Sunny weather, 5am wake-up calls, stupid beds, lack of internet, dolphins and escalators....

So last Sunday the family and I packed up and headed off for a short vacation to the caravan site. As we just arrived back today, and I missed blogging soooo much (:P) I thought I might share a short post about out trip :) 

Anyways, we usually spend at least a week during the summer at the caravan site, but this time it was slightly different. I suppose for one thing, our kids are getting older, and now we find ourselves trying to do a lot more things to keep them occupied, also this time my wife had to bring some of her degree work with her in order to complete an assignment in time, but what really was different this time was the nice weather. Ok, let me explain...

Anyone who knows me will have already heard me say this, anytime....I mean ANYTIME we go to the caravan site, it rains. Even if it is like 30-40 degrees the very day before, it will surely rain for our vacation, without fail. We can never enjoy the local beach (and let me tell you, Benone is probably the nicest beach in this country) or spend much time outside at all and usually end up spending a lot of time indoors for a couple of days and then heading home early :P But not this time...it was actually nice for a change. I got to spend time outside with my girls (K&J) playing croquet (if you could call it playing croquet :P), golf, cricket and generally running around. I also got the chance to take K to the playground on lots of occasions while J was enjoying herself at a kids bible week event in the evenings that she wanted to go to. So for once, I have to admit, I could not complain about the weather, I guess we finally got a break :D

Of course, it would not be a family vacation without it's problems the first of which came on the first night when we found that K did not want to go to sleep. After 4 hours of trying this and that she finally fell asleep in her mums bed. Great, we thought at least she might have a lie-in next morning, but nooooooo, I think it was 5am when she got up and decided it was time to watch TV and terrorise her sister!!! But that was ok, cause I was practically awake anyway having not slept on the most un-comfortable bed ever created!!! This thing was impossible to sleep on, a memory foam mattress I believe, but waaaaay to soft. I constantly felt as though I was about to roll out of the bed :P Oh, and yeah, this went on for 3 nights and mornings...the couch was calling me....

I decided to take the girls out for the day (to give my wife some space to work on her assignment) where we visited the Mussenden Temple. Built in 1785 the temple forms part of the estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry and Earl of Bristol (or the Earl Bishop). It was built as a summer library and its architecture was inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, near Rome. It is dedicated to the memory of Hervey's cousin Frideswide Mussenden. We had a lovely picnic there and I decided as a treat, I would take them to an indoor play cafe to burn some energy :P Well, I don't know if you have ever been to these places, but let me tell you, the smell, man'o'man the smell, and not just from the kids, but the parents as well....I guess it was a hot day, and with running around after their kids it only stands to reason that you might pong a little, but at least the staff could spray something to lighten the burden on our noses, c'mon :)))

One of the other draw backs about the caravan is the severe lack of internet. I had to laugh, anytime we travelled to a place where 3G was available, or even a free wifi connection, we just had to log into facebook or other social media platforms to feel "alive" again :P though my wife was worse. Saying that, it was vital that we found somewhere for this as she had to email her assignment during our stay. So finding and trialing different places was surely a must :P

One of the highlights of the week was during a trip to Portrush. One of our essential stops here is to the Aquarium place at the other end of the town. The girls just love seeing the fish and if we don;t take them there, then there could be trouble :P Anyway, after this I took the girls to look at rock pools for crabs and shells and while we did this, a man told my wife that a school of dolphins were spotted visiting the bay just up ahead. So we went on ahead and sure enough, there they were, bobbing up and down in and out of the water, about 30-40 of them. It was amazing to see them swimming to close to the shore, and of course we left our camera behind!! We tried to get some pictures using our mobile phones, but at best the images look like the famous Loch Ness Monster image, a small black blur in the middle of the water :P but it didn't matter, we saw them with our own eyes, truly magical moment :)

So, that was our week. My wife got her assignment completed on time, we finally got around to getting K to bed at a decent hour and sleeping until around 7am. We ate lots of food, wish I could say it was all healthy, but for anyone interested, they can check that out on my next post in the Diet Diary. We watched the Olympics on TV, played games indoors and outside, went shopping, went to the beach and built sand castles all in all a busy week, which means I could do with another vacation to recover from this one :P

Oh yeah, escalators....lol....yeah, almost forgot....that was a funny one...ok, here's the thing, you know how they always put the labels on escalators that tell you you shouldn't take buggies onto them? Well I never pay any attention to them, I always take a buggy onto them, in fact K loves it when I do....on this occasion though, I am tempted to agree with them...perhaps if they updated it slightly to say that you should never take a buggy onto an escalator while texting on your mobile :P So as we descended on the escalator, I sat down on the nearest step holding on to the buggy with one hand and texting with the other....J was in front of us. As we got near the bottom, I completely forgot were I was as I was so engrossed in my text, and so I found myself inches from getting sucked under the escalator :D J was safely off at the bottom, in fact I even managed to push the buggy off with the one hand that held it, but sadly no matter how many times I tried to get up, the movement of the stairs and lack of height made me look like a fish out of water boucing up and down as I tried to avoid imminent doom. Eventually, I butt-shuffled enough to get me over the line of safety, still in one piece. I stood up, moved away to let the young couple that were on the escalator behind me get far enough out of earshot so that they could laugh at me, I finished my text and then looked at J and had a right old giggle myself. Boy, I wish I could see the CCTV footage of that day, it would be hilarious!!! Anyway, will that stop me from bringing the buggy onto the escalator?? nope, I just won't text at the same time :P

A little vacation time

I just thought I would put a little post here to say that as from tomorrow, I will be away on a little vacation with my family to the campsite to stay for about a week. The length of our stay will completely depend on the weather, as it always, but ALWAYS, rains when we go there, and in the end, we would much rather be at home watching the rain, than trying to amuse 2 bored kids in a caravan. Anyways, during this time, it is very unlikely that I will be able to blog as there is no net connection, but rest assured I will be back and given the weather outlook for the week, that could be sooner than you think :P

Have a nice week my friends

Movie: Monsters Inc

Released in 2001, Monsters Inc was Disney Pixar's fourth feature film, following on from the highly acclaimed Toy Story 1&2 movies and A Bugs Life. It was an instant success, grossing over $500m worldwide!!

The movie is set in the fictional world of Monstropolis, where a variety of monsters work together to gather screams from human children as it is used to power the city. Scream processing factories use closet doors (used as portals) into the human world where they enter the bedrooms of children at night in order to make them scream. The screams are then collected and stored for future use. This is considered to be a dangerous task, as it is widely believed that human children are toxic to the monsters, so contact is not allowed. Monsters, Inc is the largest such processing factory in Monstropolis, and this is where we find our heroes, Mike and Sulley.

James P Sullivan (Sulley) is voiced by John Goodman and is a giant among the other monsters with blue fur, horns and purple spots. He is a kind natured monster, relaxed with an outgoing personality. However, he excels at scaring children and it the company's current top scarer aiming to beat the all-time scare record before his fiercest rival Randal does. He always does what he believes is best for the company.

Michael Wazowski (Mike) is voiced by Billy Crystal and is Sulley's best friend and work colleague at the factory. He is small, round, green and has a single big eye. He also has an outgoing personality, and a rather large ego. He continually pushes Sulley to work harder in order to beat the record.


As the movie plays out, we learn that things are not all rosy in the scaring business, as the children are becoming harder to scare with more and more "portals" being destroyed every week. Power levels are running low, and something has to be done. Mike and Sulley uncover a secret plot to literally suck the screams out from the children and so embark on a roller coaster ride of mishaps, mayhem and adventure, trying to put an end to the plot, while trying to ensure that the city does not lose it's power. And if that was not bad enough...there have been sightings of a human child running around Monstropolis!!!

I'm not sure why this film appeals to me so much, but I have to admit it is one of my favourite all time movies, and certainly in my top 3 favourite Pixar movies. Everything about it makes me happy, from the opening jazzy music, to the colours, to the amazingly funny and talented Billy Crystal with his perfectly timed one liners, e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about it makes it a fantastic film for all ages. Perhaps what makes it such a success is the fact that Disney Pixar have created a movie that makes us connect to it. Sure it's computer animated movie set in a parallel universe where monster's live, but it is so well constructed, so well interpreted, you could almost believe it was real, and in the end, you find yourself double checking that your bedroom closet is indeed....empty!!

Be sure to watch this movie at some point in your life...I am giving it a very well deserved 9/10, the only reason I am not giving it a 10....is because it ended :D Though I am very happy to hear that they will release a prequel movie called Monsters University in 2013, same characters, same voices. Nice one Pixar :)

Skyrim

Skyrim, part of the Elder Scolls series, was hottly anticipated following the great success of Oblivion. But did it meet expectations? This link will take you to a great review of the game compiled by my good friend Tinny.

http://tinnster.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/an-epic-feel-less-game-skyrim.html

F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon)

F.E.A.R. cover

Released in 2005, F.E.A.R. - First Encounter Assault Recon (rated 18), is a pshycological horror video game developed by Monolith Productions and was the first title in the F.E.A.R. series.

It is a first-person perspective shooter style game where the story revovles around a supernatural phenomenon, which F.E.A.R., a special forces team created for the game, is called to investigate and contain. As the player, you assume control of the Point Man on the team, a new recruit, who possesses superhuman reflexes, and it is up to you to find the source of this phenomenon, a little girl called Alma.

The game itself begins with a nice video which, although sets the scene, it does so in such a way that only a few minor elements are revealed in the beginning, leaving the player to learn more as they play. In other words, what starts of as a normal mission to apprehend a known criminal, soon spirals into a world of unknown. Of course, being a shooter game, there are many things to kill along the way.



Supersoldiers

The main enemies of this game are telepathically controlled supersoldiers. F.E.A.R.'s artificial intelligence allows these supersoldiers advance action. You can often find them working in teams to distract you while another makes their way behind you, vaulting over objects or through windows to avoid being shot as well as climbing ladders or even moving objects to create cover.






Reflex time

What sets you apart from them is your superhuman reflexes. When activated, this creates a bullet-time effect, slowing down the game world, allowing you to move at normal speed, taking aim and taking down your enemy. Of course, this time is limited, and although you can extend it by finding reflex stimulants along the way, you will soon learn that with a good plan of attack, combined with the reflex time and good use of the arsenal of weapons at your disposal, you'll have little difficulty surviving any attack.

However, for me what makes this game a success is it's horror theme atmosphere, which seems to be heavily inspired by Japanese Horror. In fact, Alma bears an uncanny resemblance to Samara (from the ring). But more than that, the game gets under your skin and makes your hairs stand up on end. It's not just a zombie fest of blood and guts and lots of killing, it's the little added noises, scenes and visuals that make it one of the scariest games I have ever played. In all honesty, I do not think I have used the quick save button half as many times in any other game.

Alma

Of course, as the game was released in 2005, the graphics are not up to standards of todays games but they are still very nice. I still remember having to lower my settings in order to increase the performance on my old pc!! So although it might not be pretty to look at, it's not the worst either, and even 7 years on (after I lost my original copy) I downloaded it again as I wanted to relive such moments as you can see in the videos below.

I would rate this game as a nice 8/10, great story, immense intensity, but the end game is a tiny wee bit...disappointing. But nothing that would totally spoil your enjoyment of the game as a whole. It is one I would reccomend you try, but maybe with the lights on eh?

  Scary moments from Fear

Thought & Ramblings - A new era

Decided I would try this blog thing again, only this time, stick to it and add to my portfolio of post topics. Also decided to link this to my facebook page for anyone there who is interested in following it. New things that will appear here are reviews of movies, songs, tv shows and games etc as well as the normal thoughts and ramblings in similar style as before.

I have decided to remove all the posts relating to my diet and start a whole new blog dedicated to that instead. Anyone interested can follow it using this link - http://dietdiary-blog.blogspot.co.uk/

I am also working on another blog which will appear very shortly :)

Cheers

Kudos

Happy Fathers Day :))

Today we celebrate fathers. I am a father to 2 lovely daughters, one is 7.5 and the other 2.5. I watched them today as their little eyes lit up with excitment as they gave me presents and a card wishing me a happy fathers day. Such love I could feel from them :)) And to think, I could have missed this. The thing is, I never wanted to be a father, heck, I never wanted to get married.

When we first got married, we agreed to wait at least 5 years until we have our first child. Nobody thought we would, but we did :)) But even at that time, I was still unsure about it. Needless to say, along came our first daughter "J" and I have to admit, I was not disappointed by it being a girl, I had no aspirations at all. So up she grew, and had her daddy wrapped around her finger, she was a real princess, so fragile and easily broken. My life, already turned upside-down by getting married, was further sent into twists and turns.

After about 5 years, along came number 2, and another girl, "K". Even from birth, K was different than J, and as she grew we found that she took after me more, was more adventurous, more devilish and playful, not at all fragile. She is more like me whereas her big sister is more like her mom.

I love both my girls, and I know we are not supposed to have any favourites, but if we could...it would be K :P she is just sooooo me :))) Anyways, one thing I learned as a father and I would encourage other fathers to follow suit...always make your children feel special. No matter how silly their words sound, no matter how stupid their artwork looks, no matter what mischief they get up to when your back is turned...to them they are communicating, to them they are making masterpieces of art, to them they are helping to re-paint the walls, remove old wall paper, feed the family pets, take the rubbish out (all over the floor!!), to them...they are trying to be just like you and me. And I say well done to them, you did it my girl/my boy, and I am so very proud of you.

And never beat them in games, make them feel like winners, that they are the champions of the world...c'mon man, you are maybe 3 times as big, at least a decade older, of course you could beat them, but the feeling you get seeing their face as they beat you for the 10th time in snakes and ladders, they score the winning goal against you in football, they find the final matching pair of cards in snap...let me tell you, nothing comes close...you know life will knock them back enough when they are older, why add to that now huh?

So remember dads, love your kids, make them feel special and like champions. After all, one day, it could be them looking after you....

It's a funny old game...

Hey bloggers and true believers :) Today starts the mighty football campaign known as the Euros. To all my European comrades with teams in the running, I wish you happy times ahead and the best of luck. There are a few teams considered favourites to win, but as we saw 8 years ago with Greece, anything is possible :))

So good luck to all and I hope you enjoy it :))

I gotta feeling....

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head??? I mean, not even one that you have heard on the radio and keep playing over and over in your head, but just one that is there?? I have had such a song, and I felt it was rude of me not to share it....sooooo, enjoy, and see if you can listen to it all without moving to the beat...

Exploring the world....

In a previous post (Introducing Northern Ireland) I mentioned that some of my friends had created little videos about their home countries. Here are a couple of those videos that they have created. The first is from Greece and the second one is from Turkey. Both videos are very nice and contain some beautiful images that will surely make your mouth water!!! Kudos to my friends for creating them. Happy viewing bloggers....

(This video was compiled by GFreedom, and you can follow his blog here...gfreedomathina.blogspot.com)

Introducing Northern Ireland....

Ok, so as some of you may have noticed in my profile, I like playing games, online games to be exact. For many years I have made good friends with people from all over the world (mainly Europe) and at one point some of us decided to show others the places we come from. So I put together a little slideshow of images that we have taken and some from the internet to show off my little country of Northern Ireland. The music is by The Corrs, and I hope you enjoy it :))

Reaching out across the globe

Since starting this blog, I had no idea whether anyone would be interested in it, after all, it is just the thoughts and ramblings of a bloke from Northern Ireland. But when I checked my viewing audience, I was quite surprised :)) So I'd like to give a big shout out to my readers from Turkey, Russia, Germany and the USA :) Hope you are enjoying what you see here and come back from time to time to read some more.

Many thanks for your interest in my little blog :D

Playing "fair" with weather

Is it just me or do others feel it would be fairer for some countries to share their good weather? I mean to say it is mid spring here and to look outside you would believe that it was in fact mid autumn. And yet I know for a fact that there are some countries who are already experiencing weather which is far superior to what we would have in summer. So come on hot countries, don't be greedy, share the joy of your good weather with us folks who are unfortunate enough to live in countries where is rains 365 days of the year!!! After all it's only fair :P

Growing old, but not growing up

I remember as a teenager, I told myself (and others) I would never grow old. I wanted to live forever. Unfortunately, that was not possible, hey it happens to us all right? And as much as we dare to believe in them, the stuff we see in the movies isn't true :P

But where does it say that even though you get older, you have to act your age? I still love watching cartoons, playing video games, listening to loud music, and as far as I am concerned, I always will. Yeah so ok, as time moves on, so do our committments and responsibilities, but do these necessitate acting your age? Well, yeah sometimes they do, but that doesn't mean we have to allow them to dictate who we are. As you will have seen from my profile, I am a father and there is nothing I love more than getting down to the level of my kids and playing with them as though I am their friend and not a parental figure. Yeah I can do things better than them, but that doesn't mean I have to.

And now I find myself approaching my mid 30's, but I still feel and act like a kid inside. So, I have adopted a new motto for living, I may grow old, but I will never grow up!!

Thought for the day

Here's a thought for you. There are loads of different kinds of shampoo out there, ones for dry hair, ones for greasy hair, ones for curly hair, ones for straight hair, medicated ones, dermatologically tested ones, baby ones, "no more tears" ones, anti-dandruff ones, herbal ones and ones with a secret ingredient. And of course there is a full range of fragrances on offer for each type....strawberry, cherry, vanilla, peach, jojoba, coconut, tea tree, citrus to name but a few. But have you ever noticed that no matter what colour of shampoo you use, the lather is always white? hmmm......

Too geek, or not too geek?

Is it just me, or is "geek" becoming something of a fashion statement? Are they becoming more acceptable within today's society? With shows such as Beauty and the Geek and Big Bang Theory, it is easy to see why this might be the case, and if so, then grrrrreat, cause my name is Kudosarian, and I am a geek :P Though I do not consider myself to be the worlds biggest geek, I do feel like one when it comes to computers, gadgets and movies among other things. But I am not the type to fluant it in public, to wear my "I am a geek" badge on my sleeve. But, lately I have noticed more and more people displaying their geekie side. So I got to thinking...too geek, or not too geek?

How about a guy on my bus the other day with a children's leather Batman satchel in an "over the shoulder" look (see image). Couple this with his flaunting of an iPad and an iPod with a retro style Nintendo Gameboy cover on it and I think you will agree that it's boarding on the line.

So what say you? Too geek, or not too geek????

You are what you eat

Last night I was reading my daughter a bedtime story called Chocolatina. It is a story about a girl who, unsurprisingly, loves chocolate. She eats chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and of course in between meal snacks. At school, her most hated subject is Health Class, because her teacher, Mrs Ferdman, is always telling the children to eat healthily because...."You are what you eat". One night, something magical happens, and Chocolatine turns to chocolate!!! When Mrs Ferdman saw her the next day, she makes her wait after class, but not as punishment for not eating healthily as you might think. Instead she reveals that she was hoping this would happento the girl as she LOVES chocolate herself, all the while trying to eat Chocolatina's ear off!!!

So this got me thinking...what if that was true? What if one morning, "you are what you eat" became a reality? After some thought about what I would be, I narrowed it down to 2 possibilties....pepperoni pizza or honey chilli chicken with fried rice and prawn crackers. Difficult to chose between them both, but if I was forced to, I think I would go for pizza. I mean, at the very least I would still be able to roll down the road and into work. What I would do when I got there is anyones guess. Of course I might lose the odd piece of pepperoni along the way, but sacrafices are only to be expected. And at least that little piece of delicious meaty goodness could become a meal for some poor starving animal. And call me crazy, but the thought of slipping down the road into work with 10,000 grains of fried rice marching behind me followed by a handful of prawn crackers just sounds very silly. Right?

p.s. for those who are concerned about poor Chocolatina, don't worry, she did not get eaten and woke up the next day a normal girl again.

Welcome to Thoughts & Ramblings

Greetings bloggers and true believers :)

I'm Kudosarian (but you can call me Kudos). I have decided to make this blog for fun and entertainment and I hope that you will enjoy the posts you read and maybe even learn something along the way. As the name of this blog suggests, each post will primarily consist of a thought or a ramble or whatever comes to my mind :P Some issues might be of general interest, while others might seem a little "off the wall" and crazy :)) Comments and discussions are welcome, but please keep them respectable.

Enough from me for now, better get back to work :P

Kudos