One of the assignments for my impending GTP course is to read and review 5 children’s story books. One of the ones I chose to read whilst on my honeymoon at the Sensatori Resort on the Mayan Riviera was Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. I couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate book to read, as at times it was hard to differentiate between the palm fringed islands of Skeleton Island and those that sat before me as I sunbathed on the beach.

Having spent so long building up the holiday in our heads, there was plenty of scope for disappointment for me and The Bride (sorry Kill Bill), and though the stop over in Manchester and checking in process went as well as any things did start to take a turn for the worst once we boarded the plane.

After we had been sat on the tarmac for nearly 30 minutes without moving we were informed that one of the passengers had elected not to fly with us today, despite having already boarded the plane. No reason was given. This meant that all of their luggage had to be offloaded (it was at the front of the plane so ALL the luggage had to be removed first and then reloaded), which took another 45 minutes. During this time a group of men in hi-vis jackets boarded the plane and started messing around with the toilet at the front of our section, on a purpose unbeknownst to us.

That little incident aside I have to say that the Thomson staff on flight TOM144 from Manchester on 8th August were the most sour faced, unhelpful and rude airline staff I have had the displeasure of being served by. The plane temperature was ambient at about -60°C and so I politely asked the closest member of staff for a blanket for my wife who was now so blue with cold that I thought I had married a member of the Na’Vi. After tutting and sighing his way to a blanket he then threw it the last few seats to me (apparently walking that distance might dislocate the stick up his ass) and then departed, ne’er to be seen for the next few hours.

So, thus far on our trip we have a passenger leaving the plane for unknown reasons, men in hi-vis jackets working on something minutes before we leave and staff that could quite easily become Sky customer service staff with their attitude disorders. What else could go wrong?

This is your captain speaking. As you may be aware one of the toilets has been out of action during the flight (that is apparently what the hi-vis guys were trying to sort), due to the extra pressure that has put on the other toilets the waste tanks of 2 of the remaining 3 toilets are now full. Please try to refrain from using the last toilet unless it is an emergency, if that one fills up we may have to overnight in Orlando and continue on tomorrow.

What!? Of course, at this news practically ever person on the plane, who until that point had maintained perfect bladder and bowel control, were now suddenly dancing in the aisle ready to drop. The queue formed the length of the standard class section within minutes as panic set in. Personally I think they were ridiculous to announce the news, as it was obvious what would happen. In the end the captain informed us that he was expecting to hit turbulence any minute and that people should return to their seats and strap in, needless to say, there was no turbulence.

Obviously all of this, coupled with the 10.5 hour flight but us in a jaded frame of mind, was the whole Thomson experience going to be this bad?

Let me start of by saying that from this point on the staff were beyond superb.

As soon as we arrived at the airport we were treated first class, we had our bags taken to the coach and loaded for us whilst we sat back and relaxed, and we were on an exclusive coach direct to Sensatori. Whilst on the coach we were offered an ice cold Corona to settle in (which was hurriedly accepted) and 20 minutes later we were at the resort.

First Impressions

Wow. Pretty much sums it up. The Bride was almost overcome when we entered the lobby, it really does make you feel like you have entered somewhere special, and this feeling doesn’t stop with the reception area. When you enter your room (we had a swim up suite in the adults only section) you are greeting with an open, minimalist but exceptionally comfortable room.

Have a look for yourself:

The Staff

There isn’t much to say about the staff at Sensatori Mexico, other than that they are exceptional. We never got the impression that any of them were working for tips (though it is gratefully appreciated when you do tip) and on the times where we forgot to take any $US out with us and so had nothing to tip we never received an inferior service or any disgruntled looks or words.

The maids clean your room daily if you allow them, and take a god 45-60 minutes to clean each room, and it really is left sparkling afterwards.

The concierge couldn’t do enough to help us, taking care of anything we asked, including fetching an extension cable for our friend who wanted to move the included iPod dock closer to the door so we could listen to some music.

The Restaurants

Le Chic (Gourmet)

This is the gourmet restaurant and the only one that required reservations. We found that the food here was horrible to our tastes, though not necessarily horrible in itself, if that makes sense. I am sure if you are used to concept food, or more expensive, experimental cuisine then this will be to your taste. To put it into context there was a lot of foam in most of the courses, and I don’t mean mousse or broth. This looked like washing up foam, and had the same consistency. All in all we found this a disappointment, but don’t let that put you off trying it, it was more of a personal preference thing, rather than the restaurant’s fault.

Spoons (Buffet)

You standard fare buffet food is to be found in Spoons, though there is a wider selection than I have seen elsewhere, and the food was all excellent quality. We breakfasted here every day as the seating was always quick (unless you go at peak time between 9 and 10 am) and the food was plentiful and tasty. We also had a lunch and evening meal here as well, though when the other restaurants offer such excellent food we found it a bit of a waste going here unless you were in a rush to get somewhere.

Zocolo (Mexican)

We dined here on the first night and the steak I had was the best I have ever had, I was hooked from that point.

Zavas (Caribbean)

My favourite of all of the restaurants, mainly for the Mahi Mahi fish in jerk marinade. Sublime.

Tapas

The food here was very tasty and well paced, however you don’t get to choose what you eat, they bring a succession of tapas courses out for you to try. As The Bride is a vegetarian this posed a problem, and in the end she just had pasta for most courses, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Sienna (Italian)

Excellent Italian food to be found here, and it certainly has the best selection for vegetarians.

Vegetarians

The Bride is a vegetarian and for any of you others planning to travel to Sensatori I would advise that the selection of vegetarian options is limited when ordering from the menu. However whenever we mentioned the fact to the serving staff they were more than helpful in sorting out a decent dish, and they were never hurried or just thrown together (except for maybe the tapas), and they were all very nice apparently.

Renting A Car / Driving In Mexico

Driving in Mexico is really an extreme experience, swinging from one extreme to the other. On the first of the two days that I rented a car I wanted to drive to Coba and then come back through Tulum. This proved to be exceptionally easy, we exited the resort and turned onto a well maintained highway, and cruised for 40 miles or so before taking an exit and continuing on a single lane country road for another 20 minutes until we arrived at Coba. Simple, no problems and it only cost us the equivalent of £15 to fill the petrol tank.

The second day however exposed the other side of driving in Mexico, the angry side. We were trying to drive to Chitchen Itza, and I thought I had the directions down again, but unfortunately we missed the exit on the highway (it wasn’t sign posted) and ended up driving through a backwater town called Puerto Juarez. Being lost in a foreign country was bad enough, but this was well off the tourist track and nobody spoke any English, so I was unable to ask for directions. The roads also degraded here, and though the main road through the town was as wide as four lanes, there were no lane markings or cat’s eyes to differentiate, and so people just drove and weaved wherever they felt. Add the this the fact that if you indicate on a multi-lane road in Mexico it is an invitation for the driver behind to pass you, I kept getting beeped as I was driving the English way, indicate and move lanes, into the path of the car trying to overtake!

Once I finally managed to get onto the main road to Chitchen Itza (after driving 40km further than I needed to) we sat and drove for nearly 3 hours before hitting an unexpected toll road with the exceptionally unreasonable price of £12 to pass! It was at this point that our adventure effectively ended, when the woman pointed out that one of our rear tyres was flat. Getting out to investigate it turns out it had worn through (all 4 tyres were exceptionally bald) and with only a space saver tyre in the boot I had no option but to turn around and drive back! 7 hours driving for no reason (plus £24 in toll booths!).

The lesson to learn here is when driving in Mexico make sure your rental car is well maintained with decent tyres and make sure you know the way beforehand!

Coba and Tulum

Coba

Coba is an ancient Mayan ruin site comprising of several basketball courts and a giant pyramid that you can climb up, and trust me, it’s a long climb! We headed to Coba before Tulum in order to get their early and avoid having to do the climb in the mid day heat. We timed it perfectly(!) and ended up climbing it at about 11.30, just as the hottest sun poked out and baked us!

Prepare for a lot of jungle terrain here and excessive heat and humidity, though there is little water so we had no mosquito problem.

View my Coba set on Flickr

Tulum

Tulum is another ancient Mayan fortress, this time sat on a cliff looking over the sea. Rumoured to be the only sea port in the Mayan empire, the ruins are in superb condition and really well presented, with a lush green parkland surrounding them. There are also two excellent beaches (one was closed for turtle nesting when we arrived) and you can pay a small fee (around $35 p/person) to go swimming with the turtles as they feed.

View my Tulum set on Flickr

If you want to see my collection of pics for the whole honeymoon check out the Honeymoon Flickr Set.

Today I decided to have a go at removing the IR filter, in order to see what interesting photographs I could take when only viewing light in the IR spectrum. The process was a lot simpler than I expected (though credit must go to the instructions I followed from GeekTechnique) though there are three warnings you should heed before embarking on this process:

1. This process involves taking apart your camera, this will invalidate any warranty you have on it. You may break your camera by snagging a wire, breaking a resistor or any other number of electrical maladies.
2. You will be messing around on and near the sensor, you may scratch, smudge or irredeemably damage the sensor.
3. There are several high capacitance capacitors in digital cameras, touch anything you have to with extreme caution, they discharge very painfully, as I found out twice.

Bearing all that in mind, you proceed at your own peril, and don’t blame me if you break the camera. I did this on an old Kodak EasyShare I had lying around, I recommend you do the same.

I have included pictures at the end to help you visualise what certain bits should look like.

1. Open the camera: Remove all screws and pull apart the camera
2. If needed separate any PCBs and locate the IR filter, in this case highlighted in red (it will be a rectangular or circular piece of glass with a bluish tint)
3. Remove the filter gently
4. Now you will need a strip of negatives from a film camera. At the end there should be a square before the pictures start, this will be fully black. Cut two squares from this that are identical (or near enough) to the IR filter
5. Gently place these onto the sensor and use any method you can to hold them in place. In the end I found it easier to place them into the lens and then lower the sensor back onto it
6. Put the camera back together

If all has gone well then everything should have a purplish tint to it. Have a look around, see how everything looks. Have a look at bank notes in particular, they are pretty impressive. Once I get a memory card for the camera I will upload some of the end result pictures, I appreciate the article is a bit of an anticlimax without them though!

As regular readers (maybe that should be singular?) will know I have been slowly working towards a career change from a web developer to a primary school teacher, and I am now fast approaching the cross over point. I have but a couple of days left of web development before I jet off for two weeks on my honeymoon, before starting work in my designated training school at the end of August.

One of the biggest changes has already taken place, my wife and I have taken the huge step of moving back with my parents for the duration of my training. Whilst I am trying hard to, I don’t think I can ever comprehend how much of an upheaval this is for my wife, so for that I am eternally grateful, even though I might not show it all the time! The same goes for my parents, who once again have to put up with my mess, noise and grumpy moods!

With regards to leaving the web development industry, am I upset? Will I miss it? I have asked myself again and again and I honestly don’t think I will. I am so excited about where I am heading that I guess at the minute I don’t fully appreciate what I am giving up. I have a superb job with a lot of flexibility at a company that has been more supportive than most throughout my two spells here. In fact both of the two companies that have helped me hone my craft have been supportive, not least with allowing me regular time off to gain experience in a school, knowing full well that with their support my end game was to leave them, not many would put up with that.

I consider myself privileged to have worked for both of them (I won’t name either to protect their identities!) and if any of you are reading this, then take it as a huge thank you.

I am also lucky to be able to bow out with a brilliant swansong. Again the website will remain anonymous, but in terms of value and traffic it has been the biggest site I have ever worked on (though it has come with the most stress and headaches as well!), with over 600,000 hits and over 6,250,000 page views in the last 5 months. In fact it was so successful we had to change the server structure to support the traffic.

Apologies to everyone for the unusually emotional nature of this post, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported me so far, especially my wife, parents, employers, fellow developers and the superb teachers who helped me immensely during my time at the primary school (thanks for putting up with my endless questions). Hopefully as I step through this next door, the other won’t close completely behind me, and I’ll be able to maintain some of the friendships.

Ciao

I’m off to Mexico for two weeks on Saturday, so don’t expect any tweets or posts until I get back, I’m sure you will cope. Until then watch this video of a man face planting a treadmill, it cheered me up.

The error seems to revolve around a security issue with mod_security (or at least it did in my instance) and can be easily fixed by adding the following code to your .htaccess file at the root of your WordPress installation:

#BEGIN Image Upload HTTP Error Fix
 <IfModule mod_security.c>
 <Files async-upload.php>
 SecFilterEngine Off
 SecFilterScanPOST Off
 </Files>
 </IfModule>
 #END Image Upload HTTP Error Fix

Still not sure? Let’s throw some other words into the mix shall we? Dragons, Samurai Warriors, big guns (and big ‘uns), space trailer, burlesque, war trenches, kick ass robots and more dragons! It has it all!

Watching the trailer (below as normal) it is quickly apparent that on the visual score, the film hits the mark, it looks flippin’ brilliant.

There are also some nice teaser posters to give you an idea of the characters involved, shamelessly nabbed from Empire Online.

First and foremost my anticipation levels are pretty much sapped by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, this will hopefully be the beginning of the end that we all want to see (and hopefully make up for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince). Released November 19th there is a still a while to wait, but for now we can entertain and mentally arouse ourselves with the trailer.

Next up on my radar is the kick-ass looking new Bruce Willis/Morgan Freeman DC Comics conversion, Retired: Extremely Dangerous, or RED for short. Featuring a bunch of ex/retired CIA agents who are now most wanted, this one looks like being a great autumn action classic. Bring on the OAPs!

Out October 15th.

Arriving much closer to us is the Angelina Jolie hit-girl gun-fest. With lots and lots of media attention surrounding this it is bound to be a little bit of a let down, though I managed to avoid most of it until I surrendered to the trailer yesterday. Out August 20th in the UK I might have to catch this one when I’m back from my holidays, let’s hope the main event doesn’t rub salt in the wounds. Sorry.

Buried. Alive. In a coffin. To me it doesn’t get much more claustrophobic than that, and I’m pretty sure Ryan Reynolds agrees. Held for ransom in Iraq the movie is apparently set predominantly underground, and the teaser trailer does a good job of maintaining the suspense without using any video footage from the finished product, ensuring that your first viewing has maximum impact. Out in October in the US, but with no given UK date so far, I am really looking forward to this one.

OK the last one isn’t until 2011, February 11th to be precise, but I wanted to include it here because it looks brilliant. Sam Worthington of Avatar fame goes Nazi hunting over a span of time, chasing one bad as mo’ fo’ in particular. Have a look at the trailer below and keep it in your mind, this one will be good.

I’m also getting pretty excited by the new TRON installation from Disney. Having yet to see the original I have no preconceptions, but judging by the recent Comic-Con released trailer, it looks pretty bloody spiffing.

Plotting the story of a correction office (De Niro) close to retirement, and his last probation charge (Norton), Stone looks like being a gritty idea. From what I can gather their relationship becomes somewhat fractured when De Niro sleeps with Norton’s wife (Milla Jovovich), resulting in some oh so familiar angry faces from them both.

No matter what the storyline though, I can not see any good reason for Norton to be sporting those cornrows.

With no UK release date in sight and only a selected release in the US (8th October), I think this is one we will have to catch on DVD import later in the year.

Out next month (20th August) in the UK, keep an eye out, this one will be big.

Or watch at the GMTV website (I uploaded to YouTube as the GMTV embedding is a bit crap, so the YouTube video may get removed)

For a while she has been seeking pledges for her new album, and releasing unplugged YouTube videos such as the one below through Twitter, so have a look, and spread the word.

Like it? You might also enjoy A Fine Frenzy, Amy MacDonald, Laura Marling, Anna Nalick or Howling Bells.

Today I updated my HTC Hero to what appears to be the most stable version of a Froyo ROM. In the end I opted for the VillainRom, so that is the one I would recommend you go for. So far the performance has been very good, the only things not working are the camera and Flash, though fixes are apparently in the pipeline for these.

Have a look at the attached screen shots for speed and style. Compared to Froyo running natively on the Nexus One it is of course a lot lower in the MFLOPs, 10x lower in fact, but the overall speed feels very nice. The only ongoing concern is battery life, though I have it overclocked and have been using it all day setting it up, so I will see how it fares on a more normal day tomorrow.

In reality the film delivers on none of these.

Spun around the idea of a triptych of protagonists all seeking to resolve the idea of forgiveness, the story weaves its way from one idea to another as clumsily as an old soak on a moving bus. I get the impression that the director, Todd Solondz (of Welcome to the Dollhouse fame), is trying to hang the story somewhere on the coat peg of reality, but the three stories all fall short. There is the all American mum who is struggling to move on from her paedophile ex-husband with a good Jewish man, and the effect this will have on her children. Then we have the story of said ex-husband, and his release from prison.Finally we have the story of the girl who cannot love, and who leaves behind her a trail of suicide victim exes.

The majority of the pathos centres around the ex-husband, and the trouble that his youngest son has with coming to terms with the knowledge of his father’s past. The son is approaching his Bah Mitzvah and therefore manhood, and this stepping stone is used as the platform for the idea of forgiveness, can a man be forgiven his actions if he truly repents? The problem is that the characters, like this review, meander around without actually developing into anything meaningful, and we just don’t get to care enough about them to empathise or sympathise in any meaningful way.

So why the 5 stars? Well, this is the first time in a long time, and certainly since I started reviewing on this blog, that I have had to review a film that I had a hard time liking, and I have found it hard. It probably does deserve a lower score, however I can’t get away from the fact that there is a story in there somewhere, and an idea to build on. In a world where most ideas have been tackled already this film attempts, and fails, to attack the same clichéd ideas in a new way, and I think it needs to be applauded for at least trying.

I’m sure there are people out there who will love this, and will bang on about imagery and character visualisation. There is visualisation in there, but it is nowhere near as effective as Requiem For A Dream or Little Miss Sunshine, and certainly nowhere near the magnificence of Synecdoche, New York. I would wager that the main plaudits for Life During Wartime will come from first year film study majors and hardcore Indie fan-boys, or at the very least people who enjoyed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

I’m not implying all American soldiers are like this, or that no British soldiers are, but these men are the scum and do not deserve our support or backing.

Not only is it bad enough that they are firing on unarmed civilians, without any provocation or evidence of any weaponry, but they are thoroughly enjoying every minute. At one point the gunner is pleading with a wounded man on the ground to “pick up a gun” so that he can finish him off. To paraphrase the guy who posted the video that I saw

“This is what happens when you illegally invade a country for profit using kids that think they’re playing Call Of Duty…”

The intro to the video reads:

Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths ocurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com

I urge you all to spread the video, the US government has tried to cover this up, but thanks to the guys at WikiLeaks it is there for everyone to see.

Directed by the guys behind Half Nelson, it doesn’t look like a bad film, though I wasn’t overly convinced by Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover, but then I didn’t like that film at all.

Anyway, it’s probably one I will add to my calendar to grab on DVD when it comes out, but for now we should satisfy ourselves that, judging by the trailer, had Jack Nicholson been a mere teenager then One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest would have been a much different film.

Following the tale of a limo driver’s (Hoffman) life after a blind date, Jack Goes Boating purports to deal with the issues of love, friendship, grace (?) and that ever familiar friend, betrayal. Set in New York (apparently it is against the law to set a romance film anywhere else in America), it certainly looks like the story may be a bit recycled and familiar (boy meets girl, boy likes girl, something bad happens, they get through it etc.), only this time there seems to be a twist in that the expected first date is boating, and Hoffman’s character can’t swim. How big a chunk of the story line this eats up isn’t made clear, but expect it to be the catalyst for some bonding and odds overcoming.

Hopefully though the acting will follow on at the same level of quality as Charlie Wilson’s War and Syndecdoche NY, two of Hoffman’s outstanding performances to date.

As normal, watch the trailer and see what you think… with no given UK release date this may be all we have to go on until it is release on DVD across the pond and we can get an import.