Sparky Brand

Adobe Edge

2011-11-03T12:10:00.004Z

Been playing around with Adobe Edge a little bit, it's an HTML 5 animationdesign interface. The iPad and iPhone don't use Adobe Flash and so it's something that I'm going to need to learn! I love learning new software. Thankfully Edge is fairly straightforward. Bit basic at the moment though. I only learnt about it a few days ago. Exciting! http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/edge/

Halloween

2011-10-31T22:33:00.001Z

Had a great Halloween at Karinas last weekend! :-)

Quite enjoyed that he he

Lucky

2011-10-06T23:46:00.001+01:00

Zorbing in Dorchester

2011-09-18T20:40:00.001+01:00

Binscombe woods

2011-07-24T15:20:00.001+01:00

GeoTagged, [N51.22684, E0.57483]

Chauffered

2011-07-05T22:47:00.001+01:00

Cookie loves being 'chauferred' too!

Ich bin ein berliner! Yum yum!

2011-06-21T21:10:00.001+01:00

GeoTagged, [N52.51830, W13.39051]

Cookie's favorite pastime

2011-06-17T09:23:00.000+01:00

Like many other dogs, Cookie's favorite pastime is catching balls in the back garden.

And then chilling out on the sofa...

Basement railing

2011-06-16T09:18:00.002+01:00

Frog, Becka and I all agree this is a terrible excuse for a bannister as you come into the basement. It confused all of us as to whether it was some kind of support too. We are now very confident it is nt and I've started sawing it away! (It's concreted into the floor)

Missing the Mazda

2011-06-13T07:48:00.002+01:00

Although it has been raining the past few days, I do really miss the Mazda at the moment! :-( Ah, well - much better off without it. And anyway, we wouldn't be able to fit Cookie-cuddles in there!

visits

2011-06-11T16:07:00.002+01:00

Was nice to see mum and dad this week. I think they really liked Cookie. Tilly especially got on well with her! :-)

Cookie, fashioning her cool seat belt harness for the car!

My new design studio!

2011-06-11T11:00:00.000+01:00

I finally have a new design studio. After a hell of a lot of hard work in the basement, it's all come together. It still needs the odd bit doing here and there, including a long work surface, but it's otherwise in a state where I can get some decent work done. It's actually a lot better than I ever expected it to be!

Have a look at this earlier post for comparison!

Friendly

2011-06-11T09:57:00.001+01:00

Little Miss 'Sniffle-Nose'

2011-06-10T21:48:00.004+01:00

Cookie has the sniffiliest nose around. I call her 'Little Miss sniffle nose'!

She also has slippery pads. Need to sort the house out a bit more!

Sleepy sniffle-noooose!

Chris Carr - 'Victims'

2011-06-08T08:52:00.003+01:00

Quite proud of Chris at the moment. His new film 'Victims' is getting a lot of media attention. It stars ex- 'The beautiful south' singer Briana Corigan as well as Hattie Morahan (Outnumbered, Sense and Sensibility).

I really can't wait to see it. http://www.facebook.com/VictimsFilm

Frogs birthday

2011-06-05T23:36:00.001+01:00

It was Frogs birthday a few weeks ago, a small affair since he doesn't really think much of it.

Being a good girl today

2011-06-04T13:48:00.005+01:00

Cookie is being a good girl today. I'm downstairs in the basement plastering, and she doesn't like being left alone. I'm making up for it with some extra long ball throwing in the back garden, which is her favorite pastime. She's addicted to tennis balls and although tries, has not mastered holding more than one in her mouth at a time.

Though, I have to say, she's not always very graceful.

Fixing up the basement.

2011-06-04T13:04:00.006+01:00

My 'studio' down in the basement was in need of some serious re-build. It's basically falling apart around me and so I decided to undertake the rather long and tiring job of fixing it up.

It needs a lot of re-plastering, especially on the ceiling, which regularly falls on your head when you are in there.

The added problem is the masses of junk that I have to work with. Some of it's lovely, but it's a bit too much at times.....

Stage one (the hardest stage) Getting Frog to sort out some of his junk! Believe it or not, he had almost finished at this photo.

\\

I uncovered some real problems along the way. Today part of the top edge fell away! My dad suggested a bit of bespoke wood, then a few coats of plaster.

Ideally, I would like to plaster the whole wall flat, but I don't think we have the budget for it. For now I'm just filling in the really big holes!

Getting there! This is the entrance / stairway, It needs some tidying up, but this parts more or less done.
I might construct a new bannister at some point.

Amie Soto Blossom

2011-06-04T12:39:00.002+01:00

It's been a really sad week. We've gained a dog and lost one. Amie will be missed so much by everyone. She was really so special :-(

Bye bye Aimes x

January 31st 1998 - June 2nd 2011

Cookie meets 'Chops'

2011-06-01T23:21:00.003+01:00

Becka and I were very nervous about Cookie and Chops meeting for the first time. Thankfully it went really well! Perhaps too well - Chops took more of a liking to to Cookie than she really wanted.

Cookie Bunz

2011-05-29T20:20:00.006+01:00

Here is 'Cookie Bunz' the cutest Brittany you'll ever meet. She's 3 and a half and full of energy, but it soon runs out after a few ball throws. 5 minutes later, she's back for more! She's so well behaved, responsive and super cuddly!

Sadly, her life before was spent chained up in Greece. You can see how sore her neck is on this photo below... :-(

But from today, she's with us at Ferry Cottage and she'll be incredibly spoilt. She's not so good with stairs as she isn't really used to them, and we had a hilarious moment when she saw herself in the mirror for the first time. ha ha . I get the impression she didn't have much of a 'puppyhood'. :-/

She loves her new bed, and 'raggy' her new soft toy! We'll keep you updated!

Cookie Monster

2011-05-23T21:03:00.002+01:00

Koh Phi Phi / Maya Bay

2011-03-12T09:07:00.002Z

Here's my last video for now. I actually edited it days ago, but couldn't find a decent enough internet connection to upload it with.

Chiang Mai to Phi Phi

2011-03-10T05:18:00.001Z

On way to phuket

2011-03-06T05:24:00.001Z

Hi all. Said goodbye to nibbles this morning, now sitting in departure lounge at Chiang mai. Flying from very north to south. Bypassing all those really horrible journeys.

Unfortunately got to stay in phuket tonight as the ferry to koh phi phi left this morning.

Been editing my latest vid. Its a good one.

Missing nibbles already, wish i could take him with me!.....nibbles.

Trekking around Chiang Mai

2011-03-05T18:14:00.004Z

Because I wasn't paying enough attention I can't actually remember where it was specifically, but it was not too far from Chiang Mai that today I went on a tour. I'll say no more, you can just watch the film :-)

Lots of hiking, elephant riding and rafting! Excellent day, really fun :-)

Nibbles

2011-03-05T14:05:00.002Z

I really don't know what his real name is, but i've called him 'nibbles' due to his noticeable underbite. He was so friendly and cute!

Walking around Chiang Mai

2011-03-04T08:47:00.002Z

Today took a bit of a hike around the inner city. It's so hot today, I had to duck into a cheap restaurant for something to eat and cold water! I've eaten a lot of pad thai over the years, this was really good! Off hiking tomorrow - If I am not too tired, i'll do a video of that too!

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

2011-03-03T14:44:00.004Z

Trying something a little bit different with Sparkybrand. I'm sort of starting to get into video editing a little more seriously and so thought I would try and make a small series of videos while I travel. They won't be anything amazing and will be quite amateurish to start with, but hey!

I'm also restricted to the 'video' function on my compact camera (left the SLR at home for this trip!). It's not too bad for a compact camera, and does HD, but I think it's limited, and certainly in need of a tri-pod as you'll see!

Finally got out of Bangkok. While waiting for the train I decided I just had to eat! Found restaurant on the balcony floor of Hualumphong stn and as I was eating I overheard a guy telling another about 9/11 and I just had to join in. It's nice to hear people speak so passionately about this. They later left and I ended up chatting to a French guy 'Oliver' He was great company for the next few hours while I waited for the train, but then sort of 'lost' him as I got on the train ha ha.

The sleeper train was easily the most comfortable sleeper i've been on, it totally beat China and vietnam there. Unfortunately although it was clean and comfy there was a lot of movement and buffeting from the train and so I didn't really sleep too well. In the morning I bought some 'breakfast' from a lady on the train, which later made me quite ill! :-(

Today, decided to walk to the train station to get my ticket refunded. (2km) It was a nice walk and gave me time to soak up the surroundings.

I've decided that I will not be going back by train but instead fly to Phuket and immediately get onto a ferry to Koh Phi Phi. I think i'll stay there 5 days or so.

Still not feeling quite 100% and so I think i'm just going to do a one day hike tour from Chiang Mai. I fly out on the 6th! Can't wait to get down to the islands! Considering doing Kophangan afterward.

Bangkok

2011-02-28T14:48:00.003Z

So here I am. Sort of bored of Bangkok, it's not the nicest place in my opinion. I'm stuck here a few days longer than I wanted to, I booked my train to Chiang Mai a bit too late. stupid. Oh well.

Leaving tomorrow! Wooh.

Chatting to Becka on skype!

Forgot how horrible the traffic is here!

Not exactly staying in the nicest area, but it's got good travel links to the main train station. Hotels ok, nothing special.

Bye!!

2011-02-24T06:56:00.001Z

Off to Thailand!

Off for a bit of Backpacking

2011-02-24T05:18:00.003Z

Hi all. Off backpacking for a short spell. This time my travel plans are not plans at all, I'm more or less winging it from here!

Starting off in Bangkok, Thailand. I'll keep you updated as much as I can! x

icy!

2010-12-17T15:43:00.001Z

Bad mood

2010-12-14T19:29:00.002Z

Deciding what to do....and wearing glasses.

2010-12-09T19:52:00.002Z

What a strange month. Wondering what on earth to do with myself at the moment, though I think today I came a lot closer to the answer. Well. again, i'll have a stab at bringing the blog back to life. hmmm.

In the meantime - this from Airside.co.uk

Last full day in Reykjavik

2010-10-05T00:43:00.002+01:00

It was our last full day in Iceland today. So what did we do? Well, mostly just ate, chilled in cafe and went shopping.

Interestingly, we also ended up in a mass protest outside the parlimentary building in Reykjavik! It was crazy. Fires starting, fireworks being fired at the buildings. Interesting! There are understandably a lot of angry icelanders here in this country at the moment, and they have every right to be. The monetary system is screwed up, outdated and we will all be better off without it.

The Northern Lights....?

2010-10-04T09:04:00.000+01:00

We just returned from a tour of the Northern Lights.....sadly, we didn't see a thing! :-(

What you think are stars, are actually specs of dust on the inside of my lens...

Oh, wait. THese ones are stars.

and these.
Me, Becka and .....stars.....no greeny lights though.

So it's back on the bus.

We did it! We Toured Iceland - back in Reykjavik.

2010-10-04T03:04:00.003+01:00

Well, we did it. We are now back in Reykjavik where we started. We've handed back Jim the jeep and we are doing things by foot again! Tomorrow is our last full day here, not sure what we are going to do! Back tuesday evening.

How did we miss this before, you can charge up your car while you are parked!

and the parking laws are clearly very casual. We see a lot of bad parking here.

Barnafoss, Hraunfossar, Deildartunguhver

2010-10-02T16:05:00.004+01:00

Last night we had an un-nerving stay in a hostel where someone kept on trying our door handle every hour or so. Can't say we felt that safe there, plus it was kind of a dump. Anyway, we visited some cool geo-thermal bubbling pools in Deildartunguhver and then onto Barnafoss for some ultra-amazing rapids!

Becka getting a bit steamed up!

Becka doing a little dance! Cuuuute.

I wasn't sure about this bridge. It was right above the rapids and the supports were well rusted! Next stop - Rekjavik!

Solving aches and pains from Horse-riding....

2010-10-01T23:00:00.002+01:00

How do you remedy all the aches and pains from horse-riding? Hanging out on a hot-pool of course!

This one was 37 deg, but later we went into the 42 deg pool! Toasty!

I have some videos of my adventure down a water slide, but havent had any luck uploading them yet :-( . I think i'll do a mass video posting sesh when we get back!

Horsing around

2010-10-01T22:47:00.002+01:00

Today we hired some horses and went on a 2 hour trek! It was great fun!

Beckas horse kept relieving herself in front of me. I found it hilarious and laughed every time.

My horse was way cool.

One of our regular stopping points. The N1 services were a godsend for Coffee and petrol!

Back on the road again. We covered a lot of distance today, driving all the way back over the the west. tomorrow we will be back in Rekjavic.

Sooooo tired! And I hurt from that flippin' horse!

Whale Spotting

2010-10-01T09:00:00.004+01:00

Interesting turn of events leading up to us actually spotting a Minky whale. We had hung around for a few days in Husavic waiting for the weather to improve, but we were just not getting lucky. In the end, we gave up, and just as we were at the edge of town, leaving in the jeep Becka says' Why don't we just try them one more time and see if they are going today?'

So we turned around, back into town and incredibly, they were going out to sea! We quickly hopped on board, put on some trendy boiler suits and we were away!

How cool do I look.

Becka on the top deck looking for some whales.

and then....the weather turned again. It was soooo cold and windy! :-(

Finishing the day with er... some Sushi in Akureyri, our next stop.

Sadly, we didn't see as many whales as we would have hoped, but it was still great fun!

Godafoss

2010-10-01T08:52:00.003+01:00

Apparently when Iceland took on Christianity, someone in iceland threw all their pagan god statues into these falls - and so we visit - 'Godafoss'.

No Whales today :-(

2010-09-29T15:15:00.002+01:00

Unfortunately the wind is too strong here in Husavic for seeing whales today. I must admit, even walking up the road with the shopping we bought from the supermarket was a bit of effort! Were are a little bit sad, but are going to try again tomorrow morning. Failing that, we will have another stab at it in reykjavik when we return the jeep.

Instead, we have just been eating lots of 'Skyr', drinking coffee in a local cafe and visiting dead whales in the Whale museum.

Hmm.....

Reyðarfjörður to Husavic - Day 7

2010-09-29T10:57:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was another day of lots of driving and not seeing as much. We traveled more inland and sort of cut across a bit.

I'm sorry, but the Icelandic beer is not that nice! Frog and my dad will be enjoying a bottle when I get back. I cant drink it anymore.

Chatting to the parents on Skype.

Interesting moment when we spent 30 minutes on a horrible pot-holed road trying to reach our next hostel, only to find they were not there for another few hours. We were so tired and decided to head another 20km north into husavic to find somewhere to stay there instead! Someone (me) had left all our food at the last hostel and so we would also have gone hungry as it was the middle of nowhere!

A quick stop at Lake myvatn. I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.

Again the hotpools here were not as good as we'd heard. This was disapointing! Well, not as good as blue lagoon.

Hofn to Reyðarfjörður - Day 6

2010-09-27T17:24:00.002+01:00

I think we are in day 6 anyway. I think maybe more like 7. Anyway, today was mostly just driving, but we did stop to hang out on some mountain roads for a little while. The highlight of today was the 5km journey through the middle of a mountain! Exciting.

Morning in Hofn

2010-09-27T08:52:00.001+01:00

Nice weather for once. Well, nicer!

Vik to Hofn - Day 5

2010-09-26T22:35:00.005+01:00

We did a lot of driving today, but stopped at so many incredible things. I think so far, its been the best day.

Black sands at Vik

The Glacier that Batman climbed up in Batman begins. Its funny, it was meant to be in Tibet.

I have a worried expression on my face as the wind was threatening to pull the camera off the hood of the jeep.

We didn't realise that standing here was really dangerous due to the sinking sand. Whoops! Well, we survived. We went closer than this actually!

This close in fact!
As we left the sun started coming out, reflecting off the glacier, it was AWESOME!.

This was almost better, The glacial lagoon at Jökulsárlón! The bergs were just glowing blue, it was magical!

Blueberry Slush-puppie!

Driving to Vik - Day 4

2010-09-25T19:35:00.004+01:00

Today we picked up 'Jim' - a small, green Suzuki jeep. Most of the day was spent navigating horrible windy/stormy weather through to Vik. We stopped at some cool places on the way of course!

Becka, reading all about the Sagas. She was loving it.

Quick sandwich stop. At average £30 a meal to eat out for both of us, this was a good option!

The ol' Active 10 keeping us nicely on track! So glad we had this along, the Iceland mapping is fantastic. - Thanks Alex! :-)

'Skogafoss' AMAZING.

This is where we are blogging from, though this is not our photo. It currently looks like this, only covered in thick fog! Tomorrow we are heading up east to Höfn. Hoping the weather is better!

Golden Circle Tour - Day 3

2010-09-24T18:41:00.004+01:00

Playing with the local wildlife.

Hanging out at Gulfoss

We were playing 'spot the girlfriend'

Reykjavik - Day 2 (Blue Lagoon)

2010-09-23T22:51:00.003+01:00

This evening was spent at the Blue lagoon. It was an hour bus journey away from reykjavik, back toward to airport. It was fantastic, and certainly not a let-down. Becka and I spent the day looking forward to a massage treatment, but it was all booked up :-(

Still, the lagoon was so warm and relaxing!

I knew we had bought a waterproof camera for a reason!

The things you do for Love....

Raghh! It's the monster from the Blue lagoon.

Reykjavik - Day 2

2010-09-23T15:55:00.003+01:00

Today we did lots of walking around reykjavik! (And way too much time spent shopping lol) Went to the Perlan, which are some kind of water towers, with a cool viewing area with a revolving restaurant at the top! We didn't go to the restaurant, but managed the cafe on the floor below. We then did a big hike to the shopping centre before getting the bus back in to town. Off to Blue Lagoon in a moment. Were just sort of napping/recovering for now.

It's flippin' cold.

Becka hiking up to the Perlan.

Reykjavik - Day 1

2010-09-22T16:41:00.003+01:00

It's our first full day here in reykjavik. It's really amazing weather, though a little bit cold!

Becka and I plan our route around Iceland! We have decided to take an anti-clockwise route. We are picking up a 4x4 on Saturday, although i'm not sure how much off-roading we will be doing! Our first stop will probably be 'Vik' in the south of the country.

Hallgrimskirkja Church.

Were here! Finally

2010-09-22T11:09:00.002+01:00

It wasn't a very long flight, but its was 'bitty' A few different buses etc from the Airport, all really easy though! Arrived about 2am. The poor Guesthouse owner had to get up out of bed to let us in! Doh. Still, its great place so far. Off for a venture!

I even got to watch Die-Hard on the plane! Guessing from the limited movie selection from Icelandair, i'll be watching it on the way home too! :-/

Bit late, but were here!

leaving for iceland!

2010-09-21T20:37:00.001+01:00

leaving for iceland in an hour or so! currently at heathrow- byeeee!

Married!

2010-09-20T11:45:00.000+01:00

Leaving for Iceland tomorrow! We'll try to keep you updated along the way!

sams wedding

2010-07-25T12:38:00.001+01:00

becka and i are at sams wedding today! parked in possibly the tightest car park in the whole world. bad idea bringing the big car!

little birdie

2010-06-25T11:02:00.001+01:00

just rescued a little bird that flew into our window at work! he was a little stunned, but drove him to a wildlife centre down the road.

Bbq fest!

2010-06-25T11:01:00.001+01:00

We bought a bbq a few weeks ago. only had it going 3 times so far. maybe well use it this weekend.

passing by the old uni

2010-06-17T10:35:00.001+01:00

was passing through exeter the other day and bex and i had to stop and see the old uni!

car

2010-06-17T10:34:00.001+01:00

campbell and i watch cai on crufts

2010-04-02T11:55:00.001+01:00

so much blogging to catch up on. ill start with the day campbell and i sat watching cai competing in flyball at crufts!

iphone posts

2010-03-30T16:55:00.001+01:00

ok, so i can now do my blog from my iphone. will this mean more posts? maybe. lets see how i get on. i need to work out how to do photos.

Yeah Yeah Design Gift cards

2009-11-29T22:03:00.000Z

Yeah Yeah Design Gift Cards: Everyone wants them!

Becka Studios

2009-11-09T20:18:00.001Z

Becka finally got around to sorting out the spare room properly this week. Now she can paint freely without being stuck in the corner of the room!

Flame and Oli visit

2009-11-05T23:17:00.002Z

Had a very nice random visit from Flame and Oli again. They last came to see us earlier in the year : http://sparkybrand.blogspot.com/2009/01/flame.html

They are a week away from a massive, massive drive around the world in this old van thats going to take them all the way back to New Zealand!

quick tour around their van! they even have a shower! Bonus.

Susans new Dog-mobile!

2009-11-04T11:40:00.001Z

Susan told us she had finally found a new van to drive the mutts around in. Although it has no windows I think the boyz will be much more comfortable in here! She picks it up soon i think. Thankfully she agreed with me about getting rid of the daft looking wheels. (replacing them of course, not getting rid of them completely...you cant drive a van with no wheels dummy)

http://www.madmerles.blogspot.com/

Natural History Museum

2009-10-31T10:20:00.000Z

Becka and I borrowed Kiann and Jake so that they could take us to thenatural history museum for the day!

911 was an inside job

2009-10-29T20:30:00.001Z

I had actually meant to post this waaay back in February just before I left for Japan, but ran out of time, then forgot! I photoshopped it of course, but hey, a lot of things are fabricated lately! :-P

Rubbish!

2009-10-27T11:47:00.001Z

Guildford has just made us recyclers whether we like it or not due to their new scheme. It's definitly a good idea, but sadly we've had to take down our reminder that was stuck to the door as all the pickup days have changed. So that it can live forever, here it is on my blog! :-)

Field

2009-10-27T11:44:00.002Z

So many things I want to post at the moment, but reluctant to stick it all on at once. I'll start with this.

Sort of been working on this for a while, coming back to it now and again. I guess somehow now it's autumn it seems the right time to post it, whether finished or not.

Frame Restoration - pt2

2009-10-27T11:30:00.000Z

You may remember a little while back, Becka was restoring some frames for work. Well arn't they amazing!? I cant believe the difference. She's so clever. :-)

Sparkhimi battles the silver and blue robots

2009-10-22T07:06:00.002+01:00

This is how long I have to wait for pik up (because of the bad traffic)

More Dubai

2009-10-20T09:57:00.000+01:00

Still here at the GITEX Show!

GITEX 09 in Dubai

2009-10-19T18:09:00.003+01:00

Im here in Dubai for the 2009 GITEX show. Im doing some bits and peices for Panasonic via H2O. The show is truly incredible! http://www.panasonic-gitex.com/

Dubai

2009-10-17T15:11:00.002+01:00

Arrived in Dubai last night. Looks like I've got a really busy week ahead of me! If you have time, check out the Panasonic GITEX show website. (The reason I'm here this week) www.panasonic-gitex.com
I've already had a peek at them setting it up, it looks incredible so far!

Picture Restoring

2009-10-17T15:08:00.003+01:00

Beckas been at home restoring a frame for the last few days. It's amazing how she makes it look so amazing afterward.

House Party

2009-10-06T15:36:00.002+01:00

I can't remember the last time I actually went to a house party. This particular event was of the 'Black and Neon Pink' variety. It was great fun and amazing food!

Au Revoir Simone/Alessi's Ark tonight

2009-10-02T11:03:00.003+01:00

Becka, Will and I are all off to see Au Revoir Simone and Alessi's Ark play tonight. Really excited as they are both amazing bands we've been playing non-stop lately. It's like a 2 for 1 deal!

I'll let you know how it goes! Unsure whether to take the SLR/flashgun or put up with a crappy camera phone? lol

Twitter

2009-10-01T12:41:00.002+01:00

I've become very poor at doing my blog this year and so to help me get back into it, i've just joined this flippin' Twitter business. https://twitter.com/yeahyeahdesign

Shed demolition

2009-10-01T12:22:00.003+01:00

While we were away last week Frog went and demolished the shed in the rain. We found all sorts of goodies inside!

Now we have to get a new one!

Rick and Claires new flat

2009-10-01T12:18:00.002+01:00

We spent last weekend at Claire and Rics new flat up in Manchester (and acting as courier for most of his belongings!) Because My car is on the operating table having a gearbox transplant I had to borrow Jasons Mitsubishi shogun. Was a bit of fun. I just stuck it on cruise control and put my feet up the whole way. (exageration)

Has a great time, went to the Comedy store, had a walk around. Was very chilled.

I caught Becka raiding their biscuit supply!

Catching up with me Bro

2009-10-01T12:15:00.001+01:00

Steves come to visit for a few weeks which is nice! Though he's all over the country at the moment sorting out setting up H20 in the UK.

Visiting Susan and the Boyz + 1 Girl Pt 2 - + Car digging

2009-09-02T01:24:00.001+01:00

Visiting Susan and the Boyz + 1 Girl

2009-09-02T01:22:00.002+01:00

New Websites from 'Yeah Yeah Design!'

2009-08-12T22:08:00.002+01:00

Hi all,

Sorry for not blogging for such a long time...again. Guess the whole bloggin phenomenon has wound down a bit. Still, I do want to keep it going. I've been really busy these past weeks with two websites. Firstly the official 'Yeah Yeah Design' website.

www.yeahyeahdesign.com

and the much anticipated 'Property Refresh' website. This is not live yet, but i'm sure a sneak previe wont be a problem

www.markvaileportfolio.co.uk/pr

Wamble Friend

2009-07-26T21:43:00.002+01:00

Some recent pics of Campbell! He was lucky enough to have a free professional doggie massage the other day. I think Campbell was getting the wrong idea. Susan said that this was his 'sexy Face'. hmmm ha ha ha

Ferry Cottage - Before and after

2009-06-30T10:11:00.000+01:00

Been busy doing up Frogs cottage lately. Been finding it quite a nice break away from work now and again. Still haven't done the floor in the kitchen, but that's next! Click on the pics to see more detail!

Got rid of all those 'holes' in the ceiling of the toilet.

Still lots of bits and peices to do here and there.

Bye Sleeks/Sneaks

2009-06-25T18:02:00.000+01:00

Bye Sleeks! Such a lovely cat. x

Alfie

2009-06-16T13:13:00.002+01:00

Had a visit from Alfie the other day. Such a friendly dog, though very powerful!

Rideout - Spinal Research

2009-06-09T19:49:00.003+01:00

Spinal Research's 'Rideout' Campaign went ahead this week, with apparently amazing weather! I've recently been doing some various work for them that I will post once it's all complete.

Month Off

2009-06-08T16:36:00.004+01:00

As you may have noticed Sparkybrand had a long long break. In fact, I'll be posting far far less from now on. Once a day was just taking up too much time for me i'm afraid! I'll also be changing the type of posts. I'm aiming it more toward design as well as photography from now on. To start us off, here's a picture I took off my phone last week. I completely forgot I took this. It was me in some dingy street in Hanoi, sitting on a plastic childrens chair drinking home made beer (that I swear was cider) that cost me about 30 pence! And yes, it was very disgusting.

Phuket to Bangkok (again)

2009-04-25T13:28:00.000+01:00

My trips more or less at an end now....

Said goodbye to Becka and Lizzie in Phuket and got a terrifyingly long 15hr bus journey all the way up to Bangkok almost immediatly after! at 3am I arrived to Khao san rd and pretty much just went walked into the nearest cheap hotel. as fate would have it , it was in fact probably the most dingiest, dirtiest hotel i've stayed at yet! Still, i didnt care at the point, my legs still ache! ha ha

Missing you's already
x

This is the dude driving the airport bus to Phuket town (after saying bye to the girls) He just kept randomly laughing at things for no reason. It was very confusing.

It actually looks respectable in this photo, but I assure you...It was a hell hole!! must stop exagerating.
Khao san rd from my window. Kinda hate the place to be honest. but they do very cheap genuine rolexes here......

Phi Phi

2009-04-25T13:21:00.002+01:00

The Dude with the Monkey

2009-04-25T13:16:00.003+01:00

This guy was on the boat from Phi Phi to Phuket. Becka and I were suspicious that his monkey was one of the ones we had read about in our travel books. Apprently there parents are killed when they are very young and they are forced to do tricks and stuff for tourists. Some tourists on the boat asked him and he said he was taking it to the Gibbon rehabilitation centre in Phuket. We had heard of this place, but somehow Becka and I were not very convinced! Hmmmm.

This guy just got randomly hugged by the little monkey. She was so cute.

Thai Boxing

2009-04-22T05:12:00.005+01:00

Went to see some boxing last night. It gets pretty vicious. One european guy got seriously hurt! (ill upload a video soon) We all tried to help the poor guy with the shattered hip/knee but the establishment just tried to get him off the stage as quick as possible so the next fight can start! We were pretty pissed off. Becka and i did our part by clearing a path for the makeshift stretcher (a bench!) Ross suffered ripped shorts while helping him out of the ring. Was crazy.

Ko Phi Phi

2009-04-21T13:45:00.002+01:00

Beckas Breakfast this morning! Check out the egg moulds.
Climbing the steps to the viewpoint! So many! was hard work.

Finally made it to the top.

Theres not as much evidence of the Tsunami as i thought, but now and again you come across mess everywhere!

Travelling to Phi Phi

2009-04-21T03:10:00.002+01:00

Theres me, hiding behind the life jackets!

The guy that sold us some accomodation.

Somehow wasn't that interested.....

Becka checking out some books.

Turns out weve landed on another 'Bucket' Island (full of drunken fools) A bit like Ko Phangan i think Well, see how it goes! Off to Maya bay today!

Speaking to Soggibottom on Skype

2009-04-19T15:09:00.002+01:00

Kao Sok - Cave Swimming

2009-04-18T15:48:00.002+01:00

yes, thats a torch not a cigarette!
was a bit deep! felt quite dangerous
Suprised my camera has survived the last 3 months. its taken quite a beating and has been patched up a little!