Aaaarghhh

Last week the first tape for broadcast was lost. Then found. Then lost again. Then found again. And finally went on air. We sent viewers to the website about 6 times throughout the programme but there is no website because a day before broadcast the guy I hired for the job walked out on me having done nothing.

I also had to get blood drawn but the blood people didn’t have the right vials so made me wait for the courier for an hour in a cage. Then the courier came and left without leaving the vials so I left, enraged, without giving blood and very late for a booking. The booking was with the sound guy to do the sound on episode 2, which, unfortunately, we couldn’t finish because I was so late and he had to go fetch his young bride. To top it all off I had to have words someone who doesn’t take my direction and get some words from the commissioning editor who is under too much pressure apparently to view the programmes we send her for approval, give us feedback and check the scripts.

We got away for the weekend to the Drakensburg mountains--> Friends, fresh farm-baked bread and decadent brownies for tea. Space and fresh air. Log fires and braais. Saturday night games and Sunday morning sleep-ins. Came back feeling refreshed on Sunday evening and managed to work out a new, more realistic schedule, get creative on a script for the next episode and compile a list of all the new footage we’ll need from the archives for future episodes.

The week began well; kick started by a yoga class and plumped up with the filming of two episodes. But then today, Tuesday, things took a turn for the worse. Trying the blood thing again was probably a sign, but that actually went off quite painlessly and I was at work nice and early. We finished the sound and the final mix for that episode we left hanging in the air last week. Still good. But then, as I was looking for footage on birds to include in the next script, my computer crashed. Badly. The kind of crash that involves casualties. We tried to resuscitate her; removed the hard drive and everything, but the needle just gave a few feeble flicks and gave up. The voice-over recording which followed was a disaster because the final script with corrections and Zulu plus all the fancy changes I’d made on Sunday was on my machine only.

I keep thinking of everything I’ve lost- haven’t done a backup in at least a month. That schedule’s a gonner but luckily most of the scripts have been e-mailed around or are on my flash disk so I have some stuff. Can’t really bring myself to do a full inventory yet though… maybe tomorrow…

Aaaarghhh