B363 – THE SERIOUS BUSINESS OF EASTER EGG HUNTING

So as Easter is now kind of officially over and this is kind of the last day where eating chocolate for breakfast is acceptable, I think its now also acceptable that this post is a few hours late. The normal plan is to get this posted for 10am every morning apart from the odd Sunday where they go up at 2pm, I know this isn’t exactly a Sunday but it is a bank holiday Monday so in my eyes its fine.

Yesterday was Easter egg hunt day and even though the weather was pretty much terrible I would have to say that overall it was a success, I didn’t find any eggs but Flo and Phoebe managed to track down every egg and then they hide a few more for their selves to find again, so I think they enjoyed it.  Apart for the Easter egg hunt, it was pretty much just a normal family Sunday, with loads of food, beer and watching some children’s movie that no one wanted to watch apart from Phoebe, but I suppose that’s what this day is all about. I did manage to get some pay back for making us watch Fireman Sam the movie, when we went on the dog walk by letting her ride though a big puddle and getting her feet wet. So I suppose it was a win win for everyone.

Right now we are about to head back to London and get ready for work tomorrow, and after four days off, Im kind of looking forward to getting back to filming again and seeing out the rest of this series. Don’t get me wrong I like having four days off, it gives me time to spend with the family and then start thinking about ideas I have and want to start, this weekend has helped to put like a mini restart on my brain and help me kick it back into gear.

Heres some photos from yesterday, hope everyone had a good Easter and enjoyed the long weekend!

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– dog walk yesterday, as you can tell Mooney was really up for having her photo taken –
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– Easter egg hat making yesterday, Flo and me make a great team –
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– counting out easter eggs post hunt, not sure who the winner was but I definitely know it wasn’t me –

 

B338 – HEATHROW 4 STARS – PREMIER INN

Tonight Im sleeping in the new premier inn at Heathrow Terminal 4, im not going to any amazing country or evening flying abroad, this was just the closest hotel to where I need to be at 6:45am tomorrow morning. I’ve definitely shared with you guys before my love for a Premier inn, they do excatly what they say on the advert and to be honest they are pretty clean which is always a bonus when your on location. Some times you end up in those hotels where its best to sleep fully dressed and wearing some kind of face protection, but honestly Ive never had a stay like that in a Premier inn.

Back to this new hotel at Heathrow, I would have to give this one a 7/10, its got everything need in a short 12 hour hotel stay, we have a bar, a nice sized bed and a room that can fit all my stuff in. The bed sheets are clean and they have that nice tumble dryer smell. If you ever end up planning a trip which involves staying at this Premier Inn, do be neverous or even apprehensive just got with it and your guaranteed a good nights sleep.

The one thing that does catch me out each time at these places is the shower gel that they give you attached to the wall, Im not sure if anyone has used this stuff more than once, I say once because Im pretty sure everyone tries it once but quickly realised that its probably doing more damage than good when it comes to skin care. I would love to say that premier inn use a good quality wall attached shower gel but unfortunately that would be a lie, why don’t they just give out small bottles of shower gel instead? that would solve their biggest problem. sorry if this sounds like a moan but I quite regularly forget my shower gel and its never good being met but wall soap.

anyway, this is a solid 7/10 and I give it a 4 star quick trip rating another strong reason for staying here would be todo with the 24 hour costa coffee shop at reception. Perfect if you’ve got an early start or late arrival. this is my hotel review, I hope you like it.

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– This would have been a good photo if I used the right lens, but unfortunatly Im in bed now and have to be up in like 5 hours, so think this will just have todo –
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– I did how ever really like the embroiled sleepy moon picture on the side of my pillow –
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– this soap on the wall, I really dont like this stuff. does anyone use it and like?

 

 

 

B314 – WHAT A SUNDAY

What a Sunday it has been, ive not only been part of a cool team which has managed to shoot two music videos in one day but ive also managed to sell a really annoying walking machine which has been taking up half the bedroom and now im sat on the sofa with a beer watching Jurassic world. It feels like a pretty productive weekend but also spent a lot of time with friends.

After the shoot today I went and met the cousin Charlotte for a drink, the first time I have properly seen her in a while, even though we live pretty close to each other. it really makes you realise that you need to make time for people a lot more. anyway Im now sat enjoying my evening before I need to wake up at 5am for a week of constant filming, maybe I should just order a crete of Red Bull now as thats probably my only way of making it through this week as the same man.

I cant wait to share with you all the shoot that Ive just done today and hopefully its out in the next few weeks, I think it will be something that everyone will love and I think is going to be a massive song from a pretty legendary artist. Im swarn to secrecy but once I get the all clear from the director I will share the whole thing with you. I suppose though thats the hard thing with this industry, everyone who works in it gets todo so many fun project but then they cant share them with anyone till they are out in the public but thats just the name of the game.

Anyway I hope you like my photos from today and I also hope everyone will join me in the celebration that December and January our out the way and work has finally returned to works normal ridiculously unsociable schedule!

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– Walking to work this morning, bethnal green just seems to have it all –
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– one of the best receptions Ive been into –
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– a beer after work is all i need –

B302 – SOMETHING ON EVERY WALL

I forgot how hard it is to think of photos to post during a working week, its a completely different ball game all together and takes a lot of brain usage each day. but my thinking last night was what kind of typography you might see about London and the different kinds of advertising tactics that different companies use.

I feel that east London especially puts a lot of effort into the different types of advertising that is used, like the photo I took of the new Maze Runner film, they literally went all out on that thing, and painted a whole wall, then just to make it look that little bit better than stuck some UV lights at the top to make the whites stand out. but I think that my favourite photo from last night was when just by chance I looked up and saw that Jealous sign in Old Street, just by the American Car Wash for those of you that know the area. The way they have done that stands out so good for the area and its not completely in your face, I bet most people just walk past that and don’t even see it, then once you do notice it you wont ever forget its there. its genius. Then to give it some more depth, you wouldn’t even know why its there, so you do what I have done and go home to google it and find out its a framing and picture printing studio, I know it says print studio in the window but I genuinely thought that meant like magazine printing or something but now that has become somewhere I need to stop by and find out more about, as Ive started printing my own pictures but don’t really know enough about yet, so Jealous Printing studio has now become somewhere I need to explore more and maybe speak to them about helping me figure out the best way to print my photos.

Its now Wednesday morning and Im just getting ready to get out the door, so have a smasher of a Wednesday and hope you like these photos.

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– they’ve definitely done a good job with this one –
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– this must of taken ages todo! –
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– east london has got something writen on every wall! –

 

 

B223 – WHO WOULDN’T WANT TO WORK ON A SUNDAY

I really don’t want to ruin the surprise and think it wouldn’t be fair for me to say, over the course of today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday) but I’m working with a really cool bunch of people on a short film that is more of a passion project, which is a really refreshing little project after the mammoth production i’ve been on this last few months.

Today we were out in the elements filming and I can safely say I didn’t have no where near enough layers on. But how else was I meant to spend my Sunday? other than standing on the cold streets of London filming a pretty cool short film. I promise as soon as I can I will share it with you guys, but not until I get the green light from the production company. its just not fair. what I can say though is that its a really cool story and I think is something everyone should watch for the sole reason its a 2017 modern film that covers a lot of ground not geographical but socially and makes that scene in Notting Hill where Julia Roberts says that famous line ” Im just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her”, yea that line. well this short has come up with a way of making that line look pretty casual.

Ive also had a few mix responses about giving that homeless guy £20 yesterday to get himself shelter at a charity for two weeks. Ive come to this conclusion, and think if he was telling the truth then giving him £20 to have a shower and a roof over his head for two weeks is a pretty good deal and I hope would help to put him on the right tracks and sort everything out, life’s always better after a hot meal and a decent sleep. Living in bethnal green I have met my fair share of crack heads and I know most of them pretty well, you see them on a day today basis. This guy didn’t look like that, his eyes weren’t like theirs and he didn’t talk like them. he seemed decent and if he was lying to me and spent the money of a beer and some drugs then can you blame him, ive been out in this weather all day and its freezing, I was lucky enough to have a warm puffer jacket and a good supply of coffee, but he didn’t and was still wet from the rain the night before and as long as theres homeless people on the streets I will continue to give them some of my change and maybe the odd Tesco’s meal deal because bethnal green has so many homeless people that I just don’t think charities can help everyone. and if your not happy with what Ive done, then imagine being on the streets alone and then someone gives your £20, it gives you an opportunity to make that day slightly easier than yesterday.

Sorry for the spelling mistakes, i hope it hasn’t been the downfall of my conclusion.

Heres my photos from today, enjoy.

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– da boyz da crewdem Frame ratez. touring to an antiques store near you –
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– this beauty –
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– a shot which might be near a location we filmed at but it might not be, you will have to watch the film to see –

 

B211 – HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Since I can remember everyones always said that in america they do Halloween 10 x better than us brits to do in the UK. well today is officially my first american Halloween and from being over here for the past month I can back that up, its treated like we treat christmas, its like 50 percent of all houses on every street dresses their houses up to look like some kind of Haunted House.

Today we kind of had a spontaneous prep day which means we didn’t have to go a film, well we did go a film some GV’s (general views) but apart from that I could get some rest in and not have to think about too much, which was kind of perfect, I literally laid in bed till 10am before even thinking about going out for a coffee and now I feel ready to go wake up early and get back to work.

for the past like 4 years Halloween in the UK seems to have taken off and I love it, im not really any good at dressing up, I always seem to get my make up wrong or don’t really have a proper outfit, but I love the treats and the parties, which kind what makes it. but as I currently living life out of a hotel in this part of the world called Ludlow, Massachusetts, Ill just have to live halloween through the millions of photos on instagram and through my whistle stop tour of Springfield earlier onto, were I managed to get the photos you see below. to be honest it was quite good because we had a few lenses with us, so I got to play around with a few different ones while taking these photos. there was literally fake zombies hanging from trees a long the streets that would start to shake and scream as you walked past. I hope they were fake because if they weren’t I would be terrible in a zombie apocalypse.

Heres my photos from today. enjoy.

and sorry  for my spelling mistakes yesterday. I do know how to spell avocado but sometime I just get it wrong.

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– these things were just creepy –
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– why are all these props bald? –
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– just one of the million front gardens that were decorated. kids round here must love this time of year –

B202 – 17 HOURS LATER…

Tomorrow we leave Florida and head back to New York, its fair to say that we are now in the middle of filming and if we can get through the next 11 days of pure craziness and long hours we will be sitting on that flight home with a beer in hand. But first back to reality, before we leave florida tomorrow morning, this place has left us with one last gift a heard of blood thirsty mosquitos, which have really just aimed for my legs and attacked both my pale white bread sticks with all they have. my legs have lost the battle and the war to these mosquitos and now I can stop itching them.

My post today is about the other famous restaurant in town, it wouldnt be fair to write about one and not the other, this time im talking about the BBQ joint called Sonnys. this place is everything I hope for an more, they know what they are doing when it comes to baked beans and BBQ meat, both times Ive gone for the two meat, two sides option and it hasnt let me down. today I had some kind of sausage and pulled pork with Mac “n” Cheese and BBQ Baked beans and it was just what I needed. its totally different to Catfish country which was more of a family run place, this is a small food chain in Florida, but it packs a punch, they even make their own range of sauces, from what I can remember I had only had the Spicy sauce and that had just the right amount of spice, not too hot not too mild. no one wants a really spicey BBQ, its just not right.

if you’re ever in Bartow, please go and try both Sonnys and Catfish Country and let me know which on you think is better! for the experiacne I would say Catfish Country but if you really want to reach food coma levels go to Sonny’s.

Anyway I think ill keep todays nice a short, I cant really keep my eyes open much longer, its been a proper long day.  the next few weeks are jammed packed, so ill do my best to keep these post top notch, but sorry in advance for any rubbish days that might pop up (like this one). I haven’t done Sonny’s justice.

Also you know the rules, any spelling or grammer just ignore them, we all know it’s one of my downfalls.

Enjoy these snaps.

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– it may look simple on the outside but this place serves some proper food –
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– It just looks like a southern BBQ joint, happy days –
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– did what to show a picture of my food, but it arrived I ate it and forgot to take a picture, so heres a photo of a beer and some of their own sauce –

B174 – AIR CANADA LOST OUR CAMERA GEAR

I’m sat on the plane from Chicago to Vancouver, the TV’s don’t work and that’s something I hadn’t planed for, so now I’m trying to think of cool ideas instead of just looking at the head in front of me and listening to the only album I have on my phone.
One idea I came up with for today post, is to create an instagram story @joshfspear of some cool photos of my journey from Chicago airport to my hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. As today is literally just a travel day and nothing else, its hard to find cool stories and develop a meaning or idea behind the post, so I thought I would take you on the travel day with me and show you some of the cool things Ive seen along the way.

– Vancover to Victoria –

Air Canada have also lost some of our camera gear so its now looking like im going to be staying awake until it arrives sometime tonight. Apart from that, today has been a pretty good day and ended with us taking a small plane across the sailors sea from Vancouver to Sidney at golden hour which was unbelievable. I was speaking to a guy on the plane and he was talking about the food and wild life in this part of town so now im pretty excited to see what this place has to offer. that plane journey was one of those where I will look back in 10 years time and think how cool it was, from see where salt water meets fresh water to the barges pulling logs along the rivers to paper factories. it was all just like another world.

– the best flight I’ve been on in a long time –

We are only here for a few days but I will make those few days worth it. But we are now off to a flying start with a beer and pancakes from Dennys.

– I like this part of Canada already –

If you’ve got some time go and check out @joshfspear on instagram and have a look at my story of the trip, its got some pretty cool photos. I think I’m going to do more stuff like this and now I’ve done one the ideas are coming to me.

Im not sure if any of this makes any sense, Ive been awake for way to long and all over the place, but I hope you get the gist. I’ve been writing this as the days gone on.

B157 – I got the shot though.

Today has been the first day of filming and so far so good, everything seems to be coming together. Its going to be an exciting four weeks I think. Im writing this post just after lunch time on Tuesday, Its been a bit of quite time and thought it would be productive of me to get this done sooner rather than at 11 O’clock tonight. Tomrrow I hit theroad for a 7 and a half our drive, from Toronto to Kingston and back to Toronto, all while filming, so it will take a fair bit of time. I think this is going to be a bit of a baptism of fire, which should be good for every one, I’ve just got to remembered to put everything on charge tonight and then just lock everything down tomorrow.

I’m sat here writing this and Im not going to lie I have only got two photos in the bag, I’m still trying to think of a third photo, I’ve seen a few of these black squirrels bopping around, they are literally jet black Squirrels… if I see one again I’m going to snap it and post it one here, but now I’ve said this I probably will never see one again.

It feels a bit weird writing this post with only two photos in the bag and not at the end of the day, but it’s the better option rather than me missing a day or doing it late tonight and having to wake up really early in the morning.

One thing I have noticed about Canada and if anyone knows more about it let me know, but the sun seems to be a lot lower, the light in the morning is so much nicer and lasts a lot longer than in the UK its doesn’t seem to be golden hour, but more like a golden two hours, which helped me to get that shot of the suburbs today.

This also wouldn’t be any sort of daily blog if there wasn’t a picture of the Kenworth truck, these things are massive and rule the roads, I remember the first time I saw one in the UK and it made those English lorries feel like some sort of go-cart, I cant imagine how hard they are to drive, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a ago. They are sell from anywhere from $30k all the way upto $100k+, and weigh an average of 68,000lbs which is 30.8 tonnes. If you were to look at something like the Volvo FH Lorries, which are pretty common on the roads in the Uk they weigh 14,572Lb, which is 6.6 tonnes. So these American Kenworth Semi trucks are just over 4 times heavier than a common lorry in the UK.

An even better fact is the Kenworth on average gets 8 MPG out of their trucks, in the UK the Volvo FH is getting 9.8MPG to 13.5 MPG with Germany Light (what ever that is, anyone know?), so I guess we are a little bit more efficient… but they definitely get more marks for the overall look, these things are like 30 tonne beasts.

Moving on, hopefully by the time you’ve read this Ive got some cool photo of a black squirrel, if not I’m sorry but I hope you like which ever one, future me has decided to upload. Sorry for rambling on about trucks and lorries, I kind of got a bit carried away with all the facts.

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– this thing is a monster –
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– a nice quite canadian suburb –
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– me trying to take a quick photo of the black squirrel but having my settings completely wrong, least I got the shot though –

B156 – street food at its best

first day proper day and we are off to a flying start, after spending about 5 hours in a shopping centre trying to get our phones sorted with american sim cards, we finally have one working phone. apparently having an unlocked iphone doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work with a Canadian sim card.

but who cares because I’ve finally had a hotdog from a man on a street corner.  and oh my god, it was perfect. Ive always seen people in movies eating them, and never had the chance till now and all for $3 dollars, he even had Saracha sauce and load of different toppings you could help yourself too. it was all worth the standing inside a shopping centre running between the Apple store and other phone stores, though, because as we left and crossed the road, this old school american car stopped right in front of us, I think its a Chevrolet, but I cant find it on the internet. so please does any one know what it is, I’ve spend like half an hour on good and not having much luck. it was literally a case of right place right time, and made my afternoon. so check out this photo and let me know what car it is and if you know the year that would be even better.

In other news, 4 months ago and properly damaged the ligament in my quad muscle training for an ultra marathon and couldn’t walk for 6 weeks literally had crutches the works and since then I’ve comfort eat Pizza and done nothing, well today I woke up early and got in a 15 mile cycle and a 30 minute swim, the first bit of proper exercise I’ve done in 4 months and my quad muscle didn’t hold me back or hurt, so maybe that little bit of physo I’ve had has helped. So the plan now is to find another over the top and stupid challenge for 2018, I’ve got a few ideas and will start planning when I get back in the UK. Mum and Amy Im sorry.

Im now just sat in my hotel room, doing the last little bits to the camera for tomorrows shoot and then going to head out meeting the guy we are filming and have something to eat, all in all though I think Ive beaten the last of the jet lag and back on top form.

Anyway heres my photos from today, please let me know what car that is.

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– this was the coolest thing Ive seen in a long time, what car is it? –
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– the hot dog guy was the second coolest –
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– it would be rude not to post a photo of the Canadian flag –