Life Without Toast - Sibling Rivalry

Free-Range Estonian Christmas Decorations, originally uploaded by Matthew Verso.

Posted by Matt at 7PM | 4 comments

While driving through Dunlaoghaire the other day I spotted this in a shop I used to frequent. Home Bakers, Home Chefs...And Chancers. What the feck. Ok I know some people are chancers and make total balls ups of things and try to sell them on to the uneducated consumer, but really, do they want to actually advertise to chancers??

(*Please note: I was stopped at traffic lights when I took this photo with my phone, it was not a drive by shooting!)

Posted by Babs at 11AM | 2 comments

Yesterday was a wild day for me for many reasons.
It's been nine years since I met some of my very best friends completely randomly at a party and I am so so glad that I went there and that we all found each other because my life would not have as many laughs in it if it weren't for them.

Instead of sitting around the house today in my PJ's wishing that I wasn't feeling so shite, I walked to my friends house in the cold wind to retrieve my baba car from the New Years Ever festivities, almost got eaten by two savage beasts (her neighbours labradors are a tad on the barky attacky side) and then I was a farmer in Rebecca and Seans field for the rest of the afternoon which was actually really enjoyable, despite the smell of the cow poo and the hay bales, and the muck and the cold and the crazy cows buck leaping about, as Rebecca put it, my eyes were on stalks with the fear, but it was great and I feel good for doing it, imagine me, who owns practically a million pairs of high heels, messing about in the wellies with a pitch fork and not really giving a shit how mucky I got when Isobel asked "carry me Sah-Yah".

Happy 2009, lets hope its as good if not better than last year!

(*PS: Sorry about the crap phone camera quality photo but we were out in the fields so no choice for that really!)

Posted by Babs at 1PM | 3 comments

That's Too Good Not To Blog, ladiesngennlemen.

_{[Via /Film]}

Posted by Matt at 6PM | 0 comments

(click through to YouTube to watch in HD)

Posted by Matt at 10AM | 0 comments

I'm in the middle of uploading most of the photos I took (while myself and herself were honeymooning it up) in South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius, to Flickr. The first batch of 100-ish are on the way up now, and I'll be throwing another few hundred or so up in the next couple of days. Hope you like 'em (those of you who are arsed having a gander). The only editing I'm doing is removing duplicates, blurred exposures, and unrepairable over or under-exposures. All other photos are untouched by human hands since the moment of capture.

Oh and by the way, most of them are FUCKING AWESOME, if I may say so myself.

Posted by Matt at 11PM | 4 comments

I am a person who hates getting things wrong. I rarely will admit defeat. I hate my friends who take days to reply when I communicate by phone, text or email, because I am always on the ball in that way. I hate being on my own when indoors. I get bored of anything really easily. I have never studied in my whole life. I have a somewhat photographic memory. This scares the bejasus out of me as I can remember everything no matter how drunk I am. Sometimes, you really just don’t want to remember. I wear my heart on my sleeve. This is one of my most loathed characteristics. I love housework. I wash my car every two weeks wax and polish it. My friends think this is mental. My car is my most favourite possession I have ever owned. I over analyse most situations. I talk way too much. Sometimes I even talk to myself. I know this is supposed to be the first sign of madness but I don’t really care. I am a serious Home and Away fan, and yes I do realise how sad this makes me. I sing for about an hour every single day. It is one of my dreams to be able to sing soprano but I know it will never happen cause my voice is too feckin husky. Apparently this is a good thing. Most of my best friends have never met each other because I have picked them up in random places. I generally tend to not trust people on first meeting them. This is because I used to trust way too much and got fucked over too many times by “friends”. I don’t actually know how many pairs of shoes I own…but I would say well over a hundred. I have worn every single pair of them at least twice though. I have things in my wardrobe that I have never worn but couldn’t leave them on the rail because I knew I would need them one day. I miss wearing shorts all the time since I came home from Australia. No matter how many times I have been told I am beautiful I will never believe it. If I could change one thing about myself if would be my shitty skin. Even though I wear size 10 skinny jeans I will always think of myself as a porker after I went through a fat phase just after I did my Leaving Cert. I haven’t really grown in any proportion since I was 11, that’s height, shoe, dress and bra size. This is bewildering to a lot of people. When I was in Australia I nearly drowned and it scared me so much that I haven’t been into the sea since, I only told one person that until now. I think I may be mildly obsessed with books written by recovering addicts. I really want to go back to college but I am too scared of being poor again. I am scared of dogs even though I have never been bitten. I am scared of the dark because anything could be out there. Sometimes I don’t sleep for days, I just lie there thinking about things. I miss people when I don’t see them for mere hours sometimes. I have lots of pretty dresses but mostly you will see me in jeans and t-shirts. I used to be able to sit on my hair until about 2 years ago. I have been known to vomit from shock or from becoming hysterically upset. It takes a lot to get me to that place. Most of my friends are boys. I find it easier to get along with them. I wish I could be arsed to get fit. I always wanted a baby brother or sister and was always jealous of my own siblings because they had one in me. Even though my Dad was away a lot when I was little I never remember him not being there. One of my earliest memories is staring into my cousins eyes and blinking at them for what seemed like hours. It was probably about 20 seconds. I have always wanted to learn to play an instrument but never did. The habit I hate most about myself is that I chew at my fingers when I am nervous or anxious or upset or bored. I have done this ever since I was about 8. I used to have lots of facial piercings and now I have none apart from pearl earrings. I can’t remember any of them being particularly painful. Once when I was about 7 I put one of Rebecca’s contact lenses in my eye and couldn’t get it out for about an hour – panic stations! I fall for people way too easily. The most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my whole life was a lightening storm beside me while on a plane to Perth. Most people on the plane were freaking out. I was just amazed as was the boy sitting beside me.

Posted by Babs at 12PM | 0 comments

Perfect CMY*, originally uploaded by Matthew Verso.

Funny thing is, this CMY was created by the shadows of an RGB. If you
have any idea what I'm talking about, you're either some kind of
physicist or, like me, you're a lighting professional.

When we saw this (while focussing the lights for a show), all three of
us said "that's the coolest thing I've ever seen". Granted, we're all
lighting nerds, and it was 11pm and we'd been working for 13 hours.

(*actually more of a YCM)

Posted by Matt at 11PM | 0 comments

Have you ever become so engrossed in a book that you HAD to read it, not just because it was there, but because it pulled you in, made you understand a side of something that you had no experience of before...and then when it is finished you cry, because it was so sad, because what you thought would be a happy ending turns out to be not as happy as you had hoped it would be, and more so, because you wished beyond all wishes, that it was not finished.
When I first saw the book A Million Little Pieces in the hands of a girl who I met in Australia, I was drawn in by the pretty cover, by the colours, by sparkley bits, by everything, at the time I was nearing the end of my trip and also reading a really shite book which I had been given on a Greyhound bus by someone who said I looked bored, maybe that was why I wanted this big colourful sparkley book, I wanted it, she was going on and on about how great it was and I was looking at my shite book willing it to turn into something else, something new....the book that was in Zoe's hands.
It was $40AU I didn't have this to spare on a book...(I did however have this to spare for clothes etc but shhh, we all know about my addictions!!).

Continue reading "James Frey:" »

Posted by Babs at 12PM | 8 comments

Friday morning wake up freezing. Drive to my mates house in the ice. Wake him up to drop me to the airport. Walk ten miles to Ryanair "terminal" which is really a portacabin. Listen to iPod for the ten seconds I am allowed to on the plane on the 40 minute journey. Find Laura. Go to her new house. Student city. Go to town. Cold. Cold. Cold. Shopping. 3 skirts in 30 minutes...oops! Christmas markets for mulled wine. Mmm. Tiger lounge for more wine. Fairly locked. Smuggle half a bottle of wine we can't drink up my sleeve somehow to drink on Saturday. Buy chips. Bus home. Sleepytime. Wake up. Go to town. Go to Pret a Manger for sambo and crisps. This will become a habit on the weekend. Go to Primark. Walk straight back out as its crazytown in there. Go to Wetherspoons scummy bar for a pint and to get out of the cold. Home. Ready to go out. Go to town. Into the Gay Village for a dance and to be offered lots and lots of drugs. Am told by a random that I am the only person who they "know" who doesn't do drugs". I don't know if this is a compliment or not. "Want some ket?" I am asked a lot. Get out of there. Am told I look like a sweet by a tranny. Hmm. Go to Northern Soul night. Dance a lot. Drink some vodka and lemonade. I don't normally drink vodka. No ill effects. It's all good. Dance some more. Music stops. Go to get a cab. Brrr. Chilly. Below zero. Get cash out for taxi. Feel very generous towards Steve the homeless lad, so I give him a tenner. He probably spent it on drugs. But I hope he spent it on a bed for the night and didn't freeze to death. Frozen fog. Can't find the new house. Find it. Cheese on toast. Bed. Up. Pret a manger for a new sambo combo and some tea. Christmas Markets again. We can move about there today. Some crazy tried to trip me up. Buy some jazz. Go to a giant Igloo for warm cocktails. Go to Somerfields. Buy food for dinner. Home. Listen to the TV because the picture doesn't work. Sleepytime bed calls me at about 11. Wake up. Boil myself in the shower. Into town. Shopping again...Oops. At least this time I buy some warm clothes...actual warm clothes. Like jumpers etc. I am amazing myself at this stage. Bus home. Make Nachos for dinner. Listen to more TV. Pack my shit. Run on the ice to get the bus. Airport is deserted. Bizarre. Flight delayed. Lots of crying babies. Land in Dublin with a less bouncy thud than the landing in Manchester. My mate collects me. Back to his house to defrost Heartbeat. Jump in. Reverse badly out his driveway. Drive home shitting myself the whole way that I am going to die on ice roads. I don't. Marmite on toast. Mmm. Bedski.
Total Spend: £224. Rawkit.

Posted by Babs at 10PM | 3 comments

I haven’t done one of these in ages, so here we are:

I’m 72% un-dangerous, or 28% dangerous. Would you feel safe in the car with me?

How dangerous are you?

Posted by Matt at 9PM | 4 comments

For those of you who weren't there, or didn't get sent the link to the whole (private) album, and who want to have a quick look, Claire has put up a few of the photos from our wedding last month. They're absolutely stunning, and the wedding was so UNBELIEVABLY AWESOME that she's had to split the photos over two blog posts, the first time (I think) that she's ever done that with wedding photos.

So the first part (preparations and blessing ceremony) is today, and tune into Claire's blog tomorrow for more photos, of the reception with the drinks and the food and the dancing and the band and the Natural Confectionery Company jellies. And like, me and Nikki and ninety-odd guests, of course.

Posted by Matt at 1PM | 0 comments