Supermarket Sweep

The Wife did a normal shop yesterday and I followed up in the evening with Ye Olde Trippe to Tesco for Christmas stuff. They had run out of Aunt Bessie's Potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. I got a present for my brother, a turkey, a bottle of whisky, some mince pies, sprouts. I was served by a rude elf, she was busy telling her colleague that his shelf stacking was SH*T, before helping me find pigs in blankets/sausage/bacon. Everywhere is icy. Got home and helped finish up the wrapping for the boys. Last day at work today. Hurrah for Christmas!

Man down! Man down!

Braving the icy tundra of west London at the weekend I managed to lose my footing while traversing the icy plains/pavement. I was carrying a small child and successfully kept him off the floor while I flailed and fell and ripped a hug hole in my jeans and bloodied my knee. Arriving home five minutes later I fell again when I flew into the garden, angered at the dog's barking and slipped right over on the luge run /garden path.

People, take care out there.

The Sun Handheld...Now that's a great advert

This is an excellent advert. Like the paper or not, this is spot on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVMnmTFxAjA

Fudge, let's not eat it...just look at it!

Fudge, let's not eat it...just look at it!
Originally uploaded by abraham_love

Wow. I'm really pleased with this one. Last night I set about taking a photo of some white chocolate and cranberry fudge that our friend made for The Wife's birthday. Being that I don't have any volunteers for portraits. I thought the fudge would have to do. There's a fair bit of post processing going on here, mostly to get the colour balance right. I was also pleased with the presentation. Yes - they are piled up like bricks, but tasty looking bricks. With ribbon on! Looks like someting from Waitrose.

The Jetsonics - Burn! Burn! Burn!

Here's my band The Jetsonics in our new video for the song 'Burn! Burn! Burn!'. Filmed on Monday. Edited on Tuesday. Uploaded on Wednesday. Leave a comment here or there if you like it. Join the Facebook group. Be our friend on MySpace. Hey, we are even on Twitter. Twitter! Bejeezus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-vkjxYvI4k

You want a Tree? I got your tree.

'Cause I bought it from the place near our house on Saturday morning. The wife, the boys, the dog and I all tramped over the big muddy car park, avoiding the rugby traffic and picked up our over priced non-drop tree from the same place we did last year. It's about five and a half feet tall. Here's the thing. We put it in a different place from last year. It's no longer squidged by the settee, it's displayed in some kind of seasonal glory in the corner of the other room. Looks great. You should get one too. I'm sure you will. You're just putting it off.

I also ordered some glasses today. After an initial slow start I received lots of attention from Charles at specmakers.net. I should know on Thursday if they are any good or not. If it works out, I will be saving myself in the region of £150. Goal!

Stupid Dog

The lady said 'he's not being naughty. he just forgot what he is meant to do'

Sometimes I call him and he sits in the garden
Looking at me
Like *I* am the stupid one
Then I realise I *am* the stupid one
'Cause it's cold and wet
And I'm running round the muddy garden in my socks
Chasing a dog.

The Jetsonics

That's right. You heard it here second. The Jetsonics is my new band. We're building our internet presence as I type. Mostly at the moment we are at http://myspace.com/thejetsonics

We are also on Facebook. Search 'Jetsonics'. An official site is coming soon. You can also follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/theJetsonics

Check it!

Playmobil Advent Calendar

It looks very cool. It's a Playmobil Advent calendar with Father Christmas feeding some animals. But you open the box and there's just bags of Playmobil in there and no boxes or divisions. So you open number 1 and it's just a big empty space. Odd. You are expected to make the thing yourself, but so far I can't find any instructions. Pfth.
It's cold today. Frosty windscreens. I set the heating to turn on at 6am instead of 6.20. For the best.

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80s party success

The party was excellent. Turns out our kitchen is perfectly proportioned to contain 30 fancy dressed party people. We had Adam Ant, John McEnroe, Madonna, Indiana Jones, Don Johnson and a host of other fluorescent 80s characters. We ate flying saucers and drank punch. We danced to Huey Lewis. We went to bed at 3.

Eye eye.

Eye eye.
Originally uploaded by abraham_love

My wife hates this photo and I can see why. After all it's a little opthalmic. It reminds me of Minority Report, and the scene where Tom Cruise is with Peter Stormare. Ewww. Every film should have Peter Stormare in it. At least every film that needs a European accent should have him in it. Also Phil Hoffman...he should be in every film that Peter is not in.

I impressed myself by getting the eye so sharp. I also like the high key black and white look. Yeah for me!

It's a secret

Saw a David Essex poster.

Four foot tall.

Stuck on a lamp post.

Grandly announcing his 'Secret tour'.

But he'd rather not talk about it.

Godzilla and possible Godzuki Could Crush it!

Ben showed me this awesome model of Shanghai. It's 100m2! How cool is this.

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/08/05/gargantuan-scale-model-of-shanghai-in-2020/

Mind you they did build a scale model of the Death Star for the X-fighter attack sequence...and that was in 1977.

Maybe this Shanghai model is for Star Wars 7 'Jedis Over China'.

Talking 'bout the 80s coming back

Looking forward to our party at the weekend. Seems like most people will be dressed up. Should be good. Bought *alot* of sweets and crisps and booze and drinks yesterday. I have a mountain of flying saucers and other suitably old-fashioned sweets. Monster Munch. Wotsits.

Sh...did you see that?

Sh...did you see that?
Originally uploaded by abraham_love

Here is the spookiest of the Halloween photos I took. Like a few of the others it was a mistake that worked in my favour. I posted it to a Halloween group, but among the orange pumpkins and red blood it kind of fades into the background. Still I think this is a good photo. Genuinely creepy.

3D Glasses

3D Glasses Black and White
Originally uploaded by abraham_love

What fun you can have with 3D glasses. Even more fun that you had in the cinema probably. Here is a photo of the boys looking groovy in their shades. Nice bit of post processing thanks to tweaking in OptikVerveLabs Virtual Photgrapher.

Halloween 2009

Mild weather meant dozens of trick or treaters this year. Houses running out of sweets and a happy evening of dress up fun. Couple of freaky photos in my Flickr stream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32889289@N07

GooGrill. Where do we go from here?

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to GooGrill. Ben brought this to my attention, so I can't say I've tasted it. I don't think I need to. I want to. Yes. I desperately want to eat a GooGrill. It looks nasty. Really nasty in a great way. I bet there is a Menu GooGrill, with fries and a slightly flat cola. Sh'yeah.

I think we can put this in the same food group as Baconnaise. Baconnaise Lite (why??). Though I wouldn't want to eat that. Also in the same group as Cheesestrings Shots...I'm not making that up. Described on their website (I visited) as 'Gazillions of yummy little cheesy pieces waiting to be shaken and shot back.'.

Yum?

Victor Wooten Bass Camp

Gosh! I didn't know such a thing existed. Thanks to Lucas - who attended camp recently - I now do!

http://www.victorwooten.com/basscamp/description.html

Some of the things covered at the camp are:
• Awareness (in Life and in Music)
• The role of the Bass Guitar
• Soloing techniques and concepts
• How to find food and water
• How to make a quick emergency shelter that can keep you alive in below freezing temperatures
• Basic animal tracking

Animal tracking *and* bass soloing?? Tha't sall you had to say.

Frankly this sounds awesome. I guess you'd have to attend the course to fully appreciate the link between nature and music, but I'm liking the idea. Maybe that old Tiger Stripe Bass of Woody's will find its calling after all.

Waterloo Skate Park and other Photos

Thought you might want to see some photos I've taken recently after reading the Strobist blog: http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/
I have gotten the bug and an eBay flash trigger and an old Minolta flash. I really enjoy it. Really.

Kindly, Andy let me photgraph him at Waterloo the other day and I was really happy with the results. There's a nice photo on the Flickr stream of our Miniature Schnauzer and a Ferrari 360 Spider and a fairy cake. Betch can't wait.