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Football Manager 2011 - Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Apologies for not yet posting about the Jasmin Beach Apartments in Gümbet! This post will come, I just got distracted by Football Manager 2011!

Finally got my hands on Football Manager 2011 - have only really just started a new season with Arsenal and even though I've been playing the Football Manager series since the 2005 version, Football Manager 2011 has a lot more packed into it and it's taking time to get round everything!

I've posted a couple of goals up to Youtube which is a new feature - check them out, this one is from a pre season friendly between Arsenal v Barnet:

http://www.youtube.com/07Riven

When I get round to it, I'll try uploading a full set of match highlights. For those on Twitter, you can also link your Twitter Account.

I love the new player interaction tool that lets you have private conversations with the players to discuss their happiness, training and the usual recommend a signing etc.

The 3D match engine has been improved dramatically with more animations and a clearer interface.

See more in my Football Manger blog

Labels: Football Manager 2001 FM2011 FM 2011

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Turkey - Bodrum - Gümbet - Monday, 27 September 2010

Gümbet

It's been a few years since I last went to Turkey and I was in Içmeler then. This year, we went to Gümbet near to Bodrum. Not much has changed in Turkey, the Dolmus and Taxi drivers still appear to have no rules when it comes to navigating the roads and though it appears they drive on the right hand side of the road, it wasn't entirely clear some times...

Gümbet Beach

Turkey also has a bad reputation for the local restaurant and bar owners hassling tourists to eat or drink in their restaurant/bar. A simple "no thank you" and carrying on with your walk should suffice. There are now "Zabita" around who will be able to help you if you feel that you have been hassled too much, they have the power to close
down a premises for 3 days on the first offence, 10 days on the second offence and for the rest of the season on the third offence - we didn't find the need for this as most of the shopkeepers, bar owners etc. would leave you to it if you walked passed them and didn't initiate contact.

Gümbet Beach Sunset

The beach in Gümbet is man made and whilst it's not the best, it's a beach. The water isn't very clear around Gümbet so if you want to do some snorkelling, you're best doing it on one of the boat trips. If you do want to go to the beach, the sunbeds are generally free but you will have to pay for the cushion to go on it.

We also found that we were numerous people along the beach front that would try to give you roses for free but then request a "tip". They would also try to put bracelets on you for the same fee. We ended up "buying" two bracelets after haggling the guy down from 10 Lira to 6 or nothing...he accepted the 6 and we found that this was a well spent £3 as once the others realised you had already been approached, they left you alone. Best advice I can give is, they hassle you, so you hustle them.

Rico Gümbet

One local that you should pay attention to is "Rico Gümbet" - very funny man on the beach front who entertains passers by with his renditions of chart songs. If you have the time, sit with him - he can be found on the beach front between the Jasmin Beach Apartments and the Windy Bay restaurant. Have a look on YouTube at some of his videos.

In terms of restaurants, Windy Bay or Mistral are both good places to eat - though we favoured the Mistral more. Very friendly staff and good set menu deals - a starter, 12-14oz steak and apple tea or coffee, plus a bottle of wine (between 2) for 25 Lira (£12) isn't too bad...and the portions won't leave you hungry! There are other similar deals if you go exploring further.

Efes Beer at Jasmin Beach

Alcohol can be expensive in some places, beer costs approximately 5 Lira (£2.50) though there are other places that will do this cheaper. Imported beers can be more expensive so stick to the local "Efes". If you want a cocktail, hit "Bars Street" and the bars in the centre as opposed to the ones on the beach front as the prices are more competitive 5 Lira (£2.50) for Sex on the Beach/Vodka Red Bull where the others are 8-9 Lira (£4 to £4.50).

Dolmus

Smokers - for those of you that do smoke and want to stick to your favourite brand, be prepared to pay more for these. Marlboro Lights cost about 7-8 Lira (£3.50 - £4) depending where you get them - not bad if you compare them to UK prices! However, we found that the L&M were just as good and cost 4.50 Lira which actually worked out about £2 per pack of 20 on the current exchange rate.

If you are self catering, buying food at the local supermarkets can be expensive - we got a taxi to Carrefour which is the Turkish equivalent of Tesco. The food was much cheaper here and the taxi cost us 20 Lira return (approx. £10) - however we did realise later that you could walk it though it would depend on what you're buying. I didn't fancy it with 6 x 1.5l bottles of water in 30+ degree heat!

Bodrum Marina

We went to Bodrum for half a day and took the Dolmus which cost 2.5 Lira per person (approx £1) - there are a lot of windy streets and little shops but the shopkeepers here don't seem to be as pushy - maybe it's the daytime heat. The marina is good to walk along and you will find some small stalls here that sell gifts at more reasonable prices than in Gümbet.

I think that's about it for this one...I'll be following it up with a post about the Jasmin Beach Apartments where we stayed...stay tuned.

Labels: Turkey Bodrum Gümbet Gumbet

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Crazy sunflower snail - Saturday, 11 September 2010

It always happens after a heavy night drinking...you wake up and have no idea how you got somewhere - in this case hanging precariously off a leaf at the top of an 8ft sunflower!

Labels: Snail sunflower crazy kamikaze mattcruse.com

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GoSqaured - Live Stats - Tuesday, 31 August 2010

I've been using GoSquared live stats for a while now - pretty much since it was first released and I have to say it's pretty useful in terms of analytics. That's not to say that Google Analytics is not as good but being able to see visitors stats LIVE is pretty cool. See below for an overview of the user interface with live stats being recorded:

Information provided gives you a users entry route, the pages that they are visiting, how long for, their next visit, browser type etc. All useful if you need to optimise certain pages where visits are less frequent or time spent is low.

For more detailed information you can view your "trends" - similar to Google Analytics though presented more in a graphical form with widgets to add and remove from your dashboard:

Implementation is fairly straightforward - you need only add in the JavaScript provided into the bottom of your page, before the closing body tag.

More information can be found by clicking the following link more information on GoSqaured