Los Angeles to Heathrow

The following is an excerpt from Erik's Journal, dated 5th June, 2007:

Europe Trip, Day 0 - Tuesday

Well, it was hardly an auspicious beginning to my trip--the flight from LAX to LHR was delayed by four hours. Delayed, it seems, because they needed to repair the previous LAX-LHR flight's plane, so they sent that flight on ahead in our plane while the repairs were made.
Consequently, Dad and I spent that time with Uncle Jonathan and Mom, who had driven us down. We wandered around LA for two hours or so, ate dinner (discovering Jonathan's keen dislike of cilantro), and generally had a jolly time with Uncle Jonathan, who will be leaving before we return.
After that, it was as standard and uneventful flight on a 777, most of which we slept through.

(a rough drawing in pencil of a 777 follows, no other pictures accompany this journal date.)

Thus began a journey of epic proportions, dwarfing any previous adventures by Erik, in time, scale, and expense. A journey set to involve more modes of transportation than most people use in their lives, travelling by trains, planes, automobile, bus, ferry, subway, and on foot, Erik works his winsome way across 15 cities or towns in 6 countries, eating exotic foods and attempting all the while to knock the smallest hole possible in his bank account.
Will he make it? What dangers will he encounter??
Find out right here, in the Continuing Chronicles of Erik's European Excursion!!!

*Ahem* On a less melodramatic note, the frequency of these posts may be irregular, so you may want to pace yourself to about one a day for real-time, or you might run out before I post more.

I am, as always, faithfully recording the facts, and everything you read here, apart from this disclaimer, has been recorded more or less real-time by Erik Rodkey himself, by a method known as 'Jotting down notes on pieces of paper'. We apologise for any errors or inconsistencies inherent in this method. -The Editor

In Which Erik discovers that he has made several grave errors.

As I tried to make myself comfortable in the 2x3 foot sheltered doorway in a suburb of Dunkirque, cold, wet, and tired from the 6+ mile walk through the rain, I found it a superb time to reflect on the mistakes that had brought me here. As follows:
1. Taking the train to Dunkirk, rather than Calais, as the rail station is 12km (almost 10mi) from the Ferry station
2. Thinking that I could walk said 12km no problem, at least, nothing I couldn't handle
3. Walking the wrong way for several extra kilometers to begin with
4. Listening to Krista's advice and not specifically waterproofing my trenchcoat
and
5. Not planning sufficiently enough to have checked Dunkirk from Google Earth and noticing that it is a very spread out place
6. Not bringing a water bottle
Perhaps this is not an altogether representative ordering, but at any given time during my walk, one of these would occupy first place for blunder of the day.

I make a mental inventory of my situation, from head to toe:
Flat cap: wet on top, but holding
Trenchcoat: entirely soaked through and has changed colour from a light tan to a greyish yellow Shirt: as wet as it can be without having more substance
Trousers: only slightly damp, being protected by the trenchcoat and by being made of thick cloth Shoes: as wet on top as they are on bottom; the breathing holes in the suede serving mainly to let water in more efficiently.

Hardly ideal.

I am beginning to have grave concerns for the books located in my backpack and in my book bag. A brief survey reveals that the book bag is indeed mostly waterproof, and only a few of its contents dampened, but the backpack has no such measure of water resistance, and since my trenchcoat which was covering it was completely soaked, the extra water in that region set about dampening my backpack. I check the books, fearing the worst...dry. The cloth napkins I wrapped them in absorbed the ambient moisture, and the books are drier than anything else at the same level. I reposition them in plastic bags, and pack them back in. I set the alarm, locked my bags, and attempted to find a comfy position where I could rest from 2:00 am to 5:30. Several tries producing nothing comfortable, I settled for one of the less cramped positions and attempted to sleep...

Ha! Your quest for information ends here,,,

With a resounding crash the door locks behind you and you are trapped...forced to read the rambling blog of an unlimited company, Mackerel Sky, Limited, and its crazed founder--me.
Yes, I hear you all running for the door, but it is of no avail, that road is closed forever to those who enter...Mwahahahahahahah.

So I'd best begin at the very beginning, or at least as close to that as is possible. I am, on the first count, a confirmed Anglophile, with lapses into Anglomaniacy-Or was it the other way round?
How did it start? I am interested in doing all too many things, and had a good name for a company, so I decided to make one, with the pleasantly ambiguous title Mackerel Sky, Ltd.
Here is a list if you want to know, of the things I am doing currently:

• Attempting to Write, Direct, and Film several short films this Summer. More on this later.
• Converting antique media (Records, Open-Reel and Cassette Tape) to mp3 format
• Learning Computer Modelling and Animation on behalf of the XWWII mod for BF2
• Composing, Lifting, Playing, and Recording assorted music
• Writing this Blog and several books(probably best to stick with film)

Edit: I'm putting the remains of a blog post that never materialised here. It is not complete.

Obviously, my Summer was insainely busy, thus I did not have time for blogging or even (gasp!) filming my four films. Scheduling was delayed to sometime less busy than full-time jobs. hmm... howabout in the middle of the Autumn school year? But no such luck. School, College applications, and my lack of Pre-Prod. work, not to mention Life in general, got in the way. Now the order and shooting schedule for the Faerie Tale Quarto is something like this:
1. 'The Boy Who Found Fear at Last', set in Ancient Greece, a Turkish fairy tale from Andrew Lang's Olive Book Shooting late 2006: Oct-Dec. (probably Dec.)
2. 'The Fisherlad and the Sea-Child', set in Medieval Scotland (pre-kilt), originally 'The Fishelad and the Mermaid's Ring', a Scottish fairy tale from Thistle and Thyme (a slightly inferior version here) Shooting Early Spring 2007 (when the rocks on the beach get covered up with sand again)
3. 'The Enchanted Hare', set in 17th Century Scotland, originally 'The Beekeeper and the Bewitched Hare' also a Scottish tale from Thistle and Thyme Shooting Early Spring 2007 (when the grass is green)
4. 'Open Winkins', set in either Medieval or 1930's England (Director-Producer dispute... Ed.- Go 1930's!) an English Fairy Tale from the book 'Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard'(Ed.-Read it! it's good!) Shooting Spring-Summer 2007 (as soon as the others are finished and before I get too busy again)

Over the (oh-so-busy) Summer of '06, I
Worked for Westmont in IT, designing a mapping system,
Did nothing with Innes Emrys, my oh-so-misnamed celtic group,
Was the only Counsellor in training at the Bravissimo Camp at Westmont
and put on by Mrs. Hodson, who has won my respect many times over.
Ripped more records
Bought a DV camcorder, and had a Birthday Party with a filmmaking theme.