This corridor of doom comes to you from the Four Seasons in Starnberg, which is actually a long way from being doomy. Maybe the least doomy hotel we've ever been put up in on a job, in fact. There's an espresso machine in each room, and the bathroom has a glass wall so you can enjoy the view from your room window when you're in the bath.

We spent a very pleasant day in a very posh international school, interviewing and shooting GVs. It was built around an old schloss in the Bavarian forest, and under 6 inches of snow, it all looked very idyllic. It's very different from my low-tech schooling; each student had a Macbook, and the teachers would scribble on a spreadsheet using the smartboard, then seamlessly email the exercise to the class's school email accounts for homework. All the scheduling was shared in a software package, and there was talk of online results for exams as well as marks for essays etc. I always thought OHPs were lame and primitive, but when I left high school, computers were still limited to around 10 PCs for the whole school, in the Computer Room. Now posh schools appear to have a better realised IT infrastructure than some internet companies I've worked at in the past...



Despite the snow closing the airport in the morning, we managed to cab it into the city to shoot some cheesy views of Marienplatz, and have some proper German kaffee und kuchen to relax. I fitted in a nice Wiener schnitzel, too, and a currywurst made with Bavarian white sausage. And had a German lager with a massive head. So overall, I feel like I crammed in an authentic Bavarian experience despite only being there for one night. Hard work, but we always appreciate the change of scenery enough to more than make up for the travel and long hours.



Finishing off the NHS film for the rest of the week, which is coming together nicely. Should be ready for the approvals and tweaks phase next week, hopefully. Hoping to get out and about with my new DSLR over the weekend, and just bought a new bit of equipment for upcoming projects, too, so I've got lots of new stuff to learn, and that's always fun.

The CUP job has continued to be very interesting - on Thursday we visited the British Antarctic Survey to interview a cartographer, and learned a lot about the bases, ships and planes owned by the British on the only continent without permanent human inhabitants.

Friday was a busy one, filming a local sculptor in the morning, and CUP's own chef in the afternoon. Tony Hillier's sculptures, apart from populating local schools, are very publicly visible from the main road. His front garden is a small forest of metal sculptures with a very strong style, and his house contains ceramics and paintings with similar exaggerated features and strong silhouettes. We watched Tony and his apprentice Jane cutting and welding, and heard about his idea of how art fits into a community - he doesn't sell any of his work; it's all donated free.



This morning, at half past eight, I stood at the top of the Gog Magog hills (the only thing that would appear different on a topographical map of Cambridge) watching a running club sprinting up the hill as part of their marathon training. It's not for me, I conclude. The poor interviewee sat, muscles cramping, in the freezing cold after his run, and talked for over an hour until his teeth chattered. All in the can, though, and hopefully it'll make a nice DVD to go with the upcoming book.

Another nicely varied week (starting with m'colleague Ray winning the Oscar for the sound on Hurt Locker - not sure he's got room for that and the BAFTA on his cistern :)

After a busy afternoon running around the local hospital's Intensive Care Unit, filming for our NHS job, I went to the Cambridge Union Society's debating chamber again to record a lecture by Joe Rospars, who ran all the online part of Barack Obama's election campaign. He was very West Wing, as you might expect, and it was heartening to hear that his company only takes on left-of-centre causes (in the UK they're working on the anti-BNP "Hope Not Hate" campaign). He showed lots of great mini-documentaries they made for Obama's web campaign - very supporter-focussed, rather than candidate centred.

Tuesday was the start of a week shooting for Cambridge University Press with some lovely people from a production company up north, who I've done a couple of jobs for in the past. It's a micro-documentary per day - Tuesday was about a barrister specialising in International Law who writes books and lectures at Cambridge about the United Nations. Very educational.

Today, by contrast, we interviewed a husband and wife team who run a hairdresser's in Cambridge. Lots of fun, and I'm only sorry I missed being the one to get a posh wet shave for the camera. The rest of the week's very varied too - off to the British Antarctic Survey in the morning!

Just got back from an incredibly busy short shoot in Rotterdam. Two of us ran round a school, interviewing students and teachers, then got a cab into town and tried to grab general shots of all the main tourist attractions (Erasmus Bridge, Hotel New York, SS Rotterdam, some old boats in the harbour, the Euromast...) all in a day. Very hard work lugging all the gear around and trying to keep our brains going, but nice, interesting people to talk to.

Flying from London City to Rotterdam means a small, propellor plane. Not keen, but as it wasn't too bumpy, and took under an hour, I'm not complaining - because of the time difference, we left the Netherlands at 18.40 and got into London at 18.30. That's efficient.

Rotterdam looked nice, anyway. Would drop in on the way past if I'm in the area again - I was surprised at the number of nice, old buildings, as the city centre was extensively remodelled by the Luftwaffe during the war. The modern stuff's good too, though there was rather a lot of neon near our hotel.

The rest of the week's been filming in the hospital, mostly. It's been fun sharing the writing for this NHS video, too. One learns a lot about the behind-the-scenes stuff; mostly it's very reassuring.