Seasonal Paradise

The Angry Birds Of Birgu Attacked My Drone While Flying Over Beautiful Fort St. Angelo ♥ #Vlog 12

MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 12 :: It’s Valentines week. Business is great! We decided to take a break and go for brunch in the ancient city of Birgu. Then fly the drone, which got completely attacked by the birds of Birgu. There’s some great shots of the medieval city of Birgu in this video. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgu
__

I did a spot of flower arranging for Valentines. Not too shabby. Irena and the kids have been wanting to get a dog this week, but we've decided against it, for now. Tempted, but Madeleine is our puppy.

The kids go to Laura's birthday party and are in awe of the Maltese magician. Then we trek out to Birgu for brunch. I'm not sure about trusting Tripadvisor in Malta now. The 2nd best café in Birgu wasn't quite what we were hoping for. It was very traditional Maltese, but needed sprucing up, to say the least.

Birgu is a beautiful ancient city, that is guarded by birds with the temperament of dragons. I'm not sure they've encountered drones before. But they did not take well to my attempts at filming the best of their city. They went nuts, circling, attacking and trying to take a piece out of the Mavic.

I don't show it in the video but, in the end, I turned the drone around and started chasing them done. This disconcerted them enough that they gave me a window to bring the drone down before they wiped it out of the sky.

It's been an interesting few weeks. My consultancy helps internet dating companies grow. Business has picked up over Valentines and we have some awesome interesting clients on board now. The perfect mix. I committed to doing 12 weeks of vlogging. Now I’m wondering what's next. I have some ideas. Watch this space, at MarkBrooks.TV.

Thanks for taking an interest.

Love,
Mark

Happiness Advice From 3 Wise Centenarians

Here's some weekend wisdom from three people who made it to age 100+. They're asked about their secrets of longevity and my favorite quote is "Finding the right husband to marry...and be closer and closer to...if you are happy, happily married, and happily living...that is the finest remedy for all illness because everything is in perfect harmony."

I Lost My $1300 Drone, And Got Some AWESOME Shots of Malta ♥ #Vlog 11

MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 11 :: I got my shiny new Mavic Pro drone back from the USA and took it out for a spin, and it got sucked into some kind of damn vortex thermal over Tigne Point. Either that, or it was a problem with the firmware. There’s some great shots of Malta in this video.
__

I’m extremely impressed with the Mavic Pro drone. Its super easy to fly. Word to the wise, however. Keep it in clear line of signal to ensure it doesn’t run away. I’m not sure if a thermal got it, or there was a glitch with the firmware. I got some stunning shots over Malta, Sliema and Valletta in this vlog.

Sasha got some unusual advice from Youtube. I’m not sure from where. She’s hooked on Youtube, and that’s fine. We’ve got kid filtering set up. She’s learning some good lessons, and we discuss one thing she picked up in this video.

I’m running more regularly with my good friend Andy Linnas, after a hiatus because we were both travelling. In fact we’re setting ourselves a new goal now. Sometimes it’s simpler just to go daily. A half marathon in a week ( Six 2.2 mile runs), keeps us fit and in shape. Although, I’m not, he is. It’s nice to have an inspiration and a role model.

Back in Malta, Riding Evolve’s Boosted Board And Flying DJI Mavic Pro Drone ♥ #Vlog 10

MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 10 :: I came back from Miami through U.K. for a quick visit to my ma. My friend bought an Evolve Bamboo electric skateboard so we tried that out and I get my new DJI Mavic Pro up into the air for some test flights over Malta. Great fun!
__

I paid my 84 year old mother a visit in U.K. and we discovered a wonderful new little bakery cafe out in the country. Very relaxing.

With Ehsan’s help both myself and Victoria were able to stay up on the Evolve Bamboo. He’s been carving up the roads in Malta on it, which is a death defying feat. Malta is not known for its good roads and safe drivers. It helped that he has the offroad tires on.

I got the DJI Mavic Pro in New York a couple weeks ago. I was concerned about flying the DJI Mavic Pro in New York and Miami Beach while travelling because I’m a novice flyer and there are planes and helicopters buzzing around overhead. The DJI Mavic Pro was remarkably easy to fly. I wouldn’t trust the automated flying modes however. The risk of crashing is higher, so I’m staying all manual. I got some great shots of our local area in Malta. Great camera as well.

Then we celebrated my nephew’s birthday and had a firey accident.

Speaking At The Internet Dating Conference In Miami Beach ♥ #Vlog 9

MarkBrooks.TV Vlog Episode 9 :: Miami Beach is the perfect spot for the iDate Internet Dating Conference.

Despite the roadworks going on outside my Airbnb apartment I was able to get plenty of sleep. The weather was perfect for a run along the beach before the iDate Internet Dating Conference. This is the 42nd iDate conference that I'm speaking at, out of 47. I didn't speak at the first one I attended in 2004, and I've missed four other Internet Dating Conferences over the years. Namely, the iDates in Nice, Hong Kong, Brazil and one other I guess.

This year's conference was a tad smaller than usual, but richer. We had stellar speakers that were willing to share more than ever with our community of leaders of Internet dating companies. The CEO of Meetme gave us a fantastic overview of the Social dating space. The CEO eDatingForFree which includes the likes of ChristianDatingForFree.com is doing very well now. No surprise, he used to be the man behind driving traffic at eHarmony! The CEO of the controversial dating site Seeking Arrangement shared the very personal story of how he started the site, and what it really stands for.

I'm proud to have stood side by side with my good friend Marc Lesnick who started iDate in 2004, since 2004. We've etched our way into the worldwide Internet dating ecosystem by consistently and faithfully summarizing the daily Internet dating and matchmaking industry news and helping the industry learn and share at iDate conferences all around the world. China, UK, Brazil, Japan, Cyprus, Spain, etc. The future is bright for the dating industry, and our goal is to help it achieve its promise and potential, for the good of singles all around the world.

After a great week in Miami, my good friend Vince gave me a ridiculous ride to the airport in an awesome car with 650bhp that's capable of 202mph!