1. Daft Punk Video

1.  Daft Punk Video

Picture the scene: it's the day after Boxing Day.  On Boxing Day I returned to the flat to find a bottle of tequila still wrapped under the tree (from "Santa" Anett, to Anett) and a wifey keen to invent a drinking game.  Needless to say I was happy to oblige and we ended up staying up until 3am watching Pitch Perfect 1 and 2, drinking every time anyone sang (double for a mashup).  For those of you (boys) who haven't seen those films, that's a surefire way to finish a bottle of tequila.  At 3am I patted Jose on the head and we went to bed.

We were meant to go to the zoo the next day but shockingly, I overslept.

In a bid not to waste the day, Anett turned to the to do list and started reading.  The first option sounded good!

The basic goal was to recreate the viral "Daft Bodies: Harder Better Faster Stronger" video that was all over the internet back in the day when that song was recent.  Being us though, it wasn't enough just to copycat - we were going to have to find a way to step the whole thing up.  We saw two opportunities to do this: costume and location.

Initially our costume idea was to wear stormtrooper helmets but when we got to the Party Superstore they didn't cover the back of our heads and that just wouldn't do.  We needed full head coverage for what we had planned.  Fortunately we spotted something even better: emoji heads for the Whatsapp generation!  And since they were yellow, we wore our ever-functional Tough Butter neon yellow shorts to match.

For our location, we chose ALL OVER LONDON.

Next up: mastering the routine.  We started by making a map of the lyrics to the song as written on the girls in the original video and then grabbed an eyeliner pencil and started writing, taking photos of ourselves along the way so we'd be able to do it quicker next time.

Super helpful diagram

Standard Sunday activity

Then we set about learning the dance.  At first the song moves pretty slowly and we were feeling pretty confident until we got to the fast bit and realised we had to do the same superfast sequence of moves perfectly, 7 times in a row.  Ouch!  After 3 hours of dance practice we managed a passable attempt at three quarters of the song and called it a day.  After another hour the following day we'd nailed the final quarter and the fast bit was starting to feel a bit easier.  On day 3 we finally nailed it!

Steve had kindly volunteered his services as cameraman and the plan was to start in Hyde Park on New Year's Day as I'd signed up to run a 10km race there at 11am.  On New Year's Eve, Jose came back to town in the guise of some very strong margaritas and as a result, shockingly, I did not make it to Hyde Park for the race.

Not to be put off though, after a bit of a later start than planned we picked up a whiteboard marker (eyeliner rubbed off too easily) and started writing.  Steve armed himself with a camera and our mop handle ("to standardise the camera angle between takes"); we armed ourselves with emoji heads and layers we could put on and take off in a hurry.

I thought we should film in 3ish locations and cut the three takes together.  Steve and Anett thought we needed more locations than that and used tequila shots and the promise of a burrito to TRICK ME into shooting the video:

1.  Inside our flat
2.  By the windmill outside our flat
3.  On the platform at Brixton tube station
4.  On the tube
5.  On a patch of grass near the London Eye
6.  Outside the Houses of Parliament while the New Year's Day Parade went past
7.  Trafalgar Square (in the rain, the music kept skipping and people kept asking for selfies with us so we got no useable footage)
***TEQUILA BREAK***
8.  Covent Garden market, where a crowd of what felt like thousands of people gathered to watch and a security guard asked us to leave because we didn't have a permit to put on a performance)
***WAHACA BREAK - TEQUILA, MARGARITAS, TAQUITOS, ENCHILADAS, TEQUILA***
9.  Between a bunch of urine-scented phone boxes and a Pizza Express somewhere in Covent Garden
10.  On the tube (from Steve's new camera angle)
11.  Inside our flat (this time in the kitchen because Steve said "there's more going on in there"

It was cold.  It was rainy.  People kept wanting photos with us and to know what we were doing.  At various points Anett and I both had to go to that special place inside ourselves where we felt no cold or shame.  Steve left our mop handle in wahaca.  I threw a strop in Trafalgar Square with my emoji head on and it's all on camera.  Needless to say we considered the day a total success!

Lean, mean, party machines!

Afterwards there was nothing to do but drink more tequila.  We called in the cavalry and Lotti arrived in pyjamas with a bottle of Jose and a bag of Doritos.  We got out the Tequila Game my brother Andy gave me for Christmas last year and that we're sure can't be legal and spent the next few hours drinking shots, margaritas (OK, tequila and tonic because we didn't have enough limes) and beers while throwing bobble hats, corks and SOFA CUSHIONS (Steve) at each other every time there was a 'border war'.  

The Tequila Game: margaritas in Mexico, beers in Texas, shots everywhere

Steve passed out at midnight, at which point Anett, Lotti and I stayed up for a few hours performing hand puppet karaoke and crying our eyes out at the episode of Glee where Finn's dead.

El Directo

El Puppet Show

What a day!

So anyway, you're probably thinking: where's the video?  Well dear friends, you'll find the link to the video right after...

Daft Punk Video List Trumps!

Originality: 4/5 (Someone else did it first, but we put our own slant on it)

Cost: 4/5 (cost us £20 each for the emoji heads and one mop handle - plus tequila and dignity)

Fun factor: 5/5 (after the event - you'd have got a different answer in Trafalgar Square)

And without further ado, here's the link!  

The To Do List - Daft Punk - Harder Better Faster Stronger

28. 90s dress up

28.  90s dress up

*events may have been paraphrased a little*

Saturday, approximately 12pm:

Phil: Hey Anett, do you want to come geocaching with me and Jill this afternoon?

Anett:  No I'm tired and I want to stay inside and do yoga

Phil:  OK that's fine but you're not allowed to be boring all day so when I come back we're drinking margaritas and going out to hunt Irish boys

Anett:  I hate you.  Buy limes.

And so it came to pass that at 10pm we were drinking margaritas and looking for something from the to do list to tick off.  We briefly considered getting tattoos but Jill wasn't up for it (apparently the margarita stare-down wasn't an effective persuasion tactic) and then settled on 90s fancy dress.  Perfect attire for a dance in the Swan!

Lookin' fresh!

We donned our best leggings, crop tops, denim shirts and hi-tops then accessorised with colourful sunnies, slightly too much make up and the highest ponytails we could manage.  At this point Jill decided we were definitely crazy and went to bed.  Apparently it's not cool to drink on buses these days so we walked to the Swan and upon arrival for no apparent reason some boy paid for me to get in.  Thank you, random boy!

From that point in it all gets a bit hazy.  It turned out that the random boy at the door wasn't the only one who was appreciative of our retro outfits and we were bombarded with free drinks all night.  Naturally we fended off most of the men by flashing Anett's engagement ring and telling them all we were getting married soon.  Thanks for the drinks, random men!

No idea who this guy was.  Didn't even remember taking the picture.

Anett was wearing her Fitbit and it told us that by 4am we had reached her daily steps goal of 10,000 steps.  By 5am we'd hit 12,000 steps which is equivalent to 8.56km of dancing.

At the end of the night I turned around to see Anett with a boy and so followed suit in order to avoid playing third wheel.  Crafty!  One of the boys was Irish.  One wasn't.  Still, we took the obligatory photographs.

Irish boy

Not an Irish boy

90s Dress Up List Trumps!

Cost: 5/5 (Lots of free drinks + free entry for me meant between us we spent about £30)

Originality: 4/5 (Nobody else was wearing what we were but obviously everyone did back in the day)

Fun factor: 4/5 (Outrageously entertaining night and so much dancing but we did both seriously regret the boys the next day)