Anything But AI

This summer I attended a wedding in Portugal. What a great idea! It was held late September which in the UK is when summer has already finished and autumn has begun. But it Portugal it was still hot and sunny every day. The genius in having the wedding towards the end of September is that the hotel prices and flights were much cheaper than just a few weeks before, when it was the school holiday time. The weather wasn't overbearingly hot too- maybe a few degrees cooler than at the peak of summer. I prefer it this way- it was very pleasant. The wedding ceremony was help on top of a cliff and there was a nice outdoor seating area for the reception. It was a perfect spot with great view. I found the video below which looks like it may of been shot very close by. There was a sea breeze but it was not too much- I heard no complaints from other women. After the reception there was some entertainment like fire dancers, fireworks and one or two other things for the kids. Then we a...

I have done my fare share of travelling, all over the place. From The States, all over Europe, India and Southeast Asia, Australia and even Fiji. Therefore I have sampled lots of different cuisines. I was surprised at many, such as in India where the food is very different to our India restaurants in the UK, meat is very rare and dahl is used a lot . One place that has always had a bad rap for their national cuisine is the Philippines. It tends to get compared to nearby countries like Thailand and Malaysia, which have much more spicy dishes with very flavoursome sauces. The food in the Philippines is a more subtle blend, with influences from various places like Spain. Complainers say it is too sweet, too salty or too bland. I must admit that street food in the Philippines is not my favourite thing. I generally disliked the local cafe's food, whereas in Thailand it was usually very good wherever I went. But a mid-range Filipino restaurant was always very enjoyable in my experien...

English is the undisputed number 1 language in the world. It was created in the UK, where it has developed over many centuries into one of the most complex and dense languages. The scores of world renowned books by authors such as Shakespeare have helped shape a language which is comparable only to Russian when it comes to literature and poetry. According to The Global Language Monitor there are currently 1,025,109.8 words in the English language. Shakespeare himself invented 1,700 of these. When considering where best to study English, history, culture and most certainly literature should be included in the decision making process. With this is mind my first pick for the best places to learn English in the UK is Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon . Stratford-upon-Avon College is a good place to enquire first. Here you can really soak up the literary culture and history that Shakespeare left behind. The town is a manageable size for those not too interested in nightlife...

I recently took a short holiday on Boracay, which I first visited back in 2005. Quite a lot has changed in that time so I thought I would do a kind of review combined with a comparison between now and then. First of all for those that have not heard of Boracay; it is an island fairly centrally located in the Philippines. This means it is hot most of the year, with clearer skies between December and May. The rest of the year is rainy season, but I believe it can be sunny for a week or you may even get caught in a typhoon. The main drag is called White Beach and the name is prefect. The sand is very white and the water very inviting, with an azure color thanks to the lack of seaweed or coral, and a shallow depth in most places. I went in March and this is not the perfect time, due to algae. This is especially unpleasant when the tide is out. Take a look at the photo below which I took near Diniwid beach, just north of White Beach: Algae on rocks north of White Beach 2015 The...

Happy new year readers, I am determined to make 2015 my best year yet and I discovered the best way to do it: help other people. That is right, all you have to do is help other people and the best part is that it doesn't matter how you do it. If you don't believe me try it and see. I gave a homeless man a larger than usual amount the other day, I felt amazing as I walked away imagining how happy he would be and what he would spend it on. Maybe vodka, but who I am to judge. I got the idea from research I found in a TED video. In case you haven't heard of TED, it is a platform for people who have something to say, to say it via a public talk. This is then filmed and put on the website. Sounds boring doesn't it? That is why I have ignored TED for so long, but recently I have found lots of really interesting talks. I recommend you start at the happiness section as that is something we all want more of:  https://www.ted.com/topics/happiness Besides watching TED videos ...

This past month I have been doing the unenviable task of finding a care home for my elderly mother. She moved into a bungalow 2 years ago but at 83 years old she can now no longer look after herself. There were one or two incidents in the past few months which convinced me that now was the right time to consider full time residential care in a nursing home. My search started in the area she lives. I began with some recommendations from her GP and also included nearby care homes found on a care homes directory and Google. I am the sort of person who researches things online far too much. For things like gadgets I often think this is a waste of my time, but in this case I obviously wanted the very best. So I had no issues with spending hours and hours searching for reviews and any comments I could find in discussion forums and blogs. After calling 11 homes in the area I decided that I wanted to view 4 of them. So I visited and had a chat with the manager at each. I was shown around t...