Its late...................

Ok i started this post before midnight but it appears to be after it now but anyway......................sorry man!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIGEL!

Soon and very Soon.......................

First off..............I will quote the Worship Ireland blog:

"An excitement is building in our hearts as to what lies ahead of us around this nation. Were asking God to prepare the way in the wilderness, to make straight the road for His coming."




il keep you posted........................."we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us"

summer sillyness in town..............

STREET violence like that seen in computer games threatened to erupt in Ballymena over the weekend, as two families fell out over a Playstation gaming machine. A samurai sword, Chinese fighting blades, an adapted motorcycle chain were just a sample of the lethal weapons seized by police, and two petrol bombs were thrown at houses as the two tribes went to war.
An ominous atmosphere of fear grew around the town, as back-up gangs from other parts of the Province were expected to descend on Ballymena, and increase the mayhem still further. Large numbers of local PSNI officers were deployed in the Doury Road and town centre area, in what Commander Terry Shevlin described as a 'robust and highly visible manner'.
After the alleged theft of a Playstation console, the violence erupted on Friday night in Victoria Park.
When police arrived on the Doury Road, they found a crowd on the street, with several injured during the course of a fight.

"all because someone's playstation got stolen?.................what can i say!!"

Along with some Drug Busts over the last few days i have to say that "silly season" has officially begun again...............if it ever ended that is!!


click the image for the drugs story....................

Franklin Heights..................

Normally i wouldnt spit on about a band that i have not yet heard but heck im gonna cuz i know the drummer in this little local combo......................simon works in the "big smoke department" of The Faith Mission Bookshop! So i was up there today and we were, as usual talking about music..........................*HooRaY for the "Free Floyd Cds"*.......................and his band came up in chat so check out their Myspace page by clicking the fab picture and keep an eye out for some songs appearing on it........



Theres also a link in my music links to the website which is "coming soon"...................

Keane.............

So this will be in my ears in the morning as i travel to Belfast for a day in the City Bookshop..................lots of digging around in the store awaits me as i look for ......................well as i just look actually!



Cherith bought me this the other day...........cheers "chick"

God Noise in the park.............

The Worship Ireland event seemed to go well in the park tonight.............nice one lads and lasses!
click the 2nd image and bookmark the page that appears................keep your eyes peeled for this dude, allan played a few tracks tonight, a cd is coming soon!

I added some wedding pics to the "simbogallery" by the way........................

Shoulda bought an Apple..................

Wow what would you do? Picture the scene..............you are sitting there working on something or browsing the web and BANG!



click the picture above for full story.............
click the picture below to see what they should have bought................

RU avin a laff.................

In between a Wedding Service and the Reception can be a kinda slow period............the bride and groom are getting photos taken and ..........well.................everyone else is doing whatever!! This photo (below) was taken from the evening after the meal but Cherith reckons i manage to "hold court" when a few folks are around! To be honest i had a kind of outer body experience at one stage...........i floated up and looked down on myself and thought "ally, you are truly talking rubbish"...........it was great and i hadn't even had a drink!! hehe



Click the pic for some wedding photo's..........

Wedding 1...................

Our friends Rodney and Glenda got married today.......................il post some pics over the weekend but we had a great day.
I need to say just how good a friend Rodney has been in recent years and how great a guy he is...............wishing them all the best for their future together. So thats wedding 1 down...............4 more to go in the next month!!

Click the image to see the hotel where the reception was.......

Fly boy Foy..........

As i stumbled around the net at half time in the Brazil game i discovered a place where you can hear another track from the soon to be released Foy Vance ep ..................."Dont Please Yourself" is another awesome piece of genius from the ickle rascal



click the image and glide down the page to find the track........have a listen!!

Ghana and a girls music list........

First things first...........Ghana have qualified for round 2 of the World Cup...............YES!! and what makes it better is that the USA have been knocked out!! YES!!! So Brazil play their last group game tonight............maybe they will play well!!

And secondly................cherith has done a music list and what a great list it is, complete with funny comments! Typical cherith humour...................i didnt steal "The Strokes" cd!!!!grrrrrrr
check out the list in my ego links section.......just over there >

The Rage of Rooney................

What controversy this new ad campaign from Nike has caused................
Wayne Rooney has never looked better.........Come on England!!!!!!



any thoughts??

click the image to read the story.....

Not Dark Yet.............

Ok this post is inspired by the latest post on Lindsays Blog......thats Valkyrie22 in my links!!
Simple........its some song lyrics that make me shiver. The work of a genius..........

Not Dark Yet : Bob Dylan

Shadows are falling and I've been here all day
It's too hot to sleep time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I've still got the scars that the sun didn't heal
There's not even room enough to be anywhere
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

Well my sense of humanity has gone down the drain
Behind every beautiful thing there's been some kind of pain
She wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kind
She put down in writing what was in her mind
I just don't see why I should even care
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

Well, I've been to London and I've been to gay Paree
I've followed the river and I got to the sea
I've been down on the bottom of a world full of lies
I ain't looking for nothing in anyone's eyes
Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

I was born here and I'll die here against my will
I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still
Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from
Don't even hear a murmur of a prayer
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.

If you dont have "Time Of Mind" by Bob Dylan then i strongly reccomend it, an album of amazing songs and unreal lyrics..................like i said above...............the work of a genius! Perhaps his finest hour??
So now il leave it open to comments..............as Lindsay asked on her post, any thoughts, favourite lyrics or songs.....lets discuss??

World Cup Today...........

Little Joe Cole
Scored the 1st Goal .................................and England now face Ecuador this sunday in the 2nd round! I have not much to say except that Joe Cole played well tonight but why not read some of the views expressed on the BBC website by England fans...........................................................

"With this perfomance we won't even beat Ecuador"
"Beckham was rubbish, defending from set pieces appaling, and I wish to God, Sven would use Lennon"
"The worst display of defending I have ever seen!"

I think i agree with all of the above! Im only supporting them because they are the only team from the British Isles in the Tournament......................ahh whatta ya gonna do eh??

The National Gallery.............

Ok so we could have spent hours in here just looking at paintings by artists we have never heard of but we didnt!! We politely glanced at the unknowns (unknown to us) and headed straight for "Van Gogh" "Turner" "Rembrandt" and "Cezanne" to name but a few.....................its a bit cool to look at a painting by some of these dudes and consider all the History that has passed between there time and our time! The atmosphere of the Gallery is surreal, most good art galleries are like this.........so i was impressed. I reckon we had walked so much over the weekend that maybe we didnt have the patience to spend enough time in it but next time we want to go to the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain....................anyway click on Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" to see the work in the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square..............enjoy!

thoughts from my photos.............

If i see my reflection i cannot help but take a picture!! You may have noticed the reflection in windows, sunglasses and shiny surfaces of various forms...................its just a wee thing i do! I was thinking about it though and we dont really see our true reflection enough do we? How often do we actually step back and look at ourselves? I have some specific people in mind as i type this sentence and now i have stopped and thought "what about me?"...................
See, i have still been thinking about the freedom of a huge city like London and the possibilty of being anonymous. I was reminded of it on countless occasions today, reminded that its good to first look at "me" before i look at "you"
I am reminded also that too many of us think we are "right" whether it be political or religious or whatever and sometimes we just need to shut up and look at ourselves..........................sometimes we will barely see ourselves......our "true" self may be a little bit blurred!!



click the image to view the londonsimbo gallery................

Back from London............

Well well well.....................
We are back from London, had a great time roaming the streets and finding cool places to look at!
I have been left rather impressed by life in a huge city and though i wouldnt dare to live in such a massive place i noticed one thing that is attractive. I know that in large cities worldwide an individual can remain anonymous very easily but i watched it over the last few days in London...........i experienced it! Its actually quite refreshing to just sit in a park or sit in Trafalgar Square and be completely anonymous........................which is what we did, until last night i saw this dude looking at me and i was looking at him and when he said "hi, alastair" i recognised him!!! Someone from Ballymena.......................arrrggghhh!!!

ah well, click the image to see the 5 pages of pics!! or click on the "londonsimbo" link!!

woohoooo

i am in the apple store on regent street right now...........

gotta go............hehe

a great site and im off..................

Ok before i click off for a long weekend i wanna just say about a weblog i discovered through Shlog's page.
Occasionally i discover a new and exciting blog or web page that reels me in for a while but more often than not the interest begins to fade after a while. Basically what im saying is, sometimes i get fed up with some pages...........but then we all do dont we? Iv said before though that certain pages i visit and link to have captivated my interest for some time now and never fail to float my boat! Anyway, back to that site that i found at Shlog.........................i clicked in and read stuff, lurked around, looked at pictures and generally enjoyed what i saw. Cool, so i decided to leave a comment after reading a newly added post and within about 2 minutes..............and i mean 2 minutes, the comments had went up to 12!! Holy toledo.........i love it when i get a few comments and when my page views takes a upward rise but 12 comments in 2 minutes is freakishly unreal!! Im jealous...........well no im not jealous but im curious about the popularity of certain blogs on the web! I do like this one though..................................
So, Heather, well done on the awesome popularity of your site and congrats on your escape from the "Mormons"..........arrgggh!


© 2001-2006 Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

check it out.....................................click the picture!!
Well, im about to flip down the iBook and get packed up for a long weekend in ................mmm one of the Big Cities in the Uk!!
tell you all about it on sunday when i return!

Shocking and saluting.........

I was intending to go to bed early tonight but i flicked on the T.V and a truly shocking BBC documentary was just beginning...........at the mention of the Free Presbyterian Church and Dr Ian Paisley i decided to watch a moment! Sucked in!!

The "Church' has came out looking absolutely terrible. I wont even get into it though...........shocking as it is i am not a Free Presbyterian and am not in a position to comment but click the image to visit a blog devoted to this story and others like it......



and oh yea cherith told me about this picture below so i had to post it.........................i reckon its a great photo, what you think?
He knows how to salute a crowd does'nt he?

Let me Just............

say...........................check out the web link below!!



and they have a blog..............gosh darnitt i didnt think there were any more of us ballymena bloggers but go say hi to the dudes at Worship Ireland....................they are super passionate and dedicated about what they do, great guys!

Almost persuaded?

"We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is?
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?
However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable … by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all … be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God"

A Brief History of Time: Stephen Hawking

This is from the last chapter of the book...................it amazes me that Hawking's brilliant intellect recognises and denies God all in the space of a few short lines of his book. It's as if he is on the brink and then decides to shy away at the last minute.

any thoughts?

World Cup Today...........

Argentina 2 - 1 Ivory Coast

England 1 - 0 Paraguay

Trinidad and Tobago 0 - 0 Sweden

Click on the little mascot to see more info about these games.......

A quick comment about Ivory Coast though................despite defeat against aragentina they looked and played amazing! Such a great attitude about the game and so passionate about their country........they were a treat to watch and as the picture below shows, Maradona may have been celebrating his country beating them but Ivory Coast could cause an upset in their other group games...............stay tuned....



p.s the guy in the photo above who is leaning forward taking a picture? Is he snapping one of Diego or is he trying to look down the blouse of Diego's lady friend??

2 games down and phil keaggy.............

2 games were played this evening so click on the World Cup mascot if you are interested, otherwise i wont bore you!!

Ok so i have been spending my net time looking at videos recently (not that sort!!!) and lo and behold i found a Phil Keaggy performance of Salvation Army Band that is indentical to the one we heard when we saw him live in ballymena last year.........this guy is amazing at what he does! He starts with a little lick and then loops it and in about 30 seconds you find yourself sucked into this awesome musical experience...............a feast for any music fans!
Click on his pretty face to be transported to this amazing clip.................



p.s. anyone think he sounds like Sir Paul McCartney??lol

World cup fever.................

Its 2 days away...........the biggest and most fantastic sporting event in the world! No contest! And as all the hype builds i cant help but get excited about watching the games. Will Rooney's foot be ok? Will Brazil shine as always? Will Messi make it back for Argentina? Will the hosts Germany triumph? The questions are endless!! But, i know that for some of my viewers "soccer" is perhaps not a major sport so i thought i would create a little bit of help in understanding just how great it can be and how much skill is involved..............

So, first we have Ronaldinho! he is Brazil's superstar and ..............well click the image and see for yourself.



Then we have Zidane, playing in his last World Cup............



and lets not forget Man utd's Portugese Ponce Christiano Ronaldo...........great player



and here is the best goal ever scored in the world cup..........against England!!!

this EveNing....................

This is a supersimbo "exclusive image"....................the picture above was taken as the first meal was eaten in "our dining room" in "our house"....................now thats exciting!!

I just learned tonight as i was posting this image that Legendary keyboard player Billy Preston has died.
What can you say about this guy that has not been said. He illuminated the songs on 'Let it be' when the Beatles needed inspiration! Perhaps his finest hour was the classic "you are so beautiful" which was made famous by his friend Joe Cocker.
Click the image for the BBC story........



Preston was 59 and will be sorely missed in the music industry.

sites, satan and sun...............

Under pressure from the recent media attention "Bebo" appear to have decided upon action...................
click the image to read more.......



And todays other topic of interest is of course the "date".................as i mentioned last night, loads of crazy tales have been flying around and causing a stir. The release of "the omen" remake is only one of the many things that have been tied into the alledgedly significant date to freak with our heads.....................tall skinny kiwi has, in typical fashion written a great little post about the whole thing!!
click the "satanic bar code" to read his post........



Anyway the sun is crazy hot here today, i was sitting in the garden for literally ten minutes with "factor 2 million" sunblock on and my cheeks (the ones on my face) are stinging a little!! We often get about........maybe 1, somtimes 2 weeks of great weather here so we NEED to enjoy it just in case the sun never ever returns! This point is proved by the many burnt faces you see when we get sunshine!! Its like people panic in case its their last chance to get a bit of a tan!! And me?? I just wanted to read a book in the sun, chill out on my day off!!! I will have to sit in the shade or put a bag over my head..............pesky sun!!
I love it really..........................

Back later........

6/6/06..................

Yes folks thats right.............tomorrow's date is 6/6/06 and as usual there are many wonderful theory's about the significance of this date and its satanic connotations!! In case you are lost with all im saying, click "my" image to read the story.......

The curse of Bebo..................

So............todays news headlines are full of "bebo this and bebo that"......hardly surprising! Many people like me were voicing our own personal concerns quite some time ago but now the press have got hold of the stories and controversy that surround it!
Anyway...............click the image for the story.....

ER season finale..........

Neela is dealing with Gallant's death.....
Clemente is gone and .....well, MAD!!
Guns go off............
Kovac is strapped to a gurney unable to move..................
Abby is on the floor, bleeding badly.................
Jerry is in critical condition after being shot............
what will happen?????

We Find out in December!!!



p.s. Carter? oh hes still in Darfur!!!

Barmy Beckham.............

So currently there is this story floating around our little land that David Beckham has went to extravagant lengths to hold a birthday party for his mum in the Culloden Hotel! This is one of the few 5star hotels in N.Ireland and is the dogs bollocks but heres the general info that is going about......

The hotel was booked for a local couple's wedding! The said couple recieved a call from the hotel asking if they would consider moving their wedding date, to which they replied ahh NO!
Then in a few days they recieved another call, this time being told that the person who wished to use the hotel for the day was extremely famous and would be happy to cover the cost of the date being changed.......ahh NO!!
So, finally they recieved a 3rd call to say that the celebrity would listen to any financial requests in order to obtain the date at the hotel!! The "happy" couple became much more "happy" when the super rich celebrity agreed to pay all the outstanding cost of their wedding and to pay the mortgage of their house!! Yes you read that right.............the mortgage of their house!!!

It was only then that the soon to be married couple were informed that David Beckham was the person in question!!
So becks, i hope the party for your mum is good and to the couple who just had a huge cheque.................good for you!!



Is Beckham barmy?? and did victoria make him do it??hehe

p.s if for some weird reason you dont know who David Beckham is .......click the picture!!

promoting heresy................

woman......"So i noticed you have some Brian McClaren books...................do you sell much of his stuff?"
me........."well, we sell some of his books but they are not really best sellers!"
woman, 'angrily'......"yea well thats because he is widely regarded as a heretic"
me............"oh is that right?"
woman......"yea we heard someone speak about him recently im surprised you are promoting that stuff"
me............"mmmm yea...........'hands women her goods'............thanks now"

mmmmm any thoughts???

i was bored..............

This is what you do when a picture sucks...............make it into art! I think il canvas this and put it above the fireplace!!



Click on the image to see tonights new pictures!

netdisaster.............

Heres what happened when the "hand of God" touched my web page...........and sent a bolt of lightning!!



and......Some waspy bee things attack the screen..........



so if you click on either of these picture you can do this on your screen for a laugh!! there are loads of really funny ones......from vomiting kids to space invaders!!! Yea yea i know...........its sad and very geeky but it was Cherith who told me about it so its her faulT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the credit goes to you blade...............

my cd player......

i was looking at the list of stuff i am listening to right now and it really is a small taster of what is in and out of my player! I have about 30 cds all grouped around my cd player and they rotate backwards and forwards depending on how much i like them..........then if they suffer relegation they will be shifted elsewhere but otherwise they stay.
The George Harrison album has been there for around 3 years now..........thats nuts!!
Anyway, if you have not visited the page then please take a peek and please comment on any of my choices........i do accept criticism!!

Today this guy said to me "we are getting the weather now"..................see i know what he meant cuz its really hot here right now but my reaction was "mmmm we always get the weather!!!" so i had a chuckle when he went away!!! people say funny stuff.....

Nothing to say...............

I have nothing to say at all...................iv sat and looke at this screen for about 3o minutes and i cannot think of anything to say at all so im freewriting....................This is something my "creative writing" course taught me to do and well i have not used it much because i normally have loads to say! I somtimes wonder if i talk to much, rambling on when i should be listening but i dunno......suppose thats someone else's call!
Martina Navratilova is on tv as i look up...............Dear goodness she is quite the bloke! I am now pondering the "Health insurance" i was informed about today so does anyone have health insurance? Il give you a little example of why i maybe should get this............

I know a guy who needs a new knee............ok so on the NHS (national health service) he has to wait until 2011 for an appointment with a consultant! No, im not kidding.................2011...................thats 2011!!!
BUT, with private health insurance......he could have it done in a month........ok depending on how much he pays a month he may have to pay a bit for it but he will get that back in medical cover through time. So basically if i get sick i get a bit of help........instead of this NHS bollocks...............what the freak is happpening to this country when you need to wait 5 years to see someone about a new knee??? The guy is in agony most days but it is NOT priority!!! freaking crazy........................

il keep you posted..................................................