Deeply dippy

Another one that fell down the back of the blog sofa. Intended to put this up in May :(

Much of our recent spare time has been taken up trawling property websites and viewing houses. One of the key factors in our choosing is getting a decent garden - this year's going to be a bit of a non-event in terms of growing stuff and bird spotting (we're currently living in a 3rd floor flat in the centre of town) - and I'm excited by the prospect of seeing what wildlife we can encourage to visit.

We decided not to follow up one recent viewing, but one thing it did have in its favour was its proximity to a stream. On the way to the house, I spotted a heron and more importantly, my first dipper.


Hope to see another of these again soon - reading about them later revealed that they're a fascinating little bird, possessing the ability to walk upstream (underwater) and nesting behind waterfalls.

Some smut for the weekend, sir?

Poor Tezza Bish :(

Leave him lying in his uniform, dying in the sun

A ludicrously late follow-up to my previous SWOS blog (actually wrote this at the time but taken an age to put it up). Jon Hare gave a very enjoyable talk, telling us about the evolution of Sensible Software and the development of my 2 favourite games, Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder.

The afternoon culminated in a tournament and I was one of 8 volunteers to take part. We were playing the same plug and play version that I have. Dammit! Why didn't I get some practice in? I was France, drawn against Germany. I was really nervous! Losing 1-0, I smacked in an equaliser in the 89th minute (Cantona). I couldn't help myself and released a 'Yes!' and punched the air. There was no penalties option so we started a new game with Golden Goal rules - 1st goal wins. I lost. In all honesty, I was well beaten and the other guy deserved to win in normal time. It wasn't the annihilation that I'd feared though, and the guy went on to win the tournament (and then beat Jon Hare 4-0) so certainly not an embarrassing defeat.


In the Q&A that took place simultaneously with the tournament, I fear that I revealed myself as the biggest spod in the room, asking several questions. Including one about 'Sensible Trainspotting' - a demo given away on the front of Amiga Format/Power. As I admitted to the group, I think that I gave that game far more play time than it warranted. If trainspotting is considered nerdy, then what would you call playing a computerised version of it? At least you get fresh air stood at the end of a platform.