Morning she shouted across the road . Morning I replied . Busy isn't it I thought it was lockdown Yes seems like a lot of people still travelling in their cars was my reply. We agreed the lady on her morning walk and I that this was a lovel

The next chapter of our trip started with a few problems getting out of Australia. We found ourselves standing at the checkin desk listening to the lady behind the counter tell us that she could not check us in until we had our visa sorted to return into

Well this weekend has been an absolute blast for me and my family First after a long drive we arrived at this cottage that wasn39t really a cottage more of a large Cabin. Lasse39s friends were there and it was their cottage. His friend designed an

Koh chang has been all about the relax and what a beautiful island to have picked. Its very laid back with lots of cute little towns to explore we defo needed a motorbike to do this as the taxi service is very expensive and seen no sign of a local bus ser

Hi All Just to update you I have converted my Travel Blog from Private to Public as several people could not register with their email addresses. Not all addresses are accepted for some reason. Anyway now public. This time next Sunday I will

Marseille Arles Avignon in Southern France 9 and 10 Aug 2013 After driving towards Marseille pronounced Marsay just before lunch we hit the bumper to bumper traffic of the French Riviera in summer holidays again. We crawled along but finally got

Hello everyone I hope you are all well and enjoyed the half term break. Since I last wrote I have been busy exploring more of New Zealand so let me fill you in on what we have been up to whilst visiting the South Island. Mount CookWe spent a n

Hi everyone I must apologize for the lack of recent posts... nothing new and exciting has been happening here recently. It's funny because now that I have been here for over a month it really feels like I live here so it isn't BRAND NEW anymore. Bu

It has been an unfortunate eternity since I was last at an available computer to tap out our latest adventures. Right now I am currently in Berlin and I have yet to even write of Belgium or our time in Amsterdam. So let me get to that right away.Au

While I was upset that I was unable to lockdown travel plans for the weeklong National Holiday...staying in Guilin has given me the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the city and the culture and a few other things as well.1. They save th

After a week or so of the kind of weather that made me want to curl up in bed or in front of a fireplace the sun decided he wanted some time in the limelight and came out to strut his stuff over Guemsan. Thank god because I crave vitamin D like a crackhea

Bula everyone from Fiji Tropical isle very hot amazing resort. We finally came out of the jungle and the rain. There was no phone reception TV or anything else apart from trees toads frogs crocs and box jellyfish called stingers which can sting you to dea

Friday 1st October KatherineLong drive today from Litchfield to Katherine via Pine Creek. Encountered loads of road trains Dave's heard that in some parts of the country they get up to quarter of a mile long. You would think by now we'd had enoug

Okay here goes with my first blog post ever.I'm two and a half days into my adventure and I'm still alive so that's a great start. The first thing that needs to be said which I'm sure most everyone has heard before is that the smog here is crazy

Went to the Acropolis today. It is pretty amazing but way too many people taking pictures.Then went on a 2 hour bus ride to the Temple of Poseidin. Watched a beautiful sunset over the sea. And then back on the bus for 2 more hours back to Athens.

Well here I am in Southern Cross population 1000. There is nothing around here but mines farms and desert. My new boss Jo was at the train station to pick me up when I arrived. She drove me into town and took me to the local coffee shop. Not much varie

R Continues..... As we made our way to the ground you couldn't help but notice the signs a lot of people were holding.... wanted ..one ticket for desperate fan ..... was here in '66 ....pleeeasee give me a ticket . In a way it was sad and in anot

92910Left the Moose Lodge in Panama City headed for Port St. Joe. We stopped at That Boot Store and tried on some things but nothing was perfect...I've been looking for a new pair of cowboy boots since we left California...but the owner of the shop

I just realised I saved this blog but never published it. So it's a week late but here it isI am supposed to be working right now but with only 14 stayovers of about 10 minutes each and the need of a full days pay I am chilling in the stairwell unti

We left Bob and Lyn's Alex and Shirley's spoilt and rejuvenated but ready to see some more of Australias' sites. We flew to Cairns and arrived to a slightly warmer stickier climate. The hostel we had booked into was at the back of cairns town but only

Okay how is everyone doing After 3 weeks I finally figured out how to use my blackberry on WIFI Now I will send out my updates without any issues....I forgot another couple of updates from the LARSE trekOkay so everyone know that I have d

G'day all can you tell where we are yetSoooooooo much to tell you and hopefully some pretty pics for you all to see now. There won't be too much today as i'm fighting the clock on the computer that keeps eating my 2...so flamin expensive here in Oz

Back in the RVAfter a year and a half in a home without wheels Grace and I are back in the RV. We39ve moved to Santa Barbara county while we are shopping for a home in Santa Barbara. We39ve moved into Rancho Oso an old horse ranch

i handed my notice in today at work so 8 weeks to go they were really good about it and now i have done this the nerves have set in and im actually thinking what have i done.... well theres not turning back now.... yipeee So 8 weeks today ill b

Today we left Cyprus for our Mediterranean trip with global learning semesters. Athens is really cool We went around PlakaI think and shopped. Then we tried to go to the Temple of Poseiden Didn't make it though as we missed the last bus. Hoping to go

Three weeks into our stint at Monkeyland. times are good sometimes too much spare time the volunteer house is very basic... and as sad as it sounds sometimes it is just nice to sit back and watch mindless or mindful TV. We keep ourselves busy though

We booked our overnight bus to Cusco with CIAL bus company it's a bit cheaper than the others so we decided to try out the cama class. Even though the seats recline back nearly into a bed I couldn't sleep. I think I was fearful the strike wasn't actuall

Hi allWell we're home now safe and sound and seem to have adjusted to the different time zone after a few nights of broken sleep We're both enjoying looking back on on the blog and on what a brilliant time we had in Oz so thought we would wrap it all

Well we successfully cycled over San Bernadino Pass and down into Italy biked on to Milan and spent a few days in Italy Lake Maggiore and Tuscany being the highlights. I couldn't really post any updates for a number of reasons Internet not availab

There is a strange thing that happens when you live overseas. People take weekend trips to Vietnam or Japan or Korea or in my case Thailand. In the states this would be like taking a trip to Florida or California or just to a random city in the midwest.

Here is a short video taken by my Canadian good friend Mark Takefman. We were on our month long trip from Delhi to Leh back through Spiti Valley. This was just one of a number of challenges we faced on the socalled roads. Mind you there were wonderful

sorry if you got 2 msgs re previous post Blog site said unpublished so did againthis is written the day after and its noon in Bruxelle as I was just so tired after yesterday that beauty sleep I referred to a catchup day mostly setting an alarm

Onward we go to the last known city on our itnerary ParisWe boarded a train from Nice to Marseille and then Marseille to Paris. I have to say having been a feast for mosquitos the last dew nights I was kinda glad to be out of Nice that morning.

Big ShoesAfter eating lunch at Relish today Maria Scott and I took a taxi to the big shoe store. I found an address in the back of Chengdoo magazine. Since my flip flops broke I haven't had anything to wear with my black clothing so I needed some b

When you are homeless jobless and penniless there are few options open to you but to return to the family home even if it is in Australia With a degree behind him and a spring in his step Cieran tried so hard to start his career and settle into the next

Sydney's northern beaches ist ein beliebter Urlaubsort fuer Sydnysiders. Die northern beaches erstrecken sich von Manly bis nach Palm Beach.

Hi AllWell with the weather being so beautiful at the minute we decided to go to the Yellow River yesterday. It's only 20 km north of the city. So we hopped onto a bus which was stuffed to the gills seriously the driver could only just shut the doors

Cape May is a city at the southern tip of Cape May Peninsula in

Facebook's emotion study reveals it is hopelessly disconnected from emotional reality: that people get upset when people they care about are unhappy

• Alex Hern: The final straw for Facebook?

This weekend we learned that Facebook had deliberately manipulated the emotional content of 689,003 users' news feeds as part of an experiment to see what kind of psychological impact it would have. For one week in January 2012, some users saw chiefly positive stories (kitten videos, brownie recipes and assorted LOLs), while others were force-fed despair (breakups, health woes and seal-clubbing holiday snaps). And guess what happened?

"The results show emotional contagion," decided the scientists.

The Data Retention and Investigatory Powers bill is the most tedious outrage ever, right down to the dreary acronym. But oh, the horrors it will bring …

David Cameron cares about your safety. It's all he ever thinks about. It's his passion. He's passionate about it. Every time David Cameron thinks about how safe he'd like to keep you, passion overcomes him and he has to have a lie down. With his eyes shut. A bit like he's having a nap and doesn't care about your safety at all.

Right now he's so committed to keeping you safe, he's rushing something called the Drip bill through the House of Commons. Drip stands for Data Retention and Investigatory Powers and critics are calling it yet another erosion of civil liberties and … see, I've lost you because it's just so bloody boring. Maybe it's just me, but whenever I hear about some fresh internet privacy outrage my brain enters screensaver mode and displays that looped news footage of mumblin' Edward Snowden and I automatically nod off only to be awoken shortly afterwards by the sound of my forehead colliding sharply with the table.

The first rule of panic mode is you don’t talk about panic mode. And this is purely for personal reasons, but I don’t want Scotland to reject us

It used to be unthinkable. Now it’s thinkable. In fact, in some minds, it’s already been thought. Scotland might be voting yes to independence and splitting from the rest of the union. I’m not Scottish, and I’m therefore powerless to intervene, although I would personally prefer Scotland to stay – but only for entirely selfish and superficial reasons. Reason one: I’d rather not be lumbered with a Tory government from now until the day the moon crashes into the Thames. Two: I quite like Scotland and the Scottish, so it’s hard not to feel somehow personally affronted by their rejection. Why did you just unfriend and unfollow me, Scotland? What did I ever do to you? What’s that? Sorry, you’ll have to slow down a bit. Can’t understand a word you’re saying. Don’t you come with subtitles?! Ha ha ha! No, seriously, come back. Scotland? Scotland?

Apparently the consequences of a split in the union could be calamitous. The skies will fall and the seas will boil and the dead shall rise and the milk will spoil. There will be a great disturbance in the force. Duncan’s horses will turn and eat each other. Starving ravens will peck out your eyes halfway through the Great British Bake Off. Your dad will give birth to a jackal full of hornets. And in London’s last remaining DVD shop, Gregory’s Girl will quietly be re-categorised as “world cinema”.

The all-new iPhones and Apple Watch can be easily avoided but there’s no escaping iOS 8

The past few weeks haven’t been great for Apple. First they were implicated in the stolen celebrity nude photo disaster, which reminded everybody how easily clouds leak. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the iPhone is generally marketed as a diabolical timewasting device with the potential to wreak a grotesque and devastating invasion of your personal privacy. They tend to focus more on all the cool colours it comes in.

Then they launched the horrible-looking Apple Watch, which does everything an iPhone can do, but more expensively and pointlessly, and on a slightly different part of your body. Only an unhealthily devoted Apple fanatic could bear to wear a Apple Watch, and even that poor notional idiot would have to keep putting their iPhone down in order to operate the damn thing. It’ll scarcely be used for telling the time, just as the iPhone is scarcely used for making calls. It’s not a watch. It’s a gaudy wristband aimed at raising awareness of Chinese factory conditions. Or a handy visual tag that helps con artists instantly identify gullible rich idiots in a crowd.

It’s a stealth adventure with nowhere to hide and hundreds of respawning enemies waiting to attack you the moment you stand out in any way

I haven’t always been the kind of man who plays videogames. I used to be the kind of boy who played videogames. We’re inseparable, games and I. If you cut me, I’d bleed pixels. Or blood. Probably blood, come to think of it.

Games get a bad press compared with, say, opera – even though they’re obviously better, because no opera has ever compelled an audience member to collect a giant mushroom and jump across some clouds. Nobody writes articles in which opera-lovers are mocked as adult babies who never grew out of make-believe and sing-song; obsessive misfits who flock to weird “opening nights” wearing elaborate “tuxedo” cosplay outfits.

If the fashion industry truly cared about the future of our planet, it would issue a solitary line of unisex, one-size-fits-all smocks, then shut down for good

So then. Alongside “eating a sandwich” and “holding up a copy of a newspaper”, we now have to add “wearing a T-shirt” to the growing list of Ordinary Things Ed Miliband Somehow Just Can’t Do. The other week he was pictured in Elle magazine wearing the Fawcett Society’s “This Is What a Feminist Looks Like” T-shirt. Last Sunday the Mail claimed those T-shirts are stitched together in a Mauritian sweatshop by women earning 62p an hour.

A T-shirt. He can’t even wear a T-shirt without somehow condemning both himself and any surrounding witnesses to ridicule. What’s going to trip him up next? A doorknob? Next week he operates a doorknob so badly he fractures his wrist, and as the medics wheel him to the operating theatre, they accidentally knock an ageing war veteran off a waiting room chair, leaving him groaning in pain on the floor, at which point Miliband insists they stop his gurney so he can lean over and help the guy up, but he forgets about his fractured wrist, so as the 96-year-old decorated-war-hero-and-humbling-inspiration-to-us-all gingerly grabs his hand, Miliband abruptly screeches a barrage of agonised obscenities directly into his face, causing him to hit the floor again, fatally this time, in front of the world’s media, oh and also Miliband does a frightened little wee at the end, and they film that too.

Products I’ve made up for the sheer giddy thrill of it include Total Farage Plus, which skilfully Photoshops the Ukip leader into whatever you’re looking at

This week it’s the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an annual opportunity for tech companies to unveil their latest gizmos during January’s traditional slow news week, thereby picking up precious coverage that might otherwise be spent detailing something – anything – more important than an egg whisk with a USB port in the side.

At the time of writing, the show is yet to kick off, although some of the offerings have already been unveiled – such as “Belty”, the world’s first “smart belt”, which monitors your waistline and tells you when it’s time to lose weight, just like a mirror or a close friend might. More excitingly, it adjusts to your girth (again, like a close friend might), and will tighten or loosen itself according to your current level of blubber. No word yet on whether it’s possible to pop a Belty round your neck and order it to squeeze you into the afterlife, but there’s no reason they can’t incorporate that feature in Belty 2.0, except maybe on basic ethical, moral and humanitarian grounds.

Researchers have created a version of Mario that experiences basic emotions – now he needs a purpose that affects the real world

• It’s-a-me, Mario! And soon I’ll be playing my games without your help …

January is traditionally a fairly sleepy month, current affairs-wise, but a horrified gawp at the news confirms that 2015 has already had one heck of a morning. Clearly it takes a lot to knock a garish underage sex allegation involving Prince Andrew off the news agenda, but the Parisian terror attacks managed it, partly because the horror of it all warranted such blanket coverage, but also because the resulting conversation about freedom of speech is taking up so many column inches, there’s scarcely room to run anything else. There hasn’t been this much furious debate about the merits of a cartoon since the introduction of Scrappy Doo.

(Fun imaginary scenario: in a bid to revive their flagging ratings, ITV launch a live, feelgood Saturday night version of Celebrity Pictionary. But chaos ensues when Paddy McGuinness pulls the first card from the deck to discover it requires him to sketch the Prophet Muhammad.)

The prime minister has refused to go head-to-head with Ed Miliband – and the multi-party debate we are getting will be a 90-minute cry for help on behalf of the democratic system

Last week, Germany chose its entry for this year’s Eurovision: Heart of Stone, performed by Andreas Kümmert, former winner of the German version of The Voice (which is known as The Voice of Germany in its native country, rather than Die Stimme von Deutschland. Presumably the producers didn’t want to put viewers off by making it sound too German).

After wailing his guts out and winning the public vote, Kümmert abruptly announced, on live TV, that he didn’t actually want to “do” Eurovision after all, and awarded his “prize” to the runner-up instead. A chorus of boos broke out. German boos. Buhen.

What sort of person can’t decide who to vote for, but can rate how much they like whatever they’re hearing out of five, and wants to sit there tapping a button accordingly?

As the general election scuttles closer, the campaign grows more confusing by the moment, so it’s good that last week’s seven-way leaders’ debate brought some much-needed mayhem to the situation. Not so long ago we were bemoaning the lack of choice in a two-party system. Now we’ve got option paralysis.

It had its moments. Nigel Farage complained about foreigners with HIV who enter Britain and immediately start wolfing down expensive medicine: greedy as well as sick. You’d think Farage might welcome immigrants with grave illnesses on the basis that they’re less likely to hang around as long, but apparently not. Say what you like about him – say it, write it down, daub it in 3ft-high cherry-red letters up the side of a prominent overpass on his regular commute if you must – but it’s undeniably refreshing to see a politician determined to speak his mind, indifferent to the absurd constraints of spin or basic human empathy. Never mind HIV sufferers – how much is Britain spending on refugees with cancer? Maybe he could put that statistic on a sandwich board and patrol the country in it, perhaps while ringing a bell and loudly commanding passersby to picture a nation under his command.

As the anthology series Black Mirror returns, its creator explains what fuels the show’s twisted tales – and tells us where we’re going wrong with technology

A sadistic version of The X Factor where contestants perform for their own freedom. An immersive experience where criminals are subjected to the same terrors they inflicted on their victims, in front of a baying audience. A grotesque cartoon demagogue using TV and social media to obtain power. No, these aren’t scenes from the first term of a Donald Trump presidency, but something only marginally less traumatising, and infinitely more likely to happen: Charlie Brooker’s techy anthology series Black Mirror, a show its creator describes as made up of “deliciously horrible ‘what if’s”.

Related: Black Mirror review – Charlie Brooker's splashy new series is still a sinister marvel

Related: Modern tribes: the Pokémon Go aficionado

The Black Mirror creator invents exciting products to transform your life – from the workout that makes you feel like a saint to the world’s cleverest toilet

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but happiness is in sharp decline. Many people blame technology for our woes, and it’s not hard to see why. The internet is nothing but deranged screeching and fascist memes sitting atop a plateau of moldering desperation masquerading as ironic meaninglessness. No one has smiled in real life since 2011. But wait! Silicon Valley is waking up to the negative effect its products can have on us, and like the good Samaritans they are, they’re unveiling a whole new range of products aimed at making us feel good about ourselves. Here is an exclusive look at just a few of the cool gizmos and rad gadgets due to be unveiled at next year’s CES Consumer Electronics Show and featured in news reports, and then in shops, and then in your house before you even know it.