Sunday Again,

so we are off for lunch,

 glad rags on and we are away to,

 the Punch & Judy,

 and look what was parked outside, a brand new Ducati, what a lovely bike,

 we all started with chicken liver pate, followed by roast lamb,

 we were joined by Mr. Tony,

 'Cheers!' from me with an empty glass,

 no gravy for me thank you,

 and just a touch for Mr. Tony, another excellent meal the place was full of diners, we nearly did not get a table,

after a lengthy meal it was back home feet up for a Sunday afternoon/evening movie, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, in 1946, the explorer Rick O'Connell and his wife Evelyn O'Connell are invited by the British government to take a relic, the diamond "The Eye of Shangri-La" to China, it has mystical powers, so the trip is not without its dangers, great fun,

next for the evening the final episodes of Last Chance to See, we all found the ones we watched to be as good as the first, a truly great series if you are into wildlife,

to round the evening off after Diana cooked us a few snacks we settled on Downton Abbey, another hugely watchable series which we all enjoyed so much, with the end of that we said our goodbyes to Mr. Tony and w were off to bed.

How Many Of Us Have Thought To Get Away From It All,

on our own tropical island?

well it appears the time might be right if you have a bit of spare cash, there are now 600 islands up for sale around the world, according to experts, from the Caribbean to the chillier waters of northern Scotland, ranging in price from $50,000 to $100 million, the number of isles on the market has jumped three-fold since 2006, it appears that the rich and famous who stump up the millions required for their own Robinson Crusoe experience, haven't bargained for trouble in paradise - which often includes no electricity, bureaucratic red tape, endangered species and exorbitant maintenance costs,


island broker Farhad Vladi told The Sunday Times: 'some celebrities are getting out of the the market as quickly as they can,' so maybe now is the time to make the break with the mainland! pictured above (clockwise from top left) Little Hawkins, Georgia; Jonathan Island in Rhode Island; Little Bokeelia, Florida and Petra Island, New York, as a guide, Jonathan Island, a secluded getaway in Rhode Island, for $1.4million, it has a protected wildlife sanctuary along with a modern two-bedroom cottage, Little Hawkins Island, Georgia has been heavily developed with a spacious home featuring wraparound porches, swimming pool and dock - although it is reflected in the price tag of $20million,


lets go up a level or two, Florida's Little Bokeelia Island combines a picturesque property with blissful solitude - but there is nothing small about the price tag, the 104-acre island will set you back $29.5million, Petra Island, a 15-minute jaunt from New York City (if you have a helicopter that is), has been on the market for several years, the 11-acre island has two properties designed by the celebrated Frank Lloyd Wright incorporating mahogany, cement and stone into the striking structures, a cottage was finished in 1949 while the larger, 5,000 sq ft residence was completed in 2007 from drawings, the price of Petra Island is only available on request (but if you need to ask, you probably can't afford it),



but lets get back to basics, how about Pigeon Island, Nicaragua? 7.2 acres, just 15 miles south of Bluefields, pictured below,

 it looks a nice size,

 with some high spots for a view,

 already a walkway round part of the beach,

 with coconut trees,

the blurb says, 'this is a rare and affordable opportunity to purchase a mountainous island of rock surrounded by the waters of the Caribbean, agates, sea turtles, bird life, and world-class fishing on one of the Caribbean Coasts last frontiers; where on the mainland across from the island is undeveloped white sand beach and vacant land as far as the eye can see, as an offshore island and with the recorded wind measurement data, there exist excellent wind turbine/solar conditions for complete self sustainability and life without mosquitoes or white flies', in case you are wondering about ownership the site states, 'foreigners have the legal right to purchase property in Nicaragua (without Nicaraguan citizenship), next question, how much? last time I looked it was yours for US$65,000, now where do I get a boat, helicopter, desalination plant, generator and builders?

One Of The Few To Survive,

perhaps the world's oldest Morris Minor,

built in Oxford in 1928 it had been left to rust in a Scottish barn for 35 years, the four seater car has a 847cc engine, back in 1973 Jock MacKay bought the rusty car for £270, 10 years later it finally took to the road again, Jock, from the village of Scrabster, northern Scotland, said: 'even back in the early 1970s £270 was a really good price - but it was totally unroadworthy and it needed a lot of work', the good news is that he also uses the car, he said, 'my greatest journey was a 1,200-mile round trip from John O' Groats to Land's End, it was a bumpy trip that took 12 days in total - after I was so sore I had to go for a hot bath,' great little car from our motoring past, I hope many more are found, restored and used again.

It Was Another Day That We Found nothing

interesting, amusing or just plain weird in the news,

 so straight on to today's post, first thing to the market,

 for some fresh fruit, also Diana wanted some things on sticks,

now that we have the amplifier/receiver back I decided to spend some time on fine tuning both the sound and picture on our system, so I started with a fairly new BluRay to play with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in his sixth year at Hogwarts and in both wizard and muggle worlds Lord Voldemort and his henchmen are increasingly active, with vacancies to fill at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement to become the potions teacher, special effects abound, but more importantly I was playing with the on screen menus for both the sound and television, stopping every now and then to make adjustments,

the problem is I am a compulsive button pusher, every time I see there is a button, dial or knob I just have to push, turn or pull it, but I look at it like this, how would I know what it did if I did not try it? so from the settings that I am watching at the present I push everything to the maximum, then I know what that button will do, next go back and adjust the setting down to what I think is nice, then start on the next, I used this approach whilst watching Hugo,


we had watched it before and this is what I wrote then, 'the cover says 'A Magical Masterpiece' and it is, the sets and camera work left all of us spellbound, the story follows the adventures of Hugo, an orphan who learns how to repair clocks and lives in the railway station, but he has a connection with a shopkeeper there who sells toys, Georges Méliès, it is difficult not to give the plot away, but it was a marvellous film, also before you dismiss this as a kids film this was Martin Scorsese's first PG rated film in 18 years, as another aside if you do buy/rent/borrow this film be sure to watch the 'extras' the true story behind Georges Méliès who is a central character in the film is fascinating', I have to say I was impressed with what a couple of hours spent playing with the television and sound system made,

Diana said she wanted to watch some more of Last Chance to See, at the beginning of each episode there is the same beginning if you see what I mean, views over mountains and forest with the narrator going over the overview of the series, the difference was so marked after I had made a number of adjustments, absolutely so much better, all of the speakers gave us a sound of being there with animal cries and music coming from all sides and the picture has to be seen to be believed, so much better for us than the factory settings, back to the DVD, we watched the episodes with the Aye-aye and the Komodo dragon, I have fond memories of reading about Komodo dragons, I mentioned before in a previous post some time ago about David Attenborough,


'the first recollection I have of watching television was of him making a black and white film back in 1956 called Zoo Quest For A Dragon, I was spell bound, also as an aside the first Christmas present I remember receiving was the book of the same title, I can still remember it's cover now, the team was looking for Komodo dragons, from the island of that name, they are the worlds largest growing living lizard with an extremely poisonous bite', yes it has been found its bite is poisonous, as well as having bacteria laden saliva,

we rounded the evening off with Waking the Dead, Pieta, a man who assaulted a police officer and ran off is found to have the same DNA as a suspect wanted for the murder of a mother and son whose corpses Eve unearthed working as a volunteer in the wake of the Bosnian war, the hunt is on, then for us we were off to bed.

I Called In To See Don,

as I had not had a chat with him for some time,

 all of the fish in his pool looked well,

 the filter system doing its job of keeping the water clear,

 he is also keeping some Siamese fighting fish as they are known, (Betta Splendens),

 after putting the world to rights I made a move home, but stopped to have a look at how the house almost opposite his was coming along,

 quiet an improvement since the last time I was here,

 in the afternoon Mark, Jay and Precil called in, the girls walked to the local market to buy a few things whilst we watched a few programes about tree cutting in some of the swamps in the USA, also a program about a family of gun makers, then after saying our goodbyes we were off to the weekend night market on Thepprisitt Road,

 a bit of cloud cover looking towards the sea,

 even more looking inland,

 opposite the bar there were a couple of secondhand clothes stalls this week,

 and quite a few people buying food,

 not so many in the shoes clothes/section,

 and just a few in the pet aisle,

 the sky was still grey but luckily the rain held off,

 lots of fruit on offer this week as usual,

 the food aisles were by now getting quiet busy,

 lots of food on sticks to chose from,

 sunset over the market,

 only the owners son sitting at the bar this evening,

 Diana had bought a soft drink as she was walking around,

 we were then joined by Brian, Sa, one of her family and Mr. Tony as the sun went down, after the girls had finished a second walk round the market we said our goodbyes and made our way home with Mr. Tony, after some food on sticks and some rice it was feet up to watch some more of that excellent series,

Downton Abbey we watched another couple of episodes, the good news is that series 3 will be out soon, so I have pre ordered it already, we then said our goodbyes to Mr, Tony and we were off to bed.

I Know Many Things Have Become Miniaturised,

but I find this totally fascinating,

1,000 hairy wood ants will be fitted with tiny radio receivers, each with its own code to follow the movements of each ant, the three year experiment will take place at the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate, Derbyshire, with the receivers attached, scientists will be able to examine how the ants communicate with each other in their colonies, Samuel Ellis, a biologist from the University of York, who will be carrying out the research, said: 'this research is about trying to find out how the ants communicate and commute between the vast network of nests and how they travel in this environment',


amazing in itself but for me it is that the size of the receivers is so small, do the receivers have batteries that last 3 years? as an aside the northern hairy wood ant has an international near-threatened conservation status with the two main populations in England found in the Peak District (including Longshaw) and in the North York Moors, so no going to pick an ant up to look at the receiver!

I Have Often Read About People Using Their SatNav,

only to find the road it used was not suitable,

I wonder if that is what happened here? in Looe, Cornwall Britain's finest may have misjudged the gap, local resident Joanna Bond, 28, took the snap on her iPhone and it quickly became a hit on Facebook, She said: 'I was cooking dinner at around 6.30pm when I saw two police officers staring up the road in bewilderment, I took a look and saw with amusement that their police van had become stuck, wedged between the wall of the Fishermans Arms and Tower House,

the landlord of The Fisherman's Arms, where the van got stuck, said it was common for vehicles to get wedged there, landlord Mick Lee, who wasn't there when the van got stuck last Saturday, said: 'they are not the first to get stuck, and I am sure they won't be the last, it does annoy me a little bit because when it happens it takes off the guttering on the pub which I have to repair', still the good news is that he knows where to send the bill for the repair, I wonder what the driver will be charged with? I only ask because if it was me driving the van a summons would be in the post already!