Mince + Dumplings = Yumm!

The other day I finished work picked the bairn up from School and went down the Street (or up the Street as i'm constantly corrected by a friend of mine), anyway was looking for inspiration for what to have for tea then in my head I fancied mince and dumplings with a side of mash. Off to Iceland got my basket and had a wander round the shop. Got my Aunt Bessies Dumpling mix and look for the mince seen the frozen stuff but decided to go for fresh go a 500g packet and off to tills to pay for it. Got home and began getting sorted for cooking got out the frying pan and then grabbed a couple of onions roughly chopped them and threw them into the frying pan along with some mixed frozen veggies.

fried them off until the veggies were soft then poured them into the oven dish. Next up was the mince opened the mince and pulled it and dropped it into the same frying pan and began frying off the mince until it was all brown and cooked though threw in some salt and pepper plus a knorr beef stock pot.

Once the mince was all done I added it to the veggies and the poured a cup of bisto gravy over it then got to making the dumplings. Opened the Aunt Bessies Dumpling mix and poured it into and bowl mixing it as instructed on the packet theni added some Paxo sage and onion iv made sage and onion dumplings before and there actually quite tasty.

Once mixed I floured my hand and made golf ball sized dumplings patting there asses flat and adding them to the dish, all done then I popped it in the oven and began the big task of tidying up. Dumplings all lovely and brown so took it out of the oven during this I did stick some tetties on so they were boiling in the background just if your curious.

Ok everything done and I began serving it up but oh! no I wanted to be all fancy pants and decided to pipe my mash onto my plate this is what you get from watching cooking shows.

Right as you my have noticed  from the pick my piped mash does look a lot like white dog turd but id tasted a lot nicer (never tried dog turd before you ask) anywho the meal was lovely and went down a treat and the dumplings were just mmmmmm!.

A toy a toy my childhood for a toy Pt2. Star Wars Special

 

Growing up during the birth of the Star Wars era I quickly became one with the force and all the it brought too, toys I mean Star Wars merchandise is in its own galaxy far far away, growing up this was the main fix for mine and my brothers birthdays and Christmases.

The Star Wars toys I had as a child were played with as a child would, but looking at what they are worth now does bring a tear to my eye. So the stuff we had was heavily out weighed by all of the things we wanted just like every other Star Wars loving kid. Figures I had (crying as I type) I had numerous figures Luke, Han, Chewy, Darth Vader they were the most used toys ever. Luke, Obi Wan and Darth Vader were the lightsabers wielding figures, their sabers were slotted into the right arm with a small bit of plastic at the base of the lightsaber allowing you to extend or sheath your light sabre, sadly this was one of the first things to be lost and I quickly replaced it with a matchstick a used one was better as the end was already tapered for the whole in the figures arm.

Me and my brother also had original lightsabers, I remember them being white plastic tubes black handles and turned blue when you pressed the button, with this I was Luke Skywalker fighting for the rebels though this was short lived as the way me and my brother braid them together in our Jedi battles it was only a matter of time before they came to a shattering end 'literally'. Our sabers went to the graveyard of broken toys AKA the dustbin. one of my other favourite Star Wars toys was my Han Solo blaster know I was small back then but this was quite a large gun, I remember running round the garden on a sunny day blasting imaginary stormtroopers and saving the galaxy. 

our passion for Star Wars didn't stop at toys we had our bedroom covered completely in Star Wars wallpaper, we used to use the paper as target practice for our darts when we didn't use them on the dart board, by the time my Mam re-papered the bedroom it looked like a pincushion. They were good times and yes we were allowed darts without adult supervision it wasn't frowned upon and there wasn't a risk of choking.

The Star Wars movie was also the first ever movie I went to see, from watching cartoons on a 28" colour TV to sitting in the front of a massive cinema screen blasting out the theme tune and me watching in awe as the yellow text faded off into space then the Imperial cruiser flying in space was pants wettingly brilliant 'though I didn't wet my pants really!', I also came up with a nickname for Chewbacca I called him Chewbackyash lame but hey I was young.

Now onto the toys I never had the I can dream wishlist the Star Wars toys on this list were mainly vehicles and even back then were quite pricey so weren't even considered. 

The Millennium Falcon this was the toy every kid of my age wanted this thing was huge and so was the price sadly but it was the toy I wanted all through my Star wars childhood, it came with a removable roof allowing for in ship playing. even as an adult the thought has crossed my mind on more than one occasion to buy one but my conscience (my lass) wouldn't allow it. Darth Vaders tie fighter was a want purely because it was Darth Vaders and that it looked sooo! cool. The scout walker and the AT-AT were purely an impulse want and I wanted them the AT-AT was about the size of a small dog have to say iv never seen any of the above toys for real only on the web (boohoo! me) as for the Scout Walker I do remember playing with one of these just cant think as to where sure a friend had one or something like that.

We know that the Star Wars merchandise and movies are huge and the fan base that it has is even bigger. but now that Disney have the rights to Star wars and have begun releasing movies, a whole new range of toys for old and new generations of fans will emerge and may the Star Wars reign never end.

A toy a toy my childhood for a toy Pt1.

In the eyes of my kids Dad's old, telling them about growing up as a child of the 70's and 80's they seem to have the interest of a sleeping fish. So I've decided to inflict my memories onto my readers, aren't you the lucky ones, I will try my hardest not to waffle say "back in my day" or "when I were a lad".

Toys of my childhood were wonderful, amazing and could endure the most destructive of children or so I remember. There were no electronic gadgets as there are now and the world was in black & white..., time was simpler, the sun always shone and sweets were plentiful.

The earliest memories of toys I had or believe I had when I was young were simple toys but I loved them and played with them all the time.

Spinning top

The spinning top was a toy I had it was so simple yet had hours and hours of fun. If you have never seen one before red handle on top base on bottom and you would pull then push the handle repeatedly making the circular centre spin, ah the fun no stupid laminate flooring needed these toys were made to work on carpets.

View Master

The View Master if you have never used a view master you have never lived, or so I thought when I was a child. For those of you reading and thinking 'what the freak' a View Master was and still is a device that allows you to insert white card discs into the top of it, on each of the discs were a sequence of about 14 to 20 themed micro colour negatives. I remember some titles such as Superman, Batman, Star Wars but there were many more. Once inserted you looked into it aimed toward some form of light source, we had natural sunlight in them days not like now, next you would use the black trigger on the side to cycle through the images. Now this might sound pap put there were no consoles, mobiles or tablets so it was fun.

Fisher Price

Fisher Price a toy brand that's been around since the dinosaurs. I'm pretty sure everyone has had at least one Fisher Price toy in there day. The toy I remember having was the Fisher Price car parking garage with elevator, mine was the exact same one as in the image, it was made of 70's plastic which was stronger than steel probably. The small green thing at the bottom of the ramp was a fuel pump attached to a cord with a nozzle, all the fisher price cars came with a tiny hole on the right hand side of the cars allowing you to fill them up with childhood imagination lasts longer than petrol. On the side of the elevator which is the tall cage looking tower there was a turning handle which allowed you to move the elevator up and down, this was a toy I constantly played with even long after I lost the people and cars, just used my corgi cars instead there was tons of parking for my cars and the ramp was so smooth that they flew down braking on the carpet, I miss my garage.

Playmobil

From this I evolved to Playmobil, it had everything cars, boats, airplanes loved the Playmobil people they were so interchangeable, or they were after pulling their heads, arms and legs off allowing you to mix arms and legs, the only drawback of this was over time there arms became so loose they wouldn't stay up and kept flopping to their sides making holding things a pain and tiny teeth marks on their hair and heads. The accessories that you got with playmobil were great to tools, weapons and clothing not to mention the vehicles and buildings.

Me & my Big Wheel

One of my favourite toys the Big Wheel, when I was little the big wheel was the equivalent of getting an Xbox One I was so excited when I got it. This was a moulded plastic trike for want of a better description two little wheels at the back and one big wheel at the front hence the name. I remember me and my brother used to take the big wheel up to the top of a huge hilly road at a caravan site near where we lived, one sat on the big wheel and the other gave them a push with the gradient of the hill I'm sure we must have hit about 15-20 mph bearing in mind this has no brakes other than your feet it was absolutely mint, remember the gaping hole we eventually made in the front wheel. So glad I wasn't brought up in this nanny state era.

Etch a sketch

Etch a sketch another great toy from my childhood a red rectangular drawing tool all be it you could only draw straight lines and the had to be connected drawing a car was tricky. The Etch a Sketch was made up of tiny metal filings spread over a plate as you turned the knobs on the front they attracted the filings bringing them to the surface allowing you to draw a straight line one you were done all you had to do was give it a shake and it was gone simples.

Speak n Spell 

Speak n Spell the reason I'm such a mint speller, well that and auto correct, this was probably my first electronic toy it was a toy made to help with spelling and it did exactly that it was pretty light and robust in design and came with a lot of function. This was a great toy very battery hungry but great, non the less the hours I spent with it, it was a wonder I didn't have an American accent. I can't remember if I out grew this or took it to bits as I had a thing for disassembling electronic devices.

Board Games

Board Games one thing we never were was bored, yes there were hundreds of games around in the 70's and 80's a lot of them being vomited back up now as toy manufacturers don't have any new ideas shame. Anyway back to the games this is something I could go on about for ages but I'm not I'm choosing my four favourite games and yes my brother, sister and me did have more but so did everyone of that era. Rant over.

Computer Battleship simple but strategically satisfying you got five ship and had to place them in a way to out whit your opponent (AKA my brother). The Computer side of the game was the noises the peeewwwwww! and Pshhhhhhh! once you sunk all your opponents ship (cheating permitted).

Countdown as a kid you were the top safe cracker and listening for those counters to drop got you ever closer to opening the vault ok it was a blue piece of plastic with white turning wheels. This is another one of those toys I played with long after the novelty wore off.

Next the top two Operation so simple but what a mind FECK of a game no wonder surgeons get paid so much, the amount of time I dropped body bits and heard that BUUzzzz! is why I work in a shop maybe, I remember one Christmas me my brother and sister finding some of our presents in the loft hatch getting them down and playing them on the landing, shock horror as we hear a key go into the front door and then it was one mass scramble to get the game back in the box and the box up into the loft (mission impossible music) required for suspense. Bit of trivia the Operation I had the patient was naked and now he has a lovely pair of pink heart boxers (NANNY STATE).

Finally Monopoly what can I say the board game that began wars, think of Adolf Hitler and then Poland's PM Władysław Raczkiewicz sat playing Monopoly and oh! Władysław Raczkiewicz wins so what did Hitler do invaded Poland. This game has so many variations from the original ones over the decades to the specialist games, such as Game of Thrones, World of Warcraft junior versions, Star Wars and hundreds of others. This is a game of kill or be killed, or like me go off in a huff; great when you're playing against a noob not so much when it's against a hardened player.
I know there were thousands of other toys of this period and probably hundreds more I could have mentioned so maybe ill save these for another post stay tuned.

International talk like a Pirate day ye scurvy dogs

Ahoy Mateys this day be national scurvy talk like a Pirate day, th' day we celebrate our scurvy pirate ancestors by shoutin' like a scurvy Pirates. We've all got a wee buccaneer in us from fightin' as lads to th' lust 'ov movies, TV shows 'n books we all love Pirates.

History's Pirates

Ah me harteys the Golden Age of Piracy had its run for thirty years from 1690 to 1720 and Nassau was the Pirate Capital. It all began when privateer Henry Every brought his ship called Fancy ladened with plundered loot plucked from Indian Empire trade ships and sailed into Nassau harbour. Every bribed the Governor of The Bahamas Nicholas Trott with gold, silver and with the Fancy including the ships contents which was still loaded with 50 tons of elephant tusks and 100 barrels of gunpowder, and the birth of Nassau the Pirate Capital was born. Some of the Pirates who traded and defended Nassau where Benjamin Hornigold, Edward Teach better known as "Blackbeard", Charles Vane, "Calico" Jack Rackham and Anne Bonny.

The Pirate book

Treasure Island written by Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired by the real events of the Hirtorical Pirates nearly all of the characters in the book were fictisious like captian Flint, Billy Bones and John Silver, though there was mention of blackbeard in the book too.

Our Favourite on screen scurvy Pirates

Th' most famous movie pirate has to be 'o Captian Jack Sparrow played by 'Johnny Depp', th' Pirate of the Caribean movies be tellin' th' tales 'n adventures 'o Captian Jack as he blunders his way to gettin' what he wants.

If you havnt seen it the TV show Black sails is based on the time of Captian Flint and John Silver years before the events in the Treasure Island book.

  

Pitate Phrases

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! - unhappy or disgust
Ahoy! - Hello!
Ahoy, Matey - Hello, my friend!
Ahoy, me Hearties! - the same as saying "Hello, my friends!"
Avast - stop and check this out or pay attention
Aye - yes
Batten down the hatches - put everything away on the ship and tie everything down because a storm is brewing
Blow me down! - like "WTF!"
Booty - treasure
Buccaneer - a Pirate
Cat O'Nine Tails - a whip with nine knotted strands
Crow's nest - lonely platform atop the mast where pirates keep lookout.
Cutlass - sword used by Pirates
Doubloons - coins found in pirate hoards and stashes
Heave Ho - put your back into it
Jolly Roger - Pirate's skull and crossbones flag
Lad, lass, lassie - a younger person
Landlubber - person who doesn't know how to sail
Man-O-War - pirate's ship outfitted for battle
Pieces of eight - coins or found in pirate stashes
Poop deck - part of the ship nearest to the back, which is usually above the captain's cabin. This is not were you take a dump.
Rum - the drink of a Pirate
Scurvy dog - you divvy
Shiver me timbers! - "Oh! Crap"
Walk the plank - a one way ticket to Davy Jones' Locker.

Woe ye all heartly enjoy International speak like a scurvy pirate day thanks to Post like a Pirate the fun translator what i used for the Pirate talk.

Me Myself and Tinnitus

For the past five+ years i've had Tinnitus won't say i've suffered with it, I mean its just there I just put up with the constant tone in my right ear. Tinnitus for those who aren't aware of it is a constant noise inside your ears this can be a different noise for each individual who has it the causes are anything from possible high blood pressure to prolonged exposure to loud noise, the Tinnitus noise for me it's a high pitched whistle with a heartbeat like pulse. The the pulse part of my Tinnitus is tolerable and fairly relaxing when i'm trying to sleep its the whistle that is the irritating part always there always on a major pain to be honest.



Over the past few weeks my Tinnitus has become decidedly worse my left ear now has the same issue as the right and the sleepless nights are beyonde a joke, I goto bed for around 10.30 and like clockwork im awake a 3am try to get back to sleep only for the Tinnitus to go into overdrive and them im tossing and turning drifting in and out of sleep next thing I see the clock showing 6am, bearing in mind my kids are up for School at 7.30. Been like this nearly evey night with the exception of the nights im that shattered that I get one full nights sleep.

This is one a condition id not wish on anyone but nearly everyone would have experienced it at one point, have you ever had a ringing in your ears after a night out, a football match or music concert well that ringing is Tinnitus if only on a short scale. I did eventually bite the bullet and go to the doctors they took my blood preassure and checked my ears and eyes, my ears and eyes were fine but my blood preassure was high so was asked to go back and have my blood taken so guess I will have to wait and see. 

If you would like further information on Tinnitus please visit Action on hearing Loss.

Roald Dahl Day 2016

Roald Dahl was born in Wales on 13 September 1916 he was a British novelist, Short story writer, poet, screenwriter and fighter pilot. Dahl wrote 17 children's novels and 20 books for children in total, his books sold over 250 million copies worldwide. such titles were two fables, the witches and the Twits to name but a few. As im not the world's most avid reader so i'm going to give my most enjoyable 5 movies based on Roald Dahl books.

James Henry Trotter lives with his two horrid aunts, Spiker and Sponge. He hasn't got a single friend in the whole wide world. That is not, until one dark night a mysterious man gives James Trotter an unexpected gift... a bag of glowing, wriggling lights, and a promise of magic. When James drops the bag underneath a dead tree, something amazing happens - a single peach begins to grow, and grow, and grow. James goes in the peach where he meets the Old Green Grasshopper and the rest of the insects aboard a giant, magical peach! and this is the beginning of a marvellous adventure across the atlantic and a chance to escape his ghastly aunts. I love this movie and do watch it every opportunity I get really enjoy the story and overcoming have the hardships to finally achieve what he's always wanted.

Danny is only four months old when his mother dies; and at the beginning of the story, he lives with his widowed father, William, in a Gypsy caravan, where William operates a filling station and garage. When Danny is nine years old, he discovers that William has habitually taken part in poaching pheasants from the estate of local magnate Mr. Victor Hazell. One morning thereafter, at 2:10am, Danny discovers William's absence; and fearing some misfortune, he drives an Austin Seven to Hazell's Wood, where he eventually finds him in a pit-trap, disabled by a broken ankle, and brings him home. While he is recovering from his injury, he and Danny learn that Mr. Hazell's annual pheasant-shooting party is approaching, which he hosts for dukes, lords, barons, baronets, wealthy businessmen, etc., and decide to humiliate him by capturing all the pheasants in the forest. Danny the champion of the world was one of the only Roald Dahl books that I actually read which inspired me to watch the movie, this is one of those Sunday afternoon family movies with a great story drawing you into Danny and his father's world.

Matilda Wormwood is only five years old, but she is a genius. Unfortunately her parents are too stupid to even notice. Worse, her horrible headmistress Miss Trunchbull is a bully who makes life difficult for Matilda's teacher, Miss Honey, and her friends. But what Miss Trunchbull doesn't know is that Matilda has a trick or two up her sleeve. This is a really enjoyable heartwarming movie with a magical story
really like how Matilda take her revenge upon Miss Trunchbull.

The BFG (Mark Rylance), while a giant himself, is a Big Friendly Giant and nothing like the other inhabitants of Giant Country. Upon her arrival in Giant Country, Sophie, a 10-year-old girl from London, is initially frightened of the mysterious giant who has brought her to his cave, but soon comes to realize that the BFG is actually quite gentle and charming, and, having never met a giant before, has many questions.

Having both been on their own in the world up until now, their affection for one another quickly grows. But Sophie’s presence in Giant Country has attracted the unwanted attention of the other giants. Sophie and the BFG soon depart for London to see Queen Victoria (Penelope Wilton) and warn her of the precarious giant situation, but they must first convince the Queen and her maid, Mary (Rebecca Hall), that giants do indeed exist. Together, they come up with a plan to get rid of the giants once and for all. I haven't see this movie yet though it is on my to watch list, is a great story and a wonderful friendship between the bfg and Sophie.

In an unnamed town, lives Charlie Bucket, his family are so poor he can only stare through the candy shop window. Wonka announces to the world that he has hidden five "Golden Tickets" in his chocolate Wonka Bars. The finders of these tickets will be given a tour of his factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Four of the tickets are found by Augustus Gloop, a gluttonous German boy; Veruca Salt, a spoiled British girl; Violet Beauregarde, a gum-chewing American girl; and Mike Teavee, a television-obsessed American boy. The next day, Charlie finds some money in a gutter and uses it to buy a Wonka Bar opening the Wonka bar he finds the real fifth golden ticket.

The next day, Wonka greets the ticket winners at the factory gates. a series of self inflicted event remove the first four winners from the tour. At the end of the tour, only Charlie and Grandpa Joe remain. Charlie was the only one who passed. The trio enter the "Wonkavator", a multi-directional glass elevator that flies out of the factory. Soaring over the city, Wonka reveals to Charlie that his actual prize is the entire factory itself because Wonka had created the contest to find an honest child worthy enough to be his heir. He informs Charlie that he and his family can move into the factory immediately. A classic brilliant movie Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder is my personal favorite though the Johnny Depp remake was good to.

The History of Windows….Microsoft that is. Pt3

Windows 1 to 10

The first incarnation of Windows wasn't really Windows as you think of them now, on current Windows we can now open drag and overlap multiple Windows, Microsoft's first Operating Systems Windows 1 released in November 1995 was flat allowing you to only open windows side by side and running on top of Microsoft's DOS OS this was cutting edge in its day allowing for the use of mouse control.

In December 1987 Microsoft released the next evolution Windows 2, this was the first OS to come with overlapping Windows a control panel for easy access to system settings and also introduced the minimise and maximise Windows function, basically this was the great grandparent of what we use now. Windows 2 was also the birth of Word and Excel.

Next is Windows 3 launched in May 1990 this was the first OS that required a hard drive this was Microsoft's first major contender against rival Operating Systems. Windows 3 allowed the running of MS-DOS programs in Windows, it also brought 256-bit colours this gave a more colourful and modern look to the user interface, also this version introduced the biggest waste of time management in the guise of Solitaire.

Windows 3.1 the update for Windows 3 was a significant one because it brought truetype fonts making it a useful publishing tool, Minesweeper was also introduced in this update.

Windows 95 released in August 1995 was a massive leap in the Operating System with the introduction of the 'START' button with the start menu to. This was the OS I remember most due to the Rolling Stones sound track on the advert.

There was a few first's introduced with this OS these were Plug & Play this enabled you to connect a device and Windows would find a driver and install it though this failed as many times as it worked. 95 also sported a 32-bit graphics it also introduced Internet Explorer.

Released in June 1998 Windows 98 was the step up from 95 same OS just that bit better. It came with Internet Explorer 4, Outlook Express, Windows address book and microsoft chat.

Windows ME Microsoft second most hated OS released in September 2000 ME was the last in the Windows 9x series.
Windows ME was mainly targeted at the home user it included Internet Explorer 5.5, Windows Media Player 7 and the then new Windows Movie Maker software which enabled basic video editing for the home user, also the graphical user interface was updated.

Windows XP released in October 2001 was by far one of the best versions of Windows, it was based on Windows NT with all the consumer comforts of ME, the Start menu and taskbar got a visual makeover bringing the well known green Start Button and blue task bar along with shadow and other visual effects. Cleartype was designed to make text easier to read on lcd screens. XP was the longest running of all past Operating Systems in its run there was three major updates and support for it up to April 2014 a massive 13 years from its original release date. before it was discontinued XP was thought to be used on around 430m PC's

Windows Vista the replacement for XP, it was doomed for failure just because it was replacing XP, everyone loved XP the comfy blanket of Operating Systems and Microsoft was asking users to give up there comfy blanket for a new one wasn't gonna happen for millions of users. UAC (User Account Control) was a security approval/disapproval for installs, as this prompted you on just about everything users were just clicking yes all the time or like myself turning it off altogether. Vista ran slowly on older machines even though they were meant to be 'Vista Ready' which caused lawsuits because not all versions of Vista could run on Vista ready PC's. Gamers were happy though with the DirectX 10 technology, Windows Media Player 11 and Internet Explorer 7 were on this version along with Windows Defender. Personally I did like Vista or the features in it.

Windows 7 released in October 2009 and was inevitably everything Vista should have been. It set out with the goal of fixing all the issues users hated in Vista, with minor tweaks in its appearance, heavy user friendly feature and less irritating prompting. Windows 7 was so easy to uses and very customisable to give it that more personal touch I personally can't remember having an issues with this OS and right up until 10 it was my favourite. Windows 7 was faster, stable and a lot easier to use meaning most users made this there upgrade of choice after moving on from XP. Snap was first introduced in Windows 7 allowing you to move windows to the top or side of the screen making for faster more automatic resizing. Windows 7 in Europe were hit with an antitrust investigation over the pre-installation of Internet Explorer so a browser selection screen was implemented giving users the choice of what browser they wanted to install.

Released in October 2012 Windows 8 was an OS that personally I couldn't stand, the idea of it appealed but removing the start button and forcing what looked like a mobile phone OS onto a PC was just silly. The pinning to start was a pain to if like me you have more than one hard drive it made using the other hard drive a total pain, I have an installed games and music drive and neither were liked by Windows 8. The introduction of metro the tiled interface adding app and programs onto one tiled screen. The positives for this were increased performance and improved security and better function for tablet users, gave support for the faster USB 3 interface it did also come with a traditional Windows 7 style desktop pain to find and access when you first used Windows 8.

Windows 8.1 the improved release reintroducing the start button bringing up desktop view, users could also bypass metro booting straight into windows which was more suitable for user using a desktop/laptop.

Windows 10 was release July 2015 and is the best of windows 7 and 8 it's fast secure and very easy to use. it gives you your friendly Windows desktop with the convenience of a metro style start menu. Upon installation you are prompted to input an email address and if you don't have one or are not wanting to input one it's not that clear as how to proceed. Once past there and Windows 10 is installed you are greeted with your desktop and start button, the taskbar has a few new features like cortana a search feature that allows you to type or verbally ask questions to Cortana, and Cortana on most occasion will verbally reply one of the most asked questions is "sing me a song" or "tell me a joke" and she will. The other noticeable change is internet explorer this is not your default browser it's been replaced by the new microsoft edge, windows media player has been swapped as default by groove, photos and videos have new default apps to all these can be easily changed to customise Windows 10 to your personal preferences. one of the intermittent problems iv had is the start menu and Cortana stops working first time this happened it was a huge pain to fix. In July 2016 Microsoft released an anniversary update for edge and cortana improvements. Overall Windows 10 for me is a brilliant OS and does everything i ask of it gives me all the security and freedom to have it just I want it.