fun

I’m curious what you guys think about this. Back in December, when we went to Rome, I was held back by Airport security at Aldergrove. I was a bit surprised - this had never happened before - but I went with the flow.

The security guy took my backpack and opened it up, taking out my digital camera, the two iPod shuffles we’d brought, mobile phones, an assortment of batteries for the camera, spare XD cards and some guidebooks about Rome. Oh, and Joe Cahill’s biography, which I was reading at the time for a review here. Once the bag was emptied, it was also swabbed inside for testing.

Between myself, Mrs L, Sister In-Law and her boyfriend, there’s been much heated debate about whether the Cahill biography was the catalyst for this. I am not so cynical, I thought it might have been the amount of electronic equipment I was carrying. I mean, how much can they see in those airport scanners anyway?

What do you think, is Levee now on a suspected terrorists list somewhere? Was Joe Cahill to blame for the whole thing? Who knows?

Thursday, March 9th, 2006 // Observations

Have you voted in the “Favourite Northern Irish Place” poll yet?

We’ve had a whopping 92 votes in the last week, but I Want More!!! Email your friends. Pester colleagues at work. Call your mother and make her vote!!

I’m going to let the poll run until close of play on Friday and we’ll post the results then. So far, mid-Ulster/Sperrins is poorly represented in the poll. Will they catch up? Who knows….

Calling All Bloggers

Thanks to those of you who’ve bothered to link back to the poll - you will be honored in the evening of the results, a star-studded celebration of everything Northern Irish!!

If you’ve got a blog/website, please, please, please help us promote the poll! This poll has had the advantage of generating lots of positive comments about Northern Ireland, and it’s been great. See Paul’s post about the Castlereagh Hills, for example.

One more thing. I won’t be counting the smart-arse comments like Spain and bed!!!

Calling….The Media?

I dropped a few emails this evening to places like the Belfast Telegraph and the good old Stephen Nolan show to see if we could get a mention. I’d be interested to see if anything happens!

If anybody out there has media contacts, point them this way and we’ll see what sort of debate this will open up!

Monday, March 6th, 2006 // General

Via Notnem, I came across the Creative Ireland website and this forum thread, featuring Photoshopped ‘alternate endings’ for Saturday’s rioting in Dublin.

There’s some really inventive versions including a War Of The Worlds invasion, Gardai holding back rioters and Oliphaunts from Lord Of The Rings and this wartime shot with Zeppelin hovering overhead….

I’m glad some folk can see the funny side of this. I was in stitches!

Update: This thread has hit the big time. It’s been covered by The Star and there’s three more pages of photo’s since I last visited. Some great Star Wars piss-takes, Independence Day and near the end a pic of the Orange marchers in big green hats and carrying bags from Roches Stores! Congratulations to all the talented buggers who contributed to that thread!

Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 // News & Media, Northern Ireland: Politics

Let’s have a bit of light debate (for a change) about your favourite places in Northern Ireland. We’re asking the question in the poll in the sidebar.

I’ve popped a few options in there for you: Belfast, Ballycastle (my home town), and Lisburn (Belfast-lite?) - you can add any other places or vote for whatever’s already there. At the end of the week, we’ll see what the most popular location is. Hopefully…

I’d like this poll to be a big one, so those of you with blogs out there…you know what to do

Friday, February 24th, 2006 // General

Here’s a conversation I didn’t think I’d be having with my four-year-old daughter. At least not within the next two decades.

We were sitting in the kitchen this evening and Ray sauntered down from her room with a box of toy jewellry. “Mum, can you help me put on my necklaces?” she enquires in sugary tones. “No problem, pet,” comes the reply and soon both are busily covering the girl in plastic jewellry from top to toe.

After they’re finished, Ray swans around the kitchen playing the princess. We all tell her how pretty she looks and then she breaks the big news. She’s getting married! To a boy in her nursery class. The whole thing’s arranged it seems and nothing can stop the “big day”:

Me: “Ray, after you get married, you’ll be Brian’s wife. You’ll have to move into his house and live with him and his family….”

I trail off, waiting for the inevitable cries of protest. The smile on Ray’s face freezes for the briefest moment. Then she turns away and reaches for her plastic hairbrush.

“Alright, but only after I brush my hair….”

Saturday, February 18th, 2006 // Family Life

While looking through a couple of literary sites I came across an amazing site which?I am ashamed to say I had never heard of before. Given that the site boasts over 300 new members each day and that its title has been added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary as a new word I would have thought I would have happened upon it by now.

Many of you are probably already aware of the BookCrossing site, but for those who aren’t here’s what it’s all about.

Basically?next time?you read a good book that you want to pass on, register it with the bookcrossing site. You will be provided a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), which along with the website address you use to label the book. You also have an opportunity to write a journal entry on the book. Once this is done, release the book!

Releasing?a book can be done in many ways. You can give it to a friend and direct them to the website, give it to charity, or simply leave it on a park bench or cafe table.

You will subsequently be notified by email each time someone comes?to the BookCrossing site?and records journal entries for that book. Or to make?the book?easier for fellow BookCrossers to find you can create a release note stating where the book was released allowing others to Go Hunting for it.

When I found this site, I was sure it was an American thing. This sort of thing can’t go on in Northern Ireland right? Wrong! Imagine my surprise to find out that Northern Ireland BookCrossers have released 34 books into the wild in the last 30 days.

So tomorrow I am on my way to Queens University Quadrangle and Film Theatre,?I will then be touring the telephones boxes of both Bradbury Place and The Dublin Road and see what treasures I can find. If anyone beats me to it I’d love to hear what you found!

Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 // Book Reviews

What better way to declare your undying love than through the rasping, mechanical voice of Darth Vader? Perhaps a garbled message from Yoda, you would like? Something Awful has a selection of Star Wars Valantines images - possibly the cheesiest way to say I Love You ever!

My favourite is the one with C3PO being told “What I really need is a droid that understands the binary language…..of love!”

Health Warning: Present one of these to your girlfriend, boyfriend or Wookie and expect to be slapped. Well, they don’t exactly spell romance, do they?

Monday, February 13th, 2006 // Observations

Want to buy an Eric Crapton album? Or maybe you’re trying to track down that rare Japanese Sinatra track, Fry Me To The Moon?

I came across the excellent Engrish.com this evening, a website devoted to

the humorous English mistakes that appear in Japanese advertising and product design

Engrish.com has a massive picture archive of Japanese language bloopers, ranging from the thank you for much habitual drinking to the slightly more rude material (which is actually more funny)! Definitely worth a look!

Sunday, February 12th, 2006 // General

You’ve got to take a look at this!

Back on Sunday evening when I was - ahem - searching for the Girls Aloud website, I came across the most fantastic website in the universe - Stardoll, formerly known as Paperdoll Heaven.

Remember those old magazines where you cut out the figure and then folded the clothes over to dress them? Well, the 2006 equivalent of that. You can take any celebrity you like Britney Spears, Shakira, the female cast of Friends, just about any celebrity you can think of!

So, yeah, that killed off a few hours on Sunday evening. How often do you get to put Angelina Jolie in a wedding dress? Well, voluntarily, without resorting to kidnapping or bribery. Actually, the whole thing’s pretty addictive. Now I know what happened to Avid Merrion.

A word of warning: avoid the Sharon Osbourne doll at all costs!

Tuesday, January 17th, 2006 // Fun Stuff