Category Archives: games

Musings on free time

Posted on by
1

With 9 weeks to go until Spawn of Harris is due, I’ve been musing on free time.

Since changing job last August from a 3 night a week youth worker to a 9-5 office jober, I’ve gained free time. It is amazing. I am also less tired at weekends. So I read more than I did. It is odd however, that other activities have reduced rather than increased.

What follows are some thoughts on what I might like to do, and what I have done in the past. All may be fantasy with baby on the way, but I often hear that it is important for both parents to have a hobby/ activity that they do for themselves.

Poetry

Less so in the South West, but back in Peterborough I co-ran and hosted a very popular open mic poetry and drama night – A Pint of Poetry & A Dash of Drama. I also wrote and performed poetry for it. Every time I do some I mean to do more, and I have kept writing. I though moving closer to Bristol would make it easier to get involved in the spoken word scene, but I haven’t managed it yet…

I’m pretty sure that Yate doesn’t have an open mic poetry night (prove me wrong?) so maybe I could start one here?

Politics

There was a time, dear reader when I was a member of the UK Labour party, went to meetings at ward and city level. I’m not any more, and although making some encouraging noises, I don’t think I’m quite ready yet to rejoin – no least because they seemed to be constantly asking for money. My wife has suggested, and several friends have agreed that I might like to have a go at local politics myself, maybe as an independent. If I was to be elected to Yate Town Council there is a chance I could become mayor! I have however just missed the Annual Town Council meeting. It could be a very rewarding experience, or I could end up hearing about pot holes, dog poo and car parking issues. I hear that Town Councils actual have a lot of underused powers, but I think I need to be a bit more settled in this community first…

Trade Union Activity

As a youth worker I was very active in the Community & Youth Workers section of Unite the Union. Since making the switch to local authority, I have been less so. Building a branch is hard work, and again whilst a rewarding thing to do needs more than one person to really make it work. SO perhaps I need to find some like minded people at work…

Board Games

I love board games. I was a regular at Chippenham Board Games Club – they also have a Facebook group. I could carry on going there – it’s not that far away, or maybe it is time to start the Yate & Chipping Sodbury Board Game Club?

Climbing

Exercise and everything! Sadly my Crohn’s and related issues have stopped me doing that for a while. One day…

Running

See ‘Climbing’.

Activism

As well as being active in the union I supported the ChooseYouth movement – and there is no reason why I couldn’t make a return to that. I’ve also come across recently a wave of activism around Crohn’s & Ulcerative Colitis – for example the #getyourbellyout campaign – so could be time to get involved in some of that stuff?

Ale

I am also a lapsed CAMRA member. I do love real ale, but again the Crohn’s doesn’t like it that much. Maybe I should just go to the pub more…

 

So looking back it seems I was a very busy person – maybe I should just enjoy the calm before the storm. Cletus is coming, look busy!

#oneaday, Day 83, A sense of contentment

Posted on by
Reply

Recently I picked up Halo 3: ODST again as I hadn’t finished it. I had been playing it at Legendary difficulty and it was pretty tough. Eventually on about the fifth mission I had to crank the difficulty down – and in doing so lost all my progress.

The gap between legendary and heroic is pretty huge – I breezed through all the first part of the game and barely struggled with the rest I hadn’t got too yet. And so I finally unlocked some good old gamer points. About bloody time too…

#oneaday, Day 60, Host with the most

Posted on by
Reply

This weekend we hosted a 6 nations final/ St Patricks Day party,  which included the first BBQ of the year – it always was going to too, rain or shine…

Our house is quite small, so we only had a few friends over, some from London, some from Bristol and some neighbours. Much booze was consumed, food was eaten and merriment enjoyed.

What makes a good gathering though? We didn’t have gourmet food – although the BBQ food was not burnt on the outside, raw in the middle. There were no fancy cocktails or very expensive wines – we mostly drank real ale, cider and Guinness. We watched rugby, some trashy TV (Take Me Out) and played Lips on the XBox. Everyone was relaxed – some a little too much, but they were kept in check by there partners. We have received much praise and thanks for our event, and I think the secret was probably a small focus (rugby) with nothing too complicated (drinking games) getting in the way. No dress code, bring your own booze and just enjoy.

Now to plan my 30th with the same success….

#oneaday, Day 9, Tom yum soup rules!

Posted on by
2

First of all, hello to my subscribers, and also to my casual readers. I was very happy to have start moderating comments today, and I hope you found my answers useful.

It’s been a busy weekend readers. Worked late on Friday then had a few drinks with the neighbours. Saturday was breakfast with a hungover wife, then the quest continued to obtain a Wii controller with which to play GoldenEye. Following my post on Friday about needing to find one, I searched every conceivable shop in Devizes where I work to no avail. There is no games shop in this small Wiltshire market town, but I tried electronics stores and supermarkets (3). Nothing. I found this very frustrating, but I don’t live there. Surely Chippenham would give me better success?

Stop one – PC World/ Dixons. Nope. Sainsburys – no. Thankfully, a quick trip into town and the small (but pricey) independent games shop yielded success – and GoldenEye is much more playable with this controller – even if 007 Classic mode is very hard. I moaned  a lot about the poor shopping experience to my wife, who understood – she is from a rural community, where as me, I am used to big city living!*

Sunday morning we got up and went off  ‘to do something’** and so we trundled off to look at a White Horse – a peculiar feature of Wiltshire. Carved out of chalk hills, although the one we visited was actually white painted concrete.

Westbury White Horse

Westbury White Horse

It was breezy up on that hill, and as we headed home in time to do some grocery shopping (I never said we got up early) I was desired for the ingredients for Tom Yum soup – a very fragrant Thai soup, which requires lemongrass, galangal, birdseye chillies, kafir lime leaves, fish sauce, spring onions, lime and coriander. Aside from the galangal and maybe the kafir lime leaves, I was confident I could get all this stuff in Sainsburys. HOW WRONG WAS I?

The answer is – a bit. No fish sauce. No galangal no kafir lime leaves. I was mildly peeved. However, they did stock a Tom Yum soup paste, which it turns out makes a pretty good version, even if I do say so myself. Wife also impressed – good job!

I would still like to make it from scratch, and I did add fresh lemongrass and coriander. and the lack of decent shopping where I live is beginning to disturb me. Could this actually mean that they were right in the 80s, and Queensgate, Peterborough is the capital city of shopping? A disturbing thought for us all….

* Well, Peterborough. Small city living.

** My wife’s favourite thing to do to stop me playing computer games

#oneaday, Day 7, Rain rain rain

Posted on by
Reply

Today I had an early start to save my wife from drowning in the rain on the way to get her train. It was very wet out there. It now seems to have dried up though.

I discovered the downside of blogging from my Blackberry is that it doesn’t give me the share options which is a bit rubbish, so you will just have to check back sometimes – though I will continue to promote on Facebook and Twitter when blog from my laptop.

So Goldeneye 007 on the Wii – received as a late wedding present. Takes me back to the days of the N64 and being at uni. However, the Wii mote and numchuck make this game very challenging. I have fiddled with settings and such but to no avail. Speaking to my gaming buddy Mark Grist who had previosuly told me he didn’t think much of the game. Now however, he is a big fan, thanks to the purchase of a Wii controller. It seems a shame to have to purchase additional hardware for one game, but I reckon it could be worth it….