So at the end of my second week on sabbatical, I’m feeling a lot better than a week ago. The cold is just about gone and I’ve joined the Bannatyne gym in Kilburn, and been three times already. Aiming for four times a week, and there’s a pool there so going to attempt the occasional swim too and see if I can advance past the granny breast stroke and back towards my school days level of swimming ability.

Other than fitness, I’ve also been enjoying the unseasonal sunshine, laying out in London Fields on Tuesday with my mate Spencer after a dip in the Lido, and in Regent’s Park on Wednesday catching up with Doug. So nice to finally feel warm sun on the skin after so many months of cold and misery. I’m very much hoping this spring and summer is going to be a good one weather wise, what with me not being stuck in the office for the whole time. Being out and about also gave me opportunity to take my newly acquired Olympus OM10 for a spin – got a fair few shots but still a few left to take on the roll. A little review will be forthcoming once I’ve finished it off and scanned in the negs, but at this stage I’m enjoying using it and finding it less cumbersome than the Zenit TTL which has been my constant SLR companion since doing A-Level photography almost 20 years ago.

In my pursuit of new experiences, I volunteered to help a friend of a friend with a video for a Kickstarter campaign for a film she’s made that needs some money to finish off. I thought I was just going to be an extra, and then an email came through with a line to learn! I suddenly thought I was going to have to do some real acting and was running various permutations and interpretations of the words through my head, wondering who, if anyone, I might have to act against.

As it turned out, when I arrived at Victoria Park for the filming, EVERYBODY had the same line, and eight of us there were to pose in the park and all say it at the same time, which took the pressure off a little. It all went pretty well, took less than an hour and I was on my way home.

Talking of filming, preparations stepped up this week for the recording of the first pilot episodes of a comedy web series that I’m involved in. At some point I’ll do a more detailed post about the series, but briefly my role includes that of cameraman and editor. After much deliberation, we’ve decided my Nikon D7100 will do as a video camera, and this week I got a rig to mount it on and a viewfinder attachment so I can actually see what’s happening on the screen and actually have a chance of getting the focus right. A few test shots have had some promising results, so hopefully it should work fine and look great. The director calls “action” on the first scenes next Sunday, so I’ll have more to write about after that.

Finally, this weekend has been all about my mate Philip who came down to London to stay and celebrate his birthday, so after an impromptu visit to the Science Museum, a few of us had some very enjoyable drinks down at the Retro Bar, and then a good old dance at Duckie. Bumped into quite a few other friends there that I hadn’t expected to see, which was great. As usual, the unplanned nights are often the best.

Today me and Philip took a trip to Camden Lock Market before he headed home. It’s been a long time since I’ve properly been into the market at the weekend, and it’s a long time before I’ll do it again!