wishlist

i got given some money and vouchers and stuff for Christmas so i've had a little looksy for a few bits and pieces i may acquire-

Doors t-shirt...

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1;-1&sku=965541

Them Crooked Vultures album on vinyl...

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=240;1;315;-1;208&sku=293814

terminator box set...

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/10827938/Terminator-1-4-Boxset/Product.html#

Swan Song t-shirt...

https://www.loudclothing.com/proddetail.php?prod=brv_ledz_12962200

yesyes :D

sleeve idea

i think i'd like my arm to end up somethin like this... the swirl would be on my elbow, with the angel down the inside of my forearm (where a lot of people put their names in old-english script...)

there's a good few elements i havent included, like Amber's playin card

 but hopefully the tattoo guy can work them in.  i really cannot wait, i've wanted this like forever!

twatoo

Man, Amber and Nikki and i just sat and watched miami ink aaaaaaaaall day and drank tea :D epic.  we'v decided wer gonna start savin so when amber's older we can take a trip (read: month-long haitus) to disneyland and shoot over to miami and get tattooed by those guys. 

Nikki wants a cherry blossom back-piece somethin like this-

and i'll probably get somethin added to my sleeve.  in fact i'm gonna go and draw up some more designs right now. 

i made this...

the title says it all really...  i made this-

yip, this is what Sproglet looks like, the little person that Nikki and i created.  Amber Suzanne Bell joined us at 11.35am on Friday 11th December 2009.  Weighing in at 8lbs 8oz, she has done nothing but sleep and feed and cry at all the wrong times ever since, keeping her poor mommy and daddy up all night and knackered all day.  but we love her with all our hearts :)

appologies for the sickeningness of this post, it won't happen again i promise.

random poem i wrote ages ago..

i got up early, you got uptight,

i took my pills, you took your time...

i turned up the radio, you turned up late,

i told you why, you told me off...

i showed you round, you showed me up,
i made you lunch, you made me cry...

blahblah...

Nikki and i made chocolate sponge cake there now... ruddy hell, 15 minutes well spent, boys and girls.

wow, sprog's zeroth birthday is due in T minus 4 days! :S

Batman Begins is on, Nikki is threatening to run away with Christian Bale. i think i remember sprog was going to be called Christian at one point... as it stands, if he's a boy he shall be Ashton Thomas Bell, and if she's a girl, she'll be Amber Suzanne Bell. unless of course we deem that he/she doesn't suit his/her name, in which case we'll have to do a little re-evaluatin...

random points of note:

~ i am slowly but surely turning into (a younger, hipper and handsomer version of) my father.

~ i could watch "two and a half men" all day long.

~ i really, reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want this car

it would cost about £4000, does 50mpg, has 5 seats, and sproglet's pram would fit in the boot...

~ i cannot wait to get moved into my new house :D it's gona be so0O COOL!
~ i hope sprog understands my love of retroness.

~ my girlfriend fancies some ugly gay boys.

more retro schweetness

on one of my frequent forays through the aladin's cave that is the In Shops, i called in for a chat with Mike Hunt to see if i could stumble across my much sought-after brown leather jacket. and as it happens, i did just that-

i also picked up that fetching vintage t-shirt while i was there, and guess how much he charged me for the pair of them... go on, guess...

nope, 20 quid. £20 for a vintage genuine leather jacket and a 70s skinny-fit t-shirt. my hat cost more than that. lovin it.

current tuneage:

i am rather lovin this track.

noo shoos

just thought i'd let everyone see my lavely purchases that i've gathered up from my favourite shops this past wee while-

yee, and indeed, haw... my epic cowboy boots from Best Vintage...

awwww and sproglets little blue Cons from The Rusty Zip :D

i'm still on the look-out for a nice skinny brown leather jacket so if anybody spys one let me know.

current tuneage: herbie hancock+john mayer - stitched up

new follower!!

yeys for quattro followerino Emma from http://alifesizedpaperdoll.blogspot.com/ :D

we're watchin Drag Me To Hell at the mo, i'm being very anti-social and blogging instead... shame on me... but i've seen it before, i know when the scary bits are.

we went to see the 4th Kind a few nights ago, it was ok... just ok. Paranormal Activity looks shit-the-bed scary though, i refused to go and see it like a big fraidy cat :S

as for baby news, nothing as of yet! sproglet is still wedged happily inside my gorgeous girlfriend's ever-expanding midriff. we had indian food tonight though, so i'm going to make her run up and down the stairs after the movie and see what we can shake loose.

on a final parting note- Lidl's dry cider is pretty tasty, but it doesn't half make you thirsty...

more squiggles

so yea, tuesday kid said he liked the doodle page from a few posts ago, so i thought i'd chuck up a few more-

the cover of my sketchbook

cool canvas i did with big boy felt tips

and a random old-skool bit of stuff-

current tuneage: chris brown - transform ya

my new hero

just. watch.

twentyquestiones

1. when did u last throw up?
my 25th birthday party in july. so i'm told.

2. who was your favourite starwars character?
jarjar binks... yea, like fook, emm probably anakin skywalker.

3. if you could throw one celeb to the lions, who would it be?
that bastard russell brand. what a waste of skin and hair.

4. if you could have a superpower, what would it be?
flyin, dude. how awesome would that be?!

5. what's your booze of choice?
kopparberg pear.

6. who's the biggest arsehole celeb you've met?
i really wanna say robert plant from led zepplin, cos you'd expect someone like that to be a real ballbag... but he wasn't at all, he was lovely. i'm gonna go with blues legend john mayall, he was just a grumpy old man.

7. have you got any strange phobias?
mushrooms. don't even get me started...

8. what would your funeral be like?
lots of rock music and people getting drunk and talking about how great i was.

9. do you do the myspace / twitter thing?
i have a myspace that i never use, but i havn't invested in a twitter yet... Nikki is using it, so i might get one just to go on and hurl abuse at her.

10. what's the most illegal thing you've ever done?
i can't possibly comment, save to say that it would get me a lenghty jail sentence and a hefty fine.

11. what's the worst injury you've received?
when i was 9 months old my uncle dropped me on my head, i hit the corner of a sideboard and it split my skull open. epic fail!

12. what's the worst idea you've ever had?
inviting a hoor back to my house with her brother.

13. what was the first album you bought?
history by michael jackson. classic!

14. what makes an awesome night properly awesome?
something unplanned with lots of friends, beers and dancing, then back 2 a houseparty with guitars, pizza and more beers.

15. what's the stupidest thing you've ever said to a girl you liked?
"can i calve you?" actually, it wasn't me that said it, but it is such an epic line.

16. no arms or no legs?
no legs please.

17. what have you seen that you wish you could un-see?
2 girls, 1 cup. that will never leave me.

18. what's the most you've ever needed the toilet?
on the ormeau road once, stuck in traffic. i was eyeing up the park and the embankment to see if there was anywhere i could ditch the car and go behind a hedge or something.

19. what's the punchline of you're favourite joke?
the A team.

20. tell us something brilliant.
i had a lovely conversation with paulo nutini in work one day and hadn't a bloody clue who he was.

doodlicious

i was waiting for Nikki to come out of work today and started to draw for the first time in aaaaaaaaaages. i forgot how nice it is to just listen to music and let the pen wander across the page. thought i'd post some pics of sketches past... click the pic for a bigger version.

band logo

another band logo

3D graff

passion...

bubbles + flames...

durty... nasty...

doodle page

aquatic graff

...grrr...

i'm not goin to rant tooooo much about this, because i know everyone is talkin about it, and it's gonna get a little boring... but simon cowell is single handedly trying to destroy music. artists used to get rich and famous as a by-product of being talented, but not any more. genuinely talented performers such as daniel pearce, who won popstars: the rivals in 2002 along with cheryl cole and co, turned up with his rad mohawk and his humbleness and got sent home. yet the abomination that is john and edward (seriously, who is voting for them?) stumbles on. cowell talked about how much he hated them, then when had the chance to send them home, he bottled it. they're making him too much money, so he kept them in. RIP The Music.

chitchat

now THIS is the stuff :D smoooooooooooooooooooth... think i'm gonna ask the guy on the radio to play this... or maybe california love by 2pac, can't decide which...

but anyways, just thought i'd post a little summ'n-summ'n cos i haven't written anythin in a good while, after the rant about yer man in that last post i needed a while to calm down... hmmm...

so yea, fatherdom is approachin fast :S scary bikkies!! my dad and i are renovating a barn for Nikki and me to live in, i'll have to post some of the progress videos and let you see how swimmingly it's comin along :)

i was tryin to find an ultrasound pic on google of what sproglet looks like now, but all the babies are really freeky lookin... like this guy-

Nikki's pretty fed up and just wants it out of her at the minute, which is understandable really. but we're excited, gettin a tiny little person home to play with and look after :D one that we made!!

current tuneage: soundgarden - fresh tendrils

...wtf...

how can this straggly-haired, weirdly-gummed, cardigan wearin bastid get on TV and i can't?!



he looks like a horse for feck sake...

the haunting of dree hill

i recently played a gig in King's Bar in Finnis, just outside Dromara in County Down, and was intrigued by the local tales of a haunted tree stump opposite the bar.

shown here a few years ago, the story goes that in the early 1900s a troublesome spirit haunted the area around the Dree Hill Road bridge, which crosses the upper reaches of the Lagan. after many of his parishioners became fearful of the ghost, the village priest decided to perform an exorcism, details of which still exist in the church records

the priest managed to capture the spirit in a bottle and, wary of removing it from the place where it was bound, hid the bottle in a nearby sycamore tree.
the area became free from the hauntings, but the locals remained very apprehensive about the bridge and the tree's ghostly secret- when power lines were being brought through the village, the tree was to be removed as it stood in the way of progress. the workers however were instructed not to touch it, and the cables had to be run between the tree's upper branches.

the tree died years later of an apparent lightning strike, but still remained untouched for quite some time despite being no more than a hollow shell. in late july 2009 however, the tree was felled after taking substantial damage from a recent storm-

http://drewmcwilliams.blogspot.com/

a good many bottles were recovered during the process but all were removed, as most of them were believed to have been put there by local patrons leaving the pub a little worse for wear. one of them may have been the bottle containing the spirit however, and there is now a worry that the hauntings may return to the bridge.

in the torrential floods of mid-august 2009 the Dree Hill Road bridge, along with most of the rest of the country, was submerged underwater-

belfast westlink

in spite of the raging torrents taking their toll on the wall of the bridge and even pulling the tarmac off the road, the tree stump still remains...

was the spirit protecting the last remnants of it's resting place?

youtube killed the video star...

heehee i just got my request read out on Cool FM :D the DJ went nuts over the song! and rightly so my friends, rightly so...





ABSOLUTE CLASSIC. i saw them live in the waterfront... simply epic.

body mod update

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeell my delicious missus

has decreed that i'm not allowed any more tattoos until the sproglet is born. although i reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally want one like right now, it gives me time to plan the sleeve i'm workin on and get some designs drawn up.

i'd quite like somethin like this angel-

for down my tricep, and this card-

for the inside of my forearm... they'll need to be positioned around the stars that i already have winding from my shoulder to my wrist, but i reckon it's doable.

Nikki and i are both getting the playing card, as it has our son / daughter's initial and date of birth on it :)

I also got my ears up to a 4mm, yey! it was pretty tight though, i'm gonna have to leave this one in for about a month i think. i'm gonna go to 6mm and see what that looks like... or maybe 8... or 10...

current tunage: buckcherry - ridin

i'll see your entendre, and i'll double it...

yes, i am serious... and yes, i am an old man. i listen to Terry Wogan in the mornings. because he does stuff like this-

i thought i would have a go at my own little "janet and john" story... here we go-

Janet has lost John in the supermarket. See him frolic through the pharmacy section like a big grinning eejit. He‘s spotted Mrs Malone, John likes her. She‘s good with her hands.

“Hello Mrs Malone!” John squeals, “What are you working on today?!”

Mrs Malone looks a tad distressed. “I’m fitting a set of patio doors, John. One half is fine, but the other half just won’t hang properly and I keep slamming it shut. I tried altering it myself but all I could find was a very sharp axe and I ended up giving myself a rather nasty cut on the arm. I really need to get someone to have a look at it right away.”

Just then Miss Smith comes past and speaks up- “Not to worry Mrs Malone, I’m a nurse. I have some bandages in my bag that I can strap you up with. John, could you look after my groceries please?”

See John hunt through the tasty treats in Miss Smith’s grocery bag, scampering off and tucking in.

But oh no, he hasn’t noticed the spillage on the floor… John’s feet go from under him, and he lands with a thud in the rear aisle of the shop.

Janet comes around the corner and finally finds John, wearing most of Miss Smith‘s shopping. “What ever are you doing?!”

See the smile on John’s face.

“Mrs Malone was just telling me about banging her other half that isn’t very well hung, and her axe-wound seriously needed seeing to. Then Miss Smith sorted her out with a strap-on while I slipped up the back passage!”

See the perfectly finger-shaped welts rise on John’s cheek...

wage slave

i've got 20 minutes of my lunchbreak left and I'm in a bit of a "couldn't be assed" mood, so i can't really be assed doing anything... so i thought i'd write a few words to kill a bita time. RIP time, i knew him so well...

so yea, at the minute i'm readin (if i could be assed...) this-

recommended to me by a very good friend, he promised great things. for the first sizable chunk of the book however, it did not deliver. the scene-setting mechanisms and just the feel of the book in general was such that i couldn't engage with it at all, and had it not been held in such high regard by it's previous owner, i would definitely have shelved it. but i stuck, and i'm definitely glad i did.

first published in 1972, and written as an autobiography (which is isn't) it has aged amazingly well. the plot is simply about a man, (the author supposedly,) a bored phychiatrist, who lets the roll of the dice decide every decision in his life. and that's about it really... the novel records all the excitement and the boredom that stems from his adventures into "diceliving," with plenty of dark humour, shocks, twists and turns thrown in. definitely worth a look, it's on sale in HMV for a whole 3 quid.

ramble on

i was hokin through my old hard drive the other day and i came on some quality random old photos that i thought i would post, just for the craic :)

myself and robert plant from Led Zeppelin at stansted train station :) wow...

what a weapon! i want this...

hedgeasaurus rex

the napkins myself and maxwell were given on a freightliner ferry to haysham... were they tryin to tell us somethin?!

i was rubbing the wall with a damp sponge to strip the wallpaper, and when i stepped back this freeky face had appeared... can you see him?! :S

current tuneage: led zeppelin - kashmir

around the world in 80 daze

although far from professional, i do like taking a picture or 2 when i'm on my travels. i mostly just use my phone which, despite its 8mp camera, isn't really the highest quality, but it does for me and it's always close at hand. thought i'd stick up a few pics that i've captured over the past wee while.

a candle in a bathroom in queens

castle leslie - monaghan

an albino bluebell (whitebell?) in the field behind my house

the view from my house in the snow

newcastle from halfway up slieve donard

belfast city hall on st patrick's day

the sun setting over spa lake in ballynahinch

somewhere in dublin

somewhere else in dublin

my car, at my granny's house

current tunage: velvet revolver - slither

hotel suitehearts

Nikki and i had a little night away at Madison's hotel last night, so i am blogging to you now from within our executive room... rock and roll. the TV will be liberating itself via the window.
for £128 you get your evening meal, (which was top class, very prompt service and great food. and Nikki fancied the waiter,) your room for the night (with a super king-size bed but postage-stamp size TV) and a massive breakfast brought right to your bed the next morning by the pretty blonde room service. she didn't want to join Nikki under the covers though.

current tunage: john mayer - free fallin