I don’t normally make a huge fuss of my birthday. It’s just another day, really. That is, however, an unpopular standpoint so I invariably get a bit caught up in it and end up having quite a lovely time. Yesterday (and the awesome-fun night before), despite its hiccups, was no different.

Having eaten some dodgy mayonnaise (self-diagnosis) and dealt with the dog puncturing a five-stitch hole in his armpit, we got underway and my mum came down for a visit. I never get to see my mum, so this was brilliant. The mini movie marathon was wicked, too. I love getting DVDs, and yesterday saw some gaping holes in my collection filled. Maybe I need to make a new-years resolution to not be such a grumpy bastard about my birthday and allow myself to get excited like child about it next year.

With drinking and sick dogs and birthdays and hipstamatic in mind, have some photos of the last couple of days. Flickr Uploadr really fucked me on the ordering of these in my stream. First world problems, yo.

I’m not sure what this really says about me, but it should keep me in vodka for at least a week.

I’ve wanted to get a sleeve for ages, but the question was what. I had a few ideas in mind, but after Charlotte started visiting Paulys Tattoo in Southampton, I fell in love with a type of tribal tattoo that I hadn’t really seen before. I basically associated tribal with any kind of pikey-looking crap and it didn’t appeal. Paul is something of a specialist in this area, and all the patterns and designs on his arm and wall made me decide that this was where I wanted to go with my left sleeve (I’m going to go for a more new-skool, bright coloured, floral thing for my right sleeve – yes, I’m already planning it!).

Being the talented guy Paul is, I had no trouble just telling him to do whatever he wanted, so he freehanded some ideas onto my arm this morning, then started jabbing away at me. Incidentally, this is one of the very few occasions where it’s ok for another guy who isn’t your boyfriend to shave you.

He’s about two thirds done on the line work (about a fifth overall) and I fucking love it. The way he’s incorporated by bass clef and the ideas for detail and my upper arm are just what I wanted. If you’re looking for something similar, definitely check him out – he’s an amazing artist, and a really good bloke.

EAT THE PAIN!

I can confirm that elbow-bisecting line work FUCKING hurts. I ate a considerable amount of the pain for this.

(Expertly taken by Charlotte, who can barely lift my camera!)

My awesome brother gave me a (very) early birthday present today – one of the amazing Mark Ecko Stormtrooper hoodies. I wanted to buy one for ages, but couldn’t really justify it! I don’t know if I can pull this off as everyday-wear, but I’m damn-sure going to try!

Thanks Jake!

It’s Charlotte’s birthday today! I’m marking it by sucking all the novelty out of these birdseye-view square crops.

I love Sambuca, and I love Jelly Beans. Naturally, Jelly-bean Sambuca should be excellent. The ingredients for this concoction were part of my birthday present from Charlotte’s parents. Now there’s just the 5 days of painstaking waiting and the evening of getting totally trolleyed. Excellent!

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted the SoCo bottle. This is because the stupid Sambuca bottle has a thing on it that doesn’t let you put jelly beans in. Luckily, we had an empty SoCo bottle to come to the rescue! Ahem!

The day after my birthday, it’s one of my best mates’ birthday. He always does good parties so I go to them and pretend like it’s a party for me, too. It’s worked quite well for a fair few years (for me, at least!). He’d just bought a load of new lenses he was dying to show me, so I was wandering round with a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 on my camera all day and I love it! This is a select few of us in the back of Nick’s dad’s van. We won’t go into the whys and wherefores, that’s just where we were! Awesome lens, I’m probably going to post the rest of my pictures as I really love some of the ones that came out of that lens.

Damn shopping list isn’t getting any shorter! Happy birthday, Nick!

Went down to the courts to play some ball today and there was a huge cruise liner there, but obviously I didn’t have my camera on me. By the time I got back to take a photo, it’d gone. This made me sad.

I realised today that it’s like 6 days til my birthday. When I was 10, I’d never have imagined being this blasé about my birthday! I’ve already had my presents, though; 160GB iPod, shorts, a tshirt and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I’ve been wanting to read that book for absolutely ages!