The Lost World book review

Doing a little blog on my thoughts on the latest book I have just finished reading. Previously I finished the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and enjoyed immensely, it is now one of my most favourite books. Hot on the heels of that I decided to check out the sequel to it, like the film it was called The Lost World.

The book follows Ian Malcolm again as he joins a rescue mission/expedition to Costa Rica in search of dinosaurs and unexplained carcasses washing up ashore. The book is well written and shares some similarities with the film like the trailers being toppled over the cliff, baby T-Rex breaking a leg and some of the characters are the same.

I enjoyed the book, I did find it rather slow to begin with. At times there is a lot of text on theories which does bog you down but when it gets to the action/suspence scenes the pace quickens really well and it is quite absorbing.

There are a lot more dinosaurs in this book and more descriptions about them as they are being studied from The high hide by Dr Levine.such as Apatosaurs,

Unlike the film where the antagonists are InGen and their dino hunters, the baffles here are Biochem, the same as the first book and their leader the ruthless scientist Dodgson, which like his accomplices meets a grizzly end.

Like the first book, I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would. At times the huge chunks of text leave you wondering why you started the book but once it gets going it is a thoroughly enjoyable and riveting read. Perhaps the plot is rather obvious, it is a typical dinosaur chase book. But there are adequate curve al sand twists in the plot to keep you e grossed in the action.

St Fagan's Museum 25/4/2011

I meant to post this a fortnight ago but got sidetracked. Better late than never.......

What a beautiful day yesterday was. Usually as a family we rarely do anything on a Bank Holiday Monday but for a change we decided to go out for the day together. We decided to go to St Fagan's Museum in Cardiff. The museum is mainly outdoors with a various array of relocated buildings showing how people in Wales lived through the years, from Iron Age mud huts to an eco-friendly house.

It has been many years since I last visited St Fagan's Museum and I was very much looking forward to it, I'm a nerd and nothing makes me happier than spending a day wandering through a museum/gallery and yesterday was no exception. Everything was perfect, we were up nice and early, hadn't argued (which is rare for us) and the weather was scorching hot. The only problems we faced were firstly whether to take our own food or find somewhere to eat whilst we were there and parking. With it being a rare beautifully sunny Bank Holiday, it was odds on that every pleb would either have the same idea as us or go to the coast.

We arrived at about 10am and the car park wasn't full but wasn't empty, there was a huge queue for parking tickets near where we parked but 100 yard down the road there were three vending machines unused. I wasn't standing in line queuing like a knob lol. The added bonus for the day was , museums in Wales are free entry so the day only cost £3.50 for the parking ticket (excluding food and petrol), which was a pinch and if we had a nice day, we couldn't really complain.

Onto the museum, the museum is a huge former private home which is opened to the public, donated to the people of Wales by the Earl of Plymouth in 1946. The museum boasts over forty original buildings from all corners of Wales, moved and erected in the museum grounds. The buildings include many farmhouses, chapels, a Workmen's Institute and the beautiful St Teilo's medieval church, presented in all it's splendour with colourfully crafted wall paintings on it's interior.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day out, it was a perfect day. The attractions were just as I remembered them, I made sure to visit every building and take lots of photographs. The buildings I loved the most were the Iron Age huts, St Fagan's Castle and Kennixton Farmhouse. The museum involves a lot of walking if you intend to make the most of it and see every building. Everything is laid out rather well, although it was a Bank Holiday and there was quite a high volume of visitors it didn't feel as if everything was on top of you. The main problem was people photo-bombing my pictures. It would be best to go back on a nice mid week day when people would be at work and children at school. That way the museum would be quiet and you can spend a leisurely day perusing all the attractions.

On the whole we all agreed it was the best family day out that we have had for a long time. It was a really cheap and enjoyable day, except petrol and parking we only paid for food, which was nice. I would go back again sometime. The museum I would like to visit next is Caerleon, which is a Roman museum based on an old Roman Town. It has the remains of a bath-house and the best example of a Roman amphitheatre in the UK.

St Fagan's Pictures

In helping others we help ourselves

This is a reflective blog. I was linked to a friends new website and was reading a passage she added to her site and it got me thinking. So I have decided to blog on the subject. I find the later the time the better I blog so apologies if this doesn't make complete sense.

Her website is a recently made site where visitors are urged to share their feelings. A place where if you have a problem or issue you wish to discuss you just type it out and someone will read it. As the old saying goes 'a problem shared is a problem halved'. I think this is an awesome idea for a website, often there are times when I know I personally have issues that I find unable to share with others due to being s private person or when the issue arises nobody I trust enough is online so I keep it bottled up and let it fester until it either gets sorted or becomes insignificant.

Online I feel most people are more comfortable sharing intimate details about themselves to anonymous users. You are hidden behind a keyboard and behind a screen name, it takes the stress away and allows you to open up. This idea for a site is great, I'm sure I will use it at some point down the line.

It is a fresh and nice looking site. Clear menu, simple navigation. Really good effort for a starting point. It could evolve into something bigger once it beds in and people visit and use the site. The web address for it is: shareitw.weekly.com

Back to my main point, I was reading the first post on the site by the creator, Bea, and it got me thinking. Her post was about how people should treat others and the very last phrase is what caught my eye, along the lines of 'in'helping others we are helping ourselves'.

That is a very true statement. Being an only child I have often had a selfish 'me me me' outlook on things, I have been fortunate that more often than not what I want I have. I am in a position that I have never wanted for anything. I have a happy family, clean clothes, fresh food, sanitation and every gadget under the sun, lots I don't want or need.

Some people aren't as fortunate as me, yet in my selfishness I would put my needs first and well wouldn't really think about anyone else as long as I got what I wanted. My view on this has changed recently due to the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami and helping out in a charity shop for a family member.

I have so much in life that I take for granted, my life is a walk in the park. I live at home with my parents and I pay zero rent, keep, nothing. My only outgoing bill is my mobile phone bill,which has rarely been under three figures (what love does to someone). I never used to stop and think about those less fortunate than I, how do people without a family cope? No house to stay? No certainty of food for the day?

While watching the news and seeing the devastation in Japan, I was upset at the sights I saw and the realisation that a day earlier they had everything, houses, luxuries and happy lives. Now they have nothing, all taken away by the forces of nature. It shook me a little with the realisation that we have no idea what can happen tomorrow. I scanned my room and I have a TV, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Laptop, 4 iPods, iPad, Sony Reader, about 100 DVDs and 70video games. I would be devastated to lose any of them, a worry to me is to

Here's me worrying about being first in queue for a new release and across the World people who have real worries. It really opened my eyes to the World, to the point that the £40 I had ready to waste on another game I donated to help with the relief effort. Someone else could benefit more from it than me, why waste it on a piece of plastic that will collect dust in a month. I also emptied my online Playstation Network wallet and donated all my gaming funds to the relief effort. Better use for it than wasting it on some download content I won't use.

Since then I have been thinking about issues closer to home like the beggar on the street we all look down on, giving him a few coins. Perhaps it will be spent on drink or drugs but he could be genuine and use the money for himself, a little food or drink. Even the sandwich you are too full to eat that you will throw in the rubbish, why not give it to someone for whom it could be their first bit of food for many days. We are fortunate to not be in his position and living a lonely life where everyone looks down on you like a piece of dirt on the soles of their shoes. If I was in his position I would like to think people would take pity on me and give me some spare change or a little nourishment out of the kindness of their heart and the often lacking human nature of helping your fellow man.

It is common decency to help out our fellow person if we can, something insignificant to us can mean a lot to someone else, whether it be helping an elderly person with a heavy bag of shopping, holding a door open or paying a compliment. It is the simple things that make the most difference, simple and free things which everyone should be doing without thinking.

So next time you see a beggar, someone struggling with their groceries, stop and think if they could use a hand or a few coins from your pocket. You could be making someone's day.

As the phrase went 'in helping others we are helping ourselves' and we are, we become better people for it. It brings a sense of joy that you have helped someone no matter how small. You did something, yes it may be a slight inconvenience given that today everyone is on the go and nobody. Has time for anyone but one day that could easily be you as events that happen more and more regularly go to show. Don't take your life and what you own for granted, one day it can all disappear before you know it.

The time you expect others to help you get back on your feet you may discover a deafening silence. What goes around comes around. If you never help anyone less fortunate, why should you expect help when you need it.

In helping others we help ourselves, never a more truer word spoken.

Thanks for reading.

Grandads passing 3 months on

Thinking about my grandfather, this Friday it is 3 months exactly since he passed away. The time has flown by. I still don't think I have come to terms with it. You spend 21 years seeing a person every day of your life and then in 10 minutes the person goes from being quiet in their bed to passing away. It is truly hard to comprehend. The phone call to say he passed away will haunt me for the rest of my life, as will my fathers reaction. I have never seen the man I look up to cry floods of tears. 

I can deal with death as it is the only certainty in life, you will die one day other than that life is what you make of it, but what I find hard is granddad has left a vast space in my life. For the past few years he has been in failing health with Alzheimer's and dementia, becoming more forgetful and appearing vacant at times in the last 6 months prior to last December he was my grandfather in body but not in my mind, at least not the man I remembered who would play me on computer games and kick a football in his 70's. 

The fact he is no longer here hits me hardest, I miss him so much. He was more than just a grandfather. His presence in my life is sorely missed, when I go in my grandmothers the house is so empty without him perched on his chair by the window. I miss seeing him, helping him and hearing his voice. Other than photographs and heirlooms I have inherited all i have are memories, I long to see him once more or hear his voice call me 'boy' he is the only person I would take being called that from. 

The hardest part for me was scattering his ashes, the fact that once the container was opened and the dust settles I have nothing more of my grandfather. He is gone in the wind and free as a bird.it hit me hard that moment and seeing what remained of him, a man reduced to dust. I think grandma upset me also, when it was just me and her prior to scattering his ashes she caught hold of me and told me that it is down to me that she too is cremated and scattered where grandad was. I think it was the thought of losing another grandparent, I'll have to go through it four times in total. I dread the day it happens.

Prior to writing this, I am crying my eyes out whilst doing this, that was the first time I cried since the phone call to say grandad passed away. I tend to retreat into a shell and deal with emotional issues by holding up a guard and keeping my feelings hidden, I guess to some I can be seen as strong but to most like my family I am seen as cold and not bothered, which is totally opposite. I guess I try to be strong for everyone else, when you are emotional you don't think rationally. For example we (grandma &dad) decided not to have a post-mortem done to spare my grandfather being messed about with. The decision was made right after we saw his body at the hospital and everyone bar me was in floods of tears, now though they wish they did get the post-mortem done as there may have been foul play and neglect but it's was too late to do anything so we will always have a niggle that if they did their jobs he may still be here.  I guess being emotionless is how I deal with my grief, I don't think i grieved properly and I know it's good to cry and let it all out but I don't know, I guess I can't. I try to put a brave face on for everyone and as the old saying goes 'life goes on' these things happen in life. 

I needed to vent and it has been nice to put this in words. I can talk about it with my family but well I am a honest person and call a spade a spade, intend to say how I feel which causes offence to some, especially my mother. The tears have been a bit weird, I didn't think I would cry whilst writing this. I think of my grandfather every day and hand on my hand I miss him so much. I just wish I could have one more day with him, there is so much I want to say to him.  I never got to say goodbye to him, I regret not visiting him the night before he passed away. I was too busy messing at home to go up, a decision I will regret until the day I die. 

Life is short and you have to cease each opportunity and make the most of every second, tell people you love them and how you feel whilst you can. We don't know what is around the corner and tomorrow the opportunity may not be there anymore.

I'll wrap this up now, it is 6.48am on 13/3/2011, I've not slept a wink yet. If you've read this far, thank you.