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August 2012

Day Trip: Liverpool

By Adventures, Friends & Family, Happiness & JoyNo Comments

(A photo of one of the famous
Liver Birds.)
One weekend a few weeks ago on a gorgeous, bright sunny day Chrys, Simon, two of Chrys’ visiting foreign friends and I went for a day trip to Liverpool. I’ve not been to Liverpool in years and don’t know the city well. So we were really lucky to have a proper scouser in Chrys. We couldn’t have asked for a better guide to show us around her lovely city.

One of Chrys foreign friends has a love of architecture and photography and Liverpool is full of beautiful architecture. The foreign friend pointed out many grand architectural features at high points on the buildings. I’m not normally one to notice architecture, so her pointing it made me notice the detailed carvings in the stone.

Here’s a man holding a torch which is an example of the architecture I’m talking about along with a fountain that caught my eye (click on any of the photos on this blog post to see a full size image):



Next Chrys showed us where The Beatles started off at The Cavern Club:

Opposite The Cavern Club is ‘Liverpool Wall Of Fame’ (photo right). It’s got a gold disk for every liverpudlian whose had a Number 1 Single in the charts.

As I was taking in the graffiti people from seemingly all over the world had written, I noticed this:

It was a statement somebody had written that read:
“Everyone and everything in this universe is interconnected
Stay true to your heart and you’ll see the signs
Follow the signs to uncover your destiny”

I was shocked to see something so deep written. It reminded me to keep listening to my heart and to keep an eye out for signs from the universe in my daily life.

Chrys treated us to a cruise on the ferry across the Mersey. The sun was hot but it was cooled by the breeze. As the ferry sailed along I found the combination of the sunshine, breeze and movement very relaxing. I got to see the fantastic Liverpool skyline and found the history of the Mersey, Liverpool and the docks coming over the tannoy really interesting.

We did a full circle on the ferry getting off where we’d started. Then we decided to walk along the Mersey on the way to the docks.


(Waiting to get on the ferry.)

Along the Mersey front we saw these:


There was some debate as to whether they were sheep, dogs or some other animal. They reminded me of The CowParade in Manchester (see CowParade Gallery for photos). Simon explained to me that these pieces of art work had at one time been dotted around Liverpool like the CowParade. I was pleased that Liverpool had kept these and displayed them on the Mersey front.

We approached the docks with the various bars, shops and resturants. I really wanted to get a photo of the dry docks, but unfortunately they were carrying out work on them. So here’s a photo of a “wet” dock:

After having a look around a few shops, we decided to head to a traditional pub as Chrys and Simon wanted to show the rest of us the immaculate toilets. Before jumping in the taxi I saw this yellow submarine and just had to take a photo:

We reached the pub and all enjoyed a drink before realising just how late it was, just after six. Chrys’ two foreign friends had really enjoyed themselves and informed us that as a thank you they would cook tea when we get home to Chrys’. Chrys wanted to show them one last place on route to the train station, the Catholic Church:



(Above Left: The Catholic Church, Right: Architecture on the Catholic Church.)

Apparently Jesus goes home at six, back to Chrys’ cellar as does the Catholic priests as the Church was closed. So we didn’t get to see the inside which is apparently beautiful. We headed back to Chrys’ on the train.

When we arrived at Chrys’ Simon got the fire going, Chrys and I made the garden look pretty with candles and Chrys’ two foreign friends got busy in the kitchen. I started to flag at this point as I’d only had about three hours sleep the night before. By the time we all sat down to eat my stomach was churning due to tiredness and I wasn’t able to eat anything. But it smelt delicious and I thanked them for their culinary efforts after I explained why I wasn’t eating. We said our goodbyes and I headed for home.

It was a wonderful day and I’d just like to thank Chrys, Simon and Chrys’ two foreign friends for a great day trip.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Mini-Reviews: Films I’ve Watched Recently, Part 1

By Amazon, Reviews, TV, Online Streaming & FilmsNo Comments

I’ve watched quite a few films recently. Some good, some bad and some amazing. So here’s some mini-reviews of the films:

Chronicle (2012)
Chronicle (2012) is about three teenage boys who while at a party go into a wood and discover an underground cavern. In the cavern they discover a crystal-like object that gives them telekinetic powers. They work out that their powers are like a muscle the more you use it the stronger the powers get. The teen boys go from building lego to moving bigger objects and eventually flying. The main character Andrew has the strongest power, but he’s a troubled teen with a mother dieing of cancer and a father that physically and emotionally abuses him.

Andrew starts to feel powerful and angry (never a good combination). He takes out his anger on an impatient motorist flashing his lights at their car by forcing the car into a river, beats up his abusive father and then kills one of his teen friends all with his telekinetic power. But the three of them are linked on some metaphysical level, when he kills one of his friends the other friend (his cousin Matt) instantly knows what’s happened. By the time Matt gets to Andrew he’s in a state that can only be described as pure rage, he’s crushing and hurling cars, destroying building and essentially threatening lives. Matt tries to help him but all Andrew wants to do is fight. In the end Matt realises that he can’t help Andrew and that if he doesn’t kill Andrew, Andrew will kill him. So that’s what Matt does.

I enjoyed the film, I particularly liked the effects in the film when the teenage boys used their powers. It felt more realistic that their powers gradually developed rather than instantly appeared. It also gave you the time to get to know Andrew and understand why he was so angry. I do think that the writer could have developed the other two characters further so they felt more real, rather than completely focusing on Andrew and his eventual misuse of power.

Dark Shadows (2012)
Dark Shadows (2012) has been directed by Tim Burton and is what you’d expect from a Tim Burton film. It’s about a Witch who wants Barnabas Collins (played by the remarkably pale Johnny Depp) all to herself. When his parents gets in the way she kills them, when he falls in love with another she kills his love and makes him a vampire so that he can live eternally. Her hope is that he will love her one day, and to give him a few decades to think it over she has him buried alive in a silver coffin complete with silver chains.

A few decades later a young woman travels to the Collins estate to become the Governess to Barnabas’ distant relatives. Around the same time construction workers dig up Barnabas and he returns to restore his family fortunes. But the Witch is still around and has took over the fishing port which was how the Collins family made and maintained their money. As Barnabas rebuilds his families fortunes, he has to adapt to the 1970’s world, woo the Governess and deal with the up coming conflict with the Witch. Eventually things come to a head and Barnabas and the family take on the Witch. They manage to stop ancient history repeating it’s self with Barnabas stopping the Governess (his love) from being compelled by the Witch to jump off a cliff. The Witch ends up cracking to pieces on the floor like a dropped vase.

I really wanted to enjoy this film, but the editing made it difficult. It felt like someone had presented me with a jigsaw were the wrong pieces had been forced together and where there were pieces missing. A good example is the relationship between Barnabas and the Governess, the film shows hardly any development of the relationship so it feels wrong for them to suddenly be in love with one another at the end.

The use of the set, costume, make up and shooting does lend it’s self to the vampire genre of film. But the comedy that starts early on in the film indicates that it’s only styled in the vampire genre, which is disappointing as the comedy isn’t all that funny. Overall it makes you feel very confused about what Tim Burton had set out to achieve and by the end of the film you can’t even feel that at least you got a good story out of it.

Despicable Me (2011)
Despicable Me (2011) is a animated comedy about an evil genius Gru who suddenly has competition when someone steals the Egyptian Pyramids. Gru decides he’s going to steal the moon by shrinking it using a shrink ray. But his competition, Victor, a younger ‘groovy’ evil genius steals the shrink ray from him and takes it to his super-security-protected mansion.

Gru watches Victor’s house and sees three orphans selling cookies door to door to make money for the orphanage. They get in to Victor’s house (as he has a weakness for cookies) and then Gru thinks of a plan. He adopts the three sisters to get into Victor’s house. The story is hilarious – particularly Gru’s minions (so cute, I want one!). But it’s also a touching as Gru adjusts to no longer just being an evil genius, but a father as well. It’s an excellent film for the whole family.

Oh and if you’ve seen it and loved it, here’s the trailer for Despicable Me 2, staring the minions:

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How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
How To Train Your Dragon (2010) is an animated adventure staring Hiccup, the son of a mighty Viking Warrior who regularly battles the fire-breathing dragons that steal livestock and burn their homes. However unlike the other stocky Viking kids, Hiccup is slim and scrawny. Hiccup invents a cannon that he hits a Night Fury with (the Night Fury being the most deadly type dragon). The Night Fury flies off into the forest, looking injured.

Hiccup finds the Night Fury in the forest and begins to develops a relationship with it, naming it Toothless. About the same sort of time Hiccup and the other Viking kids start their dragon fighting training in an arena. Hiccup starts to learn all about Toothless and applies this learning to the dragons in the arena to tame them and get them to do what he wants. The other Viking kids are amazed at Hiccup’s ability and he soon becomes a hero among them.

Hiccup realises that Toothless can’t fly away from the forest because Hiccup damaged his tail wing with the cannon. Hiccup creates a new tail wing and learns to fly Toothless. Soon Hiccup reaches his final challenge in the arena to kill a dragon. Hiccup can’t do it and tries to tell the villagers about the true nature of the dragons. The villagers capture Toothless and use him to find Dragon Island. When the Vikings get there they discover a giant dragon and realise that the other dragons have been stealing livestock to feed to the giant dragon because they are scared of this beast. Hiccup riding Toothless and the Viking kids riding their own dragons take on the giant dragon and kill the beast. As a result the villagers change their relationships with the dragons and Hiccup and Toothless become heroes.

There was nothing to dislike with this film. The characters were good albeit superficial, the storyline moved on at a reasonable pace – allowing time for Hiccup and Toothless to develop their relationship, but my one gripe was the late introduction to the giant evil dragon. It’s a good family film but certainly not one of the classics that I’d watch over and over again.

Coming soon Part 2 & 3 of the Mini-reviews of films I’ve watched Recently.

Write soon,

Antony

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A Rough Time for The Fascinating Man

By Health, LifeNo Comments

Do you remember The Fascinating Man? Well I caught up with him a few weeks ago and he’s recently been diagnosed with epilepsy. He told me that the doctors said it was something he always had but been triggered by recent stresses his life.

The Fascinating Man told me about the effects it has in his life, seizures that sometimes he feels coming on at other times he doesn’t. He said that he’s been started on medication to control the seizures, but they haven’t yet got the right dosage for it to be fully effective. I was sad to hear his University has stopped him graduating (a few months before he was due to do so) as they couldn’t insure him on placement until he has 1 year seizure-free.

I realised that he’s lost his driving licence as you have to be seizure-free for at least twelve months in order to have a UK driving licence. I asked him how he was getting about. He said that his boyfriend was driving him where he needs to go. Last time I spoke to him (see The Fascinating Man) I got the feeling that he wasn’t completely happy at that time with the relationship, so I asked him how things were. He seemed to indicate that the epilepsy had brought them closer together and that the boyfriend had been really supportive, which I was pleased with.

I know what it’s like to be diagnosed with a medical condition that’s life changing (see How I was diagnosed with Diabetes). I also know that it’s probably effected him in more ways than he expressed in our brief conversation. But I feel so much empathy for him, especially when I’ve seen him work so hard to complete Uni, only to be told he needs to repeat the entire 3rd year with a few months to go. I let him know that I was sorry to hear about his epilepsy and tried to reassure him that everyone has something. Explaining that I have diabetes and a friend of mine has a heart condition. That was then the end to another too brief conversation between us.

While reading up on epilepsy for this blog post I found a really interesting article by Hill entitled The psychological and social impact of epilepsy that could be applied to any long term chronic medical condition. It’s an interesting read and will give anyone not diagnosed with a long term medical condition some understanding of the psychological and social impacts that a person with a long term chronic medical condition experiences.

Write soon,

Antony

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A Crystal Grid

By PaganismNo Comments

I use Crystal Grids whenever I’m doing something complicated or requiring an extra boost of power when working with crystals. Here’s a video that explains what crystal grids are and how to create one:

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I’d add to the video that charging a Crystal Grid with emotions makes it much more effective. For example if you’re creating a crystal grid for happiness, take a memory of when you were last truly ecstatically happy in your mind. Feel the emotion in your heart charka then let the memory go. Visualise the happiness feeling as a golden energy in your heart charka and then direct the energy down your arm into your hand and then into your crystals.

I use a Crystal Grid to protect my home, having crystals dotted about my apartment to one central quartz cluster that’s at the centre of the grid. It connects them all, charges them all and makes sure they are doing their job. Anybody who works with crystals and hasn’t used a Crystal Grid, I’d recommend giving it a try.

I thought that I had come up with the Crystal Grid idea all on my own, but after seeing the above video whilst searching for something else on YouTube recently I realised that I hadn’t. It was obvious that I’d read about Crystal Grids in one of my many crystal books years ago and that my subconscious had saved the idea until I needed it.

Write soon,

Antony
Edited: Saturday 6th May 17: Changed video as previous video now offline.



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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