The Martian (film review)

"During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive." IMDb

Staring Matt Damon, Sean Bean, and Jeff Daniels, the movie has a good cast.  The plot is simple, Mark Watney has been left behind, can he survive until help can get to him....  The movie is mostly about Damons character and his struggle to survive on Mars, although a drama the movie has plenty of humour to lighten it along the way.  Special effects are well up to standard, indeed better than many, as is the stunning landscapes (was it shot on Mars?... No Jordan mostly, but it bloody looks like Mars to me).

Waynes rating 8.5/10   Well worth a watch

A few evening shots.

The last few from our evening walk to Southerndown.

An evening at Bad Wolf bay (southerndown) part 2

Some of the photos.

An evening at Bad Wolf bay (southerndown) part 1

Last night we went to Southerndown, AKA Bad Wolf bay from Doctor Who, we went for some sunsets and ended up with wet feet, yes the tide does come in!

Note to cyclist

 This is for the cyclist I saw the other night all in black riding the wrong way down a busy dual carriageway with no lights, dodging the traffic. 
 You really need to see a psychiatrist or phone the samaritans, if you want to kill yourself thats fine with me, but doing what your doing is going to get other people killed or injured too.  Any one of those cars could have had an accident trying to avoid you.
 It's really time the police did something about this sort of stupid riding!

I love WD 40

 WD 40 was invented by Norm Larson in1953 (WD-40, abbreviated from the phrase "Water Displacement, 40th formula", indicating it was the 40th formula the chemists tried before finding success)    Originally designed for the Atlas rocket, it has a huge host of other things it can do (including making a mini flamethrower DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME)
 Why do I love the stuff?  Well apart from all the normal jobs of loosening seized nuts and squeaky doors I just mended a torch with the stuff.... Yes a torch.   About 5 years ago I bought x2  4w torches from a well known supermarket I hate (Cough Tesco!) I was doing a fair bit of exploring tunnels at the time.  Well the batteries leaked in one and buggered up the tail cap switch, I've tried taking it to bits but it's sealed, I was going to just throw it away (I'm not short of a torch or two) but then I gave it a squirt of WD40, clicked the button a few times and blow me down with a feather! It worked fine.  Jobs a good-un!
 So well done WD 40 you might be the same age as me but your still useful...... unlike me!

Mars and my bathroom.....

 There are several different groups planning to land men and women on Mar in the next decade (including NASA)  Personally I think it's daft, and I'll tell you way.
 I've just spent the last FIVE minutes trying to stand three plastic bottles upright in my bathroom, one is shampoo, one is mouthwash and the other a container of what I use for toothpaste.  Now lets be sensible here, if we can't make a simple plastic bottle of shampoo thats not top heavy how the bloody hell are we going to get humans and all they need to survive for years 33.9 million miles away (Mars closest ever approach, the average distance is around 140 million miles) We cant really get a bus service to run properly.

Oxwich woods walk

 This is an old favorite of mine from way back, after work I'd stop off on the way to Oxwich, cut through a few fields and link up to this path through the woods between Oxwich and Three cliffs, it's seriously creepy in the dusk with the vines and creepers, just not the same in daylight.

Sam and Pen-y-fan

 For those who don't know Pen-y-fan is the highest point in South Wales, it's such a tough one the special forces and paras use it a lot for training.  Sam fancied a wander the other evening, so he followed one of my favorite routes (and the long way around) to the top.
 You can see he's in a teeshirt at the top, then 20 minutes later he's got his jacket on, it's cold up there.
 Decent was in total darkness, unless you count the torches........

Cyclists.... yet again.

I do wonder sometimes how any cyclists are still alive. In the last week I've seen countless "ninja" cyclists (no lights and dark clothing at night) I've seen a few stealth cyclists (no lights at night) And quite a lot of twat cyclists, riding the wrong way down the middle of a one way street, riding through red traffic lights, riding up a very busy main road texting with both hands. 
 What the hell is wrong with these people? Don't they have any common sense, or is it removed by Halfords when they buy the bloody bike.
 It's really time the police took some action, telling car driver the "think bike" isn't going to help, if you go around a corner and theres a cyclist going like hell on the wrong side of the road he's the one who needs to be thinking "car".
 So come on cyclists, please start being safe, buy a bloody light, the pound shop sells them for... £1, even someone on a tight budget can afford that, or is your life only worth 50p?

Blood moon and plane

 While we were shooting the blood moon the other day a plane flew right across the moon in my lens, sadly I missed it having lost sight of the plane for a second.... so heres the picture of the plane crossing the blood moon.... Yes I know it's... errr slightly dodgy, but what the hell, I like it!

Mountain Goats tv series

 Well I watched all 6 episodes of the first series and I have to say it's funny, it remindes me a bit of Father Ted, although it's a totally different plot. 
 You have a small Scottish mountain rescue team called the mountain goats (after the pub they are based in) the comedy revolves around the group and the things they get up to.
 Well worth a watch.

Doctor Who... is the end in sight???

 I've said it before, Peter Capaldi isn't cutting the mustard as the Doctor, and it seems I'm not the only one thinking this. Viewing figures now are nearly as low as when the series was canceled in 1989.
 The problem is Peter just can't carry such a demanding lead role, his two "styles" of sneering or baffled just can't mach the range of emotions that the Doctor is expected to display, that and he's being acted off the set by everybody else.... Including the set.
 I like many other really looked forward to watching my weekly "fix" of Doctor Who, sadly I'm now watching the repeats which are so much better, even the old black and white ones, the new series is just rubbish.... Worse than the last series was, and that's an achievement all on it's own.

 And what has he done to his hair!