Surreal, Really

I'm sitting in Heathrow, in the biz class lounge (thank you very much) drinking my Pret A Manger latte and waiting for my flight back home. Two days ago I was standing in the desert in Morocco. Yesterday I sat in an office in Oxford Street in Central London. Last night I had a few pints with people I met while standing on set in Mexico City three years ago.

Film making is a strange and wacky business.

One of the strangest parts is when you wrap, the job is over for most people on set (some people have a bit of packing up to do for another day or so) and you all just say good-bye. Sometimes there is a wrap party. Sometimes there is a flight home with everyone (as was the case on this as we flew a charter plane back to Belfast then London.) But you go a million miles an hour, all night, all day, weather be damned and suddenly, Poof! It's all gone. You make a few new friends on Facebook and sincerely hope to see them all again. I do anyway. (See the above about having pints with friends from Mexico City...)

But now comes the other half of my job and with it, a different set of issues and a lot less fun every day (though I'll need fewer layers). It's just not the same to say "Oh for fuck's sake!" the way Paul does when he's not around to laugh with. Or chatting and chuckling with Sean as I place tracking markers on the greenscreen and he holds the ladder. Or looking across video village to Andrea and doing that Eddie Izzard "Yes!" "No" head shake thing and then laughing hysterically. Hearing Katrina's sweet voice answering my call with "Hello lovely lady!"  Sean B and Sean G always calm and relaxed and helping me out with a laugh or smile. 

What a great group. I'm grateful for the crew I got to be a part of.

And I'm even more grateful to get home.  

(But I won't miss the coffee.)