A Little Taste Of America

This time last year, me and Amy were in America. I know a year is quite a long time but I can remember everything quite vividly as it was an amazing two week experience. Today, I have felt a lot closer to the memories, with all the different little things happening. For a start, the weather has been lovely, pretty hot but humid - which I know is no where near what we had in Florida but it was an admirable attempt by England.

I know it seems like a strange thing to bring you close to a memory, but what really did it for me was a visit to Costco. Yes, Costco. Myself and Amy aren't members but two good friends are and you can take in a guest with each card. The Costco itself was the one at Lakeside so we actually started off with a little wonder around IKEA so that part of the day was pretty Swedish.. But after that, over to Costco.

Rainbow Roses

Don't worry, you'll find out.

First - I feel a little bit of an outrage coming over me. The Simpsons, maybe one of the staples of TV, it has been around for ages, and now they decide to do this!
http://news.sky.com/story/1499626/anger-as-homer-and-marge-to-legally-separate
Even without clicking on the link to the page, you can see it in the title. Apparently they are planning to or have already split up Marge and Homer in The Simpsons! I personally don't like this because it is called The Simpsons, it is about them being a family unit, especially after 25 seasons! They are splitting up because of strain on the marriage because Homer has narcolepsy which is quite obvious in terms of what has happened in the previous episodes but to introduce it now as a reason to stop it.. Pfft, I just don't understand it. To me, I see it as a publicity stunt to attract attention to the show but the majority of responses I have seen have said - why not just end the show? It has had a good run, making a change like this now is more suited to like a soap opera.. I expect something like that from Eastenders. At the same time, I am not too bothered because I don't watch it because it is all on Sky now. Sort of makes my opinion obsolete but hey - it's the internet.

Day 706
So I mentioned that we went and saw Spy on Friday. We left really early for the showing because I was on a late shift so, we knew we were going to hit traffic - and my oh my we did, we were sitting on the same road for about 30 minutes just crawling up it.. Two cars had also broken down which didn't really help in the grand scheme of things. Due to this, we ate and then had a little wonder down by the river which is next to the river and of course, a selfie was incurred by Amy. And it goes like this - filter and all.

A Weekends Wonderings

Good evening internet, well it is at least when I am writing this. Good morning and afternoon depending on when you are reading it. Right now, I have just finished watching some Mystery Diners which follows a company called Mystery Diners who go all around America saving business's from problem employees - some of the stuff they do is actually crazy, and makes you really appreciate your own work ethic even if you have a down day. I am not making a start on a film, Evil Dead but the 2013 remake. Amy got me the triple boxset of the original trilogy which I still need to watch, I have seen the first and parts of the second and I really enjoyed it, shall have to fit them in sometime. I really appreciate the older horror films where special effects weren't as present in the film making process because whilst modern day films are awesome to watch - I feel like you can appreciate the process more when they had to make props and stuff.

I'm already seeing differences between this and the original film so.. Maybe they went a different way with it and that is why they didn't remake the trilogy, it'll stand on it's own as a single film with the same name as a classic.. Something I always find strange about my taste in films, I find the old films stories so cheesy but they work - whereas with the modern remakes, they piece it together much better but it just annoys me because the characters always seem to have a background knowledge and stuff.. I guess it is just where I am used to the original story.

Oh why did you read the book? It told you not to.. And the book is covered in blood. WHY!?

Day 704
We have discovered a new delight at the cinema, a lovely lemon slush drink made my Tango, they call it an ice blast and we love it.

They do a couple of different flavours which are clearly defined by the colours, there is blue, pink and yellow - which we have and is lemon flavour. It made me think of our holiday last year as one of the amusement parks in America had something which I refer to as yellow slush. It was so good, and this tastes just like it. I don't want to say one was better than the other because.. I have this feeling it was the American one and I don't know if and when I will get to try that again. You can even combo these with Cineworld's popcorn deals so it is pretty good value, especially with a premium card giving you a 25% discount which makes them more like normal prices - how exciting.

The only thing that is quite disconcerting.. Is that this is vividly yellow, and when we had it the first time I didn't think anything of it. On the way back, I asked Amy to look up how to make some as we have a blender which you can obviously use to slush-ify (scientific term) the ice. She found this recipe, you blend ice, sugar and lemon juice together and hey presto - lemon slush! The difference is, this does not come out yellow, like, not even a hint. It comes out as this clear tastiness - I highly recommend. I love anything lemon.

So that was part of Friday night so I know it technically doesn't count as the weekend but.. At the same time I know it does for a lot of people.. Let's just go with it.

We decided to get up early Saturday morning to go shopping and get it out the way with, plus it wouldn't be as busy - nice and easy. The alarms went off and we appear to have made the unanimous decision without communicating to just go back to sleep.. For a couple of hours.. Oops. It was so worth it though - lay ins are definitely one of little pleasures in life. So instead, we decided for a little jaunt into town for a Weatherspoons lunch where I had a mixed grill.

Now - I have not eaten much steak in my life, honestly the first one I had was last year. Other than a gammon steak, I have eaten that on many occasions. This had a rump steak and also a lamb steak. The rump was done medium rare - great. I can't really tell how the lamb was done because honestly some bits of still looked raw but there was no blood or anything.. It was actually so good, I really enjoyed it. That was my something new for the day.

We also indulged ourselves in two separate walks, we like to go along the rivers and what not to enjoy the scenery and wildlife we find - and by that I mean taking it in turns to run at pigeons. They don't trust us anyway.

Day 705
Today, we decided to head off to a boot fair, and I have mentioned before that my parents have always found some pretty interesting ties at boot fairs. Thanks to previous travels and the one today at the Hop Farm - I am not the proud owner of these lovelies!

How awesome are these? I know that one of them is clearly seasonal but I am sure I will have the opportunity to wear it later on in the year. We also have a Guiness tie which is covered in glasses of Guiness - I don't drink it myself. I have never tried it so I might like it but.. I hate trying new drinks, because if I buy it and don't like it - wasted money, I also have a couple of coloured patterns, Bugs Bunny, Mr Men, Wallace and Gromit and also Tom and Jerry. A great haul all in all. I always find the contrast of prices strange, the cheapest here only cost me 25p where as another cost £1. Some people ask for more - I guess it depends if it is a stall who does this as a business or someone who is just having a clear out. We also got two other little things which.. I am going to save, to share with you in my next post.

This film basically went down a gory route. It is pretty disturbing some of the imagery I am seeing.. It is quite interesting - to me at least - to see the stark contrast between what is 'acceptable' to show in a film. The original of course had some very disturbing images for the time it was made, but the special effects which which I can recognise today at the time would be like what I am watching now. The special effects make this seem much more real.. How the times have changed. You can also tell I am not used to the luxury of recording TV because I have been sitting here watching the adverts..

This is something I would quite like to explore, how video games have changed. I mentioned last time how I am really excited at the announcement of Fallout 4 and how it is going to amazing. I personally joined in the series on Fallout 3 on the 360, but there have been two other games which I never played and may not ever be able to. They are available on Steam but only for Windows, whilst I do have the Mac dual booted, I didn't partition it for heavy usage in terms of installing games.. Whilst I could probably increase this, I don't want to impact the performance of the device.. Anyway.

I am thinking I am going to search for some lets plays on YouTube of the first couple of Fallout's, I also want to watch someone play through Final Fantasy VIII as me and my brother played this one but never really got too far into it, we weren't too great at that type of game at the time. I would be interested to see the game develop and what not. Sounds like I have decided to give myself a lot of video to watch.

The book writing is also continuing, I am enjoying the process at the moment, like researching things and making decisions to put in place things which will make sense or assist the story. Choosing a name for the main character was hard enough. I guess I will try and give you updates where I can without giving anything away - the superstitious side of me will win this one. Well, thanks for reading and of course, a good night or day to you. Blog you later!

I'm Going to Write a Book

Pretty self explanatory. The title. I know I have mentioned it more than once on here before, that I want to see something with my name on in a book shop or Amazon - everything is from Amazon these days. I am sort of hoping I have the aptitude to persevere and finish something, because when I was younger I always started writing things and never saw them through, they ended up dotted around the house in random pads of paper. Then again, I am a lot more mature, actually have an idea which I am interested in and write ideas for - so I guess I shall just have to see what happens. I am most likely not going to share anything on here - I swear I have seen a film where someone shared their idea and then it got stolen and what not.. You get the idea. I know in this day and age I could probably easily prove it was my idea but the cynic in me says otherwise.

So what I thought I would do today, is share some series of books which I have really enjoyed reading over the years, which may or may not provide inspiration for me. I guess it completely depends on where I decide to go with it because at the moment, I have an idea which is just a seed I am planting - what it'll grow into is as much a mystery to as it is to you. In the interest of making this flow a bit better, the first three images are going to be in relation to this and will be pictures 699, 700 and 701, there'll be a fourth also but you'll see that down the bottom of course in the 'me' section. Where I talk about me. I don't think I needed to explain that..

So the first book series is by Anthony Horowitz and is the Alex Rider series.

Stumbling Along

Good evening, peoples and animals of the internet - because no one knows you are an animal on the internet..

So it has been a while, again. I am trying to spend my time looking into things that I find interesting and share them with you, so it is like a little snap shot of my brain projected onto the internet because why not? Of course, I will share the bits and bobs of my life, because I like to share that and have it to look back on. At the same time, we are fast forwarding through the majority of the Britain's Got Talent Final because we know who won but.. Want to watch some of the acts in the final.

So what I have today, is a collection of eight random websites all with a little bit of interest to me which I quite literally - Stumbled Upon. This website, once you have signed up, asks you to pick a load of different interests, and then you press Stumble. What you then get, is a randomly picked internet page for you to have a look at. I must say, so far 90% of the pages have been enjoyable for me to look at, and it gives a thumbs up and thumbs down option so it can further filter down the content it provides you, so it forever more becomes personalised to you. So - let me show what I found.

Day 694
So the first one, is a BBC page called your life on Earth:
www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141016-your-life-on-earth?ocid
Much to my surprise it appears this webpage has actually been around for a while and I just seemed to miss it for some reason.. Because when I mentioned it to Amy in all of my excited-ness - she had already seen it. You put in some information, and it then gives you a history of Earth which fits inside your lifetime.

The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno - Part 2

Welcome to part two of this journey into the realms of hell, we have nine circles still to discover! I am enjoying researching this all far too much. I guess that is the benefit of being able to pick your own subject matter.. On a random tangent, I always hated Art GCSE at school because they told you what to create; not what I thought it was all about to be fair.

If you are new to this little series, the first part can be found here:

http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-story-behind-dantes-inferno.html

But otherwise.. Let's get back to it!

So here is the next portion of the story, thanks to lovely wikipedia (again):

At the Gates, he encounters Virgil, who knows of Dante's past sins, yet agrees to guide him through the Nine Circles of Hell in exchange for Beatrice putting in a word for him in Heaven. Dante begins his descent at the shores of Hell where the newly damned souls are forced aboard the great ferry of Charon. Dante forces Charon to sail him across. After this, Charon is destroyed when Dante tears his head off using a beast-mount. After arriving at Limbo, Dante confronts the serpentine Judge of the Damned, King Minos. After Minos denies Dante passage deeper into Hell, Dante fights the Judge and kills him. Dante then enters the second circle, Lust, where he enters the Carnal Tower to find Beatrice, whose soul is slowly being corrupted into a succubus by Lucifer, who also reveals to her

The Animals

Hello, hello, hello. I am probably going to take far too long to write this post because I am super distracted by something - which I will talk about of course, right now. Like, now, right now.

Day 678
So the title of this post is part of the song lyrics to the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black, which is something Amy watched over the last month or so.. And raved about it. I wasn't too interested at first but Amy managed to talk me into watching it and it turns out that we have watched the entire first series - first time round for me, second for Amy - this week. Right now, we are watching the last episode of the first series because I couldn't wait until tomorrow.. Or the weekend to find out what happened! Plus it feels like a fresh slate to start the second series at some point.. I think I am going to have withdrawal symptoms when I have to wait for the third season..

I find it so interesting, because you have no idea if this is actually what it is like in a prison. I guess you always hear the stories or see the programmes that look at the lives of prisoners and it is scary. There is no other way to put it - and drama. Yes, the guards are in charge but at the same time, there are prison politics, like Red being 'in charge' of all the girls and looking after them and finding ways to get them the comforts the shop can't provide. I also find the character interactions interesting how

A Week In The Life Of

Me! Of course it'll be about me. Would be a bit weird if it was someone else don't you think? I will say sorry, I have been very busy this past week just with life and stuff - you know how it is. I have also been putting a lot of time into the research for the story behind Dante's Inferno - turns out I have bitten off a pretty big project over all but I will persevere; mainly because I like it but also I don't think this type of thing is on the internet. Well - we know that isn't true, chances are if it has been thought of, it has been done before. When you think of something that hasn't, you'll usually end up being a millionaire. I don't see them pounds rolling in at the moment hence my apprehension.

So if you can't tell, by the title, this is pretty much a catch up week so you are probably going to find this'll be pretty hefty over all.. The worst part is that I have only taken one picture and that was today when I realised I need to catch up with myself. I have three others that I can think of to add at the moment.. This is probably going to be in the most random order ever as well then.. Pfft, let's just see how it goes really. Also pictures 671 all the way to 677.. Hurrah!

Now if I think back far enough, the bank holiday.. We were cleaning. I know it isn't the most exciting use of your bank holiday but we like destroyed all aspects of dirt and old stuff that we don't need which was oddly satisfying. I quite like washing up - which people say is weird, especially as we have access to a dishwasher - but I get this odd sense of satisfaction from seeing something go from being dirty to shiny and clean. So I guess that is one good side of us doing this sort of Spring cleaning, I guess it is that time of year so maybe we partook in this tradition without even knowing it..

The Story Behind: Dante's Inferno

I remember being really excited for this game when I saw it advertised, it was released in 2010 so that was when I was at school in Sixth Form. I was clearly making very good use of my EMA money because I got the limited edition which they called the Death edition. It came with a holographic case and an extra disk with content, and my favourite bit was exclusive access to an online version of the origin text for the game. It was a poem by Dante Alighieri who was alive during the 13th and 14th century, called the Divine Comedy. I can't for the life of me find that website any more, I am not even sure if it is still available, but luckily - possibly due to this game - there are online versions available. I have found the full poem here:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8800/8800-h/8800-h.htm
I wont pop it on here because I assume there are all kinds of legal things around sharing it, and it is actually really long, especially for a poem. It is pretty much a story in all fairness.

Some artwork for the game, all of which is amazing

What I will do this time round is take each paragraph at a time and look into it from there, because the story is much longer than the previous post I did for Okami. So what can you expect? Probably something like a.. Three or four part thing?

Your Five a Day

You know how I do love a good play on words, and this instance I am substituting your vegetables and fruit - with pictures which I am putting on here. Amazing eh? I don't feel like I needed to explain that to you but just in case, it never hurts to make certain. Words to live by.

So today, the first couple of pictures will be about the loot crate for April, the theme was fantasy which I wasn't really too sure about as in what would be the contents. It turns out it was traditional fantasy style, like dragons and stuff. So let's get to it! Seeing as there will be another three pictures, I will label them all up a goodun as I should do. Are you excited? I am.

Day 666 & 667
Good lord, an evil number. Apparently they literally avoid using this number in Christian schools, for example if there were lockers or room numbers.. They literally just avoid it. I don't think it is a bad number at all so look at it in all it's glory for it is a triple.

So, there wasn't so much stuff that needed a lot of separate images so there are only two for the loot crate itself. I think the first of the two is the best because it is staring yours truly.

Suicidal Cartons and Loot - Finally

So this loot crate I will be showing off today, is actually from March.. Hence the word finally being in the title. I mentioned the reason why I haven't got it in another post but just in case you didn't see that - basically - the post office lied to me. They said that someone at my house had signed for it despite someone being in all day and no one coming to the door. When we missed the delivery of the next crate, April's one, my sister was near the sorting office to collect it. She ended up with two parcels, one marked for being shipped back to the original address - tut tut. Lucky I got it it would seem.

So lets get into the loot crate, this will be Day 664 and 665 and even a cheeky bonus one because I am ever so kind to you! So the theme of this crate was spies and secret agent type things.

So this first picture, is of a shirt which came in the box. I am kind of happy and not happy about it at the same time because the shirt itself is pretty awesome, it is a sad James Bond. He is sad because his martini was stirred and not shaken - I don't know if this would actually make a difference to the taste. The reason I am not happy is because white shirts don't really suit me I have been told, so I probably won't wear it too often, or maybe it'll be a lazy shirt for days inside, sheltering from the pollution and stuff.

Adventure, Weekend, Loot

Hello there people of the internet. If feels like it has been a while - probably because it has. I know it seems silly, but I have to actually look back at my most recent post to see where I got up to because I honestly can't remember my life. That is one of the reasons I started the blog because I always found it hard to remember when I did things so having it all done in black and white with a nice picture to kick the memory back into gear - tis a wonderful thing. So where was I? Oh yes - Friday.

Day 661
So Friday I actually booked off work, me and Amy then had a little adventure to Chessington, World of Adventures. Despite this theme park being clearly aimed at a much younger audience, we really like it there. I like it because it has animals, and any where that has a mix of rides and animals will climb my list of things I like pretty quickly. The penguins had a new enclosure to swim around in, when we got there the display had literally just finished.  We got there around midday as we were thinking, being a week day, it wouldn't be too busy no matter what time we went and we were spot on! There were literally no queue times all day so you could just get on any ride you wanted, and when there was no queue, stay on.

I always remember this place being my favourite as it was one of the first I went to and love Vampire. Now I have gotten a bit older and enjoy the more thrilling rides, I must say Thorpe Park probably is my favourite.. I have a feeling Alton Towers would top it but being so far away, means I have only ever been there once. Would love to go again with queue times like Friday - that would be amazing.

A Little of This, A Little of That

Hello there internet, I feel rather out going today - two posts? Who'd of thunk it. It is nice to find myself inspired and thinking of different things to write, things I don't feel like I have seen elsewhere on the world wide web.

If you are reading this first, I will reference you to the other post which is found at the following link:
http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-story-behind-okami.html
It is the first, in what I hope to be a series of posts about the myths and legends behind the games we love and play today. I started with Okami as being from Japanese heritage, held a rich background story to dive into. Please let me know if there is a game that you would like me to look into, it doesn't even have to be one that has an obvious background - that is for me to find out and share with you.

So any way, it has been two days. Where have I been and what have I been up to?

I think this is as good a place as any to start..

Day 658
People who follow me on Twitter or on Instagram may have already seen this little delight which we had yesterday. It is a dessert from a restaurant called Creams - I say it is a dessert but literally all they sell is sweet things! Everything that you order is big and over the top and just amazing from what I can see, and there is also a great selection available with different toppings - some with these strange things called fruits? Pfft.

The Story Behind: Okami

So, as some of you may know, I have posted previously about some folklore which then went on to inspire a video game:
http://matttalkslife.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/year-walk-swedish-folklore.html

I really like this concept of being able to play myths and legends through video games, I will admit that usually the game will loosely fit the legend to create extra action elements to make it enjoyable but.. Today I wanted to look into the game Okami, not one that I have played personally but one I have watched and very much enjoy the art style of. The game itself is inspired by the Japanese Shinto religion.

Some art work from the game

So the, basic story of the game is as follows - thanks Wikipedia..

"The game is set in a Nippon (Japan) based on Japanese folklore, and begins with a flashback to events 100 years prior to the game's present; the narrator describes how Shiranui, a pure white wolf, and Nagi, a swordsman, together fought the eight-headed demon Orochi to save Kamiki Village and the maiden Nami, Nagi's beloved. Shiranui and Nagi are unable to defeat Orochi, so they seal the demon away.

Famous Paradox's and I'm on a Boat!

I love the concept of a paradox, a statement or idea that in itself, contradicts itself. The fact that it does this, then means you cannot for definite say whether or not the statement is true leaving it completely open for discussion. Such ideas have been further implemented into films, some of which I will discuss below. Little did I know, there are more than one type of paradox.. Prepare for a headache because they'll make you think - hard.

Something which I never knew was that the idea of a paradox can be applied to many things, I always just assumed this was a concept of time. I think there are probably the most common examples as they can be applied into things such as films or books without necessarily needing so much of an explanation, so this is where I shall start.

Time
I will start with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. At the time, when it first came out and I was a bit younger, I didn't really understand the whole idea of what was going on.. Especially the quote of Harry saying "I'd already done it!" Only until I learned what a paradox was, did I get it. This is an example of what is called a Bootstrap paradox, in which the information appears to have no logical beginning.

A Little Taste of Summer

Right now, we're watching Britain's Got Talent. I must say, I really do love having the ability to record TV, for me it is quite a new concept because I have never had Sky, Virgin or BT TV what we have at the moment. Whilst I never missed out on any programmes thanks to catch up TV, being able to fast forward through the adverts is much nicer.. Makes something that is an hour and a half long, only an hour. Gets your through more TV! Watching this, you can't help but laugh at some of the acts and when I think about it.. It makes me feel quite bad because some of them may genuinely think they were in with a chance, moral conflicts eh?

Little spoiler here.. The dance group that got the gold buzzer on the show today - were very good. I can't help but think that despite they get all the way through to the live shows, it is a bit of hinderance. You get to follow the other people through the rounds and then into the live shows, so they are in your mind. You don't necessarily remember them so to say, despite them being very good acts. Just a thought.

The world of the internet is a very strange place, as I am getting more involved with Blogging - and by that I mean more serious. When I started this I was very 'into it' and then honestly, my passion sort of dwindled. Since November last year, something rekindled it and ask you can see since then, my posts have more substance and feeling and I feel like it has paid off. My views peaked, my enjoyment peaked and still is. It is always a really nice feeling when you step away from it for a couple of days,

Not a Game of Thrones

Why oh why does Sky have to be the only way to see Game of Thrones? I hate knowing the new season has started and at the moment - I can't see it. I do find it odd yet honourable, that despite four episodes being leaked, HBO doesn't care as long as people are enjoying it. I think that is really big of them because I wouldn't be surprised if they lost a lot of money in add revenue because not as many people will be watching.. Which means the companies who paid to have adverts on during the show get less traffic.. Therefore they get angry and ask for money back.. Pfft, I don't know how advertising works - that was probably a load of tosh!

On the subject of games.. GTAV is available to the PC master race, I don't like calling them that but they call themselves that so.. On the band wagon I guess. I seem to surprise a lot of people when I say I have never enjoyed playing any GTA game.. I just don't like it, I don't see the real enjoyment in going around on random killing sprees and all of the story missions are to do with crime - none of which interests me. I do know that the game is about 60GB which is crazy! I don't know if that is the same size on the Xbox or PS4 because now you have to install them.. That is easily like 10% of a base model device on sale at the moment. I guess it is the only problem at the moment, whilst the games are getting bigger and better, so is the storage required and until we can figure out a way to make the information tiny - or storage cheap to commercialise, it's a bit of a trade off to say the least.

Mortal Kombat X is now out as well and it has been quoted as the goriest one yet - and from

One, Two, Three-Four-Five, Once I Caught A Blog Alive

I know, I know, I have been neglecting you. I guess I can lay it down to the fact I have been quite busy over the past five days which really does mean I have been quiet in my internet responsibilities.. But at the same time, it means this post is going to be hella huge! And for those of you that enjoy that, you're very welcome. I am going to try and split this down into the days, the only thing is.. I can't remember as far back as Thursday for some reason. Friday on wards is an oh so warm memory which I can tap into with ease - that on the other hand fell through the gaps. Due to this, Sunday will be sharing two pictures as I also have two pictures I would quite like to share!

Lets get to it!
And once you're done, why not scroll back up this page and have a look around my other social medias, all conveniently located on the right hand side of this page *crowd oohs and aahs* I know, I know.

Day 646
So, this one here starts with Friday. Now, I have mentioned before that we have had some beef with Cineworld in the sense of a lot of films we have wanted to watch recently have been released on limited screening. Due to this, our closest cinema doesn't actually show them, I don't how they decide which does if it is based on size etc. but the next closest showing the majority was about 20 miles away! As much as I love me a film, we couldn't condone that much petrol to go and see something.. Such as this!

A Mixed Bag

Day 643

I will start this with a little adventure we had on the Easter weekend. We decided to go for a walk through a park which we have been told was pretty close by, and we were quite happy with the overall outcome. It turns out, it joined straight onto a path which as far as I know spanned the entire river Medway. It was quite strange as at the same time, we didn't know half of the places we came across ever existed, because we've never really had a reason to venture to these places.. You can sort of tell it was for people with a love of boats of the money to afford one - as they were everywhere. As were the ducks, also a couple of swans. We even saw one nesting which was a very unique experience because I know they can be quite aggressive if you annoy them but this one clearly didn't care that we were there. It seemed to know people would want to look because it had popped itself right next to a clearing in the brush next to the path so you could give it a good stare. We took something which we called a 'swelfie' - just a selfie with a swan in it.

I have always been confused by houseboats. Do they have somewhere they have to park? I don't even think park is the right word for that but.. I think I got some answers along this river as we saw some, and it looks like people have bought little sections of the river edge which they have decked and fenced off, and they were very trusting leaving things like bikes and BBQ's.. The picture below was from one of these little areas and in the ever so slight breeze was lovely to see and hear all at once. This is also compliments of Amy's Instagram feed.

Happy Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend people of the internet, I am very lucky to be included in that umbrella of people who have a nice extended weekend, so of course that means I am off of work tomorrow also! I like Easter, mainly because I really like eating the chocolate eggs, I know they are literally no different to any other time of year - just to me they taste so much better. The only way I can explain that is it's a psychological thing, not that I know what I am on about. A taste placebo if I may.

I am thinking about possibly changing the layout of the blog, because as much as I like the dynamic views I have set up at the moment, I would very much like to start using jump breaks. These basically add in a little "read more" option for each post, so I could break it up after a certain amount of lines for each post.. This would make a much more attractive front page and make it less intimidating than a wall of text and pictures.. It lets you take a little snapshot and decide if that is something you want to carry on reading. Unfortunately, this is not supported by dynamic views which is a little annoying because Blogger is basically limiting itself with what can be done. I will have to have a play around and see if I can find a layout I am happy with, I can always make a backup of the current one so I can revert but - who knows?

This post is going to be quite disjoined, I can feel it happening already, I just have random stuff I want to blurt out when I think about it but obviously these pictures will tie in as nice little breaks and hopefully tie together my thoughts.. Onto the first one for the day!