1 Mojito, 2 Mojito ....

So last night was our wrap party for the show. Considering that most of our team are in Australia and that they are only 7 of us left in London it wasn't that raucous, however we did manage to go through £700 for the evening.

We discovered the best drink ever - Champagne Mojito's. Strong ones I might add, so you can imagine that after a couple the tongues were loosened and the claws were also coming out towards our absent colleagues.

Things I learnt last night:

1) Drinking 2 Mojito's followed by Champagne followed by white wine followed by liqueurs does not make you feel well on a Friday morning

2) Drunkenly informing your colleagues about your sex life is not forgotten about the next morning

3) The generous drunken offer to set up your colleague with a friend is not looking like the best idea in the cold sober light (I think I was trying to earn brownie points)

4) One of our fellow Co-Ordinators has been shagging one of the Producers on the show

5) 7 woman + copious amounts of alcohol = Loud, giggly and tactless entertainment

6) Saying how stupid it is when Creatives call a TV show a "Film" does not go down well with the Creative at the table. (Especially as she earlier was referring to "the films" she has made)

7) Informing your Production Manager that you won't be in to work until 1130am and then showing up at 945am scores you massive Brownie points

This was followed by an extended lunch this afternoon with 4 of us who then proceeded to slag off our counterparts in Australia.

Oh how I do love the fickleness of TV

P.S: Tonight is the final of the show and Jason is in the last 3. I don't think he is going to win but he shall soon be home for me to stalk.

I'm just too sexy for this blog

We had a couple of visitors in the office this morning - The Right Said Fred brothers. Who here remembers them?

I loved that song when I was a kid - we used to prance up and down miming the words - we really though it was just the coolest song ever. Unfortunately now I hear it, cringe and wish that I didn't know it, but such is life.

I do love the two of them though. When I met them at one of our previous shoots I just had the overwhelming desire to beg Richard to say it - I desperately wanted to hear him utter those words! I could just see the conversation unfolding in my head ...

Miss M: That shirt looks really good on you

Right Said Fred Brother: Thanks

Miss M: Tilts her head knowingly In fact it almost looks too good on you ...

Right Said Fred Brother: Umm ... ok, thanks

Miss M: Do you not feel too good in it?

Right Said Fred Brother: Worrying stare No ...

Miss M: Puppy dog eyes Oh come on, just say it!

Right Said Fred Brother: Say what?

Miss M: Stamps foot on the ground Please, please, please, just say it now!

Right Said Fred Brother: Backing away slowly I think I might need my bodyguards now

*Sighs*

It would have been beautiful though ...

P.S: Two more nights of J, but I think he might get voted off tonight. I am now slightly off him though, I saw him filing his nails on last nights show. No manly man is supposed to do a thing like that!

I'm baaaack!

Sorry to have been so quiet but I have been at home rather ill.

Actually I've been lying on my couch making vague croaking and moaning noises at whoever walked in the room in my desperate attempt to make contact with my housemates.

Miss M: Groan Muah firsty

Housemate: What was that?

Miss M: Gnee wadda

Housemate: Shame Miss M, you not feeling well?

Miss M: Pleading eyes WADDA PGWEASE!

So yes, today I made it back to work and had some rather good news in my email inbox. For any of you who follow my adventures you'll know that in a week or so I am out of a job and was rather panicked about it. Well I now officially have had my contract extended until mid February with the hopes of there being more after that. The stress is now over. I can have my holiday in Cape Town without the fear and panic of being unemployed!

Now if only people could understand what I was saying when I speak.

Unblock you damn nose! Unblock!

P.S: I only have 3 more days of watching Jason on TV, not sure what I'm going to do after that! Who thinks I should declare my undying love?

The Affects of Sweets on Colleagues

Silence in the office

Production Manager turns to us

Production Manager: I feel a bit weird

Silence ...

Production Manager: Just thought I'd share that

We all go back to work.

The giggles start again

Miss M: I'm never eating Haribo's again

Colleague 1: Ya right

Production Manager: Until Monday that is!

Maniacal laughter starts

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, Sugar, Sugar!

We have a thing called "Friday Treats" in our office; it means that each Friday afternoon someone goes off and buys some sort of treat for the team to munch on - sometimes cake, sometimes chips/crisps or sweets.

Today the one Co-Ordinator came back with 2 packets of Haribo sweets which the four of us quickly scoffed down in record time.

15 minutes later a delivery of Haribo sweets arrived from some lovely company donating them to us (No idea why and I don't want to query in case they get taken away from us) and we've spent the past half an hour eating them. We have normal gummy sweets, sour sweets, strange animal shaped sweets and our person favourite - 30cm long worms that wiggle as you're eating them.

I feel ill.

We all have sugar highs and are giggling and bouncing around the office now.

We all feel ill.

But so good.

Ill.

But good.

Bring on the weekend!

P.S: I'm starting to realise that Jason isn't the smartest tool in the shed - but I'm willing to overlook it because he is just so damn gorgeous!

The Reality Television Awards

I have to thank Mr. R Rabbit for this as it has made my day.

Sometimes I wish that we could actually do this but then I might be out of a job in the future.

Aah, but it would be worth it ....

Go check out the rest of the cartoons - they're really good


P.S: I think I want to marry Jason

Overheard in the Office 2

One colleague to another on Ritchie from ex boyband 5Ive

Colleague 1: Ye, Ritchie was rather gorgeous

Colleague 2: Really? I never liked him in the band

Colleague 1: Well he is hot now, but his girlfriend was so plain

Colleague 2: No!

Colleague 1: I mean she seemed a nice person and all but I'm all about the looks

Colleague 2: Completely straight face Me too, I totally judge on looks as well

TV People are just the key to humanity aren't they?

Reality Dawns

One of the downers of working in television is that the jobs are not permanent, you are only contracted for as long as the show and after that you are out on the street looking for a new job. It's all about timing - as sometimes as your one show finishes up another one is starting that you can go onto - but usually you have to start mail bashing companies and beg for a new contract. Literally.

This morning it dawned on me that I have 3 weeks until my contract here finishes and I'm heading home to Cape Town on holiday. 3 weeks and I'm jobless. 3 weeks?! Least I have the holiday to look forward to but I'm not looking forward to finding a new contract in January.

It's stressful. I'm stressed out and really worried that there won't be anything around. I can't even start looking now to make myself feel better as no one knows what is happening in the new year quite yet. This is the first time in almost 2 years that I haven't had a new contract to move onto already in advance.

This industry is so unstable - is it really worth it? Or this time should I try and find myself an "adult job"?

P.s
Jason is growing a scruffy beard at the moment which I'm not sure that I like ... but he's still hot

For Amusement Value

- During the Rugby World Cup

"Viewer's letters complaining there is too much sport, which is replacing regular programming and the soaps. 'What are you thinking of putting b----- RUGBY on TV on Sunday evening prime time television?"

Hmm ... What was blocked out? ;) It it was football no one would be complaining!

- Regarding a popular Soap

"Dear Sir/Madam. The scene in which two homosexual perverts were kissing we found offensive, in fact disgusting. Most decent people in this country of all denominations, not just Christians, view this behaviour between consenting males as something better left behind closed doors and not shown on prime time TV. Despite what the law now allows we have not yet reached the stage when they can stop us believing what is right or wrong and having the freedom to speak these views. All you have achieved with your ridiculous and nauseating story line is to make sure we will never watch (The show) again as a family. Do you really want to end up with an ever decreasing audience or can you perhaps find some intelligent writers who are not so arrogant that they think the decent majority should be treated with contempt?"

Oh my, are we really such a prudish society that this riles people up to much?

- On an advert

This is my favourite actually

"Viewer complained 'Why does the advert only ever show a white person committing benefit fraud? It is not only white people who commit fraud. This is a racist advertisement'."

Definitely NOT South Africa hey? I've never seen someone complain on this side before ... Have you?

Do people not have anything better to do?

In England you can email to the channels if you have a compliment/query/complaint about a television show that you have watched on that specific channel if you wish to air it. This is called The Duty Log. I enjoy reading the duty log for entertainments sake because sometimes the things that people write are just hysterical.

However on my show I have become the contact for the Duty Office to mail all the complaints/compliments/queries to and the past couple of days have been spent finding out what a certain song is, where the celebrity got their dress and other mundane stupid things. There is one that has stuck out to me though and we've all been having a good giggle over -

"I write regarding your ad prior to the (show), which features a very high pitched whistle, this noise is terrifying our King Charles Dog Lady. At the moment we are having to sit to watch (The Channel) with the sound turned down, I don't think for one minute that we are alone with this problem, there must be other dogs out there suffering from your high pitched whistle please on behalf of Lady an all the other dogs STOP YOUR WHISTLE. P.S.You could be losing thousand of viewers over this + its so cruel."

Seriously? Is this person serious? Why can't they just mute the volume when they see this ad? Or better yet, who the fuck cares?! Seriously do people not have anything better to do with their time?!

P.S
Jason is getting even hotter

My name in lights

There is something about the thrill of seeing my name on television that I never can quite get over. I'm like a little child at Christmas waiting to see it and then bounce happily around the living room afterwards with the joy of receiving that long desired for present.

Last night was no different - I forced my poor housemates to watch with me and then texted about 20 people harping on about how wonderful it was. Actually the show was really good so they should have been watching it to begin with!

It got me to thinking about why I love seeing my name up there so much still. I mean it isn't the first show and it definitely won't be the last, but for some reason I get the same thrill every single time.

Perhaps it is because I still do not consider myself "cool" enough to be working in this industry. I was a total nerd all the way through school - I was not the most liked and in fact I struggled so much to become one of those "in crowd people" that they all just laughed at me. I think that seeing my name on the screen is like 2 fingers up to those super cool, beautiful, popular and well liked people and saying to them:

Who you are in school means jack shit in the real world - look at what I've accomplished and look at what you've managed.

If I could go back and redo it all I would just not care who my friends were for their popularity but more for their actual friendship.

By the way, Jason is just sooooo hot!

The Cat is Out of the Bag

So the show I work on officially announced the names of the "Celebs" which are taking part this year.
What has upset me though is that we have kept it secret for this long but apparently we have a leak within the team somewhere as yesterday one of the trashy newspapers printed the entire lineup correctly other than 2 people.

One of the people is Jason "J" Brown from the old boy band 5ive. Who remembers them? I LOVED them and J was just the hottest thing ever. Now let me tell you he still is. Wow that man is drop dead gorgeous. We've all been fighting over who gets the privilege of marrying him - the other Co-Ordinator and I are going to get in to a cat fight over him I swear.

Back to my original point though - we have a leak. I can honestly say that I would not have been able to sell the names to the newspapers. I've worked so hard on this show that I just couldn't. What type of person does it take to do that? You might get an awful lot of money but is it worth it? I couldn't live with myself.

Could you?

Jason is so hot.

*drool*

Is it time to go home yet?

In an industry where we all work so hard, put in many unpaid hours of overtime and usually work straight through our lunch break, what is the problem with actually leaving on time occasionally?

Yesterday I had a really slow day. There wasn't much to do and I wasn't feeling very productive so when the clock ticked closer to 6pm I started to get really excited about actually leaving on time and getting home before 7pm for once. But then I thought - does it look bad if I leave at 6pm on the dot? Should I wait around? What is the protocol?

We all seem to have this standoff round the time of 6pm as none of us want to be the first to leave because we think it looks bad; but if I'm not actually doing anything why can't I go? I usually end up working from 9am-8pm anyways so what's wrong with leaving on time every so often?

I felt guilty yesterday. I suddenly started thinking that this might look bad, that I might not get offered another contract, that my boss will think I'm a slacker and that I'm not working hard enough.

*slap*

Get over yourself Miss M! Work isn't the be all and end all, leave on time every so often!

I have a new toy!

I have been given the blow up kangaroo as a present.

He is now perched overlooking my desk.

I like him.

I shall call him Steve.

Steve the Kangaroo.

It has a certain ring to it.

His "penis" still bothers me somewhat but I am making peace with it. I am trying to figure out how to take him home with me. I could deflate him and then blow him up at the other end.

Actually this thought process is ending now.

Does being relatively famous turn you into a moron?

This is a question that has been plaguing me over the past couple of weeks. These so called "celebrities" that we are working with seem to be even more absurd than my creative team. In fact I must say that the Creative's have seemed like rational human beings of late and I have even grown relatively fond of them (This probably will fade with time but at the moment they're my new favourite people).

My latest least favourite person has moved from taxi idiot to the gentleman who was supposed to be travelling to London today - I say supposed to because so far this hasn't happened.

10am
Miss M changes his train ticket as he decides he can not get on the train he asked us to book

1pm
Miss M gets told that he missed the train we put him on

2pm
We find out that he didn't really miss it but just didn't want to get on it as now he is booked onto a 3pm train instead - even though if he had missed it he could have gotten on to the 2pm train!

Now this might all sound very trivial but we have a crew booked for filming with him this afternoon and we can not cancel a couple of hours before hand as they still charge us. He is costing us two filming days and in a situation where time really does equal money and where we need to get it filmed TODAY as tomorrow is already booked up he is now our least favourite person in the office.

I hate working with celebrities. Give me children and animals any day.

A Good Giggle

I found this really amusing.

Our most pushy contributor ever - so horrid that I feel the overwhelming urge to throttle her - just had her agent call in about a car that she is in at the moment which we apparently organised and it apparently isn't going in the correct direction.

Well that would be correct since WE DIDN'T ORDER HER ONE!

So basically she got in some random strangers town car and is now very confused.

Eh, she deserves it.

The insanity

Midday

Producer: Miss M, can you please set up our shoot for Monday. We need a call sheet put together

Miss M: Sure. Can you just email me the details and I'll figure everything out for you

Producer: We don't know yet.

Two O'clock

Miss M: Any ideas yet on those details?

Producer: Not yet, I'll let you know ASAP

Three O'clock

Miss M: Know them yet?

Producer: Nope

Four O'clock

Miss M: I'm still waiting

Producer: I know.

Quarter to Five

Miss M: Seriously guys, I need to know soon! These take about 2 or 3 hours to set up!!

Producer: We're not finalised.

So would someone please tell me how I am supposed to put a shoot together when

1) We don't have a location

2) We don't have an overnight hotel for the celeb

3) We don't have crew

4) We don't know any times

I'm not a miracle worker people!