Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince online games

To celebrate the recent release of the fantastic new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie (which was delayed from November last year - see my post here about that), here are some fun free Harry Potter online games for you to play (which also include some Harry Potter desktop background wallpaper too):

  Harry Potter: Fight the Death Eaters

  Harry Potter: Knight Bus Driving

  Harry Potter: Staircase Game

  Harry Potter: Quidditch Keeper Practice

  Harry Potter: Quidditch Pong


You can play loads more free movie related online games by following these links:

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen online games

Disney/Pixar's UP online games

Star Trek online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games Website

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs online games for you to play

I recently saw Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and I have to say I think it is the best movie so far in the Ice Age series. Although the stories get more far-fetched with each successive movie (Dinosaurs in the Ice Age living in a hidden valley under the ice? Hmmmm...), they do also get much funnier and generally more entertaining. I saw it in 3D, which added to the fun, but it isn't essential to see it like that - I am sure it will be just as enjoyable in normal 2D.

I have, as usual with a big movie release like this, collected together some great free Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Flash online games and Ice Age 3 desktop background wallpapers for you to enjoy:

  Ice Age: Ice Track Derby

  Ice Age: Whack-A-Scrat

  Ice Age 2: Glacial Break

  Ice Age 3: Bubble Trouble

  Ice Age 3: Video Game Demo

  Ice Age: Frozen Recall

All these Ice Age games, plus over 250 more fantastic movie related games (and wallpapers), can be found in my Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games site.

The best online games and wallpapers in the world

I've been a little bit obssessed (!) with collecting cartoon, movie and TV online games and computer background wallpapers over the past few years, and consequently I now have a very large and very high-quality collection of these fun "freebies".

If you'd like to enjoy them all for yourself, here are some links to a few of the highlights of my collection, and within those links you will find further links to more and more of the games and wallpapers too. There are hundreds and hundreds of free games, and each game has free related wallpaper. I reckon it's the best collection of its kind anywhere on the web:

Disney and Pixar online games

Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Ice Age and other CG movie online games

Naruto and Ben 10 online games

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa online games

Disney's Bolt online games

Pokemon online games

SpongeBob SquarePants online games

Mario, Sonic, Nintendo and Sega online games

Monsters vs. Aliens online games

Star Trek online games

Power Rangers online games

Pixar's UP online games

Transformers 2 online games

Tom & Jerry, Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, Hong Kong Phooey and Looney Tunes online games

My favourite relaxing bars in Bangkok - Part 1

I like quiet relaxed bars (or pubs as us Brits usually call them) when I want to go out and unwind after spending the day working too hard. But in Bangkok it's not so easy to find a bar like that, much the same as in any major capital city I suppose.

However, if you walk about 400 meters down Sukhumvit Soi 4 in Nana (the small road in which the entrance to the world famous Nana Plaza can be found) in the direction away from the main Sukhumvit Road and BTS Sky Train, you'll find a left-turn junction which is Soi 6. There are a few small bars on the right-hand side of Soi 6, and one of those is amongst my favourite relaxing bars in Bangkok. It's called "The Bangkockney" (which I've sometimes seen misspelled elsewhere on the web as "The Bangkokney").

It is one of the nicest bars in the city in my opinion - quiet, friendly, fun, cheap, and always honest when it comes to totalling up your "check bill" at the end of your visit, no matter how much you've drunk and how drunk you consequently are.

It's small, but it has an excellent choice of beers and spirits, and has inside and outside seating, really powerful air-con if you need it, a pool table, and satellite TV with full sports coverage. Perfect! So if you're in Bangkok any time and get tired of all the noise, hustle and bustle, head over to there and chill out. Say hello to the owner, Kob (as I spell his Thai name), for me if he's there - which is often! :-)

Play Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen games online

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen is the movie I have been looking forward to seeing the most this year, even more than the recent new Star Trek movie. Now that it has finally been released I'm trying really hard to make enough spare time to go and see it in IMAX format in Bangkok as soon as possible.

As I often do when favourite movies of mine are newly released (see my recent post about Pixar's UP, for example), I have collected together some great free Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Flash online games and desktop background wallpapers, including 2 spectacular wallpapers of the lovely Megan Fox: Transformers 2 Megan Fox wallpaper & Transformers 2 Megan Fox wallpaper #2


  Transformers 2: Starscream Showdown

  Transformers: Roll Out

  Transformers Quest

  Transformers: The Energon Within

  Transformers Character Creator

  Transformers Prestige

You can find these games, together with over 250 more movie related games (plus wallpapers), at my Free Movie, Cartoon and TV Online Games site.

Enjoy! :->

Some free web hosting alternatives to Yahoo! GeoCities

As I'm sure you know by now if you're interested in such things, Yahoo! are going to shut down their GeoCities free web hosting service at some point later this year. This will result in the permanent loss of tens of thousands of small personal websites. It is a great shame, especially for me, because I have had a small personal site hosted there since 1999, when GeoCities was the third most visited website in the world - it feels like I am going to lose an old friend!

It's quite laughable really, and further explains why Yahoo! is in regular financial trouble these days - in 1999 Yahoo! purchased GeoCities (which was until then an independent NASDAQ-listed company) for $3.57 billion in their own stock. And now, 10 years later, Yahoo! are going to shut it down!!

That is, by any measure, a rather large finacial write-off - equivalent to $357,000,000 per year in fact, minus whatever advertising revenue they managed to pull in (and surely that would have been nowhere near the break-even point), if my maths with such ridiculously large sums of money is correct. Oops! And people actually still respect the "big bosses of industry"! LMAO!!

Anyway, happily there are at least two excellent alternatives to GeoCities if you want to host a small personal website for free. I use both of these services:

1. WebRing.com (who were also once-upon-a-time taken over by Yahoo!, but luckily for them and us they "escaped" intact a few years later!)

Important and helpful note: WebRing are actually offering a lovely free "GeoCities relocation" service to anyone who currently has a GeoCities site and wants to move it to a new free home before it gets lost forever. Click here to find out more about the service.

2. Webs.com (formerly, and still also available as, FreeWebs.com)

My sites hosted with them are the Cartoon and Movie Wallpapers Collection site I mentioned in my post yesterday (which is hosted by WebRing) and My Home Page (which is hosted by Webs).

So, give them a go if you want a proper little website for free in addition to whatever web presence you may already have in Facebook, MySpace, Windows Live, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube, etc., etc.

Lots of wallpaper pictures for your computer

I've just finished creating a new mini site of wallpaper background pictures. It features lots of lovely multi-size wallpapers of Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Bolt, Chicken Little, Lilo & Stitch, WALL-E, Remy from Ratatouille, Lightning McQueen from Cars, the Incredibles, Nemo, Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc, Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, plus UP, Monsters vs. Aliens, Kung Fu Panda, Bee Movie, Flushed Away, Madagascar, Shark Tale, Shrek, Ice Age, TMNT, Power Rangers, Transformers, Star Wars, Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Batman, Hulk, Spider-Man, the Simpsons, Futurama, SpongeBob SquarePants, Tom & Jerry, the Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Naruto, Ben 10, Pokemon, Sonic, Mario, Super Smash Bros., GTA and many others.

As a special treat, all the wallpaper pages also include links to related free Flash online games. Visit the site here:

Cartoon and Movie Wallpapers Collection - Page 1

Cartoon and Movie Wallpapers Collection - Page 2

Play Pixar's UP games online

I haven't seen Pixar's latest movie, "UP", yet, but all the reviews since its US release just over a week ago say that it is absolutely brilliant, so I'm looking forward to seeing it more than ever now. Meanwhile, just for fun I've collected together a few UP Flash online games if you're interested in playing them:

  UP: Balloon Adventure

  UP: Kevin's Chocogobble

  UP: Balloon Blow-Up

  UP: Merit Badge Mayhem

  UP: Jungle Snap

  UP: Spot the Squirrel

  UP: Dug's Skywriting Game

Some UP desktop background wallpaper pictures are also included with the games, and you can find them all, together with over 100 more great Disney and Pixar games, at my Free Disney and Pixar Online Games site.

I have also collected together all the official UP trailers, movie clips and featurettes here, and they are well worth a look.

Enjoy! :-)

Kung Fu Bill dies in Bangkok

David Carradine, the 72 year old star of 70s cult TV series "Kung Fu", and Bill in the two "Kill Bill" movies, was found dead in his room in the Nai Lert Park Hotel in Bangkok here in Thailand earlier today.

It seems that he might have accidentally killed himself in a rather embarrassing manner, possibly in a similar fashion to the way that Michael Hutchence of INXS allegedly killed himself, but I shan't go into that any further here because he was one of my favourite actors - I absolutely loved "Kung Fu"!! - when I was a child, and I don't want to sully his image in any way. I would rather remember him for his brilliant, unique and offbeat acting.

It's almost time for Pixar's new movie "Up"

"Up" is due out in the US on May 29th, and it looks like it might be Pixar's best film yet. Take a look at this superb collection of 15 movie trailers, clips and featurettes for Up in my Pixar YouTube channel to see for yourself just how good it seems to be:

Pixar: Up trailers, clips and featurettes collection

Play Power Rangers games online

Further to my previous posts about character-based online game recommendations (see here, here, here, here and here to read those), here are eight really enjoyable free Power Rangers online games for you to try out:

  Power Rangers Ninja Storm

  Power Rangers Dino Thunder

  Power Rangers Dino Thunder 2

  Power Rangers S.P.D. Megazord

  Power Rangers Mystic Force

  Power Rangers Mystic Force 2

  Power Rangers Mystic Force 3

  Power Rangers Jungle Fury

The game pages also include some superb Power Rangers desktop wallpaper pictures for you to use as your computer background if you wish. You can find all of them, plus loads more TV related games and wallpapers, at the Cartoons, Movies and TV Fun and Games site.

Cheap but good hotels in Bangkok, Thailand - Part 2

As I reported last month, everything is fine here in Thailand now, there are no current political troubles. And because it is now low season here, this is the perfect time to come over for a cheap but wonderful holiday.

Further to my previous post about cheap hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya, I noticed on my trip to the capital the other day that there is now a really lovely Ibis hotel in Nana, Bangkok which costs around 1500 Baht per room per night.

They actually advertise the rooms as costing more, but you can usually get a deal around the 1500 Baht level if you call them first on +66 (0)2 677 5888. This really is a very good hotel, one of the best hotels in Bangkok for that relatively small amount of money (approx. 30 GBP or 45 US$ at the time of writing) in my opinion.

The new Star Trek movie is brilliant - go and see it ASAP!!

Following on from my post last month about the new Star Trek movie, I went to see it with my wife Su in Bangkok yesterday (it opened here in Thailand on the 7th, lucky us!), and we are both in complete agreement that it is utterly, utterly brilliant!! It is by far the best Star Trek film, and the best prequel film, ever. You must go and see it if you are a fan of Star Trek, science-fiction or just really, really good movies.

Whilst in Bangkok, we also went to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and we are a little divided in our opinions about that movie. We both liked it as a cinema spectacle, but I don't rate it as highly as any of the three previous X-Men films.

If you have the time and money, I'd say go and watch both Star Trek and Wolverine because they are very enjoyable in completely different ways. But if you can only see one of them, in my opinion it has to be Star Trek without a doubt!

The many different web places of Peter Inns

I have many different "homes" on the web, mainly because I've spent quite a bit of my spare time messing around with it since the late 1990's. Here are a few of the least bad places I've left a mark of some sort over the years:

I have two other active blogs here:
Mario and Sonic Games News
My WordPress Blog

I have a number of free fun and games websites, and they are:
Online Amusement Arcade
Disney and Pixar Online Games
Shrek and Other CG Movie Online Games
Mario and Sonic Flash and Java Games
  (Mario and Sonic Games - 1st "sister" site)
  (Mario and Sonic Games - 2nd "sister" site)

Closely related to those, here are my Dan Dare websites:
An Introduction to Dan Dare
Interactive Dan Dare
Meet The Mekon

My various Home Pages are:
Peter Inns - Old Home Page
Peter Inns - New Home Page
Peter Inns - MySpace
Peter Inns - Facebook
Peter Inns - Twitter
Peter Inns - Yahoo! Profile
Peter Inns - AboutUs Profile
Peter Inns - Google Profile
Peter Inns - Newgrounds Profile
eBay About Me Page

And finally, my YouTube Channels are:
The Pixar and Sci-Fi Channel
The Pixar Passion Channel

(See also here and here)

Star Trek 2009 movie - watch trailers, play games online and get wallpapers

I am sooooo looking forward to the new Star Trek movie that is due for release early next month (in only 10 more days in fact!) - it looks fantastic in the trailers for it. You can watch the trailers yourself in my YouTube channel via these links:

2009 Star Trek Movie Trailer #1

2009 Star Trek Movie Trailer #2

And on the same subject, here are some excellent free Star Trek online games for you to try out:

  Star Trek: Flash Trek V2.0

  Star Trek: Flash Trek Assault

  Star Trek: USS Enterprise 1701-D

  Star Trek: USS Enterprise Two

There are also 4 superb Star Trek wallpapers included with the games for you to use as your desktop background if you wish, and there are 6 more very special ones available here: USS Enterprise Wallpaper Collection (including the 2009 Star Trek movie's USS Enterprise)

Enjoy! :-)

Play Pinball games online

Further to my posts last month about great online games for you to play for free (see here, here, here and here), this is an update of my post last year about online pinball games because there are now 3 fantastic new pinball tables for you to play in addition to the 10 brilliant ones there already were in my fun and games sites:

  Sonic the Hedgehog Pinball

  Bolt Pinball

  High School Musical 3 Pinball

  WALL-E Pinball

  Ratatouille Pinball

  Prince Caspian Pinball

  National Treasure Pinball

  Flushed Away Pinball

  Ben 10: Alien Force Pinball

  Mr. Men and Little Miss Pinball

  Illuminati Pinball

  Pepsi Wild West Pinball

  Old-Skool Flash Pinball

Calm returns to Thailand after the recent troubles

After all the recent political trouble in Thailand, I am very happy to be able to report that things have significantly calmed down here now, and that it is therefore once again safe to travel to Thailand. Hoorah!

So you can now refer to my previous posts about cheap flights to Thailand and cheap hotels in Bangkok and Pattaya, and hopefully come here for a wonderful holiday without "breaking the bank"! :-)

UK Foreign Office warning about travel to Thailand

Before I head off out of the city for the Songkran holiday, and further to all my previous posts about the sudden upsurge in political troubles here in Thailand, I thought I'd share this with you that just appeared in Yahoo!:

(Quote)
Warning to Britons over Thai unrest

The UK Foreign Office has warned against travel to Bangkok and Thailand as the Thai PM Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency.

Within hours, 49 people had been hurt as anti-government protesters clashed with soldiers in the pre-dawn darkness of Bangkok.

The confrontation was the first serious clash between the demonstrators and security forces since protests surged last week.

TV footage showed injured people being taken away as soldiers in full combat gear secured the area at the Din Daeng motorway junction to the north of the city.

Earlier, anti-government protesters had gone about the capital unchecked, with angry mobs commandeering buses to barricade major road junctions.

Dozens of men furiously smashed cars which they thought were carrying the prime minister as he fled the interior ministry having made the emergency decree. They used poles, a ladder and even flower pots as nearby police in riot gear stood by doing nothing.

On Friday, the protesters forced the cancellation of a 16-nation Asian summit being hosted in Thailand. In an embarrassment for the government, hundreds of demonstrators stormed the summit venue and the leaders had to be evacuated by helicopter.

The state of emergency is supposed to ban gatherings of more than five people and forbid reporting that is considered threatening to public order. But following its introduction, ousted Thai PM Thaksin Shinawatra called for a revolution.

"Now that they have tanks on the streets, it is time for the people to come out in revolution. And when it is necessary, I will come back to the country," he said in a telephoned message to followers who surrounded the prime minister's office.

Demonstrators claim the PM's four-month-old government took power illegitimately. They believe the military, judiciary and other unelected officials are undermining democracy by interfering in politics.
(End quote)

This is all starting to get way out of control now - unreported above is that there has also been trouble in some cities in both northern and north-eastern Thailand - the government needs to try and calm things down by entering into a proper peaceful dialogue with the protest leaders. Surely trying to crack down on them, in what is supposed to be a free democratic country, will only make things worse? I hope that this all ends peacefully with no fatalities.

A further update on the Thai political troubles

Following on from my Easter post earlier today and my post yesterday, it is with great sadness that I have to report that the political troubles here in Thailand have now gone from very bad to even worse, with the government moving decisively against the anti-government protesters by arresting their leader and declaring a state of emergency in Bangkok just over an hour ago. See this article in Yahoo! for more details.

This is extremely serious, and I would therefore advise any foreigners in Thailand to now stay out of Bangkok for safety reasons. Luckily, my wife Su and I live some distance from the capital, but even so things are getting a bit scary all round now. And, as I said in my previous post, it is actually the Thai New Year tomorrow, which clearly won't be a very happy one now, at least not in the short term anyway.

All this trouble seems to have come very quickly from almost nowhere - just a few weeks ago, there was only a relatively small group of peaceful anti-government protesters in Bangkok, and pretty much everyone here thought that life had more or less gone back to normal. How wrong we all were!

Su and I are heading off out of the city to our home in the family farming village tomorrow morning, where I think we'll stay until things return to something like normal.

Happy Easter!

And happy Songkran (which is the traditional Thai New Year) for tomorrow!! :-)

I hope the Thai anti-government protesters take time out from their ongoing demonstrations for the holiday - unfortunately, there is now some very serious trouble in Bangkok following on from yesterday's ructions in Pattaya.

It's very sad to see ordinarily very placid Thai people getting so angry and behaving in this way, but I always say that when so many people get as incredibly agitated about something as this, the powers that be really ought to listen to them and try to find a peaceful solution for the benefit of all sides.

Back in England, I see that the very admirable Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, has spoken out against there being two Premier League football matches today, saying that Easter Sunday should be kept as an equally special day as Christmas Day. I have to say that I totally agree with him, and you can read all about his most excellent outburst in this article in Yahoo!

Anyway, on a much lighter (but still reverential) note, if you get bored over the holiday period you can always play hundreds of great free online games at MarioSonicGames.com, www.Dan-Dare.org/Disney and all the other free game sites linked to from within those two. Plus there's always tons of interesting stuff to read over on my MarioSonicGames.com blog. I feel sure that none of these activities contradicts the spirit of either Easter or Songkran! :-)

More serious political trouble in Thailand today

Further to my previous posts about all things Thailand, including the on-off-on and (now) seemingly endless political troubles over here (see here, here, here and here for example), I am very sad to have to say that there is, as of today, even more serious trouble, this time in the major tourist city of Pattaya.

See this article in Yahoo! for more info on what has been going on, and this article in the Wall Street Journal for full details of what happened and, more importantly perhaps, why.

Basically, this afternoon anti-government protesters stormed the ASEAN summit of Asian leaders (including the leaders of China, South Korea and Japan) being held in Pattaya, despite increased security at the event, and despite actions by the government yesterday to try and ease the recent surge in protests.

This has led to the summit being cancelled amid security fears just as it was getting under way, with some national leaders having to be evacuated from Pattaya by helicopter, all of which is hugely embarrassing to Thailand. Indeed, given that this summit was postponed from late last year due to the political protests taking place back then, it is difficult to imagine anything that could be more embarrassing to the nation.

Given the very serious nature of this latest development, and the potentially dangerous longer-term consequences, clearly it is once again not a good idea to come here on holiday at the moment, despite what I said about it being fine recently - things have changed very quickly here with no real warning, and this unpredictability is making the situation even worse. Oh dear.

Pixar video goodies on YouTube

For all you online video and YouTube lovers out there (and according to recent web statistics there are hundreds of millions of you, me included!), here are two great YouTube channels full of loads of lovely Pixar videos, including complete short films, movie trailers, mini-cartoons and featurettes:

Pixar Passion

The Pixar and Sci-Fi Channel

Cheap flights to Thailand from England

Following on from my post last month about cheap hotels in Thailand, here are some tips on how to get cheap flights to Thailand.....

Normally, the cheapest way to fly to Thailand from England (and many other places in Europe for that matter) is to fly economy class with one of these excellent Arabian airlines: Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Gulf Air of Bahrain, or Kuwait Airways.

A flight from England to Thailand with one of these airlines involves a short stopover and flight transfer in either Abu Dhabi, Bahrain or Kuwait (so they are not direct flights - typical total travel time is around 16 hours end to end versus around 12 hours direct), and as a result the airfares tend to be much cheaper than direct flights.

This is almost always the way that I fly between England and Thailand and back again. I have used all three airlines many times before, and they are all really good - they all have amongst the newest and safest aircraft fleets in the world and offer excellent service (but please note that there is no alcohol available on Kuwait flights, although there is on Etihad and Gulf flights).

Alternatively, it is also always worth checking EVA Airways of Taipei, Taiwan who fly direct to Thailand from England on their way to Taiwan - sometimes they have very cheap flights available, but not always.

Sadly though, I have to report that once again there is now some rather serious political unrest here in Thailand, and although it should not be a problem for anyone coming here on holiday, there is always the possibility of flight and other travel disruptions as a result, so please bear that in mind before you plan on coming here. It is always best to check the international news about what is going on anywhere you plan on travelling to before you book flights and so on.