Jamie Wakefield

I’ve heard about Mallorca since I’ve been in Spain. Almost as famous as Ibeza, it is one of the nearby Spanish islands in the Mediterranean and a popular vacation spot for Germans, British and Spaniards. Pictures of Mallorca show the sandy beaches, the resort towns and the towering cliffs. One guidebook I read described tourism as so popular that agriculture was becoming a nuisance. I did a lot of research on this place and got the mental picture of it being much like Lanzarote turned out to be. Sure, there is a long Coney Island like strip with bad tourist food, but good, possibly crowded beaches that stretch forever into the distance. I pictured bike paths, a long sidewalk for walking above but next to the beach and then the hidden gems, the little known coves, the special old style restaurants that don’t cater to the hordes of tourists but serve authentic island food. From the descriptions I’ve read, lots of towns fit this description on the island, the most prominent one being Pa...

I LIKE BIG BRAINS AND I CAN NOT LIE! YOU OTHER BROTHERS CAN’T DENY! You wish you had one too. I know I do. I only have a little brain. It’s a good brain in the sense that it is sensitive, compassionate, patient, and expressive in writing (after only a million words fine-tuning that particular skill) and usually courageous when I need it most, which is a family trait. I love movies and TV shows about big brains and I always have. I find them fascinating. The plot can even be crap so long as the main character is brilliant beyond normal human norms and I will still love the story. Stories like Little Man Tate, Good Will Hunting, Sherlock Holmes, The Social Network, Nerds, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Lie to Me, etc., I love them all. I think this is because I have always had a little brain and as a child had never understood the kids with big brains. When I was in fourth grade I vividly remember paying rapt attention to the teacher and still didn’t know what was going on. She...

I detailed my experience with the wonderful Manta Diving in Lanzarote here , and people asked for a picture. I finally found one of my instructor and her boyfriend, Wendy's refresher course instructor. Really nice people and I recommend learning scuba from them to anyone going on holiday to this island. And, if you haven't read the entry I talk about here, you should. I think it's one of my more interesting pieces.

Here's a little video that will make laugh on the worst day of the week. It's making the rounds on Facebook, but if you're not on Facebook or haven't seen it yet, this is hilarious. Especially for those of us who love dogs.

Venice Part II will be coming soon. No, really. Saw Thor with Wendy, Lena and Stefan last night. Somehow, the fact that this movie was in 3D had eluded me. GLEEE!!!! I don’t really have a whole lot to say on this movie. It was adequate but its high rating on Rotten Tomatoes led me to expect more. Sure, the actors did an amazing job; every single one of them. Odin was great, Thor was great, Natalie Portman was, well, Natalie Portman so shut up. I enjoyed the depiction of the warriors three, Heimdall and Loki. While Lena thought Sif was hot, I thought she should have been a bit hotter. Thor with his shirt off made Lena and Wendy make primitive, guttural noises all men want to hear, only directed at them instead of someone else. The frost giants were giants in the sense that NBA players are giants. They were like seven feet tall. Seriously? Those are giants? The dialogue was clever, funny and well done, I believe thanks to the story being done by J. Michael Straczynski. As W...

Wendy has shown me some truly magical places. She did not nurture a love of new places in me, all she had to do was 1) make me fall in love with her, 2) have me visit and 3) show me the wonder known as Madrid. That was all it took for me to realize “you know nothing Jon Snow.” It awakened in me a longing to see and do more. To finally quit avoiding sunlight, playing video games and believing everything I needed to see was on my TV, and everything I needed to eat was at Hannafords. As I have mentioned so many times before, I did not know I needed these new things, but I did. And in the wonderful five years that we have been together she has shown me places that, when I see them, feel like a ray of bright sunshine on my soul. We have been on a staggering number of trips together. Almost all of them have been amazing, enriching experiences. But we still had never been to the one place that I actually have always wanted to visit, ever since I was a child. Venice. As a child, I tho...