WEEKEND

WENT BACK TO KILLINEY on the weekend. Went swimming in the COLD Irish sea. It was nice and refreshing. Although the lads didn't stay in long. UNG was on the beach taking this AWESOME panorama! It's a bit small, so click HERE for a full size version.



UNG and me got a cool lightbulb/lamp from Habitat! It says LOVE in the Robert Indiana style! Don't worry, it wasn't expensive (€4 for the bulb, €7 for the base)




Also, experimented with sticking my thumb on and partially over the flash. Cool red light. The room was pitch black.

IESSO

¿QUES?

MY BOSS BOOKED A HOTEL IN SPAIN but the reservation details was in Spanish. He asked me if I could speak Spanish because I used to live in LA, but I can't. I did have the bright idea of going down the road to the English Language school, where millions of Spanish kids go.

I walked in, and the people at the desk asked me if I needed help, I walked past them like I knew where I was going, found a chillout area downstairs where kids might be hanging out. There was lots of Indians but no Spaniards.

I found two girls that LOOKED spanish* and asked them to read the email to me. The girl read it fine, translating to English for me in "big voice" and it was totally easy! When she read the part with the double bed she got all nervous and shy. HA HA!

* Also, yesterday someone asked me for a cigarette. I gave him one.
"Hey, are you Spanish?", he asked.
"Nope"
"Italian?"
"Nope"
"French?"
"Nope"
"Are you Irish?"
"Nope. I'm American."
"Oh. Huh? Really. American. Wow. Well thanks. Muchos gracias! Merci!"

So it's official, with or without the beard people think I'm Spanish. Or sometimes Italian.


IESSO

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

THE BEARD IS GONE. It'll be back.

1 year ago the UNG and me went out on our first date. Time has really flown by.

IESSO


Also, having difficulty with a tricky client. Couldn't find the perfect image in Getty so ended up having myself photographed. Do I look like a security guard? No? The goatee helps. I don't have one BTW.

A LONE, SHADOWEY FIGURE WALKS THE STREET...

I WAS IN A SHOP yesterday with UNG looking for something or another. She went to the floor with the female section, I went to look at TV's, headphones, boys stuff. After I was sick of that I went up stairs to find her. I walked around the entire floor twice before going up to the next floor, and walking that twice.

Self-obsessed, Crazy Lady: HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU STALKING ME?! I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE. STOP IT!
Me, more shocked than insulted: Pardon me?
SOCL: STOP IT! I'VE BEEN HIT TOO MANY TIMES, HIT! I'M GOING TO CALL SECURITY!!
Me, more annoyed than insulted: Uh, huh, whatever...

As I was walking away she was still yelling at me.


It's the beard I'll bet. I've been called a terrorist a few times, jokingly, but also pulled over by airport security and had my bag searched, I've been accused of (something bad but I forgot, but my point is stil valid!), and now being called a stalker!

AAAAaahhh!

Admittedly she was a bit on the crazy side, and a bit on the drugged up side. I was kind of insulted, shocked and bemused by the whole thing. She's obviously self-obsessed if the she thinks I was stalking her. As if I have nothing better to do than follow a mid-aged, frumpy, smells-like-pee lady around. Come on!

IESSO

PS. VOTE on whether I should keep the beard or not. It's like BIG-BROTHER! Should the beard be evicted? Dial 555-KEEP to keep it, or 555_SHAVE to shave it!

A LITTLE BIT OF CLASS

WHEN WE WERE IN LONDON we had an awesome drink at a bar after a long days walk. It's called Pimm's. It's an apertif! It's one of those cucumber-sandwhiches-with-the-crust-cut-off type drinks, but it's entirely delicious and if you can get it you should try it like this:

1 part Pimm's
3 parts French lemonade (or 7-Up will do)
2 small strawberries
2 basil leaves (torn)
1 slice lemon
1 slice orange
Ice

Cursh the fruit and basil in the bottom of the glass, add ice and Pimm's, top with lemonade.
It's so good that even UNG likes it!

IESSO

PS. I added made another Flickr-stream of London photos in Black and White. It's entirely classy. And this time (thanks Linus); it's Hi-Res!

MIAMI

SAW MIAMI VICE LAST NIGHT and I for one was very impressed. I was expecting that same sort of glossy cop-thriller with glorrified shy violence, where they have massive explosions but don't show anything too graphic. The movie was totally NOT that. I loved the grainy look from the video cameras struggling to get enough light. I loved the extreme violence, not because I wanted to see that sort of thing, but because I DIDN'T. The only thing I didn't like was the unnessesary sex scenes.

Even Colin 'Dublin accent shows through at odd times' Farrell was pretty good. And the enhanced Tubbs character was better too. I barely remember the original TV show in all it's cheesy-crime glory, but this was very very good.

IESSO

RONDON

WE'RE BACK! And London was totally awesome! Did not want to leave at all!

I've added plenty of photo's for people to look at. They're part of a Flickr photo-stream. CLICK HERE to view them all. Normally I'd include them on the blog page itself, but there were 57 of them that I couldn't cut out! I took nearly 500 in the three days, with 100 still left on the camera, but I'll upload them soon.

IESSO

ELLIOTT SCOTT A DOPPLEGANGER

CRAZILY and against everyone's best wishes I met a possible axe-murderer named Elliott Scott. (Which is my name by the way) It was very cool to meet him, and it turned out he was not an axe-murderer but a nice-guy drummer from Bristol. We had a few drinks together and it was all very surreal. After all, he was a complete stranger! But we share a weird and pointless connection.

Semi-related; I just want to point out that this photo composition is cool! Multiple angles of the same shot, the subtle use of alternate perspective and reflection... damn I'm good!

THINGS TO SEE, PEOPLE TO DO...

WE MADE A LIST of things to do and see in London, and I put a map of the city and Tube system, as well as important info in case we lose our passport or whatever. Also included is a list of people that (if we were on a cheesy TV show) we'd bump into: Spice Girls, Jamie Oliver, The Queen, etc etc.

"Why look, former Beatles member and presenter for Thomas the Tank Engine; Ringo Starr!
What are you doing here?"

Cool.
IESSO


DAYS: 1.5
HOURS: 36
MINUTES: 2160

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