Stress City, Tea and Kittens

Hello again the blogiverse,

Time for a proper update, now that I've got the hang of this thing, and the temporarily overenthusiastic SafetyNet filtering has been rectified...

We're in the last week of note writing here, and as you might expect, the presenters are just a little bit stressed out as the Big Bad Scary Deadline (tm) comes flying towards us. Where last week cheery queries of "Want a tea?" from colleagues going on a hot water run were met with a smiling thanks, now they're being greeted with staring eyes and a growled "WHAT DO YOU WANT?". James simply has no toys left in his pram.

Meanwhile Jodie is doing her usual impression of some kind of bionic life form able to control and coordinate five bazillion things at once as she ensures all the venue bookings, your places, the hotels, the hire cars, the lorry, the catering and the positions of the planets are all just exactly as she'd like them to be. From our dullard male perspective, this seemingly easy female multitasking thing looks horribly complicated...

Bill is freshly back from holiday in the States (just about over the jetlag) and is getting stuck in to all the various shiny pieces of kit, demo and display equipment which need to be ordered, repaired, encased and configured.

I took the liberty of taking a few phone camera pics of everyone in the office yesterday to show you, so here we go (and fingers crossed I can insert images into this post without getting it wrong):


Here's James, doing his best not to look stressed, and continuing in his lifelong aim of getting a sponsorship deal from any company which makes Earl Grey teabags. In the spirit of assistance, I'll pass on his recommendation of the particular brand gripped in his hands - apparently, Tesco Finest is "the best Earl Grey in the world". ("Other teabag brands are available"). Personally, I think it's just some bizarre kind of Jean-Luc Picard worship which allows him to say "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" as often as possible.


This is "The New Boy", Michael Oakes. You will note that he isn't having to pretend to be happy. He is worrying both me and James, since he seems to be impervious to the stress and angst which overcomes us during writing, his writing is good, and most terrifyingly of all, he seems to be funnier than both of us. Clearly, some elaborate form of revenge is to be planned here...


This is me, not doing a very good job of pretending to look relaxed, but a much better job of holding my gut in. My mug is, you will be happy to hear, filled with normal tea, not the crime against nature which is Earl Grey.


Bill wasn't actually in the office when we took the pictures, but here is his permanent legacy to our 'pod' in the office - the Calming Kitten. Whenever anyone gets too stressy, we stare at it for a little while and everything is right in the world again. (Those of you who are also Mighty Boosh fans will understand the 'photo of kittens' approach to stress management, after its efficacy was proved by Naboo.)


Jodie here, not so much pretending not to be stressed, more barely hiding her "The second you put down that camera Day, I will kill you" expression. She's not great about having her photo taken, so in deference to her I have provided an alternative version below which I think she'll be happier with: