Well thank god I got my last set of exams and past - cause I now have a little daughter and life is more hectic than ever before - just as well I past.

Here is me thinking life would slow down - with just Byron to look after - well not quite the case....

What did I do, first thing after leaving work... Well we got an offer we couldn't refuse - a couple of days in St Tropez free accommodation. What a pleasure, so on Wednesday we winged our way down to St Tropez to enjoy the lovely weather. Nice and sunny all day, every day.

So have just got back ... will write more and be on forums shortly...

and counting now. Its getting so close - I can barely wait....

Even though am just recovering from the flu - we had an awesome going away party for me - a couple of us went to our local - sank some bottles of wine and beer and then headed over to our local curry house. Was still feeling the effects this morning - fortunately pie and chips solved the dodgy stomach. I am going to have to go on a health kick when I get away from work.....

I can't believe it - this is the first week in a long time when I haven't played any sort of game. I really do need to check and see what new mobile games are available - will give me something to do on the trip home.... Any suggestions are gratefully received...

Am really looking forward to Wednesday - no there is no lie in, however at least we are rising early for a good reason - we are flying out to St Tropez for a week to stay in a friends Villa. I really do need the break - before the hard works starts.

Not much else to say.. but will probably post again early next week - might even get some gaming done this weekend....

7 days to go until I am redundant.

What a bad week, and today was the cherry on top, though there might be the glimpse of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Been waiting for my results all week - been driving me crazy - yes I know - Working, Studying and family man is not a good combo - hence taking the redundancy to give me a break until the little man is a bit bigger:

Poor little guy - he has not been well this week - he has been suffering from the flu - so runny noses and not sleeping to well, plus you would think he has been on 40 a day for the last 10 years the way he is hacking. Doesn't help that his fifth tooth is on the way ... all that drool all over the place - sometimes don't know whether it is drool or snot. So haven't been sleeping well, and has been a mission to feed him in the mornings. To top this all off was expecting my result in my mailbox yesterday, so could plan to finish off my course. No go.... it didn't come through. So phoned the organisation and no joy - said I would have to wait for it in the post. So told them it wasn't good enough and they gave me an escalation e-mail address. So sent an e-mail to it this morning. Guess what - still no reply - but I have my result - guess someone is on the ball. Just wish they hadn't sent it to me. FAILED>>>> So there goes some of our plans. Drat!!!!.

Going to be an interesting chat this evening. Wish me luck.......

Hi All,

Have just posted a new mobile game review for Leisure Suit Larry - Love for Sail

http://uk.gamespot.com/mobile/action/leisuresuitlarry7loveforsail/review.html?post=ok

2 weeks and 2 days to go and I will be redundant :)

I am really looking forward to getting that bit of time off - especially as people I know are already trying to headhunt me... How do you tell them not know - give me a couple of months... difficult when its a job online and they have gone out of their way to try and get you on board, but am going to have to do it. I want a couple of months of studying, and playing with my son. The first thing I do when I get home is switch on the camcorder - to see if there are any new clips. Yesterday there was a fantastic one my wife had recorded:

he is playing on our living room floor with a cube (we have foam mattress pieces with piece together like a puzzel - in the middle of each piece is a letter or a number - these foam characters can be removed from the foam square creating a empty space- Mon - my wife, has put four together in a cube, missing the characters so its easy for Byron to pick up and play with), part way through he looks directly at the camcorder and says Hiya - about 20seconds later looks straight at the camcorder and says DaDa, then 20seconds later, laughs manically and falls over. You guessed it - a bit of editing coming up and the wife is going to be furious when Byron - on video footage says - Hiya Dada and then laughs.....

Well - no new console yet - will probably be November earliest - or maybe around Xmas time when we get some sale prices going.

The PC has barely been used, except for e-mail, browsing and some Photo Editing. Got to keep up when we take around 1k of pictures each month. They all have to be sorted, the trash deleted, the keepers tagged, the best then need editing and printing. So I am still stuck in the frozen wastes of hell, bet look in shortly before I die of the cold.

Xbox - NFS - most wanted - not really moved much from where I was - got another challenge done, but am still 64% to go on career and 38% to go on challenge. Roll on Roll on some free time.

Mobile - have found plenty of time to play on the tube - been pretty bad most of the week -- So have finished Leisure Suit Larry - love for sail .... Keep a look out for a review.... When I can find it on this site or get the Mods to add.

Legacy of the Alldenata -->

Wow what a series. Was quite disappointed after the third book - seemed totally unfinished, fortunately the 4th book was on hand - when I finished it and sat there contemplating life and how good the series is - seriously good.... amazing writing - really keeps you glued to the pages.. .I noticed there were a couple more pages - mmmhhhh .... a teaser for a new book... No John Ringo the author was apologising for the ending of Book 3 - When the Devil Dances -- seems that it was at that time 7/11 occurred and he just couldn't finish it at that point hence the half finished feel to it, thus requiring the fourth book. Can't complain The 4th was a dusi in wrapping it all up.

Not much on this week end, but might try to add another review to LSL and put two new ones up there.

3 Weeks & 2 days to go and I will be redundant. Even though I got a new job (one of the few after the redundancies) I have decided after a 6 month trial that the job is not what they sold - it might be in 18 months time, but I am tired of fixing departments, always having to struggle against the flow to get anything done - thus I have decided to put me first. So I have taken redundancy, and are going to study for 6 months to hopefully finish my final qualification. Its really pretty well timed as it will also give me an opportunity to bond with my lovely 8 month old son.

I might even get a chance to play some more games:

Xbox - currently very quite at the moment, but the disk in the drive is NFS - Most Wanted - am really enjoying it, but sometimes still think that the first one was the best - just something about how the story line moved, but am really enjoying it when I get a chance to play - especially the odd dust up with the cops.

Neverwinter Nights - Hordes of the Underdark is one drive, and the manual disk for my new Sony HDR-SR5E is in the other. I absolutely love NWN, but have really struggled as I have always only had a couple of hours, if that every other week to play and sometimes go months without being able to play - but am still loving it. Am currently running around the frozen wastes of hell - after just giving the mimic a sound thrashing. Roll on the good times.

Mobile - currently playing Leisure Suite Larry - what a blast. Good looking adventure game - quite funny too.

Reading - currently reading a fantastic SF write John Ringo - the Legacy of the Alldenata series --> Really good reading. I came across this author due to this fantastic library that gives you a taste of an author by allowing you to download some free books:

http://www.baen.com/library/ hoping that you will like what you read and therefore go out and buy some books. Have downloaded virtually there whole free library onto my mobile (E61 using MobiReader). Got me hooked on some of these authors - wont be the last time I buy some of these authors books. (Have already bought the whole of Bujold Vorkosigan Series - fantastic writing again - and such great characters). Generally read this on the tube - to and from work.

So my hobbies have taken a bit of a battering lately, which has really put me behind on my personal photography Digital Raw processing and printing - not the end of the world though. Been pushed back even more as we have purchased a camcorder to record the nippers moments - HDR-SR5E - we wanted a cheapish HD camcorder that was on HDD so we didn't have to worry about media and was easy to use - no competition. But this has meant I have spent a bit of time getting to grips with the camcorder and with its software. The end result of this purchase has swayed my PS3 / XBOX360 debate on which to get - looks as though it will eventually be the PS3 as it will be able to play the HD footage from the camcorder - I know I can convert to the XBOX360 but I generally just don't have the time for this.

Hope you all have a good weekend...