Cartoon Network has changed over the years since the inception. A few signature shows that stood out were Looney Tunes, The Flintstones and Jetsons were apart of the original Cartoon Network. It was a show that was dedicated to having all the cartoons came to one place and used to have the afternoons to watch something good. For myself, it was a great time to watch the channel itself but it is just my opinion. Looking back, there used to (more…)

Inevitably this year we will read stories about schools banning kids from playing conkers and cries about political correctness and the nanny state.  We are right to be concerned that we will raise a generation of wimps that are to concerned about getting the odd injury from a loose conker, is good character building stuff.

However yesterday I saw something that bucked the trend I couldn’t believe my eyes and it made the trip back from the supermarket a lot more pleasant. I saw a whole group of kids up on the common dressed as pirates, some of the costumes looked like they were even home made! What was more they, were being strongly competitive. They we doing good old fashioned things like climbing trees and jumping of them.

I think if the local council saw them I think they would be horrified that kids could be having such fun, they would have handed them a risk (more…)

Three soldiers were killed and a fourth injured. When a single suicide bomber approached their patrol and detonated his bomb as they were returning on foot, through some villages, to their base.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Defence Secretary Des Browne have paid tribute to the courage of british troops and both have said that their thoughts are now with the families of these latest casualties. But surely now they should question the price they are asking our brave troops to pay.

UK forces have been deployed in Afghanistan since shortly after terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11^th 2001. Now there is a total of nearly 8000 UK service men and women in an area where, since 2006, the fighting has become so intense that it has been described as the fiercest since the Korean War.

More detailed reports can be found at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Also, a shout out goes to the people at Image Group for their swift provision of roller banners when needed.

Why is it that Heathrow, which should be our country’s flagship airport, has been designed in such a way as to make travelling through it one of the most stressful parts of going overseas on holiday?  Why hasn’t it been designed in a way that makes travel fun and easy?  Last time I went through Heathrow I – as with many other passengers – had to negotiate myself and my luggage from one baggage retrieval point in one terminal to a check-in desk in another terminal.  This meant not only having to physically ensure that all of my luggage made it to the bus, but also having to stand suspended by little more than a leather strap whilst trying to keep a close guard on my bags because the bus was so crowded.   Why can’t something be done – like bigger buses, better thought out layouts for inside buses, even more buses (like a constant conveyor belt of them so that people didn’t all try to cram on the same bus because they had to get to their next check-in desk on time in order to make their flight and the next bus might make the connection too tight)?  I wonder if the Heathrow bigwigs have ever travelled as a regular passenger (ie not staff, not VIP, not first)  If they have, have they done it with two small children and a baby (plus obligatory buggy)?  If not, they have no idea about the real issues facing passengers who use their airport.

The baggage issues are hilarious.  OK, so I’m sorry if you’re one of the people who had their holiday spoilt because of the baggage problems, that’s not fun. No one enjoyes having to deal with the all too beautiful “I’ve just had a face lift“ helpers who just frustrate you even more with their niceness. However Heathrow was notorious for not being able to get baggage and traveler on the same plane before the new terminal was even thought of, so it’s a little strange that they didn’t think about how to make this part of the process more effective (and even –dare one say–test it) when the plans for T5 were being made!  

For the moment, I think it’s safe to say that I’ll continue to avoid the having to que and the dodgy coffee the vending machines give you at Heathrow and it’s horrible reputation for stranding and separating people and their luggage.  There are far more friendly airports to use as a gateway to the rest of the world, and most of them have a reputation for getting passengers where they need to be, with the right luggage, at the right time.  It raises the question however, if other airports can do this, why does Heathrow make such a mess of it?

As a regular breakfaster at McDonalds I am used to a varying breakfast menu.  It offers me the choice of a simple bacon sandwich, a more exotic choice of pancakes and syrup, or even a mix of eggs and pancakes, and not forgetting the crunchy hash browns.  I enjoy the range, although I have to confess to a weakness for the pancakes and syrup! 

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A couple of weeks ago however I found myself looking for breakfast in an area where there wasn’t any McDonalds.  There was a Burger King however and so I decided to check out the breakfast competition there.  What an anti-climax!  There is no breakfast competition here – well not to McDonalds anyway! 

The first thing that struck me was the narrowness of the menu, plus the fact that that Burger King was serving burger options as part of their breakfast specials.  There was a bacon and egg sandwich, which I did order, but when it came it wasn’t as tasty as the McDonald’s similar item, plus the bacon wasn’t just crispy, it was completely frazzled.   It was possible to get a Burger King alternative to the large hash browns served at McDonalds, but they were smaller and tasted oilier. The coffee tasted like it was straight out of a vending machine.  Overall I also thought the price for the breakfast menu was much higher than I would have paid for more variety and better quality at McDonalds.

One thing that I did see on the menu that my partner enjoyed was porridge oats.  This was little more than a cup-a-soup in a porridge format, but it was something that I haven’t seen at McDonalds, and as such it did give a slight rise in the interest level of the menu items – but not much! 

So having been forced by circumstance to experience fast food breakfast at one of McDonald’s main competitors, I can safely say that whilst their burgers may be much of a muchness, McDonald’s definitely has the upper hand when it comes to breakfast.  I’ll not be going to Burger King for breakfast again anytime soon!

The problem is quality when the signal was bad on anoglog, the picture would get a little worse, when the signal is weak on digital the damm thing stops. It just stops, some time just the image, sometime the sound, sometimes both. But it is completely unwatchable and depending on the channel it can be ever five or six seconds. This can completely destory certain programmes, exspecaily comedy, for jokes to work you really need to know the whole set up and the punch line, and timing is kind of important don’t you think. 

Anyway this has driven me to work damm it, the last two page I put together are anti aging products and endoscopic brow lift, and this was done whilst the TV was spluttering.