Lundby dollhouse - progress so far

Top picture - as I bought the €5 second hand Lundby..

Middle picture - after four layers of white craft paint..

Bottom picture - upstairs wallpapered and carpeted, and door handles changed..

JCB porn with Eddie and Buzz

I keep watching this again and again.. Just SOOO funny!!! =D

I'd love to have the Hardy Bucks DVDs as I haven't seen all episodes..

Klingon Style =D

I know I've posted a few Gangnam Style related things already, but.. Klingon Style is almost better than the original! =D Qapla'

Twitter play

I heard about the new top picture option for Twitter, recently, but when I went to play with it, the option wasn't available for me yet =/

However, I just got email today, inviting me to add a top picture, so I rushed to put something together.. LOL.. I just used my current Facebook cover picture, with an added colour bar (to fill up the optimal size). The background is from my ancient website, from late 90's or so..!

Must do something better when I get some new pics - maybe later today, actually!

The new Myspace

The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.

Wow, the new Myspace looks pretty good, on this video! (Unfortunately, you can't actually see it yet, unless you've been invited.. I just submitted my email address for an invite.)

I'm not really loving any websites with horizontal scrolling (as it appears to have), but other than that, it's looking great. Can't wait to play with it!

My second hand Lundby, at the moment

I think I've mentioned the €5 dollhouse, which I recently bought at a yard sale I happened to spot, on my way to the shops.. So, this is it, after four layers of white craft paint..

It's not an ideal choice of paint, but it's the only paint I had, so.. I've decided to wallpaper the rooms, though, because even after four layers of paint, the original horror patterns are still showing through, and I've not that much paint left. Also, as much as I hate the dark brown door frames, I'd have to paint the doors shut, if I wanted a thick enough layer of paint to make them look white.. So, I'm cleaning them, and they can remain dark.

I found that pretty much the only stuff that'll clean those plastic parts, is Boots acetone free nail polish remover! (I'd tried everything before that..)

There won't be lights as I can't afford them.

Co. Wicklow coast, challenging engineering, and the origins of seismology

Yes, all that on one video. It's actually fascinating! I never knew that County Wicklow had such link to the early days of seismology.. (Wikipedia: Robert Mallet)

Bepanthen - the wonder ointment =D

Source: bepanthen.co.uk via Stella on Pinterest

I got inked, last year, and they adviced me to buy some Bepanthen for aftercare. As I've no kids, I'd never heard of Bepanthen (nappy care ointment) before, but OMG, how I love that stuff now! I am actually still using the first 30g tube I bought, and there's about 1/3 of it left, yet I've used it for all kinds of stuff, so it's good value as well.

For starters, I used it for tattoo aftercare, and had absolutely no trouble. My skin healed even quicker than I expected, and although I'd applied Bepanthen several times a day, the tube still looked as if I'd just bought it, after I was done with tattoo aftercare.

My skin is generally very dry, and I'm one of those people who doesn't really give a shyte, so I can go several days without applying any kind of a moisturiser or such. Sometimes I get flaky skin - for example, on the sides of my nose,especially in winter. Bepanthen is brilliant for that! It's also a great lip balm.

Here's something I just discovered today;

(Starting with a description of the problem..) My left elbow gets VERY dry and flaky, because I'm always sitting on the floor, resting my left elbow on my knee while using the mouse with my right hand, so the right elbow isn't getting the same 'abuse'.. By abuse, I mean that the left elbow is constantly pressed against some sort of clothing, which seems to be making it dry and flaky.

I've applied Bepanthen on the elbow, and it does help, but I have to keep applying it quite often, and if I wear long sleeves (to protect everything else from getting Bepanthen-stained), that'll soon dry the skin again.. Also, if I don't wear long sleeves, the elbow will get dry again when I rest it against my knee, so it's like a neverending circle..

However.. I just found a new trick today! My elbow was REALLY dry and flaky again, so I applied Bepanthen on it. I thought I'd just try and put something on it to avoid staining stuff as I'm wearing short sleeves today. The first suitable thing I found, was a KFC freshen up tissue! (=Individually wrapped wet wipe, which contains alcohol.) I unfolded it and placed it on my elbow - it stuck to the greasy Bepanthen.

About half an hour later, I had to get up, so I took the tissue off. I was amazed to find that it was now bone dry. It wasn't dry in a similar way than it would be, if you'd just left it discarded somewhere after using it to clean hands or something. No, this time, it was sort of dry and 'hard', like a sheet of paper you'd write on.

I didn't even think of checking my elbow, at first, but a few minutes later, I happened to notice that my skin was now perfectly smooth! :O Not a sign of any flaking! And less than an hour before, it had been very dry and flaky.. As I'm typing this, it's been maybe an hour again, and the skin is still smooth and perfect.

I'm going to experiment with this discovery now.. I still have one KFC freshen up tissue, but the next time my elbow gets dry and flaky, I'm going to try a non-alcoholic baby wipe instead - I always have those, because they're good for cleaning rubber stamps, or cleaning hands after a snack, etc.. I just thought I'd blog about this, in case anyone else gets dry and flaky skin, and needs a quick way of healing it. Apply Bepanthen generously, and slap a wet wipe on it for maybe about 30 minutes or so. As I mentioned, I don't know yet if it matters whether the wipe contains alcohol or not. Mine did, and it worked. I am totally amazed..

But back to the various uses of Bepanthen..

Scabs. They can get itchy, and you can make them so much worse by scratching.. So, Bepanthen helps! And it seems to work for animals as well!

One of my cats, Thatsit, hates being examined or treated.. (OK, all cats do, but Thatsit is so bad that not even an experienced vet can manage to give her a pill, for example.. It just will NOT happen.. The cat is small, but she'll kill you..) She occasionally has scabs, after fighting with other cats - she's the one who always starts the fights..

Once, Thatsit had a pretty nasty looking scratch, very close to her left eye. It was a bit swollen, but at that point, not quite bad enough to take her to the 24h vets (it was late at night when I found the scratch on her). I thought I'd try Bepanthen.. So, I put a tiny bit of Bepanthen on the tip of my finger, and before Thatsit even noticed, I applied it on the scratch. Thatsit was upset at first, because I'd managed to outsmart her by treating her when she didn't expect it.. BUT, it must have made her feel better as the next time I did it, she didn't get upset at all, and after that, she came for more! :O She actually came to my lap, and when I took out the Bepanthen tube and squeezed some of it on my finger, with Thatsit seeing and smelling it, she just stayed, and I could tell that she actually enjoyed it when I applied it on the scratch! Also, the scratch was healing quickly, and when it got better (and the swelling was gone), I started even rubbing the Bepanthen on it. It must have helped on the itch as Thatsit was loving it.. =D

NOTE: Always, always contact a vet, if your pet has actual wounds or bites as those can get badly infected, even after the skin has healed.. Especially if there's any swelling, or if the pet seems 'off' somehow, there might be an infection / abscess, which requires professional treatment and antibiotics. Use the Bepanthen trick for only small scratches / scabs, if they seem itchy and you want to keep the animal from scratching them, and only apply very thinly, to allow the healing skin to breathe. If the animal isn't trying to scratch, don't apply anything.

If there's one negative thing about Bepanthen, it would be the issue of animal testing.. I don't have the other packaging left, but at least the tube itself does not say anything about that, which leads me to believe that it HAS been tested on animals.. (I've googled it briefly, but couldn't find 100% certain info, either way..) If so, I would very much like to find an alternative product that HASN'T been tested on animals - if anyone knows such a thing (available in Ireland), please leave a comment!

Why cats are better than dogs..

Proof That Cats Are Better Than Dogs

I would love to drive there..

As I've been posting "a few" Youtube videos lately, here's one more =P This is the Atlantic Highway in Norway. Awesome!

Oh, sweet Jebus.. =D

I grew tired of the "Hitler does this and that" videos, ages ago, but THIS one.. OMG!! My face actually hurts from laughing =D Gangnam Style!

Buttermilk! And a heroic pig!

I want to feel like Buttermilk! (I wouldn't step on others, though..) Buttermilk is also on Facebook..


I found this heroic pig video through Buttermilk =)

The Best - Bus Advert - EVER! =D

Epic Bus Ad from Denmark (English Subtitles) Midttrafik - "The Bus"

My protest snap on Japan Dolphins Day 2012 intl. video

Japan Dolphins Day 2012

Save Misty the Dolphin is pleased to present a video to honor of all of those who took part in Japan Dolphins Day 2012 events around the world. If everyone cared like all of these amazing activists, the Cove would be blue forever. Never be silent - Never give up.

My photo is at 2:03 =)


Here's the actual photo.

Hilarious Sminky Shorts

This is the one I saw on Facebook.. I had to go and watch some more on Youtube =D Hilarious!!

The Irish Likes on Facebook

I noticed recently, that "Is Maith Liom É" had been changed to "Like", in the Irish translation of Facebook. "Ní Maith Liom É" had been changed to "Unlike".

This morning, I noticed that "Like" had been changed to "Go maith" ("Unlike" still being just "Unlike"..)

Just when I'd posted about it, there was a post with "Is Maith Liom É", and all the others were "Go maith"!! :o

However, on closer inspection, it seems that if you Like a Page, it's now "Is Maith Liom É", whereas if you just Like something that was posted, it's "Go maith".

Maybe they'll be something different again, tomorrow?

Beautiful Guinness art video

Guinness - Made Of More from David Wilson on Vimeo.

Do watch this, even if you don't like Guinness.. It's an amazing art video!

Trying to remember what comfortable feels like

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Stella on Pinterest

If that was a three-seater, it just might be the sofa of my dreams..

As I haven't had a comfortable seat or (any) bed since the late 90's, I'm constantly dreaming about them..

A good sofa should be pretty basic, the back should not be too low, the armrests should be high and wide enough to comfortably rest your arm on them (I know, the clue is in the name, but many armrests just "look good", but are actually totally useless..), and the material should be something that doesn't make you sweat (like leather/ette does, for example..), and which can be hoovered (to remove cat hair..). I also like the grey/ish colour for a sofa, because it goes with most other colours, and if you happen to get some little stains on it, it's not that obvious (unless it's something bad like red vino or black mascara).

Three-seaters are better than "loveseats" as you can comfortably lie down on a three-seater sofa, to read, watch telly, take a nap, or whatever..

Source: homeadore.com via Stella on Pinterest

As for beds, I really don't care so much, as long as there IS a bed (or even just a mattress), and it's neat and comfortable. At this point, I'm thinking of buying an inflatable mattress as I'm really sick of never feeling comfortable, and if I sleep too many hours in the same position, I'm so sore when I wake up.. I usually set my mobile alarm to wake me up after three hours as then it's not too painful. If I'm still tired, I'll turn over and sleep for another three hours. Sometimes I sleep for longer than that, but that's always really painful.

Lifeguard Style

Change.org|The Proven Petition Site

Please, show some support to the 14 lifeguards who were FIRED, after making a funny parody video of Gangnam Style! Sign the petition for the city of El Monte to rehire them..

Here's their awesome video;

The BEST Gangnam Style video - after the original..

I'm going to start with the original Gangnam Style video, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet.. (That guy is Comedy Gold!!!)

I've seen some good parody versions, but this short bit from The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, has to be the best of them;


(Noah Rivera as Mitt Romney)

It almost made me pee a little, LOL..

About links in blog comments..

I'm just after deleting a comment again.. It was a nice comment to my car related entry, the language was correct, etc.. But the real motivation of leaving the comment, was in the end of it - a link to a car dealers.

I don't mind people posting links in comments, if those links go to their personal pages or blogs, or if someone wants to contribute a useful link that's related to the topic I've blogged about. However, when someone pretends to be interested in my blog entry, only to leave a business link, which is in no way relevant to me (=I already bought a car, and even if I was looking for one, I wouldn't buy it from the US.), I find that lame, and I'll delete their comment, no matter how nice it may be.

If you need cheering up..

..watch this video - the drummer is a LEGEND! =D

Beautiful Irish weather video

Between the Raindrops from Peter Cox on Vimeo.

Ginga is famous ;-)

 
Pete the Vet wrote an article on controlling the feral cat situation with TNR (trap, neuter, return), and Ginga was mentioned in the article - there was a big photo of him as well =) As you can see, in the second picture, Ginga wasn't that interested.. He just wanted food and a cuddle, which he received after I took the picture =) The article is in today's Bray People.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I'd bought a copy of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, after loving his first book, The Kite Runner, but then I managed to lose it somewhere under Mount Stuff.. Anyway, I felt like reading something on Saturday, so I explored Mount Stuff until I found the book, and started reading it.

I just finished reading it, a little while ago, and if I was to describe it with one word, it'd be: Wow!

It's amazing how someone can make you feel sort of familiar with people, places and customs you'd never heard of, on just a few written pages.. (Now that I've read the book, I find myself checking out places on Google satellite maps - for example, Herat, and Deh-Mazang, or Dehmazang, Kabul. I did the same after reading The Kite Runner!)

From a western woman's perspective, this book makes you think that even if your life is shyte, it's probably nowhere near as much of it as an average Afghan woman's life.. When years were mentioned, I was thinking back to my own life at the time, and comparing it to the lives of these fictional women, who might as well have been real women..

The horror of being a teenager, and more or less being forced to marry a complete stranger who is also much, much older.. Having to move far away from home, not getting a chance to say goodbye to the people you've known, and never to be back again or hear from any of those people.. Not allowed to go out without your husband or a male relative.. Having to wear a burqa and never show your face to anyone except your husband / family.. And if your husband happens to be a complete cunt, life is  pretty much unbearable.

When Laila visited Mariam's kolba, I was just crying my eyes out, and it took me about two packets of Kleenex to get to the end of the book.

And those Buddhas of Bamiyan..

I think that everyone should read this book, if they haven't already..

There's no such thing as...

...a quick cup of tea, in this house!

Although we only have two cats (Thatsit and Oimo, who is still doing fine, btw), several others are fed regularly, and a hedgehog..

So, a little while ago, when I thought I'd go and make myself a quick cup of tea, there was no way it was going to happen..

First, Oimo wanted to go out.. Then, Pushy was at the kitchen door, hoping to get it, and I heard the hedgehog clonking one of the outdoor food bowls against the cement.. I gave Pushy some food, but didn't let him in.. He started eating the food just outside the kitchen door, next to the hedgehog who was having dry food.. Ginga heard us, and approached carefully, still bumping into a watering can - the poor thing is totally blind at night.. I was talking to him, so that he could use my voice for navigation.. I let Ginga step in, and gave him food..

As Ginga was in the kitchen, I couldn't close the kitchen door - Ginga is a semi-feral, and he'd freak out if I closed the door while he's visiting.. Pushy used this, and sneaked in after finishing his food.. Hedgehog moved on to finish the little bit of wet food Pushy had left in the bowl..

Ringo appeared, and tried to rush in to the kitchen.. I stopped him and promised to give him some food after Ginga and hedgie were done with theirs.. Ringo kept trying to come in, so I had to keep steering him out, at the same time trying not to freak out Ginga or the hedgie.. Jeez..

Finally, the hedgie left, so I kept talking to Ginga while I put some food out for Ringo.. Then, I noticed Oimo waiting at the front door, hoping to get in - I'd left the actual door wide open, so I could see him through the sliding door..

I let Oimo in, and he was looking at the situation in the kitchen (and at the kitchen door), with a "WTF?!?" expression.. I told him it'd be OK soon.. He then went to the water bowl, and waited for me to make him his warm water.. (I don't remember if I blogged about this, but D recently discovered that Oimo can drink normally if we heat up the water to body temperature - his teeth or gums must be sensitive to the cool / room temperature water, because he was sort of eating it, rather than drinking it.. When it's warm, he has no trouble at all! It's quick and easy; I just boil the kettle, and add about 1/4 boiling water, to the water bowl.. I mix it with my finger, and when it's my body temperature, it's almost as if I can't feel it as it's not cooler or warmer than my finger..)

Sooo, once Oimo was finally drinking his warm water, Ginga was done eating, but wanted some cuddles.. Eventually, I had to steer him out as I needed to close the door and come back to the attic.. (And yes, I did actually make that cup of tea as well - sometimes I forget..)

Thursday & Friday pics

 
Thursday morning.. First, waiting for the early 145 from Bray to St. Stephen's Green (I walked from there to Mill Street where our unit base was).. Then, relaxing at the extras dining bus, before or after breakfast..

 
At South Studios - the location for the shoot.. Upstairs was our holding room, hair & makeup, etc..


"Art".. =D (See the face?)

 
There's a really gorgeous (and seemingly mainly unused) courtyard, behind the building.. It was our tea & coffee area.. It would be a lovely place for a glass-roofed coffee shop or something, although the location would suck for that.. I just hate seeing beautiful places 'wasted', as in, not used to their full potential..

 
A window, and the view.. I was kind of hoping I'd taken Valentine with me (=my camera) as the window panes were old, and made the view all wonky, depending on the angle you looked at it.. Would have loved some wonky view pics.. My phone camera can't really deal with that sort of stuff..

 
If there's something I hate about extra work, it's that there are never enough seats for everyone.. (Which reminds me of that Camelot actor quoting some older actor, on acting being a business of finding a seat - I found it hilarious..) I was hogging my spot on the sofa for a lot of the time, but at some point, I had to sit on the floor.. I sit on the floor at home all the time, since I've no furniture, so when I'm not at home, I'd expect to have a feckin' seat, thank you very much.. Anyway, I saw this old radio while sitting on the floor.. The miniature houses were nice - I love miniatures..

 
I had chuck-chuck for lunch.. (That's chicken, in our cat slang..)

 
Then I pretended to be a bus driver..

 
At least one of these dogs is in the film, maybe two..

 
I didn't do much on Thursday, just briefly walked between the camera and a guy playing the guitar, and back, lol.. Other than that, it was just killing time.. It was a gorgeous day, so we were out for a good while as well..

 
At the courtyard again..


That was Thursday. It was a long day, which was a bit of a killer, but overtime fee is always nice, and I didn't have to wait for the 145 that long, on the way home, so it was all good.. I was just soooo sore, after standing around, sitting on the floor (when I lost my sofa spot), and walking..


On Friday, we had to be there at 7:15am, or 7am for breakfast.. I wouldn't have been able to make it, had I taken the earliest 145, so D gave me a lift in the morning. Here we are back in the holding room already, after breakfast..

 
As everyone had been sort of bored out of their minds, the day before, people had come prepared, this time.. There were magazines and board games..

I happened to notice this travel magazine article on Helsinki, so I was browsing it.. It featured buildings I've never seen.. Helsinki has become such an unfamiliar place to me - the whole city centre has changed, there are new buildings here and there, bus routes aren't the same anymore, etc.. It was a bit bizarre to see my parents' neighbour mentioned. Just a small detail I wouldn't have expected to see in a random travel article, which I happened to be browsing in Ireland. I don't know if anyone gets what I mean with that, but it just made me think of my parents =)

 
Scrabble session.. I was just observing..

 
We were used more on Friday, but there was still plenty of time to sit around..

 
I hadn't expected such an early lunch, so I'd had a bagel (I'd toasted at home), not long before it.. I just had salmon and various salads, for lunch. Couldn't even manage any dessert, so I grabbed a little fruit stash for later (the bananas I had in my bag already).

 
Handless but happy - and that view again..


For the rest of the day, I was sitting here with G and a guy whose name I forgot to ask. G was telling us very interesting stories about Iraq, from the time he worked there. If he ever writes a book about it all, I'm buying it.

We were expecting to wrap maybe at about 5-6pm, so it was a pleasant surprise to be told at 3pm that we could go home! =D

 
The day was even nicer than the day before, so it was a nice walk to the bus stop on Leeson Street, although my feet were killing me.. (Oh, earlier on, while we were on a break outside the studios, three traveller guys went by with a horse and cart, and the whole area was stinking of herbals, after them.. lol..)

The bus came right away - again, and I got a comfy seat, mmm.. Dublin was sunny and gorgeous, but the sky went duller and duller as we approached Bray, so I was almost expecting it to be cold and rainy in Bray, but it wasn't actually too bad at all. There was even some blue sky, and it was very warm as well, but I wouldn't say hot..

My feet were absolutely burning, but I went to Tesco as I wanted some ice cream or such.. The only thing I wanted was Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream, but I'm just not going to pay over €6 for a tiny tub of ice cream, FFS.. So, I bought some twister lollies instead. And Pepsi Max. I rarely drink that sort of stuff, but I'm having a little Pepsi Max phase now.


Aaaaaaahhhhhhh.. It was SO good to sit in the garden and dip my feet in ice cold water (which actually started boiling, soon after I took this photo.. heh..)