A quality greeting from my friends Emma & Paul!

Why?!?!?!

Does my brain work in such an odd way?!? IT's Christmas morning and by rights I should be asleep enjoying the fact I don't have to get up early, yet here I am awake, typing my blog for something to do.


I could not get my brain to switch off last night and it ended with some very odd dreams that for most of the night felt real and needed sorting out in my brain so I could go to sleep. I put most of the blame on The End of Mr. Y, a very good, if slightly strange book I'm reading at the moment!

Roll on the end of the day!

As that will be when my Christmas holidays start!

To be honest I don't intend on doing much work today but I need to keep my phone and laptop on in case of anything coming through (and the fact I'm someone else's contact on their out of office for today). And since I've got my office set up a little better now I can be doing my blog on a completely separate computer without leaving my desk where my laptop and docking station is set up! The problem is I have done everything I needed to do already!

I've been using the last couple of days to practice homeworking and its been quite enjoyable actually...although I need to make sure I leave the house at some point...I've not crossed the threshold for 3 days at least...

He's behind you!

Just got back from the Wolsey panto and had a great time! No celebs just fantastic fun and all the performers played their own instruments on stage! Brilliant!

Not bad

All in all not too bad a day so far. Just got up from a nap (to recover from my very early morning) and after a few minutes in the kitchen there's now a quite brown looking chilli bubbling away for a little later.

Had pancakes and crispy bacon for breakfast before popping out to the tip (successful), but failing to find a printer (I only want wireless, I don't need a scanner/copier built in!). Finally managed to get a Christmas tree and back home tidied decorated and hoovered in record time.

Christmas cards all written and we've now watched number 2 of our bumper Hitchcock boxset (we've seen Topaz & Shadow of a Doubt so far)

I can hear K watching Ghostbusters in the other room and once we've eaten we'll be off to see the panto!

Gaming Update

Xbox just had its autumn update and with it came Xbox Originals, stuff that you can download that you might have missed the first time around.

Downloaded Fahrenheit and Pyschonauts and enjoying them both so far. F is a moody mystery thriller so far that starts off with your character clearly under some kind of other control killing a man in a diner bathroom. From there you need to decide whether to mop up the blood, hide the body, escape the diner etc. The action has just shifted to the lead cop and I have been questioning witnesses. Great stuff!

Pyschonauts is a game that I've heard about but not really known what it was about. Simply it is a platformer/collectathon but it seems like there's real effort been put into the story and characters. Its set in a kind of American summer camp setting and so far quite enjoyable...but after playing Super Mario Galaxy (105 stars) the controls don't feel nearly as tight or responsive! Although I suspect that's pretty much going to be the case for everything other than SMG now!

Looking forward to what Christmas has in store gaming wise! I suspect I have Orange Box & Mass Effect coming. I think I may also be getting Link's Crossbow training as well as Pit & Rummikub! Gamerariffic!

So near yet so far

I sit here at 6.50am on a saturday morning wondering what on earth I'm doing out of bed at this hour, let alone updating my blog!

Not sure if its a coincidence but its exactly 6 months gone and 3 months to go. Now we're at this mark I'm allowing myself to get more excited about the whole thing but its still a bt of a rollercoaster to be honest. I imagine having conversations with this new person (sometimes a boy, sometimes a girl) and then I have to remind myself that there is still 3 months to go and they aren't here yet. I don't want to be pessimistic but I know if something goes wrong I will be crushed. A bond has already formed to this person who seems to enjoy annoying K as much as I do! Its hard to put these feelings into words but to be honest March 8th can not come soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

We do still have Christmas to get out of the way first. Due to significant website ordering of presents and the fact that our recycling is collected fortnightly the house is more or less full of cardboard! A trip to the tip is in order today, if only to make room for the tree which we need to put up. Fortunately we have the first of our (very) staggered Christmas's tomorrow (K's dad) so we should be able to start to divest ourselves of presents and make room for the packing that I need to do. In prep for the baby I'll be starting to work from home and currently the conditions for that are less than ideal. The camping equipment, spare bed, and exercise bike are being shipped off to mum's for storage until we move (sometime next year in all likelihood). I still ned to order a van for that...must remember to do that this week!

Luckily work is a little quiet at the moment. A 5 week period means the next set of reporting isn't due until Christmas week and we'll all be off anyway. It does mean January is shaping up to be a nightmare though with back to back reporting for 4 weeks. It should be just the thing to distract though, the baby will be so close and January is very long in money terms as BT are good and pay us early for Christmas. Great in theory but forces you to scrimp throughout January. Speaking of pay it has finally all come together...I've been promoted, got my pay rise as well as my new benefits (health cover, free line rental etc). To be honest I was hoping that it would reinvigorate me and increase my enthusiasm for work but it hasn't really! I think I need to focus on home though so I shouldn't be too worried about work.

In other news I'm typing this blog entry on our new iMac! We needed to replace the old PC before the baby came along and after playing with a mac at the Apple store in Florida I couldn't resist! I personally don't know how they fit it all into the monitor but I know that I absolutely love this keyboard! The only problem is I know need to get a new printer (usb) to connect to this beast. To be honest I quite fancy the look of a wifi one so I can be a bit inventive with the layout of the office. Its going to be weird with my work PC and home PC (oops Mac) next to each other but I can pretend I'm an evil genius with multiple computer screens!

62 stars and counting!

The music for Super Mario Galaxy is awesome! (The game is pretty decent too!)

Interval Madness

Ignoring the fact that the view is upside, just enjoy the music and footwork!

Too much goodness

Its a good thing I've got a decent stock of games in otherwise this wouldn't make it under the christmas tree!

Massive Update pt. 2

Ok so you know about the holiday...I better talk about videogames. For those of you that don't realise this time of the year is a nightmare for videogamers, not because there aren't any new games out but because there are too bloody many to choose from! Pre-holiday releases designed to soak up Christmas present money is all well and good but for those of us lucky enough to have multiple platforms to play on its a pain!

I finished Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at the weekend and my golly was it an enjoyable romp! A fitting end to the trilogy but perhaps a little too easy? I may have to play through it again on a harder setting! I just need to find someone else with it so I can share my friend vouchers!




After MP3 I back engrossed in Oblivion which seems never ending (although I have now started the main quest)



I feel I may have to pause briefly in that to appreciate Endless Ocean this week and Super Mario Galaxy next week. I guess its lucky that Zack & Wiki has been pushed back to next year and that Mass Effect is on my Christmas list or I may have found myself too tempted to buy them all!

Massive Update pt.1

While the dogs away the cat will play...well in my case while K is away L will eat bacon sandwiches, play video games and update his blog! I didn't quite realise how long it had been so hopefully my 3 readers haven't given up all hope of updates never to return and will find this update informative and entertaining (or a complete waste of time, I'm happy with that too!)

I have a big list of things that I need to cover but I'll start chronologically for pt 1 at least and then go from there...

So, Florida! We had a superb time on holiday and could have done with a little more time to be honest, although my confusion with the dates didn't help! Not sure how I expected a Thursday flight in the US to return to the UK before it had taken off. Needless to say this caused all sorts of shenanigans with visitors back home and my car being nowhere to be seen at the airport.

Aside from that debacle the trip itself was brill! The automatic car took a little getting used to but it has convinced me that a Prius wouldn't be an altogether awful idea for my next car at home (it too has an automatic gearbox).

I picked the least obvious 'tourist' car to make us less of a target!



Highlights of the trip for me were Magic Kingdom and Key West but most of it was great. Miami was a little disappointing but I think that was mainly because it just wasn't as friendly as the other places we stayed and the less said about the frankly bizarre hotel the better!



The weather was good too and the exchange rate meant that we were able to spend and not worry too much...although it did mean I came home with 4 DS games that I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to playing, but I'll talk about rampant video game playing in another update!

All in all I can heartily recommend Florida! And now to find that bacon sandwich!

Zelda & Link

Friday Night Lights

I've left Pregatron downstairs watching X-Weighted that she recorded off Sky 3 yesterday. From what I saw its your usual massive heffer goes through emotional journey and comes out thinner and happier(?) the other side. I decided to use this opportunity to update my woefully neglected blog. Neglected for a few reasons.....

* Too knackered to blog. A really poor excuse but work has been such a drain recently. The good news is I finally found out officially today that I will be recommended for promotion! This is good as it means that finally the people that need to believe this do and that there's now nothing more I can do to influence it. However the Career Council now has to decide if they can afford to give me the pay rise and uplift of benefits (including a car they can never take away from me) and whether the skill I'll be promoting into has a sustained need within the business unit. Yes it is a bit bollocks but I enjoy my job and team and wouldn't be able to get the promotion except by leaving the division otherwise. The presentation I had to give was on Wednesday in Fleet and left me completely drained, then I had to go to London yesterday for a workshop and then present on an All Hands Community Knowledge call this afternoon (and obviously fit my day job around all of this as well!)

* Facebook. Joined that and spend a lot of time fiddled when I would have been updating my blog. Also I want to state at this point that Emma Watson & Paul Booth must play a lot of Scrabble to be so good at it!

* Bioshock. Almost the sole reason for buying my Xbox Elite and its really good! Not sure how far through it I am but I can't stop thinking about "Would you kindly....". Can't wait to see what else it holds!

The name change explained

Hopefully it's obvious and hopefully anyone I should have told already will have received an email or a phone call but we are expecting a baby! Went for the first scan today and confirmed that the baby (or is it still a fetus at this stage?) is 13 weeks and 3 days old!

That and the fact that I seem to be reading a lot of comic books at the moment inspired me to change the name of my blog! I've been wanting to post for a while but obviously needed to wait until we'd had the first scan. I'll hopefully be a bit better in updating posts and filling in other news (like the fact I bought an Xbox 360 Elite!)

The sun is shining....

And I can smell chicken cooking for lunch. Just got back from town where I managed to give myself 3 ice-cream headaches in a row with one of Starbucks Pomegranate & Peach frappe things...tasty but painful!

The week has flown by thsi week helped along by the fact that work wasn't too dreadful...despite being no further along with my role review...have the exciting task of doing 2 jobs week after next wehn T is on leave but with things so quiet (holidays) at the moment it shouldn't be too bad.

The wedding was great and all the pictures can be found here.

The friday was pretty relaxed actually...met up with some of R soon to be in-laws as well as the best man and his family (although the best man had had an accident the night before and was sporting a sling!)

Had a good get together meal at the Castle in Caistor on the Friday night...met more of Ralph's family and cuaght up with K's aunts.


The day itself was very sunny and pictures by the Waterways were great...


We the danced th night away and rose fairly early to a terrific breakfast at the Imperial. The rest of the morning was spent on the beach!

Calm before the storm!

It's Thursday night and I have a little free time before the whirlwind that is to be the Sangster Brown nuptials on Saturday. K is already over there attending the rehearsal and stuff (she is the MATRON of honour after all) but I'm here relaxing at home before I join them tomorrow. The weather seems to be promising good things and hopefully it'll all go off very well. Looking forward to seeing K in her dress and hoping to take some good pics.

In this bit of time I have I thought I'd share some of the top photos from the birthday bash...

The Food!


The Glasses


Hitting the punch early...


Me and the happy couple to be!


The cake


Dad and his "smokeless" fuel


The cleanup crew

Wa-hey!

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

I don't have a Chemistry degree honest!

Free Online Dating

Time to grow up?

Ok so I'm 30 now...isn't this when I'm supposed to shape up and grow up? I don't feel like I want to if thats ok with everyone.

The party went very well...photos will be on Flickr once I manage to upload them all (300 meg!). Highlights included the indestructible Pinata, the cake and food, the fantastic party glasses my dad had arranged, the presents, the fact we were all dry while it tipped it down and of course the people!

K did me proud and I couldn't have had a better day! The only problem now is that the house is full of sweets and leftover cake, champagne and too many books to even think about reading!

I'll post some more about it with pictures later.

Ooops!

I appear to have been very lax on the blogging front recently...almost a month since I last blogged!

I can only say that I've had a lot going on and video games have kept me occupied in the 'Leigh Time' that would usually be used for blogging.

Those games being Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition & Paper Mario on the VC.

Also work has been a bit of a drain recently and I didn't want to vocalise it all on my blog...it would have been a bunch of whining basically. Hopefully there'll be some developments in the next couple of weeks that'll help things become clearer.

K and I have also been talking seriously about our future plans and the upshot is we've started to think about moving house (groan!).

To stave off all the heavy stuff, preparations have been in full swing for my 30th Birthday party on Saturday! (Hmmm...I'll have to think of a new blog name!) We travel to Derby tomorrow to help with the set up, but I need to put the finishing touches to my iPod playlist for the party! Richard sent through a load of tunes to K so I've just got to sort those out and start to gather all the things we'll need for the next few days at my mum's.

I know there is going to be cake, I know there is going to be a whole lamb roasting on a spit and I know about the bubble machine. What I don't know is what K has been cackling about every time she receives mail or a letter from one of our friends/family...hmm I have my suspicions!

In other news we're going to Florida for 11 days in October! A jaunt around Disney, then a couple days in Miami & Key West...hopefully every tourist isn't murdered in some bizarre and scientifically interesting way as depicted on CSI: Miami. I don't so much mind being found dead in a pool of blood but I do worry about K having to put up with some ginger haired, sunglasses wearing Lt. spouting comforting one-liners before gazing off into the sunset.

We've also finished all the flowers for my sister-in-laws wedding! 85 hand folded lilies, nestling in 85 hand-folded day lilies along with 15 orange shrimp. They better like them!

Reverse Blog

Ok the...just finished doing the washing up after enjoying a lovely dinner of pasta with chorizo, onions, peppers & marsala. K away living the high life (shooting things and attending posh meals) so I was forced to do the washing up!

Tai Chi was fun before that although I tend to ache afterwards. We learned how to do 3 'splits' in a row which forms the next part of the form. Very relaxing!

Spent most of today at work marvelling at my new 17in flat screen monitor. The site where I work is suffering a power crisis so they were forced to replace all the CRT monitors with LCD. Amazed at how much easily it is to manipulate bugger large spreadsheets when I can see much more of them at once!

Also had a chat with the person who is going to help me sort out my business case for my role review.

Had quite a good Neverwinter Nights game last night despite dying 3 times! Also caught the last minute of Saturday's Doctor Who. Contemplated buying an Xbox 360 with my bonus (despite already having bought a digital camera) but decided that there simply wasn't enough software I want at this point to warrant a purchase...maybe after Christmas.

Watched Saturday's Doctor Who while stuffing pretzels that K bought me from Norwich...a fleeting chance to chat before she went off to Manchester for the High Life. Told her that I had decided not to enroll on my Open University Digital Photography course as I realised that for a 10 week 10 credit module I would be expected to do 6-8 hours a week work on it! Stuff that....I'm gonna get a book!

Played a lot of Okami while K was in Norwich getting her bridesmaid dress fitted.

We watched Hot Fuzz Saturday night with Becks & Ralph after a day of shopping, eating very large ice-creams and playing card & board games. I must have been feeling off as I failed to win a single thing! Also got my hair cut.

Got up very early Saturday morning to contemplate my role review and write some thoughts into my working record so that I could enjoy the weekend without thinking about it too much.

Watched Hot Fuzz (*raspberry noise and the V sign* "Jog On!") on Friday night with K after realising that Earl doesn't start for a few weeks.

Friday afternoon got a late call from my manager telling me that my role review had been unsuccessful at this time and needs more detailed evidence. Feel surprising fine about it.

Waiting for the phone to ring....

...it doesn't ring!

I want to know about my role review...when will it ring!

6 down....94 to go!

Yum

No its not a bottle of piss but my elderflower cordial...and very tasty it is too!

Made after I was inspired by Alex and is just delicious! I only wish that I could have made it a few hours sooner so I could send a bottle off with my mum to reach my dad for Father's day! Especially after she brought me one of his cabbages!

Diane's Dead!

Another Thursday, another night in avoiding things I'd planned to do! Tonight was set aside to make a tart and do some tidying up. My mum is visiting us for the weekend and the house is a bit of a tip! I can't even be bothered to do the washing up!

Watched the end of Masterchef which means I can have a lie in tomorrow if I fancy it (while BB is on K and I have been recording and then watching Masterchef over breakfast), especially as I'm working from home.

Then got sucked into EastEnders which is very easy to lose 30 minutes watching. Then Holby City came on! I'd forgotten it's on on Thursdays at the moment (until pointless police show spin off, HolbyBlue ends its run) so I was forced to watch that for an hour. Not that it takes much forcing to be honest! Yes its very soapy but I really enjoy it. I don't know if its the overacting or the comedy moments or the good story lines at the moment but it is currently unmissable! I'll probably watch it again with K when she catches up with it. It was Diane's swan song tonight and was only slightly disappointing when she died off camera. To be honest though Paul Bradley doesn't have much luck with news over the phone. I remember in years ago in EastEnders, when his wife Debbie went the same way!

Had quite a good day at work although the spectre of my role review is still hanging over me. Apparently there should be some feedback in the offing next week but whether that will be good or bad who knows? I am stuck in a dilemma and I really shouldn't write about it as it will start me thinking about it agian. If it comes back and is a 'no' should I take on even more work/responsibility to try again in six months? Or should I just say "Fuck it" and reduce my workload to the level I'm paid for and then start looking for another job?

In other news I was all ready to make Elderflower cordial but a confluence of circumstances has meant I either had the flowers and no citric acid or the acid and dried husks of slowly rotted flowers. Must try to track some down tomorrow so I can make some for Dad for Mum to take back with her on Sunday. I keep seeing trees by the side of the road but I'm not sure I'm fantastically keen on exhaust fumey blossoms for my drinks.

Going to seed.....

DSC_0006
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

I need to pull up my remaining radishes, quick smart! All that lovely juicy goodness in the root is busy turning itself into flowers! Stop it!

Meanie

Testing out the new camera's continuous shooting mode I managed to catch K just as she was about to give me a couple of 2 fingered salutes! The cheek of it!

Feel the quality!

Well more like see the quality!

My last post had a nice picture on it...taken with my new camera! Early Happy Birthday to me!

Finally plumped for the Nikon in the end. Was supposed to be paying for it with my bonus (which comes in end of month's pay package) but when I've made my decision there's usually no point waiting! Fortunately my savings are fairly healthy at the mo so used some of those.

Really pleased with and managed to get quite a few shots in teh last couple of days. Mixture of quiet good and just plain average. My next step is to actually learn when all the settings mean! I don't really understand ISO, Shutter speed and aperture! But it does make a fantastic noise when you take a picture! Especially on continuous!

Who wins?...You Decide!

DSC_0005
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

K and I were having a competition to see who could grow the largest sunflower. I think we'll call it a tie!

Grrrr

I'm supposed to be watching the Apprentice right now but K is on the phone to her mother! Thank goodness for pausing live TV!

My predictions are....

Simon & Kristina for the final. Lets see if I'm right!

Loose End

K is at some some of training conference and I'm at a loose end! I've even spent the last 30 minutes watching old title credits for Home & Away and Neighbours on TouTube...that's 30 minutes I'll never get back.

There's lots of things I should be doing but for some reason I can't settle on one...

* Cook something with apples. We have a glut of too soft to enjoy eating apples and I need a recipe to use them up but it can't be a cake! I might just turn them into apple sauce and freeze for another day. Apple Jam apparently is not good and we don't have the space to strain and make apple jelly.

* Tidy up. There's the last remnants of camping stuff ready to be sorted and put away. K is much better at this sort of thing than I am.

* Think of things to cook avocados in. The new veg box arrived today and contained avocados (as well as cabbage, squash and bean sprouts...at least there were no potatoes!)

* Practice first 2 stages of the Tai Chi form we learned yesterday. It was our first class and despite wearing inappropriate clothing (ideally arms and legs should be covered and loose enough to really move) it went really well. The 90 minutes literally flew by! Not too achey today and looking forward to next week's class. Hopefully this'll help with work stress and get us a bit fitter. I have to watch out for my bunchy shoulders and big toe and K has to watch her turned out feet.

* Decide on an Xbox 360 or Digital SLR camera as a 30th birthday present to myself. Its not for another month but a quick decision will mean that family and friends have something that they can contribute towards in the way of accessories! An Xbox would be great but I can barely play everything I have now, although Mass Effect & Bioshock may be too great a temptation. They are being made by the people who made my all time favourite games of Baldur's Gate & System Shock 2. On the other hand with the camera I can develop a new hobby, learn a new skill and maybe do the OU course I was looking at. Should I decide on a camera I then have the task of deciding between the Canon 400D (more AF points, wider selection of lenses) or the Nikon D40x (better kit lenses, uses SD cards instead of CF, better grip, I used to have a Nikon). Or I could just save my money!

Right I think I'm going to go and play some video games!

Back & Brown!

Just got back from camping and was really glad we took a risk and went despite the weather forecasts.

The first evening was great and we managed to get set up in record time and had a great barbeque and fire....





The following day was spent eating a lot (I think I put on about 4 pounds in 3 days!) and drifting down river getting tanned for 3 hours...fantastic!



Then the mist descended and we had a quiet night (especially after my disaster with the charcoal)



The next morning a mercy dash to Morrisons ended in disaster with a splashing incident of some cyclists and an argument with a log by the side of the road...



Luckily the weather really cheered up and we managed to get lost in a fantastic maze at Priory Maze at Beeston Regis.



A quick trip over to Blakeney Point....



And a giant penis at Sheringham!



Finally back to the site (which was very basic, toilets you really don't want to use and the pervading smell of chicken shit, it was a working chicken farm after all!) to pack up and head off for a quick pub meal and then home!

Catch Up

Finally finished Hotel Dusk!

More of a interactive novel than a game and fortunately the story is really, really good. Some twists that you could see coming but some that were genuine surprises. Highly recommended!

At last I'll have time to focus on Pokemon!

Google

Oh my god...how do they keep coming up with this stuff...

Rain, rain go away

It's still raining!

We're supposed to be camping on Thursday. Chris & Emma will be in their caravan but we'll be in the tent. I think we're going to review it as we go through the week but if its like this I'm pretty sure we'll not be going anywhere!

Job Satisfaction?

We went to visit R&R in Norwich yesterday and had lunch with K's Aunty Pat as well as Gerry & Chrissie.

Quite a good time was had by all I think and we even enjoyed some of the fruits of my labour in the form of home grown radishes. It was a little awkward though when we were talking about jobs and I could muster up absolutely no enthusiasm for my job at all! There was a time when I actually did enjoy it but mainly I feel ground down by it at the moment. Obviously the ideal situation would be a job you love and get a good wage for it but thats where I come unstuck. The security and quality of live that my job affords me makes me want to supress my indifference to it and focus on the good bits of my life outside of work, but thats quite difficult too. I think its going to be even more difficult if I get my promotion...but then again it may re-invigorate to focus on what benefits I can bring to the role. It certainly has done that in the past.

Is it better to have a job you're indifferent to and get paid really well or a job you love but have to struggle to feed yourself?

Bank Holiday Blues

Its 8.30am on Bank Holiday Monday and I'm blogging...my life is thrill a minute. Its also raining and has been for the last 24 hours at least. I can foresee a lot of sitting around, playing video games and watching DVDs today. Although after a cider sauce debacle on Saturday I may need to pop out and buy a new lidded saute pan.

I've actually got a fair amount of blogging to catch up on as I haven't really been in the mood over the last week...where to start?

Video game round up...

Managed to get hold of a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance for £15 from Game last week (half price offer plus points from previous shops) and so far we're really enjoying it. The gesture recognition system seems a little wonky but my biggest problem is having a clue about who we should have in the team! Obviously a nice bonus is if you can assemble a recognisable team (for the bonuses) but so far it appears that Iceman, Spiderman, Mr & Mrs Fantastic haven't ever teamed up in the comics! K is playing as Spiderman and I'm controlling Iceman. We're just working our way around some of th others to see what they are like. I'm pretty sure Mr Fantastic has secured a long term place if only for his Propeller Arms! Its good that there is a selection of lesser known heroes in there to chose from, Spider Woman for starters but its also got Luke Cage & Ms Marvel...now if only there was Jessica Jones!

Also picked up a copy of Mario Strikers charged Football and found myself really enjoying online matches! They are certainly very tense! I just need to find some friends who have it now. (369467 799525)

Yawn....

So...this is my only day for a lie in and I'm up at 7.30am writing my blog! What is wrong with me?!?

Um...I think its the sun (that has finally come out after days of cold rain) streaming through my bedroom window and the fact that my brain woke up and my body didn't. I'm at the age where I've got too many other things to do to lie in bed with my brain buzzing.

I'm now sat listening to the IGN Wii-k in Review podcast.

The problem is I can't really type and listen at the same time...so its now8.30am and I haven't yet finished this post!

I was going to write about Eurovision but I've decided against it...my views are pretty much represented here and here.

Fantastic!

Can't...stop...playing

I think the only way to go now is to power my way through until the end and hope the urge doesn't take me to play through as a different character...I am of course talking about Puzzle Quest! How glad am I that this isn't never ending!

Browsed the Penny Arcade index earlier and here's their take on Puzzle Quest.

First Impressions

An Excerpt From The Book Of Deeds

In related news I finished God of War yesterday and snapped and ordered Picross DS, Eledees & Mario Strikers Charged. Fortunately they will arrive at sensible intervals but I now have approximately 3 days to finish Puzzle Quest & Hotel Dusk before the first one lands...oooops!

He shoots...he scores!

I have a dilemma...I have a pile of video games unplayed, a garden to look after and a soon to start Tai chi class at the Buddhist centre (must get K to listen to the message on the phone from them)...where do I find the time to fit anything else in?

The problem is that in 4 weeks the Wii makes its debut (in Europe at least, ahead of the US) online and its quite tempting to get involved. Mario Strikers Charged is going to be leading the way and from what I've seen so far looks pretty good.

Now I've just got to find some friends that have the game too!

Added to that my imports of Pokemon DS are soon to arrive and Picross DS looks intriguing also

Yummy

We've just got back from what is now the top of our "most expensive meals ever" list and I felt compelled to blog about our experience.

The previous list topper was the cheap sounding Roy's at the Marriott Financial Center in New York (not sure if it survived 9/11) when we got engaged. A great meal for a great day.

Today's venture was to the 2 Michelin starred Midsummer House in Cambridge. K had eaten here before when some business contact took her out to lunch and she raved about it then. Much talk of foams, jellies and exciting pastry ensued. We were planning to go last week when we were on holiday but I'm glad that we waited until we were both feeling much better.

The place is sat just by the river and we had a bit of a job getting there as the directions provided were a little ropey but we arrived in plenty of time (despite going round a one way system 3 times) and sat out by the river watching the rowers while using up our precious lunch conversation topics! Even got a sight of some boobs as one of the rowers changed into her wet suit.

We were the first to arrive and were quite close to where the staff gathered in an alcove watching the room making sure everybody was alright so it was a little intimidating at first. Fortunately a few more people arrived and the general hubbub disguised whatever comments we were making ("aren't all the staff thin?", "we didn't need to dress as smartly as we did" etc).

After some deliberation we went with the tasting menu which is designed to demonstrate the variety of dishes and is something the whole table has to partake in. It's essentially lots of micro courses. We avoided the wine as we had to drive back but K did have what is possibly the best G&T I've ever tasted. The menu had a few things on it that I was wary of but it also threw up some surprises.

Before any of the courses arrived we were offered bread (mine was white and tasted of toffee with the sweet crust) which was duly taken (K managed to scarf all hers but I was a little more restrained!)

Dish 1. Not on the menu but we started with Pink Grapefruit & Champagne foam. This was served into a glass via a soda syphon at the table and was delicious. K loved the tiny, tiny spoons!

Dish 2. Again not on the menu, Pea Veloute with tiger prawns was next. This was very foamy, served in a deep glass, warm with a bread stick stuck in the top. Thick pea puree at the bottom getting foamier towards the top with some tiger prawns hidden in it, it was absolutely top notch.

Dish 3. The first dish actually on the menu! "Sauteed Scallop, Bay Leaf, Pigs Trotter" Was a little wary of the trotter but it was served in a little breaded cube sat on the best onions I have eaten and a really sweet sticky balsamic vinegar. Oh and then there was a delightful scallop cooked in a bay leaf...it was great!

Dish 4. "Parsley Risotto, Snail, Yeast, Jabugo ham". Now I was worried about this one , especially for K but I needn't have. It was served on a marble slab and had a sake sized cup full of risotto (with some sort of foam) and the snail was sat at the end of a plastic pipette full of sauce. You had to place the snail on your tongue and then squeeze the pipette to get the full experience and it was bloody lovely! The snail was like a cooked mushroom in texture and the flavours of garlic were wonderful! The risotto was delicious as well.

Dish 5. "Cannelloni of Red Pepper, Jamaican Jelly" Another marble slab affair with a very thin canelloni on a stick and some sauce with cubes of jelly in it. The sauce was nice as was the cannelloni but the filling left me feeling a little queasy, very, very rich. I think it was the foie gras in it that was turning me off.

Dish 6. "Comté Soup, Foie Gras, Roasted Grapes". Foie Gas was the other thing on the menu that I had concerns about. I don't much like the idea of it but I thought I would give it a go anyway. To me it was the worst dish of the meal. Everything but the foie gras was delicious. But the FG itself? Very very rich with no real taste I could identify. We both left most of it and am glad that I didn't like it. We were little concerned that the chef would come and throw us out when he saw our plates (we'd heard much swearing and shouting at junior chefs from the kitchen up to this point!)

It was at this point that I saw a couple of familiar ladies walk in and I realised that across the way was my old general manager and the current President of Strategy & Development for Global Services! Fortunately she spotted me and came over and said hello so didn't have to keep avoiding her gaze!

Dish 7. "English Asparagus, Spring Truffle" Another first for us (truffle) and K's favourite dish so far. Different types of asparagus (dice, puree and stalks) altogether in a crisp shell wtih some truffle flakes.

Dish 8. "Red Mullet, Coconut and Lime" This was awesome! Mint & lime jelly, lime sauce, pureed artichoke, fantastic fish, cubed coconut and the surprise mint & lime ice-cream in the middle of it made for a fantastic main course!

Dish 9. "Cassoulet of Pork Belly and Carrot". After some discussion of what a cassoulet was (a little cast iron casserole dish with beans and a pork cheek in it) we were served with my favourite dish so far. Belly pork with a red foam, pureed carrot and roasted cloves of garlic with the aforementioned cassoulet on the side. The cheek sounded daunting but was just some very tender pork meat. Couldn't fault this dish!

Dish 10. "Apple Test Tube" We skipped the optional Artisanal Cheeses and went straight onto the desserts. Before the test tube arrived we had been supplied with 2 sets of cutlery and a straw! Displaying my 'white-trashiness' I giggled in delight at the straw and couldn't wait for the test tube to arrive. The tubes arrived in a rack and were in three layers, Apple Puree on the bottom, Apple Granita for the middle layer and then some other kind of apple thing on top. A dinky fork helped with the top 2 layers and the the waiter informed us to use the straw for the bottom and the maitre'd chimed in that we should try and make some noise. K kindly obliged!

Dish 11. "Mango, Passion Fruit and Lychee" Mango & passion fruit delice, lychee ice cream, toasted pine nuts, freeze dried mango, and honey make a fantastic dessert! I don't really need to say any more!

Dish 12. "Moroccan Cous Cous". A bed of caramelised cous cous, yellow pepper sorbet, an apple, cinnamon and raisin ice cream, some odd cucumber stuff and a caramalised cherry tomato! K's tom vanished pretty quick and her blunt description that it was just cherry tomato in sugar sent me sightly hysterical but her description was spot on. Slightly odd to taste but nice nonetheless! But the ice-cream was fabulous...truly delicious.

Dish 13. We followed this with the bitterest espresso I've ever had (which I put a tad too much sugar into) and K was convinced that it was only the a la carte menu that got the pastries and chocs. She was wrong! Out came the pastries (think deep fried triangles of puff pastry dusted with caster sugar with pineapple and toffee dipping sauces. To finish off we got to select 2 chocolates each from the handmade selection. I had eucalyptus and caramel and K had banana and greek yoghurt!

We finally paid the bill and made our way back to the car!

Now usually K and I can be in an out of a restaurant for a 3 course meal in under 45 minutes...this took us 3 hours and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! The setting was perfect and the staff were a delight, explaining the dishes, never patronising, pouring more drinks and remaining discrete at all times, you couldn't really ask for more! I think it was telling that besides the foie gras we literally ate everything put in front of us...truly a great meal!

The cost means that you can't go every week (or even every quarter!) but we're already planning our next trip! Now I must go and lie down...nicely full without being stuffed and the only thought of food will be some coco pops much, much later!

Bugger

My plants finally arrived yesterday and are now all safely planted in the ground. Although one of my strawberry plants has died already and my tomatoes look none too healthy! Also I was quite disappointed with the girth of my leeks (and thats not a phrase you hear often enough if you ask me). I was expecting something a little more substantial that the chive like plants that arrived. No matter I'm sure(?) it'll all be fine and they'll turn into something fantastic!

Got a free evening today as K is away at a work do and then going straight to orchestra. I suppose I can fill my time with a bit of God of War which started off stunningly with a battle against the hydra but has gone a little humdrum without the big set pieces. Although to be fair my judgement may be clouded by the fact the game pissed me off a little when after I'd reloaded for the umpteenth time it offered to switch to easy mode so I could progress!

In other video game news K and I are addicted to Puzzle Quest on the DS...it's like crack cocaine! K has taken to playing it in bed and before she goes to work in the morning...most unlike her! It's a shame we only have one copy! Download the demo (at link above) and you'll see!

Although I am supposed to be playing Hotel Dusk at the mo!

Why isn't it called Northern Lights?

Typical!

No sooner than you get a bit of time off your body decides its time to catch a cold! Nothing too bad but a lot of nose blowing and some coughing, missed blood donating though, didn't want to feel any grottier (and there's nothing quite like giving blood to make you feel all funny!)

Good news is that the spare room is mostly sorted out now. Everything put back and it feels much more spacious! I'll post some photos when I have the energy to take some!

Hopefully my plants will arrive tomorrow (they've shipped according to the website) so that'll give me something to do. Still can't get twitter to work...emailed support again to see what they suggest.

K is making plans for my birthday already! Today she bought a bubble machine and I learned she's considering getting a Mr. Whippy machine as well! I can't wait!

Might try this again with a better photo!

1 down, 8 to go

Had a good start to the holiday yesterday, mainly spent it basking in the sun...



I did do some useful stuff though like finishing off tidying the garden and putting together my raised bed...just got to wait for my plants to arrive now. Also does anyone know what this plant is? I think they might be tulips as they keep coming back year after year but they do seem a little small to me?

Treasure Island Z

This looks good too...Pirates & Puzzles...looks like I'll be needed K's help to work stuff out!

Lots of cheesy goodness

Despite already owning this on Gamecube, if the price is right I may just get it again. Warning Cheese factor is quite high in the Japanese commercial.

Easter Weekend

Spent a lot of time in the garden over the weekend and to be honest it still looks like a mess! I need to get everything sorted so that when my mini plants arrive I can put them straight into my new raised bed. Luckily we're off next week so there should be ample opportunity to get it sorted.



I decided to replant my mint pot and when we came to unpot it this is what came out!! No soil just roots! Hanna over at This Garden is Illegal posts about the dangers of mint...heed her words!

Also managed to finish Canis Canem Edit. Enjoyable overall but I think I may be too good for some games! This was fairly easy and a nice big cross indicated whatever it was I had to do next! This is OK if its tricky but when my objective was to find a way into the Girl's Dorm for example, a big yellow cross on the map showing me the secret ladder to the roof is a bit of a giveaway!

We also did a couple of caches around the lovely Southwold...the lighthouse is shown below!

Experi - MENTAL

As you've probably spotted I'm trying to get down with the hip and groovy kids by embracing their pointless social 'net technology. Always the follower I noticed Alex had started to use Twitter and I was intrigued. It appears to be some kind of technology for stalking but it does mean I can add new content to my blog from my phone and from anywhere. Unfortunately as you can see my last update was 4 days ago...for some reason it won't accept input from my mobile. I'm eagerly awaiting a response from tech support.

Alex also appears to have added me to his Facebook list...not sure what facebook is but I'll probably get around to checking it out later.

Things you shouldn't really buy off the internet...

Aside from comedy video game T-shirts I've never bought any items of clothes off the internet. I think there are some things that you should try before you buy and clothes and shoes is one of them. So why have I just bought a pair of experimental flip flops from the net? Um, dunno!?

I first saw these in an article on a BA flight to Brussels last July and they just appealed to me...and what with the hot weather we've got at the moment and my penchant for spending money it was kind of inevitable. I'll let you know if they are the ultimate in comfort and bloody painful (which I think they just might be!)

Yawn.....

For some reason I'm up and blogging...its 7.20 am on Saturday morning and I should still be in bed. But sometimes when your body is saying "Hmm, warm & cosy, please don't move" but your mind is awash with thoughts and plans for the day then you just have to get up.

Now that I am up I can't really think of what I should be doing with my time...it's a little too early to start the Big Day of Gardening and I'm kinda hoping that my raised bed kit arrives today. Visited the Suffolk garden show yesterday and suprisingly came back with garden ornaments, a jigsaw and expensive olive oil but no plants. Am going to revisit the garden centre later with a big list.

I feel a little out of kilter as well because its Easter weekend and only Saturday but my Friday went a lot like a normal Saturday goes so I'm sat here thinking its Sunday, its all very confusing. We've actually got a pretty much free weekend actually (my parents WERE coming and we WERE going to Yarmouth but both have fallen through), so we're probably going to end up spending a bundle!

And I'm quite peckish but with K off swimming in a little while (if she ever gets up) and the promise of meeting up for breakfast in town a little later I should probably manage until then.

She's up!

We did have a very pleasant visitation from the Palmers (the Nottingham Palmers, not to be confused with the Stokesby Palmers , who don't actually exists yet until Colleen remarries in October to a man called Chris Plamer, ach, my head hurts) to kick off the weekend (they stopped by on Thursday night prior to traveling home from their holiday). Not seen them in ages and it was great to catch up with classic Palmer mayhem (Emma being attacked by one of her 6 year olds and Chris dealing with mad employment tribunals, always good value!) Chris also fuelled my desire for an iMac (check out their multiple Apple vs Mac ads featuring Mitchell & Webb!)...a world of cool and simplicity await me...although not until Leopard is finally released and I can still boot into XP should the need arise!

Food & Video Games = ?

Game Cakes!

Phew!

Another long day doing manly things (sawing and hammering) and the gate is nearly finished, just got creasoting and attaching a latch to do. The whole grisly process can be seen in picture detail over on Flickr.



This means I can do the nice planting jobs over the Easter holiday, we bought some new tubs and cloches and far too many seeds! Hopefully we'll get a bountiful supply of veg and some nice flowers too!



Spent part of yesterday making soup for our 'dinner party' at Yarmouth to celebrate Colleen's and Beck's birthdays. We made the starter and then we had Colleen's salmon and Beck's banoffee pie for dessert. A tip though, its best not to get 3 people with not previous banoffee experience trying to make banoffee pie while the the experience ed one is rooting under the stairs looking for stuff...it just doesn't work!

Also watched the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who...one word, brilliant!

Garden Update

So far the worms have not managed to escape, although they have been trying. I'm just waiting for them to eat some of the peelings I put in the damn thing...perhaps they have performance anxiety? I'm sure it'll sort itself out.

I have also (in the fashion of a dictator) made a unilateral decision to 'acquire' some additional land. Basically I'm putting my gate up a little bit along the alleyway that only provides access to my garden. With regards to the gate I have cut the wood (by hand) and put up the fence post. I just need to join the wood together and fasten to the post and then paint it! I've got some pictures but I'll wait until I've got the full story before I post them.

I have the plan for what the garden is going to look like in my head and I can't wait for it to all come together. I ordered my raised bed kit and my plants (Strawberry, Leeks, Peppers, Chilli, Tomato & Red onions), so I just need to get my seeds now (carrot, beetroot, raddish, chard) and some biggish pots with some cloches to protect the tender plants. I also need to sort out the existing pots and retire some (perhaps freecycle could help me out there)

Interesting

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

One door closes, another opens

Finally watched the last ever episode of Alias this evening. I must admit I was quite disappointed with how the final season panned out. I guess JJ & crew were too busy focusing on Lost (which I'm totally fed up with) to concentrate on making Alias as good as it was in Seasons 1, 2 & 3. From Vaughn miraculously reappearing alive mid season (and Jack & Sydney apparently aware of the fact) to the very rushed ending it just wasn't too great. And the awful, corny "Thanks for your support" message at the end just topped it off.

Anyway the good news is that Doctor Who starts again this week and the trailers look great and we had the first of the new Apprentice series last night. I love that programme because the people are so ridiculous! And seem to have zero common sense!

House has just restarted on Five as well! Arggh! Too much telly and too many video games...well too much of a lot of things at the moment...how am I going to fit it all in?

Too cool for school?

I'm worried that my new glasses are too trendy for me and a bit wide for my face. K says they look OK but to be honest it could all be an elaborate ploy to pay me back for being an annoying git. Is she that cunning?

P.S. Please ignore the ample double chinnage on this picture.

The Great Escape

As I may have mentioned previously I'm getting a wormery in an effort to give something back to the environment. Well anyway it arrived on Thursday and fortunately wasn't stolen from my front garden where the delivery people had left it. Now I have an iron railing style fence and anyone could have seen it and just taken it! Perhaps the 'Live Worms' warning on the outer packaging put them off? Anyway, set it up yesterday, carefully following the instructions, gently putting in the worms, leaving the lid off and getting them to burrow before adding some food and the moisture mat. All well and good so far...



This morning it appears my worms have revolted and are trying to do a Steve McQueen! I've taken to checking up on them a bit more regularly and am having to be like a gigantic 'Hand of God' and putting them back in amongst the cabbage leaves. I didn't think worms were that picky? Apparently they can congregate in the lid just prior to when it rains so to prevent them drowning in the soil. I've popped some plastic over the top so that it doesn't get waterlogged...I must remember to check on them later.

Friday Fun

Thanks to a post from Alex I now know that the interestingly titled 'Demetrius and the Gladiators' was on the telly as my mother was giving birth to me. Looks quite epic to be honest!

You may have noticed that its Friday daytime and I'm blogging...that's right I have Friday off...AGAIN! What with work dull-o-rama and masses to do next week I thought I'd take advantage and have another day's leave. Hopefully work will get interesting again soon as I can't afford to keep taking days off!

The sun yesterday fooled me into thinking that I might do some garden work today but since its cold and raining I have put that off. I did however manage to put together my wormery and hopefully my worms are now feasting on an apple core left over from lunch! I'm actually quite excited about making dinner and all the veg peelings it'll produce!

Finished reading the Alias graphic novel that Richard lent me and muct say I really enjoyed it. It's not at all to do with Sydney Bristow and spys and rather the title of a comic based ini teh Marvel universe. really well done and it casued me o stay up a little too late on a number of nights this week wanting to find out what happens next. It looks like some of teh characters will be continuing in a comic called 'The Pulse' so that's been added to my wish list!

My cookery course finished this week but I didn't go in the end. Not really keen on scallops and couldn't find any to take so had the night off instead (and watched Kath & Kim!) I'm trying to choose my next course at the moment. Not sure if I'm that keen on mediterranean cooking, but there's a Japanese course that looks quite good. Failing that it's Digital Photography with the OU.

Brrrr!

I don’t know whether I’m manic depressive (probably not) or just really affected by the weather but my mood has been up and down these past few days. An unexpected warm spell has meant it’s been sunny and warm and I’ve been formulating lots of plans to sort out the garden.

But now it’s dark and cold and snowy and my gardening plans have been thrown into to disarray and I feel quite down. I guess it’s not just the weather but it seems to be reflecting my mood at the moment. Unfortunately I know have a wormery and live worms on their way and I’ll be forced to go outside and sort it out otherwise all my worms will die!

The bad weather (coupled with some Saturday laziness) means we haven’t geocached this week. We need to make sure we do it again otherwise the 2 we have done will end up costing £35 each (the price of the receiver split in 2). Especially as we have a travel bug that needs to be on its way…



Had a good time at my cookery course last week, we made Normandy Apple Tart and I must say it was the best pastry I’ve ever made! I tried to replicate it with some savoury pastry for a quiche at the weekend but that was less than stellar. Fortunately K’s mum and sister seemed to like it. We had a visitation partly for Mother’s Day but partly because K was playing in a concert. It was the annual Cool Classics for Kids concert with IOS and was quite good in the end. I’m always surprised at how few piece of music I recognise in the programme but then recognise when I hear them!

We also went to a 30th birthday party in Nottingham on Friday which was pretty good. I discovered that the Games Workshop Head Office has its own pub! And it was decked out like a medieval tavern (shields on the wall, low beams, long tables and benches, the works). But next door to that was the gaming hall that had loads of tables set up for war gaming and a fantastic castle theme. Super!

Some things don't change...

...like me spending too much money! Had to do an emergency transfusion from savings to current this week and we've still got 2 weeks to go before I get paid again...gulp! And yet the urge to spend is undiminished...

The good weather and the spare time have made me think about what i want to achieve this year. On the work side of things I want to try and get my promotion and then take it a bit easy. At home I'm determined not to neglect the garden this year. Last year there was so much going on that when I did have any free time I was too exhausted to do anything. And because I never do anything by halves I'm gonna need an injection of cash to get it all sorted...time to raid the joint savings methinks!

Things that need doing...

* Replace gate. This is actually quite urgent as our next door neighbour thought we wouldn't mind him popping into the garden to creasote the fence! Don't know whether to be grateful or affronted! The problem is the new fence has posts in different places and I don't really know anything about gates. Added to that is the fact that gates seem so bloody expensive that I might be forced to try and improvise or salvage the old gate. I'll still need to get some sort of post to fix it to though.

* Paint the panel that was creasoted and the panel that wasn't (yes that's right, the neighbour only creasoted one of the fence panels...don't ask!). This will probably hav eot wait until the garden gate is fixed but the good news is that I already have a pot of garden paint!

* Empty out all the containers that have dead things in them! We have lots of small containers which is good for variety but not good for healthy plants as they dry out and die if you turn your back for even a minute!

* Work out if we could manage if I set up a raised bed (1m sq) on the patio. I want to try and grow veg this year and this seems to be the best way to go about it. I can split a larger bed into small sections and the whole thing shouldn't dry out quickly. There are kits that look pretty easy to set up.

* Buy a wormery. This is the most expensive item but it would assuage my guilt every time I dump a load of green kitchen waste in the normal bin. It would also produce fertiliser and compost. Do I have the space though?

* Assuming all of the above, plan out a vegetable growing season and what exactly I'm gonna grow over the year. I bought a helpful book for this.

I'm off again tomorrow so hopefully I can start to think about this properly.

Wow!

How do they make it look this good on DS?

She found it!

moto_0024
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

Woohoo! Hazel Hunt!

Achey!

Had a great day today...these are a few of the things we did

* Had my eyes tested and yet again, no change to my prescription but a suggestion that I should wear them more if I'm having trouble. Took the opportunity to treat myself and buy some new glasses (my old ones being nearly 6 years old). I'm been quite daring but the only trouble is I look a bit like Danny Messer from CSI:NY when i wear them. This wouldn't be too much of a problem except I find him very annoying!

* K offered to buy me a pair of shoes! Very nice of her but I'm going to take the money instead and buy something else!

* Did a load of exercise! Not only did we walk into, around and home from town but we've been out and found our first two caches! Hazel Hunt and Westerfield Trig.

Time for some dinner methinks!

Not bad all in all

Despite my fears for a terrible week it was OK to be honest. Started some work I wasn't looking forward to but got stuck in. Had an argument with the president's PA but seem to sort that out and best of all finished my business case. Not sure when it'll be submitted but at least I can stop thinking about it now.

Just not sure what I'm going to do on my day off? I could do some gardening but...meh! I'll probably walk into town and spend money from my savings when I've already spent my disposable income for this month, last month.

I'll probably also do some cooking...hmmm cakes!

Mondays

I can tell it’s going to be a long week at work.

Firstly I have no ‘proper’ deadlines this week which means I’ll spend a good portion of time avoiding the things I am able to put off because no-one knows how long they should be taking me. This is not good. When I am busy and slightly hassled I work much better and can thunder through my outstanding to do lists.

Secondly there’s talk of changing one of our recording methodologies. This is a nightmare to be honest, but as we’re at the start of a new financial year the best time for it to happen if it has to. The problem is we spent months last year changing it to the current system and I don’t particularly want to do it all again.

Thirdly, I’m supposed to be putting together a business case to justify my promotion to a higher level (for the work I’m been doing anyway for the last 6 months). The problem is that from an outside perspective I think I do a fairly easy job (compared to say a fireman or a soldier) and get paid a lot of money (especially compared to a fireman or soldier), but then when one looks internally at my company I see morons and idiots getting paid far in excess of me and I want part of the action! The issue lies in selling oneself in terms of the requirements and making the case for promotion. The problem is I recognise that on balance I enjoy my job and I’m good at it so even if they don’t promote me I’ll stay doing it….probably. Let’s hope no-one from work is reading this!

At least I have this Friday off! I’ve got excess leave to use up before we flip over to the new holiday year and there’s only so much I’m allowed to carry forward to next year. Not sure why I’m hoarding it all up to be honest…perhaps I’ll have a holiday emergency and have to take loads at some point. Oh well!

Obessions

The silent hero,
He leads us to victory,
On his Dragon Quest

Franchise Reboot

A frantic knocking on a front door propelled me out of bed at K's urging this morning. Raced down the stairs, frantically sorting my dressing gown out to cover my modesty. I made it to find that the front door in question belonged to next door and the postman barely batted an eyelid when I emerged from out of ours. This explains why its 7.45am and I'm blogging. Although it sounds like K has got up to although I doubt its from sympathy.

I wanted to use this post to talk about my mixed feelings regards to franchise re-boots. You know where they re-imagine a beloved character disregarding what story has already been told in order to make a new film/book/comic whatever and rake in loads of cash. I'm the first to admit I enjoyed Batman Begins & Casino Royale but then I didn't have so much emotional investment in those things as I do about Star Trek. Yes that's right, Star Trek XI, is primed for release on December 25th 2008 and be a young Kirk/Spock movie. I know its a cash cow for the studios and they want to resurrect it but I'm worried. What are they going to do to it? What are they going to change for 'artistic reasons'. Which character is going to get changed into a woman to make it more politically correct? I may be worrying over nothing,it may be that the love out there for this franchise will stop them from screwing around too much with it, although having said that apparently Matt Damon is going to be playing Kirk!

The one bright spark is that they want Gary Sinise to play a young Dr. McCoy and I can't think of anything who would be better.

It's the Weekend!

Hooray!

Another busy week behind, not helped by the fact I've taken on a new project at work, trying to put together a business case for a promotion and being off ill yesterday. Back on track today though and managed to power through my list of stuff to do. Next week should be busier though as I'm covering the work of a colleague as well! Heigh Ho!

We went to see Chicago last week at the Norwich Theatre Royal and it was really good. I still think I enjoy the film more but its really interesting to see how they use the limited space on the stage to convey everything. And the level of fitness of the company (well apart from the chap playing Amos) is something else.

Had my second Cookery class this week (mussels and illness ensued) and looking forward to next week's Pork with Camembert.

Still addicted to Dragon Quest 8 (bought the soundtrack CD & a poster to put in the study this week) and neglecting everything else. Although I am still keen on the Everybody votes channel. Although I must admit my prediction accuracy is only 66.6%...must do better.

Going to a Dallas themed party tomorrow, K has yet to locate a costume but I ordered myself a stetson off the 'net so I'm all ready to go!

Seafood and Haiku

Laughing in their shells
Tainted mussels, sat in wine
Ooh, I feel queasy

Bad Blogger

Yes I am bad, despite lots going on this week I haven't blogged!

Where to start? Had my first cookery class last week and managed to make a passable vichyssoise (or Vichee-su-wars as the woman on the phone called it, not my tutor thankfully just someone telling me what the first dish was gonna be) and looking forward to mussel casserole next week.

Spending most of my free time playing Dragon Quest. I love this game...very catchy music which I've now transferred to my new mobile as its ring tone. I've decided to actually start using a personal mobile phone again. It's not really fair for K to be the contactable one all the time and I need to bite the bullet and use it properly. The problem is when you have a work mobile you don't tend to want to lug 2 around. Having said that because I switch the work one off in the evenings & weekends no-one can get hold of me. This will change...I'm just going to have to get everyone else accustomed to using my personal one!

Weak

Despite the fact that I'm skint, I'm still a sucker for a bargain. This leaves me with a dilemma, which of the 7 PS2 games should i be devoting my time to? Ico & Kingdom Hearts arrived today despite Amazon telling me that they would be here in a couple of weeks time (i.e. after I had gotten paid).

I had settled into a routine of mainly Dragon Quest with side helpings of Okami & Canem Canis Edit (FFX had been relegated as I can't cope with 2 turn based RPGs at once) but now I've got these new games in the mix!

Also some new mobile phones (which bizarrely are actually going to be less money that the ones we have now) should arrive today and I've already been scouring the internet to find Dragon Quest MP3s to have as my ring tone since Bananaphone is already taken.

The Games Genius

CIMG1316
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

The visitation of the in-laws (Becks & Ralph) at the weekend allowed me to engage in a couple of my passions.

Firstly the cooking I had decided to do couldn’t be put off as it was going to form part of the meals that we would be eating. Usually I spot a couple of recipes to cook at the weekend and then can’t be bothered to cook them in the end!

We had a nice lunch of ‘bits’, a kind of help yourself selection of cold meats and salad and bread and things. We followed this with a Rhubarb & Star Anise Crumble. Very nice, although I didn’t tell Becks what was in it until she’d eaten it. We did have a shaky moment when she asked whether she liked rhubarb or not. Fortunately the rest of us all rolled our eyes and I wasn’t left to mock her on my own!

I also made a Lamb & Leek pie for tea (just me & K) and to be honest was not really impressed. The lamb was minced with herbs and layered with leeks in a hot water pastry and then cooked in the oven. To be honest the lamb didn’t really taste of anything and kinda just boiled inside the pie. I usually like lamb but cooked like this was not nice. The pastry was good though.

Since it was raining we just sat around in the afternoon, putting all the new furniture to good use and drinking tea, eating Crème Eggs and playing games, my other passion.

We aimed for short easy games so we could play a few. Each of us picked a different game.

Chronology was first. It’s a nice gentle game of guessing dates and putting them in the correct order. Ralph won. (Still chance for me to save some face)

Next up was Fluxx, an interesting card game where the rules change each round depending on what is played. Ralph won. (Grrr! No matter there must be something good coming up)

Yahtzee – a game of skill and strategy and a bit of luck. Ralph won. (Damn that pure fluke!)

I picked Carcassonne to play, a game of city building in medieval France. Ralph had never played before, Becks sat out. Ralph won. (Bum!)

Finally we played Mille Bourne, another French game, cards this time, where you play in pairs. Ralph (and Becks) won! (Sob!)

The Chronicles of Caple

Usually I don’t get too worked up playing video games but I’ve reached a new level of frustration with The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe for ‘cube.

I bought this for K for her birthday as I thought it would be an enjoyable romp through one of K’s favourite books and films. Like X-Men Legends we could play co-op and have a nice time. Not likely! This game is tough and my tolerance is fractured at the best of times!

To be honest I think this is half and half in terms of who’s to blame. K is scared to do anything unless I tell her too (I’ll probably shout if she does something wrong) but then blindly follows me when I say something foolish or wrong. I think she needs to pay more attention and I need to be more patient! That said I’m still quite enjoying it…hopefully she is too.

I’ve been slowly but surely brainwashing K into liking video games. It started with small things such as bongo games and watching me play and now is co-op games and a DS console that belongs to her. I still buy all the games she plays though. I think the point at which she selects, chooses and buys her own games the brainwashing will be complete! The downside at the moment is that I only end up buying her things I won’t mind playing as well!

Evap vs. Condensed

Evap is milk with 60% of the water removed, vitamins added, heat treated and put in cans. If you add the same amount of water to it, it doubles as fresh milk without all the hassle of fridges and things. Its brown and has a funny taste due to the heat treatment. IT IS VILE!

Condensed milk is water reduced and then sugar added and then canned. It isn't heat treated (the sugar keeps it from going off) and was used in the war for troops as it has high calories, protein, fat and carbs. IT IS VILE!

That is all.

It's in!

CIMG1445
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

And very high and taking a little getting used to!

Fanboy no more

Wikipedia has pages on virtually anything although I gather you have to take some of the pages with a pinch of salt. Anyway the point of the post is that I finally (after a week of dithering) bought myself a PlayStation 2. Despite the fact I'm skint and some rather belaboured theories about getting money out of the bank and seeing if I could last a month without spending it and then buying one, I think the moment I made that mental decision to buy it, the fact I don't have ready cash didn't then matter. I am an adult and I have ways of buying things for which I do not have the ready cash (credit cards).

Anyway spent an enjoyable few days sampling the delights of We Love Katamari, Okami & Final Fantasy 10. Katamari is plain odd (but in a good way), Okami desperately wants to be Zelda (gameplay, structure, the works) but is great nonetheless and the story in FFX is involving but I wish there were more uninterrupted bits I could play rather than press through another conversation with someone else. Hopefully that will ease off as the story becomes more established. That being said I'm having a great time with it.

The console itself is small and silver but I'm not sure about the controller. It's got a fierce rumble but I prefer the layout and buttons on the Gamecube pad. I also prefer different shaped buttons as they are easier for me as I haven't a clue where circle, square, triangle and X are in relation to each other on the pad. I'll probably get the hang of it soon enough.

Canis Canem Edit should arrive tomorrow and I have high hopes it'll have the gameplay of GTA but not the awful gangsta violence undertone. I think Dragon Quest 8 is due to arrive also. The best thing about coming to a console late is that there is a massive library from which one can pick the classics and most games are dirt cheap!

Others on my wish list to get are Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Kingdom Hearts. I think I'll wait until I finish a few others first!

Spring Clean

All in all not a bad weekend. Didn't get nearly as much spring cleaning done as we'd hoped but given that we had the in-laws over for Saturday and then still managed to clear the kitchen today I'm quite pleased with the end result. Tidy cupboards and sorted food-stuffs.

I don't know whether it is the post-Christmas guilt at the over indulgence or a noticeable lengthening of the days but I always want to have a good clear out at this time of year. We've got the computer room to look forward to next weekend!

20th Anniversary Mario cake

20th Anniversary Mario cake
Originally uploaded by art.reyu.

My 30th is coming up! Hint hint!

Seven things I've learned in the last seven days

1. The only product that will make my hair look as good as it did when I had it cut last Friday is the product they keep trying to get me to buy at the salon. It must be magic or something...nothing else has made my hair look as good as it did on Friday!

2. Starfox Command eats hours like nobody's business! Train journey...flew by! Nap time...gone! Soup cooking time...where are you?

3. K enjoyed her birthday weekend (photos in the usual place) I enjoyed it as well...especially the aforementioned haircut, the new swanky clothes I bought, the trip to London, seeing Wicked and the Game On exhibition (although we did visit it 5 years ago when it was at the Barbican.)

4. History Repeats itself. Game On at the Barbican convinced me (and K) that it would be a good idea to buy a Gamecube. Game On at the Science Museum convinced me it would be a good idea to buy a PS2 (not 3).

5. Day 7 is my itchy face day. I haven't shaved since last Saturday and only this morning remarked to K that I had passed itchy day, I was wrong. Itching like a bastard and can't wait to shave it in the morning!

6. CSI remains good and exciting even though we're at Season 7. Watched the 2 part season opener this week...what is it with that freaky eye?!?!

7. It is possible for me to exercise and not hate it. I have traveled the last part of my work journey on foot for 4 days this week and enjoyed the opportunity to listen to my iPod.

8. Bum....I wanted to mention this so we'll ignore the fact it is Number 8....New carpets are lovely!

I'm unfit....

...and ice-skating at the weekend proved it! I'm aching today and I've got some lovely bruises too, but at least K has a good time, which was the whole point. The 3 birthday weekends have kicked off and I also managed to finalise some further details today for some other stuff, hooray! I just need to make a shopping list and do some shopping.

Back to fitness, it appears my video game of choice is gonna help me...check this out! I guess I need to make sure I don't compensate with a mountain of cake!

I shouldn't mock her really.

It's true!

Blue

Feeling a little down today and not sure why. Perhaps its the rain, perhaps its work or something, I don't know.

Trying to fill some time by downloading even more music to iTunes. It seems no matter how much music I put on it, there never feels like enough on my iPod when I'm at work. Perhaps I should have got the more expensive (read: higher capacity) model for Christmas. Anyway, G&S is flavour of the day at the moment and I've just put The Mikado & Yeomen onto it. Its a bit weird considering that this year I don't think I'm going to sing with the the local society. I want to try something new but I haven't quite worked out what yet. I think it'll very much depend on what show they decide to do. If its one I like, I might sign up again. The problem is I feel a weight of responsibility...I'm young and a tenor...something which is prized in local societies like ours. The problem is that I start to resent being there when its 2 or 3 times a week, especially when work is being poo.

Finished the Ultimate Galactus graphic nvels Richard got me for Christmas last night. Really enjoyed them but got a little confused with the Ultimate Silver Surfer (if that was indeed him) and wasn't sure about the teenage Ultimate Fantastic Four. And Nick Fury seems far more arrogant and personifying what is bad about americans in these than in the actual Ultimates books themselves.

Anyway better dash, she's home and I want a kiss!