What a year aye, and it’s not even over yet.
Much like the big budget blockbuster films from the major movie studios, our movie project has suffered from the affects of this year. Between lockdowns and some of the guys being away for different reasons, it’s delayed the final release of our current project. Sam Taylor, Nick Field, Nick Tomkinson, Eddie Hines, Cameron Hepburn, Ben Marshall, and Lewis Hawker have all been working away on it the project, hopefully nearing the end of production. We were able to make some of the shorter length video updates after lockdown, to keep everyone in the loop of what was happening.
Most of the week I’m actually in the workshop cracking the whip, sometimes literally. I’ve had an app on my phone that sounds like a whip noise when you flick your phone, and gets a good laugh from the guys. Work though has been a bit lite on the ground at times, which I guess is another sign of the times. We have had a few division jobs coming through, no doubt keeping Paul McElhinney happy his favourite job’s still coming in. We’ve had a few jobs from Every educaid and few pamphlets jobs. Aucom and Modular jobs have still been pretty steady, Kyle, Jimmy, Sam T and Kelvin are happy with that. Kelvin has also enjoyed watching the roadworks outside when things have been a bit quiet. They’re hopefully going to be done by Christmas, though I’m not sure which year. I think we were originally told they were to be done by Christmas last year.
And even though I really enjoy being in the workshop, it’s been fun filling in on some of the outings we do. Joining the pool group taking Eddie, Lewis, Sam T and Nick T the time I went, and losing both games I played. I’ve taken the timezone group a couple of times recently, with Mark R, Cara, Clement, and Anthony, then also taking Mark R, Ian P and Murdoch car cleaning as well. I also took the golf group a few times, seeing some good improvements since when some of them started, Ben N/F in particular comes to mind who is hitting the ball better.
To round out my week, I take a group of young guys out of Fridays, the regulars are Sam T, Nick F, and Harley B. We alternate between mornings one week, and afternoons the other. For the afternoons we head out to Orana to drop off shredded paper, on occasion actually seeing the animals playing with it. On the morning time slots we try and fit in a decent active outing. Going for a walk somewhere, recently doing some walks down Sumner way, but also going to the free basketball/table-tennis in town, and planning on doing frizby golf sometime soon.
Of course though, I can’t finish without making some comment about Christmas being almost upon us. Christmas lunch is still being finalised, but it will be held at AJ’s this year. It’s likely to be a more casual affair, which will be a nice change. But the most important thing, seeing as I’m no longer the youngest here, I don’t have to do the decorations this year.






