Behind already

… and the new year has only just started … I’m a bad blogger

With all good intentions I announced a “reboot” and then failed quite drastically to even make a follow up post.

After  a dig in the ribs from Twitter I’ve returned …

So let’s get the ball rolling with a game of tag (Thanks Danie !!)

So first up is Three for Three ….

1) Top 3 Non-Work Websites … Given what I do for a living there are surprisingly few websites that I use for actual work in fact I’d be so bold as to say 95% of the pages viewed whilst sat at my desk are non-work related so what finds its way to the top of the heap ?

In no particular order we have ….

Kotaku

Engadget

Ctrl-Alt-Del

2) Three Favorite Cocktails

Nice and easy this one …. Long Island Ice Tea, Brain Haemorrhage and a Black Russian

3) Top 3 Karaoke Songs

Singing in public is not something I do very often, however given the introduction of the plastic instrument based mayhem that is Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour (and a side step into the Wife Unit’s SingStar) my vocal savaging of songs is getting more frequent ..

So we have ….

“Enter Sandman” – Metallica

“Smells like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana

“Creep” – Radiohead

Swiftly followed by

Five Random Facts …..

5 random  little factoids about yours truely …..

1. I once ate a jar of coffee for a bet. File this one under “Seemed like a good idea at the time” but fortunately for me my friends let me off after I got through 10 spoonfuls.
2. I once stayed awake for 3 days straight. This is not related to No. 1 in anyway shape or form, there was no coffee, sugar, Red Bull (actually that didn’t exist then) or any other stimulants involved, just a good friend who was ill and making some dubious “sick” noises in his sleep, so I stayed awake to make sure nothing happened to him.
3. I’ve reverted quite heavily to my rock roots, partly thanks to Guitar Hero.  I still have a fondness for the old-school rave tunes but the rampaging guitar goodness is winning more and more (as my profile on Last.FM will confirm)
4. My goldfish have gone white, how’s that for random. Completely white, one was a nice golden fan tail and the other was a red capped oranda but now it’s all gone, with out any explanation.
5. I completely “busked” my groom’s speech at my wedding last year, and it was a great success !! There were tears, there was laughter and more importantly they were all in the right places … I’m never writing a speech ever again from here on in I’m winging it whenever I have to deliver one

So that’s it …. I’m done ….

Reboot ?

It’s been awhile since I last updated here …
Things sort of fell by the wayside after my last post, which wasn’t the happiest of ones.
The draft box still has several unfinished entries sat in it, but since I started writing them things have changed … I’m a married man now and the passage of time has rendered several of these posts pointless.
So it’s time to empty the draft folder of all of these half finished thoughts, save for the details of my slightly mad trip to France earlier in the year, and press on with fresh ideas and thoughts …

Feel free to stop by from time to time, you never know it might just be interesting.

Remembering …

It’s been a long time since I last posted here …. Too long …..

Several unfinished posts sit in the draft folder that may (or may not) make the light of day.

This returning post has been prompted by the slightly surreal events of yesterday, August 20th 2008, the day that allowed a great many people to say goodbye to a good friend ….

Keith was a couple of years younger than me, he was only 31, but he suffered from Cystic Fibrosis which resulted in him needing more and more drugs and physio as the years progressed, finally culminating not so long ago in a double lung transplant … in fact initially the doctors didn’t think he’d live past the age of 21 …. but that didn’t stop Keith ….

He was a remarkable individual, with a permanently cheery outlook, the most infectious laugh and the cheekiest sense of humour you’d ever have met.
If you were having a “down day” he’d somehow manage to cheer you up … even if he was fully tubed up and not having the best day himself.
And that was part of his charm … here was this guy who was in a worse place than many of us could ever imagine, having to take a daily cocktail of drugs that looked more like a pick and mix bag from a sweet shop, with a length of plastic tubing inserted into his person and yet he never stopped smiling, he never stopped laughing, and he never stopped caring about those around him.
A lesser person would have descended into self pity but not Keith …. never Keith.

He didn’t aspire to greatness, he had no grand plans, he just wanted to be able to lead a normal life and enjoy the things that he loved …. good friends, good beer and not quite so “good” women ……

Due to the way he lived his life, his friends were varied and numerous, and that was evident yesterday by the mix of people who attended the funeral, he’d have got a kick out of that …

Given the way that Keith was we had a feeling it wasn’t going to be quite your average ceremony .. and we were right.
The first indication of this was the message that in honour of his character it would be brightly coloured clothing in place of the usual black.
We all knew that this wasn’t a time to mourn a loss but a chance to celebrate a life, and that certainly came through during the proceedings.

He’d have appreciated the flashback feel that the large portion of us who went to school with him felt when our old R.E. teacher started talking, as he was, for want of a better word, conducting the proceedings. We listened to tales of Keith’s life, tales that made us laugh out loud, tales that some of us shared in and were new to others, but all were typically Keith.
Through the whole thing  I had one particular incident logged in my brain ….

Many years ago Keith was working as a doorman at one of our local bars (this he did even when he had his tube in !!) which led to me getting to know the staff quite well. On a fairly regular basis we’d have lock-ins and as I was working shifts back then, and single, we’d end up heading out mid-week for a “quiet drink” that would always turn into a full on session … and it’s one of these nights that just popped into my head.
We were drinking in the local Chicago Rock Cafe along with Rob, one of his fellow doormen (who I’d like to point out had a false right leg from the knee down) and having a merry old time when the fire alarm went off. So out we all trotted through the fire exit, drinks in hand as we’d just got a round in, to the side road behind the bar. Rob and I sat down on a wall and surveyed the scene of people milling around, wondering what was going on and if it was a false alarm or not. Keith was chatting to someone else and then came over to join us. He’d been telling some girls about Rob’s false leg, and they didn’t believe him. So he got Rob to roll up his trouser leg and show them, which Rob duely did. Keith then pounced like the proverbial ninja, and in a flash, had pinched Rob’s leg and headed off down the road waving it in the air …. with Rob hopping after him, swearing at him loudly. No harm was done, no malice was intended, this was Keith being Keith. The rest of us standing around were in tears of laughter at the sight before us and Rob saw the funny side of it as well.
It’s memories like these that he’d want us to keep. Not the ones of him lying in a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and tubes.

Once the service was over we all retired to his local pub. There was a large contingent of us who went to school with him, but as we sat there raising a glass in his name, we realised that whilst we were at school we were in “different groups” that would never have been seen talking to each other, let alone be sat at the same table, yet here we were, all sat together with the same thing in common … the friendship of an extraordinary chap …..
There we no tears here …. there was just chatting and laughter ….

And as people drifted off, some of us who had the privilege to call him friend carried on as we knew he’d have wanted us too, we headed on to another pub for a few more pints and a few games of pool.

He’d have loved the fact that people who hadn’t seen each other for years were swapping stories like they’d never lost contact and arranging to meet up again.

Part of me kept expecting him to walk through the door with his trademark huge grin shouting “Surprise” and revealing it all to be a huge practical joke, and I can tell you that none of us would have been angry at him.

So I bid you farewell my friend … You may be gone but you’ll never be forgotten, and you certainly will never be replaced ….  I know that you’re having a bloody good time out there, just make sure there’s some beer left for me ….

Adiós Amigo …….

Raiders of the Lost Block

So last week saw the release of the latest in Travellers Tales Lego inspired game …. Lego Indiana Jones – The Original Adventures

Previously they’ve turned out highly enjoyable recreations of the Star Wars universe, with both humorous takes on classic scenes and engaging game play for kids of all ages. So there were high hopes for this one.

And they haven’t disappointed ….

If you’ve played any of the previous Star Wars Lego games you’ll know what to expect in the graphics department. The only thing they’ve done here is change the setting to match those of the 3 original Indy movies (no Kingdom of the Crystal Skull nonsense here). The cut scenes again take memorable/key scenes from the movies and render them in “3D block-o-vision” and inject the humour that was found in the Star Wars games.
The Lego versions of Indy and Co. are pretty good and you’ll be able to tell which character is which quite easily. The scenery is detailed and well thought out as well. It’s the little graphical touches that’ll make you smile thought .. Indy’s whip, for example, is a lego piece complete with a connector on the end.

The audio is good too …. You’ll be spotting segments of the movie scores throughout the game, normally at crucial/dramatic moments. As with the Star Wars games there’s no voice acting for the characters at all (well you try moving your mouth when your heads made from plastic) but given the expressions that are painted across their faces you won’t miss it. The audio fits in well without it overpowering the sound effects associated with what’s going on on screen.

So we’ve established that the look and sound of the game is pretty much what you’d expected when you picked up the game. The same Lego-based shenanigans you saw in Star Wars but with an Indy theme …. and that is no bad thing, but how did the game play.

They had to change the puzzle mechanic for the Indy games for the obvious reason …. you don’t get Indy messing about with “The Force”
This rules out any magic waving of arms to pull items from afar and flip switches, what you end up with is a wrench (or it might be a spanner) and a shovel. With both of these you can dig up buried items and fix machines that activate little platforms and vehicles.
You’ll find quite a lot of co-operative puzzles for your characters to get plastic noggins round following the staple of switches to activate, gaps to traverse and things to locate to allow you to build bigger things.
Weapons are aquired by reducing the enemies that have them to their component parts (and I still don’t get tired of seeing them explode into a little shower of Lego bricks) but if there aren’t any of those around you can often throw objects or just resort to good old fashioned fisticuffs. Co-op is at the heart of this game, although also a bit of a question as well but I’ll get to that in a minute, and if you’re not playing with a friend it doesn’t detract from the gameplay. The AI controlling your companion is capable of dispensing as swift a blocky end as you are, and they always know what to do and where to jump when it comes to the puzzles (once you’re on the right track of course). You’ll also find yourself being forced to switch characters due to their “phobias”, for example, Indy is scared of snakes and cowers when he gets too close to them and you have to back him away from the hissing reptile.
This mechanic works fantastically both within the realms of the “world” that this is set in and for the puzzles themselves.

Intialy you’ll run through the game on Story Mode to unlock the levels in Free Play mode .. which allows you to go back and fully explore the environment outside of the character constraints of the story on the quest for treasure chests and studs to buy extra characters and clothing.
The game features the build-a-character mode which resulted in many a weird creation Lego Star Wars, the parts are a tad more restrained here but it’s still amusing to switch Indy’s head onto Short Round’s body. The “menu” itself is a museum which is too be explored as well, as that too contains secrets and things to collect.

Yes, they had to tweak the formula that worked so well in Lego Star Wars but it doesn’t detract from the overall feel of the game which is one of fun.
You still get the “unlimited lives” to allow the younger (or less skilled older) player to progress through the game and there’s an adaptive AI to make it harder for the better player, but it’s got all the pieces it needs to be a good game and it makes good use of them. There are however a couple of negative points ….. The first one being the camera. In some instances it’d be nice to be able to move the camera more freely so we can get a better idea of the scenery and the hidden treasures. Several times I found myself making a “leap of faith” towards what I hoped was a ledge … only to find myself plummeting to my demise. It’s not bad to the extent that the game’s unplayable, not at all, in fact it’s pretty good for the vast majority of the game. It’s just those little instances that you’d like it to move a tad more than it actually does. The second gripe is related to Co-op play. The final incarnation of Lego Star Wars had online Co-op which was great fun, yet for some reason they chosen to omit this from Lego Indiana Jones which mystifies me …. but the fun is still there, you’ll just have to invite a mate over to come and enjoy it with you.

In a nutshell, this is a (whip) crackingly good game with plenty for kids of all ages. If you enjoyed Lego Star Wars you’ll enjoy this.

I can’t wait for the next offering from Traveller’s Tales …… Lego Batman

Gone fishin’ ?

Who knew getting a goldfish would be so much trauma …

After 5 years together and after living together for 4 of those years, the G/f and I decided at the weekend to get a pet.
Now we live in rented accommodation so we’re rather limited in our pet prospects … it was a choice of either something in a cage (i.e. hamster or gerbil) or some fish.

We opted for the fish due to their calm and soothing watch-ability, and the fact that they’re low maintenance.

Well, we thought they were low maintenance … got that bit slightly wrong.

Off we trotted to a local purveyor of fish type pets, only to be confronted by a mind-numbingly huge array of swimming things along with tanks, feed and all manner of gear. We collared a member of staff to talk tanks and find out exactly what we needed.

He showed us a few tanks and advised us on the stuff to get to treat the water properly so our impending pet would live a happy and comfortable life.
We’d need a tank, filter, water treating stuff (to remove all the chlorine and crap that the water company leaves in our tap water), some more stuff to add nice bacteria to the water, a little net and some food (bit of a no brainer that one) However the range of tanks they had on offer were slightly larger than we’d intended and as a result slightly pricier than we’d anticipated. After grabbing a free fish leaflet we thanked him for his help and left him to feed the piranhas.

We decided to head to a local garden centre that had a branch of a well respected aquarium company within it’s walls on the way back .. and with luck that had tanks that were the size that we were looking for (and as a result a more agreeable price too). We looked around for another member of staff to aid us in our quest for aquatic based lifeforms and eventually found one ….

Our initial thought was get tank and filter, choose fish, get home, set up tank, add water to tank, add fish to tank, job done …
Oooooooh no … nothing that simple.

We were told that we needed to leave the tank setup and running for at least 5 days before adding the fish to give the pump and water time to acclimatise for the fish after adding the water prep. stuff.

This did not please the G/f unit who was rather looking forwards to the calming influence of a couple of small finned fellows swimming around in a glass box. It also confused me slightly as the chap in the previous place and the leaflet we had in the car both said 24 hours but the sign in this store (cunningly located at knee level at the cash register) and the staff member both said that it’d be at least 5 days. We purchased the tank, filter and various water treatment chemicals along with some fake plants, a rather fetching fake tree stump thing and some very cool black and purple gravel and headed home without any fish

So after spending 20 minutes or so getting rather wet, we now have sat in our lounge a rather nice looking fish tank … with no fish in it …..

Like I said at the top …. Who knew getting a goldfish would be so traumatic …

The Trip … (Part 1)

Well here we are … The first day after the trip to Nice

Several of the guys were sensible and booked the day off .. the rest of us weren’t quite so sensible and find ourselves sat at our desks this morning.

This time yesterday we were sitting on a beach in Nice, enjoying the sunshine. Now we’re sat here at the office with it all seeming like it was a lifetime ago …

The trip was only 4 days, but it seemed more like a couple of weeks. Not due to boredom or frustration (well there might have been a bit of that when trying to read some of the maps .. but we’ll get to that later) but because we crammed so much into those 4 days.

For those reading this for the first time the idea was simple 5 teams had to purchase a car for under £200 the only condition was that the car had to have tax and an MOT to cover it for the duration of the trip. We then had to drive those cars from our office here on the outskirts of London to Nice in the South of France a distance of about 900 miles.

As mentioned in a previous post the car belonging to myself and my brother failed to make it to the start line .. this turned out to be due to a blocked fuel line somewhere between the engine and the petrol tank. It could have been fixed but it wouldn’t have been ready in time for the start.

The other 4 teams “trusty steeds” made it to the start line though .. in various states of working order. We had the following teams making the trip …..

“The Underhills” driving a red VM Golf with alloy wheels worth more than the rest of the car. This one was a turbo diesel .. although the turbo had been removed, meaning it topped out at 85mph …

“The Tuesdays” driving another VW Golf (a bit older than the other one) that had a slightly dodgy gear box .. but they did have a mechanic in their team.

“Team: Whatever!” had a  Mazda 323, nicknamed “The Smurfmobile” as it was blue (just). The poor thing looked like it would fall apart if you looked at too harshly.

“The Griswolds” had a Renault Laguna Estate, nicknamed “Churchill”. This car had more “quirks” than the rest of them put together .. the most troubling being a petrol gauge that didn’t work.

My brother and I jumped in with “The Griswolds” to get a lift down to Dover so we could get across the Channel to Calais where our rental car was waiting for us. Not quite the machine we should have been taking part in but we were still going to make the journey, and due to the reliable nature of the car we’d be getting we offered to be a “support car” for the rest of the guys.

The trip down to Dover turned into a mission in it’s own right when our driver decided to avoid chancing the M25 on a Friday afternoon and cut across London in an attempt to get the drop on the others. Sadly this plan failed in spectacular fashion as the M25 had turned out to be clear !!!

The other 3 teams arrived at the meeting point in Dover a full hour and a half ahead of us !! Giving them time to have a decent meal before heading to the check-in for the ferry. We on the other hand had to make to with a rushed bowl of chips .. Tasty … but not quite what I’d class as a good meal.

We trailed off in convoy to the ferry port to check-in, sealing our journey across the waters to France. Once queued the teams set about the task of tagging their cars with GB plates and headlight adjusters ready for driving on the continent. This turned into be a mission itself for “The Griswolds” (you might spot a trend forming with these guys … ) that ended up with all 11 of us standing around the front of their car trying to work out where the beam benders were supposed to go on the lights. I still don’t think we got the positioning quite right after all that ;0)

The ferry crossing itself was uneventful .. bearing in mind it was the last crossing of the night that would have us docking in Calais at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning (I think it was about 01:00) this wasn’t really surprising.

We managed to all get off the ferry in one piece .. Just … as the “Smurfmobile” managed to “gently nudge” the bumper of “The Tuesdays” Golf. The Golf was undamaged but the fan belt on the Smurfmobile” was squealing like a pig with it’s tail caught in a gate which caused much embarrassment.

The trip into Calais itself to find our hotel was surprisingly quick and trauma free considering a large number of our contingent had never driven on the continent before. The problem started at our hotel (see you knew it was going to smoothly didn’t you) which was closed when we arrived. Even though the sign on the outside said it was 24hr, there was no-one at the desk and the door was locked. We tried all the doors we could find. We banged on all the windows but we got nothing for a good 20/30 minutes.

Eventually a couple of the lads wandered off round the corner to see if there was anywhere else that could put us up for the night. They located a Holiday Inn round the corner but they were fully booked, the very helpful chap on the desk though informed us that there was actually someone there and that we just had to keep ringing the bell. So back we went and did as we were instructed (we almost ended up taping the bell down). Eventually a very grumpy fellow in his slippers appeared and let us in.

The French speaker of our party took over at this juncture and sorted out our accommodation (yes out of the 11 of us there was only 1 person who had a conversational grasp of the French language .. the rest of us we trusting in “The Force”) which turned out to be less then, shall we say, fresh. It transpired that the hotel had no running hot water at all, so it would be cold showers in the morning, they did give us a free breakfast as a consolation though. We got up to the rooms and they all turned out to be horrid. The sheets weren’t clean, the decoration was grotty, there were weird stains and more but it was now 03:00 and we were all shattered so we closed our eyes and tried to blot out any thoughts of a continental version of The Bates Motel.

The next morning (which was only about 4 hours later) it was time to get ready and get moving. My brother and I needed to be at the car rental place at 09:00 to pick up our steed, so we started getting ourselves sorted out. This meant it was time to shower .. Now I know they said that the water was cold, but what they didn’t tell us was that the water was being piped direct from the Arctic bl**dy circle !!! I turned the shower on whilst it was pointed away from me and the icy vapor that was coming off it was enough to cause certain parts of my anatomy to recoil in horror at the thought of coming into contact with it. So forgoing the shower we washed “the essentials” as best we could and headed out into the world to get our car. It turned out that it was only about a 20 minute walk to the Avis place at the port, which was pleasantly surprising. What wasn’t pleasantly surprising was the fact that there was no-one manning it when we got there !!! Turned out that the chap was out on a delivery … with him eventually arriving at around 09:40.

10 minutes later, we’d filled in the paper work and acquired the keys to our motorised carriage .. A Ford C-Max Tdi .. hardly a sporting thorough-bred but it was a veritable luxury car compared to the rest of the guys cars, after all we had air-conditioning and decent acceleration (which would come in very useful later on)

And so with our bags stowed and the iPod connected we headed back to the hotel to see if everyone had left ….

And with that I’ll finish the first instalment of the trip. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures .. Same bat-time …. Same bat-channel

Counting down to “Race Day”

The day is almost upon us ……

Friday this week sees the start of our trip to France

So far out of the 5 teams partaking of this jaunt across the French countryside all, bar one, have managed to secure transport of some description.

We have 2 VW Golf’s a Renault Laguna estate (such a lucky find this you wouldn’t believe) and a Saab 900. All purchased for well within the budget constraints of the competition, 2 of which are already here at the office ready for Friday.

To say that this is rapidly becoming a frightening reality would be an understatement …… I better dig out my passport.

Access Granted ?

So this week saw the release of firmware 2.30 for the PS3

Most of us were excited about the redesign of the Playstation Store, with good reason as it now loads significantly faster than before along with being much more user friendly in the navigation stakes.

The other little tit-bit that had people counting down was the news that with the store update they’d be opening up the Metal Gear Online beta to Europe officially (instead of having to sign up for a Japanese account and going through a very odd/confusing process all in Japanese)

This brings me to the topic of this post … Access ….

A lot of people have been very vocal about the fact that PSN is free for users and allows them to play with others online in the same way that Xbox Live does. A lot of other people have been very vocal about the quality of service offered by Xbox Live and it’s “user-friendliness” ….. I think that the later of these two sets are going to be very happy with what’s happened.

In order to play Metal Gear Online you’re going to need to do the following …

1) Have a playstation network ID (pretty much a given I know but there’s a point here)
2) Sign up for a Konami ID on a separate website
3) After signing up for a Konami ID, you then need to create a Game ID

It’s also worth noting that you need to create a password for both the Konami and Game ID’s. The Konami one needs can be alpha-numeric but the Game one can only be numeric.

So, realistically, you need 3 ID’s and passwords to get MGO running … and before anyone suggests it the Konami ID and Game ID cannot be the same ….

On Xbox Live everything is tied to your gamertag .. that’s it …. that is your online “presence” for that console.
And that’s it … no going to website “X” and signing up for account “Y” ….
Admittedly with Phantasy Star Universe you have to pay a monthly fee for a “hunters licence” but you don’t need to sign up for another account, you can do it all using your gamertag and from the Marketplace blade of the 360 itself.

This in my opinion is why the Live service is worth the money .. after all it’s £40 for a 12 month subscription (which works out at roughly £3.35 a month) so it’s not exactly breaking the bank.

I’ve got my account ready and the client for Metal Gear Online downloaded so once it goes live on April 21st we’ll see how it performs ….

The death of Rock …….

Rock Band that is ……

All across the web a wave of discontent and disgust is heading in the direction of EA because of what they announced this week concerning this game.

The game was originally released in November last year for the US and since then the other markets have been waiting patiently to partake of the fun that this game has brought to our US brethren ….
This week they announced that date for us European types, May23rd.
Although it’s going to be a “timed exclusive” and that date only applies to the Xbox 360.

“Great” thinks I .. “I was planning on getting it for that anyway” mainly due to the fact that the Guitar Hero guitars I have for the 360 will work with that version of Rock Band, so four player band based fun was going to be mine.

I say “was” … Not because it’s due out and I haven’t got it yet, but because I no longer plan to buy this game which generated so much excitement in the US and here and looked to be a game I would be playing and buying DLC for for quite some time.

The reason behind this sudden about face in desire …. Compare the following ….

In the US right now on Amazon you can buy the “special edition” which is the game, a guitar, a USB microphone and a drum kit for $147.99 (and the RRP or “list price” is $169.99).
Using current conversion rates for the $ to £ that works out at around £85. Now I wasn’t expecting that sort of price for all those goodies as it never works like that. I was expecting it to be around the £100/120 mark ….

I wasn’t even close …….

EA in their infinite wisdom have decided release it in the following manner and to set the RRP for it to the following ….

An “instrument edition” that retails for £130 which consists of a guitar, USB microphone and drums BUT NO GAME !!! The game’s set to retail for £50.

So in total to get the same Rock Band experience that the US got we’ll have to shell out £180 ….

Quite frankly this is an attrocious choice of price point. I know various online retailers are going to cut money off the game itself bring it down to £40 and Play.com have already dropped the instrument bundle to £100, but that’s still £20 more than I was prepared or able to justify paying for it.

Given the out cry that this has generated amongst European gamers (I’m not going to link anything here … check any of the gaming blogs or even the forums on EA’s website) I find it hard to believe that EA is going to sell all that many units.
Petitions are being created and apparently the EA forums have stopped accepting new accounts as many are registering just to voice their complaint.
I myself will be showing my displeasure at their decision by “hitting them in the wallet” and will refrain from purchasing any EA published games from here on.

Rock Band was going to be fantastic …. Guitar Hero was looking scared …. Today it seems to be switched.
With one announcement they appear to have sealed the fate of ,what was, one of the most eagerly anticipated games of this year …..

Rock and Roll may never die … but I’m afraid, in Europe at least, Rock Band looks like it may ….

On the road

For the first time in a very long time my job has decided to send me to another part of the country and leave me there for a couple of days … which means I’ve had to pack clothing etc. to last me …

Along time ago now, my weekends would consist of heading out and “maybe” making it home on Saturday night.
In case of instances like this I kept an emergency kit bag in the boot of the car, which consisted of the following:-

Jeans
T-shirt
Underwear (& socks)
Trainers (hey you never know)
Wash kit comprising shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste + brush and a small towel
And a sleeping bag as well … You can never be too prepared

As the years have progressed and the “Collective” has grown up and moved on from these weekends of mystery and mayhem the emergency kit no longer exists in the car.
What’s this got to do with my trip this week ? … Well looking at what I packed this morning, compared to what I would have happily done with all those years ago, I got a bit of a shock.

This morning I ended up packing into a small bag :-

3 shirts
3 ties
1 t-shirt
1 pair black trousers
1 pair jeans
1 pair shoes
3 sets of underwear (including 3 pairs of socks)
Wash kit
Travel iron
Electric razor (and charger .. even though I charged it overnight last night)
Laptop (non-work) + power supply
Nintendo DS + power supply (don’t leave home without it ….)
iPod
DVD’s and Games (PC/DS)

On top of this little list I’ve also got the work laptop and a DS10 server to go with me …

I’m only gone for 2 nights !!! .. Yet I deem it necessary now to cart all this lot with me !!!
I’ll probably only need 2 of the shirts along with the black trousers for the work portion. Jeans and probably shirt for the after work portion. 2 sets of underwear will be used … yet I insist on packing more ….

Then there’s the “toys” … I have plenty with 2 laptops and a DS … yet I find myself contemplating taking the dreamcast that’s sat under my desk or the gamecube that’s in the bottom drawer as well !!!

What the hell is wrong with me !!! Is this normal ?