So much for a relaxing long weekend! It was only 10 minutes old when the phone woke us up. Yup, at 0010 on Good Friday we had to get up and go check out the alarm at Argos as neither of the other two were answering theirs so Joan was last resort (this is the third call-out we've had this year to their NONE). And why was the alarm ringing? Because some idiot had decided to have a pee through the gap between the front doors and triggered the detector. Absolutely lovely. Still, the Police were in attendance this time so we didn't have to worry about an attack if there had been some other cause. And at least it was a straight re-set and come home again rather than a four hour wait for an engineer like we had on Boxing Day. Which was handy as Joan was in on her own yesterday.

So, while she worked at work, I worked at home and got all the painting finally finished. It does look a treat though now it is done. And I really will take some pix soon to stick on our photo site.

Today I've been taking it easy so far, so nowt else to report really!

What I didn't say just then was that I did get the new issue of SFX, big feature on the next Star Wars film - looking forward to that. Also listened to some of an album by the Flaming Lips. Know nothing about them - Richard just handed me the MD and said "you'll like this" and I do. A bit reminiscent of Eels and someone else I can't quite place.

And still the sun does shine down upon us. Could we be in for a good-weathered easter weekend? I hope so.

Have had my constitutional up the town in said sun and managed to resist the various tempting offers on at the moment (3 cds for £20/buy 1 DVD get another ½ price in Smiths, Sale in HMV and 5 cds for £30 in Virgin). And all that on payday too. I must be coming down with something.

Joan was in Ipswich on a course yesterday, so we ended up having a meal on the way home. Very nice carvery it was too.

And today I have also heard that my schoolfriend Sadie has now had her baby, so congratulations there.

Hee, hee, hee. Some times patience can be rewarded! About this time last year we got approached with an offer we really couldn't refuse to put an advert for Park & Ride in someone elses car park in Ipswich at a ridiculously low price. Naturally we accepted and after several checks that the car park people wouldn't mind it all went ahead and got put up. Then their area manager saw it and went rather ballistic at the ad agency (can't say I blame him) who promptly covered it over and gave us our money back.

Today the cover up ad has gone and ours is back on view. So more free advertising. Wonder how long it will last for this time. I have managed to get a photo now, though, so at least we will have some record of our non-investment. Oh, that has put the smile back on my face :-)

Back to the topic in hand, I do still enjoy the odd blast of Sonic the Hedgehog (and 2 & 3) on the megadrive, but that was also when my attention span dropped off a bit. Probably because the games are available so quickly rather than waiting ages for them to load off tape on the Spectrum it doesn't seem so vital to stick with something once it is in use. I dunno. Might go back to talking sense tomorrow.

Classic games of the past then. On the speccy it was pretty much anything by Ultimate, but especially Lunar Jetman, Attic Attack and Knight Lore. All of them defining or even inventing a new style of gameplay, as well as being phenomenally addictive with the right level of simplicity to start with and growing difficulty as you progress. I still dig them out on the PC emulator from time to time, but they aren't quite as much fun without the rubber keyboard. There were also a couple of really good 'uns put out by Durrell - especially Saboteur and Critical Mass.

Don't know if it was the timing co-inciding with harder exams, or the price of games being over twice that for the spectrum, but never really got that many for the Atari. And the ones we played most were shareware or freebies. Particular top of the heap (and again still a regular PC retro-blast) was Llamatron. Think Robotron but with furry beasties instead. And even better, Mr Yak is back in the real world again rather than off working on consoles that never get anywhere so check him out >>>>. And then I moved on to the current PC a few years ago as I needed compatability for work. Again, haven't exactly invested much but do enjoy some older titles and free stuff. Mainly of the highly compelling Tetris variety which I just can't stop once I get started, but I tend to use it more for "serious" stuff rather than srtict entertainment. Have actually let my brother buy more than I have myself! Will go away and think about consoles now. Back later.

Hoorah, I've finally managed to get this PC to accept that I am who I am and remember me for Blogger! Don't have to sign in every day now...

So, I got Tomb Raider installed and it all plays much as it ought to - except for one little snag. What's the point in me having a gamepad with half a billion buttons and things on it if the darn game will only recognise 4 of them? I reckon I can configure it to give a usable combination, but most irritating nonetheless. Did actually whip off the first level while I was getting sorted with controls and detail levels and other configuration options so I might be getting number two sooner than I thought!

Been thinking about it and realised I've been playing games on various systems for over 20 years now. Which is a bit scary! We started with the Sinclair ZX81 and moved on the the Spectrum, Atari ST and now PC. Plus I bought a Sega Megadrive and Atari Lynx and my brother currently has Nintendo 64 and Gameboy Advance, Atari Jaguar, Sony Playstation and Sega Dreamcast. So quite a bit of variety! I've not been a fanatical player since the Spectrum really - I tend to get bored with things pretty quickly if I'm not doing too well and can't be bothered to persevere with them. In fact, thinking about it, Tomb Raider is the only game with an ending (rather than just increasing difficulty or faster tracks or whatever) I've actually stuck with and completed since the Speccy days. Not sure why it grabbed me the way it did - probably just being very good and pitched at the right difficulty level. Of course, it was during the 12 weeks I had off work back in '98 when I borrowed the Playstation to stop me going too mad so I had the time to get involved for a change, so that might also have been a factor cos I also went a fair distance into Doom as well at the time. Anyway, enough of this waffle, time to see if I have anything work-ish to do today. Will probably waffle on about games again later today or tomorrow, thinking back to some all-time enjoyable ones.

Ho hum, bored with work again. There always seems to be a feast or a famine with little in the way of regular background "stuff" to be getting on with. Next week this won't be a problem in the same way as it will be next year then (financial year that is) so I'll have loads of files to update and add 12 months to etc. I could start on some of that now, but I have a feeling they would immediately get too complicated for some of the other people who need to use them. So as is often the case I have set a bunch of wheels in motion on other jobs and am waiting for people to get back to me with answers. It frustrates me a bit that people don't respond quickly to anything. If someone comes to me for help I do at least try to acknowledge them even if I can't respond there and then so to continually get nothing back for days or weeks drives me up the wall.

**Don't know what is happening upstairs at the moment, but it sounds like a horse wandering about, which strikes me as being a bit unlikely.**

Have booked some holiday off for when Joan's Sister Sheila and her hubbie Stuart come over from Canada in a couple of weeks. It will be good to see them as we had a great holiday over there last year. Hope the weather holds. Don't know what we are going to do while they are here, but I'd be happy to show them London or the dleights of Suffolk which I see on a regular basis through work. So long as I'm not here then I don't really mind.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy this job most of the time, its just when I'm left waiting for things to happen I get a bit tired of it all.

Had a good wander up the town at lunch time (to the strains of the Masters Of Reality album Welcome to the Western Lodge, good old md player) in the sun which did lift the mood a little, even if the wind is still chill and the kids are off school getting in the way everywhere. Having decided that £300-odd for an X-box is far too much for me to be spending at the moment, but wanting some more interactive entertainment in my life I blew a fiver on Tomb Raider for the PC instead. Yeah, I know it is a bit old hat now, but I enjoyed it on the Playstation and I just fancy playing it again. Perhaps I'll follow up with number 2 and the Chronicles at some point. I think I can get away with it at that price! Now all I need is some time to enjoy it. Long weekend beckons - although I do now have yet more painting to do.

Joan repainted the bottom half of the wall up the stairs and along the landing yesterday so I am now going to have to re-do the glossing so it doesn't look tatty in comparrison. At least that won't eat up the whole weekend though.

Right, time to find something to look busy with again. Perhaps I should just wander round the upstairs corridors with a clipboard for a while looking like I know what I'm doing there....

Mmmm, watched Shrek last night. Now that is a funny film! Not quite sure why Robin Hood ended up with a French accent, but otherwise excellent.

Forgot to mention I'd managed to listen to the Levellers acoustic CD as well over the weekend. Absolutely top notch stuff, must see them again soon.

Well it looks like I failed in the plans for getting online this weekend after all! I only managed about an hour of PC use in total over the whole four days, and most of that was spent updating the virus protection. Oh well, here I am now.

Apart from a stonkingly bad migraine on Saturday morning (worst I can remember for years) the weekend went very well if very busy. Got all the furniture delivered on Thursday so most of the rest of the day was spent putting it together (was going to slide in a joke about Screwing there, but I'll let you fill your own in). Bed is extremely comfortable and the room now looks fabulous. Will definitely be taking some pictures to plop on the web somewhere over the next few days. The only downside is that I now haven't got the "nowhere to hang it" excuse to avoid doing any ironing. Bum.

Then just lots of odd-jobbing, grass-cutting, house-sorting kinda stuff.

Did find the time to finish HP & Chamber of Secrets. Just as good as the first one and looking forward to seeing the film before Christmas. Have now embarked on a biography of steam pioneer Richard Trevithick by Anthony Burton. He did a really good one on Thomas Telford (Roads, bridges, that sort of stuff) a couple of years ago, so expect this one will also be a worthy read.

And we added American Pie 2 to the DVD collection. Just as good as the first one in the laughter files, and another film I'm looking forward to some of the commentaries on (only 4 to choose from!). Also got The Green Mile today as it was cheap in the HMV sale. Another absolute classic from Tom Hanks there.

Still no sign of the American CDs but we did get this year's Council Tax bill instead. Boo hiss. I know I work for the council and would like a pay rise, but I don't see why I should have to pay for it myself!

Right, time for a bit more work.