Toilet Humour

I was in B&Q today. My vacuum cleaner hose split on me so I had to call in for some essential maintenance supplies - namely Gaffer Tape.

But two things happened on the way out. So small and insignificant in many ways but two things that indicate some personality traits quite possibly a few flaws!

One. I bought a battery stick on light thing. I could argue that I really needed it for my rather dimly lit cupboard - so I don't damage my vacuum cleaner in the dark again - but I fear that the main reason I bought it is because I'm a sucker for gadgets and I think I'm turning into my Dad. Just FYI - during a power cut you'd be forgiven for thinking my parents house is the place to be. Full of torches and lights and stuff. No batteries though!

Two. I saw a box that contained a toilet. No surprise there, I'm in B&Q and they sell all sorts of bathroom stuff. But the box was emblazoned with the words:

Toilet
To Go

For those of you who know me will understand why that got into my head and made me laugh. I laughed out loud at the till. The guy looked at me like I was crazy. Come on, you gotta see the humour in that. Its like saying 'TV - To Watch' or 'Chair - To Sit'. Explaining why I laughed didn't help to change that and I rather suspect that telling you all now isn't exactly making me look smart.

Remember Me! I'm a star!

For decades various stars of the silver screen have been adding their mark outside Grauman's Chinese Theater (pardon the US spelling) in Hollywood. It is seen to be a great honour to be invited to place ones handprints, footprints and autograph in a slab of cement so that countless others can remember you in the years to come.

In a similar vain, others show their desire to be remembered by adding their distinctive marks in other places. This one, already mentioned in Dermo's blog was left by someone (and I'll not name any names) who clearly shows belief in their own stardom. And given where it was left - in our church, under the top lid in the old piano, in dust - it has the potential to be preserved for generations.

Belief is Free!

I downloaded a John Mayer song from iTunes recently because it was free. Even though it was free iTunes still sent me an invoice. I have included an excerpt from it below because I found it interesting and a little thought provoking.

Can belief really be free?

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Apple have announced that OS X 10.5 Leopard will be on sale from Oct 26! I really want to get this as it looks sweet. But its £85 that I could do without spending. That said, when you consider that most versions of Windows Vista cost twice that and more, the new Apple OS is unbelievable value for money. And I dare say anyone upgrading to Leopard will not be disappointed. Compare that to the countless new Windows Vista users who are crying 'what?!' rather than the advertised 'wow!'.

Tempted to preorder now...mmmmmm

You can do so at the Apple Store.

Warning - fat person thinking

Just thinking - not my fault by the way because I'm an individual. If individuals cannot be blamed for being fat then what happens if a few fat people gather together- can you blame them as as a group? Do they have to be eating junk food while they are charged?

Bottom line, in my case, a big bottom line, is that that I am to blame for my own condition. Just in the same way that I am to blame for every stupid and wrong thing I do.

We seem to be a society focused on our 'rights' and not at all focused out our responsibilities or in disciplining our children or ourselves to live up to them!

Its not my fault!

Apparently I get to blame someone else for being fat. Isn't society great. Seems like the only person's behaviour I'm not responsible for is my own!

I'm off to to get a Kit Kat and its YOUR fault Mr Brown and everyone else around me including YOU reading this! But don't worry, its not your fault that its your fault. You could blame that on someone else - maybe even me. In that case, I'm sorry. But what am I apologising for?! I can't possibly take any kind of responsibility for this or anything for that matter!!

Check out the article on the BBC News site.

By the way, there would be a picture of some junk food, or Augustus Gloop or something in this blog but the picture thingy isn't working on Blogger today. Not my fault and probably not Blogger either. Its probably the government or YOU again!

Wispa

The Wispa is back! I spotted this beauty in Centra near where I work. About 20mins later it was a gonner - snaffled up as a perfect companion to my post-lunch coffee.

Apparently Cadbury responded to some online petitions and brought the popular bar back. But it is only out for a limited period so if you want one, go get one soon! Maybe if we eat enough on them they will make it a permanent relaunch!

Note, just realised Dave has already blogged about this and his photos are better.

The Rufus on fire!

I was at a Rufus Wainright concert on Tuesday night at the Waterfront Hall. I had been meaning to get and listen to his latest album so I could fully appreciate the live show. But I didn't manage to do that. As it turns out, it didn't really matter as it was a great show without knowing the songs!

I was particularly impressed when the band unplugged and Rufus sang without a microphone in tribute to John McCormack - a famous Irish Tenor who lived in the late 19th/early 20th century.

The Empress

While in London last week I, along with a few colleagues decided to try out an Indian Restaurant that had come highly recommended.

In short, it was fantastic. From the moment we walked in the door a gentleman whose name badge indicated he was to be known as Kod made us feel welcome. He and his other colleagues, Mash (that's what his badge said) being one of them, continued to wait on us.

I'm a little unfamiliar with the cast array of options in an Indian menu - so Kod just asked me what sort of thing I tended to like and he rustled something up. It was beautiful!

So I can also recommended it. I will certainly be back with my newly acquired 10% discount card! Also, you may be interested to know that they offer an Indian Shepherds pie - something that has gained the interest of some major super market chains.

Check out www.theempress.co.uk.

Firefox for Mac

I'm switching. Up until recently I used Safari for most of my browsing on my mac. Now though I use Firefox.

It was a pretty easy decision to make in the end. It just works better. There are a few features in Googlemail (Gmail) and even in Blogger that work with Firefox but simply do not appear in the Safari version.

Slightly disappointing as a usually hold Apple in such high regard.

So, if you want to unlock a few more bits and bobs on the web using your mac may I suggest that you...

Malteser Moment

Last night I was at the Kerr's house. It was Sarah's birthday so it was another excuse for us all to get together and be stupid.

When the Maltesers came round it was only a matter of time before someone tried this.



Well done to Sam who demonstrated that they are indeed the lighter way to enjoy chocolate.

I should also mention that the soundtrack comes courtesy of a few others who were trying out the Singstars game on the PS3. Doing a great job making a bad song sound worse. I would apologise to Nickleback but really think they should do so first!

Giants TV

Matt and Jo have been doing a great job the launch of the Coors Belfast Giants YouTube service. Here is one of the first videos.


This brings back good memories for me of when Matt, Dave and myself shot fun stuff at the Odyssey just for the heck of it! And then there was that Devil's costume!

Aaaanyway, think the YouTube idea is a great one. Keep it up guys.

www.belfastgiants.com

That after work drink

I went for a drink after work today. Just a coffee.

But even in doing that I began to appreciate why lots of people do this. It was a great way to relax after a head hurting day in the office. It also served to postpone the drive home thus missing the rush and making the eventual treck much more tolerable.

It also served another purpose today. I hadn't had a coffee for two days! That is quite some time for me to go without. I'm normally a one cup....well, more one largish mug....a day kind of a person but going without even that began to take its toll on my head. I do get withdrawal headaches and feel pretty crabby. So I thought I'd do the world a favour and get my hit.

I think I viewed my after work trip to Starbucks a little like the picture suggests!

Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen Fenster)

Any ideas why Blogger is speaking to me in German? This is what appears when I post!

Snow Patrol at Ward Park 2 - Run

The new version of iMovie allows me to export straight to YouTube! Pretty cool but still takes a fair bit of time to get a result when to add up the encoding time and then the YouTube processing time.

But as promised here is the first instalment of the Snow Patrol at Ward Park. I give you 'Run' minus the first wee bit:

The Bad House

I've been in Liverpool for the past couple of weeks. During the first week I stayed at the Radisson - which is the norm for trips to our office there. I like it because it is modern, comfortable and right across the road from work!


But for the second week a full Radisson meant that my company had to put me into the Malmaison. Knowing that the name translated roughly as Bad House I was a little concerned as to what to expect. But I loved it. Daring to be different is their mantra and they do that in a kind of cheeky way. Its kind of like a cocky wee so and so that you can't help but like.

The room was great with a kind of semi wet room style shower. The rest of the hotel was full of little nooks and crannies. It all felt just a little bit naughty which if I'm honest just added to its charm!

Snow Patrol at Ward Park

At the moment I'm sat in the Radisson hotel, Liverpool, hungrily awaiting my dinner! We're going out for some Chinese food in a bit - I'll tell you more about that when I get back.

First let me update you on last weekend.

On Saturday I was at Ward Park, Bangor in the open air listing some great live music. When I arrived 'We are Scientists' were playing. They were pretty good but were topped by Ash who followed. Ash in turn were blown out of the park by the all conquering Snow Patrol who were absolutely fantastic.

As the light faded the light show added to the atmosphere. Great tune after great tune came from the stage. We were all oohs and aahs when fireworks went off in time with 'Light up, Light up' at the climax of run at the end of the set.

I'll try and YouTube-ify some video I took with my phone and post it soon. Although not the best quality you get a good feeling of the atmosphere. The crowd around me can be heard shouting all manner of things ranging from 'Healey! Healey!' to 'We're not Brazil we're Northern Ireland' to the big choruses in the songs. The funniest bit though was when Gary lightbody highlighted the Northern Irish tendency to sing the lead guitar bits - which we promply obliged with as he launched into the next song!

Hope they do it again next year. I'll not take my umbrella then as I had my old P&O Nedlloyd one conficated as it was deemed dangerous!

Slingshot Update

Jacob's Digital annoyed me this week. After ordering my Lowpro Slingshot from them expecting to pay the advertised rate they contacted me to say they couldn't send it to Ireland for the normal £4.50 rate. Instead it would cost £18.50!

So naturally I told them that I was not happy to pay that siting that I could buy the bag cheaper elsewhere - and by elsewhere I meant Amazon directly. But after sending the message I logged to Amazon to order it from them and discovered that their price had gone up! More than a little irritated, I then added a second reply to Jacob's Digital (via Amazon's Marketplace) voicing further displeasure at the whole thing. They ended up just refunding my for the bag.

But the good ending to this story is that on the way home from London I called into the Dixons store in Stansted airport. There I found the same bag at under £30 and didn't need to pay delivery as I did that bit myself!

It seems like a pretty good bag and has been doing its job well so far - although it hasn't been rigorously tested yet!

The Fairer Essex

I've been travelling with work again. Last week I was in London. Normally that would mean staying in the city but as my trip required me to train staff at an office other than main one I based myself in Essex at the Prince Regent Hotel (pictured below).


It was a pleasant stay with the staff and other guests proving very friendly. My only gripe would be aimed at the TV in my bedroom. Although impressed at the obvious upgrade over my previous stay some years ago the new 32inch LCD HD began to really irritate me. Basically, the volume control was knackered and continually turned itself up without any kind of input from me. Even removing the batteries from the remote control didn't help - the problem must have been in the TV itself.

Anyway, that was a minor irritation. I mean, its not like I missed much. Being in London I didn't even get to watch the Northern Ireland match - I had to put up with watching England getting beaten by Germany which was only small compensation.

The area I stayed in is pretty affluent. One taxi driver told me we were close to Alan Sugar's house. It was easy to believe given that we then turned to drive through Chigwell - home to a few footballers, snooker professionals and generally wealthy people. Huge houses, most tastlessly designed it has to be said with multiple cars, big gates and the odd security camera to protect these modern day castles.

Aside from the hotel and surrounding area, my trip went well. The training seemed to be well received and I survived the week in spite of feeling incredibly tired.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Dermo, Mark and I headed to the cinema on Friday night to catch the third instalment of the Bourne series.

With a lot to live up to after the first two outings, 'The Bourne Ultimatum' did not disappoint. Some good action sequences, especially the one on one fight scenes and car chase.

Just be careful with how close to the screen you sit. The camera does not stand still. This does give it a more of a gritty reality but made me slightly queazy during some of the quieter parts! Probably best viewed from a little further back than we were.

Also, you gotta love that Moby track at the end. You can get Extreme Ways by Moby from iTunes.


Moby - 18 - Extreme Ways