Off to San Fran for GDC

I set off for the West Coast in a couple of hours, which normally would be fine, but its 2.30am and I really should be asleep. Given my inability to kip on the plane, it's going to leave me pretty knackered, all told. I've got a couple of meetings the first evening, with the second one, a dinner, being at the equivalent of 4 in the morning - not a great start, I reckon I'll have to be on my "3rd wind" to be really cohesive at that one. Fortunately there's not too much happening the next morning and I should be able to try and get some sleep.

The weather is predicted to be quite grim, which is a bit of a bummer, but it is Winter after all... I'll try and get out and take some photos whilst I'm over there and maybe even try and find time to blog a little bit.

Active week

Managed to get a ton of things done both in the office and at home this week. Work-wise it's been a case of nailing all the GDC (Game Developer's Conference) meetings (of which there are now upwards of 25), finalising the trip itself and arranging what will be said, shown and what-not.

Equally there's been furious planning of the evening socials - with lunches, socials and parties almost every day, it's no wonder we always return absolutely shattered. Am finally looking forward to it after a somewhat pained return from Amsterdam last week - am finally feeling more like the old self, although I don't know if that's a good sign or bad!

At home, I've managed to get one job out of the way; re-decorating the conservatory which took a few days but its pretty much done. After I get back from GDC, the kitchen will be ripped out and a new one fitted, so the house, dining room etc will be a bit of a war-zone. At least with the conservatory done, it's one less thing to worry about getting around to - and it's nice to at least stopped stinking of turps (did I ever mention how much I hate painting the gloss on wood?).

I've got a ton of things to sort at home before I go, much of it is preparation for the kitchen work; throwing old crap away, sorting out temporary freezers, fridges etc whilst it's out of action etc. There's already one dilemma in that our new cooker unit has been delayed a week, but perhaps that means I can have a few sneaky take-aways, am sure Jack will be chuffed.

Off to San Francisco Sunday morning (taxi coming just after 5am) and I hope there's not much fog around as it has been really foggy this week - Leeds/Bradford is the worst place for it and any delay to our flight to Heathrow will put pressure on us getting there on Sunday. Am not looking forwards to the 11hr flight at all and am considering having a strong swig of Night Nurse to get me to sleep...

Feeling a little low

I think I'm probably feeling low mainly due to being off-it for most of the weekend, my own fault due to some degree of excess whilst I was away, but it might have done be a favour in terms of reminding me that I can't (or at least bloody shouldn't) go hell for leather like I once did in terms of a drinking session. There are some reasons why I probably span a little out of control, but that shouldn't have been any sort of excuse and it's not something I can really discuss too much. I was still feeling out of sorts (mainly bad guts) by Sunday evening and declined an offer to go to the pub, so make of that what you will.

Anyway, I did try and pick myself up; firstly got I bought Rock Band for the PS3 but due to feeling not so great, other than set it up and test it out briefly, didn't really have a go. I only managed to (a) like the feel of the guitar you get with it (b) be quite disappointed at the drumming which seemed a little laggy and the noise made by hitting them put them off, no wonder people are buying 'dampners' for them. I'll give it a go when I'm more up for it I'm sure.

Secondly I watched the recorded 'Ashes To Ashes', the sequel of sorts to 'Life On Mars' which I really enjoyed. I can't say I was overly impressed with 'Ashes To Ashes' as it seems that they've gone OTT on the comedy and forced the 80's vibe whereas the former show was a little bit more subtle. Maybe it's because I preferred the 70's, I don't know. Whatever they've done to the formula, it doesn't sit too easy with me - I'll watch one more to see if it picks up otherwise I'll get back to watching The Sopranos (I'm into the 2nd series there).

And just what the hell is happening to Leeds United? After a storming start to the season fuelled by total injustice (honest) and some degree of good fortune, the team hardly looks anything like it did back in September - with so many changes it's impossible to bed down a new team half-way through the season. Whilst the club did perhaps need an injection of pace and energy here and there, did it really need quite so many players. The downturn in confidence, lack of form and motivation are quite worrying and I certainly feel that another season in League 1 beckons and that is going to be bad news.

Chipsy Kings

I'm just about recovered from a couple of days over in Amsterdam with Bryan and the people at Casual Game Connect. Its fair to say that I perhaps over-did it on the drinking side and have spent much of this weekend on the brink - thankfully I'm on the mend now and actually seriously considering going on the wagon.

Amsterdam was good, spent some time in "Louie's" the smallest bar on the dam square, which was next to "Chipsy King" one of the better pun-related shops I've seen. Made some new friends (a trekking chef called Paul, some Northern Irish folks and assorted others) and most likely pissed a few others off with some amiable abuse.

Big week ahead, its off to GDC next week in San Francisco.

In February and it's time for action!

February already. I was expecting time to fly but this is bloody ridiculous.

Anyway, whilst I'm clinging onto the rampaging clock, I've been pretty busy, turning 41 for one thing, which was a bit quieter than turning 40 and didn't really include a big hangover of the sort I probably expected. Additionally we're getting ready for the kitchen fitting later this month so the house is a bit upside down in the kitchen/conservatory whilst that's done.

Currently I'm planning the audio-visuals (now I got it 'approved') and have since got the OK to stick another AppleTV, Amp, speakers, HDTV and video sender in there (most of which on the condition that it'll all mostly be hidden).

The AppleTV in particular has gone down a storm, so it wasn't much of an argument to order a 40gb one (rather than the 160gb we've got in the room) - its a great, easy to manage, audio/video streamer that anyone can use and will come in great when we are socialising in the kitchen - which tends to happen at any party.

Anyway, all the kit's ordered save for cabling and apart from ensure the kitchen fitters place appropriate holes, it should all turn out OK.

We had snow on Saturday morning, which was great fun for the dog & the kids, although it didn't last much more than a few hours (and not long enough for any sledging) - still it was better than none at all.

Work-wise, I'm off to Amsterdam this Wednesday for casual-games connect, a brief trip for a couple of days and am back for the full week of the kids half-term break, before swanning off to GDC in San Francisco on the 17th. There's a ton of stuff on the go at the moment and not too much I can divulge.

Did it begin or was it too late for all that?

Turning 40 last year was supposed to be the start, or at least that's what people have you believe. The simple truth was that I've been lucky enough to have been living a rare old life for a few years now and whilst it's not been without it's downs during a period of frankly ever-surprising roller-coasting along, I've had way too many ups to begrudge the odd set-back.

Last Wednesday, jumping into a cab to Wakefield station mid-morning, a cabby enquired as to where I was bound for; after telling him I was heading to London, with the intention of getting the 9.30pm back (arriving back around midnight) he asked "Oh right, that your normal day then?" - not really I replied, "I'm flying to Budapest for the night on Thursday". Truth is that there is seldom that seems in any way 'normal' about what I do or who I deal with - and for that I am extremely lucky.

So turning 41 on Wednesday has very little to phase me, hopefully most of my nonsense is out of my system and I can begin perhaps being moderately moderate - which would be a start. It's took me a while to get used to the spell of good fortune that's beset the studio although it's not something I wish to take for granted, despite recent happenings underlining that the good things appear to keep coming.

As for London, a couple of meetings and then some fine socialising with my mate Miles and some games-industry folks at a schmooze-up at the B.a.f.t.a. building on Piccadilly (and the late, great 'Stella Express' home, which meant I didn't get home until 3am).

The next day, Thursday and fortunately a mid-afternoon flight, took myself, John and Kilburn off to Budapest for another meeting, some ludicrous amounts of food (the irony of 'Hungary'), some devilish shots ('Palinko' & the obscene 'Comicum'), "Old Man's Pub" (just what were they suggesting?) and a brief walk around the city prior to flying back on Friday evening.

Hungary and Budapest impressed us, in terms of a city that has rich history and no shortage of grandeur as it copes with life outside of it's communist past - and a people of genuine hospitality. We'll be back - it kind of reminded us of Prague but without the bit of Blackpool on a friday night thrown in.

Saturday and despite poor Harry being off-colour, I took him to one of his friends parties where the slightly bonkers family had invited 40 kids... kudos to their patience! I'd agreed to shoot photos of the event and to be fair, it all went reasonably swimmingly and I was quite pleased with the shots given my new cameras ability to meter the light really well practically every shot. It makes me look quite useful in terms of photography!

We ate out on Saturday night, a family do on Trina's side. We went to the Aagrah in Garforth, just outside of Leeds. The meal was excellent as it happens and I'd always been under the impression that Akbar's in Leeds was pretty much the bees-knees but on this showing, I'm not so sure - it was perhaps the best curry I'd had in some time. My brother in-law was also sporting his new beau, after coming through a sticky separation some time ago - it's good to see him smile again and despite me being on form, I don't think I managed to offend her too much.

Sunday was a day of action; finally getting the deposit sorted and the final details of the Kitchen in place and we have a start date in the not-too-distant future. We also agreed (and ordered) all our appliances and as a result, thoughts have turned to the bathroom... great...

This week I'm pretty much in the office all week and that's timely given I've a lot to sort for the Games Developers' Conference, which kicks off three weeks today. Next week I've got 2 nights in Amsterdam at the Casual Games event, so I've really got to crack on.

On Friday, to 'celebrate' my birthday we're off to the Brewer's Pride in Ossett, most likely for copious amounts of Addlestones and perhaps a game of Perudo. Simple pleasures indeed.

Positive thoughts, positive action.

I'm not really sure what it was that had me careering into the new year with a "get it done" attitude. Perhaps it was a longer than usual break, a feeling of 'job done' last year (given a good all round year for the company) and perhaps it was just simply time I took it up a notch and grabbed hold with both hands - that sounds a bit bizarre, but it's the best way I can describe it.

I don't feel particularly energetic but I do feel pretty focused and in control; not that I don't normally feel in control, but its weird, it's probably just an unerring sense of purpose and focus - so I'm making the best of it and getting a swathe of stuff done while I can.

Truth be told I'd labored through tasks in the last quarter, but anyone who'd seen me expending energy like it'd gone out of fashion during 2007 will probably understand why. It was a very good end to 2007 for me personally, putting the cap on Team17's 17th year was truly memorable for a bunch of reasons; more so because it was a return to form in more ways than one and the stench of 'feel-good-factor' was thick in the air.

I've now stopped worrying about how quickly time goes by and am preparing to ensure I try and squeeze as much out of it as possible - a rule I've generally abided by but perhaps not always with a certain balance. My wastefulness on gadgetry, gimmicks, too many games (given my little 'me time') have really, hopefully finally made things a little more clear.

I'm head-long and bought into sorting our house out this year, perhaps after a year or two of "i'll sort it soon" neglect. I've missed our social nights, parties, call them what you will and we intend to spruce the house up and get it rocking. Time with your friends is simply the best, to quote Tina Turner (which is about all I'd really like to do to her).

Last Friday we welcomed a new addition to our family menagerie when I went and bought a hamster for Harry, which he keeps in his room. He's named him (rather unsurprisingly) "Sonic"
and he's a cute little fellow who has to fend off the interest from 3 cats and a rather exciteable Westie who must think he's back in the glens chasing rodents.

As if to equalize the post chrimbo treats, I gave Jack a present a bit earlier than I imagined (I'd been saving it for his birthday) - a Chemistry set. He was well chuffed, it was if anything an olive branch to try and get things back onside between him, me and Trina. I don't think it really needed anything buying, but it was more a gesture and a reminder that we do still love him, even if him growing up and leaving our comfort zone is quite disconcerting.

T-3 weeks and counting...

We have lift off on the kitchen! Finally... with a quote accepted (and under what I expected, which was nice) the current kitchen is having a window taken out and blocked/skimmed as I type. We're looking at completion maybe before the end of Feb, which would be a bonus. Now we've got to step up the appliance decision & purchasing, order those and then start thinking about the rest of the house stuff we want to do.

Inbetween that we'll have the kitchen & conservatory to re-paint (due to the removal of the said window, which was there before the conservatory was added) but at last it feels like we're getting somewhere.

Surprise Surprise

Well, the news that we're working on Leisuresuit Larry has been met with some surprise and that's probably a good thing given people keep rattling on about us being a "one trick pony" (Worms).

We've been working on the title for a couple of years, using Unreal3 and it's a big title with a great set of voice actors and a very funny script/dialogue. It's a large project for our studio and it's been a great learning curve - we've also had a fantastic relationship with our colleagues over in LA, it's not so often that you gel quite so well with your publishing counterparts.

It's also quite funny to see people on forums banging on about what the game should be (i.e. a dated 2d point & click) when today's market suggests otherwise. What is important however is that the game is fun and entertaining - which is the bit where we come in (allied to the script & acting).

I think everyone on the team was painfully aware of the critique of the last Larry game (Magna Cum Laude) and right from the off, the emphasis was to deliver a very entertaining, contemporary game that was genuinely laugh-out-loud funny.

The market has matured since the original game and the feel is more US mature comedy (American Pie, Superbad, etc) rather than sleazy sex stuff and nudity (which to be frank is all the more accessible with everyone hanging off the internet, also known in the office as 'the porn pipe').

We've still got some months to go on the project and we won't be saying too much else about things, that's down to Sierra's PR (it's their IP and their baby) but we're delighted to be involved.

By the way, some time back I suggested we were working on "Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue". This is the blue. Lemmings was borrowed.

There's two other things to talk about later in the year, told you 2008 might be interesting :)

It's out (oo-er)

..news that is, that Team17 have been working on a new Leisuresuit Larry game for 360, PS3 and PC... out later this year via Vivendi/Sierra. We've been working on it two years :-)

More details later.

Parenting pitfalls

I guess we're just really starting to find out what parenting is all about. Our eldest, Jack, turns 11 this year and moves onto secondary education.

I'm also increasingly finding myself having to raise my voice to him which I really can't abide. I know it's just his age, he's obviously getting more aware of the world and pushing his own boundaries. It's not helped by a somewhat unhealthy obsession with World of Warcraft, which I feel somewhat responsible for (although I've not played much, to be honest - just a few weeks 2.5yrs ago).

I guess like many boys of his age, he's pretty typical, he's a good kid, generally well behaved & polite, has done well at school but we just seem to be picking him up on everything; be it for not tidying up, being a little lazy, eating too much crap food, playing (and talking) way too much Warcraft and giving back a little lip. I think you just consider them perhaps older than they are and that they should be more considerate and better, I think it's just the pressure to ensure that they grow up to be the good people you want them to be.

I've now found myself setting up parental controls for Warcraft, simply to make him do other things; he still gets something like 14hrs a week on the game - and even that sounds an awful lot, despite him playing much more than that. I'm sure he'll react badly to the news and I'll be bad, awful, mean dad, but it's for his own good that he does other things.

Round up

Sofa So not good
Today, our 3rd replacement Sofa arrives from Harveys. 3. Not great, although I don't mind getting a new Sofa every 2 months until they get it right... it's just a chore since I have to stay at home until it's sorted and I can imagine it won't be right again simply because whoever is making the sofa we chosen, just doesn't make them properly. Taking a call from someone who will come and "fix it" when (a) it's brand new, I want one that isn't broken and (b) can't really be fixed because it's not been made properly, is a bit poor really.

Kitchen
We're awaiting quotes now it's been fundamentally designed and Trina's on tenderhooks waiting for that. We still need to sort out all the appliances and I've got to get my head around that. I'm starting to think about getting some speakers in the ceiling and some kind of MP3 wireless solution since we tend to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, especially if we throw a party. As usual there's the opportunity for me to go OTT in this department.

Flog it!
Prior to going to Iceland, for some reason when tidying my games room I got to thinking how much stuff I've got in terms of games devices, games and so on and how little most of it gets used. As a result I've decided to have a bit of a clear out, which includes a couple of my lenses that I really don't use enough to warrant hanging onto and a bunch of PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 titles that have been sat there waiting for me to play them - I think I've had a queue of a dozen 36o titles since about March last year and I really won't get chance to have a look at them properly as my quality time is so pressed. I really enjoyed Mass Effect but I only get that kind of time to dedicate to games once or twice a year.

I've also had a word with myself about my spending habits and cutting back - I really really don't need any more gadgets, games, devices or new bits and bobs - not even the shiny new MacBook Air! I intend to have a really good clear out of a ton of stuff as I realise I've been collecting all sorts and been a bit daft really - it's like I've been struck by a lightning bolt of common sense and it might have been the shock of getting into that Blue Lagoon in Iceland in sub zero temperatures. Whatever it is, something's clicked - perhaps the urge to finally get a grip and sort my finances out for the better (I've always been a shambles due to a lack of respect for money) - but I'm pretty focused on all that right now, let's hope it continues. This includes my Nikon D80, which I'd convinced myself to keep as a second camera (now I've got a D300) but I've realised this is totally not sensible despite it having "sentimental" value according to Trina as she got me it for my 40th.

Travelling Tales
The next few months are likely to be pretty hectic on the travel front again, it always tends to be, especially with development functions all year round. The next few weeks see's a few one-nighters to Budapest, Amsterdam and possibly Barcelona prior to a week out in California for GDC. It's become a necessity for me to ensure I get as much time with the decision makers in the games industry as possible, so I tend to just get on with it, but it does make the year really fly by. Currently I'm pretty focused on our family holiday, which is a tour of the West Coast - call it payback for the last 3 years when I've been away at least 2-3 months in the year.

Icelandic Trip

Got back yesterday from 3 great days/nights in Iceland - an utterly superb place to visit if you're into landscapes and natural areas of interest (volcanoes, geysir's, glaciers, etc).

We spent 3 nights in Reykjavik and despite the extreme high price of everything (especially booze, almost £10/pint!) we had a simply fantastic time - the best way of summing it up would be to liken it to a 3 day edition of Top Gear!

We toured most of the area in the direct north, the west (including Gullifoss, the large waterfall) and spent an hour or so in the stunning Blue Lagoon; an outdoor geothermal pool in snow-blizzard conditions - which was simply something else and worth the trip on it's own.

At night we braved the cold and the sound of ringing tills to enjoy everything that Reykjavik's throbbing night-life had to offer; the town, small as it is, was simply jumping from midnight to 6am. There was a ton of crazy incidents (as you'd expect if Bryan Reynolds was in tow) and I'll try and get time to detail those, which included borrowing a bike one night on the way back from a night out, soaking himself in the bath fully clothed and pretending to be a Geysir before climbing into a bed full of crisps, waking up with a strange blue rubber glove on and causing havoc in town. Saturday was especially lively and in stark contrast, Sunday was like a ghost town.

Some atrocious weather on Sunday showed us what it can be like in the arctic (it hadn't been TOO cold before then) and the weather ended up causing a delayed flight, which always cheeses you off. At the end, we were all pretty knackered as we'd tried to make the most of absolutely all our time; driving around in our Landcruiser taking photos in the day and partying through the night - I'm sure I'll get some sleep at some point.

With regards to Iceland, I'd love to go back and see more of it - the three of us who went were unanimous in it's praise.

Interesting day all round really...

Today was just one of those ODD days.

Firstly, the local BBC film crew turned up early doors to record some shots & an interview for a news piece that was aired early afternoon and also in the evening. The piece was pretty positive (for a change about games) although the interview kind of got some of the info a little bit wrong :-) but never mind eh... we'll gloss over the fact that being the 2nd top XBLA title isn't the same as being the 2nd top title OVERALL ;)

After that was out of the way, I spent some time trying to find out what had happened to my D300, a new Nikon digital SLR I've treated myself to... and also wondering how I'd tell my wife about it... especially since my current camera was a 40th birthday gift from her.

It seems they (UPS) couldn't find Team17, a huge 16,500sq.ft office block that they'd found many times before. Oh hum, typical given it was my stuff for a change. After mucking my way through a phone auto-response system for 10mins, I left word & directions.

Then it was down to planning a trip away to visit some developers & a publisher liason over in Budapest, which will be quite cool since (a) it will be freezing (b) I've never been. It's just a quick overnight stop, but it'll eat into a weekend given its a Sunday flight - no other options with it being my birthday week that week and I'm not prepared to run the gauntlet with the missis given there's bad-camera-news in the offing.

After that all sorted it was time to chase up the still missing camera and 15mins of phone full left me to arrange to pick it up at the depot after work, better than nothing I presumed.

The rest of the day whizzed by given a stack of emails and work that needed to be sorted and soon it was time for me quite excitedly to jump in the car and go for the camera.

I got to the depot pretty quick, it being a 10min drive from Team17 and first thing; getting in... there were huge, closed gates. Second problem, I'd not noticed that the entrance and exit roads (for some reason, I'm sure it's a good one) are reversed on UPS depots, so there I was on the left, sat blocking the way to a UPS truck on the other side of the gate thing. Queue some frantic reversing and then accelerating through & past the gate before it closed.

I was then led up a dark alley (!) to the customer reception are, which wasn't particularly cosy and was full of very sweary, tired UPS delivery blokes cursing everything - unlike me who was politely waiting for them to sort out the package that they'd failed to deliver, to a huge marked location on a major road that they'd delivered to a hundred times before. (breathe in)

Anyway, when I finally got the attention of one bloke, he wandered off and came back to tell me that the driver wasn't back yet, so I should wait and he'd find out when he'd be back.

10mins later and I find out he's going to be at least another half an hour so I decided to go to some local electrical stores and also grab a bite to eat. After spending a few minutes wandering around a desolate, empty and pretty grotty Comet store I headed for a nearby KFC - I know I'm supposed to be on a healthy eating binge, but I'd not eaten all day.

Cue ten minutes wasted lifetime as they buggered about in the back of the kitchen to an orchestra of deep sighs and grumbles of discontent from about a dozen people. I was at the front, so waited for the server to get to me (finally) and after being asked "what can I get you?" I simply turned and walked out, sans Fillet Burger, but my point was made and I felt less hungry.

So, back to the UPS depot and more fun with the gate, even in the correct lane. Anyway I get back up to reception, into the middle of a slanging match because one driver hasn't done enough deliveries (probably mine, I thought to myself) - and the guy I'd seen earlier toddled off to get my package. 5mins later he appeared with it and then said "Customs charge, £46". Great, now I have no problem with that at all, but I had something like £44.50 on me... "No problem, we can take cards". Cue another wasted 15 mins before he finally announces that neither of my cards will authorise at all - cue 10 mins giving him the right details and then another 5 on the phone before he grins and says they still won't. I grab my cards and walk out.

Getting to the nearest cash point I insert my card and get the cash required, obviously my cards are fine and UPS are just jokers.

Back I go, slyly sneaking under a closing gate as a van pulled out, run up to reception gleefully to find the guy I'd been dealing with not there. A bit of a wait before he arrives and then FINALLY I have my package, at 7.10pm, with the TV show all aired (but safely recorded on Sky+).

I get home (with some fish & chips to celebrate) to my eldest taking the piss out of my "Telephone voice" but young Harry enjoyed the fact that dad had been on telly. I also got an email from Jerry at Media Mill (who also featured) grumbling that they'd made his head look too big, which made me chuckle.

After consuming the fish & chips, which I immediately regretted, I was then asked to go clean some cat shit up (one had been trapped in all day - or most likely hid). Nice. Proper gravy style too - how I managed without retching I don't know... a far cry from doing BBC interviews and I'm not sure I wanted to keep it THAT real.

Spent the rest of the evening trying to sympathise with the missis who appears to have got mumps or something and the odd few minutes arguing that the D80 she bought me shouldn't really have sentimental value like it's some old ring/watch or heirloom and that I wasn't snubbing it - it was just part and parcel of my hobby. I pointed out that she was quick to 'snub' the laptop I'd bought her in place of MY 12" ibook, but that didn't seem to wash, obviously.

One more day in the office before the Iceland trip - and I've got to get my head around the new camera's features pretty quickly. The D300 is gorgeous btw, proper Camera porn!

Back at work

Well, it's back at it after what seems like both a long break and a very short break - odd that! Seems like I've been off for ages and also not long at all so I'm not sure how that works...

Anyway, it's been straight at it today with a ton of stuff to sort out and I've managed to rattle through a lot which has been useful. Fortunately things are running quite smoothly right now, so there's been plenty of time to focus.

Amongst the things sorted are GDC/Game Connection next month, which will be upon us soon enough, with myself, John and Jamie heading out there for a week. We're attending Game Connection this time too - and no doubt enjoying some good meetings as we did last year.

2007 wrapped up well on the Worms front, with the title finishing No.2 on the XBLA best sellers list, currently heading up the XBLA community arcade game of the year and also managing to win Nintendo DS strategy game of the year award at IGN :-) A good start to 2008 indeed, with a ton of exciting announcements planned for later.

With the Kitchen starting to happen and a trip to Iceland at the weekend, all's rosy in the garden right now, save for Herbie our dog who's started scratching his leg at night which makes a right racket, it sounds like he's drumming the intro to Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight".

Kitch-ching

Well, we've had a bit of a breakthrough on the kitchen front, we've pretty much decided on the layout & features, this was a bit of a struggle owing to various arguments and discussions. I've spent a while reconstructing the area in a 3d package and I think that's helped an awful lot. I think i've come up with a plan that will work well and I just hope Trina thinks it's ok too, then we can move on.

You can see what I've been up to, although I have since added a full height cabinet...

It's going to cost a bloody fortune.

Happy new domestic

Well, the good behaviour I'd been exhibiting could only span so many days, so what better than to shred my brownie points on New Years eve, aided by a sprinkling of various fine wines and champers.

We'd gone to some friends in the village to celebrate - he's got a Spanish wife so we ended up having two new-years including the Spanish one where you eat a dozen grapes, one at a time, with each 'bong' of the clock. Please don't ask me why, but it made for a change and I was feeling bad after spilling red wine on their nice carpet. Oops.

The rest is a bit of a haze, but I was informed of my tardiness the next morning and spent most of the day in the dog-house, brownies blown, so to speak.

After dinner at my mums I turned on the radio to find that Leeds were being tonked by Oldham and this was fast turning into a day to forget. Cue some arguments about the lack of new kitchen and it was fast spiralling out of control.

Time to take drastic action.

Or it would have been had I not gone back on Mass Effect, a space RPG game by Bioware for the 360 which I've been really enjoying.

Anyway, this evening some indecisions on the kitchen front have been banished and we finally have what resembles some idea of a plan, it looks like it won't happen (i.e. be fitted) until March, but that won't be a problem as long as we know its on the way. We're also planning big changes to the bathroom and our en-suite, but that's a little off radar right now.

As it is, I've been up all night having elected to play a bit of Mass Effect when the missus had gone to bed, after our now usual dose of the excellent 'Heroes'. I got so compelled to finish Mass Effect that I kept going until 5.30am and duly finished it, enjoying pretty much most of it even though I wimped out to casual mode half way through or it would have likely taken me double the 28 gameplay hrs it took me - I rarely get time to dedicate to gaming, so I wanted to ensure I saw it all.

I'm not sure I'll have the chance to replay it, but as a game I'd highly recommend it, so long as you'll have quality time to play it, it's very wordy and my kids described it as 'that game where all you do is talk' which was missing the point a little bit, I refused to counter with 'warcraft, the game where you just click your left mouse button repeatedly' since another slanging match about WoW wasn't what I needed.

Mass Effect also made me think about one of the titles we're doing at Team17 which we thought had a lot of voice-over in it, but Mass Effect is so very, very large and it must have been a nightmare to manage - a glimpse at the extensive credits makes you realise the scale of that project.

Impressive stuff, I was even moved to ping one of the Bioware dev team know and offer some kind words - its always nice to get good feedback from your peers as generally we're the harshest critics around, but some times you have to just stand back and applaud what someone's created.

Just a few more days off before I'm back in the office, so time to sort some last jobs out and look into this kitchen business.

Curtain falls on 2007

Well, that's all folks in terms of 2007. It's been a pretty hectic year in terms of travel and Team17 stuff and whilst I can't see the immediate future slowing down too much, the company is in fine shape to push on with titles coming in 2008 and 2009 - we should start seeing announcements creep out in the first quarter, some of which will be quite a nice surprise.

Personally it's been a good year and I'm finally feeling a bit more energetic after being drained for the last couple of months (I'll admit some of that is my own fault as I can't resist burning the candle at both ends). I've still got another week off, which I intend to use fairly wisely and just chill out with the kids, wherever possible.

We'll be kicking off the Kitchen work sometime in Jan and we've spent the last week or so trying to pick appliances (mainly a matching oven range and big fridge-freezer, the rest are going to be built in) - but you wouldn't credit how tough it is to find matching ones. Trina can't decide over silver or black either and with Black granite being installed, I'm edging towards the latter.

There's also the trip to Iceland looming and the probability that I'll give in and order a Nikon D300 DSLR camera anytime soon (I've done so well to hold out so far).

Until then, very best wishes for 2008 and I hope it's good for everyone...

Now, back to Mass Effect, which I'm really enjoying on 360.

How the other half live

My dad had got my two sons a laptop each for Xmas and Windows Vista was on both. It's been a shock to my system how messy, bitty and annoying Vista is particularly after a year of clarity which is OSX on the Mac.

I know I'm starting to sound like a PC-a-phobe and dissing anything Windows, but whilst I'm happy and comfortable with XP, I really just don't get Vista with it's plethora of notices, windows, warnings and constant nags.

You would have thought that perhaps an angle to go for would be to make PC's more approachable and user-friendly but to me, Vista goes in all the wrong directions, over-powering you with options, "friendly" warnings and confirmations - it seems to take twice as long to get anything done.

I'll admit to not spending hours on Vista yet, but such is the initial shock of using it, I'm dreading going back to install and sort everything out - and the software incompatibilities that await, of PC Software I'd trusted for years.

Vista may have lots of colours, but you can colour me unimpressed. I was thinking of getting my mum a new laptop (her old one is on it's last legs) and after this, I think she can look forward to an iBook.

Christmas Eve and ill

Bloody brilliant... Xmas Eve, sober and on & off the loo with a stomach bug. At least it means I'll avoid a hangover.

I went out dead early this morning to snaffle the Xmas booze, so the cupboard is well stocked, but it seems only Santa will benefit as we've left him a shot of Jameson's with his mince pie.

The kids are -somewhat- excited, lets just hope they sleep and don't get us up too early!

Getting ready for Christmas

A couple of days before Christmas and I think we're just about prepared. I've even managed to get ahead of myself with regards some of the jobs I was aiming to do around the house, which means I'm going to have a lot of time on my hands - perfect!

I've been a bit slack with the booze this year, I'm usually out and getting it dead early, but I've left it very late this year - I'm really going to have to get off my arse and get it tomorrow (Xmas Eve) and I can't imagine how busy the supermarket will be.

I went to Elland Rd yesterday and saw Leeds just edge a tight game with Bristol Rovers - a big shame my pal Tim Smith couldn't make the game, we'd been talking about a Leeds-Rovers game for years and with Leeds hot-footing it towards the Championship and Rovers slipping into the relegation mire, this might have been our best chance.

Anyway, bragging rights are mine, 2 Leeds wins from the 2 matches :-)

Leeds could go top if they draw/win at Hartlepool on boxing day, even if it's just for a couple of hours - and that's an AMAZING achievement given the -15pts deduction they were landed with.

Last day rituals

Last day in the office for me tomorrow - and a half day at that. As usual it will be spent wishing the Team17 folks well prior to cracking open some tins and a bunch of us sitting down and playing Poker before we hit a few pubs and sign off properly.

It's been another fast-paced, whirlwind year and as you get older, it just gets faster - a bit like a Waltzer, shabba...

Hopefully I'll get some kip tonight (had a bad night last night) and I can hopefully also avoid the last-day drunken argument I usually have when I get home by not being too bad.

My batteries definately need a recharge, quite amazing how they've made it through 2007, even if I didn't blog the details quite as much as I perhaps did in 2006, but I guess the constant updates to my Facebook page are to blame for that.

Cheers for reading, I guess there'll be the odd snippet over Xmas, but if not, have a good one yourself and here's to a great 2008.

My powers are weak!

Well, after the terrific party on Monday, I rather stupidly went to the pub on Tuesday and ended up pretty leathered again on Tuesday evening. Let's just say that I've suffered with Hangover squared today and have felt really, really terrible.

So much so that collectively myself, Bryan and Gordon have called off our night out tomorrow... what a bunch of weak old farts! Friday is Poker day at T17 and that usually means a drink or two if the last few years is anything to go by.

We're winding down in the office now and everyone's still on a bit of a high (great party and a bonus tend to do that) and I think everyone is looking forward to some time off and getting back to it next year.

Thanks

Team17's 17th birthday party was pretty bloody good to be honest.

Thanks to everyone who attended or has offered nice words and good comment. I haven't had chance to get to see any pics yet (i'll post them on Flickr/facebook) but it was really great. We had music by 'The Hares' (an acoustic group) an Ice luge (big ice 17 with vodka flowing through it) and exceptional bar/cocktails & company at The Oracle in Leeds.

Just a couple of days left in the office now before I take my batteries out... and I know 2008 is going to be at least as interesting as this year :)

Winding down and gearing up!

As the year winds down, a year that has simply flown by, I'm currently looking forward to Monday night when Team17 let's its hair down for our 17th anniversary/Christmas Party at The Oracle in Leeds.

I hope everything goes smoothly as we've got live music (3 piece acoustic band), food, free-bar and interestingly enough, a "17" sculptured from Ice which has a vodka-run going through it. It should prove to be an interesting night with 100+ people showing up. I'm not sure what I'll feel like on Tuesday...

It's been a good year for the company and the future is very bright; I'm looking forward to being able to announce 3 of the projects we're working on in early 2008.

I'm also looking forward to putting my feet up and enjoying a break at xmas before it all starts again - and there's already the lads away trip to Iceland to look forward to in mid-January.

After Iceland there's a few birthdays and friends' 40ths to celebrate, a trip to Casual Connect in Amsterdam and then a week at GDC in San Francisco, which for some strange reason is a month earlier this year, that's quickly followed by Jamie's 40th, hopefully in Dublin. And all that before the end of Feb!

An awarding experience

I had the honour of being guest speaker at Wakefield College's annual awards event earlier this evening, the same college I went to some 24 years ago. As I said at the event, I was hardly a model student and I think at the time I'd plumped for the Microelectronics course simply because it had low-level programming, which was as close (and as exciting for a 16yr old hobbyist programmer) as I was going to get to doing Assembler and suchlike.

Anyway, it was quite an interesting event tonight, where we were holed up in a very hot room prior to going and sitting on the panel, I am sure the amount of sweat that I'd lost will certainly help the weight loss. I also met the Mayor of Wakefield and his wife (Mr s Lady Mayor) which was nice, along with the governors of the College and various other local dignitaries.

My quick speech, which was primarily aimed at telling the award-winning kids that life's what you make of it and it's all about dedication and drive and treating others as you'd like them to treat you, went OK but not as flowing as other stuff I've done.

There'd been a bit of a cock-up/misunderstanding on my return from France and subsequent docking in Hangover central and I ended up just winging it prior to helping out dish out 97 awards or something. The kids seemed chuffed which is the main thing.

The audience of 180 or so were also told of my need to get the kitchen done, which was an amusing highlight and know I know that this blog can be my own worst enemy - someone had been doing their homework.

At the end of the day, we're trying to help local colleges and especially universities bring on new talent and it's all about support and encouragement. Funnily enough, I ran into one of our producer's mothers who also worked at the College, which was nice.

Other than that another quiet, sober night in apart from a 20 minute drama when Sid (our once-little, but now quite podgy) female cat got in the Christmas tree and almost brought it down. Cue panic from Katrina and the kids, I managed to lure here down with a packet of cat-food...

Oh and weight wise... 9 pounds lost already, which is good.

Earlier in the day we had fun with a replacement Sofa - basically we'd bought one earlier in the year and when it came (after a 10 week wait) part of it was flawed/faulty. Cue some compensation and another put on order. After waiting in almost all day, the replacement turns up only to see it's faulty too and the company already have a 3rd replacement on order. Suffice to say we weren't totally satisfied.

The Lyon King

A familiar tale, hangover-cubed again. Not great.

Got back today after a thoroughly enjoyable and useful trip out to Game Connection in Lyon. I don't have many crazy stories to tell since most of the time was spent in conversation with industry folk and friends rather than losing my shoes etc.

The Vivendi-Activision merger was certainly a hot topic and we made the most of the fact that Team17 turned 17 while we were over there (hence the hangover...).

I've now got quite a bit of follow-up work to do and I'm really looking forward to feeling fine again, fingers crossed. Tomorrow I'm doing a talk and presentation at the College I went to when I was a teenager (Wakefield Tech.)

And the count-down to the Team17 party ensues... that should be some night.

Full of cold pre Lyon trip.

I have to be up around 6am tomorrow as we're off to Lyon for the Game Connection event (as we have done for the last 4 years). Normally I'd be excited since I always really enjoy the event, but I'm struggling with a pretty bad cold - annoying when I had one that lasted 3 weeks not so long ago. I've been pretty knocked out by this one, sleeping 14-15hrs out of the last 24 - which is very unlike me.

I'm doing ok on my diet thing and haven't had anything to drink all weekend, which is incredibly off-the-radar for me. I'm just hoping I'll feel more like myself in the morning and hope the pressure in my head pops, even if it means a relentless river of goo, since that's preferable to how it is now as I worry it might end up as Sinusitis which really is lousy.

I managed to come around this afternoon and put the xmas tree up with the kids, so that's one job out of the way. Needless to say that not a bone in my body feels christmassy whatsoever.

A weight on my mind

Basically my weight. I've known for the most part of the year that I'd really relaxed my diet/drink stuff in relation to the previous year following the Diabetes diagnosis.

With the blood-sugar levels under control and getting a thumbs-up/all-clear from the hospital in late 2006 it was almost like it hadn't happened at all and psychologically you begin to doubt the diagnosis.

With Team17 going swimmingly, tons of social situations involving good food & drink and no nagging, constant reminder of the acute condition Diabetes is, it's been rather easy for me to fall foul of my previous very good behaviour and pile weight back on.

I've decided that I'm going to make a big effort in the new year and get back to where I was, which is fitting comfortably into all those new clothes I bought some time back, which are now a tight squeeze (if they fit at all!). I've put a couple of stones back on which is not great and its been very easy to do.

I'm generally not good with will-power but I need to get some from somewhere... and whilst I'd planned to do this from January, I might as well start today. I can still enjoy Xmas and all that it has to offer, I just need to get back to eating and drinking stuff that will help me get rid of the pounds. No more beer, cider or Guinness for a good while then.

When I lost the weight, 3 stones of it, I felt super-energised and that was a real shock to the system. I can feel myself getting sluggish again and I need to get back to how I was.

So, it's back to firing up www.weightlossresources.co.uk again and tracking my intake - this worked brilliantly for me before.

I'll see how I manage out in France next week, 3-4 days of meetings, lunches, dinners and chaos out in Lyon with the games industry folks.

...and with only 1600 calories a day to consume...

Jags back

My dead Jag is now back and well again, albeit with some extensive removal of funds from our 'new kitchen fund' - Katrina's been quite philosophical about that, but I'm on egg-shells and best behaviour.

I'm also back from another trip to London (I've done a few of late) and I was on an industry panel discussing the business models of the industry along with Jason Kingsley of Rebellion, Nick Button-Brown of EA and Rob Murphy of Eidos/SCi. That went quite well and I got a few laughs with some of the stuff, although it wasn't quite the setting for a spot of stand-up.

It's quite an interesting time for us since we're operating in quite a few different areas with regards the business models (i.e. work for hire, developing our own IP, publishing our own and licensing IP) and it made me seem quite experienced and knowledgeable about everything :-) (Which of course I am really, I'm not the beer-swilling clown everyone suggests I am - cough).

Winter arrives...

And don't I know it. I spent about 2hrs freezing my proverbials off watching Harry and his Wrenthorpe Rangers pals playing Durkar Devils in Sandal this morning. It was even too cold to take photos and the light was so bad they'd have just been unfocused and dismal. I was glad to hear the final whistle and head for the relative warmth of the car and only slightly bothered that Harry's team managed to win 1-0 (the other Wrenthorpe team had got stuffed 12-1).

Last week was another steady one, with a night out in Birmingham on Tuesday (which I didn't rate too much, I certainly wouldn't rush back to Brum - and we ended up having to leave the comfort of a pub we found courtesy of JD refusing to remove his hat) and then a publisher presentation on Wednesday.

Otherwise a fairly quiet weekend and not much else going on. I did go to the Leeds match to see them win again (13 wins from 16 this year) and I also booked the much vaunted "big family holiday"; a Californian coastal tour next May, promised for 3 years based on the fact that I've spent 6-8 months away from home on work related stuff in the last 3 years. It'll certainly be different being on the West Coast with the sobering influence of the family rather than the games industry folks I usually indulge with.

For the record we'll be going to San Francisco (and surrounding areas), Yosemite for a few days, Santa Monica (and LA highlights) then down to San Diego. I'll be driving most of it and am quite looking forward to giving the camera a good hammering. For me it beats the two weeks we 'endured' in Florida in theme parks every other day.

Scotland and back!

Just back from a long-weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland. We went up there partly for Trina's birthday and partly to have a weekend with friends and ex-neighbors Marc & Tracy who moved up to Scotland last Jan.

We had a pretty good weekend, enjoying a rather predictably heavy first night where we ended up in the Haymarket in a pub with a great acoustic guitar act (much like we did over in Dublin) and all totally hammered. The guitarist was so good I think I might have asked him down to do our Xmas party... we'll see if he gets in touch!

Apart from the usual shopping, mooching around and taking a few snaps (some of the more arty are up on Flickr, despite some being a bit dark) we also went to see Frank Skinner at the Festival Theatre and he was excellent.

Back via GNER on Sunday and reunited with our kids, who'd been at the grans for the weekend. They were pleased to see us, as well as the Ratchet & Clank I'd got for PS3...

By the way, if in Edinburgh, check out "Wildfire" restaurant on Rose Street, it's excellent - one of the best meals we've had in ages.

Busy week next week, including a night in Birmingham for 6 of us... and time marches on to the traditional Lyon show in early December.

Dogs and bloody fireworks

Suffice to say we've had a noisy few nights since Friday... the dog is driving us round the bend barking at the fireworks from around 5.30pm to 9pm each night. If anyone has any sound advice for helping, let me know - I've tried holing him up in my room with the volume up (he was most calm listening to "The Best of The Cars" btw) and short of feeding him vodka or lacing his milk with Sherry, we're at our wits end.

Our own trip to the firework display on Friday was cut short as Jack got an ember in his eye, which required some treatment from the St. Johns ambulance crowd, although it was ok and I think he perhaps made the most of it so we could leave early. We later found out it was a common occurrence that night so black mark Fire Brigade (whose display it was).

Tomorrow is Trina's birthday so it's off in search of Radley bags I go and also cross my fingers that something else I ordered will turn up through the post.

Pumpkins, Fireworks and Barking Dogs.

That time of year I guess. Halloween was suitably hellish on the home-front, with about a dozen or so kids running riot around the house - 4hrs later and I was finally able to hug a bottle of red wine, shaking nervously. I took some pics and they're up on my Flickr site - as well as my Facebook page, which continually gets more updates and notes than my blog ever did.

Tonight it's the turn of Fireworks as we take the kids to attend Ossett Fire-Station's annual fire & display. I'm taking the camera and hoping I'll get one or two good shots, but without a tripod, I might be asking a bit much since I'll no-doubt have Harry on my shoulders. I've had the camera at work the last couple of days in case we had another spectacular sunset like we did the other day, which normally I'd enjoy on my drive home - but the clocks went back last weekend.

And lastly, spare a thought for our little dog and ourselves who will have to put up with his constant barking all weekend and then Monday too... it's firework time and I'm thinking of attaching an ipod to him and some death-metal so he can't hear a thing.

Ice Spy

Well, it's settled then... after discussing the potential of an annual trip away with the lads after the successful and rather hazy, it has to be said, Galway trip for my 40th, the trip for 2008 is Iceland.

The trip will actually be a smaller group of us and be mostly focused about our shared photography buzz, I imagine 5-6 of us will be heading out there in early Feb and £5 a pint should be enough to keep it semi reasonable of an evening.

The "days" will be about 10.30am to 5pm, so not too bad and plenty of opportunities for a relaxed sunrise in that case. We'll be there for 3 nights and 2 days as Icelandair are doing a rather good-value deal.

Back from London

Got back from London late last night after exhibiting at the London Games Career fair for a couple of days. The event was pretty good and very well attended and we saw hundreds of people with a number of quite talented people knocking about, hopefully we can look towards hiring one or two of them.

The location was a bit odd, Brick Lane in the east end, which is a long road absolutely chock full of curry houses, so much so that just trying to get down the street without various vendors trying to get you in their restaurant became a bit of a hassle.

Funnily enough, after the event finished on Wednesday evening, we popped to the nearest curry house to the event hall (since we'd had no time to eat) and ended up being filmed as background material for some newspiece on curries - it'll be on BBC 1 at 7pm tonight I'm told, I can't imagine it'll be on for long and they just filmed us scoffing a few poppadoms and necking a Tiger beer.

I'm back in London again next week for the third time in a fortnight, but right now it's a couple of days off with the kids since it's half-term.

My Crowning Glory?

Grand title perhaps, but the crown I'm referring to is the one I've just had prepared in my mouth :( The onset of age is catching up with my faltering body and it's happening everywhere it seems.

I can't say I really enjoyed the 40mins or so of dental surgery which had various impressions with gum-things, drilling, filing, injections and culminated in fitting a Terminator style shiny metal tooth as a temporary until the next bout.

The side of my head is now pounding and I'm hoping that eases off soon, I think I preferred it when I was totally numb, comfortably so, to quote Floyd.

Weekend wise it was pretty much standard fare, with Harry doing his footy training, me attending Elland Rd to watch an increasingly lucky Leeds hang on to their unbeaten record in front of almost record attendances for what is the old division 3. In the evening we went with friends to Wolski's in Wakefield and I stuffed myself silly - so much so that I almost didn't eat the next day's Subway foot-long Italian BMT (on Honey Oat with sweet onion sauce) that I'm currently in love with.

Sunday night saw a trip to the local with Bob Broad and we celebrated Harry's first win in his under-7's team. I've also been continuing to take a ton of snaps for the other mums and dads and those are on my Flickr site.

I'm going to be in London on and off over the next couple of weeks, with an overnighter later this week, 2 days in the City next week (during half term, which hasn't made for a popular conversation) and then a day in the following week - a bit like buses; hardly any London visits for months, then three at once.

I've still yet to sort the Kitchen out, much to the frustration of the wife and I've also got to look into some kind of holiday next year, although it's probably not going to be the all-singing, all-dancing one I presumably promised after a bit too much red-wine... oops.

Steady away still

As the year ebbs towards Xmas, things typically slow down around in these parts - in terms of my activity in business, at any rate. Other than the year-end presentations and meetings in Lyon for Game Connection that is.

However, it's a bit different this year, with 2 press launches for 2 new titles coming in November (one a cross-platform next-gen game and the other on the Wii) we're also due talks regarding projects for 2009 and beyond.

We've also had some good news about another digital title we're doing, with another also in the works, but there'll be no news on those until well into 2008.

At home we welcomed a new Sofa, which took me a few days to get used to - I was half worried that Katrina would hate it, but she loved it and that made for an easier life. I'm still on with the new Kitchen plans and it's now starting to look doubtful if we'll have it in place by Xmas... which means I'll probably get it in the neck.

It's the careers fair again in a couple of weeks and I'll be down in London for a couple of nights, it seems ages since I was last down there.

Mini round-up

It's a funny old week this week since my eldest is off with school at a residential activity course somewhere in the Worcestershire wolds. No doubt him and his pals have been sat up chattering all night and he'll come back on Friday looking like a zombie.

The missus got pretty upset about his 'leaving' although I think it'll do him the world of good and he'll have a great time, I was joking with some of the guys here that its the kind of thing we'd like to do and most likely have a great time, behaving like 11yr olds for the most part.

The weekend went by pretty quickly, with Harry's football training taking up the morning, followed by a lethargic afternoon and then a few bottles of red with Pizza round at some friends in the village.

The late night didn't help Harry as his team suffered an 8-1 collapse in the early Sunday morning game - the poor mite taking a hard knock in goals, but to be fair he played in a team who felt there wasn't really any need for defence.

After that we visited the kids favourite restaurant, Orlandos, up on Grange Moor (we'd been to Nandos on Friday evening too) and I flaked out when we got back, after a particularly spectacular apple and rhubarb crumble (diabetic toxin as maybe).

It's all go on the delivery front this week, with our new Sofa arriving on Wednesday, a few weeks earlier than expected. It'll take some re-training of the dog who won't be allowed on the new one (cats neither). My new iPod touch was due today but the couriers have cocked up, so that looks like tomorrow too.

Otherwise I'm still trying to get a move on with the kitchen and hoping it'll be done for Xmas. Work wise I'm planning a careers fair exhibition and catching up on a lot of stuff.

Back from France...

Fortunately the return trip from France went swimmingly well compared to the bizarre trip out there and I returned mid afternoon on Wednesday. I didn't get up to too much out there, save for a boozy night with old mucker Jon Oldham, along with Andy Payne and two butcher-mates of Jon's from Bristol.

Last I heard (after we were up 'til 6am) is that he was still grumbling about us drinking all his nice wine... I was pretty rough Tuesday and really tired. Tuesday afternoon I took some photos for my father and we went to a restaurant, which was an experience since it served quite possibly the smallest portions I've ever experienced - and despite former appearances, I really am not a big eater. I think I left the place significantly more hungry than I entered and was only placated by a chip butty back at my dad's place.

Thursday saw a lunch meeting where two southerners met Addlestones Cider (only 3 pints) with expected results, which made me chuckle.

Today I'm off to Screen Yorkshire to record some promo video for the region...

There's only two Martyn Browns!

Cue a bizarre early morning as I rushed into Manchester airport with only 40mins to departure, to find that I'd apparently already checked myself and my two bags in.

20mins later it boiled down to a typo on check in and I was super-fast tracked with a ticket printed with "The real Martyn Brown" - bad news for all my facebook dopplegangers then.

Am sat on the plane now and really can't believe I got on given the pandemonium, cues and 3 seat changes, raised eyebrows in security and surly looks from those who I got fast tracked in front of.

Just being at the airport in itself was a miracle, the weather was attrocious on the way over, slowling to 30mph at the M62 summit due to strong winds, torrential rain and spray that made it virtually impossible to see anything at all - I didn't enjoy it.

Time to relax now and see what fun awaits in south-west france, I have a feeling that its going to be one of those days.
Martyn Brown,
Studio Director,
Team17 Software Ltd.

Sent by Blackberry (Out of office)

Mixed weekend

Explosive Cards!

Had a really up and down weekend which started with a fairly explosive game of poker at Team17. I can't recall the last time we had such a run of hot poker hands and so many people being involved in so many hands, particularly in the first hour or so. What it meant was that the pot increased significantly and a bunch of people were "All in" before they knew it, myself included. Colin won the game in the end, fair play to him - and we went for a curry afterwards.

Whatever the hurry, avoid India Palace for curry...

We went to India Palace in Wakefield after the cards/drinks and whilst the food tasted OK, it certainly left it's mark, with me feeling it for most of the weekend. I hadn't been in this Indian for 10yrs or so and it'll be at least that before I go again. That said, we bumped into Marcus, Amanda, Tim and Mark (the www.Spong.com guys and gal). - and THEN someone else I'd not seen for 10yrs! The irony being we're at Marcus's house party next weekend and we'll see everyone next week too.

Return of the Russian Keeper Syndrome!

Saturday morning came with me doing my level best to keep a soaring curry down (god knows what people must have thought of my satanic breath) I took the photos at Harry's U7's football match, played at my old school in Gawthorpe (v Ossett Town). Harry played in goal as usual and had an absolute stormer, despite them losing 3-1. It was brilliant seeing him be brave and diving around, racing out of goal and really competing. He saved a number of shots, did long kicks and for one of the smallest on the pitch, played like a hero. They gave him the 'Player of the match' award and you could colour me 'proud dad'.

The rest of saturday was again me attempting to foil the curries attempts to get out and a few cider's at Bob's later didn't really encourage it to lie low either... I ended up in bed at 9.30pm, hardly rock and roll.

Being given the cold shoulder...

Sunday came and I woke with a really sore/tight shoulder. Not great. I've read that this could be something to do with the diabetes and it became quite sore. I'll have to give it a few days and hope it subsides or else I could be struggling with it a while :(

Onwards and upwards

Back to the office as of yesterday and on with stuff. The studio is pretty much ticking over right now, busy on quite a few fronts and I'm on with some projects for next year.

Basically I get involved from the early stages and see the discussions through, which generally takes a few months. There's no real reason why things should actually take that long, but they just do, especially over the summer months when people are traveling, holidaying and suchlike. Most decisions require authorisation, consideration and ultimately approval. This has knock-on effects for some of our external partners and all we can do is ensure we act swiftly and correctly.

In other news, the dog's been clipped and has now resumed the guise of a polar bear, I managed to kill two of our fish (inadvertantly, I might add) when I moved the fish to a new, shiny fish-tank.. the water cloudied up and two snuffed it, with me garnering disgusted looks from the kids.

I've booked a trip to go see my dad and photo some land he's selling in the south-west of France, so I nip over there for a couple of days this month - I'll also spend an evening reminiscing with Jon Oldham at his french gaff (i.e. getting blind drunk no doubt and playing Perudo). I fly into Perpignan and then drive up towards Limoux/Carcassonne and then up to Castlenaudray (tolouse region) where Jon lives.

Typical

Everytime I take a few days off, I seem to get some kind of illness or complaint. Bloody typical. However, I'm feeling much better today which is a relief - although the prospect of catching up on my jobs means illness isn't such a bad option.

I've not done a great deal the last few days, which is probably just what I needed.

Long weekend off and other titbits

Due to being pretty tired after a busy summer, I've chosen to take a few days off whilst there's good opportunity to. Fortunately this has coincided with some nice weather and relaxation number one will be to wash the car, whilst listening to some Floyd. It works for me, don't knock it.

Otherwise things are pretty good, the recent release of Worms Open Warfare is getting great reviews (and more importantly, fantastic consumer reviews) so that's excellent - things are moving well on other projects as we nudge towards revealing what we've been working on for a while, as well as drop a teaser on our website on some other stuff.

Phone wise, it's all sorted, I'm with Blackberry again, wife has her new phone and everythings all good - hassles out of the way. Even Virgin Media pulled their socks up after a frustrating couple of days offline at home - which really wound Jack up since he's in a race trying to get to level 60 on Warcraft...

My only shame in a busy weekend is that I won't be able to get to Elland Rd, to see a game which could see Leeds chalk up 5 straight wins and get back to zero points... Harry is at a party... never mind.

I've got Monday/Tuesday off too an a list of things to do as long as my, er, arm.

Back in Black-Berry

Well, with the wife reunited with her new (pink!) phone eventually and me being incommunicado for a while, let alone without walkabout email, it had to happen eventually, I'm back in Blackberry - and there's a certain relief.

I'm still waiting for Carphone warehouse to sort out the insurance claim, but due to the wonders of Ebay, I picked up a new, same device for a good deal since I was so fed up of waiting (and only £70 over the excess, too). The deal even had a spare battery - coolio!

Slightly vindicated...

My grief at the cost of the overnighter in Staffordshire (Alton Towers) prompted me to go and check reviews online to seek out what others felt; perhaps I'd been too cynical and to be fair, spoilt, given generally good living during my work travels.

Fortunately, for me, there were many comments that echo'd my own; namely bad value, crap beds and most of all, over-priced, terrible fool. It made me feel a bit better, but only slightly.

On balance, there were a lot of positive reviews too, I can just assume these people don't get out much or have very low expectations. :)

Alton Towers Mk2.

After last years shitty visit to Alton Towers, I succumbed to a last minute request from the missus to take the kids there again as a last-minute holiday treat, given we've both worked a lot recently and myself in particular has hardly been home.

Well, again we had half a day in the water park and the following day in the theme park (this time the weather was great on the 2nd day). Yet again the over-priced package was acutely felt, the over-priced, over-rated food was consumed and we paid top dollar for common or garden drinks.

I also struggled to sleep in the crappy bed and woke up in a crappy mood as a result.

Suffice to say that I don't really recommend it - even at half price.

The kids thought the water park was great and I thought it was simply too packed (big queues for the water roller-coaster and slides) with barely room to move in the pool at times and little to no food available at lunch due to the crowds.

The actual theme park is more suitable for 12-20 year olds rather than my two at 10 and 6, who don't go for white-knuckle rides; although they enjoyed the water rides and the medium 'coasters. Fortunately due to it being a Monday and with kids returning to school, the park was quiet and we queued for few rides, the worst queue being for 'Charlie and The Chocolate Factory' which we didn't queue for last year since the queues were huge. It was about 40mins and needless to say, it wasn't worth it. Charlie and the 'Meh' Factory indeed - and that was what the kids said.

The food (we stayed in Splash Landings) was absolutely mediocre, despite there being a wide of choice of tasteless offerings to 'enjoy'.

We paid a lot for one night's stay (tasteless breakfast included), a day in the park and a day in the water (Cariba Creek). We paid extra for the minigolf, which the kids enjoyed and also for some astonishingly terrible Fish & Chips near the Nemesis/Air rides.

Theme park's eh... seems the theme is very, very bad value.

Still, saves being mugged in a dark alley. It won't happen again.

The rise and rise of Leeds United, Phoenix from the flames

It's been a good week for Leeds United - at bloody last.

The last 5-6 years have been somewhat of a travesty, from the dizzy heights of the Champions League Semi, being top of the Premiership and coming second, to a succession of financial problems, off the field run-ins, two relegations and almost extinction.

The journey had taken a real toll on my faith and interest in the club, it had lost it's heart and soul - just a vehicle for other people's aims (mainly greed at the end of the day).

Now all the hangers on are gone, the big names, the tossers (to be frank). Whilst I could never be really enamored by the appointment of Denis Wise as manager, you have to applaud his strength of character to turn around the clubs' fortunes, get a squad of big-hearted players together and unite the team and the fans. The spirit is so strong it's absolutely no surprise to see them wipe out 12pts from the 15 they had deducted for supposed legal irregularities. Next week they could be at zero, which is where the fun starts as they begin to catch, close on and overtake their peers.

Yesterday I took young Harry to the game, with almost 27,000 there - it was an atmosphere to savour and pretty close to the 'good old days' - the time perhaps most fondly remembered as a Leeds fan; that of the 1989-90 Division2 (now "The Championship") promotion year/push when the team and stadium were last really "United".

Whilst the football itself was about as good as you can expect in this division (the old third division) there's no knocking the heart, soul and passion of the Leeds team and they have an air of utter invincibility about them. The only problem will be keeping on top of rising expectations, especially if they can get to zero next week because it's pretty obvious that they can't win every game.

I can't be there next week since I've got to take Harry to a party, ironically enough in the shadow of Elland Rd but I'll be listening keenly on the radio :)

IGN review in for WOW2...

HERE and it's a great review with some lovely comments. W00t, as they say.

Busy busy

Back from a night in Newcastle, where I attended a round-table session discussing PSN (Playstation Network) (i.e. the "Live Arcade" of the PS3) with some of the heads of other northern Devstudios and Phil Gaskell, from Sony, who is the producer who runs it all - coincidentally a pal, who was also celebrating a birthday.

The talks were pretty constructive and it was a good meeting. As you can imagine, in Newcastle, with a birthday in the air, some partying was done too, which included a decent game of Perudo - even more enjoyable when Bry's pet Gargoyle got involved :-)

We went to a few bars around the main throng and as ever, Newcastle was lively. We ended up in Buffalo Joe's again and we risked the wild-west atmosphere just to go on the mechanical bull again, pictures will be forthcoming.

Friday started off a little bleary, but a nice lunch in York with Phil and the Albeck monkey sorted me out, before getting back to T17 towers and catching up on my mail, since Carphone Warehouse still haven't sorted me out.

On a work note, Worms Open Warfare 2 was released on PSP/DS today and also "Worms: Space Oddity" was announced, which is our first Wii title, due Spring 2008. By the way, we are working on non-worms games, all will be revealed in due course.

I got some tickets for the Leeds match (I'm taking Harry) and also got him a training top - and on Sunday, we're treating the kids to an overnight at Alton Towers water park and theme park on Monday.

Chewed Gigs and The aroma of Mojito

Well, in the stupor that followed Tarran's leaving do, I slept on the sofa and the dog helped himself to my glasses, chewing them to bits.

Not a good start to the day. Hangover's in the post and I've got to dig the contacts out. Last night was good, good food at Tampopo in Leeds (I had some unpronounceable stir fry) and then onto the coolness of Mojo. Even Kilburn was seen to be enjoying it when the Smiths came on.

WOW2 Reviews coming in...

Reviews have started to come in for "Worms Open Warfare 2" and they're great so far, just 1 on each format;

CVG gave it 8/10 and called it one of the finest PSP multiplayer games and one of the best Worms titles to date... nice!

The official Nintendo mag awarded the DS version 87% and called it a definitive edition of the game.

Go that Worms! :)

LINK

Funny old day

I wasted half a day running back and forth trying to get some bedroom furniture that wouldn't fit into the van I'd hired - and even if they had, it would have needed 4 blokes to carry them - and then only to find out that there would be no chance of said furniture getting up our twisty staircase. £50 lighter and a morning robbed later, including a return dash to Sheffield... oh well.

I had lunch with my daft old mate Gordon, who's got himself a 7ltr Corvette... not quite mid-life crisis, but certainly getting there ;-) A curry and an Addlestones certainly sorted me out though.

Tonight it's a meal to celebrate (if that's the right word) Taran's tenure at Team17 and a bunch of us are off to Tampopo in Leeds for a nice meal and perhaps a cheeky drink or two. It's not often we have a "leaver" and Taran's off to Canada to join a company over there in Montreal, it's to be hoped that he packs his bloody thermals.

And finally, Kilburn had the temerity to suggest that my earlier blog didn't carry all the detail from the trip. Well, it had most, so what if I forgot one element that was me wandering around the bedroom in the early hours, confused, shouting "Quick! Quick!" - I do occasionally sleep walk... and I don't recall any of it. I'm sure there's a perfectly sensible and amiable explanation.

Planes, trains and automobiles

So, the annual jaunt to Game Connection in Leipzig then... probably the penultimate "big international trip" of the year, with just the regular few days in Lyon remaining - or at least that's the plan unless something untoward happens, we decide to grab a week away in October or such-like.

For this one, I traveled with Paul Kilburn from Team17, along with Bry Reynolds (Gamesauce) and the Albeck Monkey, of Game Republic. As is also usual, we took the route from Leeds to Prague, collecting a car and driving the 3.5hrs to Leipzig. There was nothing really notable about the flight other than the "aromatic Czech's" who to be fair smelt rather unwashed - I can't say I've noticed this before, maybe it was just the group on the plane, I dunno.

I'm not sure what was going on during the drive since we got habitually stared at all the way, mainly by drunk Czechs as we drove on through Louny, Chomutov, across the border to Chemnitz, through Marienberg and then on to the Leipzig area.

Everything went pretty smoothly until Mr T (on the Tom Tom) tried to get us near to our fairly remote hotel on the Western edge of Leipzig... the road we needed to take was closed and the only option after some head-scratching was to take a dodgy track a mile or so over a field. It's fair to say that this track wasn't hugely suitable for anything other than people, dogs or tanks. It wasn't level and was packed with large holes - it's fair to say I was pretty concerned that the car would make it at all. It was a long mile, but it made it, after some delicate driving with some screetching and drops. A woman walking her dog gave us a thoroughly understandable stare.

We then got to our hotel, which wasn't a bad place (although basic) but it was a bugger to find due to the entrance being somewhat off the beaten path, Mr T got a bit of abuse - warranted.

At around 9pm we went into the centre of town, to the usual Irish bar (The Kildare) and proceeded to enjoy a spot of perudo with Phil, Ivan and some other Sony lads. We also managed to enjoy a 2Ltr "boot of ale" a new fixture at the Kildare. I had one, only one, for moderation's sake.

The night didn't get too excessive really, it was fairly steady and we got back around 2am, which really is steady compared to previous trips - the guy behind the reception of the hotel even made us sandwiches at 2.30am. We had ended up in an Absinthe bar, but I didn't want any and after seeing the look on Phil Gaskell's face when he downed the "paint stripper" I was pretty pleased. We did however, find what appeared to be an "Enigma Machine" in there and a plan was hatched to get it out in the next day or so.

The next morning we quickly got to the event at Leipziger Messe, a fantastic, huge event hall at the northern edge of Leipzig - our western location just off the motorway meant we didn't need to deal with any of the busy city traffic, despite it being a 16-20km drive.

A day of talks, meetings and catching up with people/publishers and developers proceeded as usual on the first day (which is trade only) and all this went as expected, with the only downer being that my miraculously self-repaired Blackberry (now renamed "Lazarus") decided to totally give up the ghost.

This led to desperately trying to get a replacement phone, which I managed, even though it was a very basic, shocking little thing that many enjoyed ribbing me about. Which reminds me, I've still got to sort all that out with the bloody Carphone Warehouse (and also O2).

In the evening we once more sat and enjoyed a game of dice with Pete OD and the Troutman, as well as Tim/Mark from Spong, Steve Boxer and the Falcus lads. This was before we watched England v Germany - and after 10mins of excitement we had to endure a pitiful England performance as we went down to Germany - and it wasn't great to watch it in a German pub, although thankfully nothing 'kicked off' apart from one cheeky german flicking the V's at the end.

Nothing much else went on after that, just a quiet beer, more dice and an earlyish return to the hotel, although Bryan did manage to bag himself a daft hat along the way. We'd skipped a party that was being thrown - which went on until 5am, so we got back and were treated to eggs, bacon and so-on by the hotel bloke again, who went out of his way to be very nice to us.

So another day at the event beckoned and more talks, chats and the like. We were treated to some behind the scenes glimpses of some games, probably the best title we saw was "Prototype" on the Vivendi booth, which was really nice although some way off it seems. We also had some very interesting talks as we get near to an announcement being made about our "big" title :) We also got news about a "green-light" for another XBLA title, which will arrive in 2008.

Thursday evening saw yet more dice fun in the Kildare prior to attempting to liberate the "Enigma Machine", although a lot of fun was had watching Dean Trotman eat for England. We didn't manage to get the machine, which actually turned out to be some turn-of-the-century franking machine which weighed more than a Panzer and we stayed in the Absynthe bar (which was a crazy gothic place) until the very small hours, with no major incidents to recall other than good chat and high spirits.

Friday morning and it was time to Czech out and get to Prague. I think we were all anticipating hangovers and a weary trip. This year we'd opted for the train rather than struggle with a difficult, hungover drive and after dropping the car off at a deserted Hertz station, we cabbed it down to the train station (with the cabbie giving us "Das Joke" - a German telling a Joke for the first time in 4 days) and got our train to Dresden, which was the first leg of the train trip. This went relatively speedily and without any incident, with all four of us quite weary and 'grey' so to speak.

The next train was a 2.5hr amble down the edge of the Elber river through to Prague. I think it's difficult to suggest just how much of a nice surprise this journey was; the scenery was breathtaking (lush cliffs, castles, model villages) and we enjoyed a few bottles of beer and music on my Mac laptop as we commandeered one of those 6-seater enclosed cabins. The journey went by in no time at all and we -very nearly- stayed on until Budapest! Even the border control police woman was in fine spirits, it was difficult not to be, it was such a nice trip.

So to Prague then... our nice Hotel (the Hilton) didn't have both rooms ready so we had a quick change in one and I also managed to totally fuse the room due to plugging a US adaptor into the socket. Fortunately they were quick to sort it out and we managed to get the smell/smoke out of the room.

We headed back into the old town and had a few beers at the Irish bar we frequented the year before, enjoying a nice steak which really reminded us how generally awful the food was in Germany.

We met Sten from the Nordic group later and had a mooch around the nice areas of the Charles Bridge, old town and such. Sten wanted to go on a boat but it's fair to say we weren't so keen so we eventually went back to the hotel, got changed and had a quick drink in the bar. We enjoyed the bar pianist who pronounced "W" as "V" so we made a few requests that made use of this feature - and we had to leave because it got kind of cruel - and funny, obviously. Cue "Ve are Sailing" "Vooden Heart" etc which he did with almost embarrassing 70's style midi.

We returned back to "our bar" and just had a very chilled chat/laugh all evening, getting back just after midnight as it had been a long day.

The next day we returned to the bar for a couple before flying back, which was quite excitable given our intoxicated state. One notable amusing sequence saw me get involved with a stag group, one of the lads was having a very nice looking head massage from a nice Czech girl, but when she'd finished up, I sneaked up and continued, much to the grins on the faces of the other lads... when he finally looked up there were howls of laughter.

On the flight, my Mac also slipped out of the baggage rack and smacked a young Czech girl in the teeth. I did buy her a toy and a bag of sweets to apologise (even though it really wasn't my fault) only for Bryan to dryly comment "See, he's trying to rot the buggers out now".

I got home on Saturday, still fairly merry only to proceed down to our friends in the village where I "topped up" even more. Suffice to say that I spent the most of Sunday on the couch feeling like crap due to "hangover squared" and getting a pain in the neck because of it.

I made amends by driving us to Whitby on Monday, but wished I hadn't due to the battle with the A64 on a Bank Holiday :(

Back from Leipzig & Prague

Arrived back from a trip to Leipzig for Game Convention and a night out in Prague on Friday... There's some good stuff to write about and I'll blog it when I have more time and feeling better than I do right now.

Worms Open Warfare 2 Ad

Here's the TV ad currently showing for Worms Open Warfare 2...

LINK

Negating the niggles

Carphone Warehouse finally succumbed to letting me have the phone I wanted but then announced that they didn't have the phone in any of their stores so they would send me a cheque instead - not quite sure why that didn't happen in the first place - and even the histrionics with O2 are getting there.

We went to get our quote for the kitchen yesterday and came away without plans nor quote since the Kitchen guy had niggles of his own with their PC/Printers... it left Katrina quite cheesed off, so to cheer her up I took the family to Orlando's Italian up on Grange moor.

Other than that, I set the 360 up to stream all my iTunes stuff from Trina's PC and went to the boozer with Bob.

I've got to pack for Germany sometime today; a pet peeve - and I'm thinking of taking it steady out there - the last major trip for some time.

Niggletastic

As if by magic, my Blackberry has suddenly begun working again... which is good, given I'm off to Germany on Tuesday and hadn't planned to take a laptop. I'd also made up my mind to accept a Blackberry Pearl as a replacement from Carphone Warehouse (I've read reviews and they're actually very positive) and just close my account as soon as I can.

Sky HD and all my recording modes etc are all working fine too - so it's a good day. Am just about to go and get the details of the quote for the Kitchen, so we'll see how long the good vibe lasts!

Techno Niggles and Phone Gripes continued

Firstly, I spotted a problem on the new Sky HD installation (and the Sky+ Multi-room) which is apparently a known issue. Basically part of the installation sees you getting a new viewing card and it appears the engineer has paired the wrong cards up (i.e. the new card is in the old sky+ box and the old card in the Sky HD). The consequence of this is that the old Sky+ box will not playback any of the recorded programmes and for some reason, the SkyHD won't record anything, despite having a nice 160GB drive.

A call to Sky beckons tomorrow. I only really spotted this as the HD channel support has come online.

Phone Gripes; well it appears that Carphone Warehouse are steadfast in their position of not letting me get a similar phone and offering a Pearl or a (admittedly nice, Nokia n95) - so I'm going to take the Pearl and see how it goes, with the intention of cancelling my contract with them as soon as it's up in a few months and most likely get an iPhone.

I'd also been having a run in with O2 who have messed up Trina's phone upgrade and rather than attempt to speak to their customer "help" line, I wrote them a pretty strong letter. I've been having to write a few strong ones of late...

With all the set-up of the kit it'd have been nice to get near it, but the kids have been hooked on "Defense Force" (by D3) for the 360, mind you, it's nice to see Jack having a break from Warcraft.

Kitchen-quote day tomorrow, so I'll take a chair to sit on when we hear.

Handheld Worms...

I'm happy to announce that Worms World Warfare 2 for PSP and DS will be hitting stores in the US and Europe on August 31st, so look out for it. It's perhaps the best Worms game we've produced in a long old while and we think it'll go down as a classic on handheld in much the same way as perhaps Armageddon and World Party did on PC. Both platforms feature online play and a dizzying amount of content and customisation.

And yes, the Holy Hand Grenade's in there...

There's more Wormy stuff in the works too, which will arrive sometime in 2008... but more news on that at a later date.

Party Survival

Well, survived party number one. I think a pretty good time was had by all at our Dungeon party in York, with the only niggle being that the bar closed at 12pm, although we sneaked into the bar next door at 12.30ish.

The karaoke was good fun and I managed to crank out "sweet caroline" although there were a few (as ever) hidden stars with Andy Clitheroe in particular as well as Jax Li both surprising everyone with great vocals.

The place itself was good fun and you could be forgiven if you thought you were in the world of warcraft or some such place, especially with Colin walking around dressed as a demon.

I don't believe there were major stories/incidents although it's too early to tell yet and I guess photos will appear next week - I did take a camera but in proper schoolboy-error fashion, I neglected to notice it's battery was flat... (sigh)

Considering some anger management therapy...

Let's face it, I'm rarely angry. Infrequently pissed off, perhaps, but angry/livid and raging hardly - it's just not me.

As I get older, I tend to suffer fools and stupidity much less than my youthful tolerance allowed. And whilst I can still be very patient, understanding and relatively diplomatic, I do tend to fly off the handle when I have a one to one heavy impact with people being senseless.

Take my current mobile phone woes. I mean, it's stuff you shouldn't really get annoyed about, right? But try telling me that when after initially cocking up my wife's order for a new mobile (by sending the wrong phone) O2 then tell me to return the phone in the post for a replacement, which I duly do, only to have a courier at my house the next day with a new phone in exchange for the one sent in error. Cue almost an hour on their customer support lines being taken from pillar to post before ultimately not answering my query because I couldn't remember the exact amount taken off my bill last month (given it's direct debit and the wife's). I got angry.

THEN... I goes to have a shave and shower before coming into work, Trina brings my phone up, someone called Tim on the phone.. I answer it and it's a bloody recruitment agency (I'm PLAGUED by them) - colour me very unhappy.

All this after the ridiculous situation with Carphone warehouse and my blackberry - and the other dead blackberry, SkyHD channels not being available and then.. oh and...

Christ. Better pick up a punch bag on the way home. I wouldn't mind if it was a major thing, or something life threatening, it's just an endless stream of niggles and ineffective people or processes. GRRR!

Deep breath, party time tonight.