We're almost in safe hands!

Well, after attending the garden party at the English Consul and listening to the minister for "Creative Industries" (or some such title) I have to say that the unanimous feeling from the other developers at the event was that the government simply does not understand any of it and clings onto figures (which are always spurious at best) rather than getting involved properly. To be honest, it wasn't helped by a rather odd speech by Ian Livingstone either.

Sure, it was nice to be in the really nice garden, at the really nice house, eating really nice food and drinking really nice wine (and whisky-sodas) but it just outlined the fight that the UK has in terms of getting it's tremendous creative industries backed at senior level. It's no bloody wonder the UK film industry is in such a sodding mess!

After the canapes it was on to the Red Rock with my good mate Miles of Sports Interactive and Bryan of Gamesauce. We managed to meet a good bunch of games industry friends there and it's safe to say that on top of the hospitality we recieved at the embassy, we're all pretty hungover today. I managed to lock myself out of the room at god knows what time too and slept in my contact lenses which is always a bad indication of how things went. Still, I did get some hours of sleep and it does feel like morning despite it being ten to four in the afternoon back home and ten to eight in the morning here.

Left, home in LA.









Oh and Kilburn bought some porno sunglasses at the Hustler store (it's near our hotel).

Everyone has been banging on about me having to go to the play-off final on the 21st (the day after Jon Oldham's leaving do) but, like a script out of "Curb your enthusiasm" there's an issue since I told the wife that there's no chance I could make it back from Manchester the following morning to attend her dentist bosses' christening. So my suddenly capable efforts to get to Cardiff (whilst presumably still drunk) after the stop-over in Manchester would most probably result in some kind of major grief. Unless I don't go to Jon's do - which obviously isn't going to happen.

Our first meeting at E3 is in 4 hours, so we're about to hurl ourselves into a busy few days.

Here's a bonus pic of the delightful Caspar Gray enjoying 40winks on Virgin's 007 flight to LA. More photos from E3 on my photo album opposite...