In October, go to W5 you will!

Last year I dragged my family along to W5 to visit a place Long ago in a galaxy far, far away............

And it is that time again. Yup, Emerald Garrison (Invasion Belfast) are creating another Imperial outpost in the Titanic Quarter. And I can not wait. You can check them out on Facebook too.

The stormtroopers will descend upon Belfast on Saturday 2 October and Sunday 3 October and highly recommend a visit.

Last year I got to meet the real Darth Vader (David Prowse) who, for those old enough to remember, was also the Green Cross Code man.  He was a wonderful man, very friendly and easy to get on with.  I also got to meet Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) who were real stars as well.  The whole set up was absolutely amazing and a great day out. 

I also think my wife may have hired Boba Fett to hunt me down so she could claim the life insurance last year. 

If you can get, go.  You will not regret it at all.  If you can't then your lack of faith is disturbing.

This year sees the man who Tunes took the mickey out off attending the event.  Richard LeParmentier (Admiral Motti) was the man who made Darth Vader utter those immortal words before having a go at 'squishing his head'.  Pity Admiral Motti forgot about that shoddy workmanship that left a little exhaust shaft open.  He should have phoned 'On your behalf'.

This is the Star Wars event you are looking for!

David Prowse, the gentle Sith. Lord.

Bonfire of the quangos

It has been reported that the UK government will be breaking out their supply of Sunny Jim and scrunching up the newspaper in order to heat the house by burning up 177 quangos.

Quangos or Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) are government funded organisations that operate as if they were independent of Government and are able, as much as possible, to spend their budget they see fit.

A number of  proposed quangos still have their fate to be decided such as  BBC World Service, the British Council and the Environment Agency.

Whilst these quangos are mostly England and Wales based, some, such as the British Council, employ people in Northern Ireland.  It looks like jobs will go and that could mean people in Northern Ireland as well.

It may also have some effect on how our own remaining quangos fair under potential restructuring to save money.  The Public Appointments 2008-2009 Report  detailed that as at 31 March 2009, there were some 1634 public appointments to 111 bodies in Northern Ireland.  The recent(ish) Review of Public Administration has been used to cull a few NDPBs here is there room for more to go? How will that affect people overall?  Do people even know what a lot of these NDPBs do?  Are they essential? Can their functions be brought fully 'in-house'? How much is spent on quangos that could be re-invested elsewhere?

I am not advocating either leaving them alone or cutting them all.  Improvements can always be found in how organisations operate and function.  In this particular time with the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition going for a slash and burn approach will this provide an encouragement for the NI Executive to really examine the NDPBs in Northern Ireland and see where cuts can be made?

Adventures in caravanning

Grrrrrr Brrrrrrrmmmmm

I am not sure exactly how it happened but it seems to have jumped out and shouted surprise like a stealthy but flabbergasted halibut. I have succumbed to my wife's wishes to take part in that most bizarre of past-times the general British and Irish public take part in – caravanning.

After being regaled by my wife about the wonders of her childhood being stuck in a caravan where you used the toilet on pain of death and how she could hear the wind and rain battering it at night, i am not sure why i was not immediately jumping at the chance to own our very own house with wheels.

Eventually I found myself ground down, but with one last throw of the die I insisted I got to choose the powerhouse to pull the thing.  So we both ended up winners.  My wife got her caravan and I got my 2003 Land Rover  Discovery.  Huzzah!!

Chez residence

And so D-Day or should that be C-Day (Caravan Day) approached and the beachhead of choice was...... Benone.  And so Operation how long til we divorce began.

It was our eldest's fourth birthday and this was part of her present (I am sure she was not that bad, but there you go).  Kids are actually really great to have about the place, mostly for the fun factor and placing bets on what random thing will come out of their tiny mouths next, like 'why is the caravan following us?' and 'why is the sofa now a bed?'.

On the Road to Benone

So we stayed from Friday night to Sunday afternoon and i have to say, through gritted teeth, i actually really enjoyed the whole experience.  Maybe the lack of sleep made me slightly more delirious than normal.

We went into Limavady on the Saturday which was such an wonderful surprise as it is a wee gem of a place.  We had lunch in Cafe Rendezvous which was welcoming, clean and most importantly child/family friendly.  I had the Ulster Fry (quelle Surprise!) while Zara had the Killer Whale sized Cod and the girls split the hotdog and chips. Then we mooched around a lovely little bookshop called 'Books Upstairs' where i picked up a nice copy of Nietzche's 'Beyond Good and Evil' (instead of 'A Journey' by some bloke without a moustache).

Back to Deighan's Caravan park and then onto the beach.  What can I say.  Benone is a beautiful beach streatching from the caravan park right across to Downhill.  I absolutely loved it.  On the Sunday it was back to the windswept beach to dig sand build sandcastles and, as it happened, help a German couple dig their van out of the sand. I love my Discovery!  Then it was all packing up and clearing out to head back home again.

I am looking forward to our next adventure!!

Thank you for all your votes (or how i found out people cared!)

Well.  How can i put this. I am number 15 on Iain Dale's top 20 Northern Irish blogs.

I really can't believe it.

And so i just want to say a big big thank you t you all.  It is weird, wonderful and cheesily humbling.

Weird

Although i keep 'self publishing' it always feels that because a blog can be so detached from real life and chatting face to face, i am almost holding a conversation in my head.  I am quite sure now most people reading this will be quite afraid about what goes on in my head.  With this feel of slight detachment, I always wonder really how many people truly read my meanderings.  Not only that, as i now kind of know with Google integrating its analytics with Blogger, but that people could actually think my blog is worth voting for.

Wonderful

It is absolutely wonderful that people felt interested and motivated enough to take time out to vote. And enough that it was not just a scrape in but landing me at number 15!!

Humbling

No matter where, when or how whenever something you create is recognised by your peers as something of worth, no matter how little or how much, it is a humbling thing.

All I want say then is 'Thank you'.  Thank you for reading.  Thank you for commenting. And thank you for voting. 

How real living gets in the way of online life

Help! My fingers are superglued to the keyboard

Having an online life is nice, if you have the time.  And inclination.  Many people still look at me in a weird way when i start raving and frothing at the mouth over the wonders of Facebook, Twitter and blogging.  Mind you people have looked at me in that strange 'are you a looper' way for a very long time now anyway.

A lot of people still do not want anything to do with the internet and social networking, or at least the social networking that entails having to switch on a computer first.  Real life social networking is more than enough to be getting on with thank you very much.

There is more and more pressure as well online to be different and catchy.  I enjoy funny blogs, as the heavy stuff bores me to tears after a paragraph or two (not totally true, but funny is easier to read and normally has a barb in the humour).  Tweets almost now need to be insanely insightful or amusing (or from already famous people).  Or of course you need to be controversial in order to get a response from others (and notoriety at times)

However, to be able to be a top notch online social media guru you need to be, well, online.  This can pose a problem.  I live in the real world where i can actually touch friends instead of poking them (stop that sniggering at the back!!)  I also have things to pay for like a mortgage, car, childcare, etc.  To cover these costs i have to get up in the morning and go to work, just like many others.  I have not yet hit it rich enough to spend all day on the web, keeping up with all the information flying around.

So this poses a problem, especially in the evenings which are getting more precious all the time, how often do people, just nipping online to quickly look at their favourite sites, expect change?  How often should a one-man/woman blog be updated? Is it a blanket expectation or does it relate to the subject matter of the blog?

What do you think?

I would encourage anyone unlucky enough to have read this far leave a wee note and add their comments.