Category: Travel blog

B240 – APPLE YOU’VE LET ME DOWN

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Dear Apple.

Since my time began on this planet I have been an apple fan, from the first Iphone to the Latest edition of OS. Apple I have supported you, Ive loved you during the highs and the lows, through thick an thin. the mistakes and the triumphs, you’ve been a part of my life for so long. I learn how to edit videos and you helped me get past my GCSE’s and A-levels. But yesterday you let the side down, you failed me when I needed you most at work, trying to encode MXF OP-Atom  DNxHD 114 files from XAVC files. we had a tight deadline and you just completely failed, but you didn’t just fail me, you failed the whole team, not even a genius could of got you through it. We HAD to use an Alienware PC and they cant even process a PRORESS file!!!! Brilliant you’ve brought out a phone that I can open with my face, while you’ve got laptops that cant process 4k or take hours to render. spend less time creating emojis that can copy my movements and more time thinking about the next step in rendering and encoding files.

I am really hoping a trip to the apple store and maybe a new machine will help me turn this nightmare around, but right now your CPU just cant keep up. please think about what people need and make it work, I know you have created the Mac Pro, but with a £7k price tag and not really that modular, why would I go for that over a Mac Bin. I need a laptop and something that can churn out 4k and transcode files quickly, and at the moment you don’t have any answers.

Files are getting bigger, we can now buy a 512gb AXS or Red mag card, thats literally half a Terabyte and we need answers, you wont let anyone else read Proress files so please create that laptop which just takes over the market not for the next 6 months but for at least 2 years.

We need someone like Steve jobs to take a few tabs of Acid, run off into some NASA like lab and just got to town, we need more start up disk space, faster CPUs and give our graphics card some steroids and ramp that beast up. create something you can only use on a bed of snow or ice, but please just do something revolutionary other wise I might just have to buy a Dell.

Best wishes,

A Man with a broken heart

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– this is me resulting to using a PC –

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– walking to work yesterday none the wise that my laptop was about to let me down –

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– some small camera being used yesterday –
 

B235 – 5000 CALORIES IN ONE NIGHT

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Yesterday was the first time in ages that ive had “that friday feeling” and today being saturday morning I have that “horrible hangover feeling” but I cant stop and moan I have a proper ikea mission first.

Any way back to yesterday, it was a bit of a gamble to be honest, I had been stuck at my kitchen table all day working on my laptop, just getting stuff done, even though its a day not at work I try to treat everyday like a work day, other wise ill spend the time watching a Netflix series or something which is never good. my aim is to always be out of bed by 9am and always do something productive and yesterday was no exception apart from the afternoon bath, which by the way was amazing.

It got to around 4 / 5pm and I started to think about my plans for that evening, there was talk for Winter wonderland in hyde park, I was adamant that its still to early to celebrate Christmas so it was a No from me, I would just meet charlotte and stay in East London.

After a few beers and a few more phone calls, we are all on our way to Winter wonderland, who would of guessed! and what a great decision that was, I hadn’t seen a lot of the people there in ages and im not really sure what happened after the first hour or so it gets abit blurry. I do know how ever I eat way to much food, 1 hot dog, 1 Calzone Pizza and a Mcdonalds and some Pasta. What was I thinking, this morning I feel like ive put on about 2 stone and eat like 5000 calories in the space of 4 hours.

anyway here are my photos from last night.

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– I think Aaron was happy to see me –
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– just dave drinking from a bird bowl or maybe a water tap, im just not too sure –
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– this is the perfect meeting place for anyone at Winter wonderland –

B233 – BACK TO LONDON LIV’N

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I have literally just slept for like 12 hours, i cant remeber the last time I spelt for that long and now I feel amazing. Im pretty sure Ive beaten jet lag and now back to normal. my plan for today was to spent the day sleeping on the sofa watching netflix but after a quick phone call with my mate anders im on my way to south london to go rock climbing at some place called the Arches. what happening to just chilling on the sofa.

Its been a bit of a productive day, I also put some blinds up in my living room this morning, but ill show you those tomorrow. I need to get hold of some velcro to finish them off, im not about to show pictures of half a job!

it feels good to be back in London and Im now motivated to get on with what I started 233 days ago! since I’ve been doing a lot of travel recently Ive had time to think of some cool projects I want to start, so I’m now going to spend the next few days seeing if I can put them into practise. work has started to slow down for christmas so Ive now got quite a lot of time on my hands, which is actually quite exciting. I really want to get a lot done in the flat and get it up to a level Im proud of.

Ive had a week of not being able to post and now Im finally back on track and ready to pull my canon 5d out and take some cool photos but first I have 4 episodes of the new Peaky blinders to catch up on, I didnt even realised that it had started again!

here are some photos from yesterday and also a shot from the Grand Hyatt hotel reception, Im struggling to get over this view.

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– climbing yesterday, I think I could have a new hobby –
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– welcome back to london, the best city in the world –
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– see you soon shang hai –

 

B232 – GOOD BYE SHANG HAI!

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Today I leave shang hai and head back to london, im looking forward to getting home and looking back at all these photos Ive taken and getting the posts online, I hope you all are still reading these and wont abandon me.

this place is pretty cool and completely different to anywhere Ive been before, its a completely new culture that ive kind of seen, I wish I had more time to see this city. im now on the coach to the airport and looking out the window at the Bullet train tracks. the bullet train is chinas answer to high speed rail way travel. this thing goes like like 200 mph and travels along these futuristic train tracks which use like 1 mile long bends. its literally a thing of the future, I love the idea of the future and people creating inventions to make life easier and more exciting. the next few years I genuinely think china will over take the west and lead the technology race, if you have over 6 billion people in one country how can they not.

this country is a place I still cant work out if I would like to come back and visit on holiday or if I would only come here for work, I just cant decide. china is a massive place and I like to think ill be back to explore but truthfully Im just not sure.  I think ill only know a few weeks down the line when I think back to what its been like and what Ive experienced. right now im pretty hungover from an amazing wrap party 87 stories up at the top of the hotel and all I want todo is eat a mcdonalds and fall asleep on the plane home.

for now heres some photos from my past week in this amazing city!

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– This guy was just happy to be a live –
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– the bullet train tracks, I wish I went on this –
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– as im posting this in the future, hes a photo from the plane –

B230 – A CHINESE BREAKFAST

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I never seen Chinese buffet for breakfast and don’t think its something I have much of an appetite for, but you cant knock it till you tried it right. so this morning was all about me digging in for a proper orientatal breakfast with chop sticks the lot.  I decided to go for the cold noodles, rice and some other things which im not too sure what they were, my mistake involved soy sauce, I over did it a bit meaning it was all a bit too salty. but I dont think that was my main mistake, if I played it safe and stuck with rice, rolls and weird green thing I would have been ok. it was all the other stuff that put me over the edge.

A few hours later and its lunch time, thats when I really regretted my breakfast, it was more rice, noodles and other Chinese food. I definitely think a ham and cheese croissant for breakfast goes down a lot better with a coffee. rice and coffee isn’t really a good mix. I was a bit suprised at the cold chow main noddles as well, I thought that it was a global tradition to eat noddles hot, cold noddles are bit to weird.

most of the time when i’m eating Chinese its at 3am and I’m in the middle of London somewhere trying to book at taxi home and struggling to remember my address, so eating one from breakfast felt unnatural, but who am I to judge. it they like it then thats there choice, i just hope one day they try and full english breakfast and understand what makes a great breakfast.

I know this is a bit of a weird breakfast review, but I hope it makes sense and doesn’t make me look naive.

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– dont ask me what was on my plate, I have no idea –
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– the pastery section i think –
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– sorry for the bad photo, it was taken on an iphone –

B229 – THIS FEELS WEIRD!

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i don’t like the fact I cant post everyday, feels weird not sitting down in the evening or morning and posting a blog,  or even having a coffee and thinking about what i can post each day, its a good reason it get up each morning and not just do what everyone else does. its kind of my reason for doing something extra. 

Im kind of looking forward to my plane journey home and being able to sit on the plane for 12 hours with no distractions and just getting these posts up today and posted. today is when the work really ramps up and Im looking forward to getting that feeling of a live event. I think everyone who works in TV gets that feeling when a live event is about to start.

Its so fun being out here and just experiencing Shang hai, the people are really nice and if you don’t laugh at the Language barrier then it could be a problem, got a taxi to a bar last night bit of a problem the taxi driver just drove us around the block for 45 minutes before just dropping us back at the hotel reception. 

One thing that is on my list of things to buy is a portable power pack to charge my phone, I need to have a look into them and see what is the best one of buy. its so annoying when your phone dies and you have to plug it into a wall and leave it for 45 minutes. does this mean ive fallen todo the trap of being addicted to my phone?

The other thing that is worrying me is I don’t want to lose motivation to post these photos each day, I really don’t want to lose motivation and stop. Its hard not posting each day because then I fall further and further behind! Stick with it josh! only 130 something days to go!! Bust I suppose if I fly half way around the world to a location like this one below I shouldn’t be able to lose motivation!

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– THIS PLACE IS IN THE MIDDLE OF A CITY! THATS CRAZY –
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– THIS IS A COOL TREE HOUSE –
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– I CHINESSE SKY LIGHT, I WONT IF YOU CAN GET THIS IN BETHNAL GREEN –

B228 – THE HIGHEST BATH IVE EVER HAD

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today a bit of an early start, got a lot happening today but looking forward to getting on with every. its the first day of shooting so need to rush over to location, its like 6am now leaving the hotel at 7 to get there for 8. 

Breakfast, Having Chinese food for breakfast is actually quite a good idea. nothing better than noodles and some fried rice for breakfast. takes a bit of time to get used to drinking a coffee at the same time but its quite good in a weird way. I will dedicate a whole post to the breakfast here, i think it desevers it. I have never seen noddles and seafood for breakfast before.

The jet lag is still real, its probably some of the worst jet lag I have experienced, I keep waking up at like 4am and cant get back to sleep, normally i do some running or maybe a swim but I can get past the hotel bar, which is proving to be a bit of an issue.   One thing to talk about is the fact that the time zone is really confusing and I cant work out what the time is in the UK. I know we are 8 hours ahead but I keep thinking the UK is in front. thats probably the jet lag talking but for some reason my head just cant figure it out. the only good thin about waking up at 4am is the fact that I can have a bath with this view, it is literally the best bath in the world. I don’t think anything will ever compare to it!

My plan for these post while im away is to write some bullet points each day and then when I get back to the UK fill in all the gaps. I think thats probably the best thing for me todo, I will probably regret doing it that way, but I think while I’m here i need to get as much sleep as I can because my days are going to be filled with running around trying to get everything done.  

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– A Breakfast of champions? –
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– sorry for the bad light, I didnt want to turn the lights on at 5:30am, this was a bath to remember –
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– looking up inside the hotel –

B226 – THIS IS NOT THE END! I PROMISE!!!!

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Day one of China, is off to a great start after landing Wednesday morning completely jet lagged) I did that thing where you don’t sleep on the plane and it just completely throws you off, always try and sleep on long flights). I went out on a little adventure the some of the crews and explored Shang Hi a little, this place is pretty cool and naturally one thing turned into another and we ended up in this weird secret tunnel which runs under the Bund river. its kind of like something out of a low budget James Bond film, with loads of LED’s on the walls and theres weird sounds like Joshua in War Games.  Im trying to compare everything to films I know as Shang Hi just feels like everything is out of some classic film. Naturally after spending 40 minutes explores it quickly turned into a hunt of classic Shang Hi bar which then turned into us in a local Irish bar down the road. why would we go any where else? it was a great afternoon / evening bar crawl and I wish I had more stamina to make it to the club but my bed was calling.

Im now laying in bed and have been awake since 3am its now 6am and I thought I would spent sometime and get this post done. before I jump in my bath and watch the sunrise over Shang Hi, how cool does that sound. I just hope the smog doesn’t ruin my view.

Tomorrow is the first day of production and Im looking forward to seeing everyone and getting stuck in with work so this next bit isn’t easy to write, but I am now going to have to stop posting my daily photos till I get back to the UK. I need to respect the production company I am working for and if they say no photos, that has to mean no photos. I am still going to write these posts and find something to photograph outside of work, but I wont be posting until I get back to the UK and get the green light. its the one thing I really didn’t want todo, I am determined to keep this up for 365 days but the next six days are going to have to be posted next week. I will still take at least three photos a day I promise!

If you cant take not reading my posts on a daily basis, then why don’t you just start reading from B001 again. I will buy the first person to tell me how many photos I have posted up to this date a christmas gift.

Heres my photos from today see you guys in a week when I promise I will post all the days that Ive missed!!!!!! Ill post 5 pictures today so its not all doom and gloom.

Also dont forget I have my first print for sale, heres the link.

https://joshfspear.com/about/prints/

GET INVOLVED!

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– the view from my room, cant complain about this one –
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– the view from my bath, definitely cant complain about this –
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– taking the secret tunnel to the otherside of the river yesterday, one of the weirdest experiences of my life –
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– just your average street, I cant get over how big the traffic lights are –
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– this place is open 25 hours a day –

 

B225 – IT HAD TO BE ME THAT SAT THERE!

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Im writing his mid flight and have just flew over the border between Belarus and Russia, its about 7 hour 45 minutes till we reach shanghi. I could go on to talk about what I did this morning but my travel buddy bean thinks we should do a review of the plane and to be honest I could agree more.

Today we are travelling on an Airbus A380 with Virgin Atlantic travelling in Premium Economy, which is actually a good flight for a number of reasons.

  • The space. As someone who is 6ft 1 AND A half inches tall, I have a problem when it comes to travelling and that is my arms and legs they basically make me langkey and mean that I’m either squashed with the person next to me or have my legs spread out half my down the asile. It means long journey’s can feel even longer. It also mean that’s you can have your laptop out and not take up the seats on either side of you, perfect for trying to get a blog post done by the time I land. I’m determined to keep these post scheduled for 10am each day.
  • The service is really good, long flights can be a pain but nothing is better than some good service and some good food. The Air hostess is really good and that cant bring food and drinks around enough, after dinner they even brought round brandy and some amertotto liquor, what more could you want.
  • I don’t want to go on about it but when you get on the plane they even give you this little Hershals pouch thing with all your tooth brushes and stuff inside. It’s a small thing, but compared to last month flying on Air Canada Rouge where you need a tentnus shot before you get on the plane. so this little pouch is a big deal.

 

My only problem with the flight is that I kept on backing the chair, I accidently sat on the side arm and now it plastic cover keeps on falling off and now its fallen off completely, and my table now bounces around when I try to eat of use my laptop, the air stewardess did they and help me but I think it’s a lost cause.  Its kind of my fault anyway but could probably do with a little redesign. Not biggy Richard, I know you have a lot on at the moment.

Im looking forward to seeing this part of the world and exicted to start taking pictures of the completely new place. Im also exicted to crack on and get to work, its so hard for me not to say what it is im doing here, but I promise as soon as I get the green light you guys will know.

UPDATE: Im at the hotel and we may have a problem, google doesnt work and thats where I look up words I dont know how to spell or words im not too sure on. Im now officially in trouble, my spelling could get a lot worst over the course of this week. So sorry for that, and please just ignore them

Heres my photos from the plane.

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– this is bean taking her pre flight instagram shot –
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– B&W photo of a plane window –
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– always working, and enough space so she doesnt hit me with her elbows –
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– dont mind if I do –
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– I broke the chair, not sure its completely my fault, more wrong place wrong time I think –

 

B224 – I dont like being an adult

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Well the day in a life of josh is one of pure excitement, today was the first time in over two months that I have actually had a afternoon during sun light at my flat for me just to enjoy. My plan head home at 2pm quickly edit some photos from the short film I have been working on yesterday and this morning, before sitting down to watch some tv and chill. well, that quickly went out the window. after turning on the kitchen tap I quickly realised it was blocked like properly blocked, my only option was to take the sink piping apart and see if I could fix it, with no luck and time not on my side I had to make the call to a local Plumber and cough up the money for him to turn up with a £3 plunger and fix the proper in under 20 minutes. lets just say I had to pay him enough money to buy about 55 plungers, but least its fixed now and I suppose I can no fix the problem if it happens again. so I guess I’ve learnt something new today.  I dont want this to be what its like being an adult, why do I have to worry about these kind of problems.

tomorrow is the day I fly to China for a week long job and as some of you may know China doesn’t allow social media and I think that include WordPress. The job im also going on have said that not a single photo can be taken which means that for at least 15 hours of the day Im going to be somewhere I can take photos. Making this blog even more harder todo each day. Im basically going somewhere, that its literally impossible for me to Blog from both by the government and by the production company. But I am josh spear and I can make this work, just like I managed to get my kitchen sink fixed…

any way here are my photos from today, I would like to say how much fun I had the past two days on that short film and cant wait to share it with you and i would also like to add that everyone should owner a decent plunger. it will save you a lot of money in the future.

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– rory wanted me to post a picture of me, so here it is. enjoy –
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– I took this sink apart and in return got covered in drain unblocker acid, smart one josh –
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– there only one place amy and me could go after that event. the pub –