06/08/10

The Shed truly is International!

I love checking out the web stats on the shed. Not only does it tell me how many hits the site gets, but it also tell you where the hits are coming from. I can see when and how long Magoo has been on line or BC in Dublin or Pat In Montreal, there's even a regular user in Sunnyvale California, Keith Mathieson perhaps. But I was a little worried when I checked this morning and noticed that for the past 2 months, the highest user was based in Moscow. Initially I thought it was a Russian gang in the act of identity theft. Thankfully, the pages visited and hits made by this user are exactly the same, which means it's automated, why, I don't know. It could be the Russians spying, but it's most likely a spammer who made a mistake with an email address.

Jim

03/08/10

Wow, the baby's heart is getting stronger. Click on the pic to listen.

Jim

02/09/10

I really believe that Apple will never stop making amazing gadgets!

I've got to get me one of these!

Jim

30/08/10

To all working on this beautiful bank holiday...

OOONNNLLLUUUCCCCKKKKKKYYYYYYYYYY!!!

What a day to be off!

Jim

25/08/10

A fine weekend just had! What a result for the Super Caley! This is the beginning of a winning streak I tells ya! Next season, Europe!

It's fookin' mental at work this week. A combination of the festival and it being just really busy means the days are flying by. I'm working with Richard 'Cocaine Barron' Bacon tomorrow for a BBC3 world cup programme. I'll be in studio with him for 8 hours, so hope he's not a twat.

Jim

21/08/10

Oh yes! Birthday brews are only a few hours away. I'm starting my 36th revolution around the sun and to celebrate, I'm off out to Tuechters for a few pints of their tastiest lager, Black Isle Organic Blond. Will probably have some food their and watch the results come in too. It's probably the last birthday I can do this so need to go out in style.

Today, Carol gave me a beard trimmer which doubles up as a nose and ear hair trimmer, exceptionally usefully the older I get. I also got some super hero pants and new socks, which I'm wearing right now...obviously with some jeans and a new T-Shirt.

It's also Rick McKay's mum's birthday today, Barry Norman's (the film reviewer) and Rick Lowry's (Rick Cool) too. Kim Kitral, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hayden Panettiere (the indestructible chick from Heroes) also share the same birthday.

So some football, some tasty beer and a day to recover, what more can a man want!

Jim

17/08/10

Last night, Carol and I had another listen to the baby's heart and we got a really good resut. If you fancy, click on the image to listen or right click to download.

Jim

16/08/10

If there was a god of football, I probably ran over his dog. I am cursed! Saturday was full of promise only to be a disappointing 24 hours. The first mistake was putting money on Caley to beat Celtic and the way things were going in the 1st half, I was looking at some profit. That all changed when Celtic stepped up their game and Caley stepped down and conceded the only goal of the game.

Second mistake was to put Chris Kirkland in goal in the FF. His team were playing newly promoted Blackpool at home, I mean, what are the chances of him conceding any goals?...try 4 successful chances, -10 points he cost me.

And the misery continues. A couple of weeks ago, I watched Joe Cole play his first game for Liverpool in a Europa Cup qualifier, he looked amazing "a smart buy" I though to myself. He got sent off in the first half against Arsenal yesterday, fanny!

I should be upbeat as I'm not even last, but with Man U playing tonight, it's only a matter of time before The Godfellas and GooseStepUnited take Cambridge Poopshoot from the rear!

Jim

13/08/10

Here we go! We have a full league ready to go for the start of the Fantasy Football League 2010/2011. Who will be the first to drop out? who will be the highest weekly scorer? but most importantly, can someone stop Paul from a 3rd consecutive championship win! Only time will tell!

Enjoy people!

Jim

09/08/10

Crack all!

Magoo paid a flying visit to the capital on Saturday. We had a mini pub crawl in Leith and man I'm still feeling it today, age + booze = nackerd. Even though Caley play Celtic this weekend, I'll have my backside firmly welded to the waggon!

Last week I got an email from the Vancouver Southsiders asking me to do a voice over for a promotional video FOC, so I did thinking I was helping them out, I got an email back this morning saying they are going to use someone else! So I wrote to ask who they used with the hope that it's an English voice over doing a Scottish Accent! That's the last time I try and help someone!

Jim

06/08/10

Happy Friday people!

Ooohhh, it's so close! The start of Scottish & Premier Leagues is only a week away. I've got Sky Sports sorted out for the gaff with the sole purpose of being able to watch some games and pick the best players for my fantasy football team. But I'm a firm believer that you need luck with the FF, something I've been lacking in of late. So with a bit of scouting and lady luck on my side, I'll be gazing down from the top of the leagues at the other rubbish teams.

Magoo is arriving in Edinburgh tomorrow for a night. I think the plan is to stay in the pub and watch football, the Championship League starts tomorrow. And with a well embedded hangover on Sunday, there is plenty of football on TV to keep the beer spoked brain occupied! I'm already feeling a little be sorry for Carol. Being a football widow can't be easy!

Jim

03/08/10

OK - the start of the football season is showing us a half exposed breast whilst beckoning seductively and to make the season's start even more exciting, Caley vs Celtic is live on TV at midday on the 14th. So why don't you sweeten the deal by joining this years Fantasy Football league?

Click here to join

The password is: shed

Let see if you can put a stop to Paul's hat trick!

Jim

01/08/10

What's up all?

I'm just back from our mega drive around the country seeing relatives on both sides of the family. It's been pretty exhausting, but in a good way. We also managed to get a couple of beers with Paul and Kirsty in Inverness as we were passing through.

Slap bang in the middle of our trip we had our anomalies scan. This was the one I was worried about. Thankfully, everything looks in order and we are all good to go for December. I was blown away by the detail of the scan, you could see all the vertebrae in the spine and the lens of the eye, but the best part was when we focused on baby's nose and mouth and the baby looked like a real baby, I know that sounds odd, but I hadn't seen any facial features until then. Amazing stuf! And as you can see, baby has got a cute little nose, just like her dad!

Jim

22/07/10

Have a listen to this.

I bought a doppler monitor. It's the best 20 quid I've ever spent!

Jim

21/07/10

I had one of those days on Monday that I would quiet happily forget. Carol was complaining of stomach pains and wasn't feeling well at all. Not good! So headed to the GP who checked her out and said he thought the baby was fine, but suspected it was appendicitis. Still not good! So, got to hospital and the staff got Carol on a drip and did more tests. They used the Doppler microphone to have a listen to babies heart, prior to it's use I was shitting myself, but thankfully there was the familiar sound of the fetal heart beat drumming away at 80 bpms. The doctors still weren't sure what was up with Carol so they kept her in overnight.

The next day, the doctors surmised it was probably a touch of gastroenteritis and nothing more and sent Carol home.

It wasn't fun, but as you can see, I tried to keep Carol's sprits up by goofing around with what I could find in the hospital room, that's me sporting a rather fetching sick pan on my head, it was unused of course.

I think I aged by ten years on Monday!!

Jim

19/07/10

Quality weekend just past. Managed to neck quite a few beers on Saturday afternoon. Carol and I met up with Heather for a late Saturday afternoon lunch. With Carol being preggers, she can't drink, so I knew the time I had in the restaurant/bar was limited so set to work on burying a bunch of lagers. And I did.

Went to see Inception last night. It's not bad like. There are some amazing special effects in it and worth seeing on the big screen, though at over 2 hours long, it may be more comfortable to watching it at home. The story is pretty complex and you are kept on your toes trying to keep up with it. I can't really go into any detail about the story as it may ruin it for you, but you will leave the cinema scratching your head.

Jim

14/07/10

Holy shit people, where is the sun today? The photo across was taken 5 minutes ago at 9am from my works front door and it's gushing it down. It's as dark as night out too! Finally the scottish summer kicks in.

The weather doesn't help the football cold turkey I'm going through and the thought of waiting another 4 years for my next overdose isn't a pleasant one. I suppose there's the European Champs in 2012 along with the olympics. Still, only 4 weeks till the Scottish Premier League kicks off!!! I think I'll be re-installing ESPN to get some of the Caley games much to Carol's annoyance!

We are off to Ooobelyooooo land at the end of the month to see Carol's relatives. I'm looking forward to the jokes poked at me about 'haggis' and 'whisky' though the one about 'being tight with money' is contradictory. To counter balance the smell of coal powered power stations and the constant distant rumble of traffic we're heading up to the Northwest of Scotland for sea fresh air and absolute silence, a sound engineers dream I might add, for our last visit to the Perfume Studio.

Jim

10/07/10

Word people.

I managed to get round to chopping the video I took from the Ladsapalooza. Click on Nase's face to jump to the movies page.

Went to see Shrek 3 - it was rubbish. The 3D commercials before the film were more entertaining!

Jim

08/07/10

Crack all. Another weekend is fast approaching and I plan on getting a lot of Playstaioning done! I bought Red Dead Redemption last week and can't stop playing it. It's so good, it encouraged me to head to HMV and buy a bunch of Clint Eastwood movies. When you play the game, you are Clint Eastwood, but you can be a bad Clint Eastwood and rob banks, lasso and hog tie women and shoot anyone, or horse if you like, in head guilt free - though Carol doesn't like it when I shoot my ever faithful horse even though the fucker deserved it for throwing me off whilst being chased by the law. So to gain the paying time, I'm going to have to work my ass off tonight in the garden and after that give the house a good hoover. Rock and roll!

World cup final is on Sunday!! The Dutch will win, saying that, all of my predictions have been wrong. Who cares, it's football on TV. It's a shame it's on on Sunday night.

As you can see, or can't if you haven't refreshed your web page, the Shed has changed again as it's continues to evolves in it's perpetual pursuit of perfection.

Jim

05/07/10

I'm loving the new car. It's very comfortable to drive and you don't feel exposed as I did with the MX5. It's quiet, smooth, fast, clean and even smells better than the old car. My only faults with it are - it's doesn't have any AC gas in it, but the garage I got it from are sending a mobile AC guy down to fill it next week and the second issue is that the breaks sometimes squeak when applied, but I've put this down to it not being used for a while. But what's great about this car is, it's very suitable for impending children with 5 doors and has a massive boot, it's got 6 air bags, ESP anti skid control and a special function for winter driving. So it's safe as fuck! More importantly, it's NOT a people carrier, if we had got one of those, it would have been the first step towards a brutal and embarrassing emasculation!

Jim

29/06/10

After been bitterly disappointed with England's performance on Sunday, I felt the need to be cheered up, so went out and bought a new car. We needed to get rid of the MX5 as 2 seats are tricky with a baby on the way plus the MX5's tax an MOT were due. So I got rid of the hair dressing mobile and got myself a 2007 VW golf 1.4. It's got 5 doors and a massive boot for prams and baby gear. It's got a FSH and only 24k on the clock. So all in all it's not a bad little motor...oh yea, and it has a turbo and supercharger under the bonnet giving it 170bhp and goes as fast a fookin' beast from hell. When I took it for a test drive and gunned it on the open road, I was a little bit scared. But the sound of the turbo whistling and the supercharger grunting away, I fell in love with the car.

I pick it up on Thursday. Can't wait!

Jim

24/06/10

This weekend Carol and I will be heading back to the Royal Highland Show. We were so impressed with it last year when we went with Pat and MC, we knew we'd have to go back this year. Carol parents are over visiting so it's an ideal venue to take them to.

Apart from cooing at large tractors and laughing at funny sheep this weekend, Sunday is a day of sport from noon, it's the Valencia Grand Prix, followed by the England Germany game FOLLOWED by Argentina vs Mexico! What more could you ask for?

Jim

24/06/10

Well well well. England are going to have to play Germany in the last 16. To be honest, I didn't really care who England got in the last 16, I just wanted them to get through the group stage AND I believe on Sunday the young German side will destroy England. I think it's going to 3 nil to the Germans. So I'm going to focus my concentration on the Americans, who I have a 2 bucks bet on to win the world cup at 80/1.

USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA!

Jim

23/06/10

Today is my and Carol's 4th wedding anniversary. It's a special one as it's during the world cup. I can't believe it's been 4 years since we got married, it's just flown by. It's also 8 years to the day that Carol and I met. I think this is the same for Magoo & Elaina and Colin & Deirdre. 8 years, that's mental! Not forgetting it's Dan & Stephs wedding anniversary too. 3 years and going strong! Congrats guys!

ALSO today, we are going to go through it all again. England play Slovenia and England need to win to stay in the world cup! The game kicks off at 3pm. I'll be able to watch the 1st half but will be in session for the 2nd half. It's going to be tense afternoon!

Jim

21/06/10

After a weekend on shame, I don't feel too bad being English considering what the French team are going through, there's even talk that they may not play their last game against South Africa. It's a real proper strop over Domenech sending Anelka home for giving him a mouth full. Anelka was probably taking the piss out of him cos' he looks like one of the Thunderbirds:

Anelka: Oh, Domenech! You look like ze puppet who drives ze car eh!

Jim

18/06/10a

Holy Shit!!! How rubbish were England tonight????? The highest paid football team at the World Cup can't pay football. Every year the company I work for pay me more to encourage me to work harder and I do. If I was working for a million pound a year, I'd make sure I was the best commercial producer in the world.

Just embarrassing!!!

Jim

18/06/10

Wooooooo!!!! It's Friday and there is football on the TV tonight!

It's hard not to get excited about the England game and I must say as time has gone by, my interest in the England football team has diminished, but this morning, I'm stuck heavily with World Cup Fever. As not to be racially abused, I'm going to watch the game indoors with a few tins of lager. There's nothing worse than being surround by a bunch of Scottish morons jealous that their team is shite and isn't playing.

A bid you all a superb weekend and say COME ON ENGLAND!!!

Jim

16/06/10

Happy birthday to the BC. I though it was last week, but it's today. Have a good one BC!

I just noticed on my new ipad that the Ladsapalooza photos hadn't been submitted correctly on the site. It's now fixed and the photos can now be seen on the photos page.

Back to the ipad. This machine is amazing. I think I am more excited about this than I was about my 1st iphone. Rather than go into the details of how brilliant this device is, all you need to do is pick one up and you'll understand!

I'm loving the world cup at the moment. There is too many games to watch, suffering from football overload!

Jim

13/06/10

Crack like. The 3rd and best Palooza has just ended and by the way I'm feeling, it's been a pretty good weekend - lots of football and lots of booze.

Jim

06/06/10

We finally managed it! After 4 years of hard work, we made a baby. Say hello to the new member of the Walker-Lyon clan. We are at the 3 month stage so things are all looking good. There are a few more tests to go, but from the first couple of scans we've had, everything is going to plan. Obviously we are nervous and hope nothing goes wrong, but we are also extremely excited. All being well, the due date is the 19th of December.

On the subject of births, well kind of, it was Tim's birthday last week and I believe it's the BC's today. So happy birthday to you both!

This weekend is the anticipated Ladsapalooza. So far there are 2 casualties, Scot Dog and Little Chris. They will be suitably shamed over the weekend. I will be arriving in Inverness on Thursday night in preparation for the BBQ on Friday.

Jim

29/05/10

Word Up,

I imported Carol's camera photos from our Dublin trip only to discover that her photos were better than mine. So I've thrown them on the shed.

Jim

23/05/10

Crack all,

A superb weekend just had. Went over to see Colin & Dierdre in Dublin and we were blessed with some decent weather. Winter has finally gone! In fact, as I'm writing this, I can feel my arms tingling a bit from the sun burn. As always, I took loads of photos is you are interested in seeing them, click on the pic to see. Our weekend away was book ended by celebrities. As we arrived at passport control in Dublin we spotted Jedward, we didn't speak to them as they are wankers, and at the airport as we left, we bumped into Simon Amstell - Carol said hello to him. On top of it being a brilliant weekend, I experienced my first 3D football game on TV - it was fookin' awesome!!!!!! I cannot recommend this enough, it was like watching the game through a window.

Jim

19/05/10

New Shed People. Exciting Stuff!

Only 3 weeks till the 3rd Ladsapalooza!! Oh Yea!

Also off to Dublin to see Colin and Deidre tomorrow. Looking forward to a pint of Guiness!

Jim.

17/05/10

Ahh, the dreaded ash cloud is coming back like a movie titled monster that's died 50 minutes into the film. The weather dudes reckon that it's going to pass later today so it's not going to affect our flights to the Emerald Isle on Thursday. In the picture, does it not look like iceland is taking a great big red piss all over us?

A good weekend just past, the Monaco GP was entertaining, watched Iron Man 2, it was OK, a lot of CGI fighting going on and witnessed the worst Scottish Cup Final ever. Dundee beat Ross County 3-0 in a dull as dish water game. With retarded determination, County refused to score goals. It's no wonder that the finished 5th in the First Division, where as we, the mighty Caley Thistle, soared beyond the boundaries of that remedial league into the glory of the Premier Division!

Jim.

09/05/10

Congratulations to Paul for winning yet another Shed League title.

Is there no one out there that can beat him?

And it's a Simon one two as Kirsty pips the BC on the last day of the season to finish 2nd! The winners medals will be presented at the End of Season Drinks on the 11th of June in Inverness.

Jim.

06/05/10

Today is general election day and we've all been promised change by who ever gets in. The only change that I'm aware off is the probable hike in VAT and other taxes to pay our way out of the deficit over the next few years.

Normally I would vote right wing, but there is something about David Cameron that's not right. So I may head for the middle. I'm sure what ever I do, 1 vote won't make a difference.

Last weekend of premiership football this weekend. Then a small break until THE END OF SEASON DRINKS (LADSAPALOOZA) & THE WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jim.

27/04/10

I really hope we can get results like this next season.

I chose not to go to the game on Saturday, but I am telling myself that if I had gone, we would have lost dreadfully and I'm sure if I was there, I would be suffering from a mental hangover even today (Tuesday)

It's a long weekend this weekend. Oh yea!

Jim.

21/04/10

GIVE ME A 'C'

GIVE ME AN 'A'

GIVE ME AN 'L'

GIVE ME AN 'E'

GIVE ME A 'Y'

WHAT DOES IT SPELL!!!!!!

Jim.

17/04/10

This volcano going nuts in Iceland is brilliant! I think it's so exciting that the earth sneezes and it screws up all the flights in Europe. There's proof of it too, check out the pic across, the ash is starting to cover everything, god knows what it's doing to our lungs. News reports this morning were saying that we could run out of certain types of fruit and veg as it usually gets flown in - mental or what! No bananas!

Jim.

13/04/10

I had an amazing weekend! Not only did Caley take another step towards qualification into the Premier League, but my horse won the Grand National earning me 40 quid profit, I also had the horse that came in 2nd too. But the biggest surprise of the day was when I met Professor Brian Cox. I was sat outside a pub up town having a pint and he walk past with his family. So said hello and shook his hand, I had a million questions going through my head and all I said was 'It's an honor to meet you' - I know, totally gay! I wanted to ask how things at the LHC are going and if the higgs boson would be discovered in then next couple of years. To be honest I was a bit star struck.

Jim.

06/04/10

A fine easter break had. Didn't do too much but I did take the new camera for a spin. You can watch the movie by click on the image across.

The mighty Caley are still on the charge. Only 5 games to go til' the end of the season, can we hang on!

Also, you've heard of music mashups, the new thing is 'video shreds' - click on the link to see.

Jim.

02/04/10

Yea - it's easter! and I'm still trying to work out what the relevance between a 2000 year old jewish bloke and chocolate eggs.

It's a poignant easter as it's 10 years this weekend that I've been working for Red Facilities and living in Edinburgh. I couldn't believe it when I checked the dairy yesterday. A' decade' - it sounds so long! I can't believe how quickly that time has flown. The guys at work gave me a great gift which totally surprised me, so I plan of celebrating this weekend but Carol is under the weather so may just stay in and have a few celebratory beers in the house.

I got a text from Canadian Pat last night saying that they are having the hottest easter ever - 25c - snow to summer in a couple of weeks, mental!!

Enjoy your holidays!!!

23/03/10

Hello people!

I'm feeling very pleased with myself tonight. I've been franticly ebaying and got much more than I expected for the items I was selling. The sales are making possible for the purchase of the Canon 7D, it's a step back from a full frame sensor which my now sold 5D had, but this camera can do so much more not to mention the video quality is amazing, there were 2 videos on You Tube that sold me this machine - video 1 - video 2.

To add my bountiful sales, the mighty Caley smash Airdrie 4-0 tonight AND Dundee drew AANNDD Dunfirmline lost. It's all looking good for the return of Inverness Caley Thistle to the top flight!

GIVE ME A 'C'

13/03/10

Word up people!

I hope you all had fun watching us goof around on holiday. I know some of you had trouble trying to view the movies, so I've made the viewing a little simpler, so if you couldn't see them before, if you click on the image across, they should work fine.

Mauritius is an amazing place and would strongly recommend going. For our next tropical adventure, I would like to visit the Maldives to keep up the trent of visiting Indian ocean islands starting with 'm', but that won't be for a while. I don't know where our next trip will be, but I'm sure it'll be a big one and will be well documented by the international shed.

Today's plan (Saturday) lots of sport to watch! GP qualy followed by Scotland v England in the rugby followed by the results - Oh Yea!!

Jim

25/02/10

It's never going to end!!!

This has to be the longest winter on record. The snow and blue skies are nice, but when it's only 2 deg C's and raining, it wears a little thin.

Thank god I'm leaving the country in 48 hours.

Jim

18/02/10

Holy shit! Thank christ tropical storm Gelane passes Mauritius this Saturday. If it had been a week later, we could have been in trouble. Click image to enlarge.

Jim