Sonic and Mario online games

My son Peter's FlashyOnlineGames.com contains lots of Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros. Flash online games. Here is a sample selection of them:

  New Super Mario Bros. Flash

  Super Mario 63

  Paper Mario World 2

  Super Smash Flash

  Super Mario Crossover

  Tuper Tario Tros

  Ultimate Flash Sonic

  Shadow the Hedgehog

  Sonic Match It

  Sonic Rush Adventure

(See also here)

Our Portugal travels continued

Continuing our diary of our travels to Portugal, it was interesting to see when driving through France the vineyards and fields of sunflowers (not the ones that grow many metres high!) these sunflowers only come waist high. They were dried out and done to a crisp - rather brown and curling at the edges. They were certainly ready for harvesting. Were these destined for bio fuel we wondered?

On to Spain - also fields of sunflowers ready for harvesting and hundreds of olive trees and many vineyards. You could never get blasé about the scenery - mountains as far as you could see - beautiful. Certainly worth the 1,600 miles journey there!

The one thing you notice in Portugal are the orange groves. At any time of year you will see oranges on the trees (we have been in December and were surprised to see oranges still growing). Of course the best time is the springtime when the blossom permeates the air. You can purchase bags of oranges varying in weight up to 10 kgs from the locals.

The beaches are truly stunning, with varied backdrops. You can find beaches that are private coves with enormous cliffs protecting them on the western Algarve, but on the eastern Algarve the beaches are easier to access, some with sand dunes and miles of pure golden sand to walk along.

Car parking is never a problem. Amazingly in the busy summer months you will still find parking spaces at mid-day! In the U.K you would be queueing miles back from the beach on a sunny day.

To be continued.....

Our Portugal travels

Well, we have been on our travels again. We have driven to Portugal on the Algarve, which is about 1,600 miles each way!

We crossed over to France via P&O Ferries to Calais, staying two nights in Le Touquet, then further into France and staying at a Campanile hotel near Bordeaux, and on to Spain, where we stayed at another Campanile hotel (one of only two in Spain) in Alcala de Henares - a suburb of Madrid with a beautiful square full of restaurants - very popular. We love it there and it gives us a respite from the hundreds of miles of driving on motorways.

The continental motorways are really quite good, not so much traffic as in the U.K even though there are usually only two lanes and not three. They are probably not used as much because of the toll charges - no camper vans - hooray! We noticed that the land became more and more arid as we got further into Spain, no wonder they have had those terrible fires. Every where looks as if is crying out for some rain.

We finally arrived in Altura, on the Algarve, right by the beach which is really beautiful, miles of golden sands and sand dunes. Altura is near Villa Real de San Antonia, right next to the Guadiana River which marks the border between Portugal and Spain. We are about 17 miles from Tavira which is always worth a visit, and 35 miles from Faro, the capital of the Algarve.

All of the towns have lovely little squares with cafes and bars where you can enjoy fresh local seafood, fresh orange juice, local beers, wines, etc. In the spring the square in Villa Real D.S.A. is full of the scent of orange blossom - heaven!

More to follow on our travels later.....

The FlashyOnlineGames.com site is live!

My son Peter has just launched his latest Flash online games site: FlashyOnlineGames.com

Back in England, missing Lily

We've been back home from our wonderful Thailand holiday for a week now, and both John and I are really missing our gorgeous granddaughter Lily. We're missing our son Peter, daughter-in-law Su and everyone else there too, but this was the first time we've ever seen Lily (of course, since she was only born in June). We hope to go back there again some time in the early part of next year.

First photos of our granddaughter Lily

Our son Peter posted these three lovely photos of beautiful baby Lily on his blog recently, the first one from the day after she was born and the second two when she went home yesterday:







Ahhh, how sweet! John and I are really looking forward to seeing Lily (and Peter and Su of course) when we go to Thailand in about one and a half weeks.

Our granddaughter Lily was born today!

Fantastic news - Lily Anne Inns, our first grandchild, was born in Thailand today! Mother Su and baby Lily are both fine, although Lily was born one month premature and so has to stay in hospital for a little while. Can't wait to see some photos!

We are going to Thailand to see Peter, Su and his family on July 12th, and we are staying for nearly a month. This was planned a long time ago around Lily's expected due date of late July, so it is really wonderful that she will already be there when we arrive!

We are going to be grandparents!

Happy New Year! And fingers crossed that all goes well - our son's wife Su is expecting a baby in July. This will be our first grandchild. So exciting!

Our son and daughter-in-law are with us in England now

Peter and Su arrived here from Thailand today and are staying over here for a month. It is so good to see them! It's been a year since John and I have seen Peter, and this is Su's first trip to England - the first time we have ever met her in person. She is lovely!

Lot's of fun family outings are planned of course, and Peter and Su are going to stay in London for one week too.

Disney-Pixar's Cars 2 is in UK cinemas now

It was released yesterday, a month after its US release. John and I really enjoy watching Pixar's films, especially last year's Toy Story 3, as well as the other computer animated films such as Shrek 4 from DreamWorks and Ice Age 3 from Blue-Sky. We'll probably wait until it comes out on DVD later in the year as we're not big fans of going to the cinema, although I am sure it will be excellent on a huge screen in 3D.

My son has a free online games website with some Lightning McQueen and Cars games in it, my favourites of which you can play below if you wish:

  Cars: Lightning McQueen's Desert Dash

  Cars: Tractor Tipping

  Cars: Radiator Springs Racing Demo

  Cars: Luigi and Guido's Tire Rush

  Cars: Luigi's Casa Della Tires

  Cars: Doc Hudson's Time Trial

What is Charlie Sheen doing?

I've always loved Charlie Sheen's sitcom "Two and a Half Men", I think it is one of the greatest TV comedy programs of all time. But, like so many fans of the series, I am very sad to see what has happened to Charlie recently. It is terrible to see him go completely off the rails, though of course this isn't the first time he's done that, as this article highlights all too well:

Charlie Sheen's most disgraceful moments

Paper Mario World online games

With the recent release of the latest game in the series, there are now two Paper Mario World games in the MarioSonicGames.com website.

Based on Nintendo's "Super Paper Mario" game mixed with gameplay elements from "Super Mario World", both games are very hard, providing really tough challenges. You can try them for yourself by clicking on these handy links:

  Paper Mario World 1

  Paper Mario World 2

Free online Dan Dare reprints

My son Peter has just posted some great links to classic Dan Dare story reprints that are available online for free:

Complete Dan Dare story reprints online

Free online games and desktop wallpaper

Here are two very useful illustrated lists of really good games and wallpapers that you can enjoy for free:

Free Online Games

Free Wallpaper Backgrounds

Busy, busy, busy

All of us in the Inns family are keeping extremely busy at the moment. After coming back from our holiday in Portugal last month John and I haven't stopped working here in England. And over in Thailand Peter and Su also tell me they're the same - no time to spare for any time off!

I haven't been able to get online much recently, but Peter's been working hard on his entertainment sites and has compiled this fun list of seasonal games:

Christmas online games

Am currently in Portugal

We needed a break so we decided to come to our apartment in the Algarve. The weather here is very nice for this time of year.

Congratulations Anne-Marie on the birth of your baby girl, Ria!

Love and best wishes to you, Ria and Eric. From Anne and John.

My son's online game websites

My son Peter runs some great free fun and games websites, and they are:

MarioSonicGames.com

Dan-Dare.org
(which includes the Disney.Dan-Dare.org
and the DreamWorks.Dan-Dare.org sites)

Dan-Dare.net

DanDare.org.uk

The top films ever in terms of box office receipts

I really like the Box Office Mojo website, it is jam-packed with pages and pages of interesting film information. I think the best section of the site is this:

All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses

Currently James Cameron's Avatar from December last year (a film I really like) is number 1, with an incredible $2,730,200,000.00 in box office takings so far.

Other films I like which appear in the current top 10 are Pirates of the Caribbean with part 2 at number 4 and part 3 at number 8, Batman: The Dark Knight at number 6, and Harry Potter with part 1 at number 7, part 5 at number 9 and part 6 at number 10.

eBay and me

Like millions of other people I enjoy using eBay to buy and sell things from time to time, just for fun. I have been a member for over 5 years now. Here are my eBay profile pages:

eBay My World: tresham2005

eBay About Me: tresham2005

Toy Story 3 desktop wallpaper collection

Pixar's eagerly awaited latest film Toy Story 3 is released in the US today (though it won't be released here in the UK until July 23rd), and it has already received overwhelmingly positive reviews. It will certainly be very nice to see Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toys back in action 11 years after their previous outing.

Here are 16 Toy Story 3 desktop wallpaper pictures for you to use on your computer if you wish:

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

1024 x 768 pixels

1280 x 1024 pixels

1600 x 1200 pixels

If you would like even more Toy Story 3 goodies, take a look at my son Peter's blog where you will find 16 free Toy Story 3 related Flash online games to play.

(See also here and here)

The Inns family's blogs

Although I only started this blog earlier this month, my son Peter has been blogging for exactly four years today, and his wife Su has been blogging since late last year, so that's three members of the Inns family that now regularly write blogs.

Peter told me that between his and Su's blogs they have posted a combined total of over 350 entries since 2006, almost two per week, which is a pretty impressive amount of work.

Peter's blogs are as follows: England, Thailand and Other Things, MarioSonicGames.com - Mario & Sonic Games News and Peter Inns's WordPress Blog. Su's blog is here: Life in Thailand, by Sureephon Inns.

Here are some of the best and most popular posts from Peter's "England, Thailand and Other Things" blog:

• Today is Dan Dare's 60th Anniversary!
• Pac-Man, plus Mario Pac-Man and Sonic Pac-Man
• Disney's The Princess and the Frog online games and wallpaper
• The Matrix online games and wallpaper
• South Park online games and wallpaper
• Avatar is now the number 1 movie of all time!
• Disney's A Christmas Carol movie is released today
• Astro Boy goes 3D after more than 50 years in 2D
• Updated list of wallpaper backgrounds in my websites
• Hanna-Barbera online fun and games
• Tom and Jerry online fun and games
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games
• Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games for you to play
• Play Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen games online
• Play Pixar's UP games online
• Play Power Rangers games online
• Star Trek 2009 movie - watch trailers, play games online and get wallpapers
• Play Pinball games online
• Play Monsters vs. Aliens online games
• Play Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega games online
• Play SpongeBob SquarePants games online
• Play Pokemon games online
• Play 10-Pin Bowling games online
• Play Disney's Bolt online games
• Play Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games
• "Naruto" online games and "Ben 10" online games
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and the other Narnia stories
• WALL-E, and other Disney/Pixar movies
• So, GTA IV is released at long last!

If you have a look at this post in Peter's MarioSonicGames.com blog on the same subject, you can also see some of the best posts from that blog.

(See also here, here and here)

Thailand political protests and violence

My son Peter and his wife Su live in Thailand, and as you probably know by now there have been some deadly political protests in the Thai capital Bangkok during the past six weeks or so, particularly last night and also on April 10th.

Su (who is Thai) runs a blog of her own and she regularly updates it (in English) with her view of what's going on over there. So if you're interested in reading a local person's thoughts on the recent Thai political troubles, why not have a look at her blog here:

My Life in Thailand, by Sureephon Inns

Or if you prefer, you can bypass the main blog and read her entire thread on the subject on its own here:

Thai Political Trouble 2010

My favourite holiday destinations

My two favourite holiday destinations are Naples on the Gulf Coast of Florida, USA, and Altura in the Algarve, Portugal. Both places have wonderful huge clean sandy beaches, friendly locals and lots of great places to dine out.

Altura especially is a lovely, peaceful and friendly place and we try to go there as often as possible - being 60-something retirees it's one of the things we've worked hard all our lives to achieve.

Our son Peter lives in Thailand these days, and we don't see him very often as a result. But in October last year he came with us to Altura for our first family holiday together in almost 25 years, and we all had a wonderful time. You can read Peter's blog post about it here.

The weather was fantastic even though it was October, and we were able to sunbathe and go for walks along the enormously long beach every day. I recommend anyone who likes relaxing peaceful family beach holidays to come to Altura, it is the perfect place.

Here is my Picasa Web Album of some of the photos that Peter took while we were there together last year:

Free Mario and Sonic games to download

My daughter-in-law's MarioSonicGames.com website currently has nine free Flash games that have been made specially for the site. You can download them and use them in your own website, or download them and play them on your computer without the further need of an internet connection. Here are links to compressed .zip files for each of them:

  Sonic the Hedgehog: Super Sonic Pinball

(View it and play it online here: Super Sonic Pinball Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Mario Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Mario Matchit Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Paper Mario World

(View it and play it online here: Paper Mario World Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Matchit

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Matchit Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Sky Chase

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase Online)


  Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version)

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Sky Chase (2nd Version) Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's Whack-A-Nik

(View it and play it online here: Amy's Whack-A-Nik Online)


  Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Abstracta

(View it and play it online here: Sonic Abstracta Online)


  Super Mario Bros.: Super Shy Guy Universe

(View it and play it online here: Super Shy Guy Universe PSP Online)


To use the downloads and play the games, click on each of the links above, then select "Save" for the .zip compressed files that will be downloaded, and select a folder on your computer to save the .zip files into. Once the files have downloaded successfully, unzip them and then you can play the games by double-clicking on the .htm files that were unzipped. (Note that each .htm file is an offline webpage that runs an associated .swf file which is the actual Flash game - you don't need an active internet connection to run them and play the games.)

To use the games in your own website, upload the .htm webpage files (which you might want to modify to your own site's format first) and the .swf Flash game files to your web server, link to the .htm files from you site's home page, and then you and your visitors can play the games in your site.

My new Google profile and Webs site

I have just set up a profile page in Google.com and created a mini-website in Webs.com.

The Google Profiles system allows people with Google accounts to easily create a page of personal information, photos and links for other people using the various Google systems (as well as the rest of the web) to see. Here is my profile:

Anne Inns's Google Profile

The Webs Sites system allows people to create small websites and wikis, with inclusive hosting, for free. My site is here:

Anne Inns's Webs Site

Wallpaper backgrounds for your computer

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, my son Peter runs a number of free online games websites as a hobby, and one of the most popular things in his sites are the hundreds of desktop wallpaper pictures that are related to the games.

There are high quality, non-watermarked sci-fi wallpapers, movie wallpapers, cartoon wallpapers and video game wallpapers, available in all sorts of different screen sizes.

Here are links to the best of the them, which all point to pages with sizes of 1024 x 768 pixels - within those pages you will find links to lots of other sizes for each of the wallpapers. All the wallpapers also have at least one related Flash online game for you to play too:

Star Wars
Star Wars - R2-D2
Star Wars - The Clone Wars
Harry Potter
Sonic the Hedgehog (x 5 alternate versions)
Sonic Heroes
Shadow the Hedgehog
Super Mario Bros. (x 5)
Mario Memories
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
PoKeMoN (x 4)
Puyo Pop Fever
Super Monkey Ball
Crash Bandicoot
Donkey Kong
The Legend of Zelda
Kirby
Mega Man
Metroid
Street Fighter
Tekken
Prince of Persia (x 3)
The Banana Splits
The Flintstones
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo Movie
Scooby-Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed
Wacky Races
Hong Kong Phooey
Tom and Jerry
Looney Tunes (x 2)
The Simpsons (x 3)
More Simpsons
The Simpsons Movie (x 2)
Futurama
Red Dwarf
Thunderbirds Movie
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
TMNT Movie
Power Rangers Dino Thunder (x 2)
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Mystic Force
Power Rangers Jungle Fury (x 2)
Power Rangers Super Legends
Transformers
Transformers Movie
Transformers 2 - Revenge of the Fallen (x 4)
The Matrix (x 2)
Hellboy II - The Golden Army (x 2)
Batman Begins
Batman - The Dark Knight (x 2)
Superman Returns
Spider-Man 2
Spider-Man 3
Hulk
The Incredible Hulk
James Cameron's Avatar (x 4)
Star Trek (x 3)
Star Trek Ships of the Line
Star Trek USS Enterprise Collection (x 5)
Star Trek Movie
The Fast and the Furious
2 Fast 2 Furious
The Fast and the Furious - Tokyo Drift
Fast and Furious
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
National Treasure - Book of Secrets
Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End
The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
High School Musical 3
Toy Story 2 (x 2)
Toy Story 2 Little Green Men
A Bug's Life
For the Birds
Monsters, Inc. (x 2)
Finding Nemo (x 2)
The Incredibles (x 2)
Cars (x 2)
"Real" Cars
Ratatouille (x 3)
WALL-E (x 3)
UP (x 2)
Walt Disney / Mickey Mouse (x 2)
Winnie the Pooh (x 2)
The Lion King
Lilo & Stitch (x 2)
Chicken Little
Meet the Robinsons
Bolt (x 2)
The Princess and the Frog (x 2)
Disney Princess
Ice Age 2
Ice Age 3
Robots
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who
Shrek
Shrek the Third
Shark Tale
Madagascar (x 2)
Flushed Away
Bee Movie
Kung Fu Panda
Monsters vs. Aliens
Open Season
Happy Feet
The Ant Bully
SpongeBob SquarePants (x 2)
More SpongeBob SquarePants
Catscratch
Danny Phantom
Avatar: The Last Airbender (x 2)
Naruto
Ben 10 (x 2)
American Dragon (x 2)
Camp Lazlo
Dexter's Laboratory
Astro Boy
Astro Boy Movie
The Smurfs
Mr. Men and Little Miss
Garfield
Garfield Movie
The Muppet Show
The Muppets
A Christmas Carol
The Polar Express
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Felix the Cat
Betty Boop (x 2)
Dan Dare (x 4)
South Park
Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas
GTA IV (x 2)

(See this wallpaper site for visual links to some of the above.)

Some great free Flash online games to play

My son Peter runs some fun and games websites (eg. Dan-Dare.org and Dan-Dare.info - see here for a list of them all) as one of his main hobbies. Here are some of the best character-based Flash games in his sites for you to try whenever you have some spare time:

  New Super Mario Flash

  Ultimate Flash Sonic

  Super Smash Bros. Brawl Flash

  Pokemon: Breakdown Blast

  Ben 10: Power Splash

  Naruto: Battle for Leaf Village

  Power Rangers Dino Thunder

  Transformers: Roll Out

  Astro Boy: Blast-A-Bot

  Ice Age 3: Bubble Trouble

  Monsters vs. Aliens: Panic in the Streets

  Shrek Shreds Skateboarding

  Disney's Run Bolt Run

  UP: Kevin's Chocogobble

  WALL-E Pinball

  Cars: Tractor Tippin'

  The Incredibles: Top Trumps

  Toy Story: Buzz Lightyear's Alien Rescue

  SpongeBob SquarePants: Anchovy Assault

  Tom and Jerry: Refiger-Raiders

  Scooby-Doo Skateboarding 2

  Wacky Races: Wacky Racing

  A Christmas Carol: Ghostly Adventure

  Star Trek: Flash Trek V2.0

  Gangster Life (GTA II)

  Dan Dare Matchit