Breaking Bad – Better Late Than Never

Review of Breaking Bad

What’s all the fuss about?

Everywhere I turned Facebook, Twitter and the pub, everyone kept talking about how amazing Breaking Bad was.  Many using the word ‘addiction’ to describe their new watching habits.  Many watching several episodes a night and finishing all 5 series in a week or two.  Quite a few of them have already started to watch it a second time.

When I tell people who have already watched it, that I’m just starting it,  they all tell me how ‘jealous’ they are.

A review of Breaking Bad

I had a general idea of the story line;  a Chemistry teacher is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and in a desperation to care for his family once he’s gone, he turns to a life of crime – using his Chemistry genius to cook up the purest Crystal Meth.   For some reason it really didn’t grab my attention, but with the level of hype around it I decided to give it a go as I have it via Netflix UK.

Hook, line and sinker!

I’m not a big telly watcher but I was hooked from the opening scene of the Pilot which aired in 2008.  Why was a man driving a motor home on a desert highway, in his pants wearing a gas mask, with two dead guys rolling around in the back and another slumped over the dashboard?  What could have possibly led up to that moment?

Opening Scene Breaking Bad

The cinematography is amazing, the plot is compelling and the casting perfect.  I made the assumption that both of the main characters Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) were relatively unknown, but this is down to my lack of TV watching.  I had no idea that Aaron had such an extensive list of credits to his name (e.g. Need for Speed, ER and Mission Impossible III) and so does Bryan.

I’m only half-way through series two so no spoilers please!  Should I watch it slowly to savour it or is it impossible?  I even found myself telling my taxi driver all about it the other morning.

 

 

 

 

How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Tears and laughter!

At what age do children show empathy?

To give myself a bit of a break on the weekend, I’d checked the weather report and it looked grim, so I booked my daughter and hubby into the Cinema to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.  She’d watched the first one and has also watched How to Train Your Dragon Legends on Netflix along with countless other kids films on there.

Textbook lesson in ‘How to Do A Sequel.’

My husband came home and raved about it, saying it was just as good if not better than the first. He said she was sitting on the edge of her seat most of the time smiling, totally taken by the story.  However, I don’t want to spoil it for you, but there was a part that made her cry, apparently someone dies but I’m not going to tell you who.  It sounds like the writers have taken it to a deeper darker level, maybe they realise the children who watched the original in 2010 have grown up a bit.  As I haven’t seen it, do you think it’s too dark for littlies?

Personally, I think it’s a sign of a good movie if it can make you laugh, cry or think.

With School Holidays looming, I’m doing my usual panic of things to do, especially if it rains.  I’ve been trolling the net looking for Dragon Activities and was inspired by the movie How to Train a Dragon 2 and it’s characters.

All Things Dragon – How to Survive Summer Holidays

How to Get Rid of Hiccups

Teach her how to get rid of hiccups by drinking a glass of water upside down.  I’ve done this for years and it really does work.

 

Create  a Joke Book

How to Train Your Dragon Jokes – my daughter is really into jokes at the moment.  We may sit down and create our own Joke Books and see if we can make Toothless Laugh.

Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppet Template from British Museum

We hope to do a fair amount of camping this summer and shadow puppets are genius at night in the tent with a torch.  You can find instructions and a template for making your own at the British Museum.

Play a Game of Tag

If we can get a few of her friends around I love the idea of playing Dragon Tag.  It requires to teams, children form a human chain, with a scarf as a tail and try to steal each other’s tails.  Chains can’t become separated.

Learn a New Song

I may take the opportunity to introduce her to one of my all time favourites ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Bake a Cake

How to Make a Dragon Cake

Personally I think this one would push me over the edge, but if we’re really desperate we could have a go at making this Dragon Cake.

Dragon Boat Festival

I’ve never been to one but I’d love to check out a Dragon Boat Festival.

I really have gone off on a tangent but now have a few more things in my arsenal to survive the school holidays.  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sage Soft Open Kettle by Heston Blumenthal #review

You know you’re middle age when you get excited about a new kettle…..

It’s no secret that I think Sage Appliances by Heston Blumenthal are rather sexy.  I’ve also have the Multi-Cooker, which is not only a Slow Cooker but it sautés and makes rice and risotto, I’ve been known to drag friends in just to have a look at it.

Our kettle blew up earlier this week, well it didn’t actually blow up it just stopped working, we checked the fuse in the plug but guessing it is the element.  I never liked it anyway; it was dreadful for lime scale, splashed boiling water and took ages to boil.  We bought it as a quick cheap replacement for its predecessor.

Introducing my sexy new kettle!

Sage Soft Top Kettle by Heston Blumenthal

The Sage Soft Open Kettle (RRP £79.99) holds 1.7 litres, has a controlled lid opening so it doesn’t splash boiling water on you, has built in boil dry protection just in case I forget to fill it, not like I’ve ever done that before and it has a tram like ding.  ;-).  It was a little pricier than other kettles I’ve bought but I’ve had to replace them on a yearly basis so it’s a false economy really.  I’d rather pay a bit more for quality.

Just popping the kettle on!

Disclosure:  The Kettle was complimentary for review purposes.

 

More tech specs

Tech Spec Sage Kettle

Panasonic HX-A100 Wearable Camera Review

My First Piece of Wearable Tech

Panasonic Headcam

As a blogger I jumped at the chance to review the Panasonic HX-A100 Wearable Camera.  I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a mini tripod for my Smartphone as I often need my  hands free when cooking, crafting with my daughter or reviewing products.  Hence why I was itching to get going with the head-cam.

I had a few challenges in the beginning which is mostly down to human error.  The camera due to its size does not have a playback screen integrated into it.  You can connect it via wifi to your iPhone, via the Panasonic Image Map, which then acts as the controller and play back screen.  Upon setting it up, I accidentally changed the password in the Panasonic Image App and for the life of me couldn’t work it out.  In the end, I had to reset the device. 

How to start again

To reset the device or network settings, the call it initializing the device in the manual, turn on the device then simply hold down the power button and the wifi button simultaneously for approx 5 seconds.  Once the wifi lamps turn on for a second and then off the unit has been reset and you can start again with the set up wizard.

Interference

There seems to be a lot of interference in our house and I was getting a screeching sound and an echo of my voice which was being recorded.  To get around that I simply muted my phone.  I don’t think it’s a fault of the device but the set up in our house.

Saving Videos to Phone

You will need a Micro SD card conforming to Class 6 or higher, I didn’t have one at hand but picked up a 16 gb one for less than a tenner on Amazon.

I also struggled a bit with getting the videos off the phone again this was down to me and not the unit.  You can upload straight to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube etc but I prefer to download my videos for editing first.

To save the images and videos to your phone you need to access the “picture share” settings in the menu in the Panasonic App on your Smartphone.  Then drag the options you want to one of the four blue edges.  Now when you want to save one of you videos directly to the phone simply hold your finger on the video in playback mode then drag to the option you want.  You will then find it in your camera roll.

Panasonic Image App

Overall, I really like the Panasonic Wearable Camera because it’s light weight, comfortable to wear, frees up my hands, has good image quality and relatively easy to share your content, I can see myself using it a lot as a blogger.

Netflix UK has come along way!

Netflix UK

I have to be honest, I had Netflix about 18 months ago and was absolutely scathing about it.  I was very disappointed with the content on offer at that time.  However, I was persuaded to give it another go and I have to say that we absolutely love it.  There is so much more content on it now than there was a year or so ago.  I’m actually tempted to get rid of or Virgin TV!

Mummy Netflix is so much better than the other one we had…….

I don’t tend to watch a lot of TV probably because there never seems to be that much on.  I’m absolutely loving being able to watch my own choice of TV Series, without ads, and whenever I want.  We can access Netflix on our iPads and via our Apple TV.   It’s incredibly easy to set up.

Spoiled for Choice

So far, we’ve watched Gavin and Stacey as everyone always raved about it and am now in the midst of House of Cards,  a Netflix Original, starring Kevin Spacey who plays a US Congressman who along with his conniving wife exact revenge on the people who betrayed him.  I need to rush through it before Season 2 comes out.  It’s outstanding!

Netflix UK

Next on my list is Lilyhammer, another Netflix Original Series  about a New York Mobster that goes into hiding in rural Norway after testifying against his former associates.

Happy Kids

There is also a good selection of content for my daughter and I do like that Netflix has given thought to parental controls which were easy to set profiles for myself and my 6 year old daughter.

Parental Controls Netflix

My only complaint at the moment is that it’s incredibly easy for her to switch to my content by simply clicking my name.  I have spoken to Netflix about this and hope to see passwords added to the profiles.

What should I watch next on Netflix?