"Diary of a former Courtyard student:
How I'm coping with Covid-19"

Catchup since July 11th, September 6th - September 12th, and Goodbye! (Or Goodbye For Now)

"Two months ago was the last time I typed up and published a blog, since then Ms. Vidal and I have been on a break, she was going away, I was going to be busy especially with work, so a break after doing this weekly for over a year was very well needed, and now here we are, back, for the 64th blog, and quite possibly, the last one. The most appropriate way to begin this blog is to tell you what I've been up to the last two months, not everything obviously and not every single detail, but a lot of stuff I remember, and a lot of significant memories, and it might take a while, and chances are this could be the longest blog of all of them, which is very suiting for this quite possibly being the last blog. To begin, I'm just going to let you all know that this isn't in any order, I'm going to type in whatever I remember, and if I forget something, then oh well, firstly, work, yep, work, work has been a mixed bag, some shifts can be repetitive while some aren't, this job has also made me realise that the majority of the human race are a bunch of idiots, questionable changes that make no sense and three weekends in a row either the Northern Line or the DLR was closed affecting my travel to work, the realisation of the third week in a row of this happening made me almost breakdown, I crouched down, hands on my head, and said to myself "not again, this can't be happening again," so hopefully by the time you all read this I have been able to resolve this situation, because the travel when working on weekends is somehow even more ridiculous than rush hour travelling, I actually worked one evening which was an Autism Friendly event, which turned out to be quiet and not as many families as I expected turned up, so that was a shame, on a plus note I now have my own locker so that's really cool, me claiming the locker made me go "this is my territory and you shall not take it from me." I've been trying to go to the gym more, on an average I've been going to the gym somewhere from twice to four times a week, and I'm seeing slight improvement in myself, slow and steady and I'll eventually get there. I went to see a chiropodist not that long ago, this was due to really hard skin on my feet that was also causing me occasional pain at work when standing for long periods of time, the chiropodist I saw was really nice, and her and I chatted away; when she was done, she told me I had ten corns in my left food, no wonder it sometimes hurt; once I was done, I felt like I was walking on air. I am now double vaccinated, went to London Bridge to get my second jab, and I felt completely fine, just had a little bit of dizziness and that was it. A few days after the Euro Finals, I think it was 2 or 3 days after, I met up with Ms. Vidal, we thought to meet to discuss my blog, and to see each other before the start of the summer holidays; I met her outside The Courtyard before we went to The Famous Cock, and now I can hear the immature laughter from whoever is reading this right now, including me; anyways her and I had a drink, and chatted away before going our separate ways, and it was really nice, I believe it was either an hour or hour and a half, but yeah it was really nice nonetheless, and still feels surreal that I'm meeting up with one of my old teachers, who is also now one of my friends, and work colleagues, what is life right now? I returned to my drama classes on Thursdays, it has been hard to attend them with so much going on, with work, and some days I'm just too tired to attend, but I've been back for a good month or so now, and it's been really nice being back. I've been to the cinema twice, I saw The Suicide Squad at the BFI IMAX with Jack in early August, and I saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings also at the BFI IMAX, also with Jack, just over a week and a half ago. I've been to the theatre a couple of times since the last blog, I saw Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre on July 28th, Blud with people from LNSEN and some friends at The Iris Theatre on July 29th, it was a one man show my friend did, Back to the Future The Musical at the Adelphi Theatre with a friend of mine on August 25th, The Rocky Horror Show at the Orchard Theatre on September 1st, and Singin' In The Rain at Sadler's Wells, my old workplace, on September 4th, and there's another one which I will talk about later on. Myself, Mum, Frankie and my brother in law actually helped Jack move some new furniture into his house from my aunt's neighbours' house, and that was tough, but it was worth it for him. I also attended wrestling viewing parties at the Sports Bar and Grill on Old Street, these viewing parties are like screening events for wrestling pay per views, and both of those were a lot of fun, definitely more fun than watching it on the TV, or mobile phone or laptop at home. I forgot to mention this in my last blog but I'm now on a prescription for anxiety, Pregabalin, I take two capsules in the morning and two in the evening, and as of recently, they've been working; at the start it was weird, I kept feeling the feeling of something being missing, me not feeling something, and it would drive me mad, that's how use I was to being anxious, but now I do not miss the feeling of something hitting my chest, or head, or both, and the beginning of sweat building alongside it, I've had glimpses of those feelings, but nothing bad. I'm going to bring up work again to mention that on one of my work days Mum and a family friend came to visit me which was really nice, I got to see them during my lunch break, and the family friend had to head somewhere so Mum and I travelled home together, we were going to get the boat but the wait in the hot weather would've been too much, so we had a take a long way, and since the DLR was closed that meant taking the 188 bus to North Greenwich Station, the Jubilee Line to London Bridge, and the Northern Line to Angel, what a drag. My Mum and I would see that same family friend for her birthday a month later, she had a friend up who brought a dog, his name was Berty, and he hates men, seriously, he hates men, unless they're throwing him a ball, plus he did this really cute thing where if you told him to beg, he'll stand on his back two legs, and put his two front paws together. Carrying on with the birthdays, it was my Mum's birthday last month, she turned 57, and we went out for lunch at a cafe at Exmouth Market, it was me, Mum, Dad, and little Albert, Frankie couldn't make it because of work so he did something with Mum on another day. To carry on even more with the birthdays, it was my birthday a month and a half ago, 25 years old, I am now in my mid 20s, that is crazy; my birthday was quite eventful, before my birthday I saw a friend that evening, where the clock struck midnight and he was the first person to see me as a 25 year old, I would then get home around 3am; during the day I had family members come up to see me, and then during the evening I went to The Shakespeare's Head with a bunch of friends, before going to The Angel Wetherspoons afterwards, but then when it came down to myself and another friend, we went to Chicken Lickin' to get something to eat before going our separate ways, I would then go home, eat, and then go to Dartford to see another friend for a couple of hours before heading home, went to bed, and staying there until 5pm, now that's what I call a birthday. Finally the last thing I want to talk about is the screening for Psychopath, yep it happened, it finally happened, and what an eventful day, evening, what an eventful everything; the event was attended by just under 50 people, and got a lot of praise from everyone there, after we showed the film there was music on, and at one point the song Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners came on, and there's a bit towards the end where it slows down and slowly it picks right back up, and I was doing this squat dance, squat down, kick the right leg out, squat down, kick the left leg out, and repeat, and after doing this repeatedly I feel something go in my left leg and land on my bum and I thought "did I just break my leg?" got up straight away, checked my leg, we were all good; my biggest takeaway from this event was that this was probably the first time since before the first lockdown for most people that they got to have a get together like this, and have fun like this, and we gave them that, and that alone means so much to me; the event ended around midnight and we went back to Jack's where myself and a few others stayed until 5am; very proud of and have so much love for everyone involved in the film and the helping out with the screening; I could feel the effects of the screening on my body, my legs from the squat dance and of course being on my feet for most of around 15 or so hours, a funny feeling in both ring fingers due to a lot of carrying, in particular things in plastic bags, and that messed up the blood flow in my ring fingers, and I would then get pains in my neck and upper back, the screening was on a Thursday, I was meant to go to work on the Saturday, but my body was in such pain I was up most of that night and couldn't go into work, first time I've taken a sick day on my job. So yeah guys that's most of what I've been up to the last two months, I know I didn't go into detail on everything but could you imagine if I did? How long would you guys be here reading this? I can't put you guys through all of that, come on now! Now, let's get to what you were all here every week for, for possibly the last time, let's see how my week was!

Kicking it all off with Monday, I didn't have the longest sleep Monday due to getting home around 6am after a viewing party I attended, and I had to make a booking for my Mum and my Auntie Sally, wait Billy, who is Aunt Sally? My apologies, my Auntie Sally is my aunt that lives in America in the great state of Georgia. This booking was for ABBA, who are reuniting after 40 years for a concert residency called ABBA Voyage, which at the moment will be in London in the special venue being built in the Olympic Park called ABBA Arena, and will feature ABBA as these virtual avatars dubbed ABBAtars, which will be them, but the technology used will make them look 40 years younger, the next part I will copy and paste from Wikipedia because I can't reword this next bit in anyway, the digital versions of ABBA have been created with motion-capture and performance techniques with the four band members and the team from Industrial Light & Magic, the company founded by George Lucas, in what is the company’s first foray into music, now that's groundbreaking. I had access to the presale on Ticketmaster, and once I was in, I was waiting in a queue of 3000 people, and as the numbers dropped, my wait to the front of the queue got quicker. Eventually, after half an hour, I reached the front of the queue, and in I was, to select seats, I was on Sunday 29th May, and somehow found three seats available, the seats were £75 each, much lower than I thought considering that it's ABBA, it's ABBA guys, IT'S 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING GUYS!!!!!!!!!!! When trying to book these seats, I'm told to log in to my account, which doesn't happen for every booking on Ticketmaster, and guess what, I forgot my password, and I panicked, I had three minutes to guess my password or I was done, and after three attempts, I get it right, I put in my card details, I wait for the next minute with the most anxiety I had since the penalties at the Euro 2020 Finals, and then I get the confirmation page, followed by the confirmation email, ABBA Voyage here we come! A few hours after this my Auntie Sally confirms with us that she booked her flight, she'll be staying in London for a week, and the concert is the day before her birthday, very exciting times for the Chandler Family. The rest of the day I just chilled and relaxed, after a hard and long weekend at work and being up all night the previous night, I think a lazy day was well earned. That evening, after getting out of the shower, I was in a bad way, I was constantly sweating, coughing and a blocked nose which really affected my breathing, at this time I was trying to get over a cold so I either was getting the worst of it out of my body, or it was symptoms from the second COVID vaccination jab I got from a few days prior; I also tested myself just to make sure I didn't have COVID, and luckily it was a negative test. Once I woke up in the morning, I felt fine, as if nothing even happened.

Following that up with Tuesday, I began Tuesday with going to the gym, where I worked on my chest, shoulders, triceps and thighs, I've also recently at the gym began doing Barbell Squats which I have gotten very confident with, and with the work done on my thighs already, I finished my last rep with my legs shaking, definitely need to give them a rest from working out for the next few days. Later on I took a trip to Wimbledon by getting the Northern Line from Angel to Euston and then getting the Victoria Line to Vauxhall where I took a South Western Railway train to Wimbledon. Once I got there, it was 5:30pm, and it was hot; I then arrived at the The Wibbas Down Inn, which is a Wetherspoons opposite the New Wimbledon Theatre, and I met up with a friend where we had two drinks, had a laugh, spoke about films and wrestling before I left around 6:40pm; I was about to see Waitress, it was my 2nd time seeing it after the 1st time which was 2 and a half years ago, and this production felt big, with casting like Lucie Jones who was in the sixth season of X Factor, and represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision in 2017, Sandra Marvin who has appeared in programmes such as Citizen Khan, Emmerdale and Call The Midwife, Evelyn Hoskins who has an incredible line of work in theatre including Spring Awakening, Carrie, Mrs Henderson Presents and Bonnie & Clyde, and, the casting that I was most excited about, Matt Willis, who is one third of Busted, my childhood right there, won the sixth season of I'm a Celebrity, and appeared in Emmerdale, Birds of a Feather, Flashdance the Musical, Wicked and Little Shop of Horrors. Due to COVID everyone who booked tickets had allocated arrival times, mine at 6:40pm, 50 minutes before the show started, and had to show proof of a negative COVID test, I couldn't use my vaccination card for another week and a half, and the theatre itself is incredible, it's absolutely massive, and I had a phenomenal view of the stage from my front row seat in the Royal Circle, if I had any flaws, just a nitpick, is that when a lot of people are around in the theatre, and I mean by the counter wanting to order a drink or buy some merchandise, hanging around or waiting to go to the toilet, it can get very cramped. The show overall was just like the last time I saw it, absolutely fantastic, great humour, great musical numbers, terrific choreography, it was all absolutely wonderful, and you know a musical is special when a musical number that isn't even the last musical number gets a standing ovation from everyone, what a show. Afterwards I went straight home, taking the South Western Railway train to Waterloo, and getting the 341 bus home.

Next up is Wednesday, and Wednesday was a productive day, I began Wednesday by seeing a friend of mine, definitely spoke about him in these blogs before, we met in primary school, and reconnected through drama classes; we met outside the Tesco's near where our primary school was where we both got meal deals, and we then went to Spa Fields to sit in the sun, eat our meal deals, and chataway, it was nice! Afterwards I went to The Courtyard to see Ms. Vidal, first time we saw each other in two months, last time being just before the summer holidays, and for an hour we had a nice catchup, kept at a distance as she had a cold, just like me, either from the inconsistent weather or maybe flu season is coming sooner than expected, and we also talked about the future of the blog, LNSEN, the screening, and something for me to do that is Courtyard related, something about helping plan days out for the sixth formers every month and a half, that should be interesting, she really likes working with me! What can I say? I'm very open and optimistic! Later on during the evening I went to the gym, did a very similar workout except for the Barbell Squats, I did however do some work with the dumbbells and that was refreshing as that section of the gym is normally full, I also bumped into one of my friends from drama class which was quite a surprise, overall I had a good workout to end a very productive day! Also it is very likely that this is the last hot summer day of the year so that's a shame.

Now it's Thursday, and Thursday was also productive, Nan came up with Dotty, we haven't seen Dotty in ages due to her having fleas, but here she was, back as if she never left, and she was very well behaved; one of our neighbours came in and Dotty did react a bit funny, but calmed down after a minute, she also tried climbing up Mum after sitting on her lap, which has me thinking that she is more open and affectionate towards women; I also gave her a treat, it was massive so I had to split it into pieces, I rolled one piece past her and she caught it, I also took two little pieces and placed them in either hand, she was conflicted on what to pick, but she picked the treat on the right hand, and she did this the next two times I tried it, she is so great. I went to the gym again, did pretty much the same workout I did the day prior, and that was decent. The evening came and I went to drama class, and this was a good class, I did an improvisation with someone in the class where I was a stockbroker falsely framed for fraud in a prison talking to the person that put him there, I personally found this to be one of my better performances in class. There was also a movement piece we had to do where we had to get in a pair and do a march, yeah I couldn't be asked for this to be honest, I done all my work for the night guys give me a break, however the person I did the marching piece with, was the same person I did my first improvisation with at the Anna Scher Theatre 6 years ago this exact month, unbelievable. My acting for the night wasn't done there guys, as there was a section in class where two people were randomly called up, told to be a certain character, and then act it out on the spot, I was chosen to be a superhero, and the person I did this with was, I can't even remember the word but it's like a person that does a variety of jobs including cleaning and stuff like that, not a maid but another word; and with this superhero I had to be, I wanted to take a different approach to it, be a superhero that just couldn't be asked anymore, same stuff different day, given up on the world as you cannot repair it, given up on trusting the law, given up on the human race, he just doesn't care everything is just a choir for him, however my teacher did want me to take the obvious approach with the normal superhero that tells you to eat your vitamins, say your prayers, look at these muscles they're natural and really big! After class a lot of us went to the Shakespeare's Head, I couldn't stay until the end as I needed to go home and get ready for work, yep, you guys maybe dreading, you guys might even be excited for this, but the potential last three days of this blog, are all work days.

Fridays aren't fun anymore, because I work Fridays and weekends! Another original one for you. So I went to work, and was put onto one of the streets for the day, I don't mean the streets outside, there are two areas in the museum on the ground floor, East Street and West Street, and I was on West Street, one of the streets are dreaded by some of us as all we do is either stand around, or walk up and down continuously, and the transparent roof letting the heat in doesn't help at all; the ground floor children's gallery was now open so that gives whoever is working on the streets more to do; it was a quiet day especially with kids being back to school, and it all flew by. There's not really much to note about this day except I did have some trouble locking up one of the galleries at the end of the day, and that's it really.

First half of the weekend has arrived with Saturday, I believe that's another original one. On this day at work I was located in the Tutors to Windows exhibition, where I've been most of my work days since May. There wasn't much to note about this shift, it was fine, yeah, it was fine, I honestly do not know what else to add, maybe there's one thing I can add, when people are told the museum is closing at 5pm, they really take their time, especially in the toilets, they're either really testing our patience, or they just don't want to leave.

Finally it's Sunday, possibly the last day I'll ever type about in these blogs, with my last day of work for the week, and I was back on the Streets with East Street, chances are this could be like Friday, or it could be hectic, because for some reason, Sundays are the busiest days for museums, which doesn't make any sense. The first half, even more than half of this day was more quiet than usual for a Sunday, and then, as soon as I came back from lunch, for the last 2 hours and 40 minutes of my shift, the busyness was turned up to a hundred, from the calm 40 minutes prior to that moment, it was night and day, and on West Street where there is a little gallery for the Battle of Trafalgar, with a glass in front of the painting, it prevents people from getting closer to the painting including putting a hand over it to point at a specific detail or anyone leaning in closer, in the space of 10 minutes, the alarm goes off twice, I was in communication on the radio to Control (they're security of the museum) for the first time, and then the second time when they informed me, I rolled my eyes, headed to the gallery and a guy says "I leaned on the glass," to which I responded in a fed up and can't be asked tone "yeah, I can hear the alarm," like it's common sense ain't it, the glass is there for a reason! As the end of the day came, and East Street was cleared, I had to go to the staircase nearby to wait for those who kept an eye on the first floor to come down, and two or three people came down to leave, and they went in the direction of East Street to head towards Romney Road, which I was fine with, turns out, took nearly two years to find this out but OH WELL, whenever people are leaving during the last five minutes, or gone 5pm, they need to be sent to Park Exit, which a team leader shouted out to me from down East Street, and I'm like "alright, alright" in a higher tone in my voice, I just didn't care, like chill out man I just want to go home, like who cares where they go, I don't, they're leaving aren't they, so what's the big deal? So two more people came down, I told them to go towards the Park Exit, and they walk down, and when they go down, they attempt to take a right by West Street to go towards Romney Road, I TOLD YOU GUYS WHERE TO GO, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! I tell you, people visit museums to find out more stuff and to know more about the world and anything about it around them, but I swear the majority of people that visit museums are absolutely thick, it's shocking! That ended another work week, and ended my week.

So that was another week in the life of Billy Chandler, cor was I busy!? Before going onto anything else I want to give a shoutout to Ceri Godden, former St. Mary Magdalene Academy student, did the injections for my blood tests last year, and is a former work colleague to my mum, she came up while I was typing up this blog and that was really nice. In regards to what I've been watching, I never finished Vikings, yep, this is possibly the last ever blog and I never finished Vikings, not that I was bored by it or anything, it was a really good show, I just had things constantly pop up and have been focused on watching other things, like The Crown, I watched the first half of Season 1 and that was really good, I finished Loki and that was great, I watched Dug Days which was fun and cute, rest in peace Ed Asner, and now I'm currently watching Marvel's What If which so far has been absolutely fantastic. I've been looking at life right now, especially in this country, and how nearly everything is back to normal, and even the recent rumours of a half term lockdown, which doesn't make any sense, I feel that we can't go forward if we keep going back, so we may as well accept that COVID is a thing, it's never going away, and we just have to move on. Before I conclude, I want to give out some free promotional stuff, firstly, the Psychopath GoFundMe is still up, with any funding going towards film festival submissions, so if you want to share or donate that'll be awesome, we also just had two nominations at the London Shorts Festival, for Best UK Short and Best Cinematography which is just awesome; secondly, our next short film, The Dowager, which is a spy film with a twist, has a GoFundMe, feel free to share or donate if you can; and lastly, I mentioned Blud at the Iris Theatre, it is now coming to the Etcetera Theatre, the same theatre I performed at nearly four years ago playing from September 27th - September 29th, if you want to purchase tickets, the link is below, the links to all three are all below. So, I guess this is it, this is the end, 64 blogs over the course of a year and a half, and what a ride it has been, there's been a lot of good, there's been bad, there's been some ugly, but what's a ride without any of these!? I want to thank all of you, friends, family, people I don't even know, for using the time of your day to read any of my blogs, knowing that you want to use the time to read whatever I write about means the world to me, I couldn't feel more thankful. Lastly I want to thank Ms. Vidal, some know her as Elena, I've always knew her as both, I knew her as the teacher, I now know her as a colleague, and a friend, and I want to thank her to giving me the idea to do this blog, for giving me the drive to do this, and being the main reason why this blog has opened numerous doors and opportunities for me, and I know there are people that would thank me for doing these blogs when really, they should be thanking her, she's the reason all of this happened. So, this is goodbye, unless restrictions or a lockdown happen, or if somewhere down the line I test Positive for COVID, we'll see what happens, until then, or not, adios mis amigos los amo a todos!!!"

July 5th - July 11th 

"Howdy doo my neighbours, it's the 63rd blog, how do we keep going? Ask the government regarding this pandemic, and also wondering why this pandemic is still going after 16 months because I think, along with many others, that we have to move on, with the vaccine working and young adults in their early 20s getting their first jabs, it's a great sign! So this is the first whole week of July after June ended last week; this week we had work, obviously, I need to make money, we had the Euros this week, is it coming home? We'll see; we also had cinema, gym made a comeback this week, shopping, a meeting regarding the screening, seeing family and my first COVID vaccine jab, it's a big instalment, so let's get to it!

Kicking it all off with Monday, and how did Billy boy begin his week? The best way he would after being on his feet at work three days in a row, resting, my job is physically, and sometimes mentally exhausting, and I figured the best thing to do on my first day off is just chilling out, resting, and forgetting whatever responsibilities I have for one day, the only thing I really did was write my blog, and that was that, that was my Monday.

Next up is Tuesday, and Tuesday was quite a productive day from what I did. I began the day by doing shopping, I wanted to buy myself a new outfit to wear for the Psychopath screening, I went to a couple of places with the first being H&M, where I picked up a blazer, these blue round frame glasses that I thought looked pretty cool, a necklace with the sign of the cross on it, a 5 pack set of rings that I later find out to only fit my pinky fingers, and a hat, sadly I couldn't find trousers that were my size so hopefully I'll have better luck in another store, plus they didn't have a matching tie, but do I need a tie? I don't know, I'll think about it. Afterwards I went to Gap, Uniqlo and M&S, didn't get anything else but I did get an idea of what to get and where to go next time one of these occasions happened; I also went to Sports Direct to get something. Once I left Sports Direct I got caught badly in the rain, and went into The Angel Wetherspoons to get out of the rain for 45 minutes before going home. After going home I was planning on meeting Mum after work to collect a takeaway, but she told me not to worry about it after how poor the rain was. After having dinner and chilling for a bit, I decided to do a cheeky half an hour in the gym, I didn't make time for it last week, may as well put one in tonight; it was late at the gym so it was lovely and quiet, including me there must've been between 10 and 15 people in there; during the half an hour I did 10 minutes on the cross trainer, and did some work on my arms and chest before calling it a night.

Next up is Wednesday, arguably the busiest day I had all week, it was a day that was absolutely nonstop. To begin the day, I watched most of Investment20/20's webinar on Autism Awareness which Ms. Vidal has a part in, while the webinar was on, I was multitasking, getting ready to go out for the rest of my day, but for what I was there for, was really good. Once I left, I went to the Business Design Centre to get my first vaccine jab, the layout of the inside of the Business Design Centre was like something in a movie and felt very surreal, I also felt very comfortable with those that I spoke to there, and the injection wasn't bad at all, just felt like a tiny pinch, and I felt very happy to be one step closer to being fully vaccinated; in terms of after effects, soreness in my left arm where I had the injection for two days, soreness around the left part of my neck, a bit of dizziness an hour after my injection, and that's all, if you're curious of what vaccine I got, I got the Moderna. Straight away after getting my injection I met Jack, after we met, we walked back to mine to drop off the papers I received when getting my first jab, and we then walked to Sadler's Wells to get the 341 bus to South Bank. Once we got to South Bank, we ended up going to Slice by Pizza Pilgrims, where you can get a whole 14 inch slice of pizza, and even have a pizza that's a whole metre long! There were also 90s arcade machines of games like Donkey Kong, Street Fighter II, Golden Axe, Marvel vs. Capcom and Pac-Man, it was a really good time and the pizza was gorgeous and no, I didn't have the metre long pizza. After this Jack and I spent some time in Namco Funscape before making our way to the BFI IMAX to watch Black Widow, the first MCU cinema release since Spider-Man: Far From Home two years prior, the film itself, I thought it was good, I always found the timing of its release puzzling as SPOILERS, she died in Avengers: Endgame two years prior, and the timing of this release would've been better sometime between after the release of Captain America: Civil War and before the release of Avengers: Infinity War, so basically anytime after May 2016 and before April 2018, and back to the film, yeah it's a good movie, the acting was good for the most part, especially Florence Pugh, who I think is my new celebrity crush, plus she's only a few months older than me wink wink, and David Harbour who I've been a huge fan of since Stranger Things doing another great job, the action scenes are great for the most part though I did question how a character could take a hard fall or be in an exploding car and come out without minor or major injuries, that was a bit ridiculous to me, and there are some characters and some moments, without spoiling it, that did not work, some wasted opportunities, a twist that was like "Really? But why?" and even a moment where I went, family friendly version "ok that's flipping stupid!" and Ray Winstone should never try an accent other than his own ever again, I know it sounds like I'm trashing the movie, but honestly for the most part I had a good time. After that, Jack and I took the bus to Dalston to pick up some stuff for the upcoming screening and then him and I went our separate ways, because I had to take the bus to The Finsbury to watch the Semi Finals match between England and Denmark, and I got there before my friends, the last table left, and this was just under 2 hours before the game started, and then the game eventually started, half an hour in Denmark scores the first goal, dread kicks in, worry that it could be the end already, and then, 9 minutes later, we equalise with an own goal, hope is still there guys! The match eventually went to extra time, which led to Kane, O'Captain! My Captain! Scores the 2nd goal putting us in the lead, which led to the whole outside of The Finsbury losing their minds, jumping around, hugging each other, screaming, shouting, cheering, climbing on benches and tables, and eventually, the final whistle blew, and it was official, England will be heading to their first final in 55 years, and the celebration was even more insane, I was even on one of the benches, shirt off and all, I'm not putting an image of that with this blog, I need to keep that dad bod hidden, and what a night, incredible, now we await the finals this Sunday, Italy vs. England, a game that could go either way, we'll see what happens, and we just have to hope for the best.

Moving onto Thursday, and Thursday was a chilled day, Mum and I popped up to see Auntie Susie for 45 minutes, and then in the evening I met with Jack and Hugs for a meeting to discuss the upcoming Psychopath screening, and the meeting went very well, discussing drink tokens, food menu cards, drink menu poster, going over the event outline, we even played the playlist for the night in the background which Hugs really liked, knew Jack and I made some good song choices, I also bought drinks and sweets from the Tesco's nearby including Haribo Starmix, got a ring, and behind Hugs I got on one knee with the ring, just to see her reaction, safe to say, especially with whatever song was in the background, it was awkward, but hey I was going to have to do that with a Haribo ring eventually, might make that a thing now just to see the reactions from those around. Overall it was a great meeting and made me feel more optimistic with the screening being only two weeks away.

We're going to work on Friday, that's another original one I think, and like what I just said, I went to work on this day, originally I was supposed to be working in the Tutors to Windsors exhibition, however that got changed to All Hands, the children's gallery on the third floor, which I was fine with as it has been at least three weeks or so since I last worked in there, unless it's two, I don't know I can't keep up. Besides the beginning hour, where most of it was quiet, consisted of me forgetting something twice and going back, and the area getting packed very quickly once the clock struck 10:30am, besides that part, the day was fine, plus I finally got to talk with my line manager, she helped me out a lot, really gave me a good talking, even explaining to me why some of the problems I had were happening, all of them made sense, and yeah, I'm really glad I had that talk with her, really needed it. Once I got home, Mum ordered McDonald's on the Just Eat app, remember when myself, Frankie and his friend were waiting for KFC on Just Eat a few weeks ago? Similar scenario happened here, it had been an hour and it was still assigning a driver, Mum ended up meeting Dad and they went to the McDonald's on City Road together to collect it, according to my mum she showed the manager the order, and he advised them to never order from them, which is advice we will happily take!

We're working again and working for the weekend with Saturday, that's definitely an original one, go on Bill! Now I was meant to work in the Tutors to Windsors exhibition like yesterday, but instead of one of the areas inside, I'll be working the exit, which involves me unlocking and locking the entrance and exit doors, plus the rotation has changed from 3 people inside with 1 at the entrance to 2 people inside with 1 at the entrance, which I don't mind, would be nice if we got a paper for the rotation but I guess we have to improvise for now, and honestly, this was the hardest day of the three days I worked this week, at one point I'm walking up and down three different areas in the exhibition for 1 hour and 20 minutes straight, and it was a killer, I was absolutely drained and couldn't wait for the day to end. Once it ended, I was so relieved, and getting home was a struggle too, waiting for the DLR, then waiting for the Northern line, having to walk the stairs as the lifts weren't on the ground floor and far from them, it was just a really hard day, killed me to the point where I was lying flat down on my back on a bed for ages, just lying there daydreaming for what felt like forever, that's what work does to me sometimes.

Finally it's Sunday, I have work yet again, and even bigger, we have the Euro Final, it's Italy vs. England, a match that could go either way, it's quite possibly the biggest football match this country has seen in 55 years, but before we get further into that let's talk about work! So with the rotation changed and not getting the new printed copy for the Tutors to Windsors exhibition, we decided to improvise, stay somewhere until we feel fed up or the need to change places, and anytime someone came back from break they had to be at the entrance until the next person came back from their break, all this I was absolutely fine with as I was working the exit just like yesterday and was glad I didn't had to do what I did the day prior, also at one point I was at the entrance for an hour and 20 minutes which I absolutely loved as I just sit there by a laptop with a scanner, and we locked up the exhibition 20 minutes before the museum even closed which was a surprise, but a welcome one, overall this was a good shift. Now, here we go, the main event, the one you've been wanting to read about this whole time, the one this whole blog has been building up to, it's Italy, it's England, it's the Euro 2020 finals, one team is hosting the finals in their home country and haven't won a tournament like this in 55 years, the other haven't won the Euros since 1968, it's a game that could honestly go either way, and that's one big thing about football, any game, no matter who plays, can always go either way. I arrived at The Finsbury, which was absolutely packed under two hours before the game even started, there were even people queuing up outside, it was ridiculous; as soon as I got there, a friend was asking me for a drink, another was already really drunk, and I only just got there! Eventually, we get to the game, and two minutes, and I mean two minutes in, Luke Shaw, scores, who would've saw that coming, a team like Italy, and we score against them only two minutes in, and when we all calmed down after celebrating like mad, I thought two things, one was "could it be actually coming home?" and the other was "is this against Croatia all over again?" because I had a flashback to the World Cup Semi Finals three years ago on that very day, when we scored against Croatia in the first 5 minutes, and do you know what happened? We lost, we got outplayed during the second half, went to extra time and Croatia won, very similar scenario ended up happening here, first half left us hopeful and buzzing, and then during the second half, Bonucci scores in the 67th minute, a gasp and a silence follows, and Italy were really on to us after that, it really was their game, it was a miracle that they didn't score again, it was miracle we made it to extra time, it was a miracle we made it to the penalty shootout! Extra time comes, no goal, which leads to one thing, to decide the winner, penalty shootout, we all dread to watch it, players dread taking part in it, no one wants a penalty shootout, but there has to be a winner somehow. We all held each other close, arm in arm, hand in hand, will it actually come home? Is it coming Rome? My head would sometimes go into my friend's chest because the pressure was too much, I never felt such overwhelming intensity, we finally get to the last penalty, Bukayo Saka, 19 years old, Arsenal player, wanted to put that in there, come on the gunners; he was put in a position he honestly shouldn't be in, especially with more experienced players that were literally right there, someone that young with less experience than the majority of the team, shouldn't be in such a pressurising position, but here he was, with the whole of Wembley watching, with all of England hoping and praying he keeps us alive, he takes the shot, but it is saved, Italy win, England lose, and you can feel the heartbreak, the devastation, and the sadness all around, we had so much hope and optimism, and we lost it all just like that, it may have been our first final in 55 years, we may have come 2nd out of all the teams that were competing, but how much better would've it been if we won, that piece of textbook history that we would tell our kids and grandkids was not meant to be on this night, I broke down into a friend of mine's shoulder, the long tiring day, the few drinks I had, the emotion rollercoaster that was the finals, and that loss, it all got too much for me, most of my friends were optimistic after the game, we came 2nd, we came all this way, plus the World Cup is next year, I couldn't feel optimism at all, I just nodded my head, said yeah, and faked a smile, we were even speaking to an Italian man afterwards, congratulated him, because it's the right thing to do. I went home after that, one of my friends stayed with me at the bus stop for a bit before going, she told me to text her when she got home, I eventually got home, ate dinner, and fell asleep.

So yeah guys that was my week, very adventurous. With the programmes I've watched, I've just watched the recent episode of Loki, a great episode featuring a terrific performance from Richard E. Grant, cannot wait for the finale next week. Now, there's something I want to talk about, and it's all to do with the Euro Finals, first thing I want to talk about is the match, and how I felt about it looking back, upon reflection, Italy were the better team in the finals, they were the better team in the tournament, and they deserved the win more than us, look who they beat to get to the finals in the knockout stages, Austria, Belgium, and Spain, they easily had a tougher road to the finals than us, big up the Italians, fair play and congratulations to them, and seeing how their country was affected by the pandemic, it is nice to see joy on their faces after what they've all been through the last year, the only problem I saw with them was how did Jorginho and Chiellini not get a red card and sent off, it's crazy how they didn't, unless there's something I missed or don't understand about football; with England I had to question Southgate's approach with substitutions, why bring subs on at the end of a half when you could've made that decision at least 10-15 minutes prior? I have to question Southgate about who he chose to do penalties, especially with Saka who should have never been in that position to begin with, when you have players like Sterling, Grealish, Stones and Shaw right there! I know it wouldn't have 100% guaranteed us winning, but it was just such a questionable decision. In the end, we made it to the finals, something we haven't done in over half a century, and I hope it's a sign that we can and will do better, we've got a good team, but it's a team that can be great and even more, especially with the younger players, they haven't reached their prime yet, some of our best players are only their mid to late 20s, and they've got plenty left in the tank, so here's hoping that we do as good if not better in the next World Cup, next Euros, next anything, or maybe the next time we get to that position I'll be an old man in a wheelchair being taken around by one of my grandchildren, we'll see. The next thing I was to talk about is, would favouritism be the word for it? From the comments I've seen, and memes that have exceeded over 100,000 likes on Instagram taking the mick out of England, either Italy were the big favourites which is fair enough, or way more people hate the England team and maybe the country too more than we realise, it's like, yeah it's your opinion, I just don't recall asking for it. I've also seen comments, posts, tweets and even social media stories from English people, especially those that are left winged, I mean if you're left winged that's fine with me, but then there's too and very extreme left winged, like you could have a different opinion to them especially politically and they'd want you and your family to die in a house fire, bit of an over exaggeration but you know what I mean, I saw one friend that filmed herself, refusing to stand and sing the national anthem, ladies and gentlemen look she's so edgy! It's like, people that live here really hate it here and want to see their own country, their own team and anything about both and anything else related to both fail as much as possible, like why? It's an absolutely toxic mindset! You can love your country and also want those big important changes to happen to make it better! if you have that toxic mindset, you're better off leaving, bye bye, see you later, good luck wherever you go and I hope you're happy. What's also sad is that a lot of people like that, they'll see what those fans did that day, from the hooliganism, the vandalism the fans made wherever they went, running into Wembley without tickets, a lot of those people will see that in the media and all over their social media accounts and get into their heads that it's the majority, and it's not, it's a vocal minority, the majority of England supporters aren't like that at all. I want to end talking about the Euros about something that, seems like it has overshadowed our runner up achievement, and it's the racial abuse Saka, Sancho and Rashford received online for missing their penalties, all footballers miss a penalty during their entire careers, even the best to have ever stepped on a football pitch do, and because three footballers missed their penalties they deserve the blame for England losing and racial abuse? They didn't do anything wrong, they were just doing their jobs as footballers, and now they've gotten racial abuse for it! It don't make any sense, and the sad thing is, there are people out there that see that kind of people as football fans, those aren't football fans, it's a minority of lowlife scumbags that think it's a good idea to throw monkey emojis and the n word around because three footballers missed penalties. If you think that football culture is a bunch of white men going around sabotaging things, disturbing public places in the worst way, creating a mess wherever they go, attacking people and being racist online, you couldn't be more wrong! Football culture is about bringing people together, people from different backgrounds, different religions, different skin colours all coming together to watch and participate in this great game, when our favourites win we rejoice together, when our favourites lose we share that loss together, and you look at the joy the England team and the overall tournament brought this country for the last month, that's football culture, and it's absolutely beautiful! I hope that, especially in front of the cameras, on social media and on media everywhere else we, the majority, can show an example of what it means to be a football fan, and show what football culture really is. Regarding the Euros, I don't know what else to say, I feel like I said everything I needed to say. What I will say next will be quite anticlimactic as I just found this out, so you know Ms. Vidal helps me upload the blogs along with the images, links, videos and all the other stuff, The Courtyard breaks up for the summer holidays this Friday, she's going to Spain for three weeks, and I think after working nonstop, and working together doing this blog nonstop for 63 weeks straight, her and I more than deserve the break. So next time you'll see a blog, it'll be around early September, I don't know if it'll be a weekly continuation of the blogs, or a maybe just a one off to finish these blogs because chances are, September is looking to be a much different world, with all restrictions being dropped and hopefully moving on from this pandemic, we'll see what happens especially with what the government is saying at the time, and so much would have happened by then as well, the screening, I'll be 25 by then, who knows how much has happened at work by then, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Whoever has been reading these blogs, whether it's been from the start, or recently, or just one random week you just came across it and continued, thank you all so much, don't forget to click the link below for the GoFundMe for Psychopath, whether you donate or share, either will be great, and I will see you all in September, for one last time for a month and a half, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!!!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

June 28th - July 4th

"We enter the 62nd blog by saying bye to June, and saying hi to July, which is also my birthday month, as of writing we are under a month away from my birthday, 25, 25 years on this planet, a quarter of a century, and I still don't know what to do, just chill at home with family, do something in the evening with my friends, I have no idea, unless anyone reading this has any ideas, if you guys reading this have any contact details like phone number, social media or email, contact me and give me some suggestions. We're a week closer to the Euros ending, and a week closer to restrictions hopefully being dropped, I have no idea what do expect, the Westlife concert that was meant to happen last August, and got postponed to this August, got postponed again to next August, meaning that my Dad and I would have to wait a total of two and a half years to see Westlife, very questionable decision as to why they wanted to postpone again, but maybe it was just to be safe seeing that the government can change its mind about what to do next regarding this pandemic at any minute, so fair play to them. WWE is looking to do a UK tour in September, shocked that they were coming back so soon, desperate times call for desperate measures I guess, and mine and my friends’ tickets for a WWE show we were meant to see back in April or May 2020, will be eligible for this show, it's not a televised show but I can't complain, it's wrestling live, and it's so exciting to think about. This week, let's talk about this week, we've had the Euros, a meeting regarding the screening I've helped work on and the progress we've made so far, work, cinema, pub, anything else I've missed out on will pop up later on, so yeah, I hope you enjoy it.

Kicking things off with Monday, after how Sunday was I just wanted to have a day in, do nothing, feel nothing, just look after myself as well as I could, that did change however. Last minute changes as I met Mum for lunch, Jack wanted to meet up, and I had to drop off some stuff to my Auntie Susie, Mum and I had a drink at Pret during her lunch break which was really nice, I saw Jack for around an hour and a bit before seeing my Auntie Susie for around 45 minutes, both visits were nice, Jack and I spoke about the upcoming screening and meeting, while I spoke to my Auntie Susie about the breakdown I had the previous day, she would tell me things that would happen to her in her old job, it made me realise what happens with everyone that works with visitors and other people, whether it's in retail, theatre, cinema, fast food chains, even museums like me, you do everything right and follow the rules and the people will come in and treat you like absolute garbage, I truly understand all of these workers now, and all it took was a bad morning on a shift on a Sunday.

Next up was Tuesday, I picked up an order which was to do with the screening, I went to King's Cross to do so, which wasn't bad as it was a bus trip up and down a hill, worst part was that it was raining, and traffic in Islington, particularly around Angel has been awful recently, especially on rainy days, and a lot of cars, trucks, vans and buses were all trying to get the King's Cross which didn't help at all, a trip that should've taken 5 minutes, took at least 20 minutes. I get to King's Cross to pick up the order and then I went home, the order was for two posters, can't recall the exact measurements but it was similar to the size of A0 paper, the two posters were for the Psychopath screening, one for people to take photos in front of, the other for cast and crew to sign, I didn't look at them, I wanted to wait until Thursday to open them alongside Jack and Hugs. Later on I met a friend of mine, the same friend I've been watching The Euros with, the same one that got me into This Is Us, on the King's Cross Victoria Line platform to make our way to The Finsbury to watch the Round of 16 game between England vs. Germany game, a game I didn't have high hopes for, I honestly expected us to lose, the first half was ok, we had a much better pace compared to other games, and then towards the end of the first half, it was like we were playing just like almost every other game we've had in the Euros, and then, the second half came, Sterling scores a cracking goal, a great moment, but I didn't want to get my hopes up, chances are Germany could fight back, and then, Harry Kane, O Captain My Captain, on his knees sliding across the grass, perfectly timed header, for England's second goal, and the place went ballistic, my friend hugs me, rocking back and forth, I knew it wasn't going to end well, my pint, only a quarter of it has been drunk, is then spilt over a man's lap, my friend then goes, I’ll type up the noise and see if you guys know what I'm on about, clap, clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap clap, ENGLAND! I then join in with, my empty pint glass, and a plastic cup, and clinking them together in tune, until the last one, just before we could shout ENGLAND, the glass shatters in my left hand, as everyone cheers, and I show my surprisingly not cut hand to the people around, what a moment. After the game, my friend and I both went home right away, we had things to do, and wow, what a game, now we await the Quarter Finals.

Following that up with Wednesday, where I am working, yep, back at work after what happened on Sunday, I was kind of dreading it because of what happened on Sunday, but it's a weekday, it's a different atmosphere, we'll see what happens. My rotation had me opening and closing the exit, which is one of the easiest you can do in my opinion, especially closing where all you do is double check the toilets, tell people where they need to go to leave, and make sure no one enters; I was looking after the entrance at one point, and this massive school group came, and I had to improvise on the spot, I told one of the teachers there to go to the front desk to get the tickets printed, come back out, divide the teachers and students into groups, each group consisting of 1 teacher and up to 6 students, hand each of them their tickets, and have one group go in and scan their tickets at a time, I was in shock at how well I handled this scenario, all improvised on the spot, and I felt extremely pleased with myself. The rest of this shift was fine, I didn't mind it, though it did get a bit much around 1pm or 2pm, a lot of people entering through the entrance, a lot of people trying to enter through the exit, it got to the point where I was thinking "come on guys, take it easy, it's only Wednesday."

Moving onto Thursday, and Thursday was a very busy day. Firstly I went to Finsbury Park to go to Rowan's bowling, I played two games of bowling with two friends from secondary school, one who I saw recently for a bbq him and his sister did, the other I haven't seen in person in 8 years, we had a drink and proceeded to play the two games, when it comes to bowling I can be competitive and take it a little seriously so whenever I did a poor shot, it annoyed me, in both games I got the lowest number of points, I need to go bowling more often, improve on that swing. Afterwards we went next door to this pub called The Twelve Pins where we had two drinks and had a laugh, reflecting on great memories from secondary school, after the two drinks we called it a day and all went home. During the evening, myself, Jack and Hugs met up at Jack's house to have a meeting to discuss the screening, we finally saw the posters that were printed really well, updated the guest list, touched on prices for drinks and paid for the hall, yep, the hall has been paid, meaning officially that this screening is going forward, could you imagine if they didn't get the money and that's, not going to say the amount yet, wasted? I would cry. After a productive meeting, Hugs went home, and I stayed with Jack to cook a Pasta Bake, with instructions from my Mum and making his own spin on it, we cooked it together, and ate it together, and easy to say that it was lovely, will definitely be cooking another Pasta Bake with each other again one day.

Now it's Friday, and Friday started off with Nan and Dotty coming over, and here's an interesting story about Dotty, a week or two prior Frankie and Mum came over to see them, and Dotty wasn't having any of it especially with Frankie, she wouldn't let him stroke her, she'd bark at him, nothing like how she'd be when she normally comes over, and I presumed it was an overprotection thing, like someone coming onto her and her owner's territory, which could be a possible mindset for her but at the same time it doesn't make any sense as these are people she has seen and spent time around with before. Dotty was everything you would expect her to be, and I actually got a treat out with her, which I moved around in my hand, and her head followed the treat everywhere I took it, she's dedicated I'll give her that, and at one point I had a new shirt lying over the top of one of our sofas, she only goes and walks all over it, I also placed two little pieces of the treat on my lap, one on the left thigh, one on the right thigh, expecting her to eat the left, climb on me, eat the right, and either walk over, get down, or sit down, she just takes the left and just sits there, I tell you this little dog is trying to wind me up; she also didn't let me stroke her which I found weird, though she did let me stroke her if she was either on Nan's lap or mine, she did seem tired as well as she she kept blinking, and almost dozed off when she was lying on one of the pillows. Later on that evening, just like a few days prior I met my friend at the King's Cross Victoria Line platform and we made our way to Wood Green Station, he had a little something to eat in McDonalds, while another one of our friends met us in there, and we then went to VUE, where another one of our friends met us, and we saw Fast 9, or F9: The Fast Saga whatever you would prefer to call it, where another friend of us came in during the adverts before the film, and believe it or not it was inside the same screen we saw In The Heights in; the film itself, I know with action films, in particular the Fast & Furious films, the action can be a bit unrealistic but can be cool, can be fun to watch, but this film, takes that to a brand new level, a level where it is absolutely ridiculous, even the writing, from 10-15 minutes into the film, I'm already asking questions, what this, why that, it was so illogical, I began thinking my intelligence was being insulted! The film was a mixed reception, one liked it, one absolutely hated it to the point where he would go up to random groups of people and tell them to not watch it, two I don't think liked it, and I didn't know what to think except that the Fast & Furious franchise was beginning to run out of fuel. We went to Spouter's Corner afterwards for a drink before I made my way home, I get to King's Cross, and a tube to Angel wasn't coming for half an hour, so I left the station to get a bus, a bus wasn't going to come for around 10 minutes, so I just walked home, didn't get home until 12:30am, and this was a work night too!

It's the weekend with Saturday! I think that maybe an original one, and I'm at work, again, I may need to ask about the whole working on weekend thing, oh wait, I will! So on this day I was put down on the roster to open and close the entrance, which after what happened to me last weekend is a superb idea! But nonetheless I was ready to take on the challenge, it's a different day, and fingers crossed it's not like last weekend, so come on world, take me on, MY BODY IS READY AND I CAN FEEL IT PUMPING THROUGH MY VEINS, and they change me, yep, I got myself all pumped up and ready for nothing. So they changed me to the entrance to the Tutors to Windsors Exhibition, which was very straight forward when it came to opening and closing, double check the toilets, set up the laptop and shut it off, sitting there, that's it, and it's great! The day was fine, I definitely did feel there it was dragging at certain points throughout the day, and the dime lighting during the afternoon did not help at all, but nonetheless it was fine, and I definitely had much worse. After the shift I got changed and made my way to The Finsbury which was absolutely packed for the Quarter Finals game between England and Ukraine, I was there with 4 friends and some friends of friends I've never met, and the game itself, let's just say this, I think we all knew that England was going to win this match, but not like that! 4-0, we absolutely destroyed Ukraine, and the place was electric, we're talking no social distancing whatsoever, people climbing on benches including me, beer being spilt, it was as if the pandemic never happened and it was beautiful, I could tell you all the chants we were chanting, but we'll be here all day, plus there's one or two that aren't family friendly, and you all know I have to keep this blog family friendly. I left around 10 minutes after the game ended, buzzing with my voice almost gone, but also felt bittersweet that I had to go straight home, and prepare for another day at work, yeah I definitely will talk about me working on weekends.

Finally it's Sunday, finishing the week off with yet another work day, and this day was going to have quite a bit of changes, so I was in position on the Great Map, and I then see the manager who was working that day, and she told me the changes that were going to be made, including that in the next hour I'll be having a 25 minute break, and that I will be going home at 3:30pm, so I was more than ready to take on the day, but the longer the day went on, the more it hit me that, this is a 6 hour shift, and I only have a 25 minute break, and I will be under this transparent roof the entire time, this is going to be one of the hardest shifts of all time, and it was, it really was. During the later part of my day, I was looking after the Great Map, and a father to a child, the child must've been like 3 or 4, he takes his child's trousers off to make him more comfortable and feel more air during what is a very mucky day, and then the child tries to take his pants off, the dad is trying to stop him, the child ain't having it, I am trying to look away as much as I could, I see another parent look at me and I just say to them "I don't get enough credit for what I do here," and she laughs, at the expense of my pain. There was another point during the afternoon where I'm sitting down at the end of the Great Map, and there was a couple that came up the staircase they shouldn't have came up in, to which I presumed that the person looking after the West and East downstairs missed them, and then, they go over the barrier, to near the Atlantic gallery, and that's where I'm tempted to lose it, I go over to the barrier where a work colleague of mine has told them to go back downstairs and follow the one way system up, which they did, I mean come on guys it's not hard to do, just be decent human beings and follow the signs. Eventually my shift ends, and the manager gives me a pass or a token, I don’t know same thing, for a free drink, which I used for a lovely cappuccino before heading home, by the time I got home it was around 4:55pm, if I was working a whole day I would've still been there closing up. The evening was chilled, I had dinner, had like a 2 and a half or 3 hour nap, continued chilling, and yeah, that's how my week ended.

So that's another week in the book folks, a mostly busy and productive week. In regards to what I've been watching, I'm still loving Loki, that has been absolutely fantastic, 4 episodes down, 2 to go and I am very excited to see what comes next, I definitely need to get back onto Vikings when I can. So now we are going to go into the first whole week of July, I'm off work Monday to Thursday and am working Friday to Sunday which works out well for me, I have another meeting regarding the screening, seeing Black Widow in the cinemas, obviously have the Euros Semi Finals and Finals, can England take it home? Is it coming home? Fingers crossed we can do it, I actually doubt it since we'll have either Italy or Spain in the Finals, but we just have to hope, and lastly, I’m getting my first COVID jab which is very exciting, and I’m curious to see how my body reacts to it, we’ll see what happens. So yeah guys I shall see you all then, take care, stay safe, also check out the link below for the GoFundMe for Psychopath, and also check out below two links for two Autism friendly events happening in late August at my workplace, see you all next week, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/special-exhibitions-gallery/right-royal-night-relaxed-opening

https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/sammy-ofer-wing/youve-been-royally-framed-relaxed-opening

Video- Billy celebrating England's Victory

June 21st- 27th

"This week would've been the most anticipated week of the entire year, beginning on June 21st, all restrictions would've been dropped, and sadly that all changed as of last week. Could you imagine it? If the restrictions being dropped went ahead? Blog 61 could've possibly been the most memorable blog entry out of them all, but now that has to wait for another 3 weeks. which makes this blog entry, just another blog entry, with work, gym, a theatre trip, a meeting regarding the screening, the Euros and that's it, unless I'm missing something, so here we go guys, another week in my life.

Kicking it off with Monday, nothing much really happened on Monday, I just decided to stay in and rest all day, not do much, not worry about anything, and have a day where I can just look after myself.

Next up is Tuesday, which was a very similar day, until the evening, where the England vs. Czech Republic game was taking place, and we desperately needed a draw or a win after the Scotland game. My friends and I watched it at the Old Red Lion in its theatre, when in contact with them and they told me they had the theatre to watch the game, I thought it was a joke, but they weren't lying, a massive projector screen, in a 60 capacity theatre, amazing. It was a good atmosphere, and the game was alright, thought England were decent in the first half with a very nice pace, second half was very similar to how they performed against Scotland, in the end we won 1-0, making it top of our group table and onto the knockout stages, I'm not really hopeful for England, I know we've won almost all of our games but the wins have felt flat, just got to hope that we get better with our next game, because we need to big time! After the game ended my friends and I went to The Angel Wetherspoons for a drink before calling it a night, they were all telling me about Saturday night after I left, and it sounded like something from a movie, do you guys see what these weekend shifts are making me miss out on? Exactly.

Following up with Wednesday, and Wednesday was a very similar day to Monday, only difference was that I went to the gym, worked a lot on my chest, legs and my triceps, felt like it was a really good workout and that I'm making progress with my physique, slow and steady towards my goals.

Now it's Thursday, my first day of work this week and a trip to the theatre, packed nonstop day, at the end of it all, I'm going to be tired, exhausted, and more than ready for bed. My shift consisted of me being in the same two places the whole day, and for a day during the weekday I didn't mind being in this position at all, and overall, it was good! Yeah this shift was good, and it absolutely flew by, especially the afternoon, at one point I thought the time was 3:18pm, turns out it was 4:18pm and I was finishing in under an hour, it blew my mind! If there were any problems I found with the shift it was towards the end when I was locking up an exhibition at the area I was opening and closing on, and a man with sound recording equipment was in there, claiming that there was filming at 5pm, no one told me that, and that kind of annoyed me, and my annoyance looked quite obvious. After finishing my shift, I went straight to the West End to watch Les Misérables – The Staged Concert at Sondheim Theatre, my first solo trip to the West End since, if I can remember correctly, Prince of Egypt at Dominion Theatre in February or March of last year. It did feel surreal, being in a theatre, on my own, but here I was; the show itself was fantastic, and it really made me want to see the Les Misérables that's been around for well over 30 years even more than ever! So that's a plan to make for sure. After leaving the Sondheim Theatre, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, taxis everywhere, people all out to make their way home or continue having a good time, the roads that were all nearly full of traffic, the lights and sounds everywhere, it felt like the West End was back to normal, and it was quite emotional.

After that busy day it was Friday, I think that might be an original one, not too sure. Friday was a day off, so I decided to go to the gym, and like my workout on Wednesday I focused on my chest, legs and triceps, and it was a decent workout, but I personally felt that Wednesday was a much better workout. Later on Jack and Hugs came up, and we had a meeting to discuss the upcoming screening of Psychopath, the GoFundMe for the film is below the blog, and this discussion involved the food, the drink, an outline of the event, how the bar will work and other stuff, I felt like we made a lot of progress and I am very optimistic that we can pull this off.

Kicking off the weekend obviously full of work with Saturday, see there's another original one, so I'm at work again, opening and closing Romney Entrance, and opening a massive gate with a big lockpad is surprisingly easy now. The day all went fine, busy, not many problems, however something did happen during the afternoon, so I was outside for a third of the shift, and I get told by one of the team leaders that it is getting a bit packed inside, so I had to start letting people in by their time slot, so it was approaching 2pm, I had to hold people off from entering, those whose time slots on their tickets were 1:30pm or earlier I let in, and I was holding off quite a few groups of people that were for 2pm, one group was over 6 people, and normally with a group of more than 6 people, I had to contact a team leader, I couldn't tell if my calls on the radio were getting through to anyone, so I went inside quickly to check, and as I was waiting for someone to come, the groups I was all holding off just went inside as if it was nothing, completely ignored me, walked over me as if I was just some dirt on the ground, I just can't win, I do the right thing and people don't care, they look at you as below them, there was also something else that happened a bit earlier where I'm explaining to someone the one way system and I kept cutting myself off because people, right in front of me, just decided to go over or under the barriers, so I could be talking like this "so you just go outside here, and someone's gone through the barrier, and then you see that open door, and someone's done it again," people found it funny, which is fine, I like making people laugh, I hate how it was at the expense of visitors overusing their priviledge to do things their way. The shift besides those two bits was fine, could've been worse, now I need to get through another.

Finally it's Sunday, and here I am at work again, I might need to have a word regarding my work schedule because most of my days are weekends, which initially I was fine with, but then I realised "oh yeah, family normally do stuff or have things going on during the weekend, and I have a social life with friends where I'm mostly required on weekends, YEAH HAVE ME ON WEEKENDS, WHY NOT, GREAT IDEA! Initially I was meant to do the same rotation as Thursday which I didn't mind, it's just on weekends, there's more people, there's more going on, and, I'm just still wondering why they wanted a young adult like me to work on weekends; as I was saying, the thing with a job in this kind of workplace is that you should expect the unexpected, and I can never get use to that mindset, so during the briefing, I get asked by a work colleague to give him the keys, I give him the keys, and became very interested in where I'd be next, maybe the exit, somewhere on the first floor, somewhere on the second floor, somewhere inside or outside the Tutors to Windsors exhibition, nope, back in Romney Entrance after the previous day, I even said to the manager during the debriefing yesterday that it got a bit much during the afternoon, one of the team leaders working today's shift was in yesterday and he had an idea of how much it got for me, which led to him helping out, now here I am, doing the same rotation as yesterday, on a Sunday, which is normally more busier than Saturday, after the majority of the shifts recently being on the ground floor in areas where it gets the most packed, the most busy, and gets the most asked questions from people that somehow can't see very visible signs, I had this paranoia, I've had it on and off for a few weeks, and this paranoia was that someone in office has been reading this blog, getting a kick out of the negatives I'm finding with my shifts, and is just putting me in these rotations for the fun of it, I just felt like someone wanted to break me, and I'm most definitely wrong, I know that, it's just this paranoia that won't go away. So the museum opened, a lot of people came in at opening time, IT'S SUNDAY, WHY ARE YOU COMING TO A MUSEUM AT 10AM, STAY IN BED, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!? The person doing the rotation I was meant to do took my place for 5 minutes, he knew how annoyed I was, and he wanted me to chill out for a little bit, he didn't need to do that, but I was really appreciative of it. A little bit later, I move to the exit, I get told by a work colleague who was just there that there is a family that went straight from the entrance to the cafe, a family member or two came off as funny, she told them depending on capacity they can go through to the museum instead of going back round to the entrance, I knew this wasn't going to go well for me, especially since I'd rather have people stick to the one way system and follow the rules, unless they had health issues or a physical disability then I'd happily let them through; so eventually I come across this family, I'm expecting the worst, and I tell them they have to go back round due to the one way system, and then, they tell me something different to what my colleague said, saying they were told they could go through, I explained that the capacity is just too much during these early hours, and that wasn't enough, they didn't want to go without a fight, so a bit of back and forth later, nothing physical I promise you, I wouldn't do that on the job, I just put my professional side down and said "look, you're making this into a bigger deal than you should, I'm just trying to do my job" and one woman, and this woman was a proper Karen, if you don't know what a Karen is type up "Karen definition" you'll get your answer right away, so this Karen replies, hands to hips, proper know it all says "we're not making this into a bigger thing you are! We're good people!" and I replied with a chuckle "Oh yeah sure!" and she goes "why don't you call your manager?" Which at this point, I had to call someone, these people aren't worth convincing, and this could get way more out of hand than it should, so I contacted a team leader, got through successfully, and I told them someone will be here in a minute, another woman with them said, kind of like a panic, saying what if they go around and they don't get back in, and I swear I tried calming her down, letting her know they will let them back in, but she wouldn't stop talking, and then a team leader comes along, FINALLY, and, he just lets them through, at this point I'm convinced someone somewhere wants to break me and it's working, the cracks in me couldn't be more clear; after he does that I take him to the side and go, and I will say the clean version of this because this is a family friendly website, "Really? I do the right thing and I get treated like a piece of poop for it," and he takes me round the corner, and we talk for a bit, and I end up going on this rant, those people, the rotation, and there's a silence, where he then says "as a team leader, I want you to take a time out for the next 5 to 10 minutes," so I go into the cloak room, Imy face is in my hands, I'm losing the plot. Around 10 minutes pass, I go back outside, and the team leaders along with a manager are there, one of the team leaders ask how I was, I don't think I was ready to talk, he tells me to sit back down, which I did, and when I got back up after a few more minutes, I'm told my new rotation will be the entrance to the Tutors to Windsors exhibition, I was fine with that, it's more quiet, I didn't need keys, it worked better for me, and then one of the managers spoke to me and she asked "how are you finding it here?" I didn't know if I was ready for this conversation, but I was straight up honest, I said "it's been one big mixed bag, I was much happier and more motivated working here before all this COVID stuff," and it's true, I was, I'm just desperate for July 19th to come along and we can forget about all this, I added "I shouldn't be feeling this way because I'm here part time, but because of my Autism, I feel any bad thing worse than most people here," we then spoke about the rotations, and I said that I didn't mind working anywhere, today was a case of bad timing, and if I am being changed I'd like to be spoken to about it, because I'm not too keen on something being changed and not being told about it right away, that never sits well with me, she said if I have a problem including where I am, I just need to speak about it. I went to my break after that, kept feeling like I damaged my reputation and on the verge of tears, I ended up calling Mum, she helped a lot; after that phone call I went into position, and do you remember a few weeks ago that girl who had that thing with her finger and all the trouble that caused? I had a chat with her, and that helped me a lot, I really needed it; the rest of the shift was fine, the dim lighting in the exhibition had me dozing on and off during the afternoon, I was absolutely exhausted and was ready to go home. Eventually the shift ends, and I come across the team leader who told me to have that time out earlier, and I said to him "thanks for earlier," and he said "no problem it's the least I could do," I felt like if he didn't speak to me and give me that time out, I would've snapped and things would've gone down worse for me and anyone around. I get home, drained, I eat dinner, I rest upstairs, doze off, I wake up over 4 hours later and seeing that it's almost 12am, this day killed me. I need to speak to my line manager big time, the only thing is most days when I'm in she isn't there because she either isn't in, working from home, or she is working in office and unfortunately I don't get the chance to see her, she is away for the next week so I'm hoping I see her when she comes back, I really need to see her and talk to her, there's a lot I need to talk about.

So that was my week, I'm sorry for the downer ending to the week, not every week ends well. Regarding things I've been watching, Loki was really good, half way through the season now, can't wait for the restt. I don't know what else there is to say to be honest, this week especially with work has left me exhausted, physically, mentally, emotionally, I'm just drained. Hoping that work next week is better, I'm in on Wednesday and then working the weekend so that isn't too bad, I just have to hope for the best, speaking of hope, there's no hope for my love life, a guy like Matt Hancock can be with two girls at once, while someone like me is single as a stale Pringle, life really is hard. So I'll see you all next week, for work, gym, cinema, the Euros, a meeting, and me trying to not lose my mind, should be fun! I'll see you all then, don't forget to donate or share the GoFundMe below the blog, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

June 14th - June 20th

"This is quite wild, we've made it to 60 blogs, 60, I never would've thought that. Recently I was thinking about when I was doing my first blog, and I was thinking of how do I start it? What do I even talk about? How many people are even going to read this? 59 blogs after typing that one, here I am, 60 blogs published online including this one, an article of it in the Islington Gazette nearly a year ago, an ambassador role in a network helping neurodivergent people in work, and a closer connection to Ms. Vidal, life is wild, and sometimes doesn't make any sense, but before the pandemic, I never would've seen any of this coming, life does come up with some big surprises. Welcome to Blog 60 guys, hope you're all doing well, this week was meant to be the last whole week before restrictions drop but that's changed, for another month, I mean it's kind of frustrating, but it's also not surprising, on the bright side is that we've had a wait a month to something to change or come back during this pandemic before, we can do it again, just need to hope this is the last time and this isn't a rinse and repeat scenario, could you imagine if we are in lockdown 4 by Halloween or Christmas? I'll probably cry. This week will be quite detailed, I was away in Mersea Island, right by the sea in Essex from Monday to Friday, and then worked on Saturday and Sunday, with a few other things, so yeah, this might be a long one, which makes sense since it's 60 blogs, so let's go guys, another week in my interesting life!

Kicking it all off with Monday, the day my family and I got our stuff and travelled to Mersea Island, now I was meant to get a shorter sleep since I had a wrestling pay per view to watch, but because of how physically and mentally drained I was from work, I fell asleep and woke up 40 minutes after it finished, why do I put myself through so much? So I stayed up for another hour and a half, before going back to sleep, and then waking up, having breakfast, a shower, getting dressed, and off we went! We got there after a 2 hour drive, Coopers Beach Holiday Park, and couldn't enter our lodge as it was still getting cleaned up by the cleaners, so we took a stroll around the site we were on, looking at the clubhouse where the bar and restaurant were, the arcade, the swimming pools, and the newsagents store, we also couldn't get over the view as well, by a beach, sea that goes on for miles and miles, on a hot sunny day, you just couldn't beat it. We went back to our lodge where some family turned up, almost at the same time, do you have those family members where you are told they are cousins but by blood they're not your cousins? Yep that's the one. So the two of them came down, one went to watch a Euros game with Dad, and the other stayed with Mum and I, and we had glasses of Pimm's in the hot tub, that's right, this lodge had its own hot tub, it was such a lovely afternoon, the sun being out and the hot weather made it so much better, felt like I was abroad. A few hours later we all together went to the clubhouse to have something to eat and drink, I ate the Chicken & Rib Combo and then had the Oreos Cookies & Cream Chocolate Sundae, both which I was asked on numerous occasions when it should've only been once "are you sharing that?" to which each time I said with a cold and blunt "nope." We then went back to the lodge afterwards to chill and have a hot drink before going to bed, a nice way to start our getaway.

Next up is Tuesday, my personal favourite day of the holiday and you'll see why. We started off with a fry up which was really nice, which was then followed up by myself, Dad and one of our cousins going swimming, don't worry, we let the food go down first. Swimming was nice, outside in the sun, not many people were there, music was playing, and then one thing happened, so a song, won't say who by, song was by a group, to be more specific, a boy band, was playing, and I had a little dance, because I was getting into it, plus I like how my body feels and moves around in the water, and then this began a conversation between myself, my dad and the lifeguard about favourite groups, first name that came to my mind was Take That, so I said Take That, and we also spoke about Westlife as Dad and I are seeing them in August, next thing you know, this life guard, speaks to another one, and puts a playlist of Take That songs on, and it was embarrassing, I was out of the pool by the 4th or 5th song! Once we got back to the lodge, we were all chilling around, I got into the hot tub for a little bit, and the cousins had to make a move, so we all said bye, they went off, and we went back to either chilling, hot tub, or if you're me, napping. A few hours passed and, you guys are going to love this, I was going to meet a certain someone while I was down here, and I was excited! My parents drove and dropped me off at Colchester Station which was a 20 minute drive from where we were staying, and I got the train to Chelmsford Station, which despite being 2 stops, felt like it took ages, it was like 12-15 minutes per stop, I need to get use to travelling on the National Rail big time. I get off at Chelmsford Station and since I was really early, I took a little stroll around, even found a theatre nearby, it looked like a nice little town, did see a few dodgy people by the station, which we'll get back to later on, and then, this certain someone arrived, Ms. Vidal, yep I met Ms. Vidal, and we went to this pub called The Golden Fleece for a drink, who would have thought, nearly 8 years ago she's teaching me stuff at The Courtyard, nearly 8 years later we're meeting in the middle of Chelmsford for a drink at a pub, life is mad. We were chatting away and having a laugh before leaving around an hour or so later, I decided to wait at the bus stop for her just so she gets on the bus alright, we then had to move inside the station because there was a dodgy guy going to approach us, told you we'll be back on the dodgy people part, the guy was like 6 feet tall, had some intimidating look in his eyes, and couldn't walk straight to save his own life, Ms. Vidal and I stayed in the station for 5 minutes, and by the time we got out, her bus was there, so we ran to the bus, hugged and said bye, and then she got on the bus, and as she left, I began to make my way back; I then realised "I forgot the selfie for the blog!" though to be fair we did had to avoid a dodgy guy, and the bus came right on time as we left the station, and we could've had one done at the pub, just got carried away with how great the chat was, but at least I have the picture of the pint you guys can see under the blog, look at the pint guys, look at it, bask in its glory! At the end of the day it was absolutely lovely, it's always lovely seeing her, and I can't wait to do this again whenever that'll be. The day wasn't done there believe it or not, yep there's more, I got a taxi back to the lodge from Colchester Station, and I got back to see Cashie, Lianne, Poppy and Bessie, yep more family have come down, and they're staying until Thursday! I got into the hot tub with Poppy, Bessie and Mum and we were in there for around half an hour which was really nice, and then we spent the rest of the night chilling until it was bed time, what a day, a lot to take in.

Next up is Wednesday, and we began the day with all of us going swimming together, the sun was out, there was positive vibes, all was good in the hood. The swimming was a lot of fun, and was a lovely way to start the day. During the evening, Cashie and his family went to get dinner somewhere while my parents and I went to the clubhouse for dinner, I had a Cheese & Bacon Burger with Chips and that was really nice, though the menu was quite low on some resources with some of its menu, like some burgers were available to order and some weren't, same with the pizzas, and the only differences were the ingredients, for example, a burger could have a hash brown and jalapeños, but the kitchen didn't have hash browns and jalapeños, therefore you couldn't have that burger, it's very strange; I also had a Chocolate Brownie with Ice Cream for dessert and that was nice too, only problem was that there wasn't enough of it. Cashie and his family then joined us after their dinner where I took Bessie to the arcade, and this, this makes me laugh more thinking of it more now, so Bessie said she wanted to go on the 2p machine, so I had to go to a machine that converts either cash into coins or big coins into smaller coins, so I put a pound in and out came a lot of 2ps, and Bessie, oh love her, she thought that one coin could give us more coins to have us have more fun on all of the machines, oh Bessie Boos that's not how it works, if that was how it worked, life would be more fun and easier. After looking after Bessie in the arcade, it was time to look after Poppy, and that was much harder, especially when it came to the claw machine, because a lot of them are made for you to not win anything, and I tried time and time again to get Poppy something not because I wanted to but because she wanted me to, and each time I hoped she would give up and call it a night, which she didn’t, that was until Mum came along and told us to come back, Mum being a life saver once again. Later on we went back to the lodge to chill, have a hot drink and then go to bed.

Following up with Thursday, Thursday started off cool and calm, we were all chilling around for around 2 or 3 hours before going for a drive, the drive led us to a lake where people could go on boats or do a Total Wipeout like activity, and after looking around the site for a little bit we went back on the road that eventually led us to Waldegraves Holiday Park, and this place was huge! We went to the park there where I decided to be 15 years younger and climb the climbing net which must've been around 25 feet high, I completely forgot how tall these things were. Afterwards we went to the arcade, yes, another one, and this was much better as it was all of us together and had more fun machines to go on, I won a little teddy from a claw machine for Albert so I could take that home for him, and afterwards I saw one of those machines, like a vending machine, except you don't know what you're getting, you put a coin in, then push the metal thing in so the coin can go into the machine, pull the metal thing out and something comes out with it, and it was for kid tattoos, remember those tattoos where you just peel the plastic off, put a wet cloth on it for a bit and then the tattoo goes on your skin, yep I got one, an England one, and with England playing in the Euros, I thought it was a pretty good idea. After finishing off in the arcade we drove back to our lodge for a little bit before myself, Cashie, Lianne, Poppy and Bessie went swimming, going to the indoor pool this time due to the miserable weather, and Poppy and Bessie were so good, Poppy began swimming without her floats, and using a kickboard to help her use her legs and body in the pool without relying on her floats, and Bessie was swimming everywhere with her floats on and jumping into the pool into our arms with all the confidence in the world, I was a very proud Uncle; the lifeguard from two days prior was there, she was telling Poppy how to use to kickboard, while I was there hoping she wouldn't recognise me, next thing I know, I hear Take That music, SHE'S DOING IT AGAIN!? Can't I look after my nieces in a swimming pool, I don't need a Take That playlist for that! So once swimming was done we all went back to the lodge, and an hour or so later, Cashie and his family left, which made Poppy and Bessie upset because they wanted to stay, but all good things come to an end, and once they left, it was just the 3 of us, enjoying the time we had left at our lodge. To end our day we went to the clubhouse for dinner, I got the Rack of Ribs and for dessert I once again had the Oreos Cookies & Cream Chocolate Sundae, would've had the Strawberry one but they didn't have it, I really wanted that Strawberry one; the fire alarm went off at one point, and everything was fine, and then it went off a few more times, seemed to be a problem with the fire alarm itself; my parents and I played bingo before going, not winning but coming very close each time, and that was our evening, we walked back to our lodge where it was very dark and didn't have as much light around as it should've, I even said "imagine looking at that light in front of us and seeing a silhouette just standing there watching us" don't think my parents liked that at all. We then arrived back at the lodge for a hot drink and then it was time for bed, ready for home time in the morning.

Everything comes to an end and sometimes things end on a Friday, there you go another original one. This was the day we were going home, things were already packed so all we had to do was have breakfast, brush our teeth and then go home, I actually went home in my pyjamas, literally, I was wearing my pyjamas, with socks and slide ons, it was very comfortable. The drive home took us 2 hours and 5 minutes, and the rain along with the unseen bumps on the road made the way home a little bit tougher but nevertheless we made it. Once we got home, I got lunch for Frankie and I from the café across the road from our flat, and then I had a nap before getting ready for a big evening, England vs. Scotland, the Euros, lets go. I met a friend of mine, same friend I watched the This Is Us finale with, at his house and then we went to The Finsbury to watch the game, we got a table in the beer garden and another friend of ours joined before the game started, and believe it or not we were the only ones that stood up, hand on heart, singing the national anthem alongside the England team, while everyone else just sat there, I swear no one hates England more than English people. The game itself, despite the few chances from England, was boring, and the fact that it ended 0-0 was so disappointing, I was so confident that we were going to win, just a shame we didn't, just got to hope we at least draw with Czech Republic on Tuesday to make it through to the knockout stages; around 5 minutes after the game ended, I headed home to prepare for a weekend full of work.

We enter the weekend with Saturday, and of course, I'm working, sad face emoji. I was working on the second floor, which I didn't mind as I'm asked less questions and I don't put up with as many people as I would on the ground floor, but I have to say, out of all the times I've worked on the second floor, I'm sure that this was the most kids I've seen on the second floor, it really did amaze me, also an adult actually touched something that has has "do not touch" sign on it, I know, I can't believe it too! At one point, a kid was touching a 400 year old cannon, and he could see I'm watching him from the corner of my eye, I did this as playing around because I find things like that fun, now his index is pointing to the cannon, as if he is about to touch the cannon, and I slowly rise to my feet, and then the boy tells his mum about me, she knew I was playing around, and when I went to them, I saw that someone turned the "do not touch" sign around, that was weird, I wonder who done that? The entire shift was fine, mostly easy, made some kids and their parents laugh, it was fine, now I ready myself for a good evening. I go straight from work to Wood Green where I had a meal and drink at the Spouter's Corner, my mate, same one I mentioned yesterday, met me and had a meal and drink of his own before we went to the VUE cinema next door, we waited for another friend of ours, who was with us last night, and when he arrived, we went into the screen to watch In The Heights, based on the Tony Award winning musical, from the same man who wrote Hamilton, and I never watched In The Heights the musical, I've only listened to two songs from the soundtrack, I never knew what to expected, but over 2 and a half hours later, I was so satisfied, easily one of my favourite films of the year, the perfect summer movie for this year, so much sun, so much joy, and happiness, it was just really great. After the film, we met another friend outside the cinema, and a few minutes later I headed home, ready for, you guessed it, another day at work.

Finally it's Sunday, and I'm book at work, this time on the ground floor doing the same two locations all day, two sad face emojis. However during the briefing, we found out that a couple of staff were reported ill and some changes were made, and instead of being in two locations all day, I'll be in three, two on the ground floor, and one being the Great Map on the first floor so that was going to be very interesting. Some stuff happened on this day, first was that I haven't seen so many people go over or under a barrier, and completely ignore and go past a "no entry" sign, seriously, it's absolutely shocking, I see that as disrespect to the museum and disrespect to all staff of the museum working day in, day out, physically and mentally exhausted because we're working in these circumstances during these crazy times during the time of year where the weather is either hot or humid, and despite what we're putting ourselves through, we're just spat on and walked over for it, you can argue I'm looking too deep into it but it's honestly ridiculous; there was one guy I saw, Sacha Baron Cohen lookalike, he didn't follow the one way system once the entire time he was there, wanted to give him a right slap, I didn't care if his family was there. One thing that happened, before lunch, and this was around 1pm, something like that, I'm on the Great Map, and I'm approached by a man, he's a father, and he tells me his daughter has done a wee, I'm working on a Sunday where most of the people I put up with are arrogant or thick, I think I'm going through more than enough for one day, I was speechless at first, and then I just said "well that's a first! I've been here for nearly two years and I've never come across that!" We both laughed, and he replies, and he says this while referring to The Great Map because, it's a big map, he says "well at least she did it on the sea and didn't get any on the land," and I couldn't be mad at what happened, it's a toddler, and I was more concerned about the other kids, what if one steps in it? What if one runs into it and slips? I did the right thing and called the cleaner on the radio to come over, and at the same time one of the team leaders came along which was great timing, we put slippery surface signs around the mess and the cleaner cleaned it up, and we left it to dry, the best part of this was the dad, and the girl herself, both said thank you, that made me smile. Later on, don't recall if this was before or after lunch, I came across this family, and this family had a little girl, she was standing where the mess was, and the floor was dry so she wasn't going to slip, she's softly kicking the slippery surface signs and her family are telling her not to, she isn't listening, I looked into her eyes, see her body language and I presumed right away she had a special need with the way she was behaving and not responding to her parents, she wasn't even talking either, so I went up, adjusted the signs and said "don't want anyone to slip," as soon as I said that, she's out of there, and carrying her day with her family, I guess she wasn't aware of the scenario or what could've happened unless someone else told her, I have no idea. Towards the end of the day, I'm about to start the close down procedures to the area I was in, had a woman with a bunch of other women, two children as well from what I can recall, she asked if they could go to the children's area on the 2nd floor, despite the museum closing in 10 minutes, and I'm not allowed to bring anyone to the top floor when the museum is so close to closing, which I told them, then there's an awkward silence, I knew this wasn't good, a family comes over, I open the barrier to let them go through to find their way to the exit, another woman from the group I just mentioned, she clearly wore the pants out of all of them, she asked "how comes you let these lot through?" as if she was throwing some kind of accusation my way, and I just said "I let them through because they're looking for the exit," keeping the barrier open I ask "you want to leave? All you have to do to go through here," there's silence, I feel tension, there shouldn't be tension, they had a problem with me because I was stating facts and doing my job, I'm being looked upon badly because I'm doing my job, it really annoyed me, the silence ended when the woman in the group that first approached me said "no," they would then leave around 2 minutes later, look, if you want to explore all the museum, especially the children areas for your kids, get there at a time where the museum isn't close to closing or you're out of luck. After the shift finally ended, I went to Old Street, and I saw Jack for an hour, and that ended my week. This paragraph alone is one of if not the longest paragraph I've typed out of all these 60 blogs.

So that was another week in my life, my week in the 60th blog. It's crazy, 60 blogs and I have no idea how much longer we could go, a few weeks? Months? Another year? I have no idea especially with the pandemic and how the government is handling things right now, they're saying restrictions will all be down by July 19th, which I hope is the truth and goes forward, I just don't trust them to keep it that way, and the thing is how much longer can we go? These restrictions are up, these restrictions are down, and oh look another lockdown! How much longer can we go before everyone in this country stops caring about these restrictions? It's been 15 months, everyone's had enough at this point, but who knows what's going to happen next with everyone and everything, only time will tell. I haven't had the time to watch the programmes I was meant to watch this week so hopefully I can do that next week, and speaking of next week, we've got another Euros game with England taking on Czech Republic, I'm at the theatre with my first solo theatre trip since February or March 2020, work as usual and we'll see what else pops up, so I'll see you all next week for yet another blog, for the last whole week of June, last whole week of June already wow that went quick! See you all then, don't forget to either donate or share the GoFundMe, link is below, thank you all for reading, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

June 7th - June 13th

"59, we are one away from 60, life is pretty darn good at the moment with nearly everything back with limited capacity and the weather is so lovely. Though cases are rising which will most likely delay all restrictions dropping by a few weeks, and with how frustrating that is, as long as life stays like this, with how everything is right now, I don't mind it, I'm happy, I've got no problem with it, plus the sooner us adults get our first jab, the better it'll be for when restrictions go down, so I'm not complaining. So yeah guys what's happening? This week has been eventful, socialising, work, gym, and sunburn, yes you read that right, sunburn, so are you guys ready for another week in my life? You better be, or I'm coming for you, nah not really I'm too lazy for that, let's go.

Kicking things off with Monday, and I took a visit to see some family friends, the family of my friend who went to Hong Kong, I wanted to see how they were and have a good catch up, which was really nice seeing that the last time I recall seeing them was just before Christmas, I also got to see their Pomeranians, who are super tiny and cute, wanted to put their long hair into dreads or braids, and like almost every dog I meet, I talk to them like babies, to me, dogs are four legged babies, even when they're old and greying, or when they're as tall as Great Danes. Afterwards I went for a walk around Angel for an hour, which made a nice change since I don't really do my walks or travelling much nowadays. Later on during the evening I went to the gym and did some work on my chest, arms and legs, a very good workout to end a pretty productive day.

Next up is Tuesday, and Tuesday was meant to be the day Hugs and I, remember Hugs? I hope you do, she's lovely. We were meant to go to Greenwich on this day, she was going to come to mine, have a cuppa and a chat, then make our way there and make a day of it. However I did get a call from her, and we had to postpone until tomorrow because she had to sort some stuff out, something to do with the council or something, I already can't remember, put it this way, the older you get, the more complex life can be with the council and rent; she did say to go out, get some sun, and do something with my mum, which is exactly what I did. I met my Mum for lunch and we got a drink from Pret, I got a Berry Blast smoothie and it was lovely; we would then sit and chat in the park until her break was coming to an end, and I got myself a bite to eat before we said bye to each other, I got myself a chicken wrap which was so good, and I was out in the sun for just an hour, and I could already see colour on my face and around my neck, yep it's that time of the year again. Besides spending time with Mum that lunch, I used the day as an opportunity to exercise, as I got the weights I had at home out to workout with, I'd just pick them up randomly at anytime, and just exercised with them, whether it was Hammer Curls, Alternating Front Raises, Shoulder Presses, Shoulder Shrugs or a Farmer's Walk, I just picked them up and did whatever came to my mind, and the exercising didn't end there as I went to the gym in the evening too just like yesterday, worked on my chest, arms and legs, wow what a day, I took a planned day that got cancelled into a physically and mentally productive one.

Now it's Wednesday, and on this day I am seeing Hugs, with a change of plans, so she didn't have much money, which I didn't mind because I would've been happy to pay for everything, plus some handymen were coming to her house, so instead I'll be going to her house, where we'll sort out the guestlist for the screening, visit the GoFundMe, and PLEASE SHARE OR DONATE I'M BEGGING YOU!!!!! Sorry, big outburst there, wow that was inside me for a while. As I was saying, we'll sort out the guestlist for the screening of Psychopath, and chataway, and meet her little doggies which I was so excited for. So I got the Northern Line tube to her, took me around 45 minutes including walking to get there, and I meet her mum, her sister, and I see her doggies, you have Susan, who's like the bodyguard of the house, gets very close to anyone she doesn't recognise just to keep an eye on them, she can get very suspicious, and even if you feed her treats, she still won't trust you; then you have Billy, yes, his name is Billy, and I loved Billy, he did feel a bit funny around me first, but eventually he got use to me, sitting next to me, and climbing over my legs, and then you had Abi who I nicknamed Chubby Mummy, because Abi and Billy are parents to Susan, I know right that is amazing! I would've never thought it, I just thought they were all siblings! Abi was just doing her own thing and in her own world, I nicknamed her Chubby Mummy not just because she was Susan's mum, but because she was a chubby doggie, and chubby doggies are super cute, unless they can't walk or have breathing problems or both then there's a problem. Hugs and I sorted out the guestlist, and spoke about possible talent agents to invite, I do have concerns regarding the guestlist like did we invite too many people? Could the attendance of the screening be affected by COVID? I have no idea, maybe I'm overreacting and honestly I hope I am. Hugs and I also chatted away about anything and everything, religion, love lives, our past experiences on set, movies, actors, we just always found something to talk about, with no awkward silences, pauses or anything, it all ran smoothly all until I left around 5:15pm, a very nice day, and now I prepare for work the next day.

Moving onto Thursday, with a day at work, this time working on the ground floor where I'll be putting up with and interacting with more people, so many people. The rotation on this day was a 3 way rotation instead of 4, so this involved some of us staying in the same areas longer than usual, and in total I spent around half of my day outside, for the entrance, and the exit after a member of staff came in to keep an eye on the inside the museum part of the exit, I don't recall him being at the morning briefing, maybe this was a last minute thing or he just decided to show up, who knows. The amount of people that came up to me, asking if they could just come in really surprised me, I get that if it wasn't planned and they just saw the museum and thought "yeah let's check this place out" but if you're planning to visit the museum, without looking on the website or thinking of how differently it could be running with COVID restrictions, then I need to ask "why" because you can't expect to just go inside somewhere like a museum like it's nothing during these times, the amount of people I had to help with booking through the website was shocking, I even helped a police officer and a deaf man who had an assistant dog, I lowered my mask for him so he could read my lips, wanted to add that in, but yeah, it really is surprising how many people turn up and think they could go in like it's normal times. Also, before my shift, I looked at the weather and saw it was cloudy all day, it wasn't, the sun was out, and it caught me badly, all red, and then all pale from where my face was covered with a facemask, I looked ridiculous, if I knew before my shift started I was going to be outside longer than planned, I would've put on suncream. In the end I didn't mind the shift so much, I thought it went quickly, until the afternoon, where I spent a lot of it in the sun. When I got home, I was hot and tired, there was no way I could've gone to drama that night too, I was burnt out physically, mentally and emotionally, I needed to rest, with an icepack on my face, another day of work done.

After that fiery feeling day it's Friday, another original one for you lot; and today was a big day, today was LNSEN's second webinar, this time having Professor Amanda Kirby and Jane Hatton of EvenBreak speaking, with a very strong introduction from Ms. Vidal, don't know if she rehearsed it or was reading it but she absolutely nailed it, and then Amanda and Jane spoke, and when it came to the any other questions part at the end, it was like in my mind, "what can we ask? You pretty much covered everything," like I'm the Autism Champion Ambassador, and I couldn't find anything to say, it was a very informative webinar, and now we await the next one, which will probably be next month. After that webinar I came downstairs to see my Nan and Dotty at the table, and Dotty is getting even more crafty, she jumped onto the table and walked from one end to another, and that wasn't even the craftiest thing she did, so we keep some drinks on the balcony, and put them in the fringe when we want them to be cold, or keep them out there during the cold weather, Dotty jumped onto some of the drink cases, I'm telling you she wants to get onto that balcony ledge, the day that happens will be a big panic with all of us rushing to get her down. During the evening I went to see Jack, I met him at his house and we got McDonalds together for dinner, and by the way, the McDonalds one way system does not work at all, I don't recall seeing anyone paying attention to it; I went back to his for a bit where we spoke about the hall we're using to screen Psychopath, we were making playlists of songs on Spotify to play at the screening event, one playlist is for before the screening where we're thinking of using songs from films, including slow ones to give off a cinema vibe, and the other playlist is for after the screening which will have songs that people can have a good time to or even dance to, it's all looking good!

We're now in the first half of the weekend with Saturday, and Saturday was of course a workday, because someone thought "hey let's have Billy work weekends, including weekends where his local tube station is closed, that's a really good idea!" So instead of going to Angel I had to get the 43 bus to Bank Station and then get the DLR to Cutty Sark, which makes my journey 10 minutes longer. Do you remember the rotation I did 2 or 3 weeks ago where I was in the same location the whole day? I was doing it again but starting from the opposite side, so I go from one shift where I was sunburnt to one where I'm in the same two locations the whole day, I don't know what I prefer at this point. If you want me to go straight to the point I definitely will, was it a better shift than the last time I did this kind of rotation? The answer is yes and no, yes because physically it didn't feel as bad, I felt exhausted at the end of it all but physically I wasn't in agony or limping, and no because mentally it was much worse, there are signs everywhere, everywhere, to tell you where the one way system is, and I had so many people asking "where do we go to go upstairs or explore more of the museum?" When the signs are right by me, I'm telling you, both Stevie Wonder and Andrea Bocelli could come into the museum together one day and they would have a better chance of seeing the signs than most people that visit the museum, even Ray Charles rising from the dead would have a better chance of seeing the signs! Unbelievable, at one point someone asked me where to go, I just said follow the signs, and that was it, at another point a group of people literally came from the area where the exit was, asking me where the exit was, I just said "back the way you came" AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I MEANT! SERIOUSLY!! I feel bad for anyone working a similar or the same job as me in museums everywhere around the world. If I had to give anyone advice regarding today, is that if anyone offers you another break, take it! One of the team leaders asked me to take a 10 minute break, I initially declined, until he persuaded me, and those extra 10 minutes does wonders, so guys, take that extra break when offered.

Finally it's Sunday, and we're ending this week with, you guessed it, another work day, they really like me working weekends and I don't know why. This was a very different shift, I was one of 5 people working in the newly opened exhibition called Tudors to Windsors, all about the Royal Family from past to present, interesting fact, I met Prince Harry once, he's a really nice guy. I felt quite optimistic about this shift because it was different, and unlike being in hot atmospheres it's very cool, as if it wasn't summer. This day started off bad, so I left 5 minutes early and waited around 5 minutes for the bus, hand was out, and the bus went past me as if I wasn't even there, leading me to wait another 10 minutes for a bus, and I just about made it to work, right on time for the morning briefing, turned up to it with bag over shoulder and my trainers on. The shift wasn't much to write about, but I definitely liked it more than the other two shifts this week just for the fact it was different, and I was in a cool and mostly calm atmosphere, and that was the shift really. Extra things to note, England beat Croatia in the Euros which is nice to see and I have a wrestling pay per view to watch tonight, happy days.

So that was another week in my life, very busy and productive, that's how I like them, though I love those certain days where I can just sit back and relax for the day. I have a bit to note regarding what I've been watching, the first half of Season 3 of Dark Side of the Ring ended with an episode about The Dynamite Kid, what an episode to end Season 3's first half on, without spoiling it, it's a very sad and tragic story, and when it ended Mum and I were just silent, I had an idea about what happened in the life and career of The Dynamite Kid, real name Tom Billington, but what I saw in this episode was "WOW, THAT IS NUTS" highly recommend anyone and everyone to watch it, you don't even have to enjoy wrestling to enjoy the show, and now I realise I have to wait until September for the second half of Season 3, sad times. Loki premiered during the week, out of the 3 Marvel Disney+ shows we've gotten so far, this was easily the best pilot, and I'm really excited to see what comes next. Life is pretty mind blowing right now in the world, especially with things opening up more, I forgot to mention this but 2 or 3 weeks ago there was a wrestling show in America, performed in a sold out venue of over 5,000 people, most weren't even wearing masks! It all gives me more hope for bigger and better days, I can surely feel it, even if the June 21st restrictions stopping is going to be delayed. Next week should be good, I've got a lodge booked with Mum and Dad, in Mersea Island in Essex, right by the beach, I'm honestly looking forward to this as much as I would be looking forward to an abroad holiday, and I've got a work shift or two, depending on if I can get Saturday off, and yeah, all good stuff. So I'll see you all next week, for the 60th blog, wow, 60 of them, that is mad, see you all then, don't forget to share or donate to the GoFundMe below the blog, and see you next week, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

May 31st - June 6th

Hey guys it's Blog 58, we have finished May, and entered June, and we are nearly half way through this year already, how crazy is that?! Cases are still up, I believe they've risen, life is more normal and feels more normal which is nice, the weather has been consistently nice for nearly the entire week, and I think that's it really. So if you all read the conclusion to last week's blog you'd know that this week was going to be a busy one, work, a meeting regarding a hall, drama class, cinema, a BBQ, a trip to the theatre, honestly it's been a jam packed week, it wouldn't surprise me if this went down as one of the longest blogs yet, so here goes nothing, here is another week in my life.

Kicking things off with Monday, and yet another shift at work, look at me working after the weekend, I'm such a good boy! With my shift there wasn't really much that I could recall, I thought it was fine, and nothing really big happened, just the same old day working at the museum where some visitors have no idea what a one way system is, or have the special ability to be unable to see very bright signs that are right in front of their faces! There was one bit that happened during the morning on the Great Map where a woman and her child were at a barrier and the woman asked if they could come through, and I said they need to go around and follow the one way system, and this woman, you wouldn't believe it, this woman drops her shoulders and posture like a child and she says "is that really necessary?" I thought this was some sick joke, you can't be asked to walk for an extra minute? You can't be asked to follow safety guidelines? Can you even claim yourself to be a decent human being? The thing with my job is that I have to put on a professional front, that wasn't me on this day, so with my arms out to the side and said "love it's a one way system, and this is how the museum is doing it, sorry!" and she, with her child, followed the one way system, there you go, you go follow that one way system, that's a good visitor, who's a good visitor? You are, yes you are! Besides that nothing much happened from what I can recall, it was a fine shift, not any problems, everything from the opening to closing was done well, except that when you tell some people they need to go, and they know they have to go at 5pm, they spend those extra few minutes in the toilets, how charming. Afterwards I went to Finsbury Park to meet some friends where we all had a drink under the really hot sun, and then we met with friends they knew and another friend of ours and went into Rowan's for another drink and a game of pool, which I lost to someone who was playing pool for the first time, yep, lost to a first timer, well done Bill, you did great. I called it a night early as I had another shift the next day and got home around 9:30pm.

Next up is Tuesday, with yet another work shift, yes another one! Here I was again on the second floor looking after an area I wasn't even trained in, risky decision making but here we are; and I was looking forward to this shift as after this shift, and going down here to work 5 days in a row, or 4 and a half days if you calculate hours, I will be off work until Sunday so I was extremely excited. The day itself, there were very few things to note, including opening and closing the area that got me really confused, luckily the team leaders helped me out during the morning and afternoon, and of course me, myself and I going around and messing around with things until I got them right, especially the windows, all it took was a little push up to open them. Also at the end of the day during the debriefing, two people left just when we thought all the visitors left already, and there was a discussion about how did someone lock up and not realise that these people were still here, they questioned me if I saw them near or in the multi-faith room, which is a room where people of different religions can go in and pray, I said to them that I double checked and no one was in there, look at me standing my ground and making a statement, I'm pretty good at this job! The talking in the debriefing felt like forever and by the time it was over, off I went, like a kid finishing school for half term or end of term, "get me out of here!" I thought as I sped walked back to my mess room to get my bag, put on my trainers, untuck my shirt, and make my way to Cutty Sark Station to make my way home. There wasn't much to add after that, I was buzzing when I got home, got straight into my pajamas, and looked forward to the rest of the week.

Right here and right now is Wednesday, there's an original one for you lot. Began my day by going to the gym, focused mainly on my shoulders and chest, felt extremely pumped after my workout. Afterwards was what the day was all about, if you remember the week prior, I was supposed to go to a hall at Exmouth Market regarding the screening for Psychopath, link below the blog yet again, we need to make that money, and today was the day, and Jack and I had a certain someone coming with us, do you remember Hugs? A friend of ours that works with Jack and I on his films, did my headshots in April and gives great hugs, that's the one. She popped up to me and we chatted for nearly an hour before making our way to meet Jack outside his workplace, we then walked to the hall which was just under 15 minutes from where Jack's work was, and we met the woman who I spoke to last week who showed us around the hall, showing us the lighting, the sound, the projector and everything else, happy to say that we were all very satisfied with what we saw, it made my day seeing Jack, he was like a kid on Christmas morning, it was lovely to see, and Hugs and I had a little dance together to a song that sounded similar to Let's Stay Together by Al Green, it was just all fantastic and I was absolutely buzzing about it all. So we're looking to do the screening on one Thursday in July which is very exciting to think about, hopefully we can pull it off and hopefully COVID doesn't ruin our plans. After leaving the hall, we said bye to Jack as Hugs and I went back to mine as we discussed more plans for the screening, including who we want to invite, what we happen on the night, what we need to order, all that stuff, she left around 7:30pm, and now we look to see how busy we will be over the next few weeks and, well let's see if we can pull this screening off.

Now it's Thursday, and this was a good day, busy one too, I took little Albert to the cinema to see Peter Rabbit 2 at the VUE cinema in Angel, first time we went cinema together since I believe February 2020, and that was nice, being in a nice cool cinema, with snacks and a drink, film was decent too, kids will love it, little Albert did. Afterwards I treated him to two sausage rolls from Gregg's and a Lemon Iced Tea from Starbuck's, because I'm a great Uncle obviously, and we made our way home. Not long after I got home, Nanny and Dotty came up, and Dotty is getting even more crafty, she's jumping up, down and all over the sofas including walking on the top of the sofa, which she did without slipping, impressive, and at one point I couldn't even find her and when I did, she ran down the stairs, she went upstairs without us knowing, couldn't believe how cheeky she was getting, she even jumped on the table, you could tell she wanted to do that for a long time, imagine how crafty she's going to be in a few months. During the evening I went to my drama class, and it was a really good class, I was given a script which was titled Cave of Da Vinci, I had four lines, and spent the rest of the scene dead, and being dead was the hard part, my character was shot in the head and, sitting up, my head was all the way back for around 3 or 4 minutes, and it killed, as soon as the scene ended I got out of position as quick as I could, my teacher said I could've just fallen down off the chair, which I should've done, despite it not working with a headshot, it is more safer for me. After a really good night of acting, a lot of us went to The Shakespeare's Head which was lovely, some of us were sitting down outside, some were standing around including me, a perfect way to end a very eventful day.

You wanna get down on Friday? Yeah I wanna get down on Friday because it's Friday! Clearly, obviously, because it comes after Thursday, see guys, that's another original one. I spent the day chilling around until I went out during the evening, the same friend I met up with last Thursday invited me to his house for a BBQ, the BBQ was a get together of family and friends in memory of his mum. I arrived just before 6pm and they were still setting things up and haven't even started the food, this was due to the rain, it was raining almost all day and I was surprised that it didn't cancel today's plans. I helped cook the food on the grill which included the burgers, hot dogs and chicken which was absolutely banging, and I did this while eating at the same time, most impressive William James Chandler; I was given two nicknames, one was the Co-Chef and the other was The Chef's Wingman, it was a lovely evening, good food, good people, good atmosphere, what more can you want? I left a little after 9pm, I would've stayed longer but I had a big day the next day so I needed a good night's sleep and plenty of energy for that.

Going into the weekend with Saturday, started off with a call from a friend of mine, last time him and I met it was December, if you've been reading my blog since then or before you might know who this is about, this friend of mine called me telling me he was at the airport waiting for his flight, he was going to Hong Kong to be with his girlfriend and get a job out there, I knew he was going to do it but this soon really came as a surprise, he didn't want a goodbye party because of COVID and it would've been depressing, but there's always the welcome back party in a year or so, I just felt really excited for him, with being isolated nearly this entire time, and now he's going to a place he's never been before and go on all new adventures, I couldn't feel more excited for him, Albert if you're reading this, I'm proud of you, and I love you, you're going to do so well brother. So yeah now you know there's a few Alberts in my life, that Albert and my nephew being two of them, they've met before and refer to each other as Big Albert and Little Albert, it's so cute. Anyways, on with the day, and this day was the day, would've happened in January if COVID wasn't a problem, but nevertheless the day arrived to take my parents out on what is their Christmas present, a trip to the theatre, with me, ya boy. We went to the Palace Theatre to see The Show Must Go On, a show that celebrates the West End, those involved in the West End, and the people that love the West End. The show was hosted by Bonnie Langford and Trevor Dion Nicholas, and featured performances from all of these musicals, get ready it's a big one, & Juliet, Back to the Future, Come From Away, Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia, Mary Poppins, Matilda, The Phantom of the Opera, Pretty Woman, The Prince of Egypt, Six, The Lion King, Tina, The Book of Mormon and Wicked, yep, a performance from each of those musicals in one show, and it was a fantastic show, a lot of fun, and it really made me want to book a lot of theatre tickets, which I haven't done yet. Afterwards Mum, Dad and I went to Montagu Pyke for dinner and a few drinks, which was very noisy with flash young adults and a moany child, but I didn't let that stop me from enjoying a Large Mixed Grill and a Cookie Dough Sandwich with Ice Cream, I know it's a lot guys but its the weekend, let me treat myself. After getting home for a bit, I popped up to see Jack to have a little discussion about the hall, and that was that, I went home to enjoy my last bit of free time before going back to work.

Finally it's Sunday, and it ended with, you guessed it, another shift at work, and I opened up and closed the same location I did, I believe it was last Sunday, so that was a walk in a park, and the day was very straight forward, no pressure, no stress, except for trying to actually get people to leave at 5pm, but nope, let's leave the toilets until after closing time because that's such a good idea. During the morning someone with their family was looking for the children's gallery, which they went past, so I had to tell them to go back, yep the one way system despite being there is pretty much dead, no one's taking notice anymore so WHO CARES RIGHT?! An hour or so later a father with his children was looking for his wife, somehow she's in another gallery on the floor while they're here, I mean how did they end up here? How many people keep getting the one way system wrong when THE SIGNS ARE RIGHT THERE GUYS!!! VERY BRIGHT SIGNS!!!!! NOTICABLE SIGNS EASY FOR THE HUMAN EYE TO SEE!!!! I'm sorry, I just managed to master the skill of keeping calm and patient in front of visitors that are clearly not paying attention to the one way system. Besides that it was a fine shift, absolutely flew by, possibly the quickest full day shift I had since coming back.

So that was my week my dudes, and dudettes, a very eventful week, so much happened, and I haven't stopped at all, a day off of anything and everything is something that's truly needed for me. In regards to what I've been watching, Dark Side of the Ring was really good this week, a very deep and dark episode, and that's about it really, looking forward to Loki starting during the next week, that should be good. So guys, I think that's all I have to say, so I will see you next week, I'm going Greenwich with Hugs so that should be lovely, got work, of course, and that's my week so far, we'll see what happens next, I will also keep you all updated on the screening, the link to the GoFundMe is below so if you could donate or share that'll be super awesome. I'll see you all next week, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

May 24th - May 30th

"So, Blog 57 has arrived, we are on the last whole week of May, we are now under a month away from the supposed all restrictions dropping date, cases are increasing due to the Indian Variant, some people including me are still optimistic, some are anxious and worried and some don't even care what happens next. The future is looking unpredictable, and it's so hard to tell what's going to happen next. Welcome to another blog, and another week with my life, a lot went down, professionally and personally, and I look forward to you all reading about it.

Kicking things off with Monday, and Monday was my day off, so I decided to chill as much as I could after how drained I felt the previous day. During the evening little Albert came in as him, I and Mum made more cookies, they were very delicious. Albert and I also sat down and watched movie trailers together, discussing possible future plans to go to the cinema together, that'll be lovely, still feels surreal after a week that we're all talking about cinemas being open and cinema plans.

Next was Tuesday, and Tuesday I was back at work, working on the first floor which made a nice change to the last two shifts where I was working on the ground floor, and I was working in an area called Atlantic, the first time I had to open and close Atlantic for a shift, and it was very easy. With this shift there wasn't really much to note, except two things, one is I spent a total of one hour and twenty minutes in this area called Great Map, and when you're on there, you're underneath the ceiling, the ceiling is transparent if that's the right word for it, like windows in the sky, and when the sun came out, it hit me like a rock, I could feel the brightness on the head and face, and a tiny bit of sweating, according to my mum during the evening she said I looked like I caught the sun, she wasn't wrong. The other thing was also on the Great Map, the thing with my job and where I work is that it has a one way system, and some visitors sadly don't pay attention to the one way system, I saw a woman go through a door onto Great Map, a door that no visitor should be using, and behind this door there's a sign saying this way only, so for only a few seconds I left the Great Map to see if the sign was there, it was, and I slightly adjusted to make it look more like it's telling people to go up the stairs, and as soon as I came back in, midair, I saw the hand sanitizer stand falling and crash onto the floor because of a few toddlers, I couldn't tell what happened at the time, either one or two of them pushed it over, or one pushed the other into it, I had no clue, so I ran over to pick it up, the parents had the toddlers apologise, and I smiled and accepted their apology, I mean come on they're only toddlers. Later on I realised the hand sanitizer stand wasn't working, either from the fall or something else, because I did see a little boy go to it a few times before the fall, and normally there's a sound when hand sanitizer comes out, I don't recall there being a sound; so when a team leader came to see me, I told him about it, and he went to take a look inside, there was a lot of hand sanitizer left, and then, when trying to get the whole thing back together, quite a bit of hand sanitizer dropped on the floor, wonderful, just, wonderful. In the end, there wasn't much else to talk about, it was a fine shift.

Now it's Wednesday, and Wednesday was supposed to be a big day for Jack and I, in case you haven't read the last blog, basically, we are looking for a place to host a screening of his short film Psychopath, and today was supposed to be the day, and then, something popped up. Jack gave me a call, around 2 and a half hours before we were supposed to be there, his boiler broke, and he called the Islington Council, and if you're an Islington resident you know what they're like with saying they'll do this and that at this time or that time, and Jack couldn't get anyone to watch his house while we went to see the hall, I didn't even know anyone who'd be available on a Wednesday afternoon, so I had to call to postpone the meeting until anytime, I made the call, got it postponed to the following Wednesday at 3:30pm, felt really proud of myself, and guess what, the woman I was talking to was my older brother’s best friend’s mum, small world! After this I met Mum for her lunch break to have a cappuccino at Pret where we had a really nice chat. After seeing Mum and heading home for a bit, I went to the gym where I worked on my legs, thighs, shoulders and chest, worked really hard on the chest. Overall, despite what happened with the meeting having to be postponed, I thought I had quite a productive day.

Moving onto Thursday, and Thursday was quite a busy day, firstly I met a friend of mine from my secondary school class at The White Swan, we had a few drinks, and a few things to eat and then we said bye to each other somewhere around 4pm, it was really nice. When I got home I had a phone call with Ms. Vidal for around 20 minutes which was really nice, we had a great catch up. Later on I was supposed to go to my drama class until I got a call from a friend of mine, remember the one I helped with his audition tape? Yep that one, and he wanted to know if I wanted to come up to watch the This Is Us season finale with him, which I happily accepted. I got the bus to his house, and we watched the season finale together, and, without spoilers, it was an alright episode, not much to talk about, and then the ending happened, and the ending is making us ask a lot of questions, now we have to wait until who knows when for Season 6, the final season, it's been a wild ride, it's only going to get wilder. I stayed at his house for a while longer before making my way home, getting home just before midnight.

You wanna get down? I wanna get down because it's Friday, and Friday was a work day, except my shift wasn't until the evening so I got to have a nice lay in. I left home around 3:45pm, arrived at work for my shift around 4:40pm, and began at around 5pm. The shift I was doing was a wedding, so myself and a few others had a rotation around the Queen's House, it could've been inside where everyone at the wedding was eating and drinking, at the carriageway which is a pathway between those at the wedding and those preparing food and drink, it could've been any of the two entrances in use, it was a simple shift, easy money, but I do have to admit, when I first entered the hall to see everyone at the wedding seated, I got very anxious, being in a room, with around 30 people, I had to step out for a little bit to catch my breath, anxiety almost got the best of me. Besides that it was a easy shift, and for a nearly 4 hour shift it absolutely flew by, it was also very feel good seeing so many people happy, I also wished the bride and groom a good evening which made me feel pretty good about myself, and now I prepare for another shift tomorrow, and not just tomorrow, but in the morning, yep just 12 hours later.

Heading right into Saturday where I go right back to work for a day shift, I worked the previous evening, now I am working day shifts for the next four days, it's going to be tough but it's my job, it's how I make money, and I look to make an impression and do a good job as I do, most of the time. The sunny weather came in and hit me hard, especially when I had to work on the Great Map, and two things happened during this shift. First thing was that the roster wasn't updated, again, I had one of the team leaders and one of the managers approach me about the Dining Pods shift during the evening, a shift I dropped out of two weeks ago, shocking that my name was still on there, I don't know what's going on in the office and I know it isn't any of my business, but someone needs to get those rosters updated because it's getting myself and work colleagues frustrated. Second thing was, and I'm going to try to explain this the best I can without mentioning names, so you know that there is a rotation and we have to swap areas every now and then right? So I was waiting for someone to swap with me so I can leave my area with it being supervised, and time is beginning to get on, it's 5 minutes past swapping time, and the frustration with the not updated roster, along with this, was like a poor tasting cocktail sitting in my system poorly, and I kept hearing radio calls to Great Map, the area I was supposed to be at, and I knew something was up, I even tried radioing the person who was meant to replace me but something was going on with my radio, so, anger at a boiling point, I left the area I was looking after unsupervised like a steam train on the loose, I meant business, and I went into the area and I find the person that was meant to replace me just sitting there along with another of my work colleagues and I was like "what's going on, where were you?" and I'm told, by the person next to her that she had a little accident and didn't radio anyone, a little accident? I don't see anything, and I'm told by the person there that one of the team leaders and one of the managers are waiting for me, and I'm like "why are they making this a big deal?" and I go out to find them, enraged, and I went to tell them and I got cut off, both of them knowing and understanding what happened, and one of the team leaders said it was to do with her nail, and I'm like "her nail?!" her nail, really, all of this commotion for a nail, I don't see a nail snapped off and lying anywhere, I don't see any blood, I honestly thought someone was trying to wind me up, but yeah, that put me off my day, and made me more desperate to go home, according to a work colleague at the end of the day it was like a little thing that happened to her nail, like a tiny rip or something, ridiculous. On a positive note I was in an area I never opened and closed before, which I did well, especially when it came to closing the sliding doors, felt really pleased with myself doing that. After the shift, I got back to Islington to meet Jack outside his workplace, where we then went to the Angel pub where I treated the both of us to drinks, he got himself dinner which he shared with me, I clearly enjoyed it more, and I treated him to dessert, it was a nice evening, made up for the day.

Finally it's Sunday, and yet again, I'm at work, and this time I'm working on the 2nd floor, last time I did this was when a rotation randomly changed and I had to go from West Street to doing the 2nd floor which I wasn't even trained on, and all these months later, still not trained, for today it was either they desperately needed to put someone there and they put me there, or they presumed I had training already so they thought why not, or they just really trusted me, I'll take that option, I can be a very trustworthy individual. This was another shift that was fine with not much to note, opened up well, closed well, also had some nice conversations with some of the visitors, a significantly better shift than the day prior. After I got home, Frankie and his friend were in, and Mum and Dad were away for the night, so I placed an order on JustEat for KFC, while waiting for our order we watched Avengers: Age of Ultron and we waited a whole hour, and a driver wasn't even assigned, so I called up and cancelled the order while Frankie's friend placed a new one on UberEats and that arrived in under half an hour; while eating, we get a knock on the door, and you won't believe it, but it was the JustEat driver with our order, two hours after we placed the original order, I straight up told him I cancelled the order, then I realised I wasted free food, they call me Silly Billy for a reason.

So that was my week folks, very busy especially with work. I know I've already discussed what I've been watching but I have forgotten to mention Dark Side of the Ring, it's been very strong so far, 5 episodes in and it's an early contender for being the best out of the three seasons. Next week is going to be busy, working Monday, Tuesday and Sunday, seeing the hall on Wednesday, taking little Albert to the cinema Thursday, going to a BBQ Friday and seeing a show with Mum and Dad on Saturday, a jam packed week. So I shall see you all then, don't forget to donate or share the Psychopath GoFundMe, we gotta make that money, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

May 17th - May 23rd

"I've never been the best with bus routes, train routes, and tube routes, however the first one I got myself familiar with was the 56 bus route, and that is what I've got to say about the number 56 in my 56th blog. Here we are with another blog ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the week where more restrictions drop and we can now go to cinemas and theatres, and sit inside restaurants, pubs and cafes. Also museums open which means I'm back to work part time, so three days a week you'll be reading about what my day is like at work, and whatever else is going on during the week for me, and I was doing something everyday, so are you all ready to read what my week is like in a more normal world? I mean you should, you're already here!

So we are kicking things off with Monday, the day more restrictions dropped, and a shame that this day had to have such poor weather. Jack and I made plans to go to the cinema, which would be my first trip to the cinema since October and his first since, I believe August. We meet outside my flat and then walked to Sadler's Wells where we got on the 341 bus to Waterloo, we were extremely early so we went to this pub called The Wellington to pass at least half an hour of our time, and it felt so weird and so surreal being back inside a pub, the last time I was inside a pub having a drink was December. After we finished our drinks we walked to the cinema where we were going to see the film, Godzilla vs. Kong, now I've already seen the film, Jack hasn't, and a film like this, on the big screen where it should be, is just great. Ironically this is the same cinema we had our last cinema trip at, we had a bite to eat and a hot drink at the Costa inside the BFI IMAX before we made our way up the stairs to get refreshments, and what I'm about to say next, I hope doesn't make me come off as spoilt, but this cinema, first day back, been aware for a long time that cinemas were opening on this day, no nachos, no hotdogs, and it took around 5 minutes for drinks to get done as they were all going through the system, something like that; we were told a delivery wasn't done on time which doesn't make sense to me because it's May 17th, a day everyone was looking forward to, this cinema's second screening of the day, which was during the afternoon by the way, and besides the popcorn and a drink flavour or two, nothing else was there, so that was annoying, if I had to think of a reason as to why this has happened, either there's been a mixup or miscommunication between the different cinemas about the deliveries, or, my theory, this was all last minute, because I was looking at film times at the BFI IMAX not even a week prior, and no times were there until Jack and I looked on Saturday, so maybe with just a few days to spare they must've thought "ok let's open this cinema up, get people in and make money," besides that, I don't know what else could be the reason as to why this happened. Jack and I got popcorn, these massive boxes of popcorn, and drinks, Jack thought the popcorn was off, I didn't notice anything, and we got into our seats and watched the film, and the film was a great time, a very fun monster movie. After that, Jack and I got a bus, I believe it was the 243, back to Old Street, we were planning on going to another pub and then calling it a day, we looked at The Britannia, a lot of history in that pub, my family and I would go in on Christmas Day nearly every year, and it was packed, we then went to The Corner Bar, also packed, and it didn't help that we were soaked in the rain, it was very frustrating. So Jack ended up getting himself a takeaway, I went back to his and poured myself a drink, and I was with him for another 45 minutes before calling it a day, it was a good day, having some normanity back, shame about the rain, and the thunder, now that was scary, to end this paragraph, I need to say, I don't remember a May having such bad weather, I remember days in May where the weather was bad, but not like this, this is ridiculous.

Next up is Tuesday, and Tuesday was a very laid back day, I was chilling most of the day, and I spent an hour in the gym, spending most of that hour on two different cross trainers, they all probably have different names but I'll just call them cross trainers, and I did some work on my chest before heading home, nice day overall.

Following that up with Wednesday which was to me, the most relaxing day I had all week, I relaxed indoors and then Jack came up, he texted me the weekend prior if Mum could teach him how to make her traditional Pasta Bake, so we told him to come up Wednesday since Wednesday is normally our Pasta Bake night. He came up around 2pm and we chilled and spoke for most of that time, Mum came home from work around 4:30pm and that's when the cooking began. Mum showed Jack each step of what to do as Jack followed along nicely, that's a great quality with Jack, he's an easy learner and can follow steps like a little stroll in a park. Later on, once cooking was done, we ate the Pasta Bake for dinner, very pleased with how Jack did. After dinner we sat down and watched Tenet, which, going back to earlier, was the last film him and I saw in cinemas before Monday. Once he went home, I relaxed and prepared for a long day of work the following day.

Now it's Thursday, and today was my 2nd shift back at work, and 1st of the list of dates I have until the end of July; this was a day shift, and unlike the day shifts back during the days after the 1st lockdown where days would be from 10am - 4pm, it will be it's original days of 9:30am - 5pm, going to miss those 6 hour shifts. So I went in to check the roster, the roster being of the sheet saying whose working, at what time and at what position and I saw that the roster wasn't updated, this was because my original days for this week was Friday, Saturday and Sunday, however I couldn't do Saturday so it got changed to Thursday, Friday and Sunday, these dates got sent to me just two days ago, and it seems like the roster wasn't updated, I thought to not worry about it as one of the managers should have an updated one which he will read out during the morning briefing, and he did read it out, and my name wasn't mentioned, well this is just great, so I put my hand up, explained the situation, and then spoke to the manager after where he gave me a list of things to do throughout the day, most he would give me later on in the day, but the series of things I was doing included keeping an eye on areas that staff don't normally keep much of an eye on, moving things around in a room for staff only, covered for staff members who either had to attend a meeting, have a break or leave early and that was that. Overall I should be annoyed that the roster wasn't updated leaving me directionless for a shift, however I saw this as an opportunity for something different and refreshing, I did explain what happened to my line manager because it is best that she knows, and yeah, another shift is in the bag. My day wasn't done there, I only came home for around half an hour as I had my drama class that evening, originally I was intending on giving it a pass as I had my work shift, but two or three days prior I got sent a monologue to do and the first thing that came to my mind was "looks like I'm heading to class," and a positive with me going to class right after work is that if I was home, I could've fallen asleep and messed up my sleep for the night making me feel rubbish going into tomorrow's shift. Drama class was great as usual, starting with a tongue twister as a warmup, and a very rare tongue twister that I struggled with, there's always going to be one, and I was in an improvisation of 3 (including me) where each group had to do a recreation of a well known story, leaving the rest of us to guess what it was, my group and I did Tarzan which we all did very well, I played Tarzan and tried to make it as over the top as I could without giving away that the improvisation was Tarzan, using my comedic facial expressions and body language to my advantage; later on in the class I did my monologue, which I didn't have much preparation for due to everything I've had going on this week already, and even during my free time I was focused on getting ready to go back to work, and this monologue was called Cool Girls and Dungeons and Dragons, written by Patrick Cullen, and the character was named Billy too, what a coincidence! This monologue was right up my alley and despite the limited time I had to look at it and make it the best I could, I performed it very well and was praised by many in my class. After that very enjoyable class, myself and 8 others including my teacher went to The Shakespeare's Head, was so good to be drinking inside again, it was as if we never had a lockdown, ending my Thursday on a high.

We are getting right into Friday now, as I had another shift at work, difference was my name was actually on the roster, since that Friday was on my original set of dates, and I was in a location where I didn't need a rotation to get from this place at this time, to that place at that time, instead I was only doing two places, yep, two places, for over 7 hours, great, but luckily it was with someone I got to know more yesterday, her and I both worked zero hour contracts at the beginning of our careers at our workplace, and we once went for the same Marketing job in the same place, I spoke about that a long time ago, can't be asked to go through it again, but word of advice, if any of you are going for a Marketing job, make sure it's in an office job and not one of those standing on a street all day hoping someone will listen to you jobs. If I had to be honest I thought this shift was a struggle seeing that I was in the same two places the entire day, and there wasn't much for me to do and I was walking up and down for most of the day, giving me aches and pains in my legs and feet beginning early afternoon. The longer the day went on the more in pain I felt, leading to me stretching a lot just to ease the pain, and when the day ended, I just thought "finally" despite work alongside someone who I've really got to know and really get along with, and my locations being easy to handle especially during opening up and closing, it just felt long and winding and I couldn't have been happier when it ended, as I limped to Cutty Sark Station to head home. After finally heading home, I made cookies with Mum and little Albert, remember those cookies we made last summer? The cookie dough is from a brand called Gookie Dough, highly recommended, and we ate them, and highly enjoyed them. During the evening myself, Albert, Mum, Frankie and his friend all watched Pete's Dragon together, the 2016 remake, which was really good, and we continued watching while we all ate dinner, and there was one scene near the end that got me and Frankie's friend choked up, you would've found it funny to see me, eating a bbq chicken wing while tearing up, that's a funny image, and that ended my Friday, quite an eventful day if you ask me.

Heading right into the weekend with Saturday, began my day hanging out with little Albert including playing Spider-Man on the PS5, and guess what happens? You know how the roster earlier this week wasn't updated and I said something about it, well, I only went and got an email regarding my absence, where I replied explaining what happened, that my dates got changed but the roster wasn't updated, for some reason I expected it to happen. Later on, I got dressed and went to a baby shower, one of my friends I was with for the beach party not that long ago and the picnic back in early April was pregnant and due to give birth in July, this was held at Turnpike House, a pub in Stamford Hill, and I saw friends who I've seen during this pandemic, and even saw a friend who I haven't seen since before the first lockdown, and it was a really nice day, lots of chatting, laughs, games, I even won one resulting in me getting a medal and giving the most iconic speech I'll ever give with just three words "God is good," easily better than any speech at the award shows this year, better than all that politically driven trash we have to hear; anyways as I was saying, there was food, a bit of rain of course there would be, plenty of photos, and yeah, it was just such a nice day with lovely people and great memories.

Finally it's Sunday, and I'm ending my week with another shift at work, and to look after myself more I decided to travel in trainers while keeping my work shoes in a bag, and having a brita of water on me to keep me hydrated as I felt very thirsty during my shift on Friday, and also traveling was different as the Northern line was closed, therefore I had to get the 43 bus to Bank Station. After an easier than expected trip to work, we all find out during the briefing that tickets for today are sold out, I mean they would be, it's a museum that's open during the weekend, and I would forget about this later on because, I've got to be honest, you cannot expect me to remember everything I'm told even if it's work related, if you do expect that than you expect way too much from people; we were also told that someone is absent therefore the rotation would be changed, and later on finding out that for almost the whole day, only one person will be keeping an eye on the exit, which I didn't mind at all, but I do get worried thinking about how often certain absences will be. Overall I felt this was an easier shift especially physically as my legs and feet didn't ache as much as they did the last shift, and I was hydrated; though I was surprised that how many people weren't paying attention to the one way system, I felt I saw more people try to leave through the entrance in one day than I did in any shift from August to October last year, and people are getting a bit lippy now, guys just because we have an apparent day to go completely back to normal doesn't mean you can bring your attitude back. I even had two people together wanting to go in just to use the toilets, I told them they had to scan the NHS Track & Trace code, because what if there's an outbreak, we need everyone's names and details, and you wouldn't believe it, they didn't even have the app, guys, it's been nearly a year, the code is everywhere you go, and you don't have the app, I thought it was a big massive joke, and they were there for around 10 minutes downloading the app, entering their details, they showed me their screens and I have no idea what was going on with the app and the woman said, feeling fed up, you're fed up? I'm fed up putting up with two people that don't even have an app that everyone has to have and only wants to enter the museum just to use the toilet, you want to use the toilets? Go to the nearest pub! Anyway she said, dropping her shoulders clearly showing attitude "can we just use the toilets?" and I said, because I didn't want to put up with either of them any longer "just go, toilets are on the left," and I never saw them again. But despite that, as I mentioned earlier it was a much easier shift physically and mentally than Friday, and that ends my week.

That was my week guys, don't know about you but it was quite a lot, mostly I didn't stop this week and next week won't be any different, I've got four shifts next week, and I'm hoping to make progress in what's next for Jack's short film Psychopath, which I will leave a link for once again, because we gotta make that money, so there's a hall we're hoping to use to screen it, so fingers crossed we can have a look, a chat, and sort out if we can use it, if not there's other options out there, but this one would be good as it's so close to home. But yeah, that was my week, I still got to catch up on things to watch, Vikings, the new episode of This Is Us, I've just been so occupied with work and sorting out my sleep as well as I could that I've had to put what I needed to watch behind me. So I'll see you all next week, for the last whole week of May, before we enter June, 6th month of the year, half way through the year, madness, see you all then guys, adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

May 10th - May 16th

"I'm going to start this blog off really dark, read this with sad piano music in the background until you don't feel like you need to anymore. Sometimes in life I would think about death, when I would die, how I'd die, how people would react when I die, my funeral, I remember randomly thinking about this in 2010, no reason or backstory behind it, and an age I thought of was 55, which I hope it's not the age I die I hope to live so much longer than that, and that is my writeup for the number 55 for this blog, random way to start the blog right? Anyways guys welcome to yet another blog, besides training at work on Friday and my first shift back on Sunday, this was a week where I didn't have anything planned, so what else did I do? How was the week before more restrictions go down? Let's find out. Before that, I need to mention what I forgot to mention last week, I had a phone call with Ms. Vidal on May 5th, last Wednesday, spoke about the LNSEN webinar, and the blog, and it was a nice 8 and a half minute chat, can't believe I forgot that, really beat myself up over it. So yeah, week time, let's get to it.

Kicking off the week with Monday, I started off with a couple of hours on the PlayStation and then I decided to finally go to the gym, it's been nearly a month since they opened, I'm pretty much better now, I mean why not? So I went to the gym, wore my mask on the way there and took it off in the locker, because no one was actually using a mask inside the gym while using the equipment, which, I mean it's fine, I don't have a problem with it, it's only, if there's a spike, and somehow it comes down to gyms, and everyone would be pointing fingers at whether it was the workers or the guests or both, would be pretty funny to be honest. While at the gym I worked on my shoulders, my arms, legs, thighs, and my chest, which I felt I worked the hardest on. I worked out for 45 minutes before going home, it was great to be back in the gym and it felt fantastic to work on myself physically, made me feel much more motivated too.

Next up was Tuesday, began with a few hours on the PlayStation again, and I was going to go to the gym, but I felt my body ache from how hard I worked the previous day, so I thought to leave gym for the day, because I didn't want to overwork myself or hurt myself. Instead I thought to go for a jog, it was different compared to what I did yesterday, plus it helps improve my stamina, but before that, last minute plan change to my day, I picked up little Albert from school, waited around 10 minutes before he came out, and he and I walked back to his house. Once I dropped him off I went out to jog, jogged around Angel and came home nearly an hour later.

Moving onto Wednesday, and Wednesday was exactly like Monday, PlayStation for a few hours and then went to the gym, and my workout was extremely identical to the one I did on Monday, I did however still feel a bit of soreness, but nothing that could affect my workout in any way. That was Wednesday believe it or not, nothing else really happened.

Now it's Thursday, this has been easy to write, easy to read through too; and it was my last day before I went back to work to do training. This was at that time of the week, the most productive I've been, started by signing a contract to be able to be part of a group chat where I and my work colleagues will be informed of overtime shifts, then I did an ab workout which had me destroyed just half way through, then I showered, and then I ordered myself dinner since I had plans that evening and Mum was working late, got myself some fried chicken from Dodam Korea, so so good. The evening came and I attended my drama class, not much to say except it was another great class, I did say a funny line during my improvisation, it was set on a fishing ship during a storm and I said "where's Moses when you need him?" personally I thought it was a good line. Ended the night with over an hour at The Shakespeare's Head before heading home for a big day the next day.

Time for some business because it's Friday, see, after over a year I'm still coming up with new ones. Today was the day, today was the day I would go back to work for some training, I woke up after only around 4 hours of sleep, those earlier nights over the last week didn't mean anything since it just left me with a rubbish sleep before a big day like this. I woke up and travelled dreading the day ahead not because of being back, it was just the hours, the day was supposed to be 7 hours, the thought of that after a bad sleep made me feel ill. After travelling for nearly 50 minutes I arrived, and it was like all of that went away, and I felt a big positive energy hit me, a buzz you can say, seeing the familiar sight of my workplace and the beauty of Greenwich around it. I arrived for the training, and saw many work colleagues either working or going to do training like me, felt nice seeing many familiar faces. For nearly the entire day the training consisted of a lot of listening, some answering to questions, asking questions too, and even walking around and discussing what parts of the museum interests us or could interest others, like children for example. To end the day, we all tried the new uniform, and placed each of our orders, I was very happy with mine, feeling optimistic about the future of the museum, yes a new uniform coming in the next month made me feel optimistic; before leaving I recieved my new work dates, nearly all of them looked fine, majority of them took place during the weekend, though I should be annoyed, more positive comes with these dates, I get the house to myself most of the weekdays, plus I'll be more than likely available anything LNSEN does, rush hour wouldn't be a pain over the weekend, and yeah, it all looks good, and this isn't forever, it's only until my contract is up, or when I get the rest of my workdates during the summer, we'll see. This day was also Frankie's 22nd Birthday, and it was a lovely evening, had a friend of his, and a bunch of family members up, we all had La Davina for dinner as well which is always amazing, in the end it was a great day, going back to work, my brother's birthday, being around positive people, great way to prepare for the weekend.

Going into the first half of the weekend with Saturday, I went up to Angel with Mum, did some shopping in M&S and Sainsbury’s, and then we tried to take the Wii U to Cex again, this time with another wire or two, only for them to say again that it wasn’t enough, there was another wire, so hopefully we can find the other wire we need and maybe we can actually sell it, and if it still isn’t enough, I’m going to start thinking there’s someone is trying to wind me up, afterwards Mum and I went to that bakery again, found out the name, it's called Wenzel's, and there's quite a bit of them around London. Later on I went up to see Jack for two hours, where we chatted away and made plans for Monday, and that was my Saturday.

Finally it’s Sunday, and this day was the day of my first shift back, my first shift in over 5 months, and it was for the Dining Pods, and my shift was going to be from 5pm to 11:15pm, which will be the latest I’ve ever worked. I arrived at the museum at 4:30pm where I was informed by one of the managers to open the Romney Entrance Gates, which also serves as the entrance to the one way system, this was the first time I had to open the gates on my own so I didn’t know what to expect, and I had to improvise seeing that I didn’t have all of my papers on me. Went to security to get the keys, and of course my card still doesn’t work, what else is new; went back up to the Romney Entrance, opened the outside automatic door which was just a wild guess of pressing a random button, I then unlock the lockpad on the chain around the door, took the chain off, opening one of the gates, and I used the t bar to unlock the other gate and opening it, therefore leading me to successfully opening both gates on my own, it took over a year and a half but I did it, and I felt proud of myself. The shift started at 5pm as myself and two work colleagues just had to stay in the same area, we could either sit by the counter, stand around, or even go outside, which wasn’t the best idea as it was raining non stop the entire shift. This shift was just like my last one, just staying in the same place, telling people coming in where the toilets were, only difference was that it was two and a half hours longer, and I had an hour break from 6pm to 7pm, but the thing with me is, the earlier the break, the harder and longer the shift feels, and it definitely felt that way, but in the end, it’s easy money. A woman came in at one point, who was working with the catering team for the dining pods that evening, and she told us something she was suspicious about and something else, and I wasn’t sure if she was referring to something her colleague said or something said from someone in one of the pods, but it was something about female security, now, it’s not my position to say or really do anything about that, but overall we’re a very diverse team of people of different genders, races, religions and physical and mental disabilities, so in my mind I’m thinking, number one “why should I care?” And number two “why do you care? Or why does whoever that person is cares?” number three “why is this being brought up to me? And number four “why am I even bringing this up?” At the end of the shift, we locked up, and got taxis ordered by the museum itself to get home, taxi dropped me home in around half an hour, home in time for another wrestling pay per view, ending my Sunday and overall week on a high.

That was my week, very productive, exercising, acting, shopping, going back to work, it's been pretty nonstop this week and I was happy with how it all went. In regards to what I've been watching, nothing much to note, This Is Us came back this week in a good episode, two more episodes before Season 5 actually ends, took 7 months but Season 5 is going to conclude, I was going to watch Vikings but I spent my evenings focusing on going back to training, and fixing my sleep as much as I could. Now we get ready for May 17th and onwards, most things are opening indoors including cinemas, theatres, restaurants and pubs, it should be good, however I have mixed feelings about this whole Indian variant, on one hand I feel "ah we should be fine no worries at all" and on the other hand I'm like "WHEN IS IT GOING TO END!? IT'S BEEN 14 MONTHS, HOW MUCH LONGER CAN WE GO ON!?" Just have to hope for the best, and if it's anything bad, just have to hope it's nothing too severe. So I'll see you all for the happiest week we'll have all year, until the week of June 21st, if the Indian variant doesn't affect it, so I'll see you all next week, where I'll be doing my own thing, and going to work, and attending a babyshower, how exciting! See you all then, adios mis amigos!"

May 3rd- May 9th

We've now entered the first whole week of May, not that far away from restrictions going even lower, summer weather drawing nearer, and normality is reaching us more every week. This was a week where I had barely any plans, and a week where, believe it or not, I was ill, and though the worst part of me being ill lasted around 3 days, it felt long, hard and tiresome, easily the worst I felt physically since the pandemic started. So let's see how this, not much planned week went.

Kicking things off with Monday, something that was planned and booked prior. So a few friends and I were going to a Beach Party, and I had no idea about this Beach Party, no link, no details, absolutely nothing, I had no clue to the point where I packed a spare t-shirt, swimming trunks and slide ons in a bag. The weather wasn't good either so I just imagined myself standing there, swimming trunks and all, by a swimming pool, in rubbish weather, it wasn't good to think about. So I met my friends outside of Canonbury Station, I was the last one to turn up which is very out of character for me, but luckily there was no lateness. We then got onto the Overground tube and got off at Imperial Wharf, from there we got the C3 bus and got off at Wandsworth Bridge, where we then walked for 4 minutes to reach our destination. From where we first arrived outside, I first noticed the name, Neverland, I also liked how nice it all looked, and the involvement of security made me realise that this is bigger than how I imagined it; two friends and I waited for the other two in the entrance way which was filled with sand, the feeling of sand beneath my trainers was a feeling I haven't felt in the longest time, last time I can recall standing on sand was Turkey nearly two years ago, if there was a time after that I clearly don't remember it. As we entered, I saw a lot of tables and chairs around, which made me sigh in relief realising that this had nothing to do with the sea, or a pool, or anything water related unless it involved drinking water. So we went to our table, and how this worked was great, there was a code on the table that we could scan with our phones, which would automatically take you to the website to place an order, I began with a burger and a glass of Pimm's, and if this was the closest to me going abroad on a beach this year, I'd take it, because with the food and drink, and the setting, it definitely felt like it. We were there for around 3 and a half hours before leaving, and while we waited for the bus, we found out it was going to take a while so one of us ordered an Uber to Finsbury Park, the Uber trip took around an hour and there was a lot of traffic around Finsbury Park so it took a bit longer than it should've to get out. After saying bye to two of them, the remaining three which included me entered Finsbury Park Station where we said bye to one of them, which now left the two of us, as we took the Piccadilly Line to Manor House Station to go to a pub called The Finsbury, where we were seeing even more friends. I stayed for somewhere between an hour and a hour and a half before leaving, and it was nice seeing that I haven't seen most of them since September, and myself and two friends that were at The Finsbury were meant to see WWE at the O2 that night if it wasn't postponed so that was a big coincidence. Overall it was a really good day and a fantastic start to the week.

Next was Tuesday, and Tuesday started off bad. I wake up with a blocked nose and feeling the most dehydrated I've ever been, I had no idea why I was feeling like this, but I did have a flashback to the day prior, where there was a point where both of my nostrils were blocked, and then I realised that this feeling has been building up, and then I get another flashback to a few days prior where my brother came home feeling a bit ill, and now I've got it, great, wonderful, spectacular. This was the worst I've felt physically in well over a year, periods of sneezing, blocked nose, my brain not working as well as it normally does, everything feeling slower, on a positive note I was able to taste things, I was snacking, eating, and drinking, and thankfully I could taste everything, if I couldn't taste anything I would cry, and then panic, and then cry again, that would've been something. The whole day consisted of me resting and doing nothing, trying to look after myself as much as I could, I even had an extremely hot bath where I would be sweating trying to get as much out of my system as possible, that was Tuesday, pretty torturous with my nose, and a chore of a day to get through.

Then came Wednesday, and I felt a little improvement with how I was feeling. Jack came up that evening for dinner, it was Mum's idea, she felt like it was time for Jack to have a dish of her classic Pasta Bake. Jack came up around 5:45pm, he had a pretty hectic day, so Pasta Bake was definitely what he needed. Despite how ill I was feeling, him being around was the most well I've felt all day, I almost forgot I was even ill. Jack left around just before 8pm, it was really nice, and as soon as he left, I felt rubbish again, it's been only two days as this illness couldn't leave my body soon enough.

Now it's Thursday, and Thursday was a big day, it was LNSEN's first ever webinar, featuring Claire Gardner who is the Managing Director at Dynamic Training and Vincenza De Falco who is the London & South East Programme Specialist at DFN Project SEARCH. Now, if COVID wasn't a thing and this was in person, I would've told them I couldn't make it but since COVID is a thing, and everyone are doing things through webcams, I thought "yeah sure let's do this," and hoped that my illness would not show or affect me in any way. When I joined I introduced myself, spoke about my background including this very blog, and I even asked a question, which I felt very proud of; besides that I was struggling, I kept fidgeting, I was sweating, I was grinding my teeth at some points, I had to turn the camera off every now and then to either sneeze or blow my nose, I was all over the place and keeping my composure and professionalism became much harder than it should've been, and it didn't help that it was being recorded. In the end, I was glad I appeared as the Autism Champion Ambassador, represented my team and learned from what Claire and Vincenza showed us, I just wish that physically I was in better form, I definitely will be next time I'm sure of it. Due to me being ill, I didn't attend the drama class in the evening, there was no way I could've been a part of an hour and a half or two hour class in the condition I was in.

Let's get down on Friday, it's Friday people where's the excitement? There will be when even more restrictions go down. So Friday was the most productive day I had since Monday, and I was mostly better, say somewhere between 60% and 70% I thought to do more active things including getting out of the house, getting some well needed fresh air. But before that, Nan and Dotty came up, and I forgot to mention this last week but I took little pieces of a dog treat, and created a little trial, and she would follow the trail eating each piece. On this day, we saw two different reactions if someone got close to her face, one would be sniffing your face out of curiosity, the other would be, I have to come up with a scenario to describe this face, someone shouts loudly waking you up at 4 in the morning, imagine the face you'd make if that happened to you, that was the face Dotty made, and it was golden. We also realised how cheeky she is, I noticed signs of this but was never certain, when she was on my lap, Frankie went into the kitchen, her eyes followed Frankie as he sat up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen, and as soon as one foot went into the kitchen, Dotty jumped off my lap and followed him, she wants food, and she doesn't care who it's from, brilliant. Afterwards I went outside for the first time since Monday as Mum and I took some stuff to the charity shop Jack worked at, we had clothes, shoes, DVDs, Blu Rays, CDs, I believe some video games too, but we had a lot, and what we brought will definitely make some money for his shop; afterwards Mum and I went to a cafe just a couple of doors away for a bite to eat and a drink, got myself a donut and a cappuccino. Later on Jack sent me a text, if I wanted to pop round for a bit, which I did, for around an hour and a half, and that was Friday.

Time for Saturday, Mum and I went up to Angel together, went in Cex and handed in some old DVDs, Blu Rays and video games, we would've handed in the Wii U as well but we didn't have all the wires for it, so that'll be another mission for another day. Mum and I then entered this bakery, it hasn't been there for long and I can't remember the name but I did get something from there, a nice little pizza, very lovely, I need to try their ice finger next time, longest ice finger I've ever seen! After that Mum and I did some shopping in M&S and Sainsbury's and then went home.

Finally it's Sunday, one of, if not my most productive day of the week, went into it with no plans of it being packed. I decided to go back to my travelling on this day, making a start on my visits to Swimming Venues, now I wasn't going to every single place that had a swimming pool, I was going to the most well known ones in London, like ones that have their own Wikipedia page for example. I began by making a trip to Ironmonger Row Baths which I have a lot of history with, I've gone there to swim countless times especially when I was a kid, I had my first ever gym membership there and I witnessed my brother swim in this tournament or competition that took place on his 11th birthday, going here only took a 10 minute walk. Next was Oasis Sports Centre, which I took the 55 bus to from St. Luke's Music Education Centre, the bus trip was around 20 minutes long before I got off at Tottenham Court Road Station, and I couldn't believe the location, right opposite the Shaftesbury Theatre, I've been past that location so many times so it really took me by surprise. Next was the London Fields Lido, which I took the 38 bus from Tottenham Court Road Station / New Oxford Street to Greenwood Road, which took almost 40 minutes, during this bus journey I was thinking of how warm my body was, and how differently everyone was dressing, some wore tracksuits, some wore jumpers, some wore dresses, some walked around in flip flops, I looked at the weather app on my phone and saw it was 20 degrees, 20 DEGREES, ARE YOU SERIOUS, after the weather we've been having it was just hard to believe; I got off at Greenwood Road and walked 7 minutes to reach my destination. My final destination was the Marshall Street Baths, and as soon as I saw the address and where I had to go, I could've hit myself, it was right near Oxford Circus, I could've just gone straight there from the Oasis Sports Centre, silly me; I walked to London Fields Station and took the Overground train to Liverpool Street Station, where I then took the Central Line to Oxford Circus where I then reached my destination after a 5 minute walk once leaving the station; after finishing my trip for the day I took a little walk around Oxford Circus before getting the 55 bus home. Later on, my family, and neighbours all came together for goodbye drinks, one of the families that live next door are moving next weekend, and this went on for around 4 or 5 hours, it was a nice gathering, bringing back memories of last summer.

So that was my week, despite spending most of it feeling like rubbish, I did what I could with my week. When I was ill, the days would feel so long, and then the evening would come, especially when everyone went to bed, and it would just go so quick, I could be up until 4am and it would fly by, the way my head was during those few days was so weird. In regards to what I've been watching, This Is Us is coming back next week, can't wait; I finished Invincible which was fantastic, now I can't wait for Season 2 whenever that'll be, and guess what guys? I watched Vikings, AND THE CROWD GOES WILD, yeah I watched around 5 episodes, now I have 2 episodes left of Season 3; and my Mum and I started watching Season 3 of Dark Side of the Ring, a great show. Next week is big, I have training at work on Friday, and I have my first shift back Sunday evening, and then I have a wrestling pay per view to watch after my shift, depending on the time I get home, it might've already started who knows. It will also be the last whole week before even more restrictions get lower, cinemas will open, theatres will open, we can sit inside pubs, cafes and restaurants instead of being outside and worrying about it either being cold or raining, limited capacity at events including football games, hugging people, I mean I haven't stopped hugging people but that news must be great for those who have kept to social distancing, it's just really exciting, and I can't wait to see what happens next. I'll see you all next week, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!"

https://www.neverlandlondon.com

April 26th - May 2nd

"We have entered the 53rd blog, 53 weeks of me writing on here, officially past a year, as of writing we have left April and have entered May, hoping now for better weather instead of the weather constantly being undecided on what it wants to be, does it want sun, blue skies, grey clouds, a bit of rain, heavy wind, it's all been inconsistent and all over the place; despite that we are a week closer to May 17th, where we can go places indoors like pubs, restaurants, cafes, even theatres, THEATRES, and cinemas, CINEMAS, a lot of us will be going back to work, more of us are getting vaccinated, the light at the end of the tunnel is slowly getting brighter. Welcome to another week in my life, a significantly more relaxed week, the busiest days I had were on the weekend, so, you're all here for a reason right? Let's see how my week went.

Starting with Monday, originally I had nothing planned, and I'm not sure if you remember but there was a time where I was collecting a lot of memorabilia, and it still happens here and there, but I got this, how do I explain it? You get a little leaflet regarding a parcel or letter that was meant to be posted to you, but it didn't because either you weren't in or the post or letter didn't have a stamp on it, or you didn't pay a certain amount of money for it to be delivered, so I took a trip to the nearest post office, and what I got was a letter, that didn't have a stamp on it, I paid the £2 I needed to pay, walked home, opened the letter, and it was an AC/DC ticket from when they performed at Wembley Stadium in 2015, and that was how I started my week.

Next up is Tuesday, I spent all day chilling until the evening when Jack came over, so there's a backstory to this, do you remember two weeks ago when Jack and I wanted food from the Caribbean place we wanted but couldn't and it only delivered to my address? Well that's why he's up here, and guess what? Turns out they didn't deliver to my address too, so the only thing Jack and I could do was go up there ourselves, getting a number 4 bus to Seven Sisters Road. The bus journey took longer than it should've due to the road closures around Highbury and the diversion, but eventually we did get off, just a few minute walk away from the place we were getting our food, the restaurant was called People's Choice Caribbean, and from what we saw it looked really nice, and we ordered our food, not everything we wanted but oh well, and we walked to Holloway to get the 43 bus home. After we got home, we got our plates out, put the food on our plates, warmed up the food and dug in, Jack and I were both very surprised at how big our portions were, but that was just the beginning, when eating my Jerk Chicken and Rice, the spice hit me almost immediately as I then found myself either drinking my drink or clearing out my nose every time the spice was effective, same with Jack, he went red raw in his face, as my eyes become glassy, and the journey to finishing our food became long, weary, and even dreadful, but we couldn't stop because the food was so good, and the wings, the Jerk Wings were to die for. As we finished our food, we went straight to the freezer where I finished my tub of Ben & Jerry's, Minter Wonderland flavour too, and Jack had a Fruit Pastilles Lolly, and after I finished my tub of Ben & Jerry's, I laid there on the sofa, destroyed, I finished my food but at what cost, what accomplishment, what did I achieve? This state of mind lasted approximately 10 minutes. In the end it was a fine day for what it was, and a word of advice, drink milk with spicy food, it helps a lot, because I had some Jerk Wings for leftovers, why? I can't say no to leftover food, perfect midnight snack, and milk hugely helps.

Coming up now is Wednesday, and Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday? Hate to break your hearts guys but nothing remotely happened on Wednesday from what I can recall, just a good ol' fashioned nothing day, and there's nothing wrong with that at all, sometimes we need a nothing day.

Now it's Thursday, and I spent the whole day relaxing before heading to my drama class in the evening, and it was another good class, got to see more familiar faces, one I haven't seen in over a year, and the improvisations were all good as well; we spent the majority of the lesson doing an improvisation where each duo would do one in the same setting but at a different time, so for example, think a zoo, and one duo is at 9:30am, and the next is at 12pm, that's an example. The one we had was set in a park, mine was set at 11am, and it was a very strong improvisation, a problem with mine was that with some of the ways I responded, were with questions, and it was like "was it necessary?" because those watching do get the point, so I can understand that. Afterwards some of us including yours truly went to The Shakespeare's Head, and I began getting questions about my blog, yep, this blog, and one of the people there did say he read a few of them, and asked about the title, and I had no idea what he was on about, ashamed to admit I forgot about the title of my own blog, "Diary of a former Courtyard student: How I'm coping with Covid-19" it's an easy one to remember Bill pull yourself together, and I was asked about Courtyard in the title, and I openly said, loudly, "it's a special needs unit! I'm Autistic!" another person there said "you don't look it," and I smirked and replied "that's what they all say," I said how I just send my old teacher (Ms. Vidal) what I say, and then she uploads it onto the website, and I was even asked about was this blog all of what I say, or do I say some of it, I had no idea what they meant but this blog is all me, my writing, my thoughts, my opinions, my life, it's all me, some of what I say doesn't make it because I can be too in depth, I can say something that can come across as a misinterpretation, I can come across as too honest but I don't really care about what people think no matter who they are but I do know I have to be careful, but this blog is me, and some of what I write does get edited, nothing wrong with it, and it's better to be safe than sorry, I don't want to say something in the blog that could get me in trouble, God forbid. I felt a little worked up answering these questions about the blog, I don't know why, people were just curious about what I do and how I do it, nothing wrong with that, I guess I didn't prepare myself properly for these types of scenarios, it got me overthinking, a little overwhelmed, a little worked up, but I will do better next time it happens.

Getting onto Friday, and Friday was quite productive, the start of a productive rest of the week. It began with Mum and I picking up breakfast in Euston, there's this cafe, Double J's Cafe was the name, that caught my eye immediately because it said on a little board by the entrance "pancakes" I love me some pancakes, so we went in to order, turns out they didn't have pancakes, however I did get a breakfast wrap, think of most of the popular breakfast items in one wrap, the taste was equivalent to standing at the gates of Heaven. On the way home Mum and I popped into Jack's workplace for a few minutes to surprise him, I mean why not? We were walking by, and it was nice. Later on my Nan and Dotty came up, and that was lovely, nothing much to write up on Dotty except she really does react to noise, whether it's on the road outside, or outside our door, she always looks to where the noise is from, she is very intelligent, and she loves getting comfortable, I put a pillow on the ledge of the sofa, I picked her up, put her down on the pillow, and she just laid there, she looked like she was in all her glory. During the evening I went up to see my Auntie Susie and Uncle Trevor, Auntie Susie made some Pasta Bake for Frankie so I decided to come collect it, and that was nice, had a good chat with the both of them before heading home, and that was Friday.

Kicking off the weekend with Saturday, which was up there this week as my most productive day of the week, the first thing I did needs an introduction, now we have had a fair share of protests since the pandemic started, we've had the constant anti-lockdown protests, protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, protests in response to the murder of Sarah Everard, the Kill The Bill protests, anything Extinction Rebellion has been doing, the storming of the United States Capitol, and so many others. One protest that has happened that I don't think has gotten a lot of media coverage is the LTN Road Closures Protests, protesting against the numerous road closures especially those around low travel neighbourhoods and those that are unannounced to anyone, and guess what, I was there. Now you all should know me, I'm not the protesting type, I believe in the power of having a voice and definitely the right to protest, but it was never something for me as I find that with some protests the hundreds if not thousands of people and the high volume of noise would all be too much for me, but I did turn up for this one, and I did it for my Uncle Trevor, he's done a lot for me, and has given me a ton of advice; he was going to speak at the protest, so to return the favour, I thought to turn up, I mean it's a protest, how bad can it be? My parents and I arrived at Islington Town Hall where we saw familiar faces, I even saw people I have met at drama classes, families with children and people with either physical or mental disabilities; also a bunch of doggies that easily stole the show for me, I have to admit I did feel quite cramped at one point, however I did move somewhere else to help me breathe better and get less worked up, Laurence Fox who represented the Reclaim Party, and Farah London who is an Independent Candidate in the London Mayoral Election also spoke, so the protest did feel like a big deal; overall the experience wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be, maybe it's because I put too much of my focus on the doggies, especially the Bulldog there, he was a very handsome boy, but it was also nice to see familiar faces and big names too. Later on I decided to see Jack, because why not, and him and I were sitting down chatting, and he was telling me about how he is being careful of his spending due to how much he has spent already including on filming the week prior, this has included him holding back on dinners to have until later dates which led to him telling me he had a corn on a cob for dinner, A CORN ON A COB, nah bruv that's unacceptable, now I know he has to have enough money for his rent, electrics, water and anything else, but I'm not having him live off an a corn on a cob for dinner, so I decided to order some drinks for him, and then I ordered him a pizza from Pizza Union, I really treated him, and he deserved it after how hard he has been working these last few weeks, and I was happy to help him out, can't get through anything without help, it made me feel really good about myself doing that for him, he didn't even ask I just did it, and it was just really feel good. To end my Saturday, I spoke to a friend of Frankie's about films, she's a massive film buff and for an hour or so we spoke about our favourite films, it was a lovely chat, ending a really good Saturday.

Finally it's Sunday, ending the week on a productive note, and my parents and I were planning to see my eldest nephew Teddie play football, Poppy wanted to come as well so we picked her up before we made our way, it took around an hour drive to get to where he was playing. My eldest niece Elsie, my 2nd to eldest sister and mother to Elsie and Teddie Laura was also there, as was Robbie, father to Elsie and Teddie and a doggie named Nala, who belonged to the mum of a player on the opposite team, Nala was a bulldog, a very pretty one too. We all had a good time as Teddie’s team won 6-1 and not long after the game ended, we made our way back to London. After getting home and chilling for a bit, Mum and I went up Angel to do shopping with Poppy, and I have to tell you, Poppy was nonstop from start to finish, especially the talking, I don’t recall a moment where she took a breath, and she wanted a kids magazine, in M&S, you’ll get a better selection of kids magazine in your nearest newsagents; once we finished shopping we went to Pret, got our drinks, and drank them in a park near home. To end Sunday, there was a lot of family up, firstly Cashie, Lianne and Bessie came up, and Bessie is hysterical, she wanted to play Mummy & Baby with me, so she’s Mummy, and I’m Baby, and all I had to do was lie there, and have my bottle, an invisible baby bottle, I mean I was lying down on a bed so I didn’t mind this at all, Albert also came in so the more kids the merrier. Later on, we went into little Albert’s house, a lot of family from last week was up, siblings, cousins, kids, and they were all together again because tomorrow is Albert’s 10th birthday, I’m an Uncle to 5 and 3 out of 5 of them have two digits in their age, what is life? We were there for a few hours, I stayed until the end to keep an eye on Poppy and Bessie, and you could tell easily that both were tired and were fighting relentlessly against their tiredness, especially Bessie, who started running laps from the door to the kitchen, by the time everyone went home and I went back into my house it was around 11:30pm, nice way to end my week with a day full of family time.

That was my week, yeah quite a week, not as long or as descriptive as last week but nonetheless it was quite the week. The Academy Awards took place last week, I didn’t watch it, the Academy Awards aren’t what they use to be, instead of celebrating film, it becomes more about the people in the industry, their political agendas and their egos, and I don’t need an actor to tell me to, what’s the saying, renounce my privilege? When they probably have 5 homes in 3 countries and wearing an outfit that costs more than my monthly pay; in my opinion in this industry, you don’t need an award to prove to people how good you are, to me if you have the respect and the love of your peers, that’s what matters most, that’s the biggest accomplishment you can get, you don’t need an award or be one of the highest grossing actors on the planet, and in words of Forrest Gump, that’s all I’ve got to say about that. I forgot to watch Vikings, yeah I know right, after what I said last week, it just made me feel really silly missing it again, although I did find a show on Amazon Prime that I am hooked on, Invincible, 3 episodes in and I’m loving it so far, also there’s a lot of blood, gore and curse words which makes it 2 thumbs up from me. Next week should be good, got a Beach Party on Monday, got LNSEN’s first webinar on Thursday, that should be good too. So I’ll see you all next week, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!”

Video of little Dotty

April 19th - April 25th

"A little over a year ago, Ms. Vidal and I had a video call where she brought up the idea of me writing a weekly blog as she loves my writing so much whenever I would email her, which at the time would be between once or a few times every few months, and I didn't think much of it at the time, I just did it because I had barely anything to do, and I expected it to be like a 3 or 4 month kind of thing, I would've never saw it going on for a year, here we are, one year later. My blog has been seen by all kinds of people, people outside of the UK too, got its own article in the Islington Gazette, messages from friends and family of how good each blog entry is, it eventually lead to me becoming Autism Champion Ambassador for LNSEN, and, I'm not sure what else, I think that's everything, for now. It has been a very wild year, from then, to now, would've never predicted anything that has happened, and to all the positive stuff that has happened to me, I'm grateful for absolutely everything good that has happened to me, if I had to choose the most positive thing I got out of doing this blog, and even this pandemic, it's my relationship with Ms. Vidal, and no it's not because she's a good looking teacher, don't get me wrong she's absolutely stunning, constantly putting girls my age to shame, it's because of how much she always cared for me, and always made time for me whenever I had a problem or needed someone to talk to, going back to 2013 when I began at The Courtyard, it was my first day, she introduced herself to me, shook my hand, and taught the last lesson of the day, and that was the beginning; she taught me in different kind of lessons, she was one of a few staff members that could put me in my place, and her smile always make me happy. After I left, I would email normally once every few months, we'd let each other know what we've been up to, arrange for me to come in to visit, and I'd be there normally an hour or two with her chilling and chatting, and besides that she'd invite to come along to special events at The Courtyard, or on trips with a class or two, she always thought of me even when she didn't need to, and this blog, and this pandemic, has brought us closer than we've ever been, and it is so mad I still can't get over it, a teacher of mine, who I've known for 8 years, is a friend, that's absolutely mental, I’m calling her Elena now, what’s going on?!? She's the best teacher I've ever had, love her to bits I do. Then there's all of you, who've been here week in and week out, reading about all the shenanigans I get up to, whether it's nothing, meeting friends and family members, attending drama class, going on my walks, my travelling, shopping, my work shifts, or anything else, you're all here reading about me, whether you've been here from the start, or a random week in the last year, or even just recently, I want a say a big thank you to you all, because you all, especially those that have been struggling during this pandemic, you've all given me a purpose to do this every single week, and I thank all of you for using the time of your day to come on here and read whatever I've been up to, much love to you all. Now we've got that out of the way, what on earth has been going on in my life in the 52nd blog entry, the 1 year anniversary of writing these blogs week in and week out, what's happening in my wild world?! This week we have socialising, meeting people, reunions, filming, a birthday, pubs, a negative COVID test, and that's it, don't worry guys it's better than it sounds, so LET'S DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO PUMPED RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MONDAY, IT'S MONDAY, and now I need to calm down, I can't keep this high level of energy throughout or it'll be too overwhelming of a read for all of us. First thing I did that day was meet Mum for lunch, got a Caramel Shortbread with a Cappuchino, had it in the park with Mum, it was nice. Later on, I get a text from Ms. Vidal, and she asked if I could see her at The Courtyard, and I happily accepted. So, I did see Ms. Vidal, and a part of it was to do with with the video she wanted me to do for LNSEN's first webinar, first one I did wasn't professional enough and that was on me, and my hats, second one was just me sitting there just talking about the webinar with little to no emotion, isn't that how some of the professionals do it? So I arrived at The Courtyard, Ms. Vidal came out, and we had a chat for a bit, and I went inside, first time I've been in The Courtyard for almost a year and a half, and I'm loving the changes, I really envy those students because none of them know the environment I had to be in from 2013 to 2015, a few rooms above a church, got crowded every now and then, one of those where I would get on my knees and say "PLEASE JUST FINISH BUILDING THE COURTYARD, I'M BEGGING YOU!" Ok it wasn't exactly like that, and I also envy that they have an after school film club, I would've happily done that! So once I was in, I sat down, filmed two versions of the LNSEN webinar promotional video on Ms. Vidal's phone, she sends them to me, and I planned on editing them on Videoleap which I highly recommend if you want to edit videos on your phone; we chat for a bit, take a selfie, with social distancing, everything was with social distancing, social distancing makes me sad; and then I left. While on my way out, I bump into a familiar face, he's the partner of my friend who popped up over the weekend, didn't recognise him at first, that's me with almost every familiar face, I'll just stare at them for ages until either they greet me or until I realise that's not someone I know; we spoke for around 15 minutes, some of that discussion included norse mythology, which gave me more motivation to watch Vikings, couldn't find the proper time this week but will definitely make time for it next week. So that was Monday, good start to the week.

Coming up next is Tuesday, and waking up I had no plans whatsoever, and then I got a text from Jack, he wanted me to come over to try my costume, despite us already having plans to meet the next day. So I got out anything I needed to wear with the costume he had for me, and then I went over to his house. Once I was there, he had a police jumper for me to wear, I put it over the clothes I already have on, and it's all a perfect fit. Since I was there, I thought it'd be a good idea to have another COVID test, better to be safe than sorry; after waiting half an hour and it came back negative, I also took a photo for proof. After all this was done, Jack and I went to The Corner Bar, bought each other a round each, and while in the second round, Mum tried calling me which I missed because my phone was on silent, so she called Jack, she wanted to let me know that my brother was ordering Pizza Hut and if I wanted anything, let Mum know what I wanted, bid bye to Jack, until tomorrow, and then I headed home to eat Pizza Hut, which was easily the highlight of my day.

Following that is Wednesday, and I used this day to complete paperwork on my work laptop, yep I have a work laptop, which I normally used to do my coursework back in my HNC days. So the paperwork I did included signing my offer letter and contract for my workplace, looking forward to going back next month, and I did some paperwork regarding filming this week, which included a paper on COVID on if I had a test, what test I used, do I have any symptoms, you know all that COVID stuff, and another paper with medical information, emergency contact, and what snacks and drinks I would like on set, and I got all of that done before 2pm, if I didn't complete any of that before 2pm I wouldn't have been allowed on set, though Jack would say otherwise but I can't abuse power like that, that wouldn't be nice. I also loggined into Microsoft Teams to attend the Director's Brief regarding my workplace, nothing much to say except it's all looking good, it's all looking excited, and I can't wait to get back. I spent the rest of the day chilling before meeting Jack and the Director of Photography who was staying at Jack's outside my flat, and we walked to Angel where we had two rounds at Day & Night, a pub in Chapel Market which was formerly known as The Joker of Penton Street, which I had very fond memories of with my friends from Anna Scher's, good times, those good times don't last as long as they should. It was a lovely evening, despite that it was extremely cold, and the cold really made me question why they decided to open only pub gardens when we'd get cold evenings like this. I then went home, to get ready for two long days of filming.

Now it's Thursday, the first day of two long filming days, the first time I've been on set and in front of the camera in over a year, and I've only had around 2 or so hours of sleep, wonderful. So I get dressed, meet Jack and the Director of Photography at his flat to help with equipment, and then we made our way to Old Street Station, and took the Northern Line to King's Cross where we met one of the cast members, and then took the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters where we then walked to where we were filming, which was Chickenshed, a theatre company that has theatre groups for children, youth, and also do courses in BTEC, Foundation Degree and BA Hons, fantastic stuff that is, and I've always known of Chickenshed from what people have told me at my Anna Scher classes, so it did feel surreal that I was there. After arriving, the crew set up the room for the scene with points of where the camera, the lighting and the sound would be, us actors got in costume and prepared for our on screen roles, and it felt huge, first time in over a year, and here we were, and some people on set I've never met before, some I haven't seen in over a year, it couldn't feel any bigger. This short film only has two scenes, and the first scene took place outside, and I got this feeling of anxiety, my first scene filmed in over a year, getting into position, seeing that camera in front of me, feels like I'm dreaming, and then I heard the words "sound rolling, camera rolling," and I put on my game face. After we finished the first scene, which we did ahead of schedule, all that was left was the second scene, which would take a ton of time because it's like a over 10 minute scene, and quite a few different angles are needed to take place too, most of the second scene was filmed before lunch which went on for quite a while, a while to the point where I was struggling to stand still, the joys of being an actor, and when it was time for lunch, it was a massive relief, as my tiredness was catching up to me, and it was clearly showing, so we all ended up agreeing to having KFC, guess we put down what snacks and drinks we wanted for nothing, and had this massive order come, with the food I ate, and the sunlight I got outside, I felt lively and ready for the rest of the day. I went back on set, to be told that I'm not needed for the time being, I was absolutely buzzing, more of a break for me? I am so loved! So I go to this other room we had hired, for when anyone wasn't needed on set, anyone had lunch, and where we kept drinks and snacks if anyone needed anything, so I get myself relaxed, take off my police jumper, and give my Mum a call, and in comes that friend of mine, remember the one who came up last Friday, the same one who gives amazing hugs, that's the one, she's the Associate Producer on this film; she says hi to Mum who was on loud speaker, and next thing you know, I'm doing a photoshoot for her where she took headshots for me, standing up, seated down, in front of a few different backgrounds with different use of lighting and angles, police jumper was on, and off, tie was on, and off, and these headshots were amazing, will definitely come in handy for auditions and my acting CV, the fact that she used her own time for me, when she didn't have to, to do this for me, something that will come in handy for me, it really did mean a lot, and she also helped with my tie, I'm almost in my mid 20s and I still can't do my own tie; you know, I've known her for nearly two years, and it took a pandemic for me to realise that she was my favourite person to be on set with, easy to talk to, very understanding, thoughtful, an interesting character that easily stands out on her own, and I love it when she chuckles, it's cute, and the hugs, THE HUGS, cannot forget the hugs, the best part of every day that's on set. Then the time came for me to be needed, to shoot the ending, and I knew the ending was physical, but not this physical, without spoilers, myself and another poison guard had to detain one of my main characters, and this was all about timing and doing it fast, which is easier said than done, if anyone disagreed, go ahead and try it, and eventually we finished the scene and from what I can recall, that was it, so much happened on this day I wouldn't be surprised if I remembered something new when I published this entry. We finished around an hour early, and were able to keep the equipment in the trunk of cars of those who helped on the film, and made our way home, except I wasn't going home, during the day I had a friend contact me, same one I spent New Years with, asking if I wanted to meet him for a drink, I happily accepted, and travelling from Cockfosters on the Piccadilly Line to Holborn where I changed to the Central Line which was packed to Wanstead where I was dozing on and off during that travel, I meet him in the parking lot of the pub, titled The George, around 20 minutes later than expected, and we had to wait in a queue, for an hour, in the cold, and I realised, even if we were let in, we'd still be, in the cold, makes you question the whole pub gardens opening thing; so we were let in, luckily next to a heater, we had to stand up which we didn't mind at all, and for the next hour and a half we chatted away and had a laugh until around 8:30pm where we called it a night, early start tomorrow. I made my way home on the Central Line to St. Paul's, where the whole time I had the tube to myself, not the entire tube obviously just the carriage I was in, and I played my music loud with my feet kicked up; once I got off at St. Paul's, I got the 56 home, ate dinner, showered, and fell asleep sometime between 10:15pm and 10:30pm, what a day.

Getting down on Friday with the second and last day of filming, waking up after 7 hours of sleep and struggling to get up, woke up from one of the best sleeps I've ever had, sleep was so good, I dozed off for another 10 minutes. So like the day before, I met Jack and the Director of Photography, without the equipment which makes our lives easier, we went to Old Street Station, got off at King's Cross, met one of the actors, made our way to Cockfosters, and then arrived at Chickenshed. So the plan on this day was obviously a continuation from the day before, taking extra shots, from different angles, and exploring different ideas. Interviews were also being filmed for each of us for the GoFundMe, which, I know I said last time was the last time, but I'll attach it once more, we're hoping to continue to get more money to enter film festivals and hopefully host a screening whenever that'll be. When shooting the first scene, the biggest thing we did when shooting that scene was using the drone, which was extremely exciting and unbelievable to see, there was an angle where the drone was moving backwards while we had to walk forward, it was fantastic, but because of how many films I've seen, I kept expecting the drone to shoot bullets at me. We also went through the second scene, most shots just involving the dialogue between the two main characters, though we did film the ending more, ended up using the handcuffs to cuff myself together, people either laughed or were confused, I just wanted to find my own way of having fun, plus I used the keys to get myself out, because Houdini would've done the same thing. There was one moment where myself and the actor I was working with as the other police guard were not told when it was going to be cut off, turned out they were shooting the whole scene which caught both of us off guard, but great strategy. I spent most of the day chilling, waiting to be called on set, couldn't complain at all, and we all had Subway for lunch, two massive platters and they were amazing, Italian, Tuna, Chicken Breast and Veggie Delite, beautiful. When I wasn't on set and I did have something to do, it was my interview with my fellow police guard to talk about the production and the GoFundMe, and something I did notice was the way I spoke and the way my brain was processing words, I either repeated myself or struggled to finish sentences, looks like deep down the tiredness was still there, but I was hanging in there like a soldier. When we wrapped, it did feel weird, I know it was only two days, but in a way it felt more, it felt longer, and, I kinda felt sad, I got more out of this production than I did on other filmed productions that lasted more than two days, and it was over, you know what's funny? I had another job on this production and that was being a Runner, so I had to get things for people whenever I could, and the only time I did that was when we wrapped filming, when Jack requested for me to get some drinks and a packet of crisps for people on set. Before we could pack away and leave, we did the second scene as a performance for Paul, now Paul is one of the top people at Chickenshed, I believe his position is Director of Education & Training, and doing this felt like being back on stage, except is was our set, with the cameras away, felt weird but exciting, and he enjoyed it which was great. After we packed up, we went our separate ways, and headed home, with my hands with some of the equipment, myself, Jack, the Director of Photography and Associate Producer, who I shall give the nickname Hugs to, to avoid confusion, by Hugs you should know who it is, went back to Jack's, luckily we got to his alright, with the protests going on at Emirates Stadium regarding getting Kroenke Out I thought our journey home was going to be a nightmare. As soon as I get in I drop the equipment on the nearest space I could find, take the police jumper and my shirt off as I could be in my vest, and sat down, tired, sweaty and drained of life; the Director of Photography leaves to head back home, and then after 15 or 20 minutes Hugs left, and then it was Jack and I for the next 20 or 30 minutes before I made my way home. Walking home, I went past The Corner Pub which had a ton of people, I was most likely going to see someone I recognised, but I wasn't in the mood to socialise I was too tired, but I would stay and chat for a little bit if someone noticed me and called me over, I saw my cousin's partner, he didn't notice me, that's one, and then there's number two which OH WOWSERS, so a little backstory, it's a girl, I've known her since 2013 or 2014 when she was pregnant with her second child, she's has two kids, and she's only a few years older than me, she's a single mum, in her 20s, me gusta, there's always been a little soft spot there for her, and everyone who knows both of us know it, and think of this, especially the lads reading this, think of a girl, late 20s, brunette, single mum of two, white crop top, jeans, and in slow motion she whips her hair and gives a seductive smile, proceeds to bite her lip, while Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood plays in the background, the sins I'd commit for a girl like that, and I just walked home believe it or not, ANTICLIMACTIC RIGHT!?!?! I was just really tired, I'd rather go home, undress, put on my pajamas and eat dinner, instead of saying hi to a familiar face and becoming a third wheel to a conversation, been there way too many times before, and mostly it's weirdly lonely, despite being around people, and don't worry guys she didn't notice me and I didn't blank her, it's all good, and from what I know she doesn't read my blogs so she won't be seeing this, the only time she probably will is when I unexpected pass away and she begins to read my blog in memory of me, sorry for getting that dark it's just me being honest, oh and she owes me an evening out for drinks, she never got back to me on that, I'm still waiting wink wink. So I get home, get into my pajamas, and then I find out that my older brother's partner, along with Poppy and Bessie will be driving down, we had a big order of Pie & Mash for friends and family members, we were going to give them their order, so I go down with Mum, meet Dad, and we wait until the car parks up, and Poppy and Bessie, they're so loving, and Bessie couldn't believe my haircut, we had a little conversation that went like this, she went first "I want you to wear a wig," then I asked "what wigs do you have?" as she responds with "I don't know," so I suggest "how about your Elsa wig?" and she nods with approval and says "yeah my Elsa wig." and Poppy gave me the Yo I Like Ya Cut G treatment and gave me a right slap on my head, and it was loud. So yeah that was my Friday, it was a lot, and I was ready for bed.

About time we get to Saturday, I'm going to try and do these quickly because this blog has been going on for ages now. We begin Saturday on a bittersweet note, it was the 2 year anniversary of when my Mum's best friend passed away, so we met her daughter in the N1 Centre up Angel where we got hot drinks, sat around and chatted away, in the end it was nice; after doing shopping, we said bye as Mum and I walked home. Then the evening arrived, and on this day was also my eldest sister's 40th birthday, I have a sibling in their 40s, life is strange, and we all went to this pub called The Castle, and there's a whole bunch of us, all of my siblings, their partners/spouses, cousins, their partners/fiances, family friends, yeah quite a bit, and we had 3 or 4 tables booked, and we were there for like 2 hours, and it was freezing, the heater wasn't even working, so I had my coat zipped up, my hands in my sleeves, hood up, and my facemask over my forehead, that's how cold it was, again I was questioning why open only pub gardens if there were going to be occasions especially evenings where it'd be cold. So we would go back to my eldest sister's house, where we just continued with the drinks, snacks, drinking games, music and dancing, and it was a lovely evening, it really was, went in at 1:15am, ate some Ben and Jerry's and fell asleep on the sofa.

Finally it's Sunday, we're nearly there guys, we're nearly there, and I met a friend of mine at the Old Red Lion pub, it's not far from where I live, and it's a fringe theatre, pub and theatre, best of both worlds. So this friend and I, we knew each other in Primary school, and became closer after reconnecting in drama classes including Anna Scher's, we had a little bite to eat, and a drink, before leaving due to limited capacity filling up, we went for a walk around Upper Street before going to Chapel Market and having another drink at The Alma before going our separate ways, and that was how I ended my week.

That was my week, that was, a lot. What can I say that I haven't said already? A year, nothing expected to make a year doing these. I don't know when I'll finish these, whether it's when restrictions all drop, or when everyone is vaccinated, who knows, it's only a matter of time before we leave this behind. In regards to what I've been watching, I mentioned Vikings earlier, This Is Us isn't back with new episodes for another 2 and a half weeks, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier finale was great, and, that's that. As we have reached a conclusion, and we look at life right now, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel getting brighter everyday, and seeing that the days of this blog are now numbered, I want to end this entry the best way I could. Firstly I want to address, I can say things that are a bit out there, a bit too honest, and to those that don't like what I say, think, or felt uncomfortable about my opinions on the world, and those who think I should be more vocal about politics, activism and all of the big news in the world, I would like to say from the bottom of my heart, CRY ME A RIVER YOU SNOWFLAKES I'M BILLY CHANDLER I APOLOGISE TO NO ONE, I am who I say I am and there's no one out there like me except me! Now I want to end this properly in the way Ms. Vidal would want me to, I'm going all Spanish on this, if you don't understand it, copy and paste the words in Google Translate, gracias a todos por todo, nos vemos la semana que viene, adiós amigos míos, LOS AMO A TODOS!!!!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

April 12th to April 18th

"As we now enter the blog to signal a week closer to normality, and to feel more hope, more optimism, and in a way dread of having to keep a sleep pattern and feel the pressure of responsibilities, or in numbers, 51, yep, 51st blog, huge deal; we can take a look at everything from the start, to now, of how we were in the first lockdown, and then things were opening up, and then restrictions began again during late September or early October, and then another lockdown for the whole of November, to enter Tier 4 only 2 or 3 weeks after getting out of lockdown, to being put in yet another lockdown, to now having restrictions lowered a bit and everyone is now beginning to feel a little happier, it's been a ride, it shouldn't have been that rocky but here we are. We are also a week away from marking one whole year of doing these blogs, never missed a week, not even once, because I know that there is always someone watching, and waiting for the next one, and I always need to be consistent for whoever that someone or some people are. So for this week I had a few plans here and there, but then these other plans popped up last minute and it led to me doing something nearly everyday, honestly it was almost nonstop for me, and I feel that this will lead to this being one of my longest blogs yet, are you ready? I hope you are.

Kicking it off with Monday, because I don't know how else I'd start the week, and I had plans going on later into the day as I was planning on meeting Jack and having dinner at his. Now we all knew what today was, it was April 12th, and things are slowly opening up, you can go to pubs, cafes and restaurants as long as it's outdoors, zoos are open, theme parks are open, gyms are open, I'm most likely missing some stuff but oh well, it's basically a good day for all of us, a day where we can all feel optimism. Before I can get onto that, I did have a meeting with the disability advisory group at my workplace, well it wasn't at my workplace it was on Microsoft Teams, and it was alright, said a bit more than I did last time, and it's nice to see people willing to help improve our workplace for people with disabilities. Then, while I was on my way to Jack's, I was going by a pub called The Corner Bar, one of my local pubs, which is also near Jack's, and I asked if he wanted to meet there for a drink, he accepted and met me there. The outdoors was absolutely packed, so many people were around, music was playing, it was quite overwhelming because it's been so long since I've seen a sight like this. I had no idea if I had to wait outside or go inside to order the drinks, my initial reaction was to go inside because I did see people go inside, I didn't know if they were staff or not, while I was inside, one of the staff shouted for us to go outdoors and she'll take our order, I mean she had to shout there was too much going on; so Jack and I went outside, she took our order, brought the drinks out with the card scanner (is that what you call it I don't know) and I scan my card as I offered to pay for both drinks, and Jack and I stood around having our drinks. Since there were so many people about, Jack and I were standing right next to a bin, you read that right, next to a bin, chatting and drinking, nothing better than doing that with the feeling of optimism and positivity. After finishing our drinks, we went back to his where we ordered from Rudie's Jerk Shack, which was nice, originally we wanted to order from this Caribbean food place on Seven Sisters Road, but the weird thing was that they could deliver to mine, but not Jack's, that doesn't make sense. Overall, this was a lovely way to start the week.

Next up is Tuesday, and I had a busy afternoon on Tuesday, indoors was busy as well as my brother and I were having our room painted by my Uncle Trevor, him and I had a nice chat where he gave me really good advice. I then met Mum during her lunch break where we went to Caffe Nero, got hot drinks and I got myself a piece of Luxury Blackforest Roulade, which was amazing. Afterwards I went to get my haircut, no one was in there so I got really lucky; I ended up getting a number 1 on top and a number 0 on the sides and back, and I had my beard tidied up, the first haircut I had since November and I was extremely satisfied. I have to mention this as well, so I was contacted by my work today, and they offered me a contract to work 5 days a week, which I was absolutely flattered by, however I turned it down telling them about my ambassador role and how working 5 days a week wouldn't work with my ambassador role, I mean if I'm an ambassador for LNSEN, I've got to be there right? So instead they offered me 3 days a week with flexible working hours during weekdays and weekends, which works perfect for me, and this contract is very similar to the contract I had last summer, except instead of 2 days it's 3, and what both have in common is that they end in October; you see the things I do for the people in my life?

Coming up is Wednesday, and Wednesday was the one day I didn't have anything going on, however that changed at Thursday midnight which means we're going to go straight into Thursday, in this same paragraph, OH MY DAYS MY DUDES THIS IS GAME CHANGING LISTEN TO THE CROWD THEY ARE GOING NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, it was gone midnight on Thursday, and I get a video call from a friend, and she is one of my closest friends from my Anna Scher Theatre Classes, I've known her since 2016, and I haven't seen her since January 2020, remember during those days when everything was open, me too, now I'm going to cry with grief before continuing this paragraph. I'm back after being unable to produce tears, so she had quite an eventful day and asked if I could come up, I put on the first tracksuit I could find, get in an Uber and off I went. I arrived at her house in Deptford, arrived for nothing as we went to her nearest newsagents to pick up a bottle of Coca Cola, that's right, a Coca Cola. I pretty much spent all night with her, chatting, having a laugh, drinks, like old times, it was well overdue, and I completely forgot that I actually had plans during the day, why do I do this to myself? So I leave around 6am, get home around 6:30am, and slept for around 3 hours. I wake up, and answer a video call from Ms. Vidal, and we speak for around 25 minutes, which absolutely flew by, felt like 10 or 15 minutes, and she spoke to me about LNSEN's upcoming webinar on Thursday 6th May at 11:30am on Zoom, that's the marketing plugin for you lot, and she wanted me to film a video to promote it, for Monday, and I couldn't get the crew together because they're all preparing for shooting the short film next week, I will put a link below once more because WE NEED MONEY, GIVE US MONEY PLEASE, my name is Billy Chandler and that was my weekly meltdown; back to subject, so it was down to me, myself and I to do this video, it'll be hard because I had plenty of plans, and I can't concentrate at home with everybody up and doing things, AND BEING LOUD DAD, YOU HEAR ME DAD, YOU'RE BEING VERY LOUD, YOU DON'T NEED TO BE SO LOUD IN YOUR OWN HOUSE, my name is Billy Chandler that was a very rare two time weekly meltdown, you've all been a part of history, remember this moment; back to subject, I guess I could do it, I mean how hard can it be? After that lovely as usual chat, I spent the rest of the day chilling, had a nap for an hour and a half, ate dinner, and then I went down to go to my Thursday drama class, first time since December and I was excited, in the end class went very well, I had a really good improvisation, just needed to improve on my use of stage space, and there was another thing I took part in where there are three people, and, how do I explain this? An improvisation takes place between the person in the middle and the person on the left, the teacher claps, and it changes to the person in the middle and the person on the right and the person on the right has to carry on from what the person on the left said, and it goes on from there, and it was tough, real tough. After class we went to the Shakespeare's Head, it was a class member's 83rd birthday, we had tables reserved in the garden, and it was a lovely way to end the evening, pure happiness, and just like Monday, I felt optimism and positivity towards the future.

Going onto Friday after that long one, see I can still make original ones after almost a year. Friday was a great one, first Nan and Dotty came up, and Dotty is getting so much better with her behaviour, she didn't bark, not even once, and she was even following me into the kitchen; at one point I howled, like a dog or a wolf would, and she looked at me with her ears pointed up and her head tilted to the side, wish I filmed it. and she understands when you say pigeons, she'll look around with her ears pointed up, smart doggie. After they left, I helped clean up the house including tidying the beds, doing the washing up and cleaning the kitchen window. To end my Friday, and I was looking forward to this all week, and sometimes when you have something to look forward to, the week can feel a bit slower, it was in this case, and I was really nervous for this because I kept thinking "what if this gets cancelled? Did I get excited for nothing?" So the nerves and the anxiety was there, and then they weren't, at around 7pm she arrived, so the friend I was talking about last Tuesday, the one that gives great hugs, yep she came up; I put the kettle on, did her a nice coffee and I did myself a tea, and we sat down and had a chat, the main purpose of us meeting was religion believe it or not, she's a Christian, I'm a Roman Catholic, and we were really talking about our religious backgrounds, how she became Christian, I already told her how I became Roman Catholic including going to a Roman Catholic primary school so I did tell how about religion helping me including in a breakdown I had in 2015 where I began wearing my Jesus necklace from primary and I began attending church again, she also told me the differences between Christian and Roman Catholic which I found to be very interesting. Mum and Dad got dinner, we had a takeaway like we do most Fridays, Chicken Lickin' as I like to call it, and my friend and I had ours first, I did say to her I can be a bit of a messy eater since I love my food so much, I know it's weird to say but I always have this weird paranoia that people may feel put off by how I eat and how much I love my food, it's a weird one I know. After dinner we went upstairs to continue talking, spoke about our religious paths, and our outlooks, our relationships with God, oh look at me detailing a side to me you didn't know of, I'm full of surprises guys. We also spoke about our memories on set, and the good times we had before the first lockdown, we even spoke about when we met up to get our headshots done back in September, at one point she got these cards out, each of them had little messages from the bible, one on one side of the card and another on the other side, I took out a card that had messages from Jeremiah 17:7 and Romans 15:13, she wanted me to keep it, and that really meant a lot to me. She left around 9:30pm, the worst part of everything is saying bye, but in the end it was a really lovely evening, a fantastic day overall.

Onto the weekend with Saturday, and Saturday was easily the busiest day for me, I was nonstop on this day. Firstly, I went to Angel to do shopping with Mum and my youngest nephew Albert, he came because he really wanted the Bubbletastic Frappuccino from Starbucks, and we did go to our nearest Starbucks on the way back, just to find out that they ran out, our disappointment was immeasurable and our day was ruined, well not entirely but it was a thumbs down on what was a jam packed day. Once we got home, a friend of mine, the same friend who I met at Angel last week, and went to Clissold Park with, came up with her son, and we sat together at the table, with tea, and some snacks including donuts, ice fingers, and muffins. We all had a great chat and laugh for two hours, and there were moments of silence due to Prince Philip's funeral playing on the TV which was very sad, including seeing the Queen herself sat there on her own. After they left, I relaxed for a bit including having a little doze and eating dinner before I made my way to Jack's, Jack had a home COVID kit, that you can order for free online, and you get your test results back in half an hour, and one of the producers of the film we're working on is pretty obsessed with us all getting tests, and not just one test, but more than one; so I did the test, made myself gag doing it, I wouldn't recommend anyone getting the test done an hour or so after eating, waited half an hour, and I couldn't help but to wonder if it came back positive and how many people I'd have to tell about me testing positive, and how it could affect filming next week, but luckily it came back negative, and I was buzzing. Saturday doesn't end there, I went to South Bank to meet a friend of mine, same friend who I was with until 6am a few days prior; we met outside Waterloo Station and walked through South Bank, and it was packed, so many people were around it was quite hectic, we then found a stall near the National Theatre where we got two drinks, I bought one round, she bought another, and we had our drinks before getting something from KFC and getting the 188 bus to her house where we ate our food and I then went home, ran for the 188 bus, got off at Holborn, and walked home, missing plenty of 19 and 38 buses that could've gotten me home quicker, by the time I got home it was around 1:15am.

Finally it's Sunday, so Sunday started off with me heading home which was already mentioned, but what about the rest of the day? Well I wasn't going to do my travelling, which meant I had no plans, and I could work on the video Ms. Vidal wants me to do, but I can't concentrate with everyone up and doing things, so I decided to go for a walk, because why not, it's a lovely day out, and I walked around Angel, saw a familiar face that has given birth since I last saw her, and while I was on my walk, Jack texts me if I wanted to meet for a drink, and I thought "why not?" So I head to The Corner Pub, and Jack is sitting at a table with two drinks, one for him and the other for me, and we sat there, chatting and all, feeling positivity and optimism, and I ended up getting a round of drinks for us, opened the door, asked for a worker to come over, told him what we wanted, waited at our table, comes out with our drinks, scans my card, all done, happy days, and unlike Monday, it was more quiet, I mean there were people about, but it wasn't hectic and there wasn't too much going on, plus there were doggies about, very good doggies. After that I went home, had a nap, had dinner, chilled out, and then had movie night with my family, we watched We're The Millers, very underrated comedy, and that was my Sunday, and my week.

Well that was a lot, almost every paragraph I'm thinking "this one is going to take ages" but here I am, typed it all up, finished, easily one of my longest blogs yet. I guess I can just go onto what I've been watching, This Is Us was terrific this week, another tearjerker of an episode; The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was fantastic, cannot wait for the finale, for a show where every episode is sometime from 45 minutes to an hour, it has flown by; and you guessed it, I forgot to watch Vikings, again. I don't know where to go from here, it's been a lot to take in this week, things slowly going back to normal and a lot of what I've said, next week is going to be busy, being back on set for the first time in over a year, I'm kinda dreading it because we have to put up with the COVID restrictions on set including social distancing, wearing masks everywhere, constantly sanitising our hands, and it's 2 whole days, extremely early wake up, and a potential 8-9 hour shooting day for both days, hoping the best for all of us working on it and what happens with this short film in the end. It's also my eldest sister's birthday next week, and we're celebrating it on Saturday, got a rooftop of a pub near home booked, and we're going home to continue the celebrations, so it's all exciting, and because of these things I'm giving my travels another week off. Before finishing, see below a picture of little me with the first good boy with my life, his name was Tramp and I miss him everyday. So I'll see you all next week, for 52, the one year anniversary of my blogs, it's going to be a special one, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

April 5th to April 11th

"50, we have made it, 50 blogs, half of 100, we are so close to making it one full year, I just can't believe it, when I was doing blog 40, I didn't think I’d be doing 50 blogs, yet here we are. The amazing thing is that, you lot, whenever you started, are still here; I don't know how, I don't know why, but thank you, thank you all so much. This week was an interesting one, had plenty of wrestling on including WrestleMania this weekend, socialising, got some doggies too, that's it from what I can recall; I have taken a break this week from the travelling I usually do, with the amount of wrestling going on and how many near all nighters I'll be having, it'd be best to leave it for the week, I did go on a nice walk this week though. So yeah, 50, this is going to be a big one.

Kicking it off with Monday, now originally I had nothing planned for Monday, until I was told about a certain something when I woke up. So my Dad told me that his friend, and his friend's wife was dropping by, so my Dad and his friends, sometimes one will place bets for the other, and the other pays back, so Dad was paying his friend back, and not just his friend and his friend's wife came along, so did their two Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Bailey and Ronnie, they're around 6 or 7 months old and are absolute cuties! Dad and I walk outside of the flat, and I see Bailey and Ronnie and they go right towards me, if I had to sum up how they were, it would be in human translation "HOOMAN, HOOMAN, HOOMAN, HOOMAN, HOOMAN, I JUST MET YOU AND I LOVE YOU!" feelings are mutual Bailey and Ronnie. We were with each other for like 20 minutes, even when that little bit of snow was coming down, only in the UK will it be hot on one day during the week and a day during the following week it'll be snowing; Bailey and Ronnie were so full of energy, and so full of excitement, they even nibbled on my ears and chin, stung a little but I knew they were only babies and still had much to learn. The only trick both could do was sit, especially if there was a treat about, you get a treat out, they will sit. At one point, a man was walking past, and he had a much smaller dog with him, can't recall what the breed was, and Bailey and Ronnie were getting very excited, and the man, he was bringing his dog forward, and I'm getting paranoid because I look at Bailey and Ronnie, despite being babies they were quite tall, and extremely energetic and excited, and then you have this much smaller dog, you let Bailey and Ronnie off their leashes, who knows what will happen with that smaller dog, that owner was a madman I'm telling you, or maybe things would’ve been alright and I was just overthinking. You'll see pictures of me with Ronnie and Bailey below, and my thinning hair, it looks bald I know, but I promise you there's some there, all you have to do is feel it, it is smooth, but yeah, those doggies made my day, starting my week off great.

Next up is Tuesday, was looking forward to this one, so I was going up Jack's house to help work on and film promotional stuff for his upcoming short film, I'll attach the GoFundMe link again because why not, and I'll be seeing someone who I haven't seen since September, and someone who I haven't seen in a little over a year, exciting stuff. So I arrived, so excited to seethe friend who I haven't seen since September, she loves hugs, and we were texting quite a bit so my excitement was through the roof, and Jack opened the door and I'm like "where is she?" With the biggest smile on my face, she comes out of the kitchen, and we share the biggest hug, honestly I didn't want to let her go. Now we were waiting for the friend who I haven't seen in a year, an hour passes, he still hasn't come, we can't get through to him, she gets a call from the friend, turns out his phone cut out outside of Old Street Station, and he was charging it at a, depending on what you say, gas or patrol station, right by Old Street Station. So I went to meet him, I really wanted it to be Jack because I didn't want to leave my friend, but I guess the greatest of people make the greatest sacrifices. I met the friend at the gas or patrol station, and we walked back to Jack's where we all had coffee, a laugh, and filmed what we needed to film. What both of the friends found funny was the numerous stories Jack and I had about each other, I tell you, Jack and I could make a miniseries based on our true stories, even host a podcast, that's what happens with 12 years of friendship. The friends left around 9pm, Jack and I ordered Taco Bell, a Taco Bell meal that's meant for 6 people, and for a reminder, to Jack and I, numbers don't matter and eventually won't exist, and how well did we do? We almost did it, so close, though it would make great leftovers for midnight and breakfast, what a great day! One more thing, Jack had this cereal, they were Coco Pops except it's Strawberry and White Chocolate flavour, he wasn't a fan of it so I took the box home, and I'm happy to say, it's pretty good, especially for a midnight snack.

Following those two eventful days with Wednesday with nothing, yep, nothing, nothing was planned I don't recall anything, until the evening, which was the first night of wrestling for this jam packed week, the first night of NXT TakeOver: Start & Deliver, had fans in attendance which was nice to see, really good show overall.

Next up is Thursday, and Thursday had more going for it. My nephew Albert was home alone because his dad was out working, and his mum, my eldest sister, was out helping set up for a party for her work staff. So I had to babysit Albert, the little man isn't old enough to have the house to himself. I went inside and just played Fortnite with him the entire time, we played Duos, where we came close to winning nearly every time, and even won one game, we were a pretty good team him and I. At one point, we were facing each other, him and I, 1 on 1, and the map we fought on, was very small, and almost everywhere I went, he was there, I'd pop up somewhere, shot dead, I was losing my mind, and he was loving it. While we were playing Fortnite, we had music on, requesting songs to be played on his Amazon Echo Fabric (I think that's what it's called) and I was putting on disco and dance songs from the 90s and 00s, having him listening to some of the music I grew up with, for some songs he might not get why I love them, but he is really going to love them one day. Once his dad got home, I got up to leave and then Albert said "we could've played Spider-Man," I stopped, paused, and I said "yes, we could've played Spider-Man," absolutely gutted. I relaxed for the rest of the day and watched the second night of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver, and that was a good show, night one was better, but this was still good.

Now we're getting down on Friday, and I decided to go for a walk to Camden, I've got some really good memories in Camden, it was a nice day out, so why not! I decided to walk, because of how nice it was, and walking to Camden from where I lived took much longer than I thought, like 15 or 20 minutes longer, and the majority of the walk consisted of me walking through the canal, well not walking through the water obviously, just on the pathway by the water. I ended up walking to Chalk Farm Road where a mural for WrestleMania was up, it was that time of the year for us wrestling fans and it was exciting, on the day of WrestleMania, or the days depending on whether they do one night or two, it's like waking up on Christmas morning, and we were one day away from night 1. Afterwards I walked down and went by the Oxford Arms, home to the Etcetera Theatre where I performed in 2017, I then walked past the Electric Ballroom where I went clubbing one night and have seen a couple of wrestling shows at, and I got a Cookies n Cream milkshake from Treatz which I highly recommend if you're in Camden anytime. To get home, I took a long walk including this road that felt never ending which eventually led to me being in Holloway, bringing back memories from when I was doing my HNC course, and I got the 153 bus home. Later on that evening I met Dad after his shift at work to pick up a takeaway and that was my Friday.

Kicking the weekend off with Saturday, and today started off with one big "what is going on?" I wake up and I just see my Mum and Auntie Susie in Frankie and I's bedroom, now I knew my Auntie Susie was coming up to help with changing the floor as Frankie and I are having our room redecorated, but I didn't know it'd be around 9 in the morning, matter of fact, none of us knew, and with me living off only 4 hours of sleep, this wasn't sitting well with me at all. So I ended up in my parent's bedroom, and I can hear voices, I can hear music, I can hear the wood off the floor being removed, my sensory was going off, but I had to contain myself because no one is doing anything wrong, it was a rough way for me to start the day. I shower, get dressed, and go out because I had plans, so I was having a reunion with some of my acting friends, some I haven't seen for months, some I haven't seen since before the first lockdown. The reason for us all meeting was because one of us turned 31 a few days prior so we all were meeting for a picnic at Clissold Park; I met one of my friends at Angel and got the bus there and we all went to the Bowling Green part of Clissold Park to sit down, eat, drink, chill, chat, and that's it; we all brought our own things, like I brought crisps and dips for example, and we all shared them out, and I don't do picnics so I couldn't tell if what we all brought was enough or too much, but that birthday cake was absolutely amazing. In the end it was alright, felt like we never spent so much time apart, and I look forward to further meetings this summer. After getting home I just chilled until it was time for Night 1 of WrestleMania, live from the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, with an audience of 25,000 with social distancing, and where do I start? I don't want to go over it all because it'll take ages to do, but I want to say that it was so great, seeing a show like this in a stadium, with people, and seeing how emotional some wrestlers were that night and the next night got me emotional too, because for these wrestlers they haven't had an audience in over a year, it was just so great, what a wonderful show, well except due to weather they had a 30-45 minute delay which kind of killed the vibe at the start but nonetheless, really good show.

Finally it's Sunday, and I spent the day chilling indoors, rewatched Zack Snyder's Justice League, I said it once I'll say it again, it flies by, 4 hours has never gone so quick, and then I watched Night 2 of WrestleMania to end my weekend, good show, not as good as the previous night, but good, with a weekend stealing main event, two of the men involved were once retired due to career ending injuries, and one man involved once had to take leave due to being diagnosed with leukemia, so this main event was extremely important, and it lived up to the hype. This WrestleMania will go down as one of the most important wrestling shows of all time, by that I mean both nights because of the circumstances surrounding both of them, it was so good seeing and hearing a crowd again, over a year waiting for them was worth it.

That was my week for my 50th blog, quite a bit of stuff here and there if I say so myself, I just still can't believe that this is 50, and we have come all this way, and we are still here, I don't even know when it'll end, when all the restrictions go maybe? I don't know, I guess we'll see for now. For the things I've watched, I've yet to watch the recent episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but I do know something big goes down at the end, the recent This Is Us episode was really good, I actually watched an episode of Vikings and that's it really. I'll see you all next week for Blog 51, and by the time you see this, April 12th has gone past and things are slowly opening up, it's all making me feel very optimistic, and one last thing, rest in peace Prince Philip and DMX. See you all next week, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

March 29th - April 4th 

"49, we are now on 49, we are one blog away from reaching 50, the big FIVE ZERO, we've finished March, we've entered April, we're getting even more closer to places opening, the weather is beginning to get better, LNSEN has been launched, I'm going back to work around mid May, it's all getting very exciting, and I feel so optimistic for the future. Before I drag this intro on, I want to get straight to the week, so let's go!

Kicking things off with Monday, and originally I was planning to have a chill day, relaxing, watching stuff, a nap here and there, all good things. I didn't wake up until 11:45am because 9 times out of 10 there isn't a reason for me to wake up, and I look at my phone, and the first thing I see is a text from Ms. Vidal. Some changes were being made regarding the LNSEN launch on Thursday, Siena, who I mentioned before who did a masterclass which I watched, could no longer make it, and that's where the man, the myth, the legend, The Bill, comes in, and with just under 3 days to prepare, I needed to do a presentation or speech about why neurodiversity works, I didn't know how to feel but I straight up said "yeah sure, why not?" Ms. Vidal video called me not long after and we spoke for 6 minutes about what I need to do and that she was going to send me some articles to help with my presentation or speech, nice little chat, and a job for me to do for Thursday, kicking this week off with a newsworthy BANG!

Next up is Tuesday, and I need to get this out of the way, how beautiful was the weather on Tuesday? My oh my, it was like 24 degrees, and we're only at the end of March, I couldn't believe how hot it was in April 3 years ago, now I can't believe how hot it is in late March, I wouldn't be surprised if in another 3 or so years we get nice weather like that sometime earlier in March, or, a bit of a stretch, end of February. On this day Mum and I went up to see a family friend, the same one we sometimes meet on Saturdays, and we were outside in her garden for like 2 hours; also there was her neighbour's dog who welcomed us in, her name is Dotty, just like Nan's dog, she is 11, a Working Cocker Spaniel, and a very pretty doggy, she even has her hair tied up like a ponytail and a bandana, doggy swagger right there. When I was in the garden with Dotty, she got this massive stick, like a branch, and she would drop it off by my feet, and if I didn't do anything, she would use her head to push the stick closer to me, smart doggy, and at one point I threw this stick and she catches it with her teeth, right in the centre in mid air, what a good doggie! Besides all the stuff with Dotty, she absolutely loves people and all the attention, we were all chilling, music was playing, had a few drinks, and that was it, a really lovely day, especially with Dotty.

We then go to Wednesday, and Wednesday is a busy one. So Ms. Vidal and I planned to do a video call on Zoom to go through what will be discussed in the LNSEN launch, and go through the speech I made. The call was at 11:30am and we discussed what was going to happen, went through the website which is a work in progress, and went through my speech which I just typed the previous night, I was just typing in anything that came to my head, this also included me going through it and timing it, it was all good, a laugh too; we also planned to do another video call later on to go through everything again, the masterclass which was taking place after the LNSEN launch, and anything that we didn't discuss in that video call, and it had to be at 3pm because I only found out that morning that my Nan and Dotty were coming up at 4pm, and we couldn't do any later because Mum does dinner sometime between 5pm and 6pm, so it had to be 3pm. The second call was very similar to the first, and this also included a further discussion regarding the masterclass at The Courtyard following the LNSEN launch, like usual it's a pleasure talking to Ms. Vidal, can talk to her all day, and I felt we were very much prepared for the LNSEN launch. Then not long after the second video call ended, my Nan and Dotty came up, and Dotty didn't bark at me once, she's getting use to me, and she's also getting more curious about the environment around her, going around the living room and in the kitchen looking at what's there, and you'll find this funny, anytime someone came through the door, Dotty would bark, she did that with Mum, and with Frankie. At one point I had photos taken with Dotty, while wearing my Jake The Dog from Adventure Time hat, and her face was priceless, she looked like she didn't want anything to do with me. That was my Wednesday, now I am preparing for the big day.

Now it's Thursday, and you know what that means, it's the LNSEN launch event, and the masterclass titled Masterclass: Successful Professionals with Autism, I'm a professional apparently, look at me learning something new everyday. I made posts on social media, sent out the Zoom link to people at my workplace and a family friend, so I was curious of who was going to be there, and was I nervous? Most nervous I've ever been for a video call. hoping that nothing would go wrong and all will go well. As soon as I enter the call, actually I don't think it was so soon, more like a minute or two into the call, Ms. Vidal said something about technical difficulties in regards to the waiting room, and my face looks calm and casual but my head was like "NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" However there wasn't any problem regarding the launch event, but me, mentally and physically I was struggling, I had the windows closed because where I live it's next to this long road where you can easily hear things like construction or someone speeding on their motorbike, and even with the windows closed you can hear something, where I was doing the call was in my parent's bedroom, because I felt like it was more of a work environment than my own bedroom, and with the windows closed, I can feel the temperature of the radiators which was making me sweat, and every slight sound like a dog barking, or a phone going off, or anything else made me jump, it was really messing with me, however I was able to do my speech successfully which I was really happy about, and whenever someone mentioned my name or position I just pretended to show off for a laugh, I'd rather be myself in my position than be another suit and tie talking about stuff, and at the end when Ms. Vidal said if anyone else had anything to say or another question, I just pretended to slowly fall down out of shot, me again being myself in my position. Overall it went really well and I felt very optimistic about what comes next for LNSEN, also a friend of mine who I met in drama classes who works for Centre 404 was on the launch event and I had no idea until she texted me hours later, a pleasant surprise, would be cool to do something with Centre 404 in the near future. I also need to mention something that happened at the end of the call, so people were making positive comments at the end of the video call, including myself, and someone from Evenbreak came on and she said something like "we'll be in contact if we can find any work for you soon," immediately I felt awkward, because I found myself imagining what if someone from my work place was at the launch event and heard her say that, and then they'd contact me afterwards and say "Billy what's going on? Are you leaving?" I can't imagine the awkwardness of that, just because of a part time Marketing job I was spoken to about a few months ago that got my interest, doesn't really mean that I'm looking for a 2nd job to do or that I want to leave my workplace, and for some reason some people think that is the case, I just don't get it, it was just a really awkward and quite a frustrating moment, but I didn't let that ruin my thoughts and opinions on how well the launch event went. The launch event went a little over time so I had around 15 or 20 minutes to prepare for Masterclass: Successful Professionals with Autism, and then it was time for the masterclass; Siena was supposed to be part of this as well but she couldn't make it so it was now the 4 of us, Jonathan Andrews, Andy Clayton, Rachel Worsley and me, The Bill, Dwayne Johnson has The Rock, but I have The Bill, can you smell what The Bill is cooking? I can, and it's delicious. So how the masterclass worked is that one person will do a 5 minute speech about their profession and other things, and then The Courtyard students ask questions, unfortunately due to time, Rachel and I had to do our 5 minute speeches and then Ms. Vidal will email us the questions, this was still good though, it was a shame that time had to cut things down short, but I found those involved in the masterclass to be incredibly interesting and I hope to work with them or even speak to them in the near future. I was buzzing after it all ended, everything went well and to plan, and I was very happy, and sweaty. I came downstairs with the laptop, and had a coffee with my Mum and one of my neighbours where I was filled with energy and excitement, I couldn't stop talking, and happily I was cheering one of my neighbours up who was in our house, I won't say why she was upset or down, but I felt glad that I could make her smile. Ms. Vidal also called me at 1pm, and we spoke about how it all went, good to see both of us smiling and happy, what a Thursday!

Going into Friday, the beginning of Easter Weekend with Good Friday, and Mum, Dad, Poppy and I took a drive to see some close family friends in Woodford, I mentioned them back in August, it's like, you know you're not related, but you refer to them, and they refer to you as cousins, it's pretty much like that. So this began with Mum, Dad and I driving to my older brother's house to pick up Poppy, we also dropped off Easter Eggs for everyone; we were up there for 10 minutes before leaving. We then drove to Woodford to meet our family friends, not everyone was there but most of them were, with also two new additions to the family, from the brother in the family a 3 month old daughter, and from one of the sisters in the family a 1 week old son, the week old son is already a really strong baby, I held him against my shoulder and he was really moving his head and neck around even with my hand on the back of his neck, and just before he began crying, I sung a little tune while moving about in a rhythm until he fell to sleep, I'm really good with babies; and the 3 month old, she was born prematurely so she is the same size at the 1 week old, it's so adorable when you put the two next to each other, plus she looks like she has a mohawk, and the faces she makes, she constantly looks confused it is hilarious; I can't wait to have a baby, or babies, need to find that lucky lady first. We were there for around 3 hours, we all ate some cake, had some tea, chatted away, and of course I did some babysitting, I was looking after one of the toddlers, and for some reason I was looking after her, in the bathroom, for 20 minutes, she was in the bathtub, knocking over the hairwash, then she's sitting on the side, and I'm sitting on the side with her, and I'm like "why are we here?" I get no answer, of course I get no answer, so I ask "can we go downstairs?" "No," she replies bluntly, and then I ask in confusion "but why?" and again I get no answer, great, she even began using toilet paper to clean an already clean toilet seat, I don't know either; one thing I need to say is that it was so funny whenever she said my name, she said "Bill" but she sounded like a proper cockney geezer, and when we were saying bye later on she said "bye Bill," I absolutely love it; the other toddler I remember looking after with my parents at a wedding during summer 2019, now she's around a year and a half or 2 years old, spitting image of her dad, big mummy's girl, and is very ticklish. It really was a lovely day, and I was very proud of Poppy, she looked after and played with the toddlers very well, and held the babies well too, I made sure to tell her to keep an arm under the head and neck which she always did, she made me really proud on this day. Once we got home we had dinner and chilled out, Poppy began getting tired, and sometimes when one of us gets tired we don't know what we want or what to do, we had Sam & Cat on upstairs, and Spongebob Squarepants on downstairs, and she didn't know whether she wanted to stay the night or go home, and she had to make her mind up or the congestion charge on the car would get higher, something like that, and Poppy, she wanted to go home later, BY WALKING!! Now, I love a stroll in the night, the scenery in London is at its most beautiful, but there's no way I'm walking 20 or 30 minutes with my niece at night, do you know how many nutters are out and about nowadays? It's ridiculous! I didn't see the end of the decision as Jack wanted to see me, so I went up his house, I stayed for around 2 hours, he showed me his newly redecorated bedroom which looks much better and more spacious, and we chilled and spoke, it was a nice evening, and a nice way to end a lovely day.

Kicking off the weekend with Saturday, and just like every Saturday Mum and I went shopping up Angel, doing all of our shopping in Sainsbury's, and then getting our drinks from Pret before heading home. After heading home Nan and Dotty came up again, and now I'm sure you all are wondering, how was Dotty today? Dotty was good as gold, she didn't bark once. I was upstairs when Nan and Dotty came inside, so I went downstairs, expecting her to bark at me, but she didn't, completely silent, and I was absolutely amazed. She was walking around just like on Wednesday, very interested in the space around her, and all of us were taking turns holding her, at one point I put her on my lap, and she sat there like Simba on Pride Rock, if you've seen The Lion King you'll get what I mean. After around an hour they go home as I go on the PlayStation, and then some time passes and my Auntie Susie and Uncle Trevor came up, quite a surprise. They all had a coffee, we all had a chat, I told them about what I've done for LNSEN this week, and just like me and those working on LNSEN with me, they think it can really go a long way.

Finally it's Sunday, EASTER SUNDAY EVERYBODY! Originally I was going to be doing something Saturday night, which meant Sunday I was going to have a lay in, but now that has changed, and now I can finish off my Weekly Athletics Arenas Tour, got one in Barnet, two in Croydon, LET'S GO!!!! The first one was Barnet Copthall which I got by walking to Central Street then getting the 205 bus to Baker Street Station, then I took the 113 bus to Fiveways Corner / Copthall Sports Centre, when I was on the 113 bus, the bus went past Hendon Central Station, a station I got off a couple of weeks ago to go to StoneX Stadium, and in my head I was thinking "Is this going to be on the same site or next to StoneX Stadium? Then the more I walked I realised, it is as well, and then I also realised that if I took two buses to go somewhere that took me a tube and a bus to get to, then the Northern Line must be closed for Easter Sunday, and then I thought "this, and possibly other stations might affect today's trip," so I kind of found myself dreading the rest of the trip. My next stop was the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, and this one took forever, I walked to Fiveways Corner / Copthall Sports Centre, got the 113 bus to Finchley Road Station, then I entered the station to go on the Jubilee Line to Canada Water, where I took the Overground Train to Crystal Palace, word of advice, if you're heading to Crystal Palace on the Overground, you might be waiting a while, I was waiting 12 minutes for my Overground train, and a Overground train to Crystal Palace comes every 15 minutes or so; eventually I get off at Crystal Palace, and I walk through, I believe it was Crystal Palace Park to get to Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, and around it, and the park itself was absolutely packed, yet again the weather was absolutely gorgeous. My final destination was Croydon Sports Arena, where I walked to Thicket Road to get the 197 bus, and got off at South Norwood Leisure Centre and walked 7 minutes to my destination, finally it was over, now it was time to go home. I walked to South Norwood Leisure Centre, and got the 197 bus to East Croydon Station, where I took the Thameslink Train to London Bridge, and then I took the 43 bus to get home, what a day, took way longer than it should've, I wasn't even home in time for dinner, by the time I got home it was before 7pm, and had to have my dinner warmed up; so I was out somewhere between 5 and a half and 6 hours, ridiculous, but anyways, I've now gone to all the Athletic Arenas I needed to go to, next stop, Swimming Venues, places with swimming pools used for tournaments and special events. I need to finish this paragraph with this, and it kind of shows how clumsy I can be, so I normally post my destinations on my Instagram story, just to show friends and family members where I go, and one of my friends who lives around Mitcham, actually messaged me, and I told her that from her area it would take an hour for her to get to, then she told me it would take a 15 minute drive and then I was like “oh yeah, she drives, how could I forget that she drives?” But it was Easter Sunday and some people like to celebrate it outdoors, some people like to celebrate it indoors, it is what it is, and there’s always next time.

What a week, blimey, so much happened, I honestly think this will go down as one of my longest blogs ever, I feel sorry for anyone reading this who is a slow reader. From the launch of LNSEN, to the masterclass I took part in, to seeing family and friends, to my trip on Sunday, to doggys. Next week is a big one too, especially for wrestling, got a show Wednesday and Thursday night, and then WrestleMania is on Saturday and Sunday, live from the Raymond James Stadium with limited capacity, can't wait to see a wrestling show in a stadium with people, PEOPLE!!!!!!! In regards to what I've been watching, you guessed it, I forgot Vikings, I caught up on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, that's been really good, This Is Us took a break this week and should be back next week, and I think that's it really. I did watch Godzilla vs. Kong, that was great, if you want to watch a giant lizard and a giant ape fighting, this is the movie you want to see. So now we will enter a new week, the last before some things open on April 12th including outdoor hospitality, zoos, theme parks, drive in cinemas and drive in performance events, it's all looking good, until a third wave hits us some time this summer, can you imagine that? We all have a vaccine, we're all feeling more optimistic than ever, and then a third wave hits, don't know if I could laugh or cry at the thought of that. So guys I'll see you all next week, expect me to do Billy things, watch a lot of wrestling, and get very excited for April 12th. Also I need to plug this in once more, you all know the short film I'm helping work on, and how there's Kickstarter for it, well we're now on £520, £30 from our original target, now the target is £1,000, but Billy why is it now £1,000? I have no idea it wasn't my call, maybe to get more people to donate? Though people could still donate even if we did reach our £550 target, and we'll still receive that money, I don't know, in the end, it's not my call and not my decision to make, expect full honesty from me in anything I'm involved in, for better or for worse, there's honesty, there's brutal honesty, and then there's me, The Bill. Also with the film, we've got a location secured, a contract has been signed for it, meetings are going to be held including this Tuesday, interviews will happen, rehearsals will be happening closer to filming, it's all kicking off, and it's going to be so weird being back on set, with social distancing, but it should be good nonetheless, so I’ll see you all next week. Adios mis amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

March 22nd- March 28th

"It's 48, isn't that great? Very big number. We've just finished the final whole week of March, April is days away, better weather is on the horizon, same with restrictions going down, there's a lot to look forward to, the sunshine, lollipops and rainbows are coming through, we're nearly there. Before I go on to continue this blog, I need to mention two things I forgot to mention in the last blog, because almost every week there's something to forget. Last Tuesday the only thing I did that day was pick up Albert from school, which I didn't mind doing as I needed to do something big time, I walked to the school which took around 10 minutes, waited until he was let out, and him and I walked back home, he's getting a bit more fed up with school now, believe me mate it gets worse; once we got home, I dropped him off at his house, and that was that. Last Friday when I was on my way to my Nan's, the most surreal thing happened, so I was around a minute or so away from reaching her house, and there's a group sitting by the park, two women, a boy, and a dog, and this dog walked right to me as if he or she knew or recognised me, and this dog stopped right at my feet, I crouched down, stroked this little kind cutie with all the love I have, and then went to see Nan, it was quite amazing. Now I've got that out of the way, let's head to the week!

I'm going to put Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the same paragraph because they were all pretty much the same day, except one thing on Wednesday. So these first three days of the week I didn't really do anything, I was just chilling, napping, social media, a bit of gaming, watching TV, finishing typing the blog, the same ol' stuff, and then on Wednesday I had something big and important on, it was the LNSEN Advisory Board Kick-off Meeting where I would be in a meeting with Ms. Vidal, Ms. Shepherd, and people that I haven't met before, how exciting! So the meeting involved introductions from all of us, explaining our positions in LNSEN, our background, if we knew anyone already on the team and what we hope to accomplish in this, Ms. Vidal also gave us all a look at the website which is looking nice, including a headshot of the man, myth and legend himself including a quote of mine, which without spoiling it is straight to the point and incredibly honest; you absolutely love it! Overall it was a great meeting, and fingers crossed a start for wonderous things to come, and I need to say this one thing that happened at the end of the call, so I've always referred Ms. Shepherd as, well, Ms. Shepherd, she even mentioned when introducing herself that I call her Ms. Shepherd, and then, right at the end, when saying bye, I said something along the lines of "bye Debs" I kinda mentioned her first name, facepalm, this is what being away from education and being taught by teachers in college that you refer to as whatever their first name was does to you, and for a laugh instead of Debs, it should be Debz, with a Z, make it sound like she's about to drop the hottest mixtape in Islington.

Next is Thursday, and Thursday was very productive, for sure my most productive day of the week, and you know why? Due to my weekend plans I got to do this early, the Weekly Athletics Arenas Tour, and it worked out well because this was the only weekday my mum had off and when she's off she normally does house work, so she gets to do the housework without telling to go here, or move into that room. So I knew that I was going to do quite a bit of travelling, and that I had a video call that evening, so I was confident that I could do it all on time. The first arena I had to go to was the Linford Christie Stadium, which I got to by taking the number 4 bus to St. Paul's Station, I then entered the station to take the Central Line to East Acton, where I then walked for, according to the CityMapper app it would've taken me 14 minutes, but it felt so much longer, felt like 20 minutes, but yeah I got there, quite a simple route. Next was the Ladywell Arena, where, well it said I needed to take a Southeastern train, and my Freedom Pass only works on certain Southeastern trains, so the only way I could get there was by not one bus, not two bus, but three buses, which would take me over 2 and a half hours, it was one of those occasions where I thought "why did I think this was a good idea?" So I began by walking to Mitre Way / Wormwood Scrubs, got the 220 bus to Shepherd's Bush Green, I then walked to Shepherd's Bus Station where I got the 148 bus to Elephant & Castle / London Road, then I got the 172 bus to Crofton Park Station where I then walked for 21 minutes to arrive at Ladywell Arena. Then there was one, the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium in Enfield, my brother and his team played a match there once; so I went onto the CityMapper app, to see where I needed to go and, again I questioned myself "why did I think this was a good idea?" The best routes required Southeastern and Greater Anglia trains which weren’t a part of my travel on the Freedom Pass, so again I had to rely on buses where, oh man, it would take me just under 3 hours by taking 4 different buses, nice job Bill, real smart. I walked to Mount Pleasant Road where I took the 185 bus to Lewisham Station where I took the 21 bus, and honestly this was one of the longest bus routes I've ever taken, it had me going through Lewisham, past Goldsmiths, New Cross, Commercial Way which use to have a Toys "R" Us which is now a Lidl, London Bridge, Old Street which is a 15 minute walk from home, and eventually over a little over an hour I got off at Newington Green / Mildmay Road, I looked at the time, and it was clearly getting on, I still had an hour and a half worth of travelling to do, and then almost an hour on the way home, and seeing I had a video call tonight, was it worth me doing the rest of the trip, getting home, rushing dinner and then do the video call physically and mentally exhausted? I wouldn't say so, so I just walked, got the 56 and got home, deciding to head to Queen Elizabeth II Stadium the next day. So I got home, had a nap for an hour, ate dinner, and then I had the video call, and it was a table read for the short film I'll be working on behind the scenes, I shared the GoFundMe page last week, I'll share it again for those interested below the blog; it was a Zoom call, cast and crew joined, director, which was Jack did an introduction for everyone, the cast went through the script, spoke about filming next month, anything needed or possibly any changes, and yeah, it's gonna be good, being back on set, high hopes all around.

Now it's Friday, and seeing that I didn’t have anything going on until towards the evening, I went out to finish off my Weekly Athletics Arenas Tour by visiting Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, I did this by walking to Angel Station, taking the Northern Line to King’s Cross St. Pancras, then taking the Piccadilly Line to Turnpike Lane, and then taking the 231 bus to Percival Road, this route had me go past Cineworld which I’ve been to twice in Enfield, and another old Toys “R” Us, miss my childhood. So once I got off the bus, it was right near a Toby Carvery which my family would go to so that brought back some memories of when COVID wasn’t a thing, I then walked for 14 minutes to reach my destination before going home, going the opposite way of how I got there, so you know I just said how I got to my destination, same travel but the other way round. Once I got home I relaxed for a few hours before going out to meet Mum after she finished her shift at work, where we picked up a takeaway and headed home. A little while later I went up to Jack’s house for a bit, we chilled, talked, laughed, spoke about the film we’ll be working on next month and how much the GoFundMe made that day. That was my Friday, more productive than I remember.

We head into the weekend with Saturday, and just like every week my Mum and I went shopping up Angel, and then got drinks in Pret which we would drink in the park. Later on, and this was why I did my Weekly Athletics Arenas Tour a few days early, I got an Uber, and went down to Wanstead to see a friend of mine, the same friend I was with for New Years, his mum's birthday was a few days prior so there was a get together with friends and family members. There were loads of socialising, a Rat Pack reunion between myself, my friend and another friend from our old course, some Beirut which is the one game where I certainly believe that you have a right to be annoyed at your teammate if they make a mistake, music playing all night, yes this thing went all night, I fall asleep on the sofa at one point, I become the most loving person in the room at one point hugging everyone, I even gave my friend's sister a nickname, Triple B, Best Buddy Becks, and then at around 6am or 7am the next day I fall asleep in my friend's bed.

Moving directly into our final chapter which is obviously, Sunday, where I woke up around 11:30am, my friend is in the same bed as me, another person in the room is asleep in a chair with his feet kicked up on a box or something, I get out of bed, get dressed, I go downstairs, and I hear, music, and I realise that some people there, never stopped, they just kept going and I'm like "How? Why? What?" I ended up leaving as I had something to do, I walked from my friend's house to South Woodford Station which took 20 minutes, went on the Central Line to get off at Leyton, where I met my Mum. The reason we were in Leyton was because it was my Nan's birthday, she would've been 94 if she was still here, we both walked to the St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery, and saw my Nanny Jane and Grandad Bill; we placed flowers down and stood there for a few minutes. I remembered the last birthday she had when she was alive, it was 2012, it was during the weekday and I was off school as it was an Inset Day, and I remember lying on the sofa, and Nanny Jane's sofas were the most comfortable sofas, fell asleep almost every time, and my Uncle Jimmy came in, and he started rocking me back and forth just to get me up, and then I told Nanny Jane and she just started having a go at him, it was so funny, she even told me to sit on her lap, I told her I'd break her legs, she didn't care, and I sat on her lap, to her I was always the same baby she held, she was the first person to hold me. I look at my Nanny Jane, and my Uncle Jimmy, and then I'd think, "3 years and a few months later they'd both be gone," life can be absolute misery sometimes, but I guess it shows that no matter what happens, life goes on, everyone will keep going on with their day, the sun will keep orbiting the earth, life goes on, no matter what you do, say, what happens, or who you lose, everything continues to keep on going; wow I got really deep there I completely forgot I was talking about Sunday. So after a few minutes Mum and I left to head home, taking the Central Line from Leyton Station to Bank Station, then the Northern line to Angel where we walked home from there, if you knew my mum you could ask her and she'd say yes, I was completely out of it, so tired, physically and mentally drained, dozing on and off on the tubes and slurring with my speech. Mum and I get home, and as soon as we do, I go straight to bed and sleep until it was time for dinner, ate dinner, chilled out for a bit, Ms. Vidal gives me a phone call, a surprise but a welcome one, and we discussed the launch of LNSEN next week, was a nice 10 minute chat, and that really was it for Sunday, end of the week.

It was quite the week this week, the first three days were very similar to each other, and then came the rest of the week which included loads of communication, socialising and travelling; also a week closer to things opening up more, happy days. In regards to what I've been watching I've been slacking, watched the recent This Is Us episode which was great, left me in happy tears, forgot about Vikings yet again, and I still need to watch the recent episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Godzilla vs. Kong comes out next week as well which is exciting, since Zack Snyder’s Justice League was Warner Bros and was released on HBO MAX in the USA and Sky Cinema and Now TV in the UK, so I presume the same will happen with Godzilla vs. Kong as it is also a part of Warner Bros and is going to be released on HBO MAX as well. I've been doing some ab workouts as well in the evening, the videos I've been looking at my workouts are normally anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes, the 20 minute one, pure killer, was struggling just half way through. I've been looking back on the weeks, and looking at whatever is coming up, and time is just flying, I mean we're nearly in April, that is insane, I know I mentioned April earlier but I felt like I needed to mention it again because it's just so surreal; I recently thought about New Years where I was up my friend's house, and the fireworks were going off around Greenwich and we all couldn't believe that we all managed to get through 2020 and enter 2021, now we're like over a quarter way through the year. Next week is a big week, the launch of LNSEN, my early duties as the Autism Champion Ambassador, plenty of writing, research and hard work, it should be good, and I'm hopeful for big things for this, and I hope that we can help as many people as we can with this, because there's so much potential here, and if it kicks off, and gets bigger, and more people find out about it, it means bigger things from here. I'll see you all next week guys, for the last few days of March and the first few days of April, also see below the link for the GoFundMe for my friend's short film, I shared it in last week's blog, and I'll just share it again, okey dokey all, adios mis amigos!!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

March 15th - March 21st

"Hey hey hey, it's the 47th blog, sometimes when I think of 24/7, I get mixed up and think 47, just a random fact about me. We're over half way through March now, just had a mostly productive week, mostly positive stuff all around, we're a week closer to things opening up, yet people want to protest, I question the human race quite often and that anti-lockdown protest was one of many. I honestly don't know what else to say, except last week, I forgot to mention, we had to help pump up a ball for a dog that lives in the flat, I might've mentioned him before, his name is Gooner, he's an English Bulldog, a very handsome boy, and he's very loving and getting so big, and so strong with impressive balance on his both back legs, and he's also very naughty, don't bring him near a carpet that's all I'm saying. I may as well get to how my week was, I'm sure you all feel the same, so let's go!

Kicking things off with Monday, and I didn't have any plans, until sometime that evening after dinner, where I went to see my Auntie Susie and Uncle Trevor again, this time to collect a special meal my Auntie Susie made, her traditional pasta bake, and when I heard she made some, how could I say no? So I went up there, stayed for a chat, got the pasta bake, and took it home, happy days!

Following that is Tuesday, where nothing happened, I'm serious guys nothing happened, I don't remember anything regarding Tuesday as well so it's best to presume that nothing happened, or nothing important. Time for Wednesday I guess.

After that awkward moment was Wednesday, and I did some stuff on Wednesday, firstly was a video call with Ms. Vidal, and this was a lovely call, talking about the LNSEN launch in a few weeks, some writing I needed to do regarding neurodiversity, LNSEN and masterclasses, and also I made her laugh quite a bit, it was a wonderful chat. Later on that day I was bored out of my mind, and everyone at home could tell, until I got a text from Jack, asking if I wanted to come up for dinner, and not just any dinner, Korean, and how could I say no!? After this I got dressed, arrived at his, and then we went to the Korean restaurant, shoutout to Dodam Korea, we placed our orders, paid, received our orders, went back to his house, ate the food and we were both very satisfied boys. Not sure if I said what I had last time, but last time I had 10 pieces of the fried chicken with Chicken Mandu, which are dumplings, and this time I had 10 pieces of Gan-jang Chicken which is the fried chicken, but with soy sauce, along with the Chicken Mandu, and the Gan-jang Chicken, smelt exactly like the Sesame Chicken Strips from TGI Fridays. After eating I relaxed at his for another hour and a half or two before making my way home, saying bye before seeing each other again for a big day tomorrow, you'll know it if you read my last blog, what a terrific evening!

Now it's Thursday, and some of you may be wondering, Billy, why is this Thursday such a big day? My friends, today was the day that Zack Snyder's Justice League was released to the world, reviews came out earlier that week, lots of positive stuff, and today it was released, I recorded its first showing on Sky Cinema Premiere, which was 7am that morning on both of the Virgin Boxes in my house, so I was all prepared, and Jack and I were more than excited. Did start off with a mistake though, mum wanted Jack to come up at 1pm so she could tidy up, I completely forgot about that and told Jack to come up at 12pm, so here I was, waking up at 11:30am, Jack arrives at 11:45am due to some noise in his flat, I'm still in my pajamas making my coffee, everything is so overwhelming what is going on!?!??!?! Around an hour later, after finishing my coffee, having something to eat, and getting changed, I ended up wearing a Man of Steel shirt that I've had for almost 8 years and it was quite tight; Jack and I sat upstairs, in my parents room, as I went to put on Zack Snyder's Justice League, I went into My Recordings, selected the film, it comes on, skip the last remaining adverts, until, and this happened with everyone who either woke up early to watch it or recorded it like me, the Sky Cinema logo pops up, and the narrator says "we apologise, but we've had to replace the scheduled feature," and next thing you know, a Sarah Jessica Parker movie comes on, Jack is laughing hysterically, and my jaw is dropped with shock and frustration, and in a desperate attempt, I go On Demand, Movies, search it up, and it's there, IT, IS, THERE, I select the film, and it plays, thankfully, and keep in mind this is a 4 hour movie so we were in for quite a ride. 3 hours pass, and we haven't taken a break from the movie, we only paused it if one of us needed the toilet, and then, the movie stops, WE HAVE AN HOUR LEFT AND THE MOVIE STOPS! I look at my phone, and the internet has cut out, and while Jack is mostly calm, I'm losing my mind, we have sat through 3 hours, we have one more to go, YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! After the following 10 or 15 minutes of frustration, cursing, and nearly losing my mind, the internet comes back on, apparently there were problems around my area since that morning, and from there, Jack and I were able to continue the movie from where we left off. An hour later, the movie ends, and we're left speechless, the movie was everything we wanted it to be and more, and I swear this was the quickest 4 hours of my life, we were absolutely buzzing, ridiculously happy, and after finally getting the film we should've got in November 2017, it's like, what now? We got this, now what? Two things were for certain, one, we were lucky to have something to look forward to during a pandemic, two, whether the film was good or not, I was glad Zack Snyder himself was able to finish this movie and show it to the world. After the film, we spoke about it, a lot, ate dinner, and then Jack went home, what an emotional Thursday.

Welcome to Friday, and this day was quite the productive one, so that morning Dad and a mate of his picked up a bunch of pies and other stuff like the mash, and the liquor, and they came back to the house and put the horse racing and the dog racing, quite the atmosphere, and I got some of the pies and mashes (I have no idea how to say it) and met my older brother, his partner and Poppy and Bessie near my flat, gave them their food, they paid the money back, and I got to see Poppy and Bessie, happy days. After this I went up to my Nan's house to see her and to see little Dotty, so how was Dotty today? Well she was having more of a go at me today than she did last week; so Nan and I sat in the living room with our drinks, and chatting away, while Dotty was either jumping up and around the sofa Nan was sitting on, or sitting on Nan’s lap, and Dotty was being very cheeky, every time I stood up or tried to, she would bark at me, it was like her way of saying "this is my yard, my territory, and you shall remain seated hooman," she wasn't playing any games, after finishing my drink, as I was leaving the house, she does what she did last week, follow my Nan until I was out of the door, something tells me deep down she knows what she's doing, very crafty. After leaving I decided to go for a walk around Islington, especially Angel, and that was Friday.

Moving onto Saturday, and just like every Saturday Mum and I went up Angel, did some shopping, bumped into a familiar face while in line for Sainsbury's, and got coffee on the way home, and, you lot want a surprise? Nan and Dotty were up, and Dotty was getting all of the attention, she was looking all over the place, she had no idea what was going on, and when Nan placed her on the floor, do you know where she went? That's right, under the table. We gave her dog treats as well, which she happily accepted, place a tiny bit on your finger and she'll just eat it off your finger. At one point she was sitting on Nan's lap, and Nan went to pass her to me, and I tell you, Dotty knows what she's doing, when I went to recieve her from Nan, Dotty was using her left back paw to prevent my hand from getting hold of her, this dog is a little genius knowing how to use her limbs, and when I was able to get her and place her on my lap, she laid there as if she thought "fine hooman, I will sit on your lap to keep you silent," and she was really getting use to us, letting us all stroke her and everything, my dad even picked her up at one point and placed her on his lap and she just stayed there, we were making really good progress, and then, a knock at the door came, and in came Albert, my youngest nephew, and he didn't do anything, he just came in, and Dotty starting barking, and then hid in a little corner by one of the sofas. I also learned today about Dotty is that you should never get too much with her, at one point she was back on Nan's lap, and I was stroking her from her head to her back, I did this a couple of times and then she just starts barking at me, I think it's because I'm so much taller than her that maybe I might come across in her eyes as mocking or intimidating her, if that's the case I need to know her entire history and backstory because who knows what she has seen in the 4 years she has been alive. After Nan and Dotty left she was all we spoke about for the next hour, though we all still need to make progress by getting to know her, and her getting to know us, she's already got a place in our hearts.

Finally it's Sunday, and you know what that means, it's my Weekly Athletics Arenas Tour, this has a different title every week I know, but you get the point, I go out, and visit three athletic venues around London. I leave the house at 11:30am to head to my first destination which was the Tooting Bec Athletics Track, and this one was quite simple, walked to Angel Station, took the Northern Line to Tooting Bec Station, then took the 319 bus to Tooting Bec Athletics Track and there it was on the other side of the road, very easy. Next destination was Queen's Club, which use to have athletics based stuff, but now it's more about tennis, rackets and squash, I could've removed it from the list but I wanted to keep the 3 per week theme going; to get there I first walked back to Tooting Bec Station which took 15 minutes, I could've gotten the bus but no buses were coming; after arriving at Tooting Bec Station I took the Northern Line to Stockwell Station, then took the Victoria Line to Victoria Station, then took the District Line to West Kensington Station, and then I walked to find Queen's Club, I ended up getting mixed up and arrived at Queen's Club Gardens, surrounded by Queen's Club Mansions, I can't even imagine how much it costs to live there; eventually I arrived at Queen's Club which looked extremely posh from where I was looking. Then was my final destination which was Hornchurch Stadium, which is also used as a football stadium, home to Hornchurch F.C. and West Ham United L.F.C. and despite it taking the longest to get it, it was the most simplest route, just walk to West Kensington Station, and take the District Line to Upminster Bridge Station, and then walk for 9 minutes, and once I left the station and walked to where I needed to be, my phone on the Maps app said I reached my destination, yet I'm surrounded by houses, what? So I had to improvise, I looked on the map and saw I can walk down this road, through this park which has me walking by River Ingrebourne to reach Hornchurch Stadium, so it took an extra 15 minutes, something like that but I eventually reached it, and now it was time to head home. So as I found my way back on the road and walked up, I saw that this was the pathway I could've walked down, as a 3 minute walk away on my left hand side was Upminster Bridge Station, my phone mislead me, eventually none of us will trust electronics, and it will be Man vs. Machine, sorry I watched Terminator recently. So I walked to Upminster Bridge Station, and took the District Line to East Ham Station, and then took the Hammersmith & City Line to Barbican Station, and I tell you those Hammersmith & City tubes take ages to come; so I arrive at Barbican Station, walked home which took 15 minutes, and that completed my trip. I had dinner, then I took a 3 and a half hour nap, watched a wrestling pay per view, and that concluded my week.

Well that was quite the week, a lot of stuff happening, lots of socialising, a lot of emotion, and a lot of doggies, I saw loads this week, and I need to mention with little Dotty, her little face, I just look at her and she just looks so clumsy, just makes me laugh. So, in regards to what I've been watching, This Is Us came back this week, and it was alright, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier began this week and that was a good episode, and yet again I forgot about Vikings. So what now? Well I have a video call this Wednesday in regard to the LNSEN Advisory Board which is exciting, and then I have another one Thursday in regards to a short film I'll be working behind the scenes on, I'll leave a link to the GoFundMe for this film, if you can donate that'll be great, if not, sharing it around to friends, family or work colleagues would be amazing, and also, I completely forgot about this, see below as well my interview with BreakEven, very pleased with it. So I'll see you all next week, Adios Mis Amigos!"

https://www.gofundme.com/f/psychopath-short-psychological-thriller-film?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-161551188217-9415ce9512774eb0&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5bhttps://blog.evenbreak.co.uk/2021/03/08/spotlight-on-talent-billy-c/

March 8th- March 14th

"Oh hello there, I see you have just started reading what is my 46th blog, wether it’s the first one you're reading or not, either way, you are in for a week in my life during March 2021 during a pandemic which has been here for over a year, and nearly a year after the first lockdown began. That's it really, welcome again ladies and gentlemen, another week another blog, mum and dad are home all week since their holiday got cancelled a while back so we have to put up with each other for the week, wonderful. Now let's go to Monday shall we?

It's Monday, clearly, obviously, what else could it be? You want to know how I started the week? By not doing anything, I was chilling upstairs mostly, was on the PlayStation until Frankie came home from work, had a nap at one point, spoke with some friends on the phone, and that was that, kicking off the week chilling.

Next is Tuesday, and Tuesday was pretty much the same, except I did shave, as an early Mother's Day present to Mum, it was the first time I did anything to my beard since October and the first time I had a clean shaven face in a year, 5 months of beard growth gone in 20 minutes, but it was worth it seeing Mum's reaction.

Going onto Wednesday, this has been quite quick right guys? So I began Wednesday by going on a drive with Mum and Dad, we're all just bored so we thought that it would get us all out for a few hours, after around 2 hours we make our way home, do some shopping, and also I actually got my phone back, took longer than it should've but oh well, better late than never, very happy to have some normality back in my life.

Now it’s Thursday, and to begin my day I had a Microsoft Teams call with a couple of people from my workplace, and it was a Disability Advisory Group Meeting, I missed the last one so I made sure I was there for this one, the meeting was around an hour and a half and the meeting touched on personal experiences in the workplace, Autism friendly events in the workplace and other topics, it was nice to see how passionate the others involved in the meeting were about handling disabilities in a workplace. My dad got me a nice baguette from Gregg's, so nice, hunger can make a man mad. Around an hour or so later I popped up Jack's house to see him for a bit, Jack couldn't leave his house due to an Amazon parcel being on its way, he wanted lunch so he gave me the money and I went out to get it, just some chicken and chips, that's all. We just chilled, and spoke, mostly about movies, and our excitement for Zack Snyder's Justice League which I will speak on towards the end of this blog; after around two or so hours I made my way home, and that was Thursday.

Let's get down on Friday, so Friday was one of the more productive days I had going on, and nearly all of the plans I made were on the day. To begin, Nan came up for a coffee and we gave her Mother's Day presents from us, and then she told us, and this was one of, maybe even the best piece of news I got all week, she has a dog, yes ladies and gentlemen we have a new dog in the family and she isn't far away, her name is Dotty (I think that's how you spell her name) and she is a Chihuahua!! So afterwards I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and went with Nan to her house where I met Dotty for the first time, and she doesn't like strangers, at all, so as soon as she saw me, she ran under the table, she barked, I barked, she barked, and then I barked, she barked twice, and then I barked twice, so we were communicating by barking and it wasn't off to a great start for the both of us. Nan made me a cup of tea, and gave me a piece of angel cake which was amazing, and then later on, she picked Dotty up and I went to stroke her, and she used her own paw to push my hand down, this little pup wasn't messing about, and then I tried again, and she let me stroke her, her body language and facial expression read "ok hooman, I grant you permission to touch, but only this one time," and then once Nan put her down, she didn't know what to do, she didn't know whether to be near me, or go under the table, and the only time she went near me, was when I was leaving, you could tell she was happy to see me leave, and that was my first time seeing Dotty, and certainly not the last, I’ll be back Dotty, you’ll see. After that I went for a walk around Angel where I bumped into a friend of mine from my A Levels, another shoutout to Mae Hicks, and one of my drama teachers. During the evening I had a phone call with a friend of mine from secondary to end the day, overall it was a really lovely day.

Going to the first half of the weekend with Saturday, and just like every Saturday Mum and I went up to Angel to do some shopping, and just like every few Saturdays or so, we met up with a friend of the family and sat down to have a coffee, we sat in the N1 Centre which has just had some construction done, and it looks absolutely amazing. After getting home and chilling for a little bit I went over to see my Auntie Susie and Uncle Trevor to drop off Mother's Day presents for Auntie Susie, I was up there for around an hour and a half, and had a cup of tea and a piece of millionaires shortbread which was lovely. This really was a great Saturday.

Finally it's Sunday, and this week is the beginning of my Weekly Athletics Arenas Tour, there's around 12 or 13 in London so I'll be doing 3 a week, should be interesting, and today's one was going to be an easy one, two venues I've already been to, and one I haven't been to before, it's going to be a piece of cake. Also today was Mother's Day, I got Mum a shirt and a card which I had made on Funky Pigeon, it came out great. So after seeing Mum open her cards and presents, and eating breakfast, I brushed my teeth, got dressed, and out the door I went. First stop was the venue I haven't visited yet and it was the Mile End Stadium, which I got the 56 from outside my flat to St. Paul's Station where I took the Central Line to Mile End Station where the stadium was just an under 10 minute walk away, very easy. Next stop was the London Stadium, and I loved how easy this was, all I had to do was walk back to Mile End Station, and get back on the Central Line for one stop to Stratford, and then walk for just over 10 minutes. My final stop was my return to White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre, now known to people as New River Stadium, and this was the longest and more complex to travel which I didn't mind seeing how easy the last two were; I walked to Hackney Wick Station where I took the Overground to Highbury & Islington, then I took the Victoria Line to Finsbury Park, then I took the Piccadilly Line to Wood Green Station, and finally I took the W3 bus to New River Sports Centre where my destination was around the corner, and that completed my trip for the day. I got home by taking the W3 bus to Wood Green Station where I entered the station for the Piccadilly Line to King's Cross St. Pancras, then I took the Northern Line to Angel where from there I walked home. After arriving home, I saw a lot of family arrive, my older brother, his partner, and my two youngest nieces, Poppy and Bessie, so Frankie and I had to do our uncle duties which we did successfully but with a lot of hard work, they don't mess around either, for example at one point I was lying on my bed, Bessie climbs over me and says "you're fat" talk about brutal honesty, and then Poppy out of nowhere goes "I like your cut G" and whacks me right on my forehead, but they are both so loving and remind me of Frankie and I so much, an example of this is Bessie, she loves to take an IPhone or IPad, put something on, and just lie on her side watching whatever was on there, definitely like her Uncle Bill Bill, and at one point, and this was so cute, there was a little piece of caramel chocolate that Bessie didn't like so she left it on top of some unwrapped sweets that have been on Frankie and I's desk for around 3 weeks, and we didn't know about it until Poppy said something, and I was slowly taking this downstairs, slowly because little messes like that make me feel funny, I put it in the bin, and little Bessie looked like she felt bad and said sorry, and she didn't need to because she didn't do anything wrong, and it gets cuter, Poppy crouched down and assured her that she didn't do anything wrong, now that's sibling love right there. After a few hours they went home and that ended my week.

Blog 46 is in the bag, and this was a great week, a lot of positivity and doing things this week and I am really looking forward to next week, for one, as I mentioned earlier, Zack Snyder's Justice League, now it is story time. So in early 2017 during the production of the original Justice League film, Zack Snyder's daughter Autumn died by suicide, this eventually lead to Zack stepping down to spend more time with his family, and Joss Whedon, who directed Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, wrote Toy Story which he got an Academy Award nomination for, and has worked on series like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly, so he had quite the resume, and he was in charge of reshoots and re-writing certain scenes, and the film we got, wasn't anything like a Zack Snyder film at all, like only a quarter of his footage, maybe less than that was used in this film, and most of it was reshoots, the CGI was mostly poorly done, the humour was forced and felt like they were trying too hard to be Marvel, and Henry Cavill, who plays Superman, had signed a contract to keep his moustache for Mission Impossible, so they had to CGI the mustache out, and the CGI lips, THE CGI LIPS, and those were just a few of the problems. At the time, I liked the movie, but the more reviews I saw, and the more images I saw and stories I heard about Zack's version came out, the more of a bad taste the film left in my mouth, and people everywhere began to make their voices loud and clear, #ReleaseTheSnyderCut began trending and became a movement, adverts on billboards, banners on planes, and loads of money getting donated to suicide prevention charities, the fans were going all out, they wanted this man's vision to be seen, even the actors in the film joined in, everyone were making it clear that they wanted this movie, and then, just last summer, it was announced, Zack Snyder's Justice League, coming to HBO MAX in 2021, and the world rejoiced, this man's vision was finally going to be seen, this announcement was easily one of the highlights of 2020, and this film is easily one of the most anticipated films of all time, nearly 4 years in the making, it's coming on Sky Cinema on Thursday which is absolutely perfect for me, Jack is going to come up, we're going to put the film on, and it's going to be amazing, I can't wait, and I don't even care if it's good or bad, I'm just glad Zack Snyder was able to finish it and show what he worked so hard for to everyone. Wow, how do I follow that up? I guess with the stuff I've been watching, completely forgot about Vikings again, This Is Us is coming back next week, and starting next week is The Falcon and the Winter Soldier which I can't wait for, with so much stuff to look forward to, restrictions going down, West End shows opening in May, going back to work hopefully by mid April at earliest, got a lodge booked in Essex in May or June, LNSEN launching next month, honestly this is the first time in like half a year where I have generally felt optimistic and excited about the future. To end this blog, I do want to say something, regarding events that have happened last week and earlier this week, so as you all know, Sarah Everard went missing over a week ago, and this week her remains were found, all of this made the news, and it is really really sad; hopefully the right thing happens in the end, the murderer gets the right sentence, all positive stuff in the end I can only hope for, also we need to decriminalise self defense, besides Paul Joseph Watson, who I watch on YouTube whose opinions I've mostly agreed with, I don't think anyone else has said that, and if they have, I definitely missed it. All of this that has happened, and what we've seen on social media, and the news, and posts online, I can add Harry and Meghan’s interview to this in regard of what I’m going to say next, this is all a reminder of how divided we all really are, whether it's gender, race, politics or anything else, everyone is so divided, I'd argue and say more divided than over a decade ago, I blame the media and definitely social media for that too; for the last year with everything happening in the world, I'm just so fed up of going on social media, switching on the TV, and seeing in the newspapers how divided everyone is, I'm sick of people being angry, I'm sick of people arguing, I'm sick of people being so divided, I've just had enough, it’s all the same song and dance and people just feel the need to go to the dance floor, while I sit with an ice cold beverage enjoying my own company. I don't know what else to say, but to take care of each other, be kind to one another, we're still in a pandemic guys we all need to look after one another whether we like it or not, and that's that, I'll see you all next week guys, adios."

March 1st- March 7th

"It's the 45th blog, and we are in March, quarter way through 2021, and we're still in lockdown, shame. Not much as really happened in the world, except the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, where most people nominated got dressed in suits and dresses through video calls, I mean if I was nominated I'll just be on the video call in my pajamas, imagine me, nominated for an award, during a pandemic, wearing my pajamas and winning, I'll go down as a legend. That's all I have really, welcome to Blog 45, the first blog of March, quite the busy week I had this week, I think the busiest I had in a while, so let's get to it shall we.

Kicking it off with Monday, oh boy, where do we start with Monday? So as some of you may know, my original phone got broken ages ago, I sent it away to get fixed, and left the sim card inside, so now I have to use a different phone with a different sim card, and this phone, it's just a nightmare, it's getting on with age so it can have it's occasional hiccups, especially that I can download new apps and apps I have downloaded and deleted before, yet I can't update them, it doesn't make any sense, which leads to what happens on this day. So for a while I've been getting notifications about the version of WhatsApp I have on the phone expiring, and once it expires, I'll no longer be able to use it, I could update it, but this phone won't let me update anything, so on Monday, the last day before WhatsApp on my phone expires, Mum and I had a plan, she was going to put my sim card into her phone, while she would put her sim card into another phone we had, though she wouldn't be able to use WhatsApp as for the last two months IPhones from 4 to some IPhone 6 phones aren't using WhatsApp anymore which I found out from an Independent article, she didn't have to do that but sometimes the strongest soldiers make the most noble sacrifices. So we swapped sim cards, a I had to sign in to my Apple account so I could download some of my other apps that I use for work, and then all hell breaks loose, it wouldn't let me log in as I needed permission or submit a number that's popping up on my original phone, which isn't home, and the contacts on the new phone I was using all disappeared, and then we tried swapping sim cards back, and when we did, the contacts on my mum's phone that would've been mine were all still gone and for her to log back into her Apple account, a number appeared on my phone for her to use to log in, and I had this number from Austin, Texas trying to call me, what is going on?!? So we pretty much went back to where we were, except I had to let people know, and accept the fact that I can't use WhatsApp until I get my original phone back, and my mum had to go through her old phone to get all of her contacts back. When it comes to WhatsApp, it wasn't really my communication with friends and family that I worried about not having because there's always the normal texting and social media, it was work, and when I normally find out about any work updates, it's through the WhatsApp group chat. Put it this way, these things happen, and life goes on, and the sooner I get my original phone back, the better.

Next is Tuesday, wow that was a long one, and I met up with Jack, we went to his local Korean takeaway after him buzzing about it for weeks especially to my parents who he bumped into last week, and it was like "well if he was buzzing about it to my own parents, I guess I have to give it a try," so we met, and then went to the Korean restaurant which is just a 5 minute walk from where he lives, where we entered, ordered our food, and waited outside until the food was ready to take home. We got our food, took it back to his flat, ate it, and it was amazing; I don't know why it took me so long to try Korean food, but better late than never because it was amazing! We had a good chat about food, and how passionate we both were about food, and how we would love to travel to different countries just to try their food, the food is beautiful here, but imagine the food in the country where it originated, you get what I mean? You all must think I'm mad, look at Billy, him and Jack are going travelling just to eat food, hey, at least there's a purpose to it. We spent the rest of our evening watching YouTube videos, including this one video, the link is below the blog, from Impractical Jokers, and I won't give it away, but it's the hardest I've laughed in a long time, so hard that my stomach was killing me for the next three days as if I did an extreme ab workout, I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. I left Jack's around 9pm and once I got home, I showed my parents the video which they thought was hilarious, and then I showed my brother, who also thought it was hilarious, glad to end the evening with laughter.

Now it's Wednesday, and I met my mum for lunch during her work shift. We got cappuccinos from Caffe Nero and I got myself a chicken & bacon toastie and then we sat in the park, after quickly finishing the toastie, mum really thought I should get something else for myself, so I went back in, and got myself a piece of luxury blackforest roulade, and it was gorgeous, after another half an hour we went our separate ways as Mum went back to work and I went home, and that's all I've got to say about Wednesday, nothing else or newsworthy happened, that pretty much was it.

Going onto Thursday now, and I had another Q&A or talk or whatever you call it to do with Katrien from ThinkForward hosting once again, this time it was for SRS Careers Week and it was another talk that went really well, speaking about my time at The Courtyard, jobs I had as an actor, jobs on the side and jobs behind the scenes or on set, good and bad experiences I've had at work, giving career advice, I felt like I was giving the best possible answers I could and I felt really proud with how I carried myself especially with my use of humour, personally I felt the best thing I said during the talk was that especially as an actor, you need to make friends and connections, because from my experience, you find out about more people and more work through friends and connections you make along the way. I don't know what else I could say to be honest, it was just a really good session with me answering questions.

Look out, it's Friday! Where do I start with this one, quite stressful this one. Basically I mostly go on the PlayStation 4 during the weekdays when Frankie goes to work, and with our PlayStation 4 we have an external hard drive because with the normal storage on the PlayStation 4, you can barely get anything on there, two games, maybe three, and that's it, with the external hard drive it makes life so much more easier, and then today happened. Started the day turning the PlayStation 4 on, and I could hear a beeping from the external hard drive and thought "ok that's weird" I also thought that maybe Frankie knew something about this already so I decided not to worry about it, a few hours later I had my lunch and Mum went to hover in our room, because she always leaves housework until Fridays which is something I only realised on this day. I have my lunch, go back on the PlayStation, go onto a mode in my game, the loading circle on the game freezes so I go to the PlayStation homepage and now that's frozen and when the PlayStation freezes there's nothing you can do, no buttons to press, you've got to turn it off by the switches, I do this, wait a minute, turn everything on and I can hear the beeping on the external hard drive again, and normally when the PlayStation freezes, and you turn it off by the switches, and turn it all back on, it does a loading bar scanning the PlayStation for any errors, and then it gives you an option to repair the external hard drive, which you have to do if you want to play your games, but that part didn't come up, and now there's an explanation mark next to almost every game, and apparently the hard drive wasn't in according to the PlayStation options, I could not understand what was going on, Mum had a look, my brother in law had a look, even my youngest nephew Albert had a look. I decided to go downstairs away from the PlayStation and the stress and watch the Wandavision series finale, would've watched it in the evening but I needed a distraction and a getaway from the PlayStation, and off topic quickly, Wandavision had a great finale, though it did have its flaws and I would consider it one of the weaker episodes in the series, it was still a strong finale. Later on we found out the problem, turned out these were all signs that the external hard drive was dying and on its way out, we even called a few places that could repair it, which would take a week, and would cost £500, not even worth it, though if Frankie wanted to have it done, I would've easily paid one half and he would pay the other. To blow off some steam I decided to go for a walk, gave Jack a call and for 10 minutes we spoke about the Wandavision finale, I then proceeded to walk around Islington itself for the next hour or so, bumped into an old friend near Exmouth Market, and went home where, Frankie kinda fixed the PlayStation problem, when we first found out about the problem we were having today, we all thought of Frankie as he, especially now during lockdown, uses PlayStation to communicate and have a laugh with his mates, but when he found out the problem, he knew one thing to do, though it meant deleting a game or two which I don't play anymore, he was able to download a game of mine and a game of his back onto the PlayStation with all of the saved stuff and DLC on the games, I don't know how but it was a miracle, and that will definitely keep Frankie and I occupied until the PlayStation 5 comes back in stock, which would probably be never because they haven't been in stock in ages. Later on that evening I met Dad after his workshift to pick up our takeaway and that was my Friday, very eventful.

Clear as day it's Saturday, see I can still be original, and Saturday was a good one, went shopping with Mum up Angel like I would every week, and like last week we got our cappuccinos from Pret, and drank them in a park, also we got a chocolate croissant on the house which was really nice. During the evening I met up with Jack again, I went up to his house as we ordered food from his local chinese takeaway, and how much food? You don't want to know, put it this way, whether it's food, price, calories, to Jack and I, numbers don't matter, and eventually, numbers won't exist, unless it's our 7 or 8 figure payments when we take over the film industry, AS WE SHOULD! You all read it here first, try and stop us, we're leading a revolution. The food was lovely, obviously, and we just chilling until I went home around 10pm, Mum and Frankie met me, Mum didn't like the idea of me going home in the dark no matter how close we were, plus to go back a few days, when I was going home from Jack's on Tuesday, it was dark, cold, foggy, silent, it was quite scary, and that kinda played into Frankie and Mum meeting me this evening, but yeah that was Saturday, it was good!

Finally it's Sunday, and you know what it is, you know what's happening on this day, it is the second half of my RUGBY STADIUM TOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now there would've been more stadiums to explore however I only wanted to visit the stadiums that were homes to teams, so I had three to explore today unlike last week that consisted of four, how bad can it be? My first stop was StoneX Stadium, home to Saracens, to get there I had to walk to Angel Station where I took the Northern Line to Hendon Central, where I took a 113 bus from Hendon Central Station and got off at Fiveways Corner / Copthall Sports Centre where I had to walk for around 20 minutes including over a bridge above a highway, which got me anxious, but not as anxious as the one from last week, as I saw the stadium from the bridge so I knew I was near, and then I arrived and the stadium all around was blocked off, and it looked like some construction work was being done to it, so that was the first stadium done, two to go. Next stop was the Trailfinders Sports Ground, home to Ealing Trailfinders, where I sighed largely when I saw this route the previous night, I had to walk and take three buses and walk more which would calculate to around an hour and 40 minutes of travelling, it was at that moment where I began to think "was this a good idea?" So I walked 17 minutes to Westside where I got the 113 bus to North Circular Road where, I need to say this, I was walking to the next bus stop which was only a few minutes away, but I saw an old Toys R Us that was still up which was sad, and even sadder, She's Out of my Life by Michael Jackson was playing through my earphones on my Spotify playlist, that moment was easily the most down I felt all week; anyways I waited at Prince Charles Drive where I got the 112 bus, and something else I got to say, I did not realise how close I was to Wembley Stadium, until I got on this bus, wow it blew my mind, like nearly every bus stop you could see the iconic Wembley Arch, and at one stop, there was a couple of buildings, and right behind it was the top half of Wembley Stadium, sometimes you never know how tall structures are unless you're near them, and Wembley Stadium is one of them, I got chills just looking at it; after around 40 minutes I got off at Ealing Broadway Station / Haven Green where I walked not even a minute to Haven Green / Ealing Broadway Station where I got the E9 bus to Gurnell Leisure Centre, and then, I'm sorry guys we're nearly there, I walked for 9 minutes to Trailfinders Sports Ground, that was a lot, a real lot, but I got there in the end, now there's one to go. Final stop was the White Hart Lane Community Sports Centre, also known as the New River Stadium, home to Haringey Rhinos and London Skolars, and to get there, this one was a lot too, but a slightly shorter journey than the one I just took. To begin, I walked 6 minutes to Castle Bar Park where I got the E11 to Ealing Broadway Station where I took the Central Line to Oxford Circus where I took the Victoria Line to Finsbury Park where I took the Piccadilly Line to Wood Green where I then exited the station, and walked 3 minutes to Redvers Road where I took the W3 bus where I got off at New River Sports Centre, and walked 6 minutes to New River Stadium, WOW THAT WAS A LOT! So yeah I finally did it, and to get home, I promise this doesn't involve too much travelling, I walked to the other New River Sports Centre bus stop where I got the other W3 bus where I got off at Wood Green Station where I entered the station and took the Piccadilly Line to King's Cross St Pancras where I took the Northern Line to Angel where I left the station to walk home, and that was the conclusion to my Rugby Stadium Tours. Once I got home I had dinner, had a nap for three hours, had a bath and ended my Sunday by watching a wrestling pay per view.

That was this week's blog, I think this was the first blog in a long time where I was either doing something or something significant was happening everyday. Looking at all I have written now, this could easily be one of the longest blogs I've ever done, and I feel sorry for anyone who's a slow reader reading this, as someone who's a slow reader and has to read through this to correct any spelling or grammar mistakes, I feel your pain. In regards to things I have watched, already mentioned Wandavision, forgot about Vikings again, watched last week's This Is Us episode which was great and now I realise with the number of times we keep having delays with the current season, at this point by the time the season finale comes the pandemic would've already ended. So now we enter a new week, schools are all opening up, or opening up for more classes I'm not sure I already forgot the roadmap, but it's progress, can't wait for cases and deaths to rise and then the roadmap gets delayed, sorry for the brutal honesty but real talk, I hope this is really the beginning of the end and a real return to normality, and we don't have to worry about another worldwide pandemic for another century, see you next week guys, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!!"

Impractical Jokers - Joe the Genie (Punishment) | truTV - YouTube

February 22nd - February 28th

"It's blog 44, I really like the number 44, I don't know why but oh well, and here we are in another week =)! This will be one of my longer blogs, and you'll see why, including here where I will include what I missed in last weeks blog. Last Tuesday was Pancake Day, and Dad makes the best pancakes, and happy to say we were all satisfied, last Thursday when I went for a walk, I bumped into some family friends, and their dog Rollo who is a little bulldog, very handsome boy, last Friday one of my older sisters and my eldest niece Elsie popped up, and one thing to say about their visit is that they really didn't like my beard, at all, each to their own I suppose, and lastly last Sunday on my way to start my trips to the football stadiums I bumped into an old friend from my A Levels, shout out to Mae Hicks, it was really nice to see her, crazy how it's been nearly 6 years since we completed our course, now I've updated you all, it is time, and I say, IT IS TIME, TO GO ON TO, Blog 44, I hope you enjoy.

Going to kick it off just talking about Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because they were all mostly the same day, the only difference was two things, one was that I had a Zoom meeting on Monday with Dee Chalmers of Evenbreak who Katrien of ThinkForward got me in contact with, she's going to write an article on me, how exciting, and it was a nice little chat; she also asked me what work I was interested in, now, I'm not intending to leave the job I have now, I absolutely love it there, but having a part time job or another zero hour contract job on the side is something worth thinking about, more on my CV, more to learn, also more money to be made which is always a good thing, and if nothing happens, oh well, I don't lose anything, plus there's another article for me, and this blog, and more people to find out about me in the end. The other difference with these three days was that I met Mum for lunch on Wednesday where we got coffee and sat in the park until she had to go back in, it was nice, but there isn't really anything else I can say about those first three days except I finished typing last week's blog, I played on the PlayStation, watched TV, chilled, ate food, slept, had baths, did some exercising, social media, and that's all folks.

Next is Thursday, didn't leave the house at all Thursday, however I did have a special video call with a special someone, and that someone was Ms. Vidal, first time we've had a proper catchup since meeting up at The Courtyard a month or so ago, and it was a really nice conversation, which included me showing off my beard, how it's long enough for me to grip onto with my teeth, how I can just created curls with my sideburns, and she was laughing histerically, AT LEAST SOMEONE LIKES MY BEARD MUM! Carrying on, Ms. Vidal just moved to Essex and she showed me around her new house, I met her husband which was nice, and she gave me an update about LNSEN, which I am of course am the Autism Champion Ambassador, she was telling me more about the launch date, and what I will be doing, and that I have to do research and reading, oh the joy, and I couldn’t remember everything because I tend to struggle to take in loads of information, and I have a short attention span, but nevertheless it should be good, and I'm hoping for the best of outcomes; also I have joked about getting a championship belt and holding it during meetings and talks since my position involves the word "champion" and I've found a few, a bit pricey, but if I actually go through with the idea, it would be a laugh, but maybe too much money for a laugh, like I'll use the championship belt in one talk or meeting, and then what? You get what I mean?

Now it's Friday, so as of that day, I was doing something Saturday night, and will be tired throughout Sunday, so I decided to finish my WEEKLY FOOTBALL STADIUM TOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!! ON A FRIDAY, LET'S GO LADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sorry I'm really hyping this up more than I should, to begin the final trip, I went to Plough Lane, home to AFC Wimbledon which only just opened in November; to start I walked to Angel Station where I got the Northern Line to Tooting Broadway Station, and then I walked to the Garratt Lane / Tooting Broadway bus stop to get the 270 bus to Huntspill Street where I walked to Plough Lane, or tried to; so the road I had to go down had a lot of construction workers and even their trucks on the road, I had no idea what to do though I did see a woman going past on a bicycle without a problem so I should be fine, and I was, I walked to find the stadium, and I couldn't, the main entrance was blocked off, lots of construction work was going on, and I tried going around but I couldn't find anything, and then I noticed I was on one of those sites, where there were various little buildings which were ran by different kinds of companies, and I was wondering if I was meant to be there, so I thought to improvise a way around to try and see some of the stadium, luckily I was able to and then I saw the Wimbledon Stadium Bus Stop, which leads me to my next destination, Brentford Community Stadium, home to Brentford Football Club since September, so I got the 493 bus which I was on for an hour and went past some amazing looking houses and the Wimbledon Tennis Club, and then I got off at Eton Street where I walked to Richmond Circus Bus Stop which took around 10 minutes where I got the 110 to Kew Bridge Station where I walked for 7 minutes to the stadium, just like the last one there were a lot of construction workers, but I saw quite a bit of people walking up and down so I knew I'd be fine, I really liked the look of the stadium, gave me a bit of an Emirates Stadium vibe. My final destination of the day was Gander Green Lane also known as Borough Sports Ground, home to Sutton United, and I looked at the route on my phone and the buses I needed to get, and you wouldn't believe it, the first bus I saw was the 65 bus, heading to Cromwell Road Bus Station just like last Sunday, after mentioning that route, and the grass elephants, and how I wanted to do that bus journey again, it's like God himself read the blog and was like "well Bill, you'll be doing that journey again on Friday!" When taking this bus trip, which I started from the Kew Bridge Station Bus Stop, I tried getting pictures of the grass elephants, but they weren't the best due to how fast the bus was going, however in one picture below you could slightly see one of the elephants; after getting off at Cromwell Road Bus Station, I got the 213 to Malden Road / Priory Road Bus Stop, where once I got off, I put the address of Gander Green Lane onto my Maps app, and I don't know if there was a mistake, but compared to the CityMapper app which said an 18 minute walk, this said 27 minutes, and with around 20% left on my phone, there was no way I was risking using the rest of the battery on my phone to get to a stadium, and then feel lost wherever I was, so I tried to see what buses I could get, and turns out I didn't need to get off the 213, wonderful; so I got the next bus to come which was the 151, and got off at Sutton Civic Centre, looked at the Maps app, and it said I needed to walk another 20 minutes, CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?!?!??! So I looked at my phone to see if I can get a bus, and turns out there was, the number 80 bus, a true life saver, got on the bus, got off at the Collingwood Road / Oldfields Road right by the park where the stadium was in, I did it, I actually did it, all of the big football grounds I have visited, I have done it, I walked 6 minutes through the park to see some of the stadium, and with 10% battery left on my phone, and feeling complete, it was time to go home, where I got the 80 bus to Morden Station where I got the Northern Line to Angel and then I walked home, what a day, what an adventure, I have actually done it. The question now remains, what now? Next is rugby stadiums, so my knowledge of rugby is little to none but I'm open to learning, and there are only 7 rugby stadiums in London, well 7 stadiums that are homes to teams, and one day will be for 3, the other will be for 4, that should be good. During the evening, one of my friends from Mitcham, by the way, I should say since I was near and around the Croydon and Wimbledon areas, I miss my friends, a lot, back to subject, one of my friends from Mitcham messaged me seeing the stadiums I went to on my Instagram story, she was telling me how she was born in the hospital around the area of one stadium, and went to school in the area of another stadium, that chat, and even all of those trips I did, made me truly realise how much of a small world it is, especially London.

After that adventure it's Saturday, and I spent Saturday going shopping up Angel with Mum, and we got cappuccinos and I got myself a chocolate croissant that we ate in a park by the City & Islington Sixth Form College before heading home, yeah that's it, that's Saturday, short, sweet, straight to the point. Originally I was supposed to go to a friend of mine that evening and stay the night, he had to cancel due to his mum having an ear infection, oh well, these things can't be helped.

Finally it's Sunday, and now my Sunday is free and not tired and drained after Saturday evening, what can I do? Why not start my WEEKLY RUGBY STADIUMS TOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, why not do what I haven't done yet, visit 4 stadiums, without my phone running out of battery, I feel like with it being properly planned out, it can be done. First stop was going back to Brentford Community Stadium, where London Irish RFC are currently holding their home games; which I did by walking to Highbury & Islington Station where I took the Overground to Gunnersbury Station where I took the 237 bus from outside the station and got off at Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre, and after walking for 10 minutes, I arrived at the Brentford Community Stadium for the second time, and I got a much different vibe from it with all the construction workers not being there. After that, it was time to go to my next destination which was Athletic Ground, home to Richmond Football Club and it is London Broncos Academy's home until 2023, and you won't believe the bus I had to take to get there, the 65, again, the 65 bus, though the journey won't be as long as I got off at Evelyn Road Station where I walked 9 minutes to the Athletic Ground entrance which was all locked off, nothing really to say except the houses nearby all looked lovely. My next destination, look at me third stadium already, was the Twickenham Stoop, home to the Harlequins, so I walked to Richmond Circus Bus Stop and buses that could've took me there all went pass which was annoying, 110 and H37, two buses I could've gotten, went past, and I thought to maybe get any bus I could get and see what happens, so I got the 371, got off at Eton Street, and walked to Richmond Station bus stop where I got the R70 to The Prince Albert / Twickenham, and while I was on there people just started arguing, I don't know why, something about masks, but they were all wearing theirs, next thing you know this lady who doesn't know if she even wants to wear a mask or not, is cursing in her strong Scottish accent with the F word, the S word, the C word, very charming individual, and then you have these two old geezers that are like in their 60s or 70s and they're gonna have a punch out on or off the bus, and I looked into the CCTV camera on the bus, with an expression on my eyes that read "why? Just why?" So once the bus arrived at The Prince Albert / Twickenham, I got off, and regarding what was going on, on the bus, it wouldn't surprise me if the bus driver got the police involved, they'll probably look at the CCTV footage and see my can't be asked expression. So from there I had a nice walk including by a riverstream which took me to Twickenham Stoop, it was really nice, the only thing I really knew about Twickenham Stoop before these last few days was that Elton John did a concert there a couple of years ago. Now that leads one more for the day, the big boy, Twickenham Stadium, home to the English National Rugby Union Team, and while I was figuring out how to get there I literally turned around, and it was right there, IT WAS RIGHT THERE, I DID IT, I ACTUALLY DID IT, with around 40% battery left on my phone, I did what I set out to do, 4 stadiums I actually did it! But now, I had to figure out how to get there, and seeing that it was just there, how hard can it be? Well I had to get past this one obstacle, the highway, by walking up the steps of a bridge which looked around 40 feet in the air, crossing it, and going down the steps, and going up the steps was the hardest part, because you're walking up but also seeing all the cars passing on the road, and once I reached the top I was just still, my brain was moving but my body wasn't, my anxiety was rising and I don't know why, it wasn't like I was going to fall or anything, so then I took a few very short steps, as if I was walking a zipline and once I got to the other side I was fine, see Bill, that wasn't so hard. From there I just walked past some houses and I was there, Twickenham Stadium, I actually did it, and the buzz I felt was incredible, I was walking around the stadium, taking photos and just stood there at one point in awe, especially of the statue there, this was actually the 3rd time I went to Twickenham Stadium, first time was U2 in 2017, second time was Eminem in 2018, now here I am a third time after previously visiting three stadiums used for rugby the same day. After that, it was time to head home, I walked to Twickenham Station which took somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, purchased a ticket to Clapham Junction, boarded the South Western Railway train to Clapham Junction, changed platform to board another South Western Railway train to Waterloo which I just about got on, and then once I left Waterloo Station I got the 243 bus to Goswell Road where I walked 10 minutes to get home. Once I got home, I had dinner, had a nap for an hour and a half, watched To Olivia with Mum, and that was my Sunday, what a day.

To continue those last three words, what a week, this had to be one of my longest blogs ever, and one of my longest in a very long time, I mean how do I finish this week's blog after all of that? I guess by, casually talking about what I've been watching and what's going on in the world? So, I've forgotten about Vikings again, completely forgot to watch This Is Us so that's something I need to do, Wandavision keeps getting better and better and I cannot wait for the finale next week, and, oh yes of course I nearly forgot, the new road map to dropping lockdown and restrictions, does it look beautiful? It surely does, only if numbers drop, and if not, well it looks like we need a vaccine that's 100% effective. In all seriousness, it does bring a spark of hope, I just don't want us to all get our hopes up and then something changes, and what if we end up in a 4th lockdown by August or September, and we are in this neverending frustrating cycle of inside and outside of lockdowns and restrictions? Only time can tell. I'll see you all next week, 45, another big number, and the first week of March, we're nearly a quarter way through the year, and barely anything has happened, typical, see you all then, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!!!"

February 15th - February 21st

"43! Yes I am still counting, for some reason, wait why am I counting again? Anyways 43 brings nothing to my mind except the movie titled Movie 43, you don't want to watch Movie 43, and if you do, I will pray for you, you poor soul. So we've got another week of lockdown which means, ANOTHER WEEK OF NOTHING, YOU LOVE TO SEE IT! But that begs the question, Billy, what did you do? My friend, this is me, in another week of lockdown.

Kicking off with Monday, clearly, and Monday was like the majority of my Mondays since the second lockdown, nothing, or not really much at all, just chilling indoors, typing up the blog, going on social media, watching anything I can find on TV, playing on the PlayStation, that was Monday, starting the week going straight to the point.

Next up is Tuesday, Tuesday was obviously better, I met up with Jack, he met me at my flat, and we went to my local chicken shop, as you all know by now, Jack and I love our chicken, and we got a meal, a meal for 3, but we're 2 men, but to us, numbers don't matter, and did we finish this meal? You bet we did. Jack stayed for another 2 or so hours as we both just chilled out, and that was Tuesday, easily better than Monday.

Going onto Wednesday, hate to break your hearts but it was a lot like Monday, just me chilling indoors, but I will say this, I spent all day just watching stuff on TV, and it all flew by, this day went so quick, every time I looked at the time, it was another 30 or 45 minutes gone, unbelievable.

Now it's Thursday, this one is going quick, and my mindset wasn't feeling the best on this day, and my mum suggested that I should go for a walk, great idea mum, and I went for a walk, I was out for around an hour and a half, walking around Angel and Old Street, and it was very well needed. With all the old weather we got this month, I was quite surprised with how humid it was outside, I almost felt like I didn't need a coat, in the middle of February, honestly the weather nowadays makes absolutely no sense.

Heading into Friday, and Friday, I've got to be honest with you Friday was a lot like Monday and Wednesday, only difference was that my mum was off work, though despite saying that, I did go out in the evening to meet my dad, he finished his shift, goes to get the takeaway, I go out to meet him, and help him take it home, and that's Friday.

Kicking off the weekend with Saturday, and like almost every Saturday I did some shopping with Mum, went to M&S, Sainsbury's, and then got a coffee at Costa afterwards. After that I popped up to see Jack, a plan that was made on the day, gotta pass the time of another day in lockdown somehow; and I was up there for around 3 hours or so, could've been more than that I don't know it all flew by on this day, this was definitely a quick day, but this week in particular went very quick. So I got Jack and I some lunch, two baguettes and two donuts from Gregg's, then had some Strawberry Sensation flavoured Pop Tarts, and we were just chilling, chatting away and really being open about how we were mentally during this time, the world and everything in it, things we're looking forward to, some really good stuff to talk about.

Finally it's Sunday, it was easily my most productive day all week, and you all know why, are you ready for it? That time of the week? It's the WEEKLY FOOTBALL STADIUM TOURS!!!!! My favourite part of the week!! Earlier that week I had to change up the list after realising how outdated it was, and how there was a stadium or two missing from my list, so I changed it up, keeping an old stadium on there just to keep to the three stadiums per day that I've been doing each time. So I only had 4 or 5 hours of sleep, and it was still quite early, so I thought to go out and do the tours that morning, get it all out of the way. The first stadium of the day was Vicarage Road, Watford F.C.'s Stadium; I left at 10:45am and headed straight to Angel Station where I took the Northern Line to Euston Station, and then from Euston Station I took the Overground to Watford High Street Station, and then I walked for around 15 minutes to reach my destination, it's so mad how some football stadiums are just literally right there next to a road, and this one was opposite a graveyard too. Next was Griffin Park, which used to be the stadium of Brentford F.C. before closing in August 2020, it was also known as the only English league football ground to have a pub on each corner, that fact alone already makes it one of my favourite stadiums; I began this trip by walking 15 minutes back to Watford High Street Station and getting the Overground to Willesden Junction Station, and then from there and walking around like a maze, I got on another Overground to Gunnersbury Station where I got onto the 267 Bus from outside the station to Goat Wharf, and then I walked for 7 minutes to reach my destination, the stadium was still up and no construction had began on it, they've been trying to redevelop Griffin Park into housing since 2005 and nothing much happened since then, and now that's all changed, I feel like they haven't knocked down the stadium and started building the housing yet due to the pandemic, so if that's the case, I was glad to see the stadium as it is before it gets knocked down, plus the only thing I really noticed about it was that the entrance was blocked off. Finally it was Kingsmeadow, former home of Kingstonian and AFC Wimbledon, and current home to Chelsea Women and Chelsea U23; so I walked to the New Road bus stop which was only a 4 minute walk from Griffin Park where I got the 65 bus to Cromwell Road Bus Station, it took me 41 minutes to get to that bus stop but the trip was incredible, some parts of that bus trip looked like countryside London, and at one point, in a blink and you'll miss it moment, the bus went by this very posh house, and it had these two grass bushes cut into shapes of elephants, so you know the animal shaped bushes, yeah they were those, but cut very accurately that they looked like the shape of elephants, they were beautifully done, and even reminded me of Edward Scissorhands where Edward was using the scissors on his hands to make animals out of the big grass bushes, I might need to take that trip again to see those animal shaped bushes again; once I got off at Cromwell Road Bus Station I got the 131 bus to Kingsmeadow where the stadium entrance was just on the other side of the road, this was a football stadium that stood out on it's own compared to the others because of how smaller it was in size and the teams that play for it; after that, it was time to head home, and with 20% battery left on my phone, it was going to be very interesting as I had no clue about the area I was in, I walked to Norbiton Church which took 15 minutes, and I saw that I had to take the 85 bus to start my journey home, but which bus stop was it? Which 85 bus from which bus stop will take me to St. Mary's Church / Putney Pier? So it looks like I had to change plans and somehow improvise a way home from an area I had no knowledge off; I looked at each bus stop to see where I could get one step closer to home, and then I found the 57 bus, going to Wimbledon Station, perfect, I took that bus and after an half an hour journey where I was dozing on and off, I got off at Wimbledon Station; I then realised I wasn't far from Mitcham where my friends were, gosh darnit I really miss my friends; anyway I got a Bacon and Cheese Wrap from Gregg's since I haven't eaten in over in around 6 or 7 hours at that point, and then got the South Western Railway train to Waterloo Station, and then the 243 bus to Goswell Road where I walked for 10 minutes to finally get home, wow what a trip, over 6 hours of my Sunday was spent doing all of this travelling, unbelievable! Once I got home I just felt physically and mentally drained, as if I did an intense hour and a half long workout at the gym. I had my dinner, fell asleep for around 3 hours, and stayed up until the early hours watching a wrestling pay per view, what a Sunday, so much to take in, what a way to end the week!

That was another week in lockdown, this one went quite quick for what it was, we need more weeks this quick going into the end of lockdown. Upon reflection of my trip on Sunday, I went to Watford, then to Hounslow which isn't far from Twickenham, then to Kingston upon Thames, to Wimbledon, to Merton, to Waterloo, ALL IN THE SAME DAY, that was easily my longest and hardest trip exploring football stadiums, I don't even know how I'm doing it. Upon more reflection, I feel like this Sunday paragraph was one of the longest I’ve ever done. In regards to what I've been watching in my spare time, I haven’t watched any Vikings this week, that completely slipped my mind, This Is Us was really good and incredibly emotional towards the end, and the questions and curiosity keeps coming for Wandavision going into its final 2 episodes, so it’s all been good. Regarding everything else, there’s nothing really to say, except fingers crossed for better days ahead, I’ll see you all in the next one, the end of February, ADIOS MIS AMIGOS!!”

February 8th to February 14th

"Oh hi guys, didn't think I'd see you all here after 42 weeks, it's another week in lockdown, how lovely! 42 reminds me of the film about Jackie Robinson, played by Chadwick Boseman; hey Chadwick, it's been almost 6 months, we all miss you. Don't know what else to add regarding this blog, except it ends with Valentine's Day, I got reminded of that constantly on social media thanks to friends and families that all have love lives while I spend the rest of my days single and lonely, thanks for the misery guys, I didn't ask for it but you're all doing a great job. So how was another week in lockdown? The same as every other week, wanna read? Go right ahead!

Kicking it off with Monday, of course we are, you want to know how I started off another week of lockdown, you guessed it, nothing! Just the typical day of me typing up the blog, watching Vikings, playing on the PlayStation and having deep and dark thoughts about my life, such a charming day!

Next up is Tuesday, Tuesday was obviously better, firstly it was Pancake Day which is easily one of the best days of the year, and secondly I met up with Jack. I met Jack at my flat, and we went to my local chicken shop, as you all know by now, Jack and I love our chicken, and we got a meal, a meal for 3, but we're 2 men, but to us, numbers don't matter, and did we finish this meal? You bet we did. Jack stayed for another 2 or so hours as we both just chilled out. Hours later after Jack left, Dad got home from work and then we all had pancakes, my Dad makes the best pancakes and every year his pancakes are always something to look forward to, from the way he makes the mixture, to how he cooks them on the frying pan, he just does it all so right, and my pancakes, each one was different, one had strawberries and Nutella, another had lemon and sugar, another had marshmallows, another had all different syrups, another had a bit of everything, in the end I must’ve had somewhere between 6 and 8 pancakes, and that was Tuesday, easily better than Monday.”

Following this up with Wednesday, and I met Jack again, because why not, we have nothing better to do. I surprised Jack with a lunch, near his local chicken shop is a cafe that does really nice dishes especially their pasta ones, they were doing chicken in barbeque sauce on rice, and I brought it back to Jack's to which both of us enjoyed eating with such enthusiasm. Later on after Jack received a parcel and I helped start writing a script for him, we took a walk to his work place just to have a checkup and see how things were looking on the outside, and then Jack treated the both of us to Starbucks, it just made sense, I treated him, he treated me, it all goes full circle, and that ended Wednesday, nice day.

Going into Thursday, now Thursday was a nothing day, but it had a little something going on with me mentally. Basically, just like the majority of the world right now, my sleeping pattern is a complete and utter mess, Wednesday night, I dozed off in my parents bedroom around 8pm, according to my mum she tried waking me up to watch an episode of True Detective which I don't remember at all, when I actually did wake up, I was confused, it was all dark, I had the bed to myself, and I looked at the time, it was 1am, I dozed off, and was asleep for around 5 hours. I went downstairs, to which my parents who both dozed off on the sofas woke up and then went upstairs and I was up for the rest of the night, besides dozing on and off while on the PlayStation during the morning, and dozing off for 15 minutes after dinner, I was wondering that whole day, miserably and dead to the world if I was going to be able to fall asleep again. I was in a bad way the whole day, struggled sleeping, mind racing, it was like my body wanted to sleep but my brain wouldn't let it, I couldn't read emails properly, I couldn't pay attention as well as I normally would, I was all over the place, but luckily that night, I slept fine, slept for somewhere between 6 and 7 hours, can't complain with that.

Now it's Friday, and Friday was one of the more productive days I had this week. Started off during the morning with another Q&A on Microsoft Teams with me answering questions about me in work, and my experience in acting, this was following up from the one I did in, I believe it was November or December, I've never had such lost track of dates in my life, it was hosted by ThinkForward's Katrien Buckens just like the last one and it was quite similar to the last one as well, me explaining my background, and what has happened in my life up to present day, and answering any questions thrown at me the best I can, and did I smash it? You bet your backside I did! Another wonderful performance by the man himself! I did struggle at one point though, and that was with questions regarding auditions, and I haven't had many audition experiences so I had to repeat myself or go back to what I spoke about before but adding something new in; this was a reminder to me that I am not one of the most experienced actor out there, and I feel that there is an actor, or actors I should say, out there, on the spectrum that has had more experience than me and can give much better advice than me, but this is also a reminder that I have been given an opportunity, and a platform, to voice what I have experienced so far, and in fact, I have helped people, and given them the best advice I could, and I should feel grateful, always. Afterwards, during the afternoon, I went for a walk around Angel for an hour, since I had nothing going, I could got some fresh air, and some time to myself. To end this day, I treated my family to dinner, ordered Domino's, and it was great to see that my family all enjoyed it, a lovely way to end the day.

Coming off that protective day is Saturday, and I was doing stuff on Saturday too, wow I know right!?! So, like nearly every Saturday, I went shopping with Mum up Angel, and then after that we popped over to a family friend's house to see her and her son, remember the one from a month ago where we dropped off the shopping? Yep that's her. We were there for around, I think two or so hours before heading home and chilling for the rest of the day.

Finally it's Sunday, and this day was easily my most productive all week, because it was my weekly FOOTBALL STADIUMS TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, this one, was a very interesting one, and I believe my longest one, you'll know why when I say where I had to travel. So I woke up, grieved and cringed at St. Valentine's Day and the joy every couple I knew were having, send me more of your happiness guys, I never knew I could be so miserable. So I had my breakfast, and out I went. First stadium I visited was Charlton Athletic's The Valley, which I took the Northern Line from Angel to London Bridge, then took the Jubilee Line to North Greenwich, and then took the 472 bus to Charlton Station / Woolwich Road where I then made an 8 minute walk to the stadium. Next up was Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park, where I took the 472 bus back to North Greenwich Station, to get the Jubilee Line to Canada Water, where I got the Overground to Norwood Junction, and then walked 15 minutes to the stadium where I helped guide an elderly man to the COVID testing site nearby, also at the time I didn't know I was in Croydon, if I knew that area was Croydon, I could've contacted some of my friends that lived in Mitcham and see if they wanted to meet up, missed opportunity, gutted, I miss my friends. To end my trip, I went to visit Barnet's The Hive Stadium, so I walked back to Norwood Junction Stadium, got the Overground back to Canada Water, then went back on the Jubilee Line to Canons Park, where I got out, I saw the park where the stadium was, it was right there, and then, the gate was locked, great, wonderful, spectacular, if one gate was locked, the one far away on the other side must've been locked too, so I got on the 186 bus to Edgware Station where I got the Northern Line to Angel and then I walked home from there, got home 15-20 minutes before dinner, watched the Zack Snyder's Justice League trailer, March 18th can't come soon enough, finished True Detective Season 1 with mum, watched a wrestling pay per view, and that was how I ended my Sunday and my week, BOOM!

That's another week of lockdown done, reflecting on my football stadiums trip that week, I travelled to Greenwich, Croydon, and Harrow all in a day, had to give myself a pat on the back for that one, not many would be up for doing all of that in a day. I have to mention as well that I have began Season 3 of Vikings, it’s getting bigger and bigger. So now, we're half way through February and wondering what could happen next, I say that there is positivity and something good coming very soon, what is it? We'll see, but I have a good feeling about it. Thanks guys, thanks for reading, see you all next week, ADIOS!"

February 1st - February 7th

"I don't know how to introduce this to be honest with you, because there's barely anything going on. 10 million people have gotten the vaccine, that is amazing, Captain Sir Thomas Moore passed away which is really sad, now we need a big statue of him somewhere like Parliament Square, that'd be amazing, what a hero he was; Christopher Plummer also passed away, one of the greatest to ever act in front of a camera, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations get announced, and people still complain, moan and cry about what got snubbed, and they'll bring up the race or gender card just to try to prove a point and get more clout on social media, I mean it's things like that that make me think "why do you care?" The only time I'd care is that if I was nominated for one of those awards, and if I won, I won't be one of those winners where I'd shove my political agenda down everyone's throats just to be trending on Twitter the next day, I'd be one of those, celebrating film, everyone involved and the industry of the previous year, and getting more excited for the afterparty, everything I just said could all change in the next year or two but that's where I stand, also I want more disabled actors in the industry, or more recognition for those that are in the industry now. Now I just realised I didn't know how to start this, now I've written one of the longest paragraphs in this week's blog, because I didn't do much this week, and I don't expect the rest of this blog to be much longer, but maybe the rest is worth reading for you lot. This is the 41st blog, first blog of February, lets go.

I'm going to do something different here and have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the same paragraph, because they felt like I was living the same day three days in a row, didn't leave the house, everyone was out working except for Wednesday when my brother was in, playing his music louder than he should, like bro you're not the only one in the house and I don't care what your taste in music is I just don't want to hear it. I was carrying on watching Vikings, was on the PlayStation Monday and Tuesday, receiving memorabilia I've been winning on eBay, and yes I'm still winning, don't know how but it's all miracles when it comes to me. That's all really, apologies if that was underwhelming but nothing much really happened, those three days, really felt like a long one.

Next is Thursday, and a bit more happened on Thursday as I did some shopping with mum, it was well needed for me, I needed to be out of the house for a bit, get some fresh air, help mum with stuff, it was alright, just what I needed. We also bumped into my drama teacher on the way home which was nice, always good to bump into familiar faces during this time. During the evening, I realised I completely missed out on something that happened Wednesday afternoon; so I decided to join in a Disability Advisory Group at my workplace, because it would be good for me to socialise with more of my colleagues, and learn from their experience and they can learn from mine, there was a Zoom meeting at around 3pm, and I missed it, realised this once I got out of the bath and I really beat myself up for it, it's not like me to miss something like that, but I guess if there is something to blame, it's how this pandemic has made me, more tired, more unmotivated, more easy for me to forget things, to put it short, mentally I'm not at the level I want or need to be, so I need to try to reach that level even during this pandemic, me missing this meeting was like that slap on the wrist I needed.

Heading onto Friday, and Friday was kinda like Monday and Tuesday, except Mum and Dad were home and Frankie was at work, so I was on the PlayStation until Frankie got home and spent the evening chilling, that really was my Friday, nothing less, nothing more.

We go right to Saturday, and Saturday was kinda familiar to Thursday where I did shopping with Mum, we also meet a family friend and got a coffee together, there were also many doggies about, lots of doggies, one doggie was very well behaved, stood there, and even sat there, still on his or her own, and I shared eye contact with this good doggie, the doggie was very majestic. After getting home, Mum reminded me that we needed a new series to watch since we finished Dark Side of the Ring, I recommended the first season of True Detective because I haven't watched it since 2015, where I watched it twice, and since it's a crime drama, it's right up my mum's alley, though I wouldn't recommend Season 2, that season was so disappointing, and I never watched Season 3 but I heard that was good, but not like Season 1, Mum and I watched the first three episodes and she's hooked, definitely hooked.

Finally it's Sunday, and I was up nearly all night, not tired at all, had no plans for this slightly snowy day, so I thought to continue my trips to all the London football stadiums, also I had to change the list, around 6 or 7 were definitely not in London, so now there's 15 or 16 stadiums to do. Firstly was Chelsea's football stadium Stamford Bridge where I took the 19 bus to Hyde Park Corner, and then took the 14 bus to Chelsea Football Club, where the stadium was literally right there, so I took the photos then went to my next destination. The next destination was Fulham's stadium Craven Cottage, which my mate said to me on the phone "it's a 10 minute walk from Stamford Bridge" it wasn't, I mean it wasn't as far as some stadiums, but it was more than a 10 minute walk, so I got the 414 bus and got off at Fulham Palace Road, and then I walked and that walking included a riverside, after 20 minutes or so I made it, Craven Cottage, and it looked like construction was being done on it which is interesting, and now, the last destination awaits me, Brisbane Road, also known as The Breyer Group Stadium, home of Leyton Orient. I walked to Putney Bridge Station where I got the District Line to Notting Hill Gate, and then got on the Central Line to Leyton, but before I got to Brisbane Road, there was a visit I needed to make; I went to St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery to pay a visit to my grandparents, I believe it was a year and a half ago since I last saw them, and I sat with them, spoke for around 10, maybe 15 minutes, said a prayer, and then said bye, I kept looking back at their gravestone until I couldn't see it, and then I walked out, and made my way to the Breyer Group Stadium, which was around a 20 minute walk from the cemetery. Once I got there, my phone was very low on battery, so low that going on one app could turn my phone off, so I decided to improvise a way home instead of looking at the Citymapper app, I got the 158 bus to Stratford Bus Station when I took the Central Line from Stratford Station to Bank, and I would've got the Northern Line to Angel but the Northern Line was closed so I had to get back on the Central Line, get off at St. Paul's Station and then get the 56 home, which I did successfully, and feeling very cold especially around my legs. After getting home, I had dinner, and I fell asleep while on the PlayStation, and then I fell asleep again somewhere between 6pm and 6:30pm, we were supposed to watch another episode of True Detective but that never happened, according to my mum she tried waking me up a couple of times, once for a tea or coffee, another for if I wanted dessert, apparently I said no which I don't remember at all, and by the time I actually woke up it was 11:30pm, and that was Sunday.

So that was another week in lockdown, I try to make the most of it when I can, especially now, because right now I'm missing everything, all my drama classes, the projects I was filming before the first lockdown, pubs obviously, clubs to an extent, a lot of my friends that I haven't seen, I've really been missing it all, how have we been in this mess for nearly a year? I never thought it could ever be this bad, but at least now, with 10 million people getting the vaccine already, and maybe by spring there should be changes to the lockdown, so better times are approaching, and we've been in lockdown, or Tier 4.593 I don't even know for around 2 months or so, so doing another 2 months should be fine. I'll see you lot next week, This Is Us is back, another episode of Wandavision which is getting so good especially after the recent episode, got a wrestling pay per view coming up, another lonely Valentines Day because face it, I'm single for the rest of my life and I have accepted that with a sad forceful smile, and I'm doing a talk Friday where I will talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. See you all next week, adios mis amigos!!"

January 25th - January 31st

"Another week, another lockdown, not much to talk about because there isn't much going on in the world, however this is my 40th blog. 40 blogs, we've made it this far, somehow we're still here, still doing these blogs, and this pandemic is still going on, watch how I'll still be doing these blogs 2 or 3 months from now, wouldn't surprise me if we go to a year full of blogs, but who knows, with the vaccine going to millions already that could all change, and maybe the next month will be more optimistic, because from what I notice, and someone put this on social media, this is easily the hardest lockdown, while with the first one we had the weather to keep us all occupied, and with the second one we were all looking forward to Christmas, now the weather is miserable, Christmas and New Years has past and there's barely anything to look forward to, and if there is it's most likely getting postponed, thankfully we have all films and shows still airing and getting released to streaming services so there's always that. Welcome to Blog 40 ladies and gentlemen, let's see how another week of lockdown went.

Kicking things off with Monday because come on we have to, and once again I met up with Jack, we met around 3:30pm outside my flat and we went down to my local chicken shop in Rosebery Avenue, some of you loyal readers may remember this, but myself and my family would refer to it as Chicken Lickin' and you know whenever I meet my dad nearly every week after his shift to pick up a takeaway, 9 times out of 10 this is where we meet, and Jack and I, we love ourselves a chicken shop, and I've been telling Jack for ages that I needed to take him there, today was finally that day. We got our meals, walked back to my flat, and we ate our food, two very satisfied boys. Jack stayed for a few hours, we watched some YouTube videos together, went on a site called RaveDJ, I've known about this site for months, you can either put two songs together for the website to make a mashup, or put ten songs together for your own DJ set, we were using this for around an hour, it was a laugh; also we had dessert, dessert was lovely. In the end, it was a really lovely way to start the week.

Next up is Tuesday, and I didn't really do anything Tuesday, just stayed downstairs all day, and I think that was it, don't remember doing anything else.

Following that one up with Wednesday, and guess what, yep same thing, the only difference was that I spent more time upstairs than downstairs, played some PlayStation, had some massive headache for a few hours after waking up that morning, and that was Wednesday for me, I think.

Now we go to Thursday, and Thursday was more like Wednesday, me spending most time upstairs and on the PlayStation, and the difference was that Mum was off work so I was indoors with her all day, and Frankie treated us to Nandos during the evening, so that was Thursday.

Concluding the weekdays with Friday, see I've got some original ones left in my head, and Friday, the busiest day I had all week, and it was all a plan I made on the day, that's right, on the day. So my mum was home doing work around the house, my brother was off work so he was in our room on the PlayStation, and I had no plans, so I thought, since I've got some stuff going on this weekend, and I have nothing going on today, why not do what I couldn't do last week, continue my trip to see every football stadium in London, I mean why not, it gets me out for a few hours. To start my trip, I took a visit to The Den, which is Millwall's stadium, to get there I went to Angel Station to take the Northern Line to London Bridge, I then took the Jubilee Line to Canada Water, and then took the Overground Line to Surrey Quays, and from there I walked for almost 20 minutes to get to The Den, a lot of family members of mine, that are no longer with us because life is dreadful, supported Millwall including my Uncle Jimmy who had a season ticket for years, and my Nanny Jane, and a whole bunch of family members from her side of the family, and where I stood I thought to myself "Uncle Jim might've stood here at one point" which in itself is mindblowing, would definitely love to attend a tour of the stadium when the lockdown restrictions ease. Next stop was the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium which is Queens Park Rangers' stadium, I walked back to Surrey Quays Station and got onto Overground Line to get back off at Canada Water, I then changed back to the Jubilee Line to get off at Bond Street, I then got onto the Central Line to get off at White City, and I then finished my trip by walking 12 minutes from the station to the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium. After looking around the outside of the stadium and taking some pictures, I walked back to White City Station to head back onto the Central Line to get off at Stratford Station where I took a visit to London Stadium, West Ham's stadium and the stadium that held the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, I've even been to a few concerts there, seeing the likes of Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams, which was a Christmas present from me to my parents, including a night in a hotel in Canary Wharf because I'm full of surprises. Once I arrived at the stadium, I took a walk around the stadium before walking to Hackney Wick Station, where I took the Overground Line to Highbury & Islington Station, and then got the 43 bus home. This was a great Friday which was made on the day, with me doing a lot of exploring especially in areas I'm not familiar with, and now I've seen 6 stadiums, there's around 16 to go, and I look forward to where I'm going next.

We head into the first half of the weekend with Saturday, and Saturday was good, was on the PlayStation for that afternoon, and then I got an Uber down to see a friend of mine and his family, I spent New Years with them so here I am back again, once I arrived I watched the last 25 minutes of Arsenal vs. Manchester United, can't complain with a draw, and I need to add LACAZETTE STOP WITH THE HEADERS MAN, I swear he's going to get himself killed if he keeps bumping into players and landing rough like that. The evening continued with me playing darts with my friend's mum, play fighting with their dog Pepper who is such a funny cutie, having a laugh with everyone, friends of his family came down who I've met before, and the night was a whole lot of fun.

Which leads us into Sunday, where it all continued until the sun came out, and I fell asleep for a couple of hours before getting the Uber home, chilled out for the rest of Sunday before watching another wrestling pay per view to end my week.

That was my week, not a bad week, mostly positive all around, and we have reached the end of January, the first month of the year, gone, and done, and fingers crossed something positive happens regarding this lockdown and pandemic overall during this month. I've finished Season 1 of Vikings, looking forward to seeing what Season 2 brings, and I made a deal with my brother in law, if he starts watching Vikings, I have to watch either Sons of Anarchy or Game of Thrones, I'm cool with that. Mum and I finished Dark Side of the Ring together, was a great experience rewatching all of the episodes and getting my mum’s perspective on what she thought. EBay memorabilia is still going strong, liking what I’ve got so far, got lucky with some stuff to be honest. I have also completed my Hunger Games Pop collection, got all 7 set up on my brother and I’s desk in our room. I don't know what else to add or anything to say but I do want to end on a positive note, keep looking up, there are times where we feel like where can we go, what can we do, where can we look, what now, you look up, and there is something there, am I going somewhere with this? I really hope I am, just think positive is all I'm saying, it can be annoying to hear that, think that and see that over and over, but you never realise how much you need to hear it, think it and even see it until you do, especially when someone special or special people out there having an eye on you, and there is always someone or some people out there that do. See you all next week for our first week of February. Adios mis amigos!!"

January 18th - January 24th

"There is a coincidence that I have just discovered with 39, we're on the 39th blog, and my cousin's partner just turned 39, talk about timing. So we've entered another week of lockdown, not much has changed, more people have gotten the vaccine, the number of deaths in a day have somehow gotten higher, and, that's all really, nothing else has happened, so yeah guys, welcome to another blog, how exciting, let's see how my week went.

Kicking off with Monday, and something happened, HOLY SMOKES GET THE FIREWORKS BILLY DID SOMETHING ON A MONDAY!!!!!!!!! I met Jack; HE MET JACK EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes I did Billy, now let's relax on the celebration because you know with a pandemic, whenever there is good, it doesn't last long. So yes I met up with Jack, we met outside his local chicken shop near King's Square where we got ourselves lunch, then we went back to his to eat. After eating, which of course was very filling, I stayed for another two hours relaxing and chatting away before I made my way home. This was a nice way to begin the week, plus I had to let Jack know how pleased I felt for him, he's got a nice place to himself, not far from me, not far from a lot of nice shops, pubs, clubs, takeaways and other stuff, and he's happy, it's lovely to see.

Next up is Tuesday, and guess what, nothing happened, yep, after that sweet day nothing happened.

So then we go on to Wednesday where we find, yes you know it, nothing, besides walking around the house with a black bin bag over my head which is a workout in itself. Two days on a trot doing nothing, imagine if it was 3?

Did something on Thursday, WAIT WHAT!?!?!??!?!?!? Yep something happened on Thursday, I did some shopping with Mum up Angel, got some stuff in M&S, Sainsburys and Iceland, nice to go out and do something after being in for two days, and of course helping mum carry the shopping home, it was nice.

It's Friday, and guess what? I did something. WOW BILLY DID IT TWO DAYS ON THE TROT WHAT IS GOING ON!?!? So on this day, it was one of those days where I would wake up, but would still feel tired, even for the next few hours, and I could feel it heavily in my eyes. To liven myself up I decided to go for a walk, I was out for around an hour or so walking around Angel, and got more shopping, which would be for Sunday's dinner. After going home and relaxing for two hours, I went back out to, you guessed it, meet Dad after his shift for our weekly takeaway, I even told him about doing the shopping earlier, and he was pleased that I did that, it made me feel good about myself. During the evening, I played Among Us with a few friends of mine for half an hour, and that was a fun way to end the evening.

Now it's Saturday, and, you wouldn't believe it, I did something, THREE DAYS IN A ROW HE'S ON A ROLL LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday this week was the day where I had the most going on, beginning with myself, my mum and my youngest nephew surprising my older brother, his partner and their two kids, my youngest nieces, they all have finished their quarantine; originally we just planned to stay by the door, and keep our distance, but they wanted us to come in, and we did, and my nieces, my Poppy and Bessie, it was just so good to see the both of them, Poppy's behaviour has been getting much better but the crying and whining is still a thing, and Bessie, the youngest of them all Bessie, my little pride and joy, she is so talkative and so funny, we would call each other best friends and when we were leaving she said "bye bye best friend," just when I thought I couldn't love her more. Afterwards we took a walk to Angel where, surprise surprise, more shopping, but just like last week my youngest nephew and I stood outside the shops chatting while Mum did the shopping, and just like last week we got Starbucks, both my nephew and I got the Cookies and Cream Frappuchino, and also like last week, we went back to his where him and I played Spider-Man on the PS5, I stayed in for 2 or so hours before going into mine for dinner. After a filling dinner and a little nap, I went back into my nephew's to see my cousin, his partner and their boy, my cousin's partner turned 39 on this day, but she doesn't look a day over 29, aging can be very interesting, some age poorly, some age well, I expect myself to age poorly, take my hair for example, it’s thinning, I also found a white hair in my hair not that long ago and occasionally I find a white or grey hair in my beard. I then for the next two hours kept an eye on my nephew and my cousin's boy where they played on the PlayStation, we then played Among Us, and they ended up wrestling and I had to be the referee, I went back into mine around 10:30pm, a very good day, a lovely Saturday.

Finally it's Sunday, and could I make it four days in a row that I did something? Nope. So originally I was planning to continue my trips to every football stadium in London, but the snow put a halt to that, travelling would’ve been difficult especially on the tubes, and I would've gone out in the snow, but it wasn't heavy, and if the snow was heavy, it wasn't going to last long. Instead I stayed indoors all day, resting and having a doze here and there.

So that was my week, yep, another week in lockdown, but at least for 4 out of the 7 days that week I was doing something. This Is Us didn't have a new episode this week and won't be airing any new episodes until February 9th, COVID has made it frustrating for everyone working on the show and people that are fans of the show, it's a constant start and stop, Wandavision is getting more and more interesting, more twists and more questions are rising and I am all for it, and lastly I have started watching Vikings, my kind of show with my kind of people, really liking it so far. EBay has been interesting, I somehow keep winning things, mostly old premiere tickets, old concerts tickets, wrestling memorabilia, and there's only a day or two in a week when the postman isn't knocking, one day during the week there were 7 parcels for me, my jaw dropped seeing them all on the kitchen counter. The Beats headphones I've been using that Ms. Vidal got me are unbelievable, I've even turned the bluetooth on the laptop on and used them, I could be listening to a podcast, go upstairs and still be listening, it is insane but I absolutely love it, technology has come so far. Now, we enter the last week of January, unpredictability has never been higher, while some are making progress including in the United States believe it or not, where the Super Bowl and WrestleMania will welcome limited capacity in stadiums which is fantastic for everyone around, New Zealand is COVID free, Japan is basically the UK in July but much better, some countries are doing better, some are doing worse, and then there's the UK, wow are we a mess! Positive message of the week, I don't even have a positive message of the week every week so here we go, one week finished is another week closer to the end, it's cheesy but it might help some people out there. I shall see you all next week, for the last week of January and my 40th blog, 40 blogs, what is going on here!?! Anyways folks I'll see you then, adios mis amigos!"

Snowing in London

January 11th - January 17th

"38, another blog, another week, a full lockdown week, another time of unpredictable madness, COVID deaths are the highest they've been, COVID is hitting more closer to home than ever, pubs and restaurants are most likely opening in May, don't know what's happening with everything else, Mum and Dad's holiday in March got cancelled, so Frankie and I won't have the house to ourselves, my Auntie and Uncle just got COVID, my youngest nephew just finished isolating after a classmate tested positive, one of my nieces are upset because she can’t see anyone due to isolation, it is all mad, sometimes I'll react to these things, and sometimes I don't know if I can react anymore because nothing surprises me with COVID. Welcome to another blog, and before I head into my week, an important lesson for everyone, existence is pain.

Kicking off with Monday, cor I can't wait to see what Billy got up to, well Billy I got up to nothing. Wow Billy, really? Nothing? Really? The week just started. Well Billy I had the house to myself so I just chilled at home, no reason for me to go out.

Following that tragedy is Tuesday, which was essentially the same day, the only difference was that I met Mum after she finished her shift at 6:30pm and then collected a takeaway.

Next up is Wednesday, are we flying through this or what? Guess what I got up to, nothing! Yay! Wonderful! Another day of nothing! Is this blog great or what!

Coming up is Thursday, and you know what I got up to, come up guys you should all know me well by now, I got up to nothing! Again! I can't believe it guys we are flying through this week! Better for all of those who don't like to read too much.

Flying right into Friday, and guess what, drum roll, 15 seconds of an intense drum roll passes, a silence is present, until Billy takes a deep breath and announces, I DID SOMETHING TODAY, AND THE CROWD DOESN'T JUST GO WILD, THEY GO BALLISTIC!! To start, and this was a plan made just yesterday, I met Ms. Vidal, finally giving her my Christmas present. I bumped into Ms. Shepherd before meeting Ms. Vidal, shoutout to Ms. Shepherd, proper legend; I then met Ms. Vidal outside The Courtyard and we walked to a bench nearby in the St. Mary Magdalene Garden, I gave her my present and card, got her a Ted Baker gift set which she loved and the card I gave her was a Christmas card I wrote before our meet up was cancelled a month or so ago, I thanked her for everything over the last nearly 8 years and said that I can't wait for hugs when this pandemic is done. Now, Ms. Vidal's present to me, firstly I was caught surprised by the size, and I opened the present, she really spoilt me, the present was Beats Solo3 Wireless by Dr. Dre, I found myself lost for words, I had no idea what to say, of course I said thank you, and I smiled, but I couldn't say a proper sentence, it was overwhelming, mind blowing; she didn't need to do that for me, but she did, and I loved it, she gave me a card too, lots of nice words and sentences in there, always nice to hear or see something positive from Ms. Vidal. Afterwards we spoke for another 20 or 25 minutes before she had to go back to The Courtyard, as she was walking away, I remembered that I wanted a selfie for the blog, but the time was 1:35pm, she had to be back for 1:30pm, so I didn't want to make her late or even more late, at least I got a picture of her present and card to me; it was so nice seeing her, first time we met up since August, and it's always lovely speaking to her about anything and everything; once I got home I charged my Beats and tried them, and the sound was incredible, especially my bass, my mum tried them, and put it this way, she loved them more than I did the way she was dancing around. Later on that evening I met my dad after he finished his shift to pick up a takeaway together, and that was Friday, the first day this week with proper plans, and it was a good one.

Coming up is Saturday, and I went out shopping with my mum, and my youngest nephew who came last minute who recently finished his isolation, we went up to Angel and met mum's friend, who we dropped the shopping off to last week. Whenever my mum and her friend went into a shop, my nephew and I stood outside chatting to each other, we even bumped into one of my drama teachers who my nephew took a liking to. On the way home, my nephew suggested we should have Starbucks where he and I both got Strawberries and Cream Frappuccinos. After that, I went to his house, and we both played the new Spider-Man game on the PS5, I was with him for nearly 2 hours, it was really nice, spending all of that time with my nephew.

Finally it's Sunday, originally a day with no plans, and it became a busy day for me. Do you recall last week when I mentioned about going to visit every football stadium in London? Only on weekends? I decided that this day would be the start of that, I got up, had something to eat, brushed my teeth, got dressed, and out of the house I went. To begin this adventure, I took a walk to the Emirates Stadium, the closest stadium to home, and not far from The Courtyard either, I have a history with Emirates Stadium, I watched a game where the Arsenal Youth Club took on the Chelsea's Youth Club, my cousin's cousin, shoutout to Thomas Cruise, was playing for the Arsenal Youth Club at the time so some family members and friends came, Arsenal won 4-2 in an excellent game with a great atmosphere, I watched my brother play a few games there which was amazing to watch and an incredible opportunity for him, and with one of my best friends I watched Arsenal have a game in 2016, can't remember who they faced but Arsenal lost, and we left before the final whistle blew, very frustrating watch; lastly is a piece of legacy that could either be here for years to come, or hopefully until the end of time, on Armoury Square, there are at least 18,000 stones, one of those stones has mine and Frankie's name on it, I rediscovered it after looking for it for at least 15 minutes, next to one of my best friends, that same best friend I watched Arsenal with in 2016, I found the stone of another friend there, we were friends in Primary and grew closer in the last nearly two and a half years, in those nearly two and a half years we've become the closest we've ever been, I was frozen just staring at these stones, and had deep thoughts about the future, one day, we'll all die, and one day our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great great grandchildren, would wanna know about all of us, and one thing they can do, is head to Emirates Stadium, to the Armoury Square, and look at our stones, nice to know that after life, there is a bit of legacy left behind for all of us. After this I took a walk around the stadium where I saw a number of people either exercising or doing activities, and then I walked to Holloway Road Station, where I got the Piccadilly Line to Finsbury Park, and then I got the Victoria Line to Seven Sisters Station, once I got off I took the 349 to White Hart Lane Station where I was outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Tottenham's stadium that opened in April 2019, from the outside, beautiful stadium, the entrances were locked off so I couldn't walk around like I did with the Emirates. After that I took the 259 back to Seven Sisters Station, where I took the Victoria Line to King's Cross St. Pancras, and then took the Metropolitan Line to Wembley Park where I visited, you guessed it, Wembley Stadium, que sera sera, whatever will be will be, we're going to Wembley, que sera sera, leaving the station to see Wembley Stadium in front of me will always give me chills, I've attended Wembley Stadiums five times in my life, seeing Robbie Williams, Take That, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Billy Joel, all fantastic shows, was supposed to see Westlife last summer but that got postponed to this summer, hopefully that still goes ahead, could you imagine if I had to wait yet another year? I would laugh. Also I'm hoping for a wrestling show at Wembley Stadium one day fingers crossed, now that's a dream right there, Vince McMahon, Tony Khan, anyone that's a CEO or Chairman of a big wrestling promotion, you know what to do, give the people what they want. I walked to the blocked off entrance and just stared up at Wembley Stadium for the next 10 minutes, it was like staring at a towering giant, and I couldn't look away, until I realised I got 10% of my phone battery left, and dinner was in under 2 hours so I had to make a move, I did try to go to Starbucks to get a frappuccino, but the lady working there said they were closing in 12 minutes so they couldn't make one, but it takes 2 or 3 minutes to make one, you can easily tell when someone just can't be asked and absolutely hates their job. From there I took the Metropolitan Line to King's Cross St. Pancras and then took the Northern Line to Angel then I walked home, and that pretty much was my Sunday.

So that was my week, just over the first half not much happened, and then after that quite a bit happened, a nice little blend of doing stuff and not doing stuff. Continuing This Is Us has been great, the recent episode got me all emotional, I began Wandavision, the first two episodes were absolutely fantastic, can't see to wait what happens over the next two months, and I didn't mention from last week, my Mum and I have been watching the other episodes of Dark Side of the Ring, I've already seen all the episodes but it's been great seeing my mum watch them, and giving her thoughts, and of course seeing her reactions, her reactions sometimes are priceless. I need to read, I need to read BIG TIME, even if it's just a chapter or two a day it's still something. I've had packages come to my door nearly everyday, somehow I just keep winning bids on eBay, oh well, it's always nice to see, and fun too. So now, we shall enter another week, little to no plans, nothing going on, and an unforeseeable unpredictable future, lovely jubbly. I hope you all enjoyed the blog for what it was, I reckon it was one of my shortest, though that long paragraph for Sunday says otherwise. Despite barely anything going on I'm glad I've got my plan for visiting every London football stadium, from the list I found there were 22, 3 are down, 19 to go, next stop is The Den in Millwall. Thanks for reading once again guys, and I'll see all you next week, adios."

January 4th 2021 - January 10th 2021

"It's Blog 37 now, still wondering how we made it this far, and look at us now, Lockdown 3, if you told me a year ago that COVID would have a significantly bigger impact on the world and put us in 3 lockdowns, I would refuse to believe you, but here we are, 2021, in yet another lockdown, this time without an end date. On a positive note, with 3 vaccines, and them slowly getting to people around the world, this looks to be the beginning of the end, and hopefully, we'll be out of this mess between Spring and Summer, can't imagine having to continue to go through this next Autumn or Winter. This blog, pretty big one, it's the first whole week of 2021, and though it's been a week, I can't tell if it has gone quick or not; anyways, thank you all for dropping by here again, don't know how you lot do it after 37 weeks of me writing and writing and writing, but I appreciate you all for it, and now, let's get to the week.

"So how did we kick off Monday? I had to wake up at 6am for a wrestling show that was airing in Japan, they do this massive show every January 4th in the Tokyo Dome, and this had the biggest capacity for a wrestling show since the pandemic started, this show had 12,689 people in attendance, and this included social distancing, wearing masks, and no shouting or screaming things out, and I have to say, it's so good to see that many people at a show. I didn't have the best sleep, so I ended up falling asleep half way through the show, I wake up two hours later to see I'm in the main event, so I had to rewind and watch the two hours I missed, it was a fantastic show overall, it's just the time zones and waking up early that just kills me. After this I popped up Jack's house and chilled with him for two hours, that was nice, especially the part where Jack was on the phone to TalkTalk about where his router is and every time he made a good point I just shouted out "YEAH!" After this, I went for a little walk around Old Street before heading home. Oh yeah and that night we all found out we were in Lockdown 3, as if that was any different to Tier 4, WONDERFUL!

Next up is Tuesday, woke up at 7am for another wrestling show in Japan, they'd always have one on January 5th but only last year they started doing their January 5th shows in the Tokyo Dome, I didn't fall asleep during this one, and somehow, someway, it was a better show than the one yesterday especially with it's 48 minute long main event, and those last 15 to 20 minutes, incredible, and it had the second biggest capacity for a wrestling show since the pandemic started, with 7,801 people in attendance, so in total, 20,490 people came to see the shows, you love to see it. After the show I didn't do much, just chilled, relaxed, napped, just had a chill day.

Following up with Wednesday, and I only did one thing on Wednesday, took a walk to Shoreditch. In my opinion, if you're coming to London for the first time, or if you're looking for more places in London to explore, Shoreditch is one of those places just for how visually stunning and unique it is, I walked up to Chance Street where I came across a mural of Brodie Lee by artist David Speed, check out his stuff on Instagram @davidspeeduk. I had to come see it, and it still feels weird after 2 weeks knowing that Brodie is gone, death is weird ain't it, one minute a person you know or know of is alive, next thing you know, you're living in a world without that person, and you reflect on when they were alive, the moment you find out about their passing, everyone else's reaction, and how the world was with them in it, and the world now, death makes us do a lot of thinking. After seeing the mural of Brodie Lee, I decided to make my way home, the cold was beginning to get a bit much and it was slowly becoming dark.

We then bring you to Thursday, what I did, nothing, yep, nothing, and if I did I definitely forgot, so yeah, that was my Thursday.

We then carry on from that underwhelming event to Friday, where I had a bit more going on. Firstly I had a phone call with Ms. Vidal for around half an hour which was nice as usual, as soon as I heard her voice, I smiled a very big smile. Later on I met my dad after his work shift to pick up a takeaway with him.

Look at where we are now it's Saturday, and I went out to do shopping with my mum, we got shopping for ourselves and for a family friend who has COVID, we then got a bus to her house where we dropped the shopping off, with social distancing of course. After getting home and relaxing for a bit, my mom had an idea that I should go for a walk to South Bank, which I haven't done for a while. I walked to South Bank, got a slice of pepperoni pizza from a Pizza Pilgrims stall, which was amazing, first time having Pizza Pilgrims and definitely not my last, afterwards I got the bus home, I believe I was out on that walk for around 2 or 2 and a half hours.

Finally it's Sunday, originally for Sunday I had no plans, and with everyone inside and quite a bit of noise, I felt my sensory beginning to get me worked up, so I had to get out of the house. I went for a walk around Angel for around an hour or so, and it definitely helped.

That was my week, upon reflection I can't tell if it was quick or slow, but here we are, another week done, and hopefully another week closer to the end of this darn pandemic, gosh darnit this pandemic is driving me nuts! Luckily there's things to look forward to coming out and things on to watch right now, I finished Season 3 of Cobra Kai which was fantastic, Season 4 can't come out soon enough, This Is Us is back and came back with a great episode with very good pacing, and Wandavision is coming out in a few days which I am very excited for especially with it being the first big Marvel Studios release since, I believe Spider-Man: Far From Home a year and a half ago. Also I've made a new plan for myself, definitely to do on weekends, I want to see, how many football stadiums in London I can visit, I believe it's impossible to do all stadiums in one day so I might do one a day, or two, even three depending on time and distance, it's something to look forward to and something to do, and I've gotten to the point where I am bidding on tons of stuff on eBay, maybe too much stuff, I looked on my account and yep, I got carried away, now I'm hoping I don't win some of the stuff I've placed bids on because, money, remember guys, money is important, I just want something to do, something to focus on, something to look forward to, Lockdown 3 is bringing me to desperate levels, and desperation brings out an animal in me. Just gotta hang in there, this is the beginning of the end, and hopefully we'll be out of this between Spring and Summer, I know I've typed it before but I just want to remind myself and anyone reading this. I also realised that during Lockdown 3 I should read, still got that new Hunger Games book that I haven't finished, and for Christmas from my friend who I was with for New Years I got an Elton John autobiography, perfect gift since him, myself and a friend of ours are seeing Elton John in November. I need to exercise more too, that has always been an inconsistency with me since this pandemic started so I need to stick to that more. I have also been shook up with a lot of COVID news and stories recently, my older brother and his family have all got COVID, my cousin and her partner had to isolate with their children staying at their grandparents, it's all really hit close to home but luckily they're all getting better. I've even been thinking about my future, I can't even tell if it's bright, or it's dark and bleak with how unpredictable life can be, and I've even been thinking about my success so far and the legacy I've left behind and what if that all vanishes, gone, turn to ash, all that I've done and worked on for nothing, the thought of that tears me apart. I know at this point I'm rambling, there's just a lot going on in my head right now, a lot of thinking, overthinking, and definitely anxiety, but I’m happy I have this platform to release all of that and help me feel at least a bit better, just got to do what I can to get through this, and I hope you all do too, take care guys, have a good week."

December 28th 2020 - January 3rd 2021

"Blog 36, the first of 2021, the new year, that's crazy to think about, I'm still doing these blogs, during this pandemic which is still going, I just can't wrap my head around it, but here we are, you're reading this, I'm still writing these, and we head into another week where we don't know what will happen next. Happy New Year guys, hope this new year treats us all well, now it is blog time!

It's Monday, you know what that means, it's the beginning of the final week of 2020, and the first week, or first few days of 2021. On this day Mum and I went up to one of her best friends' houses, where another one of her friends was there and we had a lovely roast dinner, I know it was only 3 days after Christmas Day but you can't go wrong with a good roast, especially during the cold weather. It was a really lovely day with lovely people.

Next is Tuesday, and not much happened on Tuesday, I just met my mum after she finished her shift at work at 4pm, and that was it, the only thing I really did that day.

It's now Wednesday, and Wednesday had a bit more going on, firstly I had a lovely video call with Ms. Vidal who is always a pleasure to talk to, I honestly feel like I can talk to her about anything, and if you feel that way about certain people, then you are around the best kind of people. Later on I met mum after work again, this time her shift was finishing at 6:30pm so it was much darker outside, one thing I didn't mention from yesterday was that we found out my 2nd to youngest niece, at this point I may as well mention her name instead of making it all complicated, it's Poppy, and I feel like I mentioned her name before, and everyone will know her name eventually, because she's one talented kid, and who knows, maybe she'll be the one bringing all the money in for the Chandler family, she'll just come home from spending 3 months working in America, and will just casually throw at a fat cheque at all of us, like "here's your 7 figures, use it wisely," I feel like I've gone off topic, anyway, we found out yesterday she was sleeping over at my youngest nephew's for the night, that night past, and after getting home I knocked to check if she was still in, she was, and she wasn't happy, she was crying because all her and my youngest nephew did all day was argue, so here I am, Superman right here, pick her up, and take her into mine, lay her down on the sofa, throw a blanket over her, give her that massive penguin teddy we have every Christmas, and put a film on; we looked after her for around 2 hours before her dad picked her up.

Moving onto Thursday, and Thursday is New Years Eve, this is it guys, the final day of 2020, WE'VE FINALLY MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To begin, Mum and I leave the flat, and we see an old family friend that lives in the flat, with her doggie, a little bulldog, and I remember meeting this little bulldog around when the 2nd lockdown started, my mum met this doggie as well, so the doggie sees us, and runs to us, and this sums up this good doggie’s mindset "oh I remember those two hoomans, I need to say hi and show them I'm a good doggie!" After that I did some shopping with my mum, and you know how I like to get my own things while I'm shopping with mum, well I got myself Pop-Tarts, a brand of toaster pastries made by Kelloggs hugely popular in America, had the Frosted Strawberry Sensation flavour, and they were amazing, easily one of the best discoveries I made of 2020, which was on the final day of 2020. Later on, I went to Wanstead to celebrate the New Year with a friend of mine, his family and a few of his friends, got an Uber there and the driver and I spent the whole time talking about Islington, families, the pandemic and films, easily the best Uber trip I ever took; it was a lovely evening, had a laugh, played games including Uno, and watched the countdown together; the fireworks were a pleasant surprise, with some being near the O2, a 10-15 minute bus trip from my workplace, and the realisation of 2021, we have made it, 2020 is no more, it is 2021, it is 2021, IT'S 2021, WE HAVE MADE IT, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT WE ACTUALLY MADE IT!! The rest of the evening was a continuation of games and laughs, and then I fell asleep somewhere between 2am and 3am, my friend let me sleep in his bed as he ended up sleeping on the sofa, which he didn't need to do, I would've been fine with the sofa.

I wake up around 10am Friday morning, feeling rough from the night prior, went downstairs as my friend went upstairs to his bed, and I had breakfast with his mum and a special friend of hers, wink wink, we all had a sausage and egg muffin, and it was amazing, gave McDonalds a run for its money. After that I got changed, and I went home, my mum ordered me an Uber so I spent a few minutes waiting outside, and then a Ford Tourneo Connect turned up, there's no way that's for me, I looked at the number plate, and it was, I couldn't believe it, I'm getting picked up, to be taken home, by a Ford Tourneo Connect, starting the year off in style! As I got home, I just spent the rest of New Years chilling, and I had another roast, I need to watch those calories big time.

Look in the sky, is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's Saturday! On Saturday I popped up to see Jack, who just returned to London that morning, I gave him his Christmas and Birthday present, Christmas present was an Amazon card with £20 or £30 on it (can't remember) and Birthday present was a sweatshirt with Deadpool on it, and Deadpool is in a director's chair saying "cut!" Jack and I were just chilling, and then we went out to do shopping at one point, got more Pop-Tarts for myself because why not, chilled some more and that was that. During the evening, Mum, Dad and I sat down and watched a two part documentary, some backstory on this was that I watched this series during the early days of lockdown, the series is called Dark Side of the Ring, all about wrestling's darkest moments, stories and characters inside and outside of the ring, whether you're a fan of wrestling or not I highly recommend it, the two parter we watched together was about The Benoit Tragedy, which I remember hearing about as a kid when it all happened, and people that never watched wrestling knew about it, it was all over the news, no one could believe it, it was the tragedy that nearly ended the entire wrestling business; if you have around 90 minutes free in your day, I highly recommend you watching both parts, it's a very sad and very interesting watch, the episodes are titled Benoit Part One and Benoit Part Two, I'll attach the trailer below.

Finally it's Sunday, and Sunday I had nothing planned so I ended up going for a walk for around 2 and a half hours, walking around Angel and Highbury, I even bumped into a friend of mine who I would normally see at my drama classes which was a nice surprise, and that was Sunday really, yep, that was how my week ended.

That was my week, decent week, doing good things, being around good people, celebrating, snacking, happy days. I don't know what else to end this on except COBRA KAI SEASON 3 IS OUT BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Already finished 7 episodes, 3 to go, and This Is Us comes back next week which I can't wait for, I need to wake up Monday and Tuesday morning for wrestling shows in Japan, inside the TOKYO DOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good things coming up people, would be a shame if we entered a Tier 5 or a third lockdown right guys? Right? Anyway I'll see you all next week, for the first whole week of 2020. Watashi wa min'na o aishiteimasu!!"

Chris Benoit (Trailer) | DARK SIDE OF THE RING

December 21st - December 27th

"35, blog 35, Christmas Day and Boxing Day has just passed, and now we enter those weird few days between Christmas and New Year where we don't know who we are, who is around us, what to do, where did everything in life go so wrong, HOW DID WE END UP LIKE THIS!?!?! Sorry, I was having traumatic flashbacks. Anyway, despite the government changing things and putting at this point the entire country in Tier 4, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and am prepared to finally leave this year and head into 2021 with high hopes, that might get torn down because who knows, 2021 might be even worse than 2020; can you imagine that? At this point you may as well nuke the entire planet! Hopefully 2021 is the year of redemption for all of us, and if it isn't, 2022? Maybe? I don't know. This is the last blog of 2020, and this blog is describing a few normal days, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and a normal day to end it all, nicely lined up, and now you shall read, how I celebrated those days this year.

Kicking it all off with Monday, and I spent all day relaxing, yep that’s it, all day, just good ol’ me relaxing on Monday. Moving on.

Next is Tuesday, and I didn't do anything; it felt like such a weird day because it was Jack's birthday and from what I remember we would do something every year for his birthday since 2009, this year he is at his dad's. That day I just spent it chilling, I mean there was nothing else to do especially during Tier 4, unless you were Jack where he was where he was able to have a birthday meal at Wetherspoons, my jealousy was through the roof. After dinner I decided to go for a jog, for the first time in, I think over a month. I jogged around Angel and while I was jogging, something I didn't want to happen actually happened twice, so when I jogged it was after it was raining, I got to be honest I had no idea it rained because upstairs the curtains are always down and some days I spend most of my time upstairs, I didn't even look at the window or hear rain and only realised that it finished raining once I left the house, and I nearly slipped not once, but twice, made me feel anxious, would hate if I slipped and then I get something like a deep cut, or get a concussion, or maybe even break a bone imagine that, spending months healing a broken bone during a pandemic that sounds absolutely miserable. So I went home, and called it a day.

Following up with Wednesday, Christmas Eve Eve, and Frankie and I got Five Guys together for lunch, ordered it for delivery, I was planning to pay since I ordered it but Frankie ended up transferring me the money for how much the food cost and technically it would mean he paid for the food and I paid for delivery, nice stuff; and to prepare for the driver to arrive I put on a Five Guys beanie that Jack gave me last week, see if the driver would notice, and did he? Nope, he didn't care, the one thing on his mind was just handing the food over and getting out of there, what a decent bloke; and I got to ask, have I referred to Frankie as my younger brother in these blogs? I don't even know, I don't really say names of friends and family members because of privacy, and just in case anyone didn't like their names being brought up but Frankie doesn't care, he is super chilled. Later on during the evening I met my mum after work, and it was nice because it was her last day of work for nearly a week, home for most of the holidays; she doesn't like walking home alone when it's really dark so obviously I had to be a gentleman and keep her company; we got ourselves a takeaway and made our way home.

Now it's Thursday, and you know what this day is, IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The last day on the chocolate Christmas calendar, the day before the day, and, that's it really, sorry for the buildup guys. To celebrate Christmas Eve we celebrated opening our presents from my eldest sister, my brother in law and my youngest nephew and they opened their presents from us; to begin this lovely evening my brother in law went out to collect our orders from La Davina, which I highly recommend for anyone living in Islington, and what we ordered involved pizza and pasta. After we all ate our food we all opened our presents, I got an Amazon voucher, I absolutely love an Amazon voucher, put that into my account, and I'm either getting something cheaper or for free, happy days. After our presents we all just sat around chatting while Christmas music played, and it was really nice. Ended Christmas Eve having movie night with my parents; and overall it was a really lovely Christmas Eve, and now we prepare for the big day.

Moving onto Friday, and in words of Slade, IT'S CCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Christmas Day has arrived, that one day of the year everyone hypes up for nearly two months and a time where we all celebrate the most wonderful day of the year together. When I woke up it was so weird, I didn't even think it was Christmas, and then after lying around, it just hit me and I was like "it's Christmas? HOLY MOLY IT'S CHRISTMAS!!" After coming down the stairs, my youngest nephew came in as he does every year, he likes to help get the presents out from under the tree, and my Mum put two surprise presents for him under the tree labeled "to who helps get the presents out from under the tree." Like every year we all took turns in opening our presents, and we all did well with what we got, I got quite a few things here and there, got a nice present from Jack which includes aftershave, shower gel and more which will definitely come in handy, and some of my presents included bath bombs from Lush, two Hunger Games Pop Vinyls which adds to my Hunger Games collection (two down five to go), a white Ralph Lauren polo shirt with a golden horse logo, new jeans, new chinos, there were a few other shirts that I got I just can't remember the brand, another Amazon voucher and finally, the main event, coincidently the last present I opened that morning, I opened it, and it was a box, with a golden Jumpman logo on it, are they what I think they are? Are they the right ones? I open the box, and I see them, the pair of Jordans I saw a few months ago; here's some backstory, while my parents and I were in Southampton in late September (or was it early October I don't know anymore) I saw them in a store, and I knew how expensive they were so I thought maybe I can put them on my Christmas list and see what happens; go forward in time and here they are on my lap. The reason why I wanted these so much were because of the colour scheme, red, black and white, the same as an old pair of shoes I had, and that same old pair belonged to my Uncle Jimmy before he passed away, and now I can call these my Uncle Jimmy Shoes, or Uncle Jimmy Shoes II, either way it works. For my family, I got Frankie a new pair of tracksuit bottoms that he can wear for work and six tubs of chewing gum, and for my parents I got them tickets to a show next month, the show is The Show Must Go On at the Palace Theatre, dress circle seats, and the show features a variety of performances from musicals like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Wicked, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Six, Tina, Book of Mormon, Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Lion King, Phantom of the Opera, Matilda, Mamma Mia and more, so already it is looking like an absolutely stacked show, and all profits made from the show will go to Acting For Others and The Fleabag Support Fund, and I'm hoping Tier 4 or Tier 5 whatever it will be doesn't ruin the plans because this show is just at the end of next month, maybe the show gets postponed which is fine, or the show gets cancelled which will be shame since it is the Christmas present to my parents, but once I get the money back I can book another show, I already have an idea wink wink. After opening presents there wasn't really anything to do, Frankie and I did go in to see our nephew and see him play his new PS5, but that was it, usually every year we would go to The Britannia with my cousins, auntie, uncle and other family members but Tier 4 put that to a halt, so now there was nothing to do, except wait for Christmas Dinner, what a wait that was; my nan came up as she does every year and Christmas Dinner was lovely, I was so stuffed and absolutely fulfilled. Later on my older brother, his partner and my two youngest nieces came up and we opened presents from them and they opened their presents from us, and it was so lovely having us lot together, plus I did most of the babysitting, both of my youngest nieces were as good as gold. After all of that, we ended Christmas Day having another movie night, and that was Christmas Day, another one gone, the 25th Christmas Day I have lived in my lifetime, two months of advertisements everywhere for that one day done, despite the circumstances I was happy that we all had a lovely Christmas, and that Tier 4 didn't change too much of our plans, I did feel a little of a bittersweet feeling, knowing that there are families out there that didn't have a lovely Christmas, how this pandemic and the governments plans changed plans for people, my family from America were supposed to stay with us for Christmas which of course didn't happen, it did make me feel a little sad, but I couldn't let it ruin my emotions for the day; now Christmas is over and we await the New Year, it is always weird when Christmas Day ends, and now we have those few days where everything is weird, it might be rough one.

After that wonderful day it was Saturday, Boxing Day, which I don't think is anything to do with the sport boxing, and I just spent it chilling, there wasn't really anything to do, so I just chilled, relaxed, and that was how I spent Boxing Day.

Finally it's Sunday, so Billy, after that eventful week how did you end it? Well Billy I was on the PlayStation all day. Really Billy? I mean I know you like to go on there but all day? Yes Billy but there wasn't anything to do, plus football was on all day for my family, so I just found myself on the PlayStation, I got on there somewhere between 1pm and 2pm, and I got off just before 9:30pm.

That was my Christmas week, it was a good week, very quick one too; Tier 4 did some minor changes to this week, including cancelling my Christmas Eve shift which would've been from 9am to 1pm, and cancelling my Boxing Day shift which would've been from 9am to 9pm, and yes, I put myself down for that, because I was happy to, I'm always willing to show how good I am as a worker, and it was a shame that Tier 4 took that opportunity away from me. In the end as I said before, my family and I made the most of Christmas this year, and we're all thankful that it was a lovely one in these circumstances. I now remind myself, that this is the last blog of 2020, wow, 2020 done just like that, I can still remember when it just turned 2020 and celebrating New Years then, I even remember that whole day, I even remember a month later or the month after where a friend and I had a drink in The Angel Wetherspoons after a drama class, and we were speaking about our plans and what we have going on for us this year, and how we both were optimistic for the rest of the year, and then look how the year turned out, yikes. I remember celebrating New Years in Newcastle with friends, and soon as it turned 2019 and all the excitement turned down I was like "wait that's it?" and then around 6 or 7 hours later we all had to pack and get on the coach back to London and I made a comment saying "I can't tell what will happen next year I don't have 20/20 vision" to which everyone rolled their eyes, and I couldn't tell what was going to happen in the next year, but I definitely wasn't expecting a pandemic! I think it's all easy to say on behalf of all of us that 2020 was easily the worst year of our lives, and I don't even need to go through the reasons why it was the year that it was, so instead of going through everything that made 2020 the year that it was, I thought it'd be a good idea to go through the positives of 2020, and what I'm thankful for from 2020, I'm thankful for all of my family, I'm thankful for my neighbours who we all grew closer with during the first few months of the pandemic, I'm thankful for my friends and I'm missing most of them that I haven't seen a lot of them since before the pandemic started, I'm thankful for our new addition to the family Petey, we sadly lost Sammy earlier this year and now here is Petey who is a very good and very handsome boy and is so loved by all of us, I'm thankful for my workplace who I'm still working with to this day during this insane time in our lives and my work colleagues too who are feeling the same as I am, I am thankful for wrestling which hasn't stopped since this pandemic started and there was always a wrestling pay per view on an average of every 2 to 3 weeks to give me something to look forward to, I’m thankful for the people that I have met in regards to LNSEN that I’ll be working with Ms. Vidal on in the future as an Autism Champion Ambassador, I’m thankful for Ms. Vidal who, if it wasn’t for the pandemic, I wouldn’t have grown closer with or even have brought up the idea of this blog so you all can thank Ms. Vidal for that, I think that’s the thing I’m most thankful for this year, us growing closer and doing this blog, which has even helped me when times got rough, and I'm thankful for the fond moments and memories I had during the pandemic, I'm glad that upon reflection there are good memories and moments that were had during these times and that not everything was doom and gloom.

Before I finish up, I know I've written enough but let me do this one last paragraph. Now I haven't spoke about death much in these blogs, and there has been so much death this year, it either gives 2016 a run for its money or surpasses 2016 with the people the world has lost this year; there are some deaths that have really hit me hard this year, and recently was another one. His name was Jon Huber, to some he was known as Luke Harper, and to some he was known as Brodie Lee, he was a professional wrestler who was loved by millions of fans, and loved by all of his colleagues and peers, he passed away on Boxing Day from a non-COVID lung issue which kept him in ICU for two months and it was something not many people knew about, and whoever knew kept it quiet, I remember it being around 1:30am UK time on December 27th, and his death announcement was the first thing I saw on Instagram which was announced just 5 or 10 minutes earlier, and I remember talking to a couple of my friends who were awake at the time we all couldn't believe it, it was a death that hit all of us because we all started watching his in ring work in 2012 or 2013, and this year he was really showing the world what he could do and that this was the prime of his career and now he's gone, and to think he spent his 41st birthday and Christmas in ICU, it's so sad, it's even sadder thinking of his family, his wife, his two sons, I've been thinking about them a lot these last few days and I really hope that they'll be alright. I've seen so many posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram of him from so many people in the industry and it shows just how loved and respected he was by everyone, and I've looked and listened to so many interviews he did and he came off as one of the nicest guys; I look at some of the stuff he has done in his career and who he worked with and I smile knowing that he was given these opportunities and did very good with them, I'm gonna miss him, and so will millions around the world. Rest peacefully and powerfully Jon, we all love you, we'll all miss you.

Jon's death was a reminder that we need to hug everyone we know and love, and let them know we love them because we don't know what tomorrow will bring for us or those around us. Thank you for reading everyone, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and I'll see you in 2021, take care, I love you all."

Brodie Lee Talking About His Son RIP Brodie

Lights from The Shard

December 14th to December 20th

"As we enter blog 34, and at this point in the blogs there isn't a reason or explanation to find connections with the numbers, but if you're a Londoner or any part in England recently hit with the Tier 4 news the one thing on your mind is WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?! CURSE WORD CURSE WORD CURSE WORD CURSE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a weird week though, we went from having just a few days of being in Tier 2 left to being to Tier 3 the majority of the week, to being in Tier 4 which wasn't even created or acknowledged to begin with; now we all never knew how bad the numbers were going to be with cases and deaths going back to over a month ago with the recent lockdown, but from what I heard the number of cases a day are at their worst, if that was inevitable, we were better off staying in lockdown, but what do I know? Now we begin this blog, and the last week before Christmas.

Starting with Monday, what a wonderful start! So I went to see Jack, and Jack wanted me to keep this quiet from the blogs for the time being, and I didn't mention this the last few times I mentioned him, and now I can talk about this without any secrets and holding back, basically Jack has moved into his own flat, and the crowd goes wild! It's a nice flat too, big for a one person flat, spacious and isn't far from where I live, we're near enough neighbours so that's really cool. So I popped up, because he needed help with something that was arriving, at the time I couldn't remember what, and then I see it's the sofa bed, now, I thought whoever was delivering it was going to build it, so now it's a sofa bed, with unclear instructions, and it's down to two young men with mental disabilities to build a sofa bed, WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?!?!? Nothing, it was all fine, with teamwork, going through the same pages over and over again, finding the right sized needles, and even viewing two YouTube videos to understand unclear steps, we done it, mostly, took nearly two hours, and both of us were feeling cranky, but we did the best we could, we could've done a little bit more but Jack had work to go to so he was going to finish it off with his mum tomorrow, and I treated Jack and I to lunch, because I'm a good boy. I then get home, and receive an email from Ms. Vidal, and I find out that The Courtyard got a positive case, and that those I care about there have to isolate until Christmas Eve with their families, and of course this also meant that Ms. Vidal and I had to cancel meeting this week; all of this was a lot to take in for me, and felt overwhelming, another harsh reminder that COVID was still alive and well and ruining everything, that 9 months in and our government just keep messing everything up, how what happened to Ms. Vidal and those at the Courtyard could happen to someone or some people any day now and they'd have to isolate over the entirety of the Christmas holidays, that this positive case was very close to home, Tier : 3 was on the horizon and even with a vaccine the end still feels so far away, from the last few days to this day and to add my beyond ruined sleeping pattern to it and a very poor overnight sleep, I felt I was all over the place, and felt an anger and frustration to the point of nearly snapping, and I rarely feel this way; so after making a call to my mum speaking about how I was feeling, I shut myself off from reality, and spent the next, I don't even know how many hours lying in bed, not even caring if I fell asleep or not, I just needed to be away from everyone and everything. I came down just before dinner, my mum wanted to make sure I was alright, she gets upset when I'm in the state that was in earlier, it upsets her more when she feels like she can't help me, and that upsets me, a lot. I don't intent to be as emotional as I am it's something that after 24 years I'm still trying to work on and it's easier said than done, but the sooner I get it sorted the better. Mum and I then spent some time together, spoke about some things, watched some YouTube videos, and it was really nice, later on that evening my parents and I had movie night, which we had nearly every night during the first lockdown, and the first one since, I think my birthday, and we decided to put on a Christmas movie to get us all further into that festive mood, and that movie was Last Christmas, because my mum always wanted to see it, it's supposed to be really feel good, and I've always had a massive soft spot for Emilia Clarke; nearly two hours pass and the film left us all smiling, glowing inside, and definitely feel good, the movie is very predictable, but despite that it's really good, leaves you feeling good, and of course very festive; a great way to end a very up and down day.

We're on Tuesday now, IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH BILL! YEAH BILL WE DON'T GO ON HERE TO READ ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS! Well whoever is reading this that thinks that I don't go on social media to read about your problems, what has made you angry in the world, your political views or how well your supposed relationship is going because quite frankly, I really don't care; and if you're curious about what I go online or on social media for it's for memes, babies, doggies and positivity. Tuesday was quite a productive day from what I remember, I met my mum for lunch, got a coffee from Pret and a sandwich from Co-Op, and I need to say, I love it when during Christmas time supermarket chains do Christmas themed items, I can never say no to them, and fast food chains too, more of a reason why I love Christmas time. Later on I went to Wanstead to this Wetherspoons pub called The George to meet up with my mate, who I was meant to meet over the weekend but that got cancelled twice, we pretty much had to meet on this day, it was London's last night in Tier 2, and I had a present for him, so it was me, him, his mum, two of his work colleagues and a girlfriend of one of his work colleagues, so that made six of us, and surprise surprise, we bump into a old friend of ours from our college course, who we both haven't seen in a year and a half, so that was a really nice surprise. It was a lovely evening, full of laughs, and of course the Cookie Dough Sandwich because how can I forget that? My friend even opened his present, it can count as a Birthday present, Christmas present, pretty much both since they're both on the same day, and I got him this Ralph Lauren fragrance gift set, and it was the red one, because he loves Liverpool, and seeing how happy he was with the present was so satisfying, that's the beauty, love and joy of Christmas time right there, and ending our time in Tier 2 on a high note.

Moving onto Wednesday, the first day of Tier 3, and I didn't do anything Wednesday, nothing at all, not from what I can recall, so I guess we can go to Thursday.

Next up is Thursday, and it was exactly like Wednesday, nothing at all, and if something happened I clearly don't remember it, drama class got cancelled so I couldn't see my friends, teacher and the people I know at The Shakespeare's Head one last time before Christmas and New Years so that made me a bit sad.

Now it's Friday, talk about a change of pace, and Friday originally seemed like it was going to be exactly like Wednesday and Thursday, except plot twist, it weren't, as I got a call from Jack who was coming back from shopping to drop off his present to me, he sat down for a bit, asked if I wanted to come to his mum's for a few hours, since he will be with his dad for his birthday, Christmas and New Years, it would make for a nice change, seeing that I've just been indoors for the last two days. I went up there and I was there for around 3, or 4 hours before I came home for dinner, it was nice.

Following up with Saturday, and we had family come up, my brother, his partner, and my two nieces, it was the eldest of the two’s birthday tomorrow so we gave her her presents to open and then my brother and I did the majority of the babysitting for the rest of the day which was fine, both were as good as gold. Then, Tier 4 got announced, and originally we were all taking the mick, singing and joking about, and then reality hit us, my niece couldn't celebrate her birthday at London Zoo tomorrow and she burst into tears when she found out, my shifts on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day were cancelled, many people in the UK wouldn't be able to celebrate Christmas as planned unless they left to go to where they needed to be ASAP, it was incredibly frustrating, another example of the government being all over the place and after all this time still messing things up, during what is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, luckily it didn't affect my Christmas plans, but I thought of all those who were affected by it, after this rubbish year no one deserved to have a ruined Christmas, we've all been through more than enough, and again it begs the question, when will this madness end? It is obvious now that we've all had enough.

Finally it's Sunday, took long enough but here we are, and Sunday was a lovely surprise of a day, to begin, last minute decision on my part, I joined my mum, dad, nan and brother in law in going to the Islington Cemetery to see my grandad, my great grandparents and my uncle's parents, haven't seen them in a couple of years so it was nice to see them again, my brother in law came to see some of his family members including his grandparents, it was nice to see them all again, just before Christmas. After that my brother in law dropped my dad and I off as he and my mum went to do some shopping, by the lifts I bumped into a man who lived on the fourth or fifth floor who had this English Bulldog called Reggie, and Reggie was a big and handsome boy, he was easily one of my highlights this week. Afterwards I went down to see some family friends to drop off a present and cards, and I haven't seen them in months, including one of my best friends who I haven't seen since January, when we last saw each other, we went to a viewing party of a wrestling show at a sports bar in Old Street, that night I won a bottle of picasso which he and I shared, it was such a good night, easily one of the highlights this year. So we saw each other, sat opposite the table in the kitchen, and spoke for around 2 hours, a well needed catch up and a lovely way to end the week.

That was my week, quite emotional weren't it? A lot to take in especially with the whole Tier 3 and Tier 4 announcements in the same week, next thing we know there's going to be a purge or a riot, cor I can't wait for that, how exciting! Sometimes you can only push someone so far until they snap. So now, Christmas is next, can't wait to be put into Tier 5 on Christmas Eve that's going to be brilliant! Anyways guys, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I will see you all in the next one, 35, the last one of 2020, see you then. Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night."

"We are in Tier 4", add a pinch of humour to your life

December 7th to December 13th

"It's 33, say Billy what do you have to say about 33? Well Billy it is 3 and 3 together. Anything else Billy? No, not really. Really? Seriously? Is that, is that really all we have? I mean we're 33 blogs in my son, surely we've got to have more. No Billy, this is all we have, this is all we have to deal with, so no big fancy intro for the readers. That's underwhelming Billy. Well Billy so is life sometimes. That's another conversation between me and myself and here is blog 33.

It's Monday. because how else can we start? On this day, guess what happened? For the first time since before the 2nd lockdown I went to work, and this was the first evening shift I've done since either February or March. I always preferred the evening shifts because of the atmosphere, the hours, the night sky, and of course knowing I could wake up at anytime I wanted to, do what I want to during the day, then get ready for the shift, the travel there and on the way home isn't as bad as it would be in the morning or afternoon, then once I get home, and just relax, or even just have something to eat and go straight to bed. The shift I was doing was for the Ice Rink, my workplace sets up the Ice Rink every year for Christmas and New Years and we were all very happy to hear that even in these circumstances that the Ice Rink would be opening, and I was very excited to be working the shift because I wasn't able to get an Ice Rink shift last year. I was told in a message to wrap up warm so I had everything to keep me warm besides my hat, I forget my hat of all things now I'm going to have to spend 3 and a half hours with a cold head, lovely. So I get into work, get myself a radio, and go to my position with my work colleague and one of my managers, and I'm told that I won't be in the cold, but instead in the warm, in the entrance of the museum to help people entering with any enquiries regarding tickets, the Ice Rink itself and toilets, so I didn't need to wrap up or worry about being cold, buzzing. The shift was fantastic and easily one of the best in a while and one of the best I had all year, which isn't saying much seeing how most of the year I haven't been working and the pandemic has been driving my colleagues and I up the wall. The shift was mostly quiet and the majority of it was my work colleague and one of my managers chatting away from 5pm to 8:30pm, and my work colleague got me a coffee at one point, and I got myself one later on, drinking coffee on the job, love it. I was buzzing after the shift, I really did miss working the evening shifts, and I loved how it was a shift that was easy, mostly quiet, no silly or arrogant visitors, well there was one but there's always going to be one; in the end, it was great to be back, great shift back, hard to tell when I'll be working next with everything still changing, and me working zero hours again, we'll see what happens, and if this is the last shift of the year for me, then I went out on a high.

Next is Tuesday, and I'm meeting a friend, hooray for socialising!! So I went to The White Swan to meet a friend of mine, last time he and I met was I believe July or August, he's my closest classmate from secondary so it was nice to meet him before Christmas. We had a good chat, catching up on things, eating small meals and desserts, I paid for the desserts by the way, the taste of the Cookie Dough Sandwich is the closest thing to heaven. It was such a nice few hours, and after we said bye I walked home because the nearly night sky and Christmas lights around was making me feel festive, so I walked home listening to Christmas music, it was great, and bumped into my mum who just finished her shift at work, lovely stuff.

Now it is Wednesday, and my plan was to go into work to sort something out and make a little day of it in Greenwich, so now I am back to zero hours I have to submit my shifts and hours on a programme called ITrent, that's a part of how I get paid, and with the payroll cutoff being a day away, I thought to go in and get it sorted. So I get there, on the computer, and the programme isn't there, but Billy why can't you do it at home? Well Billy it's because it doesn't work at home which is why I am at work. So I got in contact with one of my managers and she was able to help me out. Afterwards I decided to go to Kaspa's, I had a lovely time going there in Croydon over a month ago so I thought to go in and get some lunch there, sadly they were only accepting takeaway and no sitting in, so I just got a milkshake to takeaway, After Eights Milkshake, it was lovely, made my mum jealous with that one; although, I did find out that there was going to be a Kaspa's opening in Angel soon, so I can take my family one day, can't wait for that day. For only the 2nd time in my life, I got on a boat on the Thames, so my workplace is right near the Greenwich pier and I decided to take the boat to Embankment, have a little stroll and then get the bus home. Being on the boat was just incredible, magnificent, and the sights all around were just marvelous, and I began to think "I should travel to and from work on a boat now" and then we got to London Bridge where we were stopping every 2 or 3 minutes and then I went "yeah maybe I shouldn't travel to and from work on a boat, time management will be a worry," got off the boat, took a stroll through Embankment and then got the 341 bus home, nice little day I made for myself.

Going onto Thursday, and I spent the day chilling until I went to my drama class during the evening, another great class with another great showcase of talent, and personally I felt like I had moment of the night, the actor I worked with had a line which went something like "look at you the dark horse," and I didn't know what to say so I made a gesture with both of my arms and hands that looked like a horse gallop and said "neigh," and it just made everyone laugh, it was so bad that it was unintentionally funny, I just didn't know how to respond, but if that was the best response, so be it, glad I was able to make everyone laugh. Afterwards we all went to The Shakespeare's Head as usual which was nice, it was a good evening overall.

Time to get down on Friday, and Friday was an interesting day, productive day too. Originally, and this is what I was hiding from the last blog, I was supposed to be seeing Ms. Vidal but she had to cancel unfortunately, but instead we had a video chat and that was really nice, and rearranged for next Wednesday so that should be good. During the evening I met up with a friend of mine, he use to work at The Old Star and we went to, you guessed it, The Old Star, and that was a lovely evening with some of it being spent talking about This Is Us since I've caught up, it was his idea I should watch it and I did, and now we have fun chats about it, met some of the locals that come to The Old Star too, including this man called Billy and his German Shepherd dog, Bailey (or is it Bayley, it's one or the other), and Bailey (I'll just spell his name as Bailey) is a big baby, two years old and he is a big handsome boy that loves everyone, except when he gets tired and worn out from all the love and attention, couldn't blame him. On the way home I got the 63 from King's Cross, and bumped into a familiar face, got off, and bumped into her mum and sister, her sister was in my class and use to go on my school bus with me, so this familiar face, was moving out and needed assistance, was I was told it wasn't going to take long, so I thought to help because my heart is too big and pure, and I find out that she's been having boyfriend trouble, he's out at the moment, and she's taking her stuff out, and the tv, what have I got myself into, why have I got myself into this, WHY AM I SUCH A NICE GUY!?!? Eventually, luckily without any drama, we leave, with her things, and the TV, and I believe a cabinet too, yeah what have I got myself into, and I helped carry some of the bags back to her family's flat which was a 5 minute walk away, the tightness of the plastic on my fingers were a killer, but eventually I get there, drop the stuff off, and leave, got home just after midnight.

OH LOOK IT'S SATURDAY, OH WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE IT EXCEPT I SHOULD BELIEVE IT!!!!! So for Saturday I was in my PJs all day, and I had some family members pop up, some are going to be spending Christmas in Spain so they're seeing us early and opening their presents and receiving our presents from them early, and it was really nice having us lot together, and all 5 nieces and nephews in the same room, all little blondies, though there's the 2nd to oldest who's either strawberry blonde or ginger, it's debatable. I was supposed to see the same mate from his party last week during the evening but that got cancelled and rescheduled to Sunday afternoon, oh well, at least I was having fun with my family.

Finally it's Sunday, and Sunday, it wasn't the best one, at all, so you know how I was meant to see my mate the previous evening and we rescheduled for Sunday afternoon, he was contacted by his workplace to do a last minute job which he didn't know how long it would take so I spent my Sunday waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, until around 4pm or 5pm when he finished the job, we decided to reschedule for the following weekend, wasn't his fault or anything these things happen when it comes to work and that can't be helped. Mentally I felt like I was completely out of it for the majority of the day, tired, exhausted, drained, lost, so maybe us cancelling on this day and postponing was deep down a blessing in disguise; and that was how I ended my week.

So that was my week, more happened than I originally thought, in my head I was thinking "not much happened so this should be a quick one" and the more I reflected on the week, I was like "oh wow, I was quite busy" so this week overall, I say it was a good week, did have an underwhelming end on Sunday but in the end it was a definitely a good week, and now we enter another week, whatever could happen this week? Maybe Tier 3 could happen? Maybe plans I have will get cancelled? Maybe cases could go higher? With how crazy these last 9 months have been I am expecting anything, which I hate because this is Christmas time, it's the holidays, we should all be excited, happy and joyful, but COVID just seems to ruin everything for some reason, and once things get better, they also get worse, it's a never ending frustrating battle even with the vaccine out, which some people appear to be allergic to, IS THERE ANY WINNING HERE!??!?!?!? I swear I'm going to be bald by the time this thing is done. So that's blog 33, we're still going strong somehow, and here's to next week, whatever comes, and the last whole week before Christmas, I shall see you all then, Sayōnara!"

November 30th -  December 6th

"32, I always liked the number 32 and I never knew why, it's one of those things where you look at something and for absolutely no reason you like it, so someone will constantly ask why you like it, and you never explain why because there's no reason why. In this week we celebrate the end of the 2nd lockdown, going back to some level of normality, and some theatres are back too which is just incredible, should've been months ago with limited capacity but nevertheless some are back and we are all happy, Christmas is getting closer, everything is getting colder and cosier, the nights are getting earlier, it's all looking good, and now in blog number 32, we go from the end of the 2nd lockdown to the beginning the the aftermath of the 2nd lockdown, and closer to Christmas and New Year's, LET'S DO THIS!

It's Monday, not another one, but it's a Monday in lockdown so it's ok, and I met up with Jack on this day, he came up to mine for a few hours, watched tv, had dinner, and dropped him off at the bus stop, bit straight to the point Bill, that's how I like to do things Bill, straight to the point.

Next up is Tuesday, and Tuesday was quite a productive day. To begin, I had to create my Microsoft Teams account for my meeting with Katrien from Think Forward to discuss the online etiquette and safeguarding for Friday, and that was annoying because I didn't know what I was doing, where to go, what to press, and it made me think, there's Google Meets, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Houseparty, all of these apps, programmes and social media sites that involving video chatting, CAN WE ALL STICK TO ONE PLEASE, any way eventually I get it all sorted, all signed in and ready, and feeling very cranky so I didn't start off on the best note mentally. Then I had the meeting with Katrien that went really well, got to know a lot about her, she got to know all about me, we discussed Friday, and added each other on LinkedIn, so now I prepare more for Friday; and plot twist I didn't need to create the Microsoft Teams account because the call happened on Zoom so technically I was getting cranky for nothing, now that's kinda funny. NEXT UP, right after the meeting with Katrien, I met my Mum after work, and we both went to Angel together to do some shopping at M&S, got McDonald's to take home, and then on the way home I bump into one of my drama teachers, whose class is coming back on Thursday, and him and my mum met for the first time which was really nice. During the evening, I watched the virtual premiere of Silent Night, and this was an interesting experience, you book your ticket online, the link is attached to the confirmation email, you click the link, and it takes you to the online screening, the film is shown, followed by a Q&A; but Billy, why this film in particular? Well Billy it's because I know one of the actresses in it, her name is Sarah Leigh, I've known her for 3 years, worked with her a couple of times, if you've seen the short film I was in Boy in a Park, she played my mum, and she's fantastic, and it's so good to see her in a feature length film, and also in it is Joey Fry who was just in the Danny Boyle film Yesterday last year, and the film is great, plenty of twists and turns and a very engaging plot, would definitely recommend it, in cinemas December 11th, on digital and demand December 14th and on DVD December 28th. Overall, this day began a bit bumpy, but it ended up being a good day.

Now it's Wednesday, the day lockdown ended, and I couldn't have cared less, I know it sounds terrible but I actually really enjoyed this lockdown, chilling nearly all the time, having the house to myself half the week, I was having a blast and I wouldn't have been fussed if it got extended, and now I shall receive extreme backlash and proceed to get cancelled for my unpopular comments, sad. So I was supposed to see Katrien again to test Microsoft Teams, to see if we can use it for Friday, originally from what I remember it was scheduled for 1:30pm, and then I got a notification on my phone that Katrien gave me an invite on Google Calendar for 12:30pm, the time as of that moment, almost 12:30pm, so I rushed off the PlayStation and set everything up, and everything was working fine so now we are prepared for Friday. Besides that, I didn't really do much on this day, so I slept, a lot, and I forgot that lockdown even ended, when I was reminded I was like "ah ok," and that was that.

We then head to Thursday, where I spent the day chilling, and then in the evening, I went back to drama, after 5 long weeks, we're back, and the class overall was great, everyone was on fire, we all felt the same way about lockdown ending and wanting to go back and it just felt so good to be back, the positivity, the energy, the charisma from everyone, it truly was a great class. Afterwards, some of us went to Shakespeare's Head, WE'RE BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As soon as I went in I had this massive smile, being back in there, the Christmas decorations all around, the Christmas music, if there's one thing I love it's a pub and it's atmosphere during the Christmas season, that night I was told by one of my classmates that they changed the curfew, so last orders are at 10pm but you have until 11pm to leave, now that is much better and safer because having people all go home at the same time is risky, can get crowded on streets and on public transport, so nice change, shame it wasn't done earlier but better now than never, and it was a lovely way to end the night.

It's Friday, let's get down on Friday, and today was the day, today was the day where I Billy Chandler, was going to do a Masterclass Q&A for Think Forward, in front of 30, maybe 40, students and teachers, and it was going to be interesting, I did feel a little nervous, because this was something that was involving quite a bit of people, and I was worried if a connection would get lost or something would become unclear, after around 45 or so minutes that wasn't the case, and it went really well, I was happy with a lot of answers I made and I could've done it easily for another 45 minutes if it wasn't for lessons, or something popping up on schedules, but I was very happy to have that opportunity, and give teenagers and adults like me the best advice I could, I'm not a big storied success, I haven't been in any big Hollywood movies, I haven't got a 6 or 7 figure check, but right now with the position I'm in, it's a start, and maybe, hopefully, one of those participating in the Q&A can take my advice, and go further than I have so far, I'll be keeping a close eye on on who can do that. Later on I do what I usually do on Friday evenings and met my dad after work to get the takeaway.

So it's Saturday, originally I had nothing planned for Saturday, and then I get a text from a mate of mine, same mate that I watched the FA Cup Final with back in August, and he was having a party at his house to celebrate his birthday early, his birthday is on Christmas Day. So that evening, I got dressed, took the tube to South Woodford, and made it to his house. It was a lovely evening, and met really nice people, another one of our friends turned up and that was a great surprise. During the party, and here's some backstory, I mentioned it briefly months ago so I'll explain here, myself, my mate who was having the party, and our mate who came, the three of us call ourselves The Rat Pack, and I'm the Sinatra of the Pack so they nickname me Frank or Frankie, and everyone was calling me Frank or Frankie, I loved it. It was a lovely night.

Finally it's Sunday and today was the day, the day where I was going to take my parents out for their early Christmas present, Roles We'll Never Play at the Apollo Theatre, first show since February and I was very excited. We first went for a meal at Wetherspoons which was nice, especially the Warm Cookie Dough Sandwich with Ice Cream, if calories, sugar and anything else involved were never a worry I could eat that everyday. Afterwards we went to the Apollo Theatre where we had our temperatures checked, tickets scanned, and once we went into the theatre we went right to the box, I saw the door, slowly and anxiously putting my right hand on the doorknob, turned it to the side with suspense as if the whole world was watching me, I open the door to see, our box, all to ourselves, those 3 seats with the stage on the left and the entire audience on the right, we felt like royalty and it was all thanks to me being a good boy, though we had to keep our masks on despite being away from other people, and we really were away from other people, the box was like the three of us together in our own bubble, yet we had to keep our masks on, ok I guess. Overall it was a great show which was a wonderful showcase of upcoming, well known and veteran talent of people that have performed on stage especially in the West End, one person that performed had 18 West End credits, that's the dream right there; and they all performed songs that were either performed by characters of the opposite gender in a show, for example, a male singing Defying Gravity from Wicked by Elphaba, a female character, and so on, and even songs that are out of the performers comfort zones like the topics the songs tackle or the genre; it was a lovely show back, and it felt so good to be back, and I'm already looking forward to whatever my other upcoming trips will be, got another one booked for my parents, they don't know what the show is they have to wait until Christmas Day, and it's for a show in January, and I booked myself Les Misérables The Staged Concert in February which I cannot wait with a packed cast including Michael Ball, Alfie Boe, Carrie Hope Fletcher and Matt Lucas, there's also Back to the Future in May or June, yep a Back to the Future musical, gotta love it, and it's just great to see theatre slowly coming back, just pure joy, should've happened earlier but better now than never.

That's my week, back out of lockdown, getting closer to the holidays, back to work soon so that should be good, seeing a friend from secondary, and more friends, and I'm seeing someone very special I won't spoil it you have to wait until next week's blog to see who it is; things are picking up and it's nice. Looking back at what I've typed it was a very productive week, nearly every paragraph is quite lengthy, easily the longest blog in the last 5 or 6 weeks, and who knows how long the next one will be. I've caught up on This Is Us, now I have to wait until next month for more episodes, can't believe I actually caught up, and I was very impressed with the production, because of COVID and everything else that has happened this year, they postponed production and rewrote some of if not most of the scripts, began filming in September, and released their first two episodes the following month, and each episode is between 40 and 45 minutes so that is incredible that they did that much in such short time, everyone on that show in front and behind the camera deserves praise. I shall see you all next week, a week closer to complete normality, the first complete week post second lockdown, a week closer to escaping 2020, and a week closer to Christmas and New Years, it's gonna be good, au revoir!"

November 23rd - November 29th

"31, got nothing for 31, except my birthday lands on the 31st of July. That's all, I got nothing else to say. However, this is the last whole week of lockdown, we've got new tier rules that are worse than before, and we have a date for when the rules are going to be dropped, I wonder how long that'll last. Anyways this is blog 31, let's see how another week in lockdown went.

It's Monday, and Tuesday, wait there's more, and Wednesday! WOW, Billy are we really having three days in one paragraph?! You bet Billy, and you want to know what happened over these three days Billy? Not much, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were essentially the same days, except I did go on the PlayStation on Tuesday. I wake up, chill, eat lunch, watch some This Is Us, internet, laptop, dinner, nap depending on how I feel, bath or shower, everyone goes to bed as I stay up, alone, in sheer silence, and I can hear my thoughts, not really the telly is on with the sound but occasionally it happens. So that was my first three days of the week.

Next is Thursday, that's so weird to say, so weird to begin the week, and then go right to Thursday. On this day, I met up with Jack, him and I went to Bombay Burrito which I highly recommend to anyone living in Islington, and then we went to meet his sister, it was the first time I saw her in nearly 3 years, and it was on Jack's birthday, nearly 3 years later we meet again, how time flies. It was a good few hours, good chat, caught up with his sister, and I left them around 4pm, found myself limping walking home, and for that, I have to rewind a couple of hours. When I was getting dressed, I decided to wear my new pair of Converse, mostly white, bit of light blue, really nice pair, but high tops are always going to be hit or miss; I spent 10 or 15 minutes trying to put them on, definitely have some creases already, and there wasn't anything to pull onto to assist me in putting them on so I kept loosening the laces as much as I can, it got stressful to the point where I started sweating, and eventually I got them on, and now we go forward a few hours and why I was limping, new pair of shoes, not thick enough socks, and on the back of my right foot, it was like a blister, except it was popped, and the skin was gone, and it was killing me, it was painful trying to take the shoe off, so that's my right foot done for the next few days.

Coming right up is Friday, a more laid back day, my nan came up, and so did one of my neighbours, so we had some company and that was nice. Later on I helped mum hoover around the house, I mostly did the living room, by the door, by the stairs and the kitchen, it was good, it was quite annoying dragging it around, but it's something I could get used to. Later on during the evening I met my dad after work, collected our takeaway as we walked home together. I felt good later that evening, there's always a really good feeling on Friday evenings even when nothing is going on, it feels special. I'll never forget the Fridays where I finish school for the week, or college, work, even go to the pub or the club with friends, or a class at the Anna Scher Theatre, no matter what, that Friday feeling is always there.

Look where we are now we're at Saturday, and I spent my Saturday chilling at home, felt really tired, I even intended to watch the Tyson vs. Jones fight but I just felt so tired and so drained that I just couldn't be bothered. So all day I was just indoors, in my PJs, chilling, resting, my brother in law came in at point, and did my nephew, and my cousin's son, at one point I helped my mum set up the Christmas tree and I now have that festive feeling, so some stuff did happen here and there, but that was my Saturday, felt a lot like a Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday, here we are, the finale, it's Sunday, see another new one, I always come up with new tricks. To begin Sunday, I didn't get out of bed until 3pm, I just kept waking up and falling asleep, I couldn't believe the time once I got up, must've been from how tired I felt yesterday, now I wake up, after a total of 8 - 9 hours of sleep, at 3pm, an hour until it gets dark. Since I woke up I didn't do much, chilled, played on the PlayStation, had dinner, and then I went for a walk, to get some well needed fresh air, walked through Angel, Upper Street, Essex Road, City Road and other streets and roads nearby, I even came across 3 foxes, one I shared intense eye contact with as it went toilet, very charming sight that was, and by the time I got home, it was just before 9pm, and that was how I ended my week.

That was the last whole week of lockdown, the first half was repetitive, felt like living the same day 3 times, and then it picked up with the other half, and for a week overall it was fine, I've had better, definitely had worse. I created a LinkedIn account this week, took a few years but I finally did it, I feel like I can get used to it, might find some really good people to work with eventually using it, this could help me a lot. Started Season 4 of This Is Us, getting close to catching up now, just need to finish this season, and then it's just a few in the next season, nearly there. I'll be going back to work in over a week, will be working an evening shift at the ice rink, I'm really looking forward to that, miss working evenings, travel isn't too bad, the night sky makes it all feel cozy, and I can chill all day, finish my shift, and then spend the night chilling until I want or have to sleep. The next time I'll write, another lockdown will be done, stores will be open, pubs will be open, restaurants will be open, museums will be open, gyms will be open, and most other things will be open, it's going to be very interesting. I'll see you all then, for the first December blog, and another week closer to Christmas and the new year."

November 16th - November 22nd 

"It is 30, THE BIG 3 OH, another milestone in these series of blogs that right now look like they're never ending, but with the vaccine getting good results, there might be an ending, eventually. It's wild how it has been 30 weeks, with no delay, no hiatus, managed to put one up every week, a lot has happened in these 30 weeks, I never thought these blogs and this pandemic would be going on for this long, and I keep thinking of what's ahead, what's going to happen, what does the future hold for these? I reckon I'll still be doing these at 35, when it comes to 40 we'll have to wait and see, depending on what goes on with this vaccine. Welcome to Blog 30, and let's see what I've done with another week in lockdown, with a big number.

Kicking it off with Monday, and Monday was me just chilling, playing on the PlayStation, watching This Is Us, and then I got my Christmas presents for Mum & Dad sorted, along with another present I got them, tickets to Roles We'll Never Play on December 6th at 6:30pm at the Apollo Theatre, a show featuring numerous actors performing in roles that aren't in their comfort zone, and I got my parents and I box seating so that's going to be quite posh, and the Christmas present, that's a secret, I'm not telling you. Doing things like this for my parents, especially after all they've done for Frankie, myself and the rest of the family for the last few decades, it always feels so good to do something back for them, because they deserve it.

Next is Tuesday, and there isn't much to say about Tuesday, pretty much the same day as yesterday, besides the presents, nothing really to say, just living that furlough life by chilling all day in my PJs.

Following up with Wednesday, and happy to say, as a relief to all of you, that something happened, and I did something, and for the first time in 4 or 5 days, I got out of the house, WOW BILLY WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT, LET'S ALL GIVE HIM A ROUND OF APPLAUSE! But yeah, I never stay in the house that long, I don't even remember the last time I stayed indoors for so long so going outside felt very weird. I went out to meet Mum after work, she finished 2 hours early, and we got the 38 bus up to Angel where my mum and I did a bit of food shopping, and got a coffee from Costa, and then we made our way home, easily the most productive day I had all week.

We then go to Thursday, and don't worry guys, Billy did something, Billy got out, AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!! I met up with Jack for the first time in a few weeks, I believe it was 4 or 5 weeks since we last met up, and we both met at Angel, and went to Terrace, which is a Turkish restaurant at Chapel Market, we got what we wanted to eat and went to the park opposite Sadler's Wells to eat it, we would've ate inside or find somewhere to eat it in, but lockdown has a lot of places closed, so we had to sit, on a wet bench, outdoors, and luckily it wasn't raining, and the food was as enjoyable and filling as it was. Afterwards we took a walk to a cafe that Jack would go to sometimes on his lunch break, Jack treated the both of us to a hot drink, and the people working there were really nice. Afterwards we took a walk to his house where I saw his mum for the first time since, I believe it was July or August, and we all had a chat, speaking about life, family, things we've been watching like shows and films; I then went to Jack's room for a bit before heading off home, good day.

Heads up it's Friday, and my Nan came up, yay, that was nice, and I also felt at one point really cold, cold to the point where I was wearing a jumper over my pajama shirt, unusual for me to do that indoors. Later on during the evening I met my dad after work to help bring home the takeaway for our family and that was my Friday.

Now it's Saturday, and for a Saturday I didn't really do anything, and my energy was really low. During the evening however we had some family come into my sister's house, I came in to see them, just to go back out because the boys wanted to see Frankie, Frankie didn't mind, and then afterwards we went back into my sister's where we stayed long after our family who came up left, we just sat there chatting until 1:30am, and I had a walking stick with me the entire time, it was my Uncle Jim's before he passed away, I just thought to take him around with me that night, keep me company, and I'm happy to say he did.

Finally it's Sunday, and this was a plan I made around 2 or 3 days prior, and that was to go for a walk to Hyde Park. The reason for this was because I was thinking a lot about Winter Wonderland, and how it isn't happening this year, I went twice, once this year and once before Christmas last year, it's a lot of festive fun but extremely expensive, and it did feel a bit sad knowing a part of the Christmas festivities won't be there for everyone; so I went, walked from my house, through to the West End and all the way to near Marble Arch Station, where the entrance and exit to Winter Wonderland would normally be. I came across the Animals in War Memorial, and near there I saw a lot of tents, I presumed they were the anti-lockdown lot, and there were loads of police around, vans too, and there was a guy going up and down on his bike dressed in old police uniform, the hat made it look like a poorly done cosplay, and he was rambling loudly about some strike since 1872, I don't know, but people were going around filming him, you see guys social distancing is going very well, and an older man with a mustache and I looked at each other at the same time with the same confused expression, 2020 has taken its toll on some people, some worse than others clearly. I entered Hyde Park, bought myself a cappuccino and took a nice long walk around, took a lot of pictures, don't think you'll be able to see them all but the scenery was so beautiful I couldn't put my phone away, the trees, statues, lakes, memorials especially the one for the victims of the 7/7 bombings and the fountain for Princess Diana, I couldn't believe the number of people as well, you wouldn't think there was a lockdown. I left just before 4pm, just so I could get on the bus and get home in time for dinner, I felt extremely tired after walking nearly nonstop for at least 3 hours, and it was a lovely way to end the week, will definitely do this again in the next week or two.

That was my week, 30th week of these blogs, some days were more busier than others, and I felt I was chilling quite a bit, but it's the lockdown and furlough life, and I don't mind it at all, it would be nice to go back to everything, have everything back to normal, or have things lifted but we don't know what's happening next, one thing could be said one day, the next it could all change who knows what will happen. Update on me watching This Is Us, just finished Season 3, another great season, looking forward to Season 4, they've released 5 episodes of Season 5 and aren't releasing anymore until January so I should definitely be caught up then. See you all next week, hopefully the last whole week of lockdown, we can do this."

November 9th to November 15th

"It's funny, I was thinking of what to write in the intro for 29, and the only thing that came to my mind was WrestleMania 29, main evented by John Cena and The Rock, who a lot of you know as Dwayne Johnson, and it was the last WrestleMania that me and two of my mates stayed up to watch together, wasn't the last pay per view, but it was the second to last we did together, I still remember the Cena and Rock match, not the best match to main event a big show like that upon reflection, but at the time, we were out of our seats, so engaged, drinks getting spilt, the entire house waking up, gotta love it. How was that 7 years ago? Look at us now, finished school, and the rest of our education, done different jobs, gone to different countries, lost loved ones, found love, made new friends, found new interests and hobbies, too much can happen in 7 years. This is blog 29, the first whole week in the second lockdown.

Starting with Monday, and I had another blood test, it was to check how much my blood has improved in the last two or three weeks, this time I had the sharper needle since that gets the blood into the tubes quicker, and I looked away this time so I wouldn't feel funny like last time, I also made sure to take deep breaths as well; it went really well, Ceri doing a wonderful job again. Afterwards I got lunch in Exmouth Market and went home for a few hours, then I went back out to meet my mum after her shift and see Ceri, you see the photo in the previous blog, that was when the photo was taken, and then my mum and I went home, decent day to start the week.

Next is Tuesday, wow that was quick, but so is life so let's make the most of it before it's too late, because before each of us know it we all will be going through those golden gates in heaven above wondering "where did it go wrong? What would I have done differently? HOW DID WE END UP LIKE THIS?!" Anyway back to the blog; Tuesday was chilled, PlayStation, This Is Us, a nap and I went for a jog during the evening, get that exercise in, get that fresh air, burn those calories, improve that stamina; I was out for around 45 minutes and I jogged near Exmouth Market and through Angel.

Carrying what's been going on this week onto Wednesday, ah you see, different introduction, I can be original sometimes; and after that introduction I hate to disappoint you all but Wednesday was almost exactly like Tuesday, except there was no jogging; yeah, this is the lockdown life, now, let's get onto Thursday.

Now it's Thursday, and I'm happy to let you all know that Thursday was different. To start, I found out my blood test results, all is green, all is good, very happy to hear, and I just got to keep healthy, however if the sweating does continue, I will definitely look more into weight loss and even my anxiety, it's the continuation of a fascinating journey. Next I find a parcel in my name, I open it up, and it's a book, and it's a book written by a certain someone, and was signed by a certain someone, and I mentioned this certain someone earlier, John Cena, DO DO DO DDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! I got a video message from him a while ago after I made the order and I was wondering during the last week "I wonder if the book will come?" and what do you know, it did, wild coincidence. Later on I had lunch, and I was planning this for a few days; so one of my favourite snacks to have is nachos, get some tortilla chips, throw some cheese over it, and some salsa, and some sour cream, warm that up in the microwave and there you go; today I wanted that but different, I wanted to see how it was in the oven, and compare the two, and I don't use the oven much on my own so I was a bit rusty getting it to work at first; so I got the toppings, set it all up on the baking tray, put it in, turned the oven and the grill on and now I had to play the waiting game; and watch from outside as the cheese melted all over the tortilla chips; afterwards I ate it, very filling, but that's definitely going to be my prefered way of making nachos now. Afterwards, the day keeps going I know, AND IT'S ONLY EARLY AFTERNOON! I had a video call, and this was only confirmed the day prior so I had a day, just under that to prepare, no problemo; my video call was with Stephanie Kaiser from Quantum Black who is helping Elena, myself and everyone else involved with LNSEN, a project that includes a website that will help neurodiverse people so it's pretty big stuff; the video call was on Zoom which I'm not a big fan of using, however I found using it on the laptop much easier than using it on the phone, and the meeting was supposed to be 40-45 minutes, ended up being over an hour because I can't stop talking, you give me questions, I give you big answers, maybe too big, but big answers; and I was talking to Stephanie about my work, past jobs, experience in education, my Autism, what and how I can help neurodiverse people, also I answered a question about what tools I use, for a laugh I got out a screwdriver, I mean come on it was funny; overall the call went great, and I was really happy about how I did, how I answered questions, getting to know Stephanie and I look forward to seeing what happens with this project next; and before I go onto the next topic, do you want to know my position in this project and the site? Autism Champion Ambassador, I love it, I love it a lot, and since it has Champion in the title, I may as well get a championship belt online and wear it every meeting, got to stand out somehow, and I'm an Ambassador, that's a lot to take in, Son, Brother, Cousin, Student, Uncle, Brother in Law, Actor, Apprentice, Staff Member, Team Member, Writer, Director, Ambassador, wow, that's a lot of titles, and there's probably more titles that I've had in my life that I haven't even mentioned, crazy stuff, but it's good crazy. Claire messaged me regarding my shoutout to her on the blog two weeks ago, got really nice words from her so that made me feel good, everything was good today what's going on?! During the evening Mum and I went up to Angel to pick up McDonalds to take away and that was my Thursday. This was a great day overall, which is rare for me nowadays, but yeah, Thursday was great.

Coming up is Friday, and I started Friday off with mum, myself and my older brother's partner going to pick up my youngest niece from nursery, it was really nice to see her happy face once she sees us. We all walked up until City Road and during that time she was chatting away, she now calls mum Nanny Choc Choc because she always gives chocolate, that's adorable, and she said to me "Bill Bill, you're my best friend and Frankie's my boyfriend," so cute, so funny, she's just brilliant. Once we said our byes, my mum and I made our way to my uncle and aunt's house, where we had a coffee and a really nice chat. After getting home, my mum went back out to pick up my youngest nephew, he wasn't feeling well and his parents were working so we took him back home to ours where we looked after him until one of his parents got home. A few hours later I met my dad after work to help him with the takeaways, and that was my Friday.

Looky here it's Saturday, here you go another new one, and with this lockdown I'm now dreading weekends, because everyone is inside, nothing to do, and sometimes that can be a bit much for me, and a bit overwhelming. Luckily it was more relaxed than anything, started off the day with McDonald's breakfast which is always a good thing, and my nan came up for a bit which was nice, we all had a great chat and laugh. Afterwards I found out my family in America have a new dog, his name is Petey, he is a German Shepherd mix, a 8 week old rescue puppy, and HE, IS, SO, CUTE!!! Can't wait to meet him once this pandemic is done and we can fly anywhere and everywhere we want without any problems, I'm gonna give that good handsome boy big cuddles.

Finally it's Sunday, and you want to know what I got up to? Not much, shame ain't it, that buildup to the last day and not much really happened, well what can you do. I played on the PlayStation for a few hours and that was it really, nothing else really happened on my Sunday.

And that was the first whole week in this second lockdown, it was, a week in a lockdown really, not much to say except I made most of my free time, had few things planned ahead so I looked forward to those, and yeah, bit anticlimactic I know, but what can you do? I did forget to mention that I am now beginning Season 3 of This Is Us, I've laughed, cried, I even cried hard, we're talking saliva, snot, the lot, probably the hardest I cried all year, I won't say what episode because spoilers, and I did watch a wrestling pay per view last Saturday, I believe I forgot to mention that but that was a really good show, there's always one or two things I forget when writing these, and that's it, yeah, another blog done, another big one next week, 30, the big THREE OH, also big 3 is a reference to This Is Us, won't say why because spoilers. I shall see you all then, number 30, another week of lockdown, woo hoo."

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November 2nd - 8th

"I called it, I called it weeks and weeks ago, a 2nd lockdown, me still doing the blogs, and here we are, we're in a 2nd lockdown and I am writing my 28th blog, how did we even get here? So this week was the last few days of freedom and the first few days of lockdown, I've got to be honest it doesn't feel like a lockdown, I guess it's either because everyone else feels that way which makes me feel that way, or that I got so used to how London looked during lockdown that the sight of almost everything closed is very familiar. Well I can look at it like this, it's a 2nd lockdown, I'm sure it won't be as long as the first, right? I'm the only one in the house furloughed so that's fantastic, getting the house to myself a few days a week is always going to be satisfying, and the days when the whole family are inside, I don't know, I guess we have to take it a few days at a time, now let's start this blog during the last few days of freedom.

Kicking things off with Monday, and it was my youngest niece's 3rd birthday, it's a shame she couldn't have a party with everyone up because of the government guidelines, however my mum and I did decide to surprise her when her and her mum (my sister in law) were going to pick up her older sister from school. Mum and I approached the car after it got parked, and we saw her sleeping, she looked absolutely adorable, her mum woke her up, she had a little whinge, just a couple of seconds, and then she was lively and chatty. I gave her the present I bought her, it was a doll, but with the texture of a teddy so it was really soft, and the doll's name was Flora, and she kept saying her name, hugging her, kissing her, she kept asking if she was her's and if she can take her home, I don't think she understood that it was a present, she's so sweet. After picking up her sister from school, we stood around for a while, having a chat, and then they went home, before mum and I went to Angel to do some shopping. During the evening I went to the gym, got to make the most of the gym before lockdown starts, and I actually worked on my stamina on the treadmill, WOW NO ONE SAW THAT COMING, and what I did was that I spent a minute and a half walking, and a minute and a half either jogging or running, and I'd repeat those two for the next ten minutes, it was good, it was tiring, and something I need to get used to, the rest of my time at the gym I worked on my chest, arms, thighs and legs.

Following up with Tuesday, and I went to work, and not for a shift, but for coffee and cake with my line manager and some of my colleagues, there was a bittersweet feeling in the air, knowing that this was going to be nice for us lot to be together, but also that lockdown is coming up and the museum will be closed again, so for now, this is the last time we'll all see each other until next month, maybe longer depending on how lockdown goes. As we all met and sat down, my line manager gave us all a magnet each which was an art picture of Greenwich, and a card with a special message, I read mine and I thought I was going to start crying, the words I've heard and even seen before, but the meaning hit me so much more harder knowing that today is the last time we'll see each other for a bit; after an hour of chatting and having a laugh, we all went our separate ways. Once I got home, I settled down for half an hour before going out to get my haircut and a trim on my beard, instead of going into lockdown with the mindset of growing everything out, why not go into the next lockdown fresh and clean; so I went inside, and got a 1 on top and 0 on the side and I got my beard all trimmed and fresh, and then I went to see my mum at her workplace and she absolutely loved what I had done, and then I got the first of many comments I would get this week, this suits you so much better Bill, and that was only the start of many more who would say that.

Coming up next is Wednesday, and I started off my day with meeting my mum and her work colleague for lunch at a nearby cafe, her work colleague did my blood test 2 or 3 weeks ago (was it 2 or 3 weeks ago? I can't even remember), and I may as well say her name in case anyone from SMMA or The Courtyard recognise her, Ceri, ring a bell? There's a picture of the two of us below, you'll probably recognise the eyes. The lunch was lovely and we all had a good laugh, and I paid, because I'm a good boy. Later on during the evening I went to the gym, one last time before lockdown began, and I did what I did Monday with the treadmill, felt harder this time, I blamed lunch, and then after this I worked on my legs, chest, back and arms before heading home.

So right now we've got Thursday, the first day of lockdown, got no plans, drama class is postponed until lockdown is over, absolutely nothing going on, except, it was my youngest niece's first day at nursery, YYYYYAAAAAAYYYYYY, first she turned 3, now she is starting nursery, what is going on?!?!? So her mum spent time at ours after dropping her off and then her and I went down to pick her up, and her little face in her uniform could make anyone's heart melt, and she had a good day too so that was wonderful, all these kids are growing up too fast, I'm just wondering where niece or nephew number 6 is coming, unless that's my job, and if that is, good luck to me because my love life is dreadful. Later on I went to a family friend's house, it was one of my brother's best friends' birthday so I dropped off his card and dropped off some beef for his mum, and that was my Thursday, quite productive if I say so myself.

What's this, it's Friday! What did I do on this day?! Nothing really, played on the PlayStation and then during the evening I met dad after work, he was getting a takeaway for us so I just met him, and helped him carry the bags home, that's it really, don't know what anyone else expected on a Friday during lockdown.

Now it's Saturday, and on this day I helped Mum with the shopping up Angel, got myself some dinners for Monday and Tuesday, helped with the bags, and I got myself a Strawberries & Cream Frappuchino from Starbucks. During the evening I spent a couple of hours on the PlayStation and that was my Saturday, nice, chilled, relaxing, plus doing something for around an hour or so, good day.

Finally we've reached Sunday, and I woke up not in the best mood, I mean it's Sunday, nothing is happening, which is now like everyday, but the difference is that everyone is in, in an overpriced flat where peace and quiet can sometimes be hard to get, so I decided to go for a walk, clear my head, get some fresh air, and in my new tracksuit which I felt really nice in. I must've been out for around an hour and a half, maybe two, going around Angel, Old Street, Essex Road, Upper Street and City Road, I then went home to nap for around 3 or so hours, and that was my Sunday.

That was my overall week, went very quick, and wasn't a bad week either, had a couple of deliveries arrive including a new tracksuit, game for the PS4, mouse for the laptop, so all of that is good, and the news of the week was Biden becoming President and Harris becoming Vice President, the only thing I got from that was a question, and that question is why does everyone in the UK care about the US Election so much? Why does the UK have this mad obsession with America? It's as if they're all living there. I don't know, and I don't care, sometimes it's hard for me to care about things, if I don't understand it, or if I can't relate to it, I'm just not going to care, you can convince me to care, but it won't work, you can even torture me to make me care, it just won't work, sorry not sorry. Anyway, it's going to be really interesting to see what next week brings, nothing planned, first whole week in lockdown, let's see how mad the world will be, it's already mad enough, both with anger and insanity, yet we've all been in lockdown before so it should be fine, should be easy, I guess. So I will see you all next week, anything else to leave you with? Stay healthy, do positive things whatever they are, look after those around you, and support the arts, I know a thing or two don't match up but I wanted to get a certain message out there, see y'all next week."

October 26th to November 1st

 “So, we have now entered Blog 27, the last few days of October, the beginning of November, and the number 27, there isn't really much to say about it, except there is a list called the 27 Club, a list that consists of musicians, artists, actors and other famous figures that have passed away at the age of 27, and this list includes Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Jonathan Brandis, Jade Goody, Amy Winehouse, Anton Yelchin and the list goes on, it's quite scary isn't it, I'm 24 now, 27 is just under 3 years away, and I'm an actor, so that's worrying, but put it this way, I'm planning to be around for a very long time, and if I'm not, then I hope to accomplish in death what I couldn't in life, go down as a pioneer to people like me, and of course, as an absolute legend. Geez Billy, did you need to go that deep? Well I’m sorry Billy, I couldn’t think of anything to write involving 27, then what are you going to do for 28 Billy? I don’t know Billy, why are you talking to yourself? I don’t know Billy I tend to do this on a daily basis; ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blog 27.

After that deep and personal opening, we go to Monday, so from the beginning of this week I knew that I didn't have much plans this week, so it was going to be interesting to see what I was going to do this week, and the one day I choose to do nothing but chill on, was of course going to be this one, continued watching This Is Us which I am loving, and I don't recall doing anything else, just relaxing, having a me day, not worrying about a thing, and sometimes those kind of days are just absolutely necessary.

Going onto Tuesday, originally was meant to be a work day but I booked the last of my annual leave off on this day. Tuesday this week was similar to Monday, that I was chilling, watching This Is Us, and then the evening came, and the evening was different to Monday's, because I decided to be a good boy and go gym, but before that, I saw my eldest niece and nephew, who were staying at my eldest sister's house for the next few nights, ended up chasing my nephews up and down the flat floor, another realisation of why I need to work on my stamina. I then went to the gym, where I worked on my thighs, legs, chest and shoulders, and I came back feeling great, which is always good when a workout is done.

Next is Wednesday, in the day just like the two previous days I was just chilling and watching This Is Us, and then in the evening is when things got busy, had quite of bit of family members come up, if I mean quite a bit, I mean all of my siblings, spouses and children, and they were all staying and chatting in my eldest sister's house, while my part of the family, we had to do the babysitting with my nieces and nephews, and if I mean babysitting, I mean all five of them, in the same house, and there is one more of them than us, so my parents, younger brother and I had a numbers disadvantage, and it showed, there was a lot of noise, tantrums, play fighting between the kids that could've got out of hand, and much more mayhem, there was also a point where I actually would have one of the kids on my shoulders, and I would perform squats, did 5 with the eldest nephew, another 5 with my youngest nephew, and tried to do 5 with my second to youngest niece, and couldn't do more than 2, so now I know my limit when it comes to performing squats with extra weight on my shoulders, which is 12, and after those squats my thighs were killing me, I was feeling the pain for the next 3 days. After what felt like forever, the kids all went into my eldest sister's house, and all was quiet, it was over, it was done, and there was peace for the rest of our evening.

We follow up with Thursday, began Thursday with a friend of my mum's, her daughter and granddaughter coming up which was nice, and then I went to my drama class during the evening, and everything I was in, I was doing great with, along with my confidence this class, I just kept making everyone laugh, I felt like I was on fire, and this momentum just kept building, and then the ending happened, so to conclude the class, we all got around in a circle, and we all had to say starting with the letter A, a name, what they bought, and what country or city did they buy it in, and you couldn't do the next letter until someone got eliminated, and the thing is with me is that I have a short attention span, so I missed that little part out, and I thought we were all doing different letters, so one person does A, the next does B, the next does C onwards etc. So in the rotation chosen, I was looking to go third, and while the first person did A, I spent the next moment thinking of what to say, while completely missing what the second person said, so in my mind I'm still thinking it's C, so I say what I think, which I believe was "Conor bought Cars in Connecticut," and just like that, first one out, well done Bill, well done, but I didn't let that affect how well I did that evening. Afterwards myself and 3 others went to The Shakespeare's Head and that's Thursday done.

Right here is Friday, and Friday was quite productive, I started the day seeing my friend from the previous Saturday, I went up to her house, and her son was there too, spoke to him a lot about films, shows and public transport, and it was a really nice two and a half hours. Later on I had a really nice chat with Ms. Vidal on the phone, we spoke about what's been going on this half term, what could be happening next with COVID in the country, and what we've been watching, the chat was around 25 minutes, and it really was lovely.

Now it's Saturday, which is odd because the previous day felt like a Saturday. and on this day, I was working, now I know what you all are thinking, Billy, why would you work on a weekend? Well it was Halloween and with COVID going on I had no plans, and it was also the last day on my contract as a VSA worker before they put me back into the Events Host position, so I thought, well why not? Sometimes I need to tell myself to not be that optimistic. To start, I got onto the tube, Angel Station, the Northern line, and I only find out once I'm on the tube that the tube was terminating at Moorgate, one stop before I had to get off, once I got off, I find out that some of the Northern line is closed for the weekend, of course it would be, so from Moorgate I had to get the Hammersmith and City line to Liverpool Street, and then the Central line to Bank, and then the DLR to Cutty Sark, where I got to work just a couple of minutes before briefing started, I got so lucky. Then the day came, horrible weather so people were trying to get in as quick as they could, some people were having problems booking their tickets through the website, it was all really overwhelming. I spent the majority of my day keeping an eye on the exit, and the exit has two automatic glass doors, one is used for when people leave the museum, the other is for when people leave the cafe, in between are barriers, and I would turn my head for a brief moment, the next thing I see is someone going under the barrier, and there were a couple of people that did that, and people did that to either enter the cafe, or go into the shop, I mean they could've just gone around the two doors, would've taken a few extra seconds but still, and we even had a woman have a go at us because of the one way system, so if you wanted to leave the museum and go to the cafe, you'd have to leave the museum, walk down for like 5 seconds, and go through the door, and this woman wasn't having it, only because it was raining, so you can't be bothered to go outside, for 5 seconds, like 5 seconds in the rain isn't going to ruin your hair or makeup, when I said people were getting cranky last week, I meant it, and it's gotten worse. During the last hour, yep there's more, I get told that I'll be staying an extra hour with a team leader to keep an eye on the cafe, I had no idea, and the team leader that told me slapped himself on the forehead, he thought someone would've told me already, these are stressful times, I wasn't too bothered about staying back, would've I prefered to have been told this earlier? Absolutely, but I'll be a good boy, stay that extra hour, make myself look better, and maybe get paid extra for my next payroll, also, they're relying on one team leader, and another team member, that being me to keep an eye on one area, I think that's pretty cool. The hour past, it was easy, and it was time to go home, got on the DLR, and got off at Bank, and I went to get the 43 bus but here's the problem, due to the insane number of roadworks going on, I couldn't travel anywhere, so I ended up walking all the way home from Bank, what a day. We weren't done yet, everyone was waiting for Boris' announcement and it was what we expected, lockdown for the next month, it was obvious it was happening, plans could change in the next few weeks for better or worse depending on the number of cases, we'll see.

Finally it's Sunday, on this day, and I made this plan a couple of days prior, I decided to take a trip to Croydon, I did ask two friends who live near there if they wanted to meet, but neither of them could make it so I was riding solo. I got to Highbury & Islington Station and took the Overground line to West Croydon and from there I took a walk around the place and went into a couple of shops, I ended up going into Lush and buying nearly £60 worth of bath bombs, yes, you read that correctly. I then went to get lunch in Kaspa's, I have never been to Kaspa's and have expressed interest before, so why not? I went in and got myself a Bubblicious Sundae and a Bubblegum and Sour Skittles Milkshake, and both were amazing. After this I was looking to get on the tram but some of the stops were closed so I got onto the 410 bus and got off near Wandle Park where I took a look around and took plenty of pictures, I then got onto the tram, which from my experience is like a bus on the inside because of the layout of the seats, and on the outside it's likeness is close to a tube, I was wondering what to do next and I saw that there were two stops with the word "Mitcham" so I decided to see what was going on, and see the difference between the two Mitchams; got off at Mitcham Junction, on one side was the golf club, and on the other was a road and a pathway with trees surrounding it, I walked down this path just to realise it was leading to someone's house, so I turned around and got back onto the tram. Got off the next stop at Mitcham and, it was houses, just lots and lots of houses, so the difference between the two is that one has more houses than the other, so I got back onto the tram which took me to Wimbledon. Once I got off at Wimbledon I took a look around the area and then went to the Prince of Wales pub. After this I got onto the train to Waterloo and once I got off I walked to the bus stop where I waited for the 341, and I must've waited for around 20-25 minutes, these roadworks are delaying all of the buses, eventually I got on the bus and got home, by the time I got home it was nearly 7pm, so I was out for around 7 hours.

And that was my week, it went so quick, I felt like it went quickest from Monday to Thursday, that went in a flash, and here we are, now in November, 2nd to last month of the year, the time the weather begins getting colder, the night comes earlier and the Christmas adverts begin to come on TV, and now as I’m writing, we’re approaching a second lockdown which from the start was inevitable, a lockdown that’s meant to go on for a month, I’m not too fussed about it, if we could go over 3 months without pubs, restaurants, gyms and cinemas, we can do it again easily, plus I’ve got a lot of This Is Us to watch so that’s going to keep me busy, and with mum, dad and Frankie at work, that gives me plenty of time to catchup on a lot of stuff on the fire stick. I am always going to think of the what if scenarios, what if it gets extended, what if it stops in some UK cities and continued in some, could you imagine one UK city in lockdown during Christmas and New Years? I don’t even want to picture that, we’ll see what happens, I’m hoping for the best, for everyone. Also I have to question one thing, so we can’t mix in with anyone that doesn’t live with us but we have to go to nursery, school, college or university where there are a mix of people from different households, yeah sure, that makes so much sense. Before I go, gotta give a shoutout to a good friend of mine, Claire Churchman aka The Unusual Stereotype, who has written some fantastic blogs involving topics such as mental health and OCD, and they’re all fantastic, with plenty of advice and plenty to learn, highly recommend them; I met Claire five years ago at the Anna Scher Theatre and we’ve been good friends since, and collaborated numerous times in plays which was always fun, she’s always been really supportive and has given me great advice especially when I’ve been at my low points, she’s a really great friend and she’s always going to have a special place in my heart, the link to her blogs are below, please give them a read if you have the time. That’s the blog guys, nice mixture of emotions, events and quite a bit of This Is Us (I am becoming obsessed with that show), and I will see you next week for when we enter lockdown again, we’ve done it once before guys, we can do it again.”

My friend's blog

October 19th to October 25th

"So Billy, we have a very special question to ask you, do you know what the question is? The question is, what can you write for blog 26? How can you introduce this one blog? I can't. What do you mean you can't? I can't think of anything regarding the number 26, there's nothing there. Ok, so should we just get on with it? Yes Billy, let's get on with it.

Monday, what a wonderful day to start the week, and it can't get any better than doing a work shift, how splendid! So what happened was that I was doing the rotation on the ground floor and one person didn't come in last minute, so instead of swapping around or calling someone to come in, we've all just decided to swap amongst ourselves anytime we wanted to, made things easier, easier than looking at one rotation the whole day, and Monday is normally one of the more quiet days so that helped, but I did realise that some people coming to the museum have become more cranky, many still asking if they can come through despite explaining that they needed tickets, or they needed to go to the entrance on the other side, slowly but surely people are losing their minds, we've just got to prepare for it, anarchy is amongst us. Overall it was a fine day with a fine work shift.

Next up is Tuesday, and I went for a blood test at my local clinic, just by Exmouth Market, used to go here a lot as a kid so it was bringing back memories, and my mum works there now so that's good. Last time I remember going here was actually for a blood test as well, at the time the thinning in my hair was getting more significant so I had a blood test to determine if the thinning is natural or due to stress, and it was natural, yikes. This blood test was to do with my sweating, something that was overdue, and a problem I've been having on and off for seven years, so I went in, and saw the doctor, who actually used to attend the sixth form in St. Mary Magdalene just like me, small world, we're having a little chat, next thing you know a needle is in my arm, could barely feel it, and then the tube comes in, and I did what no one should do when having a blood test, I looked at the tube, and saw the blood go in, and then I felt funny, then one tube was done, and then the next one began, and then I started to hold my head up with my right arm, which was on my right knee, and I began giggling it was so weird, then it was done, and I had to put pressure on a piece of cotton on where the needle was injected to stop the bleeding, and then I was done, right on time for my mum's lunch break where we got a coffee and I got myself a nice lamb doner with a whole bunch of stuff in, portion was big enough for a dinner, would definitely recommend the food stalls in Exmouth Market; back on topic my mum tried to send a text to let me know to drink loads of water before the blood test, the text didn't come through, and as I am typing I have bruising around where I had the blood test, luckily it doesn't hurt. For the rest of the day I was relaxing, and filmed my monologue for the previous blog, good day.

Wednesday now, last day before I go work tomorrow, and my oh my what a miserable day, did not stop raining, it was my older brother's birthday and I didn't fancy taking a trip to his in this weather, so I met my sister in law and youngest niece outside of St. John the Evangelist RC Church where I gave them his cards, and picked up my youngest niece's sister from her school, she had this colourful facemask on, and was jumping up and down when she saw me, as soon as her teacher let her go, she ran into my arms, it was so lovely, a bit on sunshine on a miserable day. During the evening I went to the gym for the first time in like 4 weeks, I need to be more motivated and get my head straight, and I was focusing on my shoulders, thighs, legs and chest during my workout, it was a good workout, a well needed one too.

Welcome to Thursday and on this day I was working a shift, on this day I didn't know this but the new exhibition was open to the members of the museum so it made a difference, I was supposed to open the gates at the entrance but they've been open for the last hour, and I presumed everything else on that side of the museum was open so I didn't bother getting the keys, around an hour or so later one of my colleagues notice that the propeller isn't on, so one of the team leaders covers me while I go to get the keys, which my ID card still didn't work for nearly a year later, I got the keys, turned on the propeller, and got on with the day; I also had to check off a checklist that had the names of members visiting the exhibition, one of the surnames was Chandler, a relative maybe? In the end despite the misunderstanding with the keys, it was an alright day. During the evening I went to my drama class, did an improvisation set during Singles Night, which was fine though some jokes I said didn't land which I realised on the spot, and I also had to do an improvisation where myself and whoever I was acting with had to begin each sentence saying "well what you say makes me feel" and that was quite hard doing that on the spot. Afterwards we went to Shakespeare's Head, it's a shame with the curfews we can't spend more time there, though I did mention that we should all meet one evening and go there for a few hours, and since the people at Shakespeare's Head know us, surely they wouldn't mind.

Now it's Friday, and on this day I didn't do much, just chilling and relaxing, I did however wake up to hear my results of my blood test, and long story short, blood is fine, but regarding the sweating I need to improve myself physically and then have another one in the next two or three weeks, and pick up a lotion from Boots that helps with sweat, so all of this is fine, and if that doesn't work, maybe I can see if it's my anxiety, and see what happens from there. I also went to the gym too, just to get that exercise in and to get out of the house for a bit, was mostly working on my shoulders, chest and thighs, and I felt good afterwards, I definitely needed it.

Coming up is Saturday, and I began my day meeting a friend of mine, she's the same friend that had that birthday for one of her neighbour's a few months ago, and this was the first time we were seeing each other since Thorpe Park last month; we went to the cafe which was her treat and was really nice, and she did some shopping which I accompanied her for, then we went back to her house for a bit where we had a chat, at one point she facetimed her cousin, and her cousin played my missus in The Ends 3 years ago, and ever since then I'd ask my friend "how's the missus?" and she would know that I'm talking about her cousin, and now she has a baby, it's unbelievable what could happen in 3 years. Later on in the evening, my family had to do some babysitting, was looking after my youngest nephew and my two youngest nieces, and put it this way, there was so much noise, so much going on, it was hard to keep up with what they were doing, it was for around 3 and a half or 4 hours and I couldn't believe we got through it. After this, yes the day is still going, I watched a wrestling pay per view and that was my Saturday.

Finally it's Sunday, spent the day chilling and relaxing and I went to the gym during the afternoon, and worked on my chest, arms, legs, thighs, arms and stomach, it was a very good workout, and I ended my evening, weekend and overall week watching another wrestling pay per view.

That was my week, it was good, very productive, did something everyday even when I had no plans, and next week will be interesting, I've got no plans for the majority of the week, I'm working Saturday which will be my last day as a part time VSA (Visitor & Sales Assistant) before they bring me back to Events Host to do zero hours, which I don't mind because I kinda miss choosing my own shifts, and it'll be the end of October and the beginning of November, and the road to Christmas continues, what is going on with life right now, we're having a pandemic Christmas and New Years, I can't even digest that. I have to mention as well that I watched the first episode of This Is Us, a friend of mine keeps asking me to watch it, now I'm watching it, and that reveal at the end blew my mind, looking forward to seeing what happens next. Take care guys, have a good week."

October 12th to October 18th

"25 is a big number obviously, it's the silver anniversary, it's quarter of 100, it's the number after 24, I'm 25 next July, Ed, Edd n Eddy wanted 25 cents for a jawbreaker. Can't think of anything else regarding the number 25 except it's the follow up to one of my biggest and most important blogs, which was 24 which marked half a year / 6 months worth of blogs, it's gone so quick since I published it I honestly feel like this week has flown by, yet I find myself struggling to remember some of what happened, so here we are, blog 25, did some stuff, did some relaxing, a lot of eating, seeing family, going to the cinema, and preparing for some stuff next week too, so let's get to it shall we.

Kicking things off with Monday and I was just chilling all day until the evening, had a really late screening to go to a part of the BFI London Film Festival, it was held at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair and the film was called Supernova. Supernova is about two partners played by Academy Award Winner Colin Firth and Academy Award Nominee Stanley Tucci who travel across the UK to see family and friends, two years after Tusker, played by Stanley Tucci, got diagnosed with dementia. The film is wonderfully acted, beautifully shot and well written, it is also composed by Keaton Henson who does a fantastic job. If you love the scenery of the UK countryside you get a handful of beautiful shots of it in this film, and if you love astronomy, some of that is involved too, would highly recommend this film.

Coming up next is Tuesday, and I was going to meet up with Jack, he told me he had a work meeting and he was going to contact me to let me know when he was on his way to mine, and it would be some time after 12:45pm, I get woken up around 12:15pm by my house phone (I didn't have the best sleep which is why I woke up late) and turns out his meeting ended much earlier than expected, and he's been trying to contact me for over an hour, WWWWWHHHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!?!??!??!??!?!?!? So I get ready and let Jack in, so what's our plan? We were going to go Jollibee, if you don't know what Jollibee is, it is a Filipino fast food restaurant chain with over 1,200 outlets worldwide with products that include fried chicken, spaghetti, burgers, rice, chips and more, the Jollibee in London is only one of two stores in the UK. Our plan was to travel to Earl's Court, eat there then head home, but the terrible weather was looking to change our plans, so we looked to ordering online from Uber Eats or Deliveroo, but they didn't deliver to my location, so now we're travelling there, which we did by taking two underground tubes, then walking for 10 minutes, eventually arriving there, and letting us in. We ordered a bucket meal with chicken, bacon and cheese burgers, and we knew this was expensive, if you look at the prices they're insane, but we weren't aware of how much we were going to get, with the bucket of chicken pieces, which I believe was either 8 or 10, we got 4 medium chips, 4 boxes of spaghetti and 4 medium drinks, yes all of that is a part of the meal, add the two burgers, and we have enough food to feed a family of 4, maybe even 5, it was like 2 trays full of food, the workers must've thought we were mad; we couldn't even finish our food, so we took whatever we had left, put it in the bucket, and made our way home. We decided to get the bus so we could walk some of the calories off, plus going straight to the underground could've potentially caused one if not both of us to be sick, so we spent ages trying to find a bus stop, found one that had a bus that could take us to Hyde Park Corner, and being on this bus felt like an eternity, the traffic was unbearable and the weather wasn't helping, so we decided to get off at Hyde Park Corner, and instead of getting the 19 or 38 we got onto the tube to take us to King's Cross, and then change to the Northern line to get to Angel to get to mine. We finally get home where Jack has a nice catchup with my mum, they haven't seen each other since before lockdown so it was good that they saw each other, and we had a cup of tea before Jack made his way home, it was a good day, it was just the weather and the traffic that made it quite irritating.

Following up with Wednesday, and I am at work, and going into work, I was in an optimistic mood, the weather wasn't as bad as it has been the last few days, they've got me on a good rotation, today was going to be a good day! Then the briefing happened, so after checking the rotations for everyone and talking about what's going on, we're informed that someone couldn't come in at the last minute, and my position has been changed, so this new rotation I got would normally be me in two different locations the whole day, a bit annoying but at the same time it was different, so I was remaining optimistic, then I realised the one way system changed, again, and then when it was time for me to change to a different location I found out that this rotation in the last week has changed, and it involves me working on the second floor, hang on what? I haven't even been trained on the second floor, the only thing I know about the second floor is my way around it, like how to get to each gallery, and that's it really, I don't know about locking up each of the galleries, or the evacuations, the best part of this is that where I started and where I'm ending is easy to do, but this, this isn't the best idea at all, and I was just doubting myself, so I spoke to one of the team leaders, he told me he'd meet me in one of the galleries, and I spoke to one of the managers who made a good point, she said that I handled the issue with the lost child a couple of weeks ago, so I could do something like this, which is true, but this isn't about one person, it's about every person on that floor, in those three galleries, and if there is an evacuation, chances are I'm messing that up and someone's life is in danger because of me, plus seeing that the workers should be aware that I haven't been trained on that floor and that I'm on the spectrum, they should be aware of how risky of a move this is, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, so what did I do? I just did it, there was nothing else for me to do so I just went and did it, luckily there was no evacuations and the day went along as it did, went quite quick too, and I felt like I learned quite a bit about the navy at sea from years ago, it wasn't the best day for work, but it wasn't the worst, I just need to stop judging myself and believe in myself more when I'm thrown into the deep end.

It's now Thursday, and I went out with mum to do some shopping in Old Street, and then we popped up to see Uncle Trevor and Auntie Susie which was really nice, I spoke to Uncle Trevor about my shift at work and he helped me see the more positive side of it. During the evening I attended my drama class, was involved in an improvisation that was supposed to be comedic, and the setting was at an undertaker's shop so it was going more towards dark humour, and while the idea was good, the execution was a mixed bag, I later on was involved in an improvisation where each of us involved could only use 3 words in a sentence, it is quite difficult but can be easy if you're thinking of the right response on the spot. Afterwards we went to The Shakespeare's Head to end our evening.

Look what we've got here it's Friday, originally I was meant to be in work but I used my annual leave on this day, there isn't much reason behind why I chose this day, just saw this day and I was like "yeah, I'll take it off, why not" and this day was a mixture of different things going on, began in the morning by taking part in a masterclass by Siena Castellon, two weeks ago I was answering the questions now I am with the pupils, listening to Siena and asking her any questions, after going through her website and listening to some of her backstory in this masterclass, it's incredible to see how far she's come, even accepting awards from BBC Radio 1 and being invited to Kensington Palace, could you imagine how much further she could go 5 years from now, the sky's the limit for her, I'll leave the link to her website below the blog, it contains plenty of useful information on Asperger's, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Anxiety and so much more. Later on in the day I didn't have anything planned so I played on the PlayStation for two hours, then nothing much happened after that, and then the evening came and we got a surprise visit from my older brother, sister in law and youngest nieces, and seeing that hours from that point people will no longer be able to go into other people's households until who knows when, we had to make the most of it, and it was lovely, the youngest of my two nieces didn't want to leave me, made me smile, I absolutely love that kid, she's two, nearly three and she's so funny and so loving, and she is so well behaved it's unreal, I'll do anything for her.

Right onto Saturday, and on this day was my third and last screening of this year's BFI London Film Festival, and this was for this film called Soul, the latest film by Pixar which recently got announced for a Disney+ release for Christmas Day, because if there is one thing COVID likes doing it's alternating film releases and making films worked on by hundreds if not thousands of people lose money. Now, I've been looking forward to this film since the release of it's teaser trailer last November, plus Disney always has a special place in my heart. The screening was held at the Cine Lumiere in South Kensington, my second time visiting this cinema, and I'm happy to say that Soul truly does deliver in every single way, I don't know how else I can compliment the movie except it was everything I wanted and more, it's one of those movies that makes you laugh and cry, and, it's going to be wild of me saying this, but if you watch this movie when it comes out you'll understand where I'm coming from, it actually makes you appreciate life that much more, an animated movie doing that, who would've thought, from things such as sight, smell, taste, and moments we share with our loved ones, from our favourite times, to even our last with those loved ones, this film showcases all of that beautifully, and there's nothing else I think I can say about this film, it was perfect in every way. Also, advice to anyone ever getting a bus from South Kensington, don't, because chances are you'll be stuck at Harrods for around half an hour with very little movement from the bus driver.

Finally it's Sunday, and I didn't really do anything, didn't fancy doing anything either, it just didn't feel like one of those days, so I chilled, and relaxed, and prepared for work the next day.

So that was my week, very productive for the most part, and very descriptive too, I think this is up there for one of my longest, which is suiting for a 25th blog, and with COVID, we have a long way to go, unless a vaccine comes out, SOMEONE GIVE ME HOPE PLEASE. Thank you all for reading, see below me performing the monologue I did a week or two ago in my drama class, and also involves me talking about some other stuff too because it's very easy for me to go off topic and change topic, and hopefully this time you'll be able to see the cookies my mum, youngest nephew and I baked. Thanks for reading, see you all next week.“

Siena's website

Billy's groom monologue

October 5th to October 11th 

"24 is a bigger number than I expected when it comes to the blogs, I turned 24 at the end of July, crazy how that was already 2 and a half months ago, there's 24 hours in a day, 24 is an acclaimed TV series, and there's 24 weeks in 6 months, by that last one, is why this blog is bigger than most of the blogs I've done, I've been doing these for 6 whole months, half a year, I can't believe it. By the way this pandemic was going, I wasn't expecting these blogs to go on for half a year, to be fair I don't think any of us expected this pandemic to go on for this long, but here we are. I have found these blogs to be therapeutic mentally from when everything or nearly everything was closed, I have found these blogs to be something that I can keep busy with, give me something to do going from 45 minutes, to even 3 hours because I have a constant need of going through every sentence and making sure everything is right. I do admit there are times when my timing is poor, like last week, I don't know where to begin with that, was in Southampton Sunday, next day I went home and was really tired so I typed half of it, went to bed, got up for work, went home, slept, had dinner, continued writing and was planning to finish it and then I fell asleep, and woke up the following morning realising that I didn't finish it, I believe I finished it Wednesday afternoon, and the worst part was, I left certain things out which I couldn't believe, so I had to do a day in the blog again, and by the time it was published, I believe it was Thursday evening, which is bad considering we're half way through that week, hopefully now I will get better with my timing. This is blog 24, 6 months of blogs, half a year, let's go.

Clearly you know we're starting on Monday and you all know that I'm in Southampton and I make my way home, anything else? Well I had a shower, met mum and dad, we went back to The Standing Order to have breakfast and drink as much coffee as we could, we then went to Westquay Shopping Centre to go through some shops and see what we could find, got myself some bath bombs from Lush, and got myself some donuts and a milkshake from Krispy Kreme; after this I decided to head back to my parents room since I already checked out of mine and chilled until my parents came back. We all relaxed for a bit, at one point I went onto their balcony and saw a massive cruise ship, honestly it must've been bigger than the hotel we were staying at. Afterwards we decided to head out for a walk until my train came along, got myself Subway so I made sure I was full enough, and then got the train to Waterloo. Once I got off at Waterloo I got the 341 home, because sometimes getting the bus to certain places can be quicker than getting the tube. Once I got home I got myself a takeaway, yeah I know I've eaten too much, and that was it really, that was my Monday, kicking off the week.

We then follow onto Tuesday where I go to work, had a rough sleep so I wasn't in the best of moods, nor did I feel motivated to do anything, if I had things my way I would've called and taken the day off, but I never liked to do things like that unless there's an emergency. When it came to my shift there wasn't really anything to say about it except that it did take me awhile to get into my shift mentally, and I had trouble locking the toilets at the end of the shift, other than that nothing else happened, it was a fine shift. Once I got home, I knew I didn't have work the next day and felt so tired so I ended up having a sleep, by the time I woke up it was around 8pm, didn't need to wake up in the morning so I didn't mind, had dinner, continued writing the blog and I've fallen asleep on the sofa.

Wednesday starts with me waking up the next day on the sofa in disbelief, by the time I fell asleep, it must've been between 12am and 1am, I'm surprised that I wasn't up until 3am or 4am because of how late I woke up, and then reality hit me, I haven't finished the blog, wonderful. I was very slow with it as well because my parents came home, and it was my dad's 60th birthday, so I spent the day chilling indoors with my family. Other family members came up during the evening including my eldest sister, brother in law, youngest nephew, eldest brother, sister in law and my two youngest nieces, it was all really nice, a lovely evening.

Heads up it's Thursday, to start Thursday off, I didn't have anything planned besides the evening, but I got a text from Jack, he wants me to pop down to his workplace, give me something he got me which he didn't have to do, so I came to see him, and he got me a t shirt, and it was the Spider-Man symbiote logo, which I thought was really cool, I've got more than enough black shirts, but I'll make an exemption, him and I had a chat until his lunch break ended and I went back home. Later on in the evening I went to my drama class and that was good, I was in an improvisation about two old friends reuniting at an AA meeting which was good, volume of the voice went down a bit towards the end but good nonetheless, and I performed a monologue based on a groom anxiously waiting for the bride which was great, and class ended half an hour earlier than last week, EVEN BETTER! I almost rushed out of class once it ended to get to The Shakespeare's Head, and it was a nice way to end the class, the curfew is still rubbish though.

It's Friday, and I had nothing planned, so I played on the PlayStation for a few hours, and then I went for a walk during the evening for an hour, going around Angel and Old Street, and that's it really, that was my Friday.

Next up is Saturday, on this day I was supposed to be at work, but seeing my contract is coming up at the end of the month, and am going back to zero hours in November, I had to use my annual leave, so I took this day off, because it's a Saturday, and you regular readers of these blogs remember the last Saturday I worked right? So yeah, I took this Saturday off simply because it was a Saturday, and my family was out most of the day so I had the house to myself. During the evening, I attended one of the three screenings I have booked for this year's BFI London Film Festival, it would've been more but I've lost track of anything regarding this year, I was shocked that the BFI London Film Festival was going ahead. This screening was at the BFI Southbank and the film was called Mogul Mowgli starring Emmy Award Winner Riz Ahmed, the film is about a British Pakistani rapper who during the breakout of his career gets diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The film was really good, especially the performances by everyone involved, and I found the film to be shot nicely.

Finally we've reached Sunday, October 11th, I've known this day as one of my best friends' birthday, but because of COVID he didn't want anyone up, didn't want to do anything and it's understandable, everyone is treating these crazy times differently, so for the first time in, I don't know how many years, I'm not seeing him on his birthday, so, what did I do? Just stayed in really, went for a walk around Angel after dinner and that was my Sunday, and my week.

This was a decent week, looking back I can't tell if it went quick, or it was slow, I weirdly remember things that happen earlier in the week more than what happened recently in the week, if that makes sense, as for an update on myself, I've been having mood swings, everything going on with the pandemic isn't helping at all, and I finished watching The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story which was so good, had a blast watching it, would happily watch it again, now I need to find something else to watch, I'm open to suggestions. Thank you for reading, history has been made, 24 blogs, 6 months worth of blogs, now we await the big 25, see you all next week, also see below the cookies my youngest nephew, mum and I made a few weeks ago, yet again from Gookie Dough, Funfetti Cake Batter flavor."

September 28th to October 4th 

"Say Bill, what will you say about 23? I don't know Bill, I mean you were 23 3 months ago, and that's really it. I guess you can say how life was as a 23 year old; put it this way Bill, it started off fine, in fact it was mostly fine, and then COVID happened, and we don't want to talk about that now do we, except the curfews because THEY WILL NOT WORK AT ALL! I'm at the point where I don't know what's going on with the world, and at this point, I don't think I want to anymore. This is blog 23, how are we even here, and this is another week, end of September, start of October, nearly at 6 months since beginning these blogs, LET'S GO!

Kicking it off with Monday, clearly, obviously, I mean we're not starting anywhere else. To start this week off, I've got to be honest my memory isn't as clear as usual but from what I remember I didn't really do much, just chilled, relaxed, and I played on the PlayStation, and that was my Monday really.

Next is Tuesday, first of two work days, and they had me working in one of the galleries on the first floor which I didn't mind at all, easy to open, easy to close when no one is around, and from what I can remember nothing much really happened, I did have a conversation with a work colleague at one point, and I can't remember the word but I asked my work colleague if it was the right one, and she said "I wouldn't know, I'm dyslexic," we both laughed, and then I said "and I'm Autistic, we're the best of both worlds," and we both laughed again, it was nice. That was the day really, there wasn't much to it, it was fine. Got home, chilled, played on the PlayStation, and that was my Tuesday.

Onto Wednesday, second of two work days, and the rotation I was doing was called Relief, now there's a different number of Reliefs, and this was the first time I was doing one; so in the morning I had to go around doing different jobs like checking the outside of the museum and keeping an eye on the bridge that crosses from the centre of the first floor to a staircase, and I was told I had a break at 11:30am, I presumed it was the lunch break because that's the only break we all get, so I leave my position, get lunch, eat it in my bubble's mess room, and then one of the team leaders call me on the radio to come over, I come over, and turns out it was supposed to be a 20 minute break, and I actually follow a rotation in this position, I presumed I would be taking jobs the entire day but nope, I follow a rotation, so the rotation I don't normally look at on the sheet, I presumed it was for those working Lunch Cover, turns out it was the Relief Rotation, I did feel frustrated but in the end, you learn something new everyday. I can't forget to mention the new NHS Track & Trace, I thought, if people are getting tickets to go into the museum, we already have their details, so why do they need to do this new scan brought out by the government? I don't know, none of this makes sense, I even had a woman ask me about it and I just said "I don't know, just ask the government." We had to stop letting people at 3:30pm since we close at 4pm unless they already had tickets, and 3 girls came in, and we couldn't let them in because they didn't book tickets, but in return I helped them with a video they filmed, answering questions about the museum and Greenwich which I was more than happy to do, and it made me feel good too, in the end, despite the obvious mixup, it was a good shift. After I got home, I don't recall, nor do I remember doing anything, I guess I did play on the PlayStation, I obviously had dinner, and a bath, and yeah, that's Wednesday.

Coming up next is Thursday, don't recall doing anything in the morning and during the day, besides playing on the PlayStation, again, I did go to my drama class in the evening and that was good, got carried away during my improvisation, my performance was good, it was that I didn't know when to stop, and being repetitive which is easy to be, it's a flaw that doesn't get to me, it just finds its way to bite me when it can. Class was longer than usual, ended at 9:30pm, which sadly was the same time as last orders at The Shakespeare's Head because of the 10pm curfew, remember when there wasn't a curfew? Yeah me too; so we all just went straight home, felt like I commited a crime, not going to The Shakespeare's Head after class.

Well look what we've come across, it's Friday, I was definitely planning on going to the gym but I didn't have the energy or motivation, though it was quite a productive day. I did a masterclass for The Courtyard Sixth Form students, answering questions that Ms. Vidal asked and questions asked by other members of staff and the students watching which I really enjoyed doing, I've always enjoyed doing things where people ask about me and I get to provide answers, and it does make me pleased that the students were really invested and I hope that the answers and advice I provided them will help them all in the future. Afterwards I went to Fara to see Jack and his colleagues, Fara is a charity shop near Angel, it's really good, plus they're doing great deals right now, got myself a shirt for £2. Later on I had a chat on the phone with a mate of mine for 20 minutes and that was nice too.

Right here is Saturday, originally I was supposed to go to a friend's birthday but that had to be cancelled because of COVID, and then I was meant to meet up with a friend in Wanstead but that got cancelled, so I just had a relaxing day, played on the PlayStation for a bit, was planning to go gym but like yesterday I felt tired and lacked the motivation, but I did prefer to look after my youngest nephew, saves my mum from putting up with him the whole time, and he did facetime my eldest niece and eldest nephew at one point, you would've loved their excitement, "oh hi Bill," it's not hugs and kisses anymore.

Finally it's Sunday, and I took a trip to Southampton with my parents, they were planning on staying there until Wednesday while I was just staying the night. We checked into our hotel rooms and then we went to walk around and see what we could find; firstly we went into a Wetherspoons, I believe it was called The Standing Order, and afterwards Mum went to do some shopping while Dad and I went into this pub called The Red Lion Inn, which was built in the late 15th century, and was used as a courtroom in the year 1415, so there was a lot of history with this place. Afterwards Dad and I met Mum and we had dinner in Byron, and then went back to our rooms for over an hour. During the evening I went to the Showcase Cinema to watch Bill & Ted Face The Music which I really enjoyed, got back to my hotel room, watched a wrestling pay per view and that was my Sunday, and my week overall.

So that was my week, decent week, a lot of me time personally, sometimes things are best like that, got to look after myself somehow. I realised I forgot to mention two things in the previous blogs, one was last week Sunday night I watched a wrestling pay per view, and around 2 or 3 weeks ago my youngest nephew, Mum and I made cookies, can't believe I forgot to mention those. Also I should mention, especially for those reading that love video games, as you can see on my blog I mention the PlayStation more times than usual, that's because I've been playing Final Fantasy VII Remake, I've been really hooked on it, it's so good, can't stop thinking about it. Also I've begun watching American Crime Story, half way through the first season, the first season is about the O.J. Simpson murder case and that's been really good so far, so all of that has been keeping me busy. Hope you've all had a good week, and I'll see you all with the next one, take care."

September 21st to September 27th

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22, tell me Taylor Swift, how is it feeling 22? To me it's no different to feeling 21, 23, 24 etc. Just by that one sentence I'm sure you can tell that it is my 22nd blog, and judging from the world especially this country right now, we are far from the last as whatever is left of normality begins to slowly fade with wearing masks more, curfew times that most people aren't going to pay attention to anyway, and Christmas and New Years plans changing, to be brutally honest we aren't getting out of this mess until a vaccine arrives, which will be, I don't know, I hate 2020, and I'm dreading 2021, this is blog 22, time for me to change the mood, hopefully.

It's Monday, that doesn't change the mood at all, that probably makes it worse, and to start my week I went to work, now that makes the mood much worse, because places might close down again with a potential second lockdown, I know I shouldn't be foreshadowing things but THE END IS NIGH THE END IS NIGH RUN AWAY THE END IS NIGH! So I went to work, with plenty of energy after an 8-9 hour sleep, and my shift was fine, I don't remember much from it except I did well, I was dozing off during the afternoon which I couldn't believe, and I didn't bring a coat, so I wore one of my workplace's coats, which helped when I was outside looking after the entrance, and then I looked after the exit, with no shade, and I was drenched in sweat, soaked from the shoulders to the lower back, wonderful. In the end it was a good shift, quiet, wasn't stressful in any way, plus I got to help a colleague on his day back which was nice, so yeah it was a good shift.

Now it's Tuesday, and it has it's similarities with Wednesday, you'll notice them in a bit, so with Tuesday, I just spent most of the day lying down, bored out of my mind, I did go to the gym for 45 minutes, did work on my arms, shoulders and legs which was good, and then I got home and felt bored again, had dinner later on, feeling better, and then I went for a walk around Angel, City Road and Barbican, so the evening was significantly better than the day itself.

This is Wednesday, and as I said it has its similarities with Tuesday, the difference was that after gym I spoke on the phone with Ms. Vidal for 20 minutes which was nice, and we spoke about me doing a masterclass so that should be fun, really looking forward to that. Met Mum after her shift to pick up a takeaway which was nice and then I went for another walk through St. Paul's and to the Bankside Pier, I remember heading to the Bankside Pier, leaning over the ledge by the Thames and staring at the buildings on the other side that stand under a foggy night sky, I got to admit I got emotional looking at it, I don't know what it was but it really got to me, I guess it's the realization that one day none of us will get to have views and images like that, because of death, or the apocalypse caused by a nuke, by how 2020 is going so far and what 2021 will potentially be like, I am expecting anything and everything. After this I walked home, not before I stopped in Tesco's and bought 3 Krispy Kremes, because if there is one thing that keeps me happy it's Krispy Kreme. That was Wednesday, if I had to compare the two, I definitely liked Wednesday more.

Oh look guys it's Thursday, I spent the day resting while I went to my drama class in the evening, another good class while I performed a good dramatic performance, and a good comedic performance, best of both worlds. Afterwards some of my classmates and I went to The Shakespeare's Head, same night the new 10pm curfew was introduced, and I believe the new guidelines involving masks too, and do you want my opinion? I hate it, I absolutely hate it, so we can go anywhere but we have to wear masks unless we're seated, plus bartenders have to come to us for table service, but what if the person seated passes the virus onto one of the bartenders, also what if someone, especially with the 10pm curfew, stays in a pub from 3pm, seated until curfew, that person could still pass on the virus, my brain just hurts talking about it, I was going to say you're better off closing pubs, but then how will the owners of those pubs cope? It's a mess, it is all such a mess, and the worst part is, WE DON'T EVEN KNOW WHEN IT'LL END, I know they said 6 months but chances are it could be longer, it's going to get worse from here. Oh yeah besides my ranting, did I do anything after The Shakespeare's Head? Nope, went home and that's it.

It's Friday, do you wanna get down on Friday? I would, but first let me go to work, so I went to work, and it was a decent day, much more busier than Monday, or it felt like it, and I did begin to get cranky during the last hour, I was thinking "WHY ARE YOU GOING TO A MUSEUM ON A FRIDAY IN THE LAST HOUR!? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!" and getting people out was a pain too, it's like people know it's closing, and they just don't want to go for some reason, but in the end it was a fine shift. In the evening, I went down to The Old Star to meet some friends, including one, who I helped with his audition tape weeks ago, if you've been reading the blogs you'll know who I'm on about, as this was his last shift before starting drama school, it was a good night, and I got a burrito on the way home, because burritos are nice and are very underrated in this country in my honest opinion.

YAY IT'S SATURDAY, so Saturday was quite productive, went out with my mum to, I can't remember the name of the store near St. Paul's but I got new black chinos to wear for work, and then we went to Angel, got a coffee in Pret, had a look around in H&M, and got some food from M&S, and during the evening we looked after my youngest nephew, his parents were out for their anniversary so we had to look after him and that was good, him and I played Fall Guys for a bit which kept him busy, and yeah that was Saturday, a good day.

Finally it's Sunday, also a productive day, Mum and I went shopping again, we went to Iceland to get some food and then after that I went to Cex to get some games, Cex is pretty much heaven to any kind of gamer, you want your new games and consoles they're there, you want your vintage games and consoles they're there too at reasonable prices, can't recommend it enough; Mum and I got a bite to eat from Gregg's and then we went home. After a while at home I did feel quite bored, so I went out for a walk to kill some time before dinner, went for a walk near Exmouth Market, Angel and City Road. That was Sunday, nice way to end the week.

So that was my week, it was a pretty good week, personally I felt like it got better the later the week went on. Next week should be alright, going to be on the PlayStation more with my new games, working two days in a row, got the Masterclass on Friday, should be a good week. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week."

September 14th to September 20th

What's 9 + 20? 21. Yeah I wanted to make a reference to that old meme, plus I didn't really have an idea for an intro. Welcome to blog number 21, the one before 19, the one after 20, and the number that represents a special time in every young adult's life, and well that's it really, that's 21. Can't really say anything else, spoke about being 21 a couple of blogs ago, at this point I may as well get on with the blog.

It's Monday, yay first day of the week, and I went to work; originally I was dreading working this week due to the weather, and work didn't get off to a great start. So I was located to the entrance for opening and closing, and I was told by a team leader to get the keys to the entrance, which took me by surprise because the last few weeks I was told by a different team leader to not worry about opening, didn't make sense, I know the opening and closing procedures changed recently but I didn't know I had to help. So I go down, request for the keys, card gets denied (zero hour contract workers had to ask to receive keys, I'm now a part time worker) so I've got to speak to one of the managers and get that sorted, I presumed I wasn't going to be given the keys so I turned around, went to go back to do my shift, get called back, got the keys. The rest of the day was fine, no problems, no worries, there was a moment when I was working outside, I just stood there, and looked around at the sight in front of my eyes, the grass around me, the number of trees with green leaves, one tree with a touch of brown; along with a slight breeze, I felt so calm and at peace I was just lost in the moment, definitely something I'm going to remember for a while. Good day overall.

Next up is Tuesday, back into work, they had me working on the first floor, which I didn't mind, some people needed to go downstairs in the lift, so I helped people with that, made me feel good. I found this to be an easy shift, only problem was, and this is going to take some explaining, so with the one way system, especially with the majority of the museum now open, if guests wanted to explore all of the museum that's open, they had to go straight to the second floor, well at one point two women with prams came up, and they only stopped on the first floor, now they could've read that the door was emergency use only, but instead, they went right through the door, and one of them asks me where is the way down, so, you go up the lift, stop on the floor you shouldn't be on unless you're on your way out and ask of member of staff on how to get down, I just couldn't react, so I just took the women with the prams to the lift and sent them down. At one point during the afternoon, I see this boy with a water bottle enter the gallery I was working in, and he seemed to be hovering around, not knowing what to look at or what to do, and went to go out the way he came in, I told him he has to follow the one way system, and took him to the exit, around 10 minutes after he leaves the gallery, a woman walks fast through the exit, I know she went the wrong way but I honestly didn't know how to react, after a minute she approaches me, and asks me if I've seen her son, I immediately thought of that boy, asked her if he had a water bottle, she said yes, I asked her to describe him to me as I took her to the gallery's exit and told her where she could go next, I briefly spoke to one of the managers about this and then reported it on the radio so anyone in the museum would know, and as soon as I do this, one of the managers comes in and tells me he has been found, which I would then report on the radio, very adventurous. Overall this was another good day with another good shift, now I'm done with work for the week, lovely.

Here's Wednesday, and on this day I went to Thorpe Park with a couple of friends, it was going to be interesting to see what it was like going to a theme park during a pandemic. We met at Angel, got on the tube to Waterloo, got McDonald's breakfast, and then got the train to Staines (brought back memories of when I went on that marketing job in November 2017, not pleasant memories), and then got the shuttle bus to Thorpe Park. Once we get there, we had to get our temperatures taken, bags searched and in we went; we get into The Dome where the entrances and exits all worked on a one way system, we got into the lockers where we put some of our stuff away, and away we went to enjoy our day. I went on most of the rides, with rides I can be very picky, I could easily go on one like Colossus which has a couple of loops but I won't go on Stealth which goes up to 205 feet and accelerates from 0 to 80 mph in 1.9 seconds, plus I went on that in 2013 which I did not enjoy at all. We all had to wear masks on the rides and I was wearing the mask that you've seen in a blog or two (it has teeth) and the thing with this mask is that it isn't tight enough, so occasionally on the rides my mask would come off my nose and mouth, especially on Colossus where I was trying to keep my mask on while going through numerous loops, also I can be excited, maybe too excited on some rides, one example being the Nemesis Inferno, before going down into the first loop I shouted out "GO ON LETS HAVE IT" before going down, the excitement really got ahead of me. We left Thorpe Park around the time it closed which was 5pm and we were waiting ages for the shuttle bus, didn't get on until the 3rd bus, which was a between 30 and 45 minute wait, and from there it was an easy trip home, didn't get home until before 8pm, so I was out for over 12 hours, great day.

Here we go with Thursday, met up with Jack and we then met up with an actress we've worked with a few times to do headshots, we all met at Angel Station and went to find a good place to shoot the pictures, we all ended up going back to my flat, the brick wall for the background worked very well for the photos, and it was all going well, another actress we knew came to have her's done, and then both of them (the actresses) persuaded me to get mine done, so I went upstairs, changed my shirt, went downstairs and had my photos taken, glad to say they looked good. Afterwards we went to The Angel Wetherspoons for a bite to eat and said bye to each other. Afterwards I went home for a little bit and went back out to The Angel Wetherspoons to meet a friend of mine, after that we went to the drama class which I thought was good, my mindset wasn't the best going into it but I thought I did well overall. Some of my classmates and I went to The Shakespeare's Head afterwards and that was it, that was Thursday, good day.

Then it was Friday, and I didn't really do anything, played on the PlayStation for a bit, did plenty of lying down, and I just felt physically and mentally tired, and the same went for Saturday and Sunday, didn't do much and just felt very tired.

And that was my week, not a bad week overall. I can't really think of a conclusion, but I do have to say after all this COVID news going on in the UK, and the possibility of a second lockdown, if we can do one lockdown, we can do another, no problemo. Have a good week guys, take care.

September 7th to September 13th

“20, 20 blogs, that’s 5 months worth of blogs, I have been doing this for 5 whole months, without missing a week, I don’t know how I’ve been doing this for this long, and I don’t even know how you lot keep coming back for a blog every week, but I appreciate each and everyone of you. With 20, I do think of my 20th birthday, what I remember of it, a few friends and I went for a meal at Banana Tree, afterwards we were meant to see Jason Bourne, and I tried getting the tickets I order a while ago printed at the cinema, nothing happened, went to the desk, one of the workers printed them off, and we went to go into the screen, and then we were told that these tickets were for July 30th, the day before, I even had to check my email, it said July 30th, I never make mistakes like that, couldn’t believe it, so one of my friends went home (he wasn’t feeling well), the rest of us had milkshakes at Ed’s Easy Diner, another friend went home (couldn’t be ask to wait for the next screening, can’t blame him), and then whoever was left and I went to see it, packed screen too, we were right near the front, decent day. Also with 20, not really anything else, except 2020, I don’t want to talk about it, I will not talk about it, we all know what this year has been like, therefore, I will not talk about it, except that we still have 3 and a half months left, and things could get worse, with cases on the rise, groups going from 30 to 6, wait, since when was groups of 30 a thing? Any way, on the bright side, some West End shows will be back in the next few months including Everybody’s Talking About Jamie which opens back up on November 4th with 6 performances in 4 days a week, did I say that in a way that makes sense? I hope so. I’m just trying to be optimistic and positive during these times, because that’s the best thing we can do, I can’t even picture a second lockdown, even if the government can afford to go through another lockdown, could you imagine being in lockdown during Christmas? Don’t get me started. Anyways guys, this is blog number 20, 5 months worth of blogs, let’s see what I got up to.

Kicking off with Monday with a chilled day, spent most of the day relaxing, went on the PlayStation for a bit, I did go to the gym, did a workout there using the Cross Trainer for 35 minutes, and that was it, and now I am prepared for the next two days of work.

Here’s Tuesday, and the first of two work dates this week, and how did it start? Not the best. So I get into work, go to the Mess Room of where my bubble is, and I find out from one of my team leaders that my rotation might’ve changed, the thing with a workplace like mine is that is that you have to expect the unexpected, and expect changes and announcements even at the last minute, it can be frustrating, but you have to accept it. So I was told to look into the other Mess Room to find out where I’d be, and I saw that I was going to be doing a rotation on the first floor, which just opened up in the museum, loosening up the restrictions on the museum, and of course keeping a one way system, the majority of the museum opened up and it did come off as risky to me, but if this was the only way to open up more of the museum with a one way system in it, then so be it. The shift was fine, despite the humid weather which had me sweating for the majority of the day, and I am one of the worst sweaters you’ll ever meet, even in winter; so yeah the shift was fine, until the ending, so the museum was closing in 10 minutes, and one thing you have to do is let people in the area you’re keeping an eye on know that the museum is closing and they need to make their way out soon, and nearly every person or group I came across in my area thought it was closing at 5pm, which it says when you type in the museum name on Google, the results will tell you the old hours from before lockdown, so it’s no ones fault it’s just a internet search engine providing people with the wrong information, and trying to get people to leave was a pain, I even had a mum looking for her adult daughter who was still in a gallery after who knows how long, and by the time every area on the first floor was clear, mine wasn’t, BECAUSE PEOPLE WEREN’T GOING! And even leaving our positions to go back downstairs, there was a toddler going into one of the museum’s shops wanting to buy something, and it was like “please, everyone, just leave, we all want to go home too,” it gets very irritating, and now the shift is done, the day is done, now we go home, and prepare for tomorrow.

It’s time for Wednesday, second of two days at work, and you want to know how I started? Similar to yesterday, so I looked into both of the Mess Rooms, my rotation didn’t change so I presumed I was going to be in that rotation, and then the briefing happened, so in the briefing we’re told our positions and anything regarding the museum like an event happening or the café being open until 5pm instead of 4pm, so in the briefing my position for my rotation, or where I was supposed to be was one of the first announced, and my name wasn’t said, and I thought “don’t tell me they’ve changed my position, only now,” and yep they did, I was quite annoyed seeing that it was just at that moment that I found out my position was changed, but as I said with the day prior, expect the unexpected. Now with this position I was involved, compared to yesterday where I was on a different floor keeping an eye or 4 or 5 different areas, on this day I was keeping an eye on 2 areas, now if this was the first shift after a hectic bank holiday weekend, I would’ve felt fine, but after a day where I was in 4 or 5 areas, this one dragged, because it’s the same 2 places every 40 minutes, plus on my rotation my lunch was very early which made the day feel longer, it just went on, and on, and on, and on. I finished the shift eventually and now I can go home and relax, oh no, I can’t, I have that interview with Soapbox Islington on Instagram, with a video and sound test on Zoom at 5:15pm, so I had to rush home, and get changed quick, and get the video and sound test over and done with, did it all on time while being hot, bothered, stressed and of course, very sweaty. Eventually I do the interview, and performed my monologue and it went so well, better than I thought it would, and I was very pleased with myself, my mum and brother were downstairs watching it on his phone, and seeing how happy my mum looked after finishing was so satisfying, now I can rest, finally.

Now it’s Thursday, and I spent most of the day chilling, playing on the PlayStation which got too much at one point because I ended up getting a splitting headache from being on there for too long, then I went to my drama class afterwards. For the drama class I did an improvisation that involves the themes anger and forgiveness, and the person I did it with actually knew my grandad, uncle, auntie and my dad from years ago, small world, especially in Islington, and it was a powerful improvisation, felt misty eyed afterwards, that’s what happens when you get into character sometimes, you can really feel their emotions. Did a movement piece after that which was quite funny, watched the others do their thing, and that was class, it was good. After that most of us went to The Shakespeare’s Head until it closed, got home around midnight.

It’s now Friday. So originally I didn’t have anything planned so I was going to have a nice relaxing day, played on the PlayStation for a bit, booked tickets for a friend and I to see Back To The Future The Musical in May, and that same friend texts me asking me to come to his pub, so now that’s my evening sorted. I head to The Old Star, sit at my table, another friend shows up, we chat, and our friend finishes his shift early and joins us, and it was a laugh, met some nice people, enjoyed chatting to some of the people that worked there, even met people that play music for the Queen so that was cool. Afterwards we went to McDonald’s, had a meal there, another friend met us there, and afterwards we went to my friend’s house (to avoid confusion, it was the one that worked at The Old Star) and we were chatting for ages, by the time I got home, it was around 4:15am, great night.

Here we go with Saturday, now I had plans this evening, yes, another busy evening, and one of my friends from my drama class was planning a blues themed evening, and with the government announcing groups going from 30 to 6, a get together like this would be the last for a while. This evening was really good, lovely to be around familiar and new faces, and a variety of talent including actors, musicians and singers, the night was supposed to end between 12am and 12:30am, and I thought that I’d probably get home between 1:15am and 1:30am, myself and some friends stayed for a while, sitting around a table inside just chatting away, didn’t leave until 3:15am, got into an Uber with a friend, got out at Essex Road, then got the bus home, got home just before 4am, great night.

Finally it’s Sunday, so Billy how are you going to end this week? Well Billy, I didn’t do much, was relaxing, played on the PlayStation for a bit, had a chat with one of my neighbours, went to the gym to do the Cross Trainer for 35 minutes, and that’s it really, that was my Sunday.

That was my week, decent week, plenty of being out of the house, giving myself plenty of rest, tons of socialising, yeah I’d definitely say it was a decent week. Next week should be interesting with the new rule about group gatherings, and I’m dreading work, I’m working Monday and Tuesday, hot weather, in my work uniform, help me, ASAP! Have a good week guys, take care. Also check out the link attached, it is my interview and monologue from this week, and a video I filmed just after writing this.”

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CE7Ls8HAp-5/?igshid=148w9uv3u6yzq

August 31st to September 6th

“19, so this is 19, the one after 18, the one before 20, seeing that I turned 19 in 2017, which I spoke about already, there’s not much I can think of that I can talk about, there’s last year, 2019, 2019 was a pretty good year, completed my HNC in Performing Arts course, which I passed with a merit, went to Turkey, Amsterdam and Georgia in America, all were great, completed my confirmation course, then I finally got my current job after countless applications submitted, and yeah, there were some downs here and there, but overall 2019 was a good year, looking back, I should feel more grateful for 2019, especially with this pandemic going on. Anything else regarding the number 19? Well, for those reading that like wrestling, my favourite WrestleMania is WrestleMania 19, I remember watching that for the first time when I was a kid, got it on DVD for my 10th birthday, good times. What else? Can’t forget this one, I was 19 when I began attending the Anna Scher Theatre, can’t remember the date but it was one Friday in September 2015, I went to class after hearing about it, and the rest is history, how has it been 5 years already? That’s insane. Anything else regarding the number 19? I think that’s it, not bad Bill, not bad at all. This is Blog number 19, thank you all for coming here to read yet another blog, whoever stopped reading before this one, can’t blame them really, I mean it’s 19 blogs, it’s a lot to read; and those still reading, I don’t know how you all are doing it, but I feel grateful for it. Now let’s see how this week was.

Starting with Monday, obviously and clearly, and it was Bank Holiday Monday, and I had a special one planned. To begin, my family and I went to Leicester Square, we had a drink in The Moon Under Water and after that we went for a meal in TGI Fridays, it was the last day for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme and it was a really good idea to go, in the end we all enjoyed our meals. Afterwards, I went straight from TGI Fridays, to Blue Posts in Soho where I met up with 4 of my friends, another 2 of our friends would join us later on; so in the end including myself there were 7 of us, and it was really nice seeing that some of us haven’t seen each other since lockdown started. We left Blue Posts between 9:30pm and 10pm to look for any other places that were open, and we were looking for ages, and there wasn’t any places open, and if there were, they were closing soon, this didn’t surprise me since this was a Monday. We then went our separate ways and by the time I got home it was just before midnight.

Here we go with Tuesday, and I began my day having a Google Meets Video Chat with Ms. Vidal, she was on her way to The Courtyard, first day back, can’t believe the summer holidays are already over, doesn’t feel that long ago that it was late July, we had a really nice chat as usual, spoke about work, her’s and mine, we even spoke about cars, never thought I’d have a chat to one of my teachers about cars, and spoke about other things too, and yeah, really nice chat. The rest of the day I didn’t do anything, I felt tired so I wanted to chill out, relax, and prepare for work tomorrow.

It’s Wednesday, and today I had a shift at work, didn’t have the best start to be honest. So I found out I was going to be keeping an eye on a location in the museum that was meant to be for a staff member in another bubble, I did ask a team leader about it, and he explained it, and it made a lot of sense, seeing that in the briefing to start the day the two bubbles would normally be together, it definitely made sense. Afterwards I would go on to unlock the rooms around the location I was looking after, and one of them was the kitchen, what kitchen? You mean a part of the cafe? But that’s not in my location, why is this my problem? And I looked around the location a few times to find this kitchen, couldn’t find it, presumed it was to do with the cafe, so I decided to leave it, and then my anxiety kicked in, I kept thinking about this kitchen, I kept thinking about how I made this mistake, and potentially annoying one if not more than one team member which I didn’t want to do, I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and then I thought, and this was over an hour into my shift, “there’s people in the cafe, and no one has approached me about the kitchen, so I should be fine right?” And then I calmed down, along with some deep breathing, a team member came over and asked if I wanted a 10 minute break, which helped too. Another hour passes, and I’ve actually asked a team member who was passing about the kitchen, he showed me where it was, and I just laugh, it was at a part in the location I was looking after that I went past twice, and I never knew it was there, I couldn’t help but to laugh, all of that overreacting for that, brilliant. At one point a team member and I swapped places for 20 minutes which made a nice change, and my line manager came over at one point and gave me a mask that was made by workers at the museum, and it was great, soft material, doesn’t feel tight anywhere, can breathe properly, absolutely great, it was a quiet day too, which made a nice change after that hectic bank holiday weekend, in the end, besides my anxiety at one point, it was a good shift. As some of you may know already, the Soapbox Instagram Stream got postponed by a week, so now I had a free evening, and how should I spend it? Well The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 is showing at the VUE cinema in Islington, and I’ve already seen The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, so yeah why not? Booked my ticket, went straight to the cinema, ordered a Strawberry Milkshake, and got into the screen, and I found out, one hour after it ends, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 will play, in the same screen, so I booked my ticket just before Part 1 came on, and why not, both parts in one night, and I’ve got no work tomorrow, so why not? Once Part 1 ended, I went home, ate dinner, got changed, and went back out for Part 2, also, what did these two screenings have in common? I was the only one in there, and I was absolutely loving it, now, I know what some of you are thinking? Billy, you went to see Catching Fire, Mockingjay Part 1 and Part 2, why not the first? Well that’s because I watched it back in April or May when Lionsgate for one month, once a week would live stream a film of theirs on YouTube, The Hunger Games was one of them. I got home around midnight, lovely evening, and a good day overall.

Getting onto Thursday, and I spent the whole day resting, and then in the evening I went to drama class. Began class with a body warmup, and then did an improvisation based on one of the seven deadly sins, one person and I did one based on Sloth, and that was really good, better than I thought, the scene in my improvisation was my idea and I didn’t know how it was going to be executed but luckily it was good, just me self doubting which is pretty often; and then a movement afterwards that involved a pair or group of 3 greeting each other and that was good; and then we get onto an improvisation with a pair, two people would get called up, one gets told the opening line, and away we go, and this one was “I got a present for you,” for mine, I was given the line, and I chose the present to be the bible, why? Because why not, and it was going well, until a slip up I made, so basically my response to something my partner said wasn’t the right one, apparently I wasn’t listening, yet I didn’t see the problem, put it this way, a teacher and student are never going to see eye to eye all the time, and there will be occasional disagreements, and the teacher will sometimes say something correct that the student won’t understand, nothing wrong with that it just happens; did it again, apparently it was wrong again, I didn’t even know what I was doing, my temper is rising and I’m trying my best to hide it with the biggest smile I can make, and then start again, last chance, and I answered correctly, WOW IT TOOK TWO OR THREE STOPS BUT WE GOT THERE, NOW GET ME OFF THIS STAGE, and I got a laugh so I definitely pulled it off, but I didn’t feel completely satisfied. Here’s a thing with people involved in performing arts, one thing that everyone involved has in common, is that they’re their own worst enemy, not a cast member, not the director, not the people working behind the scenes, everyone is their own worst enemy, including me, I’m my own worst enemy, there are times where I make a mistake, and go “oh well, I know now and I’ll remember for next time,” and then most of the time I just beat myself up like “how could you get that wrong?” “How could you let that fly over your head?” “You got that right before and you got that wrong now? Just how?” “You’re an actor that’s passed an A Level and HNC course, how are you getting things wrong? The simplest things?!” And it’s that battle with my conscience that sometimes hurts, and something that I need to improve on big time. After class, myself and a friend were heading to The Shakespeare’s Head and I brought that improvisation up, and he said “Yeah I can tell you were getting frustrated,” and now that’s hit me, someone, and maybe more people could tell I was getting frustrated, and it’s no one's fault, it’s my own, I just have a really bad temper, hiding behind a forceful smile, and that’s another thing I need to control, I decided to not let those two things get me down as him and I spent an hour in The Shakespeare’s Head and called it a night.

It’s Friday, and it’s another shift at work, and it was a simple day, quiet, and it started off with a big what was that moment, basically the gates to the museum were unlocked, and were closed, and somewhere between 10:15am and 10:20am, the museum isn’t opening until 10:30am, and this woman has gone to the gate, and she’s only gone and opened it, trying to let herself in, so I had to stop her, let her know we’re not opening yet, she asks about the toilets, so I ask her if she has a ticket (because of track and tracking), she has one, and I let her know that she has to come back at 10:30am, and then she goes, unbelievable, the gate is closed, what does that tell you? It’s closed, you don’t just open it and try to let yourself in, I just can’t get over it, and then, I think you might know where this is going, the exit, the same thing, THERE’S A BIG PINK SIGN WITH BIG WHITE FONT, AND NEXT TO IT IS A SYMBOL OF A CROSS OVER A PERSON MEANING NO ENTRY, YOU DON’T GO IN, and yet people still try to go in, someone even read the sign, and still tried to go in, like why? Just why? I mean honestly it just makes me question people, in the end it was a decent shift, now I’m off for three days, brilliant. After this, I went to Harrow on the Hill, to this pub called Moon on the Hill, to meet a friend, same friend I met up with twice and the same one that hosted the Hawaiian Themed Party over a month ago, this place we met at took me an hour to get to, and a half an hour for her to get to from where she lives, I see this as a win, and it was great, a nice start to my few days off and a great laugh; after this we went to this place called The George, which is a pub that gets lively in the evening, like loud music and flashing lights, closest we’ll get to a club for a while, and that was great too, would love to go there another time; and after that we called it a night, I got home, got myself a takeaway, and fell asleep.

It’s now Saturday, started off with a nice walk in the morning, walked around Angel and near City Road, bumped into two family friends which was nice, got home, and dozed off on the sofa, woke up an hour later, dozed back off, woke up another hour later, dozed back off, woke up two hours later, looked at the time and it was 1:30pm, was I that tired? I couldn’t tell. I was chilling for the rest of the day, played on the PlayStation for a few hours, treated my family to Pizza Hut, and ending my night with a wrestling pay per view, that was my Saturday, nice and chilled.

Finally it’s Sunday, never thought we’d get here because I don’t know when to stop writing. Sunday I was just relaxing, I did go to the gym, finally this week, and I realised that I didn’t have much time left, got there at 3:35pm, it closes at 4pm, so I get there, do some work on my shoulders and chest, leave at 3:58pm, and then went for a jog for a few laps around my flat, so I made the best of something that was poorly timed, and after that I just relaxed, and that was Sunday, it was nice.

So yeah guys that was my week, very descriptive wasn’t it? Sometimes I write and I don’t know when to stop, sometimes I want to stop and I can’t make myself stop, it’s mad, there’s just so much in this head of mine that I feel like I got to express myself, I got to let it all out. I have nothing else to say except, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you for blog 20, the big two oh, 5 months worth of blogs, that’s incredible, see you all then, take care, have a good week, and oh yeah I need to mention, third time and hopefully third time lucky, follow @soapboxislington for their live stream on Wednesday at 6pm where you’ll see me and other talent showcase ourselves. Thanks for reading.”

August 24th - August 30th

“So this is blog 18, I kept thinking this was going to be blog 19 and would have no idea what to write about, but since this is 18 it’s going to give me more of what to write about. So from my previous blogs you could have an idea of what 18 was like when I was talking about the years 2014 and 2015, so for 18 I can talk about what I remember most about my 18th birthday, myself, four friends, and yes Jack was one of them, got into a hummer that drove us around London and dropped us off at the West End where we saw Jersey Boys at the Piccadilly Theatre, it was a fantastic show, and we all got the bus home, it was a wonderful night. Anything else regarding the number 18? Well it was nearly 5 years ago I saw my first rated 18 film in cinemas, Legend starring Tom Hardy as The Krays, my brother in law and I saw it opening night, good film. 2018. I can think of as well, which was mostly an up and down year seeing that I was still going on that downward spiral that went on until March, and spent the majority of the year looking for a job, who would’ve thought I would’ve gone back to education for the year, not me, but I’m very glad I did, it was also a really good year for cinema, and I began going to see West End shows and theatre shows in Dartford and Wimbledon frequently, I also went on trips to Edinburgh and Newcastle with some friends, so looking back 2018 wasn’t that bad, I’d say a 6, maybe even a 7 out of 10 as a year. Now let’s get to the week, it was an ok week, not much happened but what can you do? Some weeks are like that, now let’s get to it.

So here we go on Monday, so Billy how did you start this week? Well Billy I can answer that for you, nothing, yep nothing, just a nothing and relaxing day.

Now it’s Tuesday, now come on Bill, you must’ve done something, well yes Bill I did, now where do I start? So it was going towards the evening, and I was going to have a call with someone from Soapbox Islington regarding my appearance on the Instagram Live the following day, I realised that evening that I couldn’t appear since I had plans made, plans that were made nearly 2 weeks ago, and it took me 4 days to realise that these two would’ve collided with each other, I was disappointed in myself, not for not being able to appear due to plans, but for not realising it sooner; we still had a chat that night, on a Zoom call, took me forever to get onto the call, first time using Zoom, was ridiculously complicated, and the call went fine, and I should be on there this Wednesday, not sure what time yet but it’ll be between 6pm and 6:45pm. After this I went to go to the gym, but what I didn’t realise was that my gym had reduced hours on certain days and that it closed at 8pm, I noticed this at 8:30pm, and this had me scratching my head because the day prior it closed at 10pm, weird. Instead I went for a jog around my flat for half an hour, it was alright, I did feel a bit paranoid since it was raining before I went out and it was wet everywhere, but luckily I was fine.

And now it’s Wednesday, so Billy what did you do on this Wednesday? Well Billy it was a busy Wednesday, and this is what I did. I began by meeting my mum for lunch, she has been doing some training for her new job so we thought it’d be a good idea to meet during her lunch break, we had a drink and a bite to eat from Pret, and since I was early to my next plan, I decided to walk to where I needed to be, and that was the BFI IMAX at South Bank, and after getting there really early, I decided to take a walk around Waterloo, and at one point I was walking past Waterloo Station, and I felt something on the back of my head, so I went to take whatever it was off, and then once I made contact I felt a sting, and whatever this was, I threw it down and saw that it was a wasp, and I realised I got stung on the back of my head, I began to panic, I was sweating, my breathing was beginning to get rapid, I needed to calm down and think that maybe this sting was nothing. I met Jack outside the BFI IMAX, he took a photo and there was a lot of red around where I was stung, and I was feeling no side effects so I felt fine luckily, and then we went on to see Tenet, the first big blockbuster realised in cinemas since February or March, and it was a great film, would highly recommend it, but it is a lot to take in and requires a lot of thinking, still a great film nonetheless; it was great being back in the BFI IMAX too, first time I’ve been there since, I think December when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came out. Afterwards Jack and I were filmed doing a talk for IMAX, which was a lot of fun and a good laugh, and we then went to get dinner at the Sports Bar & Grill at Waterloo Station, it was a good time too since the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was on, Jack and I had a nice meal, and Jack ordered this 1kg bucket of chicken wings, which from a far distance doesn’t look big, but when you see it up close, it’s huge, and there must’ve been at least 25 chicken wings in there, and did we finish it? You bet we did, because we love our food. That was Wednesday, personally my favourite day this week.

Going onto Thursday, and I went to the gym, did the cross trainer for around 35 minutes, it was a good workout, was well needed especially after my meal the night before. Later on I went to my drama class and that was fun, the improvisation I did was really good too. Afterwards we all went to the Shakespeare’s Head, that was also really good, it was a great night overall and I felt everyone who was in class felt the same way.

Now it’s Friday, and Friday was decent, I played on the PlayStation for a few hours, Nanny Lylie came up and I spoke to her for a bit, and I went to the gym again, another 35 minutes on the cross trainer, and that was my Friday, now to get ready to work on the weekend.

Here is Saturday, the beginning of bank holiday weekend, so how am I spending bank holiday weekend? I’m working, yep I’m working, can’t believe it myself, but remember, to play hard, you’ve got to work hard, no matter the day; because of bank holiday the Northern line wasn’t going, so I had to get the 43 to Bank Station, and then get onto the DLR, so my journey to work would be around 5 to 10 minutes longer, one mistake could cause me to be late, and what happened? I made a mistake, and I forgot my watch; now, I know what you’re thinking, why did you need your watch? Because I need it to keep track of the time, can’t get my phone out during a shift, it’s unprofessional and doesn’t make me look good as a worker, and I was mad, the one time I forget my watch for work it’s on bank holiday weekend, so I had to get off at Old Street, get the bus back to near home, and meet my mum to get my watch, and I was so mad, absolutely fuming, the only way I could get to work on time was if I got a taxi or an Uber, I order an Uber, the driver accepts only to cancel me, and then another driver accepts, and then thankfully I’m on my way to work, from how mad I was earlier, I could feel it’s side effects, my breathing was all over the place, I felt like I was going to pass out, from all the times I’ve been mad, this had never happened to me before, and it shocked me, I was able to get myself back together, just have to hope that never happens to me again. I get to work around 15 minutes before the start of my shift, and I get on with my day, it wasn’t bad, the rotation I was given gave me a really lunch break, made the rest of my day feel longer, no ones fault it was just the time. Once I got home, I went to meet a friend of mine, known him for 9 years and it was the first time I was seeing him in 3 years, and we went for a walk around the area with his dog, and it was nice, good catchup too.

Finally it’s Sunday, and I’m working again, and luckily I didn’t forget anything and my travel went fine, and Sunday’s tend to be the busiest day in my workplace, and yes it really was, all tickets sold out around 2 or 3 hours before the end of the day, even had lines of people waiting to go in with their booked tickets it was mad, and like last week, I believe I mentioned this in my blog last week, when I was outside the exit keeping an eye on things, I would have people try to go in past me when clearly next to the doors THERE ARE BIG PINK SIGNS SAYING NO ENTRY AND PEOPLE STILL TRY TO GO IN!!! Unbelievable, just can’t believe it, and once the day was done, I was glad to go home, and relax, knowing that I don’t have to be back in work until Wednesday, and seeing that it’s a weekday, it won’t be as hectic, and I ended my Sunday and my week watching a wrestling pay per view, nice way to end it.

That was my week, it was ok, and I don’t know what to say about my week besides that. Make sure to check out @soapboxislington on Instagram on Wednesday at 6pm to check out their live stream featuring myself and other talent, give them a follow too so you can get a notification of when they go live this Wednesday. Also, one more thing, and this is something that I really want to talk about; we all get invested in something to watch, whether it’s a film franchise, a tv series, or a soap opera, and we get invested with the characters, and sometimes we get so invested to where we eventually become fans of those that play our favourite characters, and we look forward to their other projects and anything they do next, Chadwick Boseman was one of those people to a lot of people including myself, and he passed away Friday 28th August after privately battling colon cancer for four years at the age of 43; I remember watching 42 in 2013, where Chadwick played Jackie Robinson, and I remember loving his performance, the following year I watched Get On Up where he played James Brown which was such a fantastic performance, and then a few months later it was announced that he was cast as Black Panther which I was so happy about, and was happy to see that more of the world will find out about who he was, he became one of the highlights of Captain America: Civil War, and then he would reprise the role in Black Panther in 2018 where it broke several box office records, made this huge cultural impact, and would also go on to win numerous awards including 3 Oscars, I was just so happy for him, that he was getting this recognition, he deserved it, and now I sit here typing this and I still can’t believe he is gone; the world lost someone truly special, a man who has been in the spotlight for 7 years and to see how much of an impact he left during that time is astonishing, and to find out that for the last 4 years that while he was living with colon cancer without anyone knowing he kept working day in and day out is so powerful and inspirational, the man was literally a real life superhero; seeing all the messages and posts about him all over social media, really made me realise how much he impacted people, men, women, children, he inspired everyone, and in death he is going to inspire more for years to come, in years more people will look back at his work, his life, his battle, and it will inspire those that will find out about him, the man has gone down as a legend, and he leaves behind a legacy that people will celebrate for years to come, rest in power Chadwick, thank you for everything.

“UPDATE, just found out Soapbox Live is actually on a break this week so I’ll be on next week instead.”

Have a good week guys, take care.

August 17th to August 23rd

“17, here we are, what I didn’t mention last week was that it’s now been 4 months since I began this blog, 4 months, how it all flies by, and here I am still doing this, and how much long is this going to go on for? I have no idea. 17 though, it is blowing my mind the more I think about it, when I think 17 I think of when I was 17, my first year in The Courtyard, meeting Ms. Vidal and all the other staff members there, beginning my A Levels, became an Uncle for the 4th time, and I had some good cinema trips here and there, 17 wasn’t bad. I then think of 2017, coming off of 2016 and how fantastic that was for me, 2017 had a lot to live up to, and did it live up to 2016? No, not even close; to start I finished my apprenticeship at Sadler’s Wells, and I was scared, being back to where I was over a year prior, having to do job searching all over again, I presumed it wasn’t going to be as bad seeing that I’ve now got an apprenticeship and a Business Administration Level 2 qualification on my CV, but nope, it was still tough, even went on this job trial, I saw it was marketing and went for it, not the marketing I thought, the trial day took me to Staines of all places, and the team I was with was trying to get people to sign with EE, now I don’t know why EE would have people in the middle of Staines trying to get people to sign up but here we are, in the cold, I also had to do a lot of writing, didn’t get back to Islington until much later than expected, I had to memorise and answer even more questions, they told me I got the job, and I nearly missed Academy Award Nominee James Newton Howard at Royal Albert Hall because of it, did the induction day, realised that I would only make money if I made a sale, and the job requiring me to be there 6 days a week, I just quit, waste of my time, WASTE OF MY TIME! I would get a job by the end of the year, it wasn’t a bad job, had a familiar face there working with me, a colleague I had a bit of a soft spot for, good opportunities, but I wasn’t needed for work as much as I wanted to be, so that’s a story that goes past 2017 and a story for another time. I turned 21, had a surprise party which was great, only nitpick I really had is that not everyone I knew turned up, but oh well, in life you can’t always get what you want, also if you saw my face when I saw everyone in the room, it was absolutely priceless. I was featured in a documentary based on my flat, and that was a lot of fun to do. I got into a professional production, based on a play I was in the year prior at The Anna Scher Theatre, got funded successfully through a Kickstarter, sold out all six nights at the Etcetera Theatre in Camden, smashed it every single performance, and I would do it all over again, you perform, you celebrate afterwards, wake up the next day and do it all over again, had a good amount of people turn up for me, even had my headteacher turn up for me, shoutout to Ms. Shepherd I hope you’re well, it was all great. After the show’s run ended, getting back to that normal life wasn’t going well, I remember the first class back and I’m like “we’re back? That’s it? What now?” And deep down I don’t think I ever recovered from that; and then I felt like I went into this downward spiral, I won’t get too into it but most of it wasn’t to do with the show ending but other things too, this time in my life was quite possibly the worst 5 months of my life, there were good things that happened during that time including going to Georgia in the States, my youngest niece being born, getting that job I was talking about earlier, the Christmas holidays, and as good as all those were, it was never enough to get me out of that black hole I was in, however just like all dark times in our lives, they end, I look back and wonder “how did that last 5 months?” In the end I’m just glad I got through it and got a bit stronger from it. Anything else to do with 17? In 2009 I saw 17 Again with a friend of mine, the only thing I remember was that I was too loud speaking to my friend in a mostly empty screen, don’t know how, ask the woman rows and rows down that told me to be quiet. Thanks again for dropping in to read this week’s blog guys, I know this was another long intro but normally I have a lot on my mind and I like to let it out, especially seeing that it’s 5:35am as I’m writing this and everyone is asleep, so here I am. As those who read last week’s blog, you know this one will be different, especially since last weeks one I ended a bit early due to me having plans Sunday evening, so here we go, about to begin my week, let’s go.

We begin Sunday evening, that’s a refreshing start, and I’ve just finished writing the blog, so I decide to chill, wait for my phone to charge, and then make my way to South Woodford to see my friends, straight forward right? Well no. If you live in the UK especially London, you would know how bad the rain was that evening, I honestly thought an earthquake was happening it was unbelievably loud. After a while, my phone was 100%, and the rain was as bad as it was earlier, it was so bad that I couldn’t get public transport, I ordered an Uber, an Uber finally comes, I get into the Uber, only for the driver to say that he can’t travel that far, so he accepts the trip, makes his way to mine, let’s me into his car, only to then realise that the journey is too far for him, what a waste of time; eventually another Uber driver came, and dropped me off in South Woodford. So the two of us, and another friend of us who was there, we normally call ourselves The Rat Pack, The Rat Pack back together, first time since March, it was a great night and it flew by, went to bed at 3:30am, those 5 hours went so quick.

And now it’s Monday, I wake up in the morning, and my mate who lives in South Woodford and his mum drops my friend and I off at South Woodford Station, where I meet my mum and a friend of my mum’s who picked me up from the station, and dropped me off at theirs. My Mum and I were there for a few hours, and my mum’s friend’s daughters and granddaughters were there too so that was really nice, I remember last year my parents and I attended a wedding and during the reception we spent some of that time looking after one of the granddaughters, good times. After 2 or 3 hours, my mum’s friend drops us off at Woodford Station where my Mum and I made our way home. After getting home, having a nap and having dinner, I decide to go to the gym for the first time since lockdown started, I didn’t know what to expect, I was quite nervous, but there’s a first time for everything, this moment was going to happen eventually, here goes nothing. The gym was running on a one way system which was straightforward, and each locker had 2 metres between them so it was quite hard to find an empty locker, and then I go inside, to find where to do my workout, everything is spaced out by 2 metres and everyone I saw in the gym had one thing in common, none of them was wearing a mask, and I was the only one wearing one, it was very awkward, very uncomfortable too, I just did a workout on the Cross Trainer on level 10, was on there for between 35 and 40 minutes and went home, and that was my Monday, now I prepare to go back to work.

Tuesday, it’s the big day, my first shift back at work, was I nervous? You bet I was. How nervous? The sweaty nervous. I didn’t know what to expect, what to do, but eventually I was able to settle in and have a proper understanding of what to do and do it well. The difference was that the hours are reduced to 6 hours, like a school day, a part of the museum was open, instead of anyone entering and exiting anywhere it will have one entrance and one exit, and because of the test and trace system, people have to book tickets online before they enter the museum. Besides my brain getting fuzzy during the last hour of my shift, it was a decent day back, and now I have an understanding of what to do and what’s going on, it should be easy days going forward.

Next up it’s Wednesday, and today it’s my second of two shifts at work this week. I was more physically and mentally prepared compared to the previous day and personally I thought as a worker I performed better in this shift, though I do have to admit, when I was at the exit, on opposite sides of the door, there are signs clearly displayed saying that there’s no entry to the museum, and people try and go inside, from the exit, THE SIGNS ARE RIGHT THERE, YOU READ THE SIGNS! Unbelievable. During the evening I decided take a trip to the cinema, the VUE up Angel, and I watched The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched this film, but in total this was the 4th time I was seeing it in the cinema, 3rd in this particular cinema, and I had the whole screen to myself, a screen with between 100 and 200 seats, and I was the only one in it, it was overwhelming I absolutely loved it, and it was a great way to end my day, got home just before midnight.

Here is Thursday, and this week this was my favourite day, and you’ll see why in a bit. So for a little while now Ms. Vidal and I were discussing meeting up, and we didn’t know what was going to happen because I was busy, she was busy, and the weather kept constantly changing, and while I was waiting for the film to come on the night prior, Ms. Vidal emails me about meeting up the next day, and just like that, my Thursday was made. So I arrive at Regent’s Park, believe it or not it was the first time I’ve ever been to Regent’s Park, I can’t believe it myself; so we meet at The Regent’s, and her son was with her too, I’ve seen her son on a couple of Google Meets Video Calls, and seeing him in front of me was just surreal, it brought me back to July 2016, Ms. Vidal tells me she is pregnant and I was just so happy for her, it also brought me back to November 2016, the day Ms. Vidal was going to go on leave, I go to The Courtyard to see her, and I remember seeing her baby bump and I let out a massive gasp, I still laugh at myself looking back on it, and now we fast forward to present day, and here they both are, and here he is, life is incredible and full of wonders. We began by sitting at The Regent’s, having a coffee and a chat, got to know her son more, and we began talking about dinosaurs, and that was really nice. We then went for a walk around Regent’s Park while her son rod his scooter, he said my name at one point and my heart just melted, felt the biggest smile grow on my face. I still couldn’t get over how I’ve never been to Regent’s Park before, it’s so beautiful and it’s only 15 or 20 minutes on the bus from where I live. Eventually we went our separate ways, and said bye, and I just couldn’t believe it, nearly 7 years ago she started teaching me in The Courtyard, nearly 7 years later we’re meeting up, with her son, in Regent’s Park, unbelievable, this was without a shadow of a doubt my highlight of the week. Once I got home, I had lunch, was chilling in my bedroom, heard noise on my balcony, went out and saw it was one of my neighbours chilling out there, it’s a shared balcony don’t worry, and we spoke about her family, my family, and she said she’d be back in a bit, did she come back? Nah, she didn’t, and I just sat out there, on my own, in the sun, and Naturally by Gilbert O’Sullivan began playing in my head. I was supposed to go to my drama class later but I decided to give it a miss, felt tired from the sun today, and I didn’t have a good sleep the night prior, so I gave the class a miss, they can miss me for one week no worries, and that was Thursday, good day overall.

We now head to Friday, and I met up with a friend at his workplace, which is a pub called The Old Star which is next to St. James Park Station, and once he finished his shift, we had a few drinks, and I even met someone that he works with, who every week hosts a talent showcase on Instagram Live, and guess who’ll be on there Wednesday, yep your boy is showing off his talent and answering questions for 15 minutes, will put details at the end. My friend and I left The Old Star between 10:45pm and 11pm, we got McDonalds and then got the tube home, had a lovely time.

Oh look it’s Saturday, so I was planning to do something for Saturday, either going for a walk or go to the gym, but plans changed, I found out my youngest nephew was going to be staying with us for a few hours since his parents are going to be out so we had to look after him, I played with him on the PlayStation for a bit and for the most part he was good as gold, I did my uncle duties well, and I ended my night watching a wrestling pay per view, that was my Saturday, decent.

Now we have reached Sunday, began Sunday with meeting Jack for lunch, we went to this place at Chapel Market called N1 Grill, and it was alright, had to ask for a drink 3 times but the food was good so that was really the main thing, we got ice cream afterwards from an ice cream van nearby and that was good too. Afterwards I went home for around 2 hours, and my mum and I went to see a friend of her’s, I don’t recall if it was her birthday, or before her birthday, or after her birthday but it was to do with her birthday, and it was nice seeing faces I haven’t seen since before lockdown and catching up, and then we went and sat in the garden outside, and here I was, drink in hand, while everyone on my side was either on their phones or just staring into space and I was sitting there like “THIS IS REALLY GOOD SOCIALISING GUYS, KEEP IT GOING YOU’RE ALL DOING GREAT,” I mean I didn’t say anything but it did bother me, mum and I went home not long after that, and I ended my night watching another wrestling pay per view.

That was my week, I believe this one has the chance of being up there with being one of my longest blogs. I liked this week, because it was different, and I saw plenty of familiar faces that I haven’t seen since before lockdown, I did my first shifts back at work, met up with Ms. Vidal and her son, it was a really good week in general. Thank you all for reading again. I was supposed to take part in the Instagram Live on Wednesday 26th August for Soapbox Islington at 6pm, but I just realised that I have plans that were made a week and a half ago that collide with the Instagram Live so that means that I unfortunately have to drop out. However I do encourage those that are reading this to check out @soapboxislington on Instagram and go on their Instagram Live at 6pm to check out and support the talent performing. Thanks again guys, see you next week”

August 10th - August 16th

“It’s number 16, what can I think of with the number 16? Well I remember when my friends and I were younger and we treated the age 16 as if it was a big massive deal, one more step closer to 18, being able to do more things, nearly an adult, but looking back, the age 16 didn’t really mean much, it felt like a big deal at the time, but not now, it’s a bigger deal being 24, one year away from my mid 20s, I remember being in Year 11 as a 16 year old, being the oldest student in the school, obviously a role model to the younger students, and increasingly became less motivated as the year went on, these are the most important grades of your life they said, these won’t do much for me I said, then I ended up with mediocre GCSE results, perfect BTEC results, and then I went on to pass every other course I went on to do, A Level, HNC, Functional Skills and even a Business Administration course, and a few jobs, I think I’ve done alright in the last 7 years. Then I think of 2016, looking back, the best year of my life, finally got into work by starting a Digital & Marketing Apprenticeship at Sadler’s Wells, which also meant I had to go back to education to do a Business Administration Level 2 course at Lewisham Southwark College, also I was doing a lot of my own things like going to concerts and attending the BFI London Film Festival for the first time, turned the big 20, I went to Orlando, Florida with my family and my American family, and my social life was better than ever, looking at it, it was quite possibly the happiest I’ve been as an adult, it shows that nothing lasts forever, and the crazy thing is, while I was this happy and having all these good things going on, the road to Brexit happening started, Trump won the election, and the world lost the likes of Muhammad Ali, Prince, Gene Wilder, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, Sir Ken Adam, Frank Sinatra Jr, Garry Shandling, Kris Travis, Billy Paul, Theresa Saldana, Harry Rabinowitz, the white oak tree from The Shawshank Redemption, Marni Nixon, Gaspar Saladino, Kenny Baker, Curtis Hanson, Rod Temperton, Michael Massee, Kevin Meaney, Leonard Cohen, Florence Henderson and many, many more; I even remember especially during the second half of 2016 that people were saying it was like the worst year ever and I was the one guy that said “well it could be worse,” and then 2020 happened, and we’ve still got 4 months of it left, and potentially a second wave, life is wonderful isn’t it, full of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. This is blog number 16, and a different one too, I’ll say why at the end.

To start things off on Monday, I just took myself for a little trip to Mile End, just for a change of scenery, didn’t last too long because the heat was unbearable, and that was it, that was Monday, it was decent.

Onto Tuesday now, well that was quick, and it was my mum’s birthday, her and dad just got back from their little getaway, gave my mum her card and present, and also made her a nice coffee, I made sure there was plenty of chocolate and sugar, just how she likes it. In the evening I met up with Jack, and him and I took a trip to the Cineworld at the O2 to see Jurassic Park, Jack and I absolutely love the film, and for both of us it has a big impact on our childhoods, it was the first time Jack and I were seeing a film at the cinema together since we took my nephews to see Sonic The Hedgehog at the Vue at Angel back in February. we saw Jurassic Park in this format called 4DX, now 4DX is where you watch the film and feel practical effects around you including motion seats, wind, strobe lights, simulated snow and scents, and it was a fun experience, the seats got quite bumpy and my head was back against the seat so my head was going all over the place, felt like I got beat up, I actually would recommend it believe it or not, but if the seats getting bumpy gets too much for your head, just lean forward, don’t be like me and feel an aching on the back of your head for the next two or three hours.

Heading to Wednesday, my youngest nephew, my Mum and I made Red Velvet cookies out of the Gookie Dough that I still had which was really nice. Afterwards some family members came down to see my mum with her birthday being the day prior, my older brother, his partner and my two youngest nieces came down, as did my eldest sister, my brother in law and my youngest nephew, and all of us just sat outside chatting, it was really nice.

Going onto Thursday, and I went to my drama class, it was a really good class, I performed a monologue which was about a young musician who doesn’t have a good relationship with his dad, and the one time he goes to his dad, his dad wants nothing to do with him, I performed it well and everyone really liked it, I also did a comedic improvisation with a friend of mine in the class which was good too. Afterwards some of us went to The Harlequin, and then The Shakespeare’s Head and then myself and a friend, same one I did the improvisation with, went to Slim Jim’s, I called it a night after that and got home before 1am.

Here we are on Friday, and what did I do on Friday? Nothing really, some days you just don’t have the energy to do anything and this was one of those days, and sometimes it’s best to just stay at home and do nothing.

OH LOOK ITS SATURDAY, and what did I do on this day? I met up with a friend of mine, the same friend I was with last Saturday, and the same one I helped with his audition tape two weeks ago, and I was helping him with another audition tape, it was for the same role, but it was like the next stage in the audition process, just more lines and directions to memorise, and it went really well, was very happy with how it worked out, now we play the waiting game. Afterwards we went to The Finsbury for a bit which was a laugh.

Finally it’s Sunday, and I went for a walk around Angel, Upper Street, near Holloway Road and Essex Road, and that’s it for now.

Wait, what do you mean that’s it for now!? It’s because I’m going to see my friend in South Woodford and spend the night, and then I’m seeing family friends in Woodford the following day so I thought it would be best to write it now, it makes a change, and it’s different, and different is good sometimes. Next week will be interesting, will be doing my first two shifts back at work and seeing familiar faces, and I’ll see you lot then, I know it wasn’t the most busy week but not every week is going to be the same, and I hope you enjoyed my write up for what it was, see you all next week, take care.”

August 3rd- August 9th

“So here we are on 15, when I think of 15 I think of when I was 13 and I would sneak into rated 15 films in the cinema because I looked older than I did at the time, thinking about it I look at least 5 years older than I do now. 15 also makes me think of 2015, a very rocky year for me, began the year with a mental breakdown, something that I won’t get into right now, I then went on to perform in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as Beadle Bamford for two nights at St. Mary Magdalene Academy, 250 people per night, I finished my time at The Courtyard and St. Mary Magdalene Academy and passed all of the subjects I took, my Uncle Jimmy passed away, I tried to audition for a year long course at the Young Actors Theatre which flopped miserably, I did begin to attend classes at the Anna Scher Theatre which was the start of acting jobs, a lot of learning and a lot of lifelong friends, I also tried applying for jobs to no success and began attending the Job Centre which I hated every single minute of. Films were a big part of 2015 for me, and even helped me through the hardest of days, I took my youngest nephew to the cinema for the first time to see The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water where he was as good as gold, Furious 7 where we all said goodbye to Paul Walker, I won tickets to a preview screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron which I got through ShowFilmFirst which interesting fact, I was told about by Ms. Vidal, amazing what you can find out and what that can lead to from people you know, Mad Max: Fury Road which I think I saw more than any other movie that year and one of very few movies I’ve watched twice in a day, Inside Out which just like nearly every Disney movie got me emotional, Jurassic World which I saw after attending an event where family and friends got together to toast to and celebrate the memory of Uncle Jimmy, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation which I saw on my birthday with some of my best friends at the BFI IMAX, The Visit in which Jack and I attended a preview screening of two months before its release where my reaction got recorded and put onto one of its TV spots, which you’ll see below this blog, Hotel Transylvania 2 where I took my youngest nephew to see it and we bumped into my eldest niece and eldest nephew in the same screening with their dad, Spectre where Jack and I dressed in tuxedos to see the movie and I still felt jet lagged from flying home from Georgia that same day, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 which I won tickets for from OK Magazine to see at its London Premiere and it was one of the best nights of my life, Star Wars: The Force Awakens which I saw after a very bad appointment at the Job Centre, and it really cheered me up, and so many other films that I have memories of, 2015 was absolutely stacked. Another good memory I have of 2015 was surprising one of my best friends with tickets to a wrestling show at Wembley Arena which was a fantastic night. Overall 2015 was a very mixed bag of a year, and a year I felt where I don’t think 2015 itself knew what it wanted to be. I also think of the age 15, the year of me being 15, though it had good memories and moments here and there, there were bad too, my Grandad Ronnie passed away, my relationship of 2 years ended, and my Nanny Jane passed away, all of this in a space of 8 months, it was rough, times I’d rather not look back on, but I look at them as moments I became stronger from. I only just realised how much I’ve written, and I haven’t even gotten to the beginning of my week yet, HEY BILL YOU’VE WRITTEN ENOUGH WHAT ABOUT YOUR WEEK?! BE PATIENT SUNSHINE I’M GETTING TO IT!!!! Anyway, enough with me arguing with myself, here is my week for blog 15.

To begin on Monday, obviously, if you’ve read my previous blog you all know that I was going back to work to do training and shifts. I entered the museum and I felt like I never left, it was as if lockdown never happened and I was just there for a shift days prior, it was so odd, a colleague of mine that was there that day described it as going back to school. For our training this day we went through the one way system in the National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s House, the National Maritime Museum one way system is one that’s quite easy to remember, while the Queen’s House one way system is a bit more complex. We were also told about changes that were being made and were even given updated work dates, I looked at mine, released a sigh of relief and saw that I wasn’t working this weekend, WOO GET ALL YOU CAN GET BECAUSE WE’RE CELEBRATING!!! Also I was given a name badge and a house key just like a part time or full time worker, so I could use the key to get onto the museum sites whenever I wanted to, it felt incredible, knowing that they believed in me and trusted me to have something like that, and felt good knowing that I didn’t need to go to security to ask for a house key anymore. We also found out our work bubbles, and my bubble is one of the bubbles working in the National Maritime Museum which I was more than happy with. That was my first day back, good day, now to prepare for the next.

Tuesday was the second out of four days of training, and the training on this day was at the Royal Observatory, which is up high on a hill, and takes what feels like an eternity to get up there, once you’ve gone up the hill you are nearly out of stamina and sweating, but you do get quite possibly the best view in London so that makes up for it. We all took a walkthrough of the one way system and what to do if the fire alarm went off. We spent the majority of the time outdoors so, most of the time outdoors, on top of a hill, on a sunny day, do you know what this means? Me getting a colour, it’s only gone and happened again. This was a good day too, was a lot to take in but luckily I’ve got papers from work to go through to help me memorise everything.

Heading to Wednesday, day three out of four of our training, and originally this was meant to be on the first day but the person in charge this day was on annual leave Monday. So we all sat in a circle, and spoke about how we were during lockdown, what we did, how we felt at the start, and it felt really good to talk about it and hearing everyone else; I opened up about how anxious I was at first, how I coped at the start, and I also spoke about the blog and how it got it’s own article in the Islington Gazette. We were all given welcome back papers to look through and with a good amount of information, especially with what to do if anyone of us had symptoms of COVID. This was a good day too, a different day, and was nice to see more familiar faces.

Now onto Thursday, the last day of training, had to put my uniform on for the first time since March, felt weird but it also felt good, but the weather did make the uniform feel stuffy. We began sitting on desks and listening to a few people from the office talking about everything regarding the museums, opening and closing times, rotations, the one way system, ticket purchases, what we should do during our lunch breaks and a lot of other stuff, it was a lot to take in, but good information to hear about nonetheless. After the lunch break I got with some of the work colleagues in my bubble and went through the one way system, for some of them it was their first time going through it, and that was it, that was the last day of training, and now I have a week and a half to prepare for my first shift back. During the evening I went to my drama class, I felt I did better this time, not as good as I’d want to be but definitely better. Most of us including myself went to The Shakespeare’s Head afterwards and it felt really nice to be chatting, and having a laugh in the beer garden under the summer night sky. I booked for 4 people including myself a table at this bar on Upper Street called Slim Jim’s for 11:15pm, on the way there was 5 of us and once we arrived, I spoke to the bouncer saying I put down 4 instead of 5, the bouncer talks to the boss, one minute later, he comes back, and tells us to come in, perfect. We were there for around 3 hours, and I didn’t get home until 2:45am, and fell asleep an hour later, it was a good night.

Friday, woke up at 10am thanks to my alarm, but did I need to wake up? Basically I was supposed to have a Google Meets video call with Ms. Vidal which was scheduled at 11am, this was a mistake of Ms. Vidal’s, she sent the invitation to my Google Calendar just last night not realising it was 11am, but a few days ago she said we’ll talk at 1pm, and this is the funny part, I completely forgot about the 1pm part so I ended up waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, I sat there for an hour waiting, the things I do for the people in my life, and I emailed Ms. Vidal, she emailed me back, I emailed her back, she emailed me back, and next we’re doing a video chat while she’s on the bike, she’s great at multitasking, we spoke for around 20 minutes, and it was a fun chat, full of laughs and giggles, lovely way to start my day. After this I met up with a good friend of mine who I was in the same classroom with back in secondary school, we were at The White Swan for around 3 hours or so, it was really nice, we was meant to meet up back in March but this was a day before lockdown kicked in and changed everything so it was really nice we met up on this day. He’s actually the only classmate I still keep regular contact with, think of it this way, one is better than none.

Now it’s Saturday, and just to get this out of the way, I’m so glad I wasn’t working this weekend in this weather, it would’ve killed me. Began Saturday with both of my youngest nieces coming up, along with my older brother and his partner, my Nanny Lylie came up too and her, my mum and I had glasses of Pimm’s. Later on I went to The Camden Head to meet up with five good friends of mine, one of them I was with last Thursday to help with his audition tape, one I saw just three or four weeks ago at the birthday party, and the other three I haven’t seen since before lockdown started so it was really nice to be with each other again, a great laugh.

Finally it’s Sunday and on this day I met up with Jack for the first time in a few weeks, and we went to Charing Cross to this pub called The Sherlock Holmes, because Jack likes Sherlock Holmes, yeah that’s the reason. We had a nice meal there and then went for a walk around Leicester Square, and that was it, that was my Sunday.

That was my week, a very eventful and very busy week. It was really good to be back at work and really good to see faces I haven’t seen since before lockdown began. I look forward to next week, seeing that I’m not working next week it does shakeup the week a bit. I hope you enjoyed this week’s blog, I know I went on for a bit with the intro and I know it was different but I do hope you all enjoyed it. Before I go I want to say, please think of those who have been affected by the explosions that took place in Beirut, Lebanon last week. Thanks again everyone, I’ll see you next week.”

The Visit- watch my reaction at 00:04

July 27th - August 2nd

“This is 14, already, wow, pretty big number, and my 14th blog already, this is a very special one, a part of it is because of the number, but most of it is my last writing as 23 years old, and the rest of it my first as 24 years old, and my last blog before I go back to work, here I am, sitting by my laptop with a near finished bottle of Moretti, thinking of my life since lockdown began, how much has happened since then, and now life is the closest to being back to normal, with a few things still needing to come back. Now I look forward to writing this blog because it was a busy week, a very good week, one of my favourites since lockdown started, and let’s get to it.

Monday was my least busiest day of the week, had a Google Meets Video Call with Ms. Vidal, first time in nearly 3 weeks and it was lovely as usual, always nice to chat to Ms. Vidal, got to see her son as well which was nice, her phone cut out due to her battery running out, but we were about to finish the conversation then anyway, besides the anticlimactic ending it was another wonderful chat. A part of my chat with Ms. Vidal, I just sat back and relaxed the entire day, sometimes you need days like that.

Now onto Tuesday, and Tuesday was good, it was the first time I went to the cinema since if I remember correctly, February, Jack and I took my nephews to see Sonic The Hedgehog at the VUE up Angel which was a lot of fun. On this day I went to the Everyman Cinema at King’s Cross to see The Matrix, yep I’m a massive film buff but I’ve never seen The Matrix. I first got to the cinema and it was a part of this massive office building which featured floors upon floors of offices and a posh pizza restaurant, I went to the Everyman Cinema Bar where I ordered myself a Raspberry Candy Fizz which is Raspberry Liqueur, Prosecco and Candy Floss, I felt the need to treat myself, took my seat and the seat was like a sofa single seat, very soft and cozy with a pillow, got around half an hour worth of trailers, made me cringe seeing nearly all the trailers being outdated, imagine a world without COVID and we got all these films out on time. Watching a film on the big screen felt surreal, didn’t feel real at all, and the film itself, so awesome, came out 21 years ago and was years ahead of its time. Once I left the cinema and got home I felt this incredible buzz, the feeling of more normality in my life and finally seeing a film in the cinema, whether it’s an old or new film, I was just glad to be back in a cinema screen.

Heading to Wednesday, and on this day I decided to take a walk, walked up Angel, Upper Street, Essex Road, got near Hackney, and then I went to the West End, and stopped at Her Majesty’s Theatre where The Phantom of the Opera would normally play, I’m sure you all heard at that time that they were going to stop all productions of Phantom of the Opera because of how affected it got during this pandemic, and being there, with a few camera men too, it was just sad to see, a musical, been in the West End for 34 years and just like that, it’s gone, and it’s one of the more well known, loved and expensive musicals, one of the greatest of all time, if people had to decide what musicals would be on the Mount Rushmore of Musical Theatre, most people would put Phantom of the Opera on there, and seeing how it got affected, imagine what shows could be next; though I did see a day or two later that Phantom of the Opera was looking to return with a brand new physical production so that’s really good, and when West End theatres are back, I will definitely be booking a ticket to The Phantom of the Opera. After the walk I went to see Auntie Susie and Uncle Trevor, first time I’ve been up their house since March when lockdown was about to start, had a nice chat with Uncle Trevor, collected some spaghetti for my mum and headed home, also I got colour on my face and head from the sun, I didn’t realise how warm it was and here I was with colour on my face and head, my pale skin, easy for me to get caught by the sun.

Here we are on Thursday, the last day before my birthday, last day being 23, and to start this day, I met up with a friend of mine for the first time since lockdown started to help him with his audition tape, we had a nice catchup, a good laugh and the audition tape went really well, each time we did a new take, a new idea came to mind, a reminder that the two of us are a really good team, afterwards we had lunch and went our separate ways at Finsbury Park, very nice start to the day. In the evening was my first drama class since March, and this was a special class, my teacher decided to bring some of his younger students to the class and we mixed in with them, the improvisation I did wasn’t bad, could’ve been better, on my part, a bit rusty acting again, will improve over time. Afterwards was the beginning of my birthday celebrations, a lot of us went for drinks at The Shakespeare’s Head and it was really nice, sat outdoors in the beer garden and had a great laugh. Afterwards 4 of us including myself went to look for another place to go to, went to Slim Jim’s, all booked out, then went to All For One, all booked out too, and we decided to call it a night, by the time I got home it was past midnight, and I turned 24 years old.

Now it’s Friday, and it’s officially my birthday on what is so far the hottest day of the year, officially 24, feels weird, will take some getting used to. Got some gifts including some new shirts, new Reebok trainers, quite a bit of money, £60 worth of Cineworld vouchers and the coincidence was that Cineworld opened all of their cinemas on my birthday so expect me to make some trips over the next few weeks, new set of pyjamas, 4 bath bombs from Lush, and I believe that’s it from what I can remember. For my birthday I didn’t really fancy doing anything big especially during a pandemic, my youngest nieces and my older brother’s partner came up, my older brother would eventually come down during his lunch break, my eldest sister and my youngest nephew came to see me as well before they left to play golf in Essex, at one point an old face video called me, she was the film maker behind the documentary I was in, I Am Eleven, and I had a nice catchup with her and met a friend of her’s; my Nanny Lylie would come down and the both of us and my mum had a few glasses of Pimm’s, two of my neighbours came to see me as well, and my other neighbour cooked me a massive bowl of rice, her special recipe which I looked forward to having. For dinner my younger brother and I got Five Guys, the burger I had was absolutely ridiculous, it was a Bacon Cheeseburger with, I can’t believe I’m about to say this, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Grilled Onions, Grilled Mushrooms, Pickles, Green Peppers, Ketchup and BBQ sauce, I had all that with regular Five Guys Style Fries, and a Milkshake, and I can’t believe I’m about to say this, this Milkshake had Strawberry, Coffee and Oreo Cookie Pieces, as you can tell I have a ridiculous appetite but I never complain about it because I absolutely love it. Later on my brother in law popped up to see me and my parents and I watched 7500 on Amazon Prime, which was a decent film, and that was my birthday, and it was lovely, couldn’t imagined it being any better than it was.

Now it’s Saturday, and this was a big day, it was the FA Cup Finals with Arsenal taking on quite possibly their greatest rival Chelsea, will Chelsea claim the trophy? Will Arsenal break their own record with most FA Cup wins? An Arsenal and Chelsea match is like a game of Heads and Tails, you don’t know what side of the coin you’ll get, I’m not the biggest football expert or fan, but if Arsenal are actually in the finals of something, I’m watching it. I took a trip down to South Woodford to a friend’s house, the same friend I met with before we made our way to the Hawaiian Themed Party over a week ago, and also there was his mum, his sister, his sister’s boyfriend, and a good friend of his, so including myself there was around six of us all supporting Arsenal. The game was something that you couldn’t make up, like something out of a movie, Chelsea dominates in the first 10 to 15 minutes including a goal, and then after that Arsenal takes control scoring a goal of their own while Chelsea got a couple of yellow cards, they’re getting nervous and tired; and the second half comes and their best player gets injured, then Arsenal scores another goal, then one of Chelsea’s players gets a red card, and their own captain who was only on the pitch for 10-15 minutes gets injured and then the final whistle blows, we did it, we won, there was a good chance we could’ve lost but we did it, we actually won, we went outside with the Arsenal flag and sang to one of the neighbours, who has since Arsenal went 2-1 taken his Chelsea flags down, “WHERE’S YOUR FLAG GONE, WHERE’S YOUR FLAG GONE, WHERE’S YOUR FLAG GONE CHELSEA” the neighbour gives the finger and closes the window, brilliant. Afterwards we put a barbecue on that had chicken, burgers, hotdogs, pita bread and chicken korma kebab, after this we all called it a night as I made my bed on the sofa, put The Green Mile and because how tired I was, I fell asleep 10 minutes into the film. Overall it was a lovely way to end my birthday celebration that began on Thursday evening and ended on this evening.

Finally we’re on Sunday, I had a decent sleep, and I had a few cups of tea while I played with Pepper, the French Bulldog of the family who fell asleep on my lap at one point, and chatted away with my friend’s mum, after this my friend and his mum dropped me off at Wanstead Station where I got the tube home, I got home, had lunch, had a nap for two hours, woke up, had dinner, had a bath and that was it, that was my Sunday.

That was my week, as I said at the start, one of my favourite weeks since lockdown started, this was one of my favourite to write about too. I now prepare for the busiest week since lockdown started, from Monday to Thursday I will be training at my workplace, meeting a friend from secondary school on Friday, and then doing shifts at work on Saturday and Sunday, the best part of this is that you all will get an insight on my job and how I work, and what working during a pandemic is like. Am I nervous? A bit. Am I dreading how busy I’m going to be? Kind of. This is good though, more normality in my life, more time outside my house, a step forward into the normal life, as you’re reading this I’m either doing my training or I’ve just finished my first day, you already know what my entire week is going to consist of, but that’s what makes next week so interesting, instead of wondering what I’m going to do, you all know what I’m about to do, I’ll see you all then, take care.”

July 20th to July 26th

“So this is blog number 13, I remember being 13 in Year 8 which was a real mixed bag, I was 13 when I got into my first and only relationship which during the next year was also a mixed bag, my eldest niece is going to be 13 in a month and a bit which blows my mind, my younger brother got an IPad on his 13th birthday, as a kid I took a huge interest in the Friday the 13th films, 13 reminds me of the year 2013 which was a fantastic year for films, and an interesting year for me, finished my time at Stormont House School which came with mediocre results for both my GCSEs and BTECs, and then I started at The Courtyard, which also was the beginning of studying Performing Arts, so what you’re seeing with this blog, my time and conversations with Ms. Vidal, what you know about my time here and anything to do with acting or related to the performing arts, it all started here, and it’s led me here nearly 7 years later writing this blog. I know you must think that this is a random intro and I don’t blame you, but let’s just say that the number 13 does remind me of a lot of things. This is blog number 13, let’s get into it.

Kicking it off with Monday and my mum, youngest nephew and I went to see my Auntie Susie, with how nice the weather was we stood in the middle part of her flat which has a lot of grass and a couple of benches and it was really nice, my cousin, her partner, my cousins’ children, and their neighbours were there too, some of us had McDonalds for lunch and my younger brother came down to see us after just getting home from staying at the caravan with some friends of his, it was all really nice. Afterwards my younger brother, mum, myself, youngest nephew and my cousins’ children went back to mine, and we had my cousins’ children there for around an hour or so. I also did a total of 80 pushups on this day, not all in one but I would do something like 10, and then 20 around half an hour later, it was quite inconsistent but still, it was 80 pushups and I felt really proud of myself.

For Tuesday, it was like a continuation of Monday, and not because it was the next day but my youngest nephew and cousins’ children came up just like yesterday, it’s because my older sister and cousin’s partner work in the same school and they had to go in to clean up, so we had the pleasure of looking after the kids, and they were all as good as gold, they even had their own gaming area set up in my parents’ bedroom, my nephew and the eldest of my cousins’ kids was on the PlayStation 4 while the youngest of my cousins’ kids was on the Nintendo Switch, we all then had KFC for lunch and that was it, very good day, and always a pleasure to look after them. A few hours after that, I decided to go for a jog,sometime during the previous week I wore socks too short for my shoes, and the material of my shoes rubbed up against the back of my feet and damaged the skin a bit, it didn’t really affect me in any way just felt a bit itchy, so I only went and made the same mistake, and I went on to jog through Angel, Upper Street and near Holloway, I stopped after the pain on the back of my feet got too much, and realised I still had to go back home, I didn’t have my wallet on me so I couldn’t get the bus, I had my phone so I could’ve got myself an Uber but seeing that I didn’t have my mask would the Uber driver let me in? So I tip toed all the way home, finally got home and saw a bit of blood on the back of my socks and a bit inside the shoes, looks like I won’t be jogging for a bit.

So for Wednesday it was something that I believe I mentioned in some of the previous blogs, and this something was the Hawaiian Themed Party, it was here, it was happening, and it felt surreal, originally it was meant to be this Saturday but the weather was predicted to be bad so the party was pushed forward, and I’ll get to Saturday’s weather later on. To begin I went to the park with my youngest nieces, my youngest nephew, my mum and my older brother’s partner which was nice and it’s always good to do my uncle duties. I then met one of my friends outside The Angel pub where we had a pint and a shot each, and after that we went to Angel Station to get on the Northern Line, got off at Euston, then took the Overground to Hatch End where from there we walked for 10 minutes to the party; it was really good, seeing old and new faces, just sitting out in the sun, drinking and chatting with music playing in the background, I’m honestly surprised I didn’t get burnt seeing that my skin burns so easily, some of the people at the party including the hostess I was supposed to be going to Ayia Napa with, but of course that didn’t happen, but if this was the closest we could get to Ayia Napa, I’d take it! I was chatting to one of my friend’s there and she said for a laugh that I was her temporary boyfriend, I would’ve preferred long term but you can’t always get what you want, another person at the party got sick so I helped looking after that person, at one point I took my shoes and socks off and just stood in the pool, with a can of Strongbow in my hand in my own little world, don’t know why it happened but there you go. Later on, my mate that I traveled to the party with and I watched Liverpool raise their Premier League trophy as we sang You’ll Never Walk Alone, I am an Arsenal supporter but there’s that tiny part of me that supports Liverpool for my mum; once everyone started packing away, that same mate and I sat outside on our own and sang Frank Sinatra songs out loud, these songs were Come Fly with Me, I’ve Got You Under My Skin and Theme From New York, New York; we were 20 seconds away from finishing until the hostess’ mum came out to tell us off, she couldn’t let us finish those last 20 seconds, shame. Some of us slept in the living room and I got to play with Milo for a bit who was a very good boy, spent the majority of the day in his cage and he really behaved himself, he was lying down on my lap at one point, I absolutely adore him; by the time we all fell asleep it was past 2am; at one point around 4am I woke up and went to the spare bedroom and spent the rest of the night sleeping there.

Here’s Thursday, woke up with a blocked nose and dehydration, it’s either that or a splitting headache, I’ll take the former any day. I went downstairs to see those who stayed over, they were watching a film on Netflix, the film was called Ouija, the less said about the film the better, made me wish I drank more the night before so I could’ve slept through the whole thing. Afterwards the mate I travelled with yesterday and I left the house and made our way home, we went our separate ways at Euston Station, he got the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus, as I got the Northern Line back to Angel; after getting off the tube I got myself two bacon and egg sandwiches and got home, ate them and had a nap. A few hours later I made an interesting discovery, basically do you remember the drama teacher I mentioned 3 or 4 blogs ago that told me he was going to start doing classes again? Well on this day was his birthday, on he did a Facebook post about his birthday lunch, or was it dinner? I don’t know, anyway, he ended the post with “now I’m off to my classes” something like that, and that had me scratching my head, and I remembered him saying he would email me about the classes, so I’ve checked my emails and around 2 and a half to 3 weeks ago he did email me about when classes were coming back, I must’ve missed the email or actually saw it and forgot about it, so I accidentally missed 3 classes, just had to laugh about it; so I had a good idea, seeing that most people go to the Shakespeare’s Head after class, I thought to get there before class ends and surprise everyone, so I get there around 8:45pm, wait around with a pint in my hand for between 15 and 20 minutes, and then some of the class came in, they saw me and everyone got excited, it’s nice to see everyone happy; it was a lovely evening, and got home around 11:45pm.

OMG IT’S FRIDAY! So yeah it’s now Friday, and my Nanny Lylie came up for a chat and a coffee which was very nice. I also got an email regarding my workplace and job position, got my dates for training and shifts after that, looks like my contract got extended to January 2021 which is great and the days I can’t complain about, maybe the week back, training from Monday to Thursday and then doing shifts on the weekend, it’s going to be tiring. Later on I took myself down to The Shakespeare’s Head for a drink, it was alright but it’s not the same as those Thursday nights.

Then it was Saturday, and my mum and I looked after my second to youngest niece Poppy for a couple of hours and she was as good as gold, my older brother, his partner and my youngest niece came down for a hour afterwards which was nice too. In the evening I went for a walk, walked around Angel, Essex Road, City Road and Old Street, and just before I got to Old Street it started to rain, and I got drenched, as drenched as I would be on a water ride at a theme park, could you imagine if the party wasn’t moved forward and was still on Saturday? The weather would’ve ruined everything, so I got home absolutely soaked from the rain.

Finally on Sunday it was the first nothing day in 3 or 4 weeks, I think. My older sister came in for a bit since her house was getting something done to it, can’t remember what it was, and at one point one of our neighbours came in for a coffee, and yeah that was Sunday.

So that was blog number 13, good week, some old faces and new faces, reunions, good times, positive vibes all around. The next blog is going to be interesting, Monday to Thursday will be the last paragraphs as 23 years old, while Friday to Sunday will be the first paragraphs as 24 years old, which makes this blog my last whole blog as a 23 year old, the end of an era right here. The next blog will also be my last before I go back to work so that should be very interesting, I’ll see you all then, have a great week.”

July 13th to July 19th

 “This I believe is 12, blog number 12, so that means I’ve been doing this for 3 months, wow, a quarter of a year I have spent doing these blogs and I’m still doing it now, it’s crazy how fast time goes, and this is just an example, and seeing the world when this all started to the world now is like night and day, and you lot still want to read it, you are all full of surprises but I am grateful for it. Now let’s get onto my week.

Monday, my parents and I woke up early to go to Chichester, before we went we said bye to one of our neighbours, a mother and a boy we got to know during this time are going back home to China, and the child we all fell in love with, he called me Uncle Bill, my brother Uncle Frankie, my dad Grandad Gary and my mum Nanny Tina, he also loves Fireman Sam and Peppa Pig which always has him staying at ours watching it on our telly, and for a 2 year old he is so smart, speaking both Chinese and English, saying big words too, he has such a bright future ahead of him, I had a cuddle with him, mum started tearing up, so did dad, his mum started tearing up too, goodbyes are just horrible aren’t they, you know that you’ve made friends for life and you’ll keep in touch, but you don’t know if you’ll see them again but you hope you do, goodbyes never get easier, I was so glad to have met them during this time. We then drove down to Chichester, picked up some shopping for any food, drinks or snacks to have in our lodge and then we made our way to the holiday park where our lodge was. Once we checked in we sat out on the decking of the clubhouse and had a drink, the setting was perfect with the sun shining and us seated by a lake. After that we went to our lodge and began unpacking, then I began seeing messages from my work colleagues, work colleagues who just like me, are zero hour contract workers, and some of them received emails, saying they’ve been let go, or let go for now, and I was confused by this because I would’ve never expected to see zero hour contract workers to be let go during these times, and then I received an email, and it was a contract, a contract which would have me working two fixed days, overtime available as and when needed from August to October, I knew I was wanted for this as I was having conversations about it beforehand but seeing that contract in my email, it was such a relief, if they let me go, that would’ve broke me, seriously; it was one of those scenarios where I had to sit back, close my eyes, take a deep breath and count my blessings, because that could’ve been me being one of the people getting let go. After that we went out for dinner, I chose the place and it was part of the deal between my mum and I, you choose it you’re paying for it, quite the bargain if I say so myself, and it was a Mexican themed restaurant called Muchos Nachos, it looked like an old fashioned pub but filled with Mexican culture inside and out, and there was two big reasons why we went there, one was because of the buy one get one free deal on Mondays, and the other was the ribs, and my family and I love ribs it’s well documented how much my family and I love ribs; and then we found out the online menu was outdated and the ribs aren’t a part of the menu anymore, WONDERFUL! The food was lovely and filling nonetheless and the service was great, plus the portions for the mains were much bigger than I expected I couldn’t finish them, and my mum said the burger was the best burger she’s ever had, so this one burger in Muchos Nachos in Chichester is better than a burger in McDonalds, Burger King, Five Guys, Wetherspoons, TGI Fridays, Wendy’s, Garfunkel’s and any other place in the world that does burgers, I mean I didn’t have the burger so I can’t say so but that’s quite the statement, and paying for a meal that my family enjoyed really made me feel good, brought me joy, and that was our day, nice start to our holiday.

Tuesday next, of course, and my parents and I took a drive down to Haling Island, which believe or not, you can get a little view of Portsmouth from, and there was a little track for a train that’s mostly used on a few days a week and school holidays which was cool to see, and we then took a walk down to a funfair which on the outside looked small but on the inside looked massive, and is great for the kids; originally my older brother, his partner and his two daughters (also my two youngest nieces) were meant to come down but my brother couldn’t get the time off work so they couldn’t come, and I kept constantly saying at everything that was there, even the donuts we had I kept saying “imagining the kids here, they would’ve loved it, could’ve been here the whole day.” Then we found this pub which I believe was called The Ship Inn which is a nice pub near the sea where the three of us had a drink, and we then went to Harvester which was an idea of mine because we just want our ribs, is it that hard to ask for? One Harvester we went to had to cancel our booking because their oven broke, we then had to drive to another one which couldn’t take anymore bookings due to the number of tables they had to have during these times, and there was no way we were going to drive back down to near or at Portsmouth after all that so we went back to the holiday park where we had a nice filling meal in the clubhouse; after that we were all feeling tired so we decided to head back to our lodge and call it an early night.

We’re on Wednesday now because where else can we go, and today started off with another idea of mine, going into town, we all didn’t know what to expect but it turned out to be around an hour and a half or two walking around and exploring, the town centre was stacked with stores of well known brands that we knew about and others, and Greggs, can’t forget Greggs, as soon as I saw Greggs I walked right in, no saying what I was doing or anything just walked in, and came out with a piece of Pepperoni Pizza and a drink, we also had coffee at a nice nearby cafe, I also went into Lush and got two bath bombs, and got myself some Funko Pop vinyls figures from The Entertainer. After that we went back to the lodge to relax for a few hours and then we went back for another attempt at Harvester, was there going to be a problem with the oven? Would our booking be cancelled in anyway? We then arrived, expecting anything to happen and we got in, and we got our ribs, WE FINALLY GOT THEM, DESTINY HAS ARRIVED, THE PROPHECY HAS BEEN FULFILLED, TODAY IS A GOOD DAY!!!!! I do have to admit that first getting in there and sitting down did feel bittersweet, we were at a good restaurant with good food but the last time I was at a Harvester it was August 2014, myself, my mum and my Uncle Jimmy went to one after he moved to Brighton, and this was before he passed away nearly a year later, so I was thinking of him quite a bit when we were there. While eating, and this day somehow gets better, I hear my dad say something, I can’t clearly remember what it was but it was either “AH!” or “NO!” And my mum and I look up to see my older brother, his partner and my two nieces right next to us, they’ve only gone and surprised us, and my brother revealed that he was able to take Thursday off so they were going to be staying the night with us, so this was wonderful. After this we went back to the clubhouse for a bit where my brother and mum played some bingo, we all had a drink or two and then went back to the lodge to have a late night snack and call it a night, easy to say that Wednesday was my favourite day of the holiday.

Here we are on Thursday, began with myself, my dad, my brother’s partner, and my two nieces going out to feed the geese, there’s around 50 or 60 geese staying at the holiday park and all they do is walk around and eat whatever they can find, and it got to the point where I had all the geese following me, and then chase me, it was an experience which I believe is the best way to put it. After that myself, my brother and my dad took a drive to Tesco’s to buy some bits, do I remember what they were? Nope. Do I know why we went to get some bits? Nope. Just me being Third Wheel Bill. Later on myself and my brother took my nieces to the swimming pool, we had to book a time slot and get our temperatures tested which I didn’t mind, and it was nice to finally have a swim in a pool on a hot sunny day, it wasn’t Ayia Napa or Turkey but I’d take it, we were in there for an hour and obviously I caught the sun, I always have the idea of a nice day being that I probably don’t need sun cream, and then it turns out I should’ve got it, make that mistake every time. After that we went back to the lodge to chill for a bit, making an order and collecting KFC, while my mum put a Sainsbury’s pizza in the oven so we had a pick and mix, it was really nice. A while after that my brother, his partner and my nieces left and made their way home, and it was just my parents and I again, and we were already tired so we spent the rest of our time relaxing until it was time to sleep.

Then it was Friday and we just got up, had a cup of tea, brushed our teeth, got dressed and went home. After we got home, I signed and sent off my new contract for work and then went to meet Jack, it was the last time I saw him before he went to his dad’s and he’s staying at his dad’s for a couple of weeks, so he treated the both of us to a kebab meal from German Doner Kebab since he won’t be there for my birthday, we ate our meals at the park opposite Sadler’s Wells, and I decided to treat Jack and I to drinks at a pub nearby, I always have the logic of if someone treats me, I should treat them back, it just makes sense, and we got our table, treated him and I to a shot and a drink and we called it a day, nice last meet-up for a while. Once I got home I began looking after my nephew since his parents (my sister and brother in law) went out, and we made cookies with my mum out of cookie dough I ordered online, Gookie Dough, I highly recommend it, it’s cookie dough that you can do anything with, you can eat it raw, you can microwave it, you can bake it, absolutely anything, and the cookies were lovely, Triple Chocolate Fudge flavoured. After that him and I sat upstairs, watched a film together, and then he played Fortnite while I kept an eye on him. Overall it was a lovely day.

Now it’s Saturday, and I began by playing on the PlayStation for a bit, and then I went to see my neighbours, it was their son’s fifth birthday, and at one point I took my nephew down to a bouncy castle that was set up, and I ate plenty of food, especially the Goat Curry YUM, and it got to the point where, I didn’t know what else to do, I couldn’t talk to the people at the party I knew because they were either all occupied doing their own thing or they were somewhere, and I was just there, Third Wheel Bill strikes again, I just decided to go back home, I then ended my night watching a wrestling pay per view so that was a nice way to end my day.

Finally it’s Sunday, cor I bet you’re all glad, you’re finally near the end of my endless writing, I never thought we’d get here. I went down to Hatch End to see the same friend I saw last Sunday. It was the first time I used the tube since lockdown started and I didn’t know what to expect, I took the Northern Line to Euston which was the most relaxed I ever felt on the Northern Line, with all the space and seats available, I was loving it; I then took the Overground to Hatch End and walked 4 minutes to the pub on my right hand side. We had a few drinks and a nice chat, and we then went to her house where I met her mum, aunt and her dog Milo, oh Milo, where do I start, he’s a small smart handsome good boy, three months old and he is just so good at that young, and loves being picked up for cuddles, he’s like a baby except he can run on all fours. We all sat in the garden and had a few drinks, I even held Milo as he slept in my arms for around half an hour, he really is like a baby. My friend’s mum ended up cooking us dinner which was lovely, had a chat for another hour, and my friend’s aunt dropped me off at the station, didn’t get home until past midnight and ended my night watching another wrestling pay per view. Since then I’ve been looking back on this day, mostly because of Milo, but also because my friend’s mum said to me at one point “you look like someone who has plenty of stories,” which is incredibly true, give me a word or topic and I can give you a story regarding that word or topic, or you can just read my blogs on here, there’s 12 of them and depending on what happens with the world, there’ll be plenty more where that came from.

That was my week, another good week with positive feelings and moments. I was talking to Ms. Vidal through email last week and she said this could be my last one seeing that everyone is breaking up from school now, but seeing that I’ve got loads of people outside of The Courtyard reading the blog every week, I’ll be more than happy to continue it, it constantly gives me something to look forward to and plus we don’t know how long this will last, it could end, and then we could get another spike, oh no, and then a second wave, OH NO, and then you could be getting months more with me, OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But let’s hope for the best. Next week should be good too, as I’m writing this Monday is already sorted, Tuesday should be good, the Hawaiian themed party got moved to Wednesday due to weather and the rest of the week is a mystery, see you then guys, have a great week.”

Feeding the geese

July 6th -12th July

“So this is blog number 11, interesting fact with the number 11, I was in a documentary called I Am Eleven which is a documentary about 11 year olds, and year 11 was probably the most annoying school year of my life, my oldest nephew is turning 11 soon, it’s been nearly 11 years since I got into my first and believe it or not only relationship, what do all these have in common? The number 11, does this make sense? I don’t think so. Why did I put all of this down? I have no idea. To begin, this was a productive week, had something to do every day, every day felt different, I have to say this week was a very good week and one of the quickest since this pandemic got big in this country, Monday honestly felt like yesterday, so let’s get to it, should be fun, it’s 3:30am, I need to be up in the morning to go to Chichester, my sleeping pattern is nonexistent, my happiness is for some reason at an all time high and I’m a good boy.

Let’s start with Monday because who on earth would start on Tuesday. Monday was a very relaxed day, and the only thing I really did on this day was go for a walk, what made this walk different than the others was that this was in the evening and I took a different route. I walked past Barbican, and then past St. Paul’s, then across the Millennium Bridge to Bankside; I also took a little walk across the Bankside Beach which I would only recommend if you wore hard shoes, it’s all full of stones. My favourite part of this was seeing how the sunset looked over St. Paul’s Cathedral, it was majestic. Overall this was a lovely walk, though I wouldn’t recommend listening to anything scary while you’re walking alone at night, at the time I thought it was a good idea to listen to nuclear attack warnings, now why did I do that? I have no idea, I guess it was the crave for an adrenaline rush, and the worst part about listening to things like that is that you’d imagine yourself in that scenario and what you would do, honestly it is scary to think about, but seeing how 2020 has been so far I wouldn’t be surprised if we got one for absolutely no reason, remember when people said 2016 was the worst year ever? Good times.

Next is Tuesday, obviously, and I met up with Jack. We decided to go to a cafe up Chapel Market, that’s so weird to say, we went to a cafe, we actually went to a cafe, what is going on? We stood at the doorway for a few seconds, requested for a table for two, sat down, had our menus given to us, placed our order, received our order, ate it, paid for it, and that’s that, I really did appreciate how well the cafe handled things, we even had to add sauces and salt to our order which I was absolutely fine with, plus it’s more safer, also if you see in the picture below I have a big appetite, and I love my food. After this Jack and I went for a walk up to Essex Road and that was it, lovely meet up. In the evening I spent half an hour working out with the dumbbells, it was a good workout. Also I found out on this day that Elton John postponed his UK tour dates by a year so my mates and I have gone from waiting 5 months for it, to 1 year and 4 months, 2020 has been a right muppet.

We move onto Wednesday, and I went for a walk, I got to be honest I don’t remember where I went, I presume it was the usual locations. During the evening I actually did this yoga exercise routine that helps you either sleep or feel sleepy, it’s only 7 minutes and it’s very relaxing, after doing it I felt like dozing off on the floor, with no pillows, no covers, just me on a wooden floor, if you want to feel tired I highly recommend it, link is below.

Next is Thursday, clearly, and you know how we start our Thursdays, a Google Meets Video Call with Ms. Vidal, can’t start Thursdays any better than that, and it was one of my favourite chats that we’ve had since we started doing the video calls, we were talking about old memories, old faces, saying nice things about each other, it was a very wholesome conversation, and Ms. Vidal, she has this energy about her that’s wonderfully contagious and you just can’t get enough of it, I said that to her in the conversation, everything I say won’t be enough to describe how incredible she is. Afterwards I decided to go for a jog, I was actually up all night and I struggled getting to sleep so I thought a jog would help; on this jog I bumped into one of my old managers from one of my previous jobs and we had a nice little catchup, I then bumped into a very good family friend who I haven’t seen in months, my brother was very close to her eldest son back in school and I’ve always had a close bond with her youngest son, and it was really nice to see another familiar face, and we spoke for what must’ve been 10 minutes, and it was a lovely 10 minutes, she’s one of my favourite people to talk to and this conversation was a very fine example. Went home to have a few hours of sleep, and then, and it became one thing after another; to begin I was supposed to be seeing my cousin the following day but that had to be cancelled because she had to cover a work colleague that wasn’t feeling well, it’s a shame but these things happen, got a really nice write up planned for her too eventually, she’s one of the reasons why I am who I am today, and she has been an inspiration to me; so after this my mum and I went to get McDonalds, she said the one in City Road began accepting takeaways, so she placed the order on the McDonalds app on her phone, we left the house to make our way there, and the question to me remained, did they actually accept takeaways? Of course they didn’t, still only drive through, and I then realised that the walk there and back home was 15 to 20 minutes of my life that I was never going to get back, thanks Mum; so afterwards, yep it gets worse, she places the order on UberEats, we receive the order, and guess what, I didn’t get my Strawberry Milkshake, I ended up with a Coca Cola instead, yeah I love my milkshakes, receiving a Coca Cola instead broke me as a human being. Wow what a great way to end Thursday, still a decent day though.

It’s Friday now, and seeing that I now had no plans, I decided to drop off some stuff to Jack, it was a tripod and a dolly track, it’s film stuff basically, so before this pandemic really kicked in Jack and I were in the middle of a filmed production I’ve written and we would normally keep the tripod and dolly track in my bedroom to save him constantly taking it back to his and then up to mine; I went in his house for the first time in months and had a nice chat with his mum, afterwards we went into his garden to set up the dolly track, the tripod and his new camera to test it all out, since this pandemic started he has been constantly getting new equipment for his upcoming projects, he hasn’t been messing about and I couldn’t blame him; setting everything up really brought me back to when we were always on set, and we would set everything up together, feels like so long ago but this was a really nice throwback. Once I got home my Nanny Lylie came over, we all had coffee and had a lovely chat and laugh. I also found out on this day that I’ll be going back to work in early August, a few days after my birthday so I’m really looking forward to that, this was a really good day.

We now head to Saturday, started it off with 40 Squats, lovely jubbly. Then I went to see a friend of mine, who I mentioned 3 or 4 weeks ago, met her through one of my drama classes, and her neighbour came over; I saw them again for her neighbour’s birthday, had plenty of drinks, lots of food, the chicken and ribs were amazing by the way, and also some of our friends from the Anna Scher’s class came up too, which was lovely because I haven’t seen some of them since February or March, and looking at some of the photos taken, wow we’re all very attractive people. Overall it was a lovely time, was so nice to see these familiar faces, and new ones too.

Now it’s Sunday, every week’s grand finale, how did I spend the last day of the week, with another familiar face, it keeps getting better and better. We only made plans the previous morning and here we were seeing each other for the first time since February or March. We met at The White Swan at Highbury and must’ve spent around 5 or 6 hours there, we had a few drinks, looking back at it, it definitely wasn’t a few, we had plenty to eat, and we had a right laugh. We met through the HNC in Performing Arts course nearly two years ago, she joined the course a few weeks after I did and since then we’ve gotten really close, gone to plenty of pubs and clubs, had a couple of parties, shot a comedic sketch, gone to the Notting Hill Carnival together, and we were supposed to be in Ayia Napa together with a few of our friends two months ago, which didn’t happen because of what’s going on in the world, and she’s the host of the Hawaiian themed party that I mentioned in a previous blog which I can’t wait for; she’s one of the best friends I’ve made in the course and I’m just so glad to have met her. This was a wonderful way to end the week.

This was a great week, one of my favourites during this time, and one of my favourites to write about. It is nice to see things slowly go back to normal, more places are opening at the end of the month so hopefully that’ll be alright, I watched a wresting show this week that took place in Japan, it was really nice to see people in attendance, nice to see some normality in another part of the world. The next blog will be a much different one, from Monday to Friday I will be in Chichester with my mum and dad so it’s going to be nice to get away for a bit, change of scenery and I’ll see you all then, and don’t forget guys, keep safe, we’ve made progress but we’re not done yet, let’s keep on being safe and clean and we’ll get there eventually.”

Billy's recommendation to a nice workout that’ll help with sleeping, please click on the link to watch it.

June 29th - 5th July

“So here we are, the big number, the two digits, that number every kid looks forward to in age, a number used as a decade, we have arrived to blog number 10, how did we get here? I have no idea, maybe 10 weeks of patience, waiting, frustration, sadness, optimism, skepticism and an article in the Islington Gazette, quite the ride if I say so myself, so what happened to me this week? Especially with the likes of restaurants and pubs opening, let’s get to it.

Started off this week, which is Monday if some of you don’t know, and Jack and I met up and got lunch at Chipotle, first time either of us have had it and we were both satisfied, besides the pigeons nearby, which was very distracting; I also saw his mum for the first time in around 4 or 5 months, spoke about how we’ve been coping with lockdown, through this small conversation I realised how use I’ve gotten to lockdown, how I’ve gotten use to having little to nothing planned, and nearly all of my hobbies and interests stopped during the time, I never thought I’d ever get use to it, but somehow I have, that’s a lot to sink it. Jack and I afterwards went for a walk and had a nice chat, overall it was a really good meet-up. Afterwards I decided to take a walk, went from his around Essex Road, to around Upper Street, to near Liverpool Road, to Angel. While on my way home, I bumped into one of my drama teachers which was a great surprise, we had a lovely chat and hopefully class will be looking to open in the next few weeks which is going to be something to really look forward to, miss my classes on Thursday evenings and drinks at The Shakespeares Head afterwards. To end my Monday myself and two of my friends had a video chat on Houseparty, which was a laugh, what I couldn’t believe is that we were talking all night and it just flew by, looking forward to the Hawaiian themed party in a few weeks. So that was my Monday, one of the most productive days I had all week.

Onto Tuesday, and I just went for a jog, decided to do some exercising, went jogging through Upper Street, Essex Road, Barbican and Old Street, I didn’t jog the entire time because it just wouldn’t end well for me, but it was well needed and I felt good afterwards.

Next up is Wednesday, of course it is, and I just went for a walk, bad weather for it too which wasn’t very nice, went around Angel, Upper Street, Exmouth Market, Farringdon and Holborn, thought to keep the exercise up but without overdoing it. Also on this day I found out that my workplace will be opening in the next few weeks, happy days ahead and I can’t wait. Mum and I together booked tickets to see 1917 at the new Odeon at Upper Street in two weeks, can’t wait to go back to the cinema, I’m going to be there nonstop. Also I had a face mask delivered today, would obviously keep me safe but will also help with social distancing.

Now we head to Thursday, you all know what this means, it’s a Google Meets video chat with Ms. Vidal, YAY YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT, and it was another nice chat, and it was her birthday, 35 but looking 25, great stuff, and I now realise that when we first met, I was 17 and she was 28, nearly 7 years ago, where does it go, wow, blows my mind. Later on I went for a jog, around the same locations as Tuesday, get the exercise in.

Looks like we are on Friday, and the only thing I did Friday was that I spent half an hour working out using the dumbbells, in my brother and I’s room under our bunk bed we have a dumbbell set which we don’t use often, and it felt good to use it, plus it made a change to the recent exercising I was doing. Also on this day, I can’t forget, the Islington Gazette article about me was published in the paper, felt so weird seeing myself and Ms. Vidal in the paper, in an article that took up half a page, and the buzz from the previous weekend continued, it’s all still sinking in, and knowing that I’m giving people hope, it feels really good, and this day was another reminder of it, and the project coming up is going to help even more people and give even more people hope, crazy how someone like me can do that, well I guess miracles can happen.

Here we are on Saturday, the most anticipated Saturday of the year, forget Halloween and Boxing Day which are both are Saturdays this year, this is the biggest Saturday of the year, IT’S SUPER SATURDAY!!!!! Started it off with my dad and I going to the hairdressers, but of course we had to make a stop at the betting shop first, 15 to 20 minutes of my life I’m never getting back, and then we went to the hairdressers, got my haircut, my beard tidied up and I came out looking and feeling good and fresh, shame about the beard and hair though, 3 and a half months of time, patience and progress gone in 20 minutes. I went home for a nap and then afterwards went to The Corner Bar, formally known as the The Bull’s Head, and met my dad and his mates in there, it felt so weird being back inside a pub, was a lot to take it, but it was good to be back, even if there is a glass in the middle of the table for protection though there is a metre distance between one side and the other on this table, logic; I had a few drinks and I called it a day, it felt surreal to be back, it didn’t feel real, but it also felt good, I think you get the point, I felt good this week. Today was also an end to the series I’ve been watching, I finished watching Breaking Bad which is weird to say, I actually finished a 5 season show, so what now? There’s the spinoff Better Call Saul, if you need a good lawyer, you better call Saul, a mate of mine has been wanting me to watch the second season of Cobra Kai for over a year which I kept forgetting about, and my brother in law wants me to watch Game of Thrones, for now I’m going to watch El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, need to see how Jesse ends up in the end; mum and I watched and finished Season 2 of Save Me, now we play the waiting game of if Lennie James moves forward with a third season. Also my dad came home 2 or so hours after me, barely ate dinner, fell asleep and didn’t remember much when he woke up the next day, just had to throw that in there, HI DAD! Also did I exercise on this day? You bet I did, 30 sit-ups and 30 pushups like a good boy.

Now it’s Sunday, and I spent the day chilling and went for a jog in the evening, jogged around Exmouth Market, Farringdon and Barbican, also at one point I went past a pub, and another time past a restaurant, I forgot that pubs and restaurants were open, it felt weird seeing people inside but it also felt good.

That was my week, a little repetitive but it was good overall. Before I go I have to say again, I won’t make it as long as the last one but thank you to those with their continued messages of support and congrats from last week it really means a lot, and another to those I don’t know who are reading the blog every week. Also, and I do want to say this because of this pandemic, we don’t know what’s going to happen next, let’s be honest, either more things are going to be going back to normal or we’ll be getting a second wave and going back into lockdown, or we could be getting a second wave and continue life as if nothing is going on like the United States, you seen what’s been going on with COVID-19 over there? It’s like an ongoing blazing fire while everyone else stands there with a smile and a single tear drop; honestly I’m expecting anything at this point, if we eventually do get a second wave and do go into lockdown again, then let’s make the most of what we’re doing now, and we’ve handled lockdown before we could do it again with ease, if we don’t then I’m glad that we’re one step forward with normality and another step towards things being back to normal. Let’s continue to keep safe, keep wearing masks and gloves and keep clean, it’s not over yet, so let’s keep making that progress towards the end, towards the day where there are no more cases and no more deaths, let’s keep it up, we’ve got this far, let’s go further, I’ll see you all next week.”

June 22nd- 28th June

“Believe it or not I almost forgot I even had to do a blog, I can’t believe it myself, my 9th entry into this series and I almost forgot to do one, unbelievable. As of right now it is 5:30am, I’ve been up all night, and here I am writing this blog and hoping to do a good write up before I only get a few hours sleep, meeting Jack in the afternoon so that should be nice, meeting a friend, having something to eat, and then I can go home and have a few more hours of sleep, I see this as an absolute win. Besides a couple of things, especially Saturday, I’m sure some of you already know, this week wasn’t the busiest, there’s a good chance that out of all 9 weeks I’ve been doing this blog that this was probably my least busiest week; I spent 80 to 90 percent of my time indoors or around my estate, anyways here we go, here’s my week.

Monday, we’ve all got to start off anything with something big right? That’s not always the case as I did nothing on this day, off to a good start, although I did get invited to a Hawaiian themed party my friend is hosting next month so that’s exciting. let’s follow this up with Tuesday.

Here’s Tuesday, did I do something Tuesday? Nope. Nothing, two days of doing nothing, this is a very fine start ain’t it ladies and gentleman, jolly good show.

So now it’s Wednesday, and oh wow, I actually did something, and the crowd goes wild, or mild depending on how you feel. On this day I met up with Jack, you remember Jack? I’m sure you do, if you don’t, you do now. We met at Upper Street, got Five Guys for lunch, first time I had Five Guys in around a year and a half. We went to a park nearby, a quiet park, don’t want a bunch of people watching us eat especially in this weather. We ate it, and it was amazing, I would go into it but I’d be talking about a burger more than anything in this blog. Afterwards we went to another park near his house, both had a drink and continued talking, kind of a struggle to keep up because of the warmth of the sun. Afterwards we said bye, I walk home, arrive home, and I could’ve crashed onto a mattress I was exhausted, plus my skin is very pale so I could feel on my face that I definitely caught the sun, I was out for nearly 2 hours and just like that, caught the sun.

Here comes Thursday, and I started off the day chatting to Ms. Vidal over the phone, perfect way to start the day if I say so myself, nearly 7 years ago we first meet at The Courtyard on my first day shaking each other’s hands, the last lesson that day was with her too, nearly 7 years later we’re having a chat and a laugh over the phone, blows my mind, we spoke about what we’ve been up to, anything we’ve watched that we would recommend, family, the usual stuff, the good stuff; she also spoke to me more about what’s coming up, this project, that’s all I’m going to say for now, in case it’s too soon to reveal anything, it did have me scratching my head, looking back I feel it’s because of how I process information, like if there’s something I need to know or something I need to do, I need to know all of it right away, and know everything I need to do, not one thing, and then I do the thing and then get told to do another thing because it’s like “woah what’s this about?” That’s a part of my Autism, a little something you’ve all just learned about me; I’ll give you an example of this, I’ll go back two years ago around this time, I got on a train from Milton Keynes after watching a wrestling show, I was supposed to see a friend who was hosting a bbq, she called it a night early because she wasn’t feeling well, so another friend who I had plans with that same night, I told him I could meet him now, he tells me to get to Manor House Station, so I get off at Euston Station, then I go to Manor House Station from there, call him and tell him I’m there, he then tells me to get onto the 341 to get off at this stop and head into a place where another friend was working, and this annoyed me because I’ve done this, now you want me to do this, I was even under the assumption that one of my friends was going to meet me outside the station, luckily, since it was the first time they’ve all seen me since I went on holiday, they all embraced me with big hugs, so I let my annoyance slide, remember that people, if I’m annoyed give me a big hug that should do the trick. Back to present day, after the phone call I spent the next hour outside my door, getting some air, it was cooler outside than inside which is mad how that works, after that I went back inside, and had a nap for a few hours. After waking up, I spent two and a half hours on my balcony, not the one I mentioned a couple of weeks ago by the living room, this one was right by my brother and I’s bedroom, a shared balcony with my neighbours, quite exciting ain’t it? So I went onto the balcony, had a little chat with one of my neighbour’s before she went back to continue her work, well that’s what she said when she went to speak to another one of our neighbours, ok then; it did feel nice, being out on that balcony, by myself, with a few drinks by my side, in the sun, it was much cooler on the balcony than it was outside and even inside my house, I could’ve spent the rest of my day out there.

Now we’re onto Friday, I’m sure we’ll all be excited for a Friday but we’re in a pandemic so that’s killjoy. My Nanny Lylie came over, the both of us, my mum and my sister sat outside with glasses of Pimm’s and had a nice chat, it was a good two or three hours, can’t remember how long it was but it doesn’t matter, it was good.

Here we are on Saturday, Saturday started big, I really do mean big, I get an email from Ms. Vidal, and she sends me a link, now she spoke to me about this last week, which I didn’t mention, and here it was, it was an article, about me, and this blog, in the Islington Gazette, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and reading, it was me, it was Ms. Vidal, it was this, and now more people are going to know about it, and I can help more people, it was mind blowing. I shared the article on my Facebook and my Instagram, the numbers coming up and how frequently my phone was going off was a rare sight, something that I rarely see, numbers I rarely see, it actually hit me, that I helped people, and still do, I’ve inspired people, me; I’m just your everyday young man on the spectrum and I’ve helped and inspired people, I even had one friend open up about himself being on the spectrum, which neither I or the friends we had knew about, and that hit me too, and made me think “I’ve helped people open up, I’ve made an impact, what’s going on?” It’s something that I couldn’t believe, and regarding the project I mentioned earlier, it all made me realise that if I can inspire, help and encourage people to open up, imagine how many more I can do these things for, and this project will give me the chance to do that; I do have callings in life, goals I want to achieve, a full time career as an actor, good luck to me because the competition is tough, a husband which at this point in my life is looking impossible because my love life is terrible, ask all the women in my life I don’t have a chance, I also would love to be a father which is even more impossible, the kid or kids can have any gene they want just not my hair, any gene of mine but my hair; and then there’s me helping, inspiring and impacting people like I’ve done with this blog and the article, if I can help, inspire and impact these people and more, and it can always make me feel this good, then I have no problem about this being another goal in my life. Next on this Saturday, wait you thought this Saturday was over? Yeah me too but there’s a bit more. I went for a walk to South Bank, last time I went it was a week or two before I started this blog, the weather was lovely but it all looked like a ghost town, on this day it was the opposite, the weather was dull but there were people about, it’s just really nice to see some normality around.

Finally it was Sunday, and how did I end the week? With nothing, yep nothing, after all that nothing, don’t expect anything here.

So that was my week, besides the stuff I’ve done, I’ve continued watching Breaking Bad, over half way through the fifth and final season, nearly there and it’s all kicking off, I’ve began watching Save Me again, this time on a dvd boxset I ordered, because my mum thought it looked really good, and she loves Suranne Jones, already finished the first season so I’m looking forward to seeing my mum’s reaction to the second season; my dad has been watching too, kind of, he’s either dozing off, or focusing on his bets, or asking questions to things that have already happened, well done dad keep it up. That’s been it really, can’t think of anything else, wanted to continue reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes but I kept forgetting, will make sure to read some this week, want to continue exercising too but I keep either forgetting or I’m occupied with something else. It’s going to be an interesting week especially July 4th, hairdressers, pubs, restaurants, anything else I can’t think of opening, I don’t remember the last time I’ve looked forward to a Saturday so much, I’m already looking forward to writing about it in my next blog. Before I finish, I want to say, especially to those that have been reading the blogs so far, and have seen the article about it, I want to say thank you again for your support and your kind words, it really means a lot, it is hard to express how I feel but if I had to use words it’ll be thankful, wholesome, grateful, and it’s another reminder to me of all the people in my life, friends, family, teachers, people that know me because of people that they know or anyone else, I am so lucky to have all of you, I need to keep reminder myself of that even in the worst of times, and to those I don’t know, I am so lucky to have you as a reader and for you to know me through this, I don’t know how many more of these there will be before everything is back to normal, but this journey so far has been fun and I’m looking forward to seeing where this journey takes us next. Thank you for reading, have a great week, especially this weekend and I’ll see you in the next one, the big number 10.”

If you haven't read the article yet on Islington Gazette, click on the link below:

Islington man’s blog has helped people with autism through unpredictability of the coronavirus crisis

 June 15th- 19th June

“Blog 8, I believe it is 8, if it is, then I’ve been doing these blogs for 2 months straight, unbelievable, it all just flies by, and here we are, now, for this blog, it’s not the most eventful, I didn’t have the most busy week, though I’ve still been watching Breaking Bad and currently towards the end of Season 4 as I’m writing this, a certain topic did come up this week that I will speak about towards the end, even the least serious person can talk serious.

Monday, of course, and I went for a walk for around 2 and a half hours, going around Angel, Upper Street, Essex Road, Old Street and near Liverpool Road, went out around 4:30pm and got home just after 7pm.

Tuesday happened, and that’s it, Tuesday happened, I don’t know what else to say besides that.

We get to Wednesday, most busiest day I had this week, I met up with my mate from the last two weeks, the same one I met to have something to eat and a chat, and to save confusion I may as well use his name, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, Jack, his name’s Jack, so Jack and I met at Angel and went to CHIK’N which I believe is new, like very new, I don’t even recall seeing it until lockdown started. So anyways him and I got that to eat, found a park nearby to eat it, sadly because of the weather we were eating in the rain and we couldn’t find any shelter nearby, besides that the food was nice, and they call themselves the best fried chicken restaurant in London, I can understand that argument. After that we took a walk to Essex Road where he lives and said bye. After that I walked down to King Square, where a wake was being held for a footballer and a friend to some of my family members, his name was James John Woolston, I don’t recall meeting him but I have heard very good things, and I wanted to come down and pay my respects; it was nice seeing family members that I haven’t seen in months, and family friends I haven’t seen in months too, it was a nice few hours, and a good turn out for a good man. I was thinking about death a lot during this half of the week, I don’t know why, I was thinking about those in and around my life and those outside of it that have gone, I thought of my mum’s best friend who we lost over a year ago who I thought of a lot on this day, I recall seeing her daughter who I told looks and sounds just like her, I thought of an actress who I had a good working relationship with in the classes we attended that passed away a few weeks before Christmas, I thought of a friend of mine who was loved dearly by myself and our friends who we all found out passed away, and I thought about the families who all lost loved ones the last 3 months. With death, it’s a reminder that we don’t get to choose our time, in a way death it’s what gives life meaning, we all know deep down that our days are numbered, our time is short, which is why we have to do as much as we can in that time, and I’ll always make sure to remember that.

So before we get to Thursday here’s what happened towards the end of Wednesday and through the early hours of Thursday. So I get home, crash, completely miss dinner, and didn’t wake up until midnight feeling rough, with a splitting headache, if you’re an adult you’ve probably guessed what this feeling is and how you could get it, and I spent the evening lying down, no sleep whatsoever the entire night. Now we get to Thursday, and it began with another Google Meets video call with Ms. Vidal, she wanted me to accompany her on her way to work, and seeing that I am a gentleman and absolutely love the women in my life, I thought why not, and then you realise that she’s speed walking her way from Regent’s Park to where she works which is right near Holloway and here I am, up all night because I got a headache which I easily could’ve prevented, just sitting there, great comparison. It was a nice conversation, a good and well needed laugh too, she makes me smile and laugh, every time. After the conversation she emailed me some good news, which I won’t spoil, yet, you’ll know it and it’s here. Also she sent me some documents regarding Autism, I can’t say what these documents will be for, or I don’t think I can say, I won’t say just to be safe, and then I saw how long some of these documents are, and realised that deep down, I’m still a student, I can never escape my past.

Anyways let’s move on to Friday for something wholesome as my Nanny Lylie came up, which was really nice, always lovely to see family you don’t see as much as you used to. Later on I went for a walk, went down to a lot of the same locations as Monday, except Old Street, did walk through Exmouth Market though, left the house at 5:15pm and didn’t get home until 7:30pm.

Now we get to Saturday, remember when Saturday was the one day to truly do anything we wanted to do and go to bed at anytime because we’d all either have school or work to go to on other days, or we had to go to bed at an appropriate time on a day off, yeah me too, now it’s nearly everyday and after a while I don’t like it. I just spent the day on the PlayStation and that was it, I also did 6 Rounds of 10 Push-ups so I got my exercise in.

Finally we’re on Sunday, I bet you’re all glad, and it was Father’s Day, and some of my siblings, their partners and spouses, and their kids came in to see my dad, and it was really nice having us all together.

And that was it, that was my week, but with my words and sentences I reckon I made the most of it. Now, time to get serious, I know I got serious earlier but here we are. Mentally I’ve been significantly better than I’ve been the last two or so weeks, and I thought I was doing well, until the 2nd half of this week came. Now as some of you may know, I love wrestling, it’s been one of my biggest interests for years, the characters, the story telling, the commentary, the fans, the moments, it’s like performing arts in a way, and myself and everyone else involved in or around or are a fan of wrestling saw the rise of a movement this week called #SpeakingOut, and this movement involved women and men coming out about their stories, experiences and accusations about people, mostly men in and around the industry, wrestlers, referees, commentators, interviewers, anyone behind the scenes, even fans; what hit me hard with this was that some of those accused are wrestlers I’ve seen up close, in venues like York Hall, Electric Ballroom and Alexandra Palace, some I’ve actually met, and the stories I heard and saw are shocking, heartbreaking, disappointing, and stories I don’t want to get into on here, I want to keep this as family friendly and appropriate as possible, but this is a reminder that not every work place is as good or as professional as people would think, and that there are people in and around our lives whether it’s friends, family, work colleagues, classmates, or people we know of that have something hiding behind a mask, skeletons hiding in their closets. All I hope for from this is that the industry itself becomes better and safer to be for all those involved. That’s this week’s blog guys, hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you all next time. Take care.”

June 8th- 12th June

“What number is this 7? Is this blog number 7? I believe it is, if there’s one thing this pandemic has done to me it’s affected how my head processes anything to do with numbers, or maths, yeah best to say maths. We’re getting close to being 3 months into this lockdown, can we even call it a lockdown anymore? Honestly I have no idea, everything just has me so confused, my head hurts, I should lie down, but I have to write this blog, but it’s nearly quarter to 5 in the morning, THERE’S SO MUCH AND TOO MUCH!! The pandemic has affected us all in different ways and this is a very fine example, as fine as the wine I have indoors, wait I don’t even have wine, I don’t know, should I just get on with the blog? I say I should get on with the blog.

Monday, started off the week by shopping with my mum, got some good stuff, and that was it, expected more? Oh well at least I did something, moving on.

Tuesday, let’s see what happened on Tuesday, I met up with someone? WOW I NEVER SAW THAT COMING! So you know the friend I mentioned in the last blog that I met up with, went to the chicken shop, had a chat in the park, all that jazz, well we met up again on this day, I’m sure you didn’t see that coming, or maybe you did, who knows. So we met at Angel, and then we went to La Divina, got our pizzas, and sat in the park, on two benches, ate them and had a chat, interesting fact, we shot a short film in that same park over a year ago which was to help raise awareness for Autism, the link will be in the end of the blog. After this we took a walk to Essex Road, we got Tottenham Cakes from the bakery there, and that was it, plenty of calories consumed on this fine day.

We head to Wednesday now, and I went up to see another friend of mine at her house, we haven’t seen each other in well over 3 months, and we first met each other at the Anna Scher Theatre in 2015 and have been very close since, and have worked with each other on numerous occasions, including a project I’ve written that we were filming before lockdown came into play. We had a good catchup, ate some lunch, and one of her neighbours who is a good friend of ours came in too. It was all lovely, a good laugh and a really good day; with this day, and the day before, I felt a buzz, and a sense of hope, that normality is getting extremely close, we’re getting there, not long now hopefully.

Here we are on Thursday, and Ms. Vidal and I had another nice chat on Google Meets, always love our chats, and I love listening to her too, she could read me the entire Bible and I’ll just sit there and listen. She did ask me a few questions, won’t say what they are, but let’s just say that it’s going to help my CV and the only way I’m going from here is up, lovely stuff and well needed optimism for the future.

Friday now, HEY GUYS AND GIRLS WHO ARE 18 OR OVER READING THIS, HOW YOU DOING!?!? Do you guys remember those Fridays where you’re finished with everything for the week, you’re buzzing, and once you get home from college, university or work, you eat your dinner, you have your shower, you do your hair, put on something nice and meet your friends at the pub or club, from there you have a laugh, you meet some people, you probably find a love interest who 9 times out of 10 you end up forgetting about the next day and chances are you end up carrying one of your mates home, good times am I right? I remember those Fridays, they’re such a long way away. So Billy, how did you spend this Friday? Well I looked after my niece, little Poppy, 5 year old Poppy who loves us all dearly and also drives us all up the wall, which is how she ended up with us for the day, I didn’t mind obviously, one thing I love being besides an actor is an uncle, I’m an uncle to 5 and I’m already wondering when number 6 will come because I love babies. It was really nice, and it was clear that even at her age, she still loves her cuddles with her Uncle Bill Bill; another interesting fact, she was the one that gave me the nickname Bill Bill, and after she called me Bill Bill most people in my life followed, my mum, my brothers, my youngest nephew, my friends, my teachers, my coworkers, at this point you may as well put Bill Bill on my tombstone, or my urn depending on what my kids decide to do with me, GOOD OL’ BILLY WITH THIS DARK SENSE OF HUMOUR YOU LOVE IT! I mean you’ve got to, you have to.

Now it’s Saturday, REMEMBER WHEN SATURDAY MEANT SOMETHING INSTEAD OF FEELING LIKE THE SAME DAY EVERYDAY!?!? Moving on, this pandemic has affected me as a human being. So Saturday I just decided to go for a walk, I was quite surprised with how hot I felt; I took a walk to Angel, Upper Street, Essex Road, City Road, Old Street and Exmouth Market, it was a decent walk, got me out of the house and helped me get some exercise done, my family and I got McDonald’s for the first time since it closed in March, it was absolutely amazing.

Finally it’s Sunday, I bet you’re all glad, you’ve made it to the end, it’s nearly done, here’s your medal and your milkshake; and what did I do on this Sunday? Not much really, I mean did you expect me to meet with a mob of gangsters like the Krays and arrange our takeover of the nearest borough? Nope but a man can dream, a bit of reading, a bit of Netflix, looking after one of my neighbour’s children for an hour after he let himself in and ending it all with a wrestling pay per view, so yeah, that was my Sunday, it was alright.

So that was my week, now here’s an update on how I am after how personal I got with my previous blog. I am feeling better than I did last week, not perfect but definitely on the road there, I’ve had some chats with my mum, some time alone, still trying to spend less time on social media to try and stay away from any negative vibes, same with the news unless someone in the house decides to have it on you know who you are whoever is reading this; I’ve even had a little cry, which does help, you’ve got to get it out somehow, and crying does the trick most of the time, don’t let anyone tell you that crying is for babies or it’s immature, because crying helps heal some of if not all of the pain that you have, and it’s never good to keep it all in, because it’ll hurt, sometimes too much, so that’s this blog’s lesson for you lot. My self esteem isn’t affecting me like it was last week, it’s like a switch, sometimes it will sometimes it doesn’t it’s very irritating. I’ve continued reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, believe it or not, Thursday night I read up to page 60, and Friday night I read up to page 73; I’m still watching Breaking Bad, currently on Season 3, it just keeps getting better, what a show; and I’m using garlic, because according to Ms. Vidal garlic helps with your hair, so that’s an experiment I’m trying for the time being. I hope you all didn’t mind my use of sarcasm and that little touch of dark humour, I’ve had a bit too much sugar in the last 24 hours so I’m bouncing all over the place, typing this blog has helped me calm down. Take care of each other, look out for each other, tell your loved ones friends or family you love them, because right now these are scary, sad, troubled and unpredictable times, and we don’t know what the endgame will be or when it’ll come, and it’s right now that we need to be there for each and support each other no matter what. See you in my next blog guys, hope you all enjoyed it, and check out the link attached along with a video I made after finishing this blog. See you next time."

Billy's karaoke

Boy in a Park | Short Autism Drama Film | MMM 16+ Rating

 June 1st - 7th June

“Another blog, here we are, I believe it’s blog number 6, I don’t even know anymore, my head is all over the place, especially after this week. There was something to do everyday, something happening, could it be described as eventful? Maybe. I am going to get personal at one point, possibly the most personal I have been with the blogs so far. Lets get to it.

Monday is obviously the first day of the week, unless you say Sunday is the first day of the week, fair argument for both reasons, but for Monday my Mum and I went down to see my Auntie Susie, there’s a part in the middle of the flats where she lives where there’s a lot of grass, benches around, a lot of space, great for everyone, and we sat out there under the hot sun. My cousin, her partner and their son came out which was nice to see, and my sister, brother in law and nephew came over which was a nice surprise, and we all got to meet a lot of my auntie’s neighbours, all lovely people, it was a really good day, easily one of if not the best day of this week.

Now I know what you’re thinking, Monday was most likely the best day, so the rest of the blog will probably not be as good, now come on guys, this is only the third paragraph. Next was Tuesday, and my mum and I met my mum’s friend who we saw, I believe in the 4th blog, I’m losing track of of all of these numbers, and we sat in her garden and had a chat, it was nice.

We now head to Wednesday, and for the first time since this pandemic started I have met up with a friend, we go back 11 years, to Stormont House School, and we’ve done a lot since then, I’ve been back in education twice and completing an apprenticeship while he went on to graduate from university, and now we collaborate on filmed projects under his direction, we’ve come a very long way, and I look forward to what we’ll do next. We met outside his local chicken shop, went to a nearby park, ate what we got and had a laugh for the next hour, it was lovely, I really missed what we use to do together, and we needed it this day and this time together.

Thursday now, and I had a Google Meets Video Call with Ms. Vidal, didn’t have one last week since it was half term, and it was lovely, and for about 30 or 35 minutes we had a really good catch up and spoke about numerous topics. Afterwards I went for a walk, and walked down to Holloway, since leaving City and Islington last year I rarely went to Holloway, and once I went down there I walked to where the building I use to study at was, and I just stood there, staring at it, how has it been nearly a year since I left? Coincidently, a year ago, we were rehearsing for our show, which was set in America in the 1920s and 30s, and based off numerous acting pieces written by some of the greatest theatre writers, and also contained various topics including racism, and you look a year later at what’s going on in America, and how I’m back at where I was studying at that moment, it’s quite symbolic, or is it poetic? I don’t know it’s one of those words, maybe both.

Friday now, remember when Friday was the day of the week where we finish school, college, university or work, and you are buzzing that you’re done for the week and ready for whatever Friday evening, or the weekend or both have in stored, is that the right saying? I don’t know I’m tired, but remember that feeling? I do too, good times, now I will proceed to grieve into the nearest pillow. On this day I just went for a walk, ended up walking to Angel, Highbury & Islington, Essex Road and Barbican, and if you’re interested I got the Ruby Flamingo Frappuccino from Starbucks, very nice.

Next was Saturday, and my older brother, his partner, and my two nieces came to see us which was a great surprise, and my Nan came up as well, another great surprise, two surprises in one day, what a bargain! In the evening I had a Houseparty video chat with a mate of mine, and it was a laugh, and we spoke until around 4am, which was much later than we both expected, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun.

Finally we are at Sunday, and I went for another walk, a really long one, maybe my longest one, there has been a lot on my mind this week no matter what I did this week, and walking it off has always been the best option for me to do, I walked to Angel, then I made my way to Hoxton, and then I went to Shoreditch, and ended up across London Bridge, left the house around 1:15pm, didn’t get home until before 6pm, if I didn’t have dinner, I probably would’ve spent the rest of the day walking, only problem was that I’d have to find my way home from who knows where.

So that was my week, when it comes to being busy I definitely was busy, definitely did something everyday, and there was something to look forward to nearly everyday, now this is where we get personal. This week has been a struggle for me mentally, and I’ve been trying to stay away from everything happening in the world as much as I could. This week, on Friday, was five years since my Uncle Jim passed away, which is something that still plays heavily on my mind especially that day, but I’ve been doing walks like he would do so I’m sure he would’ve loved to have seen me do what he would usually do. I’ve been spending less time on social media than usual, social media is powerful in many ways, right ways and wrong, and I’ve been seeing so much anger, rage, frustration, debates, arguments, judgement, any other negative word I can think of I’ve seen it, nearly any post, any story, any tweet, and this isn’t an offence to anyone because we all have a right to feel these negative thoughts and emotions during this time, and if you’re using social media as a way to express your feelings and help get it all out then that’s fine, you do you and I do me, the problem is that posts like that can be contagious, one angry post will begin to affect my mood, and then another, and another, and another, I’m seeing nothing else, or a tweet which has a ton of retweets and likes stating a fact or opinion that can easily put on a debate and frustrate a ton of people, with replies from people that come across the tweet or the person posting the tweet themselves and both can come across as very ignorant and arrogant but the way they’re worded, it’s just never nice to see and I was seeing a lot of these, it just got to the point where it became an overload; so I took a step back, and only came on social media if I got a message, or a notification; every now and then I’d come across some posts, especially memes, give some likes and that’d be it, there were even two days this week where I weren’t on social media at all, and I’d only really use my phone to play games or go on Netflix, been watching Breaking Bad, loving it so far. Group chats don’t help either, no offence lads and lassies, hope you’re all well and I miss you all and I want to hug everyone when everything is back to normal. Then away from the handheld devices and social media we have the television, with the news channels, and then the newspaper, we’re going classic and old school here ladies and gentlemen, but this one has still got it; you’ve just woke up from a nice 8 hour sleep, you feel fresh, you feel good, positive start, then you go downstairs, head right into the kitchen to make a coffee, and someone has only gone and left the newspaper by the kettle revealing a headline that makes you feel like absolutely rubbish, yeah thanks I really needed this, this definitely helped!! So I’ve been trying to stay away from the world as much as I can, which is easier said than done because there’s only so much I can handle before I do or say something that I’ll end up regretting right away. My self-esteem has been lower than usual too, especially with how I look, I would get into it but then we’d be here forever.

I know I went on and on, and I know there are more important things in the world to worry about then me talking about my feelings, but I want to use this platform, especially for those like me or younger than me, or those studying at The Courtyard to know that this 23 year old young man, on the spectrum can feel this way at times, and it’s ok, not every day is going to be good, not every week is going to be good, even a month, and in time things will get better, sometimes it takes long but we all get there eventually. Take care of yourselves, look after each other, be kind to one another, and most importantly, stay safe, I’ll see you in next weeks blog.”

May 25th - May 31st

"Not the busiest week this week, I think out of all the blogs I’ve done so far this was the least eventful and least busiest week I’m writing so I’m going to tell you what’s happened, and do a special write up at the end. Let’s go:

Monday came, woke up tired and miserable, another Monday another moody start, and it was Bank Holiday Monday, another bittersweet feeling because my friends and I were supposed to be going home from Ayia Napa that evening, what could’ve been, what should’ve been, it’s a shame, don’t know what else I could say. My Mum and I sat outside, Nanny Lylie came up to see us, it was nice, and I read more of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, read up to Page 30. During the evening I decided to take a walk, walked up to Exmouth Market, Angel, near Compton Street, Highbury & Islington and Essex Road, you can see some of the images I took below, the walk was the best part of my day, needed to get out, needed some time to myself, and it was well needed.

Tuesday came, nothing, yep nothing, and if something did happen I definitely don’t remember it. Moving on.

Wednesday came, and after finding out a pub near me was open for takeaway drinks, I went there, got three drinks, took them home and shared them with my brother, the coldness on my fingers, the froth around my lips, it was incredible, a great start to the day, as for the third drink I completely forgot that the taste of the drink would go dead by the time Dad would come home from work, so I had it, by his approval, you can see the image of me with the empty cup below, don’t mind how I look, I didn’t brush my hair and I have this thing where every now and then in a photo I decide to have one eye more open than the other, don’t know why, it is what it is. Evening came and I did a Houseparty video chat with two friends of mine, these two friends of mine had their ups and downs the last 7 or so months, so to have them together and have a laugh was lovely, broke the ice for the two of them, the chat lasted until 4:30am, perfect time to sleep, perfect way to end Wednesday.

For Thursday I just played on the PlayStation for most of the day, and my family and I did the clap for the NHS, which apparently is the last time, don’t know why, so we’ve been doing the clap for the NHS for around two months, imagine for the next two or three months we’re still stuck in lockdown, so the clap for the NHS would get cancelled for nothing? I don’t know, it is what it is.

Then we reached Friday, just sat outside my door and read more of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, made it up to Page 45, I think you can tell at this point that I’m a slow reader, and not the best reader, or the most motivated reader, by the time this whole pandemic is done I probably wouldn’t have finished the book.

Then there was Saturday, just sat outside my door for a few hours, and that was it, that was Saturday, let’s head to Sunday.

Finally we get to Sunday, began bittersweet knowing that my family and I would’ve been going to Antalya in Turkey, imagine that, a pandemic happens and both of your holidays get cancelled, absolutely lovely am I right? This day, my family and I, my sister, my brother in law and their son, all went to the park to meet my older brother, his family and his partner’s family, we all kept to the guidelines while having a laugh and keeping an eye on the kids in our families, and I found out another family member, my older brother, actually likes my beard, take that mum.

So that was my week, some good, some meh, not the most eventful but not the worst week. Now before I get onto this special write up I have a recommendation for you all to watch. I began watching this show last weekend, finished it on Friday, and it’s a show called Save Me, the second season called Save Me Too, written by and starring Lennie James, which a lot of people would know him from Line of Duty and The Walking Dead, and also starring Suranne Jones, known for, well a lot of stuff, Coronation Street, Unforgiven, Doctor Foster and a whole bunch of other stuff; the show is terrific, with brilliant writing, great characters, and twists and turns along the way. If you have Sky Atlantic, NOW TV, or know some website online to watch shows and movies, or if you’re willing to spend a bit of money on Amazon Prime or on a DVD or Bly Ray set, watch it, and if you know me personally, message me and let me know what you think, it’s two seasons worth of storytelling constantly leaving you wanting more.

Now my special write up, firstly, scroll down and you’ll see a photo I took, and if you see the background it’s fire, and my face is me smiling and my eyes saying a completely different story, so I’m saying I’m fine, when I’m not, and I’m sure that’s a lot of people in the world right now, two and a half months into lockdown, not knowing what’s going to happen next, people are beginning to get frustrated, people are beginning to not care about the guidelines perfect example being that one beach in South End and other things, you can even say that’s the summary of this year so far, we looked like we were heading into World War 3 at the start, then there were the wildfires in Australia, then COVID-19 started spreading rapidly, anything else, it’s been insane, we’re not even halfway through the year and people have had enough of 2020 and want to go into 2021 already. Then we had what happened to George Floyd, which was absolutely disgusting, and then the protests began, and then the riots which resulted in people getting hurt, a few injuries, a few deaths, buildings getting burnt, some people stealing stuff, and now the protests are happening in the UK, Berlin and other countries, the fact that this is all happening during a pandemic where we have to stick to guidelines as much as we can to get back to normal is even worse, there’s a lot of anger, rage, frustration, fear, I can just go on, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a spike in cases and deaths related to COVID-19 over the next few weeks, it’s all horrible. This whole year so far, and everything that’s happened so far is like a movie, except you cannot get the craziest writer in Hollywood to write something like this, it’s insane. To everyone reading this, I’m not the best person to approach for help or advice or anything like that, but please, stay safe, be careful, take care of each other, be kind to one another, and hang in there, because in this time we need to be here for each other, all of us.

Hope you’ve enjoy my recent blogs and I’ll see you for my next one, back for the weekly uploads, take care.”

May 18th - May 24th

"Want to know how I started this week off, want to know how Monday went, well it was nothing, woo hoo, couldn’t have started it any better; and I had two concerts booked for July, one for James Blunt and another for James Morrison and Will Young, both concerts at Kew Gardens and both have been postponed until next summer, so that’s all of my summer plans cancelled, absolutely buzzing. Also on this day, if it wasn’t for this pandemic affecting everything, I would’ve been in Ayia Napa in Cyprus with a few of my friends; we had a villa booked and was supposed to be there for a week. I was excited for this because it would’ve been my first time going out of the country with this group of friends, the majority of them I met during my HNC course in City and Islington nearly 2 years ago; it was in a city and country I’ve never been to before, and one of my friends who has family that live over there knows where to go and what to do, all sorted; and the pandemic isn’t too bad in Cyprus either, though if our flights weren’t cancelled, and we found a flight to get there, what if a lot of where we would’ve wanted to go to or try to do was closed, and what if we would’ve had to be quarantined for two weeks there, or when we would get back home, so looking at it that way, it was a blessing in disguise, and the cancellation of this holiday is one example of why I need to make 2021 the biggest year of my life.

Next was Tuesday, Tuesday was a nothing day, though what both Tuesday and Monday actually had in common was that I went into both days tired and miserable, perfectly set the tone. During the early hours of Wednesday morning; it was between 2 and 3 in the morning, and I heard loud voices, so unusual during this time, it isn’t even a weekend, it’s during a pandemic, who would want to do something this time of the week when everything is closed, I go outside on my balcony and I see a group of women, must’ve been 6 of them, walking down the road outside my estate, all in skin tight dresses and high heels, a sight I’d never thought to see during this time in life, maybe they were coming home from a house party, or maybe somewhere someone has set up an underground club that only certain names know about, you never know, got to make money somehow. Around 15 minutes later, I felt stuffy, so I went back out onto my balcony, I looked towards the sky, that I can begin to see a bit of light blue in, sunrise was going to come soon, I felt a light breeze and could hear the fish tank from the family that lives below, then I closed my eyes, and in my mind I found myself in Ayia Napa, after a long night, I remain the only one awake, everyone is asleep, and I find myself with my feet in the pool at our villa, as I look at the Cyprus sky, what could’ve been, what should’ve been; then I snap back to reality, realising that I was in a fantasy in my mind, so I go back inside. An hour passed and I am taken by surprise at the sound of someone screaming, sounded like a woman, around my age or younger, she sounded like she was having a go at someone, did we really need this during this time of the week, during this time, during this crazy period in our lives, after a bit two men come out of my flat chatting to each other regarding the noise, and after a while police turn up to talk to the men, and they point to where the shouting was coming from and that was that, what an odd night.

Wednesday day comes, wake up tired and miserable once again, what’s new, however during the evening I did a Houseparty video chat with the friends I was supposed to go Ayia Napa with, and it was a laugh, it was fun, but also bittersweet knowing instead at this time we could’ve been there, at a club, enjoying another night, what could’ve been, what should’ve been.

Thursday, for the day and what I will say after regarding the early hours of Friday morning was the most I had going on this week; to begin Thursday I sat outside my door in the sun, reading my new book The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, the book is actually the 4th Hunger Games book, set over 60 years before the events of the first book, and I love The Hunger Games films and books so of course I was very excited to read it, due to time, I only read around 12 pages, but those 12 pages gave me a lot of information, and the next 500 something pages is destined to give me much more, afterwards I had my weekly chat with Ms. Vidal on Google Meets, another lovely chat which was around, 35, 40 minutes, don’t exactly remember the number but it was around that, and I got to meet her son Diego, very lovely boy; then my family and I, and some of our neighbours went next door, my closest neighbours’ youngest son was celebrating his 15th birthday and we all thought to celebrate it together, while keeping to the guidelines of course, it really was lovely, plenty of food, plenty of laughs, we all did the clap for the NHS together too which felt more wholesome since we were with each other, didn’t go back into my house until past 11pm, it was a wonderful day, one of the most normal feeling days in the last two months. We then fast forward to the early hours of Friday morning, and this was around 5:30am, I hear noises, shouting, laughing, just 2 days after what happened during those early hours, and it was a group of, I’d say between 6 and 8 people from what I remember, by the way they all looked and acted, they were definitely younger than me, one of them takes a bin man’s stick, starts hitting things with it, can’t recall what she hit, couldn’t see, another takes two baskets from the corner shop on the ground floor of my estate, don’t know why someone would do that, eventually their noise and stupidity wakes up everyone else in my house, and you could hear them around where the lifts are in the estate, there are gates all over the estate, except the lifts, if you get there, you get access to everywhere in the estate, who knows what else they could’ve done, a few police cars go past, and we see some of the group walk up the road, some must’ve gone home, and we see two police officers too, and the group, which has now decreased to 4, begin mocking them, by doing jumping jacks and jogging on the spot, because, you can’t be out unless it’s for exercise, so you decide to meet friends, get drunk or take illegal substance or both, wake up the entire estate, get told off by the police and just take the mick right in front of them, I don’t know how that’s funny, then they chat, quietly believe it or not, a bottle smashes, and eventually they all go their separate ways, finally. Then an hour later, hearing another disturbance, I recognise the voice, you’ve got to be joking, I couldn’t tell if it was one person or the group, but that one person or the group had the ego, and the decency to come back, even after being confronted by the police, and I actually recognised one of their voices from the early hours of Wednesday morning and I could’ve sworn that that was the same girl that was shouting on Wednesday, so whatever happened this morning I doubt we would see the last of her, eventually someone that lives below me has had enough, and she comes out with her dog, which I believe is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and next thing I know I hear barking, shouting, it’s just a joke at this point, and an example of how 2 months in, this pandemic is making everyone lose their minds, and in my opinion we’re not even half way through, it’s only getting worse from here; it all stops, finally, and we could sleep, and I can only await what happens next.

Friday was a nothing day besides the evening, had a Houseparty video chat with a friend of mine, spoke for around 4 hours, it was lovely, a laugh, what we need right now, and we spoke about future plans, including holidays.

Saturday came and my mum and I went to see one of her best friends, they knew each other through my younger brother and her son, they played football on the same team, I used a bus for the first time during this pandemic, wore gloves and a mask just to be safe, mask covered half of my eyesight so I’m sure I wore it right. During the night I ordered a wrestling PPV, AEW Double or Nothing, and it was a lot of fun, a lot of wrestling, memorable moments, title changes, they even had Iron Mike Tyson there to present a new championship, and the main event, had two teams, 5 against 5, battling in a match called The Stadium Stampede, set in an empty TIAA Bank Field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and it was ridiculously fun, and for 40 whole minutes I forgot about the world and the situation we were all in, before this had also been a tough time for everyone involved in and a big fan of wrestling, during the week before this show one wrestler, Shad Gaspard, died at sea in California, him and his son got caught in a strong rip current on the beach, lifeguards came and he told them to save his son, they saved his son, he disappears underwater and his body was found ashore 3 days later, aged 39; and another wrestler, Hana Kimura, who wrestled over in Japan took her own life at the age of 22 after a series of hate comments; so before this show there was a dark cloud around wrestling and it’s entire community, and this show and this match in particular gave us some well needed light; the price alone was worth that one match, we needed entertainment like this during this time, escapism, and that match and the show brought me and everyone who watched the show that, just pure joy.

Sunday came, last day of the week, and I decided to go for a walk, get my exercise in, and took a walk to King’s Cross and Angel, and also got myself Starbucks on the way home, Strawberries & Cream Frappuccino, you know there’s a little bit of hope when Starbucks is open.

That was my week, not the most eventful week but definitely the most descriptive, if you’ve read this one first, I look forward to seeing you read the next one, if you read this one second, then hope you enjoyed both of them, and I’ll be back with the one blog a week from next week.”

18th May 2020

“Here we are, third week, it was nice seeing the feedback I got for my previous blog, especially what people said about my Nanny Jane, it was both heartwarming and flattering, thank you all for that. For this blog, don’t expect much in this, not much really happened this week, however there are moments that really do stick out, for both good and bad, let’s go.

Nothing happened Monday and Tuesday, great start, absolutely wonderful. On Wednesday, started off on not a high note, at all, for Christmas I got my Dad tickets for him and I to see Westlife at Wembley Stadium on August 22nd, and because of this pandemic I kept wondering what they were going to do with the concert, and I found out that day that it got postponed by a year, so now instead of 3 months, we have to wait a year and 3 months for it, I laughed, but at the same time I felt annoyance, like a hammer hammering a nail into my head, and it was a sign of me beginning to think that for the first time, we won’t actually have a proper summer, give it 2 or 3 weeks and I’ll begin thinking that we won’t even have a proper rest of 2020; afterwards my mum and I dropped off some shopping to my Auntie Susie and on the way home we got a present and card for Paul, who is the husband of my mum’s best friend, on this day was his birthday, and luckily we bumped into one of Paul’s daughters, who we passed the present and card on to, did we have luck or what; then I had a chat with Ms. Vidal on Google Meets, what else can I say, I absolutely love talking to her, at one point during our conversation we spoke about superheroes due to my Marvel mug, and she mentioned that I should mention it in my blog; superheroes are a way of escapism, who they are as characters, their powers, their worlds, the people around them including friends, family, allies and of course their enemies, whether it’s in the comics, the shows or the films they bring us in their world and help us escape from ours, a perfect example of this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so far 23 films all connected with each other, I always looked forward to each instalment, and seeing each film, with their characters, was always like seeing an old friend; with superheroes one question does pop up with everyone, if you’d have a superpower what would it be, and I would always be between these two, flight and invisibility, flight because why not, you’re flying, simple, if I had that power the first thing I would do is fly to the nearest island, country, or even a city that isn’t affected by the pandemic, the other is invisibility, because you’re invisible, obviously, and what I’d do with that is go into anyone’s house every night and keep finding ways to wake people up, make them think their houses are haunted; in a world that we’re living in today with these circumstances, we need superheroes more than ever, someone with a big brain like a Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Reed Richards or a Shuri to create a vaccine quicker and help get us all out of it sooner, but that’s not our reality, that’s an alternate reality, like a different timeline or universe; but we’re lucky to still have the people we have working, doing their jobs in these circumstances for us, they’re our superheroes, never forget that. On Thursday it was my brother’s birthday, 21 years old, and the present I got him was a video message from James Buckley, best known for playing Jay in The Inbetweeners, and my brother loved it, for the rest of the day family members, friends and neighbours came down to see him, of course we all kept our 2m distance, it was just really nice to see some familiar faces during these times, we celebrated his birthday the best way we could during these times. On Friday, I spent most of the day on the PlayStation, and then I went down to my Auntie Susie to drop off a bit of my brother’s birthday cake, I got to see my Uncle Trevor in the doorway, first time I’ve seen him in two months, which was a lovely surprise, had a nice little chat and that was it, now I can only anticipate the day I’m able to go into their house for some of my Auntie Susie’s amazing cooking, I also spent the evening with a friend of mine and friends of his, and his sister, and his sister’s partner, on HouseParty, all doing a quiz, it was all last minute, I was anticipating him and I to have a catch-up, and then I find out an hour before that there’ll be a quiz, so I prepared 10 questions based on films, music and wrestling, and then once I got onto the HouseParty app I see another 7 or 8 people are on there too, so that was a surprise but I wasn’t complaining, the more the merrier, I won two of the rounds, not sure if anyone else did, and then the girls were one team asking questions, and then the boys were one team asking questions, and then I had no idea what was going on, but in the end it was a really nice evening, good way to end a Friday. On Saturday, I spent most of the day on the PlayStation, and I had a catch-up with a friend on HouseParty to end the evening which was really nice, spoke about possibly going to L.A. once this pandemic is done, I want to be the earliest flight hotel I can find. Finally, on Sunday I went for a walk, ended up walking through Oxford Circus and Carnaby, some parts of Oxford Circus were busy because of the amount of vehicles that were around, and some parts were so quiet, which was so strange because Oxford Circus is normally one of the busiest parts of London, I walked near Hamleys, a store I have very fond memories of from when I was younger, and I saw it all empty around it, all shut off, it didn’t look right, it got worse once I reached Carnaby, the place was near enough deserted, so quiet, you could hear a loud phone conversation from 2 minutes away, and with the “Stay Alert, Control The Virus, Save Lives” signs all around, it all felt very apocalyptic, quite haunting, the image of the sign by Oxford Circus Station has glued a place of its own in my mind.

That was Week 3, to me, it was just another week, thankfully it’s going quick, and we’re already over half way through May, just get me to June and show me more signs of hope, because after this week, I need some.”

11th May 2020

“It was amazing seeing the feedback I got for my blog last week, messages and comments from friends, families, people I’ve worked with, people I know that live in different countries, so surreal. Knowing that I can help people with this, inspire people with this, can let people know that we’re all in the same boat with this, inspires me to do more, and motivates me to keep going, and I’m also glad that I’m doing something productive in a time where it’s hard to have the drive to do something, anything, I can’t be bothered to work out, learn something new, read, it’s tough, but at least I have this. For those that read my first blog last week, thank you all so much, I honestly didn’t know how everyone would’ve thought of it, but I’m so glad that it got the love and the kindness it received. Not every week will be as descriptive or interesting as the other, not every week will be a laugh, not every week will be a tearjerker, every week will be different and I think that’s the best part of this blog, every week is something different, a different story, a new stage living in this pandemic, and I look forward to taking you all with me. Now let’s get on with the blog for the second week.

Monday was more interesting than the Monday before, before dinner I went for a walk, went down to Exmouth Market, near Farringdon, Barbican, and Old Street; the one moment that stuck with me from that walk was when I took a walk through Fortune Street Park, I used to go to that park often when I was younger, mostly with my mum and my Nanny Jane, who passed away 8 years ago, once she was gone we barely walked to that park, or even past it; at one point I stopped, and I looked at the trees, and through it was the sun shinning with a sunset setting, and I stared at this sight for what must’ve been minutes, I took a picture and looked back at this moment all week, on one hand it was a way of telling me “there is light at the end of this tunnel” and on the other hand, it was as if my Nanny Jane was watching me, which makes a lot of sense since she use to live just around the corner from Fortune Street Park, maybe it was both, I don’t know, whatever it was, it was a moment that I haven’t gone a day without thinking about, and a moment I will remember even after this pandemic is done. For Tuesday, I only went to my aunt’s house to pick up chicken, and that was it, yeah, on to the next one. For Wednesday, do you remember last week when I mentioned my brother on the PlayStation, well surprise surprise, I was on it that day, and I was on it all day, made for a change, something different. For Thursday, since the weather was lovely, my family and I sat outside our door in the sun, along with my sister, brother in law and nephew, where we kept the 2m distance, and it was nice, and was well needed after the mostly poor weather from last week, for half an hour of that day, I had another Google Meets call with Ms Vidal, another lovely conversation with a lovely teacher, I could just speak to her all day, in the evening, instead of our weekly “Chicken Lickin’” I treated my family to Pizza Hut, first time I treated my family to a takeaway, felt pleased with myself, and also loved that though I treated my family, I could get what I want, I mean of course I could, it’s my money, the benefits of being an adult; I also went onto The Courtyard’s website, and checked out the careers section, and a page titled “Develop your employability skills,” Ms. Vidal wanted me to give it a read, see what I thought, and I did, and I feel the information on the page would definitely help students of The Courtyard, especially those doing their exams and are preparing to go to college or university, the page contained linked to online sessions, apprenticeships, skills festivals and career advice sessions, these are the most important years of these kids’ lives, and potentially anything on that page would help them in a big way. For Friday, it was VE Day, so my family and I, sister, brother in law, nephew, and my neighbours, and my Nanny Lylie, sat outside in the sun, keeping the 2m distance, and playing songs that used to be played during World War II, incredible how good those songs are all those years later. For Saturday, which was the best and most normal day this week, everyone who was out Friday and other neighbours, all had a BBQ, and keeping the 2m distance, it’s mad how much you can still do with people, even with the 2m distance, it was a lovely day, and a wonderful reminder that we’re all in this together no matter what, my brother and I stayed until the end, which was past 11pm, and I ended the evening sorting my brother’s 21st birthday present out, his birthday is on the 14th, turning 21. For Sunday, I just stayed in, spent most of the day laying down, and my family and I watched Boris’ speech, the closest my family and I will ever get to being political, we’re the least political family you’ll ever meet, as for the speech, yeah, could’ve spent 5 minutes reading about it online instead of watching it for 15 or 20 minute to be honest; I also showed my mum and dad what I got my brother for his birthday, they loved it, I know he will too, I won’t spoil it on here, I’ll let you all know what it is next week.

So that was the second week, each day was different, each day had something to remember, so yeah overall a decent week, let’s see what week 3 brings.”

By Billy Chandler

4th May 2020

“It’s going to be challenging doing something like this, because some days nothing happens, some days something does, and I’m forgetting which day is which, it’s pretty messy, and when it comes to writing sentences I can write 10 words and then spend the next 10 minutes daydreaming, what am I having for dinner? What film will the family and I put on tonight? Will my brother actually get off the PlayStation? What part of the house is my mum going to paint? When is the missus coming over? Then I realise I don’t have a missus and that I’m single and lonely. So yeah, as you can tell already a lot goes through my head and I do plenty of thinking. So yeah, here goes nothing, my first blog of the week, let’s see if I can make a mostly not so much week in a pandemic seem interesting.

Monday, nothing happened, brilliant stuff. Tuesday, something did happen, WOW I KNOW RIGHT, I actually had a Google Meets call with Ms. Vidal, it’s amazing to think that from 2013 - 2015 she taught me and now almost 5 years after I left here we are having a chat on Google Meets, she’s seen me on my darkest days, my brightest days, and she’s one of those teachers that I could talk to about anything and talk to all day, she’s incredible, we had a lovely chat for around 45 minutes, and put it this way, it was the best 45 minutes of the day, and was also when I found out about doing this blog. Then came Wednesday, and I had a surprise knock on the door from my two nieces, first time I saw them in weeks and if you saw me I was jumping around excitedly like a dog and they were loving it, and for the next 10 minutes we all had a good catchup with my older brother and my sister in law, who are my nieces’ parents, obviously, while also keeping an eye on the nieces, it was lovely, 10 minutes of normality, and it helps make the rest of the day easier. Thursday came and from what I noticed in recent weeks, everything feels quicker once Thursday comes, and there’s a weekly routine, I meet my dad by his workplace, we collect our order from the chicken shop nearby, which we call “Chicken Lickin’” go home, eat it, and then do the 8pm clap for the NHS, while seeing everyone in my estate clap I couldn’t help but to think “imagine if one week the entire estate begins playing Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana,” like one door will be playing the guitar, another will be playing the bass, another playing the drums, and another doing the vocals, a man can dream. Then came Friday, and my mum and I did some shopping up Angel, I normally get my own stuff and it would normally be more than it should be, but mum always finds way to fit it all in the fridge and freezer. Saturday came, and nothing was expected or planned, I woke up and realised “ah it’s one of those days” so I decide to go for a walk, get my exercise, and get out of the house, I walked through the West End and walked up to Buckingham Palace, as nice as it was to walk to the West End, there was a sadness that I felt, see the streets emptier than they should be and seeing all the theatres look lifeless hit me hard, and the realisation of how many people that work at theatres like front of house, bar, backstage, musicians, actors and everyone else involved not doing any kind of work right now, it may be a tough industry but imagine the industry where everything stops and none of these people are working, and then I went home, and had a nap. Finally there was Sunday, and it was my nephew’s birthday, 9 years old, he, my brother in law and sister only live across the landing, my brother, sister in law and nieces also came up, and their nan too, we all kept our 2m distance while also having a laugh and keeping an eye on the kids, it was wonderful, and hours later I had a chat on the phone with a good friend of mine for a good hour and a half, at the end of this day, I felt Sunday was the most normal day I experienced all week.

So that’s my first week, emotionally it was one of the more easier weeks, now we await a new week, with more questions, hopefully more answers, and maybe a shot of hope would be great, it should be interesting.”

By Billy Chandler