Notes on the weekend....

Just so you know I am still alive ;)

I'm still pretty busy at work, hence the paucity of entries of late, so apologies for that!

Friday - I didn't do much Friday night so that's short and sweet for you. Unless you count ridding Pacific City of baddies with my super-human Crackdown man on the XBox 360. Oh and I found some old Comedy Store shows that I watched, with the beginnings of Marcus Brigstocke's 'David Blaine - Git Wizard' material. I particularly enjoyed the story of the man who flew a R/C Helicopter carrying a burger past Blaine's box. Also the description of him as 'A shameful waste of blood and organs'.



Saturday - Saturday I spent making my room fit for human habitation as my old housemate Laura was coming to visit. Technically she was visiting her grandparents in Cobham, which I live near - but lets just let my ego have it's moment of glory shall we?

My amazing planning skills didn't let me down, and my night out with about a dozen people evaporated throughout the day with various people not getting in touch and me losing the will to live. To be honest, the good people of Pacific City needed my strong brand of law enforcement far more than those ingrates needed my help to organise a piss-up anyway. It got to a point where it was looking like we couldn't make until fairly late on anyway, and transport back is always crappy so we decided to hit the local. This helped increase our drinking time by a couple of hours, and also meant there was less chance of us getting lost on the way back.

Anyway, small bunch of us went to the local and got drunk - me and Laura got back into stride with catching up and insults and basically had an awesome night. She's promised to sneak down without telling her grandparents next time. I'm not sure this lying fits in with my Law Protecting credentials, but as it is not taking place within the bounds of Pacific City, its entirely outside my jurisdiction.

SundayYesterday (after morning patrol obviously!) I spent my time evenly divided between eating bacon sandwiches (Maple cured...mmmmmmmm!), watching Comedy Store stuff and playing on my DS.

Now here's the thing about that. You know how people talk about Dog Years? Like 1 human year is equivalent to 7 dog years? Well that's how me and my people are with gadgets. Basically, 1 Gadget Freak month is equivalent to 7 Human Months. So when I buy a new gadget or game, I'm really excited for about a week (if that) before it becomes an addition to my 'stuff'. Hence my current attempts to cut back you see.


The exception to this rule is the Awesomeness that is the Nintendo DS Lite. To cut a long story short - before my Pittsburgh trip I ordered Age of Empires for my DS, it didnt arrive and I forgot about it. However it did eventually arrive but as I have not been on any long journeys has remained unplayed, until yesterday. Now I was sat in my room, surrounded by lots of gaming power (PC, enormous TV and 360). Specifically I was sat there playing ona hand-held console. And this is the power of that thing, it is just mind blowingly good. I have had it for about 6 months or more, and I still love it and use it - in Human time this is about 4 years. Seriously people, I lost about half my Sunday to this thing.

I should highlight that these days it's quite rare for me to lose such large amounts of time to a single game - even the fine upstanding people of Pacific City only received and hour or two of my benevolent, law upholding violence at any one time.

Which leads me on to how I deal with the morning after the night before. Generally it involves snacking, sugary drinks, sugarless tea, pork based 'meals' and TV shows. By TV Shows, I mean stuff that I can watch continuously throughout the day, there is nothing like a good vegging day after a night out. This 'one item to focus on' method is probably why Age of Empires suited so perfectly yesterday. After I helped the original Crazy Frog - Jeanne D'Arc - liberate Orléans, I decided to call it a day - tonight I complete the campaign by leading the Dauphin, Charles VII, to Reim to be crowned King of France. Incidentally, sequels are usually crap but in Chuck's case, number VII was a totally the best episode.

Anyway, I'm rambling now, this was only meant to be a short post but has turned into an epic.

Checks and Balances

Since I got back from the US I've rarely seen my flat before 7pm on a week night, due to various things going on at work. This, for once, isn't a complaint it's just a fact. Changes to my team mean I'm either short handed or have relatively new and untrained people (I should point out that the team is only 3 big including me so it's not as grand as it sounds! lol). Add to that that the auditors are in, I've decided to to take on a bunch of other work that's unrelated to my role and that it is the end/beginning of the month and you have a perfect recipe for working late. It's awesome.

On the plus side I know when things quieten down a bit I'll pretty much be able to take a fair chunk of the lost time off in other places. I live a 20 minute walk from the office so it's easy enough as things go. Another downside is that my 1 man mission to increase the profile of the lesser celebrated Patron Saints days is going to take a blow as it's St David's day today and I originally planned to drink like some one was going to take it away whilst singing poorly (if at all) remembered Welsh songs.

I'll have to make up for it later in the year when George and Andrew come around, Paddy doesn't need my help (who according to the Dublin tour bus I was on a few years ago was, in fact, Welsh).

Tomorrow, I will leave a little early because am on a long overdue trip to harass my friend from University Hannah. She is currently up in Leamington Spa which is a location that defies all known rail laws. To get a return ticket to visit my friends in Hull is in the region of 90 quid, to get to Chester on the way home is about 65. To get to Leamington Spa is a bizarrely reasonable 16. This made me happy, though I imagine she will regret it.

Anyway, so I'm going up to drink and be merry and eat pizza. I think we have a Godfather Marathon planned too, which should be fun for me at least. I'm looking forward to it, I haven't seen her since well before Christmas. I'm long overdue a visit to Hull to see Emi, Astrid and some other friends too but right now I can't take any holiday time to make the journey long enough to outstay my welcome. There are plans in motion though.

In a couple weeks one of my old housemates, Laura, is coming down this way to visit her grandparents so we have a weekend planned there too, it'll be awesome to see her again. More drinks and more merriment! I'm hoping to organise a bunch of people into a night in Guildford as there are several people I've not seen around the area for ages, one or two of whom Laura knows too. I'll keep you posted. You're on the edge of your seats I can tell.

Just thought I would have a crack at a 'what I am up to' entry rather than the usual fare. Back to work.