Srsly peeple - how dificult is it to run ur text thru a speel chk before uploadign it to ur site?

After uploading to mine I find odd words out of place - but - like - who reads here anyway? It never fails to annoy the happiness out of me when I see an online sales-room with bad spelling or the content not having been proof-read.

It isn't the fact that they can't spell - that I can understand - not everyone can spell - but ffs - every single piece of uploaded content has to go through a computer and every single computer has a spell check onboard somewhere.

Here is what got me ranting this evening (from a company which is advertised in 4 or 5 of the magazines I either subscribe to or buy off the shelves:

Prices…
If you are an Imaging Proffesional such as a professional photographer, digita; artist or graphic designer, please drop us an email with details of your business and we will respond with a trade price list applicable to you.

They are obviously working on the theory that if you are uncertain as to how to spell something - throw as many versions at the same sentence as you can!

I haven't emailed them yet and after seeing exactly the same blurb in two other places on the site it is doubtful I will.

Perhaps I am cutting of my no's to spite my fase?

Tags: Rants, Spell Checks

I have FINALLY succumbed to Delicious Library.

Never one to make lists that need to be maintained regularly and not particularly proud of my meagre selection of dvds I steered clear of this software for a long time, telling myself that when I had iSight (and some new dvds) I would think about it again. The iSight arrived with the iMac a while back now and today I started on the list.

As it turned out - despite sitting for minutes at a time, filling my arm muscles with lactic acid, holding the dvd in front of the web cam, the iSight failed to pick up ANY of the barcodes and I started to add them via the Text mode. It took no time at all to add the initial 72 dvds and I wish I had bitten the bullet earlier!

I can add more at a later stage when they make their way down from the children's rooms.

The facility to add these now to my iPod is really what I what I am going to make use of. I was in HMV today and about to buy a dvd that, upon returning to the house, I found I already owned! I want the security of knowing I DON'T own a particular title so I can pick up bargains when I want to!

See any here you recognise?

I may do the books next. . . maybe. . . for some reason I find it easier to keep track of the books I have read, in my head, so may not need this option so much.

Big thumbs up for ease of setting up.

Tags: Delicious Library, Software, iSight, iMac

How'd it go for you? Was it all you wanted with family and friends all round you (including the ones you can't get rid of no matter how hard you try?) or playing with new gifts or eating too much or sleeping in front of the telly? Or all of the above?

Yea, me too.

It would be too boring for words if I were to launch in to a blow by blow account of what all happened. Suffice to say we had too much food prepared on Christmas Day despite me not cooking the FOURTH type of stuffing that was provided and us still having enough left-overs in the fridge to feed a small country for a week.

I always feel cheated at Christmas after all the tv advertising of wonderful programs which are going to be shown but which I never seem to get to see due to the timing of them all. Christmas films may as well not be aired, as far as I am concerned, until well in to January as there are too many people visiting or people to visit for me to see them . . . Some day Santa will bring Sky Plus.

I have been able to stay up really late at night to catch Band of Brothers which I had never seen before and which I am loving.

The big news of the holidays was the surprise last minute purchase of two Guinea Pigs as presents for the children. I think my words to Iain before he went off in search of *beasties* were "Get a hamster or something but not rats and not guinea pigs cos I hate them.* He came back with two male (brothers) guinea pigs and within 3 minutes of holding them, I have to say they are good fun. They certainly have kept Jessica's attention for a long while but Bailey has been so thrown off by them he stands to attention at their cage with his nose flat to the wire watching every single breath they take. Poor wee man.

We went to a couple of pet shops yesterday and picked up a larger cage for them and a few accessories like pockets for them to cuddle up in on your lap. Jessica's one (Chocolate) loves to climb up on to my shoulder and snuggle under my hair. David's one (Fudge) is much more forward than his brother and is always the first to go investigating when something new happens. He was much easier to pick up at the beginning and likes to lick and gently nibble your fingers to see what you taste like.

Yes, I hear myself. I never ever thought I would ever be interested enough in guinea pigs to be able to wax lyrical about them. Remind me to tell you the story about the ones I had when I was David's age. . . . They ARE cute though.

I have two frustrating pieces of news too.

I cant find my mobile phone. Haven't seen it for days - of course I didn't need it for a long time as I was at home doing family things but now I know it is missing it is annoying me. It WILL be here somewhere - it wont be totally lost but I kinda need it sometime!

The other one is the state of the internet in the house. It started playing up two weeks ago when the BT router refused to go online at all. We went on to our second router from work and it seemed a little better. A call to the broadband supplier indicated that it could be because the router was next to the Christmas Tree lights so we moved things around but finally ended up following their advice of taking the face plate off the primary BT socket and using the test socket. Internally that socket seemed quite corroded so Iain cleaned it up as best he could and put it back together. That fixed the internet but wouldn't allow the phones to work . . . . and on and on it went. We were like this for a good two weeks until it finally came to a head this morning and I logged a complaint online and then phoned it through for good measure.

The BT guy on the phone refused to send anyone out without me jumping through a few hoops which I promised we would do later.

At 14.50 the door bell rang and there was a BT repair guy standing there. Blink. Blink. Blink. By 15.10 he was gone and the problem was solved by replacing the corroded socket and the downstairs socket. He gave us a digital face plate this time which means we no longer need to use the dsl filters on any of the phones in the house.

I think it is all fixed now. Keep your fingers crossed.

That's about all for now I think. I am going back to now to sit with Jessica and play with the guinea pigs for another wee while.

See you when this bloated feeling has passed a little.

Tags: Christmas

I am soooo not meant to send any Christmas cards this year. Usually I DO get round to it sooner or later but this year there is a conspiracy working against me.

I ordered some lovely cards from moo.com and they duly arrived in plenty of time. YAY.

Running late the other night I took the box with me to the dinner meaning to write them for a couple of people there before arriving at the restaurant. I didn't get time to write them and they lay unwritten but not forgotten. (That is a great name for a memoirs blog innit? Unwritten But Not Forgotten . . . )

After the dinner I managed to write a card for Geraldine but yesterday got a text from her to say that I had left the rest of the box at her house. There is no way to get that from her in time so last night I went shopping and bought loads more to bring in to work with me today to write and send.

Yup. You've guessed it. They are still sitting on the kitchen table.

Sigh.

Tags: Christmas

This past few days has been a whirlwind of activity for me with much juggling of balls in order to be in three places at once.

SUNDAY

It all started on Sunday with the long awaited and much anticipated trip to you know where . . . IKEA!!! YAY it is open and operating in Belfast now and I wanted to get down there before the newness wore off on it all.

I dragged Iain and the children along and we had great fun trying to get in to the place! There were 5000 traffic marshals for every customer and they all seemed to want to marshal us (with their PSNI style red-batoned-maglights) to the EXIT! We went round the car park system a number of times before realising they hadn't asked us where we wanted to go. Iain grumped about this but as far as I was concerned, I was so happy to be there nothing was going to spoil the day. Not even the girl who flailed her arm up and down to show us the route she wanted us to take - not realising she needed to keep both feet in the same position for it to mean anything to us - at one point she would have had us doing a 360 degree spin but hey - she had a hi-vis jacket on and a torch so she didn't care!

Once inside we listened to the children saying "Canwegototheballpit Canwegototheballpit Canwegototheballpit Canwegototheballpit Canwegototheballpit?" about a billion times but we soldiered on around the building which. is. huge.

It is, in fact, the largest Ikea in the UK so nah nah nah nah nah.

At one point we were going against the flow and we felt a little like salmon trying to get upstream.

We spent a couple of leisurely hours there, treating the kids to food at one point and only leaving the building when they threatened to throw us out. Due to *opening specials* we fed a family of four for £9.80. It is a loooooooong time since we did that! Between us we had 5632 meatballs, the fish dish and a couple of *absolutely delicious* chocolate muffins which were a sensible size. Have you ever noticed how big they make chocolate muffins? Far too large for our kids to eat on their own but we could never persuade them to split one between them. . . In Ikea they have sensible sized chocolate muffins. And free refills of juice which we made use off too.

We only bought a couple of items and found ourselves in the queuing system where all the other queues were going faster than ours and we watched four people whizz past us in the checkout beside us before we had the wit to move queues. Even that failed to spoil my adventure. I laughed the whole way back to the car as Iain grumped some more.

Thumbs up for the new Ikea. The restaurant (which is now called "The Really Large Restaurant With The Wonderful View Of The Airport" in our house) failed to offer any wonderful views of the airport as night had fallen and it was extremely dark when we were eating. Nonetheless, this means we can entice the kids back with the PROMISE of wonderful views of the airport another time. . . . As every house in Northern Ireland has, or is due to, receive a copy of the Ikea catalogue I am happy to say I will be able to shop to my heart's content there from now on.

YAY.

MONDAY

The next adventure I had was a meal out with all my new best friends - a camera club I have recently been invited to join, just in time to attend the first meeting - the Christmas Dinner Perfect timing as always! (When I say *Camera Club* that is to simplify matters for myself. It is in fact NOT a camera club. It is a collective. Or a group of like-minded individuals and this shall be the last time you will see me referring to it as a Camera Club as I know Gordon has a habit of reading here now and then. . . . sorry. . .. wont happen again. . . )

We had mighty craic. I met a couple of new people and sat beside my mate Gordon and caught up on what he has been up to as well as watching everyone playing like eejits with their cameras. Amidst all that flashing I managed to drink quite a lot of wine and was happily tipsy at the end of the night.

TUESDAY

Today was spent in the company of Geraldine, one of the members of the above mentioned collective. We spent a while photographing the Belfast Docks area just for fun. For no reason other than to put in some time playing with settings and looking for photo opportunities. This is something I have sorely missed for a long time now - having always enjoyed doing it with an accomplice. It isn't something I fancy doing on my own. You would think I should have been hard at work finishing off various projects in work - but - I had a day off - sue me.

Geraldine is far more brazen than I am - she walked in to places that I wouldn't have gone and asked men (many men at that) if she could take their photo. I complained that I only ever get told to leave places and couldn't understand how she was getting away with it. We moved from one area to another and the first thing that happened was I was approached by a security guard and asked to see what I was doing. .. . . bloody hell.

By the time the cold got too much for us we decided to head in to Belfast and have lunch in The John Hewitt - never been there before - the food was delicious but they serve Pepsi :O

We trudged in to Belfast Exposed to add to our collection of exhibitions-under-our-belts and then took far too many photos of the City Hall and The Big Wheel.

What a wonderful invention the Big Wheel was. I have never seen so many people taking photos in Belfast as I did today. The Wheel has "single-handedly" opened up street photography to the masses in Belfast. There were LOADS of people with compacts and camera-phones and slrs standing around taking shots of the Wheel. There must be millions of them winging their way around the world now. . . And the feckers kept getting in my way. Didn't they know who I was?

We spent a wee while in the Christmas Markets before it was time to head home for the day. I overheard someone say today was the last day of the Market so when we picked up Jessica from the child minder's, Iain and I took her down to the Belfast again. David was at a concert singing and wasn't to be picked up until 9.30pm.

We walked round the Market and I am so happy to say that Jessica WANTED a camera in her hand, she saw some great shots and got annoyed when the camera didn't do what she wanted it to (it doesn't like night shots). I think I may have a photographer in the making there. . . .

This was a very long day for everyone. But I think it was enjoyable for us all. Jessica enjoyed the time with us on our own and loved having the compact camera all to herself. David enjoyed the day and night of singing with 5000 other children. (NO! THAT one wasn't an exaggeration! There WERE 5000 of them!) Iain? Hummmmm - He got to go to work all day - YAY!

I had one of the best days I have had for a long time. Nothing to do only take photographs, no agenda, no pressure to be anywhere, no project to have to shoot for, no clients to shoot . . . etc etc etc. It was super. And the company wasn't bad either.

And then there is Christmas in a week. yay

Tags: Christmas

Nanna and I attended the school concert this morning. It was called The Grumpy Sheep. We waited in our primary-school size chairs for the children to file on to the stage, expectantly watching for Jessica (David wasn't involved).

She marched in with everyone else and stood to attention looking straight ahead. Then. Just out of the corner of her eye. . . just ever so slightly . . . you could just make out that she was sliding her eyes around ever-so-slowly to scan the audience for us. Finally she noticed the two eejits waving frantically and managed to give a half hearted watery smile that really said "I am SO not with you two."

The concert was good in a "P1 to P4" way. Even better when the minister (he is on the Board of Governors) managed to keep the prayers down to 2 but he did do a list of Thank Yous, the length of which would have made you fall asleep.

Nanna and I were commenting on how non-plussed Jessica can be. She is very self-contained. That is what everyone says about her. She is happy in her own company. When I was brushing her hair this morning I told her I would see her in a few minutes at school. She had completely forgotten we would be there and had no need to make sure we had remembered. David, on the other hand, would have been checking every few minutes and would have stuck our tickets to the front door so we wouldn't forget them.

Jessica's laid-back approach to life is in complete contrast to the (very same) young lady who can scream blue murder if things she cares about go wrong. This would be the likes of me reaching her the wrong coloured plastic cup from the cupboard. Brushing her hair with the wrong brush. Using the wrong shampoo. Calling out her spellings in the wrong order. Not sharpening her favourite pencil quickly enough. Not waiting long enough for her to put her seat belt on (I draw the line at 15 minutes!). Actually the seat belt one is the most frequent one. And handing her clothes to put on in the WRONG. ORDER.

BAA BAA GRUMPY SHEEP!

In other news. . . It is Ikea day today. YAY. (I have taken the countdown off now as it is HERE.) Seemingly it arrived with typical Northern Ireland fever. Not much road chaos and not many in the queue. Long may it continue Most of the blogs I have read about it are scathing of the popularity of the chain. We'll see. . . .

Today I sit in front of you confident in the knowledge that I have not bought one Christmas present nor sent one card. Or bought the cards to send. Same ol' same ol' I'm going to be a busy girl next week huh?

It hasn't been a great day.

BAA BAA GRUMPY SHEEP.

Tags: Christmas, School, Concert, Jessica

On Saturday I bought a book. Nothing funny in that. Other than the fact that I haven't bought a book for myself to read for quite some time. Photography books yes but not novels.

I looked at the cover, knew immediately that I would buy it no matter how dear it was and also knew with a certainty that I would read it in one day. And that day was going to be Sunday.

I read it in the car (as a passenger!), in the car park, in the village while waiting for Iain to buy the chips and later did not rise from my bath until the last page was turned.

The book was For One More Day by Mitch Albom. I am surprised I haven't already blogged the other two books I have read by him: "Tuesdays With Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet In Heaven." Both these books left a huge impression on me for a long time after finishing them. Both these books had me weeping buckets.

This time I cant say I cried much. I did have a huge lump in my throat a lot of the time though.

I love Mitch Albom's style of writing. It takes no effort to stay with him as he takes you through the story, effortlessly moving from the present to the past and back again to show you the whole story, only unrolling the bit that you need to know as he teases out the plot. He has a clever way of making you think about things - the chapter titles made me think a lot. "Times mother stood up for me," Times I stood up for her," "Times I didn't stand up for her" etc. He has a marvellous way of putting in one more ounce of detail to a description which makes you identify with the memory in a way that it almost becomes YOUR memory.

In theory this was a ghost story. You know the main character is unconscious and dreaming of a "ghost" but it is an enchanting, emotional story with potentially a deep message. I suppose it would be a tear-jerker for many readers but it revolves around the relationship between mother and son and that was a little lost on me.

There was a twist in the last page that had me re-reading the first few paragraphs again. It was something I hadn't picked up on - colouring the way I read the narrative the whole way through the book but upon reading it a second time I realised I wasn't meant to pick up on it. It did tie up something I hadn't even realised needed tied up!

Should you? : A combination of Albom's style and the thickness of the book mean it wouldn't be a chore to read this - so why not? However, if you have recently lost your mother or close female relation (or suspect you are about to) I would think twice about it just for now though.

Did I? : Yes. I love this author. Normally when I fall in love with an author I read too many of their books too quickly after each other and fall out of love just a swiftly. Look at Terry Pratchett and Joanne Harris to name just two.. . . never mind Kathy Reichs and the likes. Thankfully Albom hasn't been prolific enough for this to happen with him.

It was nice to read a book again. I haven't read anything for such a long time I was almost out of practice!

Tags: Books, Reading

OMG!!!!

HOW CUTE ARE THESE ???

Tags: Threadless

I haven't done a Jamoke for a while. Here is one which made my blood boil on the way to work this morning. I suppose I wasn't in the best of moods in the first place but . . . .!

People who get lost on country roads, over-shoot their turning only to flash an on-coming van to ask directions for 3 minutes while traffic builds up in both directions then drive a farther 20 metres to the next hole-in-the-hedge to do a 45 point turn (despite there being a better opportunity to do so within sight) ONE HANDED BECAUSE THEY CONTINUE TO HOLD THEIR PRECIOUS CIGARETTE IN THE OTHER HAND for fear of missing those last few drags are fecking JAMOKES.

Tags: Jamokes, Drivers