happened today at work. Firstly, we had paparazzi sneakily taking photos of the crew, as we were told, the media is interested how we are handling social distancing. Yea.. it motivated everyone to try and be on their best behaviour. Later on I was told by one of the producers that few of the “demanding” actors complained that I do not give them enough attention. That is a first for me, but in a way I get it, it is a pandemic time after all so I do definitely limit my time with them for that reason. I suppose we will have to work around it somehow. Ah yes also we did some rather big action today, had two cameras, fights, stunts and an explosion. Pretty fun. Very busy for me, but on the flip side the day flew by and I did not have time to feel cold or damp at all. Glad to be in bed now though.. oh yes and we repeat all that tomorrow. Another exterior day in a different location. Good night for now!

Tuesday. Day 2 done. For the most part we were shooting outside in the cemetery. Rather quiet day in comparison to the action packed run and gun we had the day before. I decided to try and adjust my workplace to be closer to the director and the actors and it seemed to work pretty well. Certainly it helped me to do my job better and felt like the good old days pre Covid, when I was always able to be within the action. Hopefully it will be able to stay that way. Also I got a little present from the production in the form of a kitchen knife. I’ve been struggling to buy one for ages now, as the shops don’t seem to have any knives in stock. Not sure if that has to do something with the lockdown or the general knife crime.. hmm well, all sorted now though. Chopping and cooking here I come.

Wednesday. Day 3. Good day. A very warm interior location today. Once again I managed to stay pretty close to the director and the action. Felt so good. Actors seemed to be happy about it too, so I am extra pleased. The day flew by and even though we are crawling back with our working hours my mood is still rather high. Perhaps the fact that we started the week with such difficult days today felt easy. Of course to make matters more “exciting” I have some new script revisions to go through tonight before another day at work tomorrow. Yeah.. not much time left for anything else after work. When do people have time for families? Not on this job, that’s for sure. Freelancing at its finest…

Thursday. Today felt life Friday. Feeling a bit worn down after all this week with ever-changing hours. Glad we are still going though. We were shooting mostly outdoors in this very pretty location filled with old trains. I was glad my go pro still had some juice to take the photos. Overall a good day, even though it was cold..My gel nails really need fixing, but non of the salons are open yet, yea I know, I am lucky my issues are this basic. On a very happy note though my settlement status has been approved and I got the indefinite leave to remain work and live in the UK from now on. Huray! Also I had a call with the line producer from this Moroccan job I have mentioned earlier. Basically the job is mine if I want it, provided nothing changes due to Covid, so next year could see me traveling to Morocco for 8 weeks with another 10 weeks of the job to be somewhere in and around London. Not too bad. I have some reservations about that particular project so nothing is definite yet, but we shall see. Off to bed I go as tomorrow we are shooting in Liverpool, which means another very early start. Wish me luck!

Friday. Finally at home. This week has been so long! Today we were filming at the no longer operational airport. Pretty nice. One of the last scenes of the show, emotional and all. For the other half of the day we were on a low loader doing car driving sequence. I like those days. Makes it feel a bit badass since that’s the action I am usually part of, driving around and all. Good day.

Saturday. Home. Driving lesson, laundry, Keto cheat day. Laying low and recharging before another long week at work. In the late afternoon had a video call with my Mexican friend. Nice and consistent friendship that is and in the mids of the pandemic it is very comforting apart of other things.

Sunday. Back at work. Busy day in the centre of Manchester. We had a bunch of people watching us work as well as the paparazzi all around. Interesting feeling. A bit like animas at the zoo. After work we met up with a colleague of mine from a previous job for some tea and donuts. My Keto cheating keeps going and actually that felt good. I think my body really needed sugar. Now as I write it, I think my mind needed it too. We are over the half way mark on this job and I now realise that I was not at the top of my performance on it so far and it is bothering me. I don’t want to look for excuses as I know I could find plenty for why it was as it was, but my Mexican friend actually told me yesterday, that to fail at something and own up to it is one of the feeling he enjoys, as he grows from it. It reminded me of my grandmas words when I was a little girl and yes, they are still true now. I know that I could have been better, but I wasn’t and that is a fail on my part, but I can also own up to it and do better. No dwelling on the mistakes. To infinity and beyond!

Highlights:

  • Shooting on location! Always fun and days go so much faster.
  • My settlement being approved! Beyond excited!
  • Driving lesson. I am really getting the hang of it.
  • Donuts and Keto cheat days. Sometimes you just need to give your brain that sugar.
  • Friendships.
  • Family. I miss them so much!
  • Lithuanian sweets. Have been feeding my colleagues with those the whole week. It made me feel warm and motherly inside.

Cheers with sometimes failing, but still growing and improving glass of elephant.