HARAYA goes interweb-global!!!!!!

Today is a red letter day in the hararya? history books. WE'RE NOW A PROPER WEBSITE!

(or at least if you go to www.hararya.com you get this blog, cuse i've nothing on it at the mo)

...to celebrate here is a few pictures of me clutching cuddly toys. Pictures taken by paul fellowes as part of my valentines pressie to the lovely Jo.

enjoy, but at your own risk.

A-TACK! (not for the squeemish)...

So there i was putting up a poster in the office, when i fell from where i standing much to the amusement of me and my work buddies.

All of a sudden the laughter stopped, i looked at my hand and realised that i had fallen on something, i was attacked. The offending article is pictured below, (with a mobile phone besided it for size reference)


The little prick, (actually not so little at 1.75CM or 3/4"), Went in just below my thumb, all the way in.... *going all woosley* The puncture site is pictured below.



Surprisingly, i didn't really feel it go in, but it was fun pulling it out. At first attempt the pin didn't move, i nearly colapsed, after one more good tug though, it popped out.

Lucky I had a shot a while ago, else lock jaw should set in around lunch time!

(many thanks to dave ashe, who attended to the gash!)

Current mood: Lightheaded
Current caffine saturation level: 43.7%
current song: Bob Dylan "I shall be released" (from "the last waltz")

Road Trippin'

Joanne and i did get out, eventually and we played the "left right" game. For those of you who don't know, its a driving game where you get to the end of a road and take it turns to decide whether you are to turn right or left. This game is open to all passengers in the car, no matter how many. (though i'd not reccomend more than 5 for heath and safety reasons).



We found ourselves going down oddly named roads, like the one pictured above. For those of you who live outside Northern Ireland: Put any word you like in front of the word "Bally" and you probably have a place name in Ulster. Its a fun game, tell your friends.

Anyhoo, we had a great time, we brought food and had a quick stop to eat somewhere at the top of a hill, the road leading up to it went all racetrack (pictured below) with all stripy lines and made me drive faster than Jo was comfortable. (snigger!)



current mood: full, sleepy
current tipple: German brandy what my dad brought back from holiday
current tune: Red Hot chilli peppers "road trippin" (Californication)

"Father Jack" for MLA!

Imagine my amusement and horror to find this candidate canvasing by my house!

Getting ready to go out, waiting on paul coming over for some coffee before hopefully heading out for a drive with the lovely Jo.

Life is good.

A bit slow....

Things are a bit slow after such a hectic weekend. I'm taking my mum to the vet's in ballyclare tonight, not cuse she has an alement (you cheeky suggestors), but cuse she needs medicine for our sick cats. Arthur and Polly have had a gum infection that required them to have most of their teeth out. Mmmm, nice.

On a brighter note, i got this coffee maker from Curry's for a fiver.



Current cafine sauration level: 97%
Current music: Bright eyes "Road to Joy" (from "I'm wide awake, its morning")

4 peaks and a basketball game

The weekend started off fun.

My (probably longest) long term buddy, Paul (salvador) Fellowes, was heading into town on friday night and i offered to drop him in. This is a fairly standard thing. Paul is an art and design student and therefore can be a little short on the old greenbacks, so if i'm heading his way i'll play taxi driver.

Paul is living with good friend Alan Doddridge, a man of exceptional intellect and generosity, the later because he's letting paul stay in his house, rent free, on the condition that he does a bit of painting. Paul being a design student is no stranger to a paint brush, so the arrangement works well.

There i was trying no to be late, as is my trademark. I got into the car with a good 10 minutes to spare before the pickup time, paul lives only a few minutes away so i was suckin' deisel.

I arrived at paul's parents house, greeted by his older brother Steve, a kindly well rounded fella, who beckond me on into the living room, where pauls parents were relaxing.

A quick note about paul's parents: Sally and Ronnie are two of the finest people God has graced this world with. It is impossible to leave their house either hungry or without having chuckled outloud. That evening i found them in fine form and i lost track of time chewing the fat with them.

Pau's brother had been on the phone and it must have been at least 20 minutes till he re-appeared in the room. Upon his arrival i said;

"Is that boy (paul) never ready yet?" Paul's family looked back at me in bemusement. "who?" they asked. "...um, paul, is he not ready?" Paul's mum and dad looked at each other, then at steve and then at me. "Paul hasn't been here for ages, he's at his house!" Just then the penny dropped and one of those trademark crash zoom shots knocked me off my seat in a wayne's world sty-le. I had arrived at the wrong house.

We all laughed out loud, i excused myself and hot footed it down to paul and alan's house..

Paul was remarkably gracious about the fact that i had now made him late. We both laughed our collective legs off, put a rolling stones cd on and drove off in the direction of joanne's house in the now fast fading light to the sound of jumpin' jack flash.

After dropping Pauly off, Joanne and i decided, in a rare spare of the moment type whim to go shoot some hoops. Joanne played in school, so she has lots more experience. Thats my excuse, i'm sticking to it. We headed to the Valley Park near the Valley Leisure Centre in Newtownabbey. When we arrived some kids were playing on the climbing frames and swingy things while two guys were flying an enormous kite. I was a bit taken with the kite, it distracted me from getting the ball in the hoop and helped to drown out the fact that Joanne was slagging me off for not being able to shoot. Should have paid more attention to white men can't jump. I wasn't even wearing Nike Air.

Saturday we went through town got some mounts for pictures joanne is going to exhibit at the Odyssey arena this week. I'm all excited about it, cuse she will no doubt be the bell of the ball.

In the PM i had just enough time to call in to my brother Andy and sis Mee-Lan's house warming party, Brian (Banger) rainey, was there as well as my parents and a very kind lady called Janice Chipendale who recently supplied my brother and I with enough furniture to decorate two houses. (Yes she is THAT nice).

I was only there 15 mins and then headed off to Belfast with Jo to a fundraiser for the four peaks challenge. The idea is some folks we know are climbing 4 mountains in 2 days all over the UK, which is a bit of an achievement, all monies raised go to charity. ( to find out more click here)

The night was held at "The Mad Hatter", an excellent eatery on Eglantine Avenue, Belfast.

The evening was comprised of a pub quiz, some food and a ballet ticket prize draw.... oh and some crazy guys who got their kit off for the girls. Now, before i get complaints, i am posting the below pic cuse the guys were both blurred enough to show no detail but give you a good mental image to play around with!



A fab time was had by all in the company of Nixx Giants supporters and good friends Raj, his dad nigel, sarah, the shiney and of course Jo, my fine lady.

Catching up.... again

A busy life i lead. I have had no time to tell you all of the playoffs, but lets face it, you can read all about them here.

Joanne got all the pics up before me, cuse i'm lazy, but here is how my weekend went in pictures:

(rollover pictures to reveal captions - not THAT interesting, but hey.....

ok, in a minute.....

I have tried to find time to update my blog. I have tried to find time to prepare for my management review in the morning. I have tried to read " Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainence".

All i have done is had dinner with Jo and my buddy Paul (pauly) Fellowes and deliver a dirt devil to Brother Andy and Sis-in-law Mee-lan.

Oh, and i did get this from sarah, the shiny.

Enjoy:

you are violet #EE82EE

Your dominant hues are red and blue. You're confident and like showing people new ideas. You play well with others and can be very influential if you want to be. Your saturation level is lower than average - You don't stress out over things and don't understand people who do. Finishing projects may sometimes be a challenge, but you schedule time as you see fit and the important things all happen in the end, even if not everyone sees your grand master plan. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Catchin up

I also caught up with alan white when he was over at easter, just wanted to post a picture of him in full flow.

Good to see you Al, I promise to answer the phone when you call next!

cute photo

Ok so i'm posting lots after posting nothing for 2 weeks.

I'm in the mood to post, what can i tell ya.

I took this picture of jo while we were road trippin, i thought it was cute, so i'm putting it on for y'all to see.

I made it small because, even though she's super pretty, she hates big pics of her.... especially here.

(love you honey!)

M



oh, just to prove that not everyone looks cute in that hat, check out this photo of me and dave allen at christmas time:



if you haven't seen dave in a while and want to hear the sound of his voice you can catch him at 1am on most weekdays on alive99.5, click on the "listen live" feature. Alive 99.5 is a christian radio station in canada. I was listening tonight. He mentioned me cuse i kept him late for his shift.

Thanks dave!

M

sorry, i hadn't posted in a while, let me explain...

For several days i've spent time being sick out of all possible avenues of my body. That is way too much information i'm sure. But i just wanted you to get a good clear image.

Jo and I had just been down south for the day, to such wonderful places as termonfeckin, pictured above if you don't beleive me.

Anyhow, i got home and all illness broke loose.



While we were out a crazy dog stepped out into the road, blocking our path. I slammed on the brakes, stopping well short of the brave mutt. He would not move though, as i edged further towards him down the road he stepped up to my bumper, raising himself to his full height.

I reversed a little and he backed off. I drove towards him one more time and took the above pic. He stood strong determined to stop me. I decided to just turn around, the dog won.



On a completely unrelated matter, dad needs his ears syringed, here he is ears full of olive oil, pulling a crazy face.

M

what can i say, i'm a family guy!

Which Family Guy character are you?

Come fly with me...

induction 

Today i flew off, bleary eyed to the uk office of steria, the company that has been kind enough to pluck me from career obscurity and place my feet back on a solid road to being an IT professional.

I think they are great. I'm not just saying that either, none of my bosses read this, so there is no element of ass kissing involved.

To give you an idea of how it works, here is a scenario: My boss decides to do something. I think it's not the best way of going forward. I tell him how i think it could be done better. He listens. He may not change what he planned to do but he will take my view into consideration. If my idea makes more sense than his original idea then he will change. How many businesses work like that?

More often than not in previous employment i've spoken up about an idea where i see something does not make sense and i'm told something to the effect of: "we only pay you from the neck down son, you arent paid to think!"

The trip was fun but it was a bit of a long day.

I started off at 5am in the morrning, picked up by robert, a good work buddy, who drove all the way from n'ards to the airport via my house to save me having to drive. (which was extremly nice of him). We flew out of Aldergrove after a starbucks breakfast where i met Paul Campbell. Paul is a great guy, and an excellent musician, who happened to be flying off that day with his wife to spring harvest. I love when you meet people you haven't seen or even thought of in years and you find that not only did they do well, but they have found love and they seem to be happy. Amen.

Upon landing in Luton airport we discovered that the Easyjet staff were completely unaware of the fact we were coming. Noone had bothered to get them out of bed, air traffic control could have been decent enough to tell someone. The pilot spoke: "ladies and gentlemen, we've made great time from belfast..... which has created some problems for us here on the ground as there is no one on duty yet to receive you. But don't worry, i've got the number of one of the guys, i'll just give him a call...."

Within literally minutes there was a ground crew running to us, which was reassuring, as their main job is to stop us climbing on the wings and getting ourselves wedged into the engines. Good job they were there really, everyone knows how i like to climb on things.

Got a cab to the office in Hemel, a short distance away from the airport. The driver didn't speak that much english, but that doesn't matter, he had GPRS. Bob and I got to the canteen, had breakfast and then joined the other newbies for the main event.

We had an introduction to the history of the company, met some key people and then had to make a presentation to the CEO, who was most definatly not the monster everyone was winding me up to think he was. The man was attentive, polite and kindly to us fresh faced kids who asked awkward questions and tried hard to show him how intelligent we are and that it was a great thing he did by hiring us, adding to the potential of the company.

All went well, and once finished we hot footed it off back to the airport.

Easyjet once again caused a hiccup by printing my boarding pass incorrectly. The stonefaced security, delighted that they had some power over me cast me out of the departure lounge entrance, smugly referring me back to the check-in que to get my ticket adjusted. I passed Stelios, the easyjet owner on my way, who would have got an earful, if it was not for the pesky camera in his face! Off we flew with no further hitch.

Once in belfast i got a lift back with Dave, another newbie. NIce lad.

And home again 12 hours after i left. Bless, i've gone all jetsetter!