The road to (Meadow)hell ...

Following on from my rantette about Ms Dogwood's bank card, we worked out that the only branch that was actually open at a time when we weren't either working or at school (or both in Mrs Dogwood's case) was the branch at Meadowhall, which as it turned out was not so much a branch as three cash machines and a couple of harrassed looking staff in a room smaller than our lounge. We waited for a while behind an irate asian couple complaining about bank charges on their account whilst the manager tried to find a polite way of telling them to like it or lump it, and eventually we were able to fill in a form to change the address on the account and order a new card. The manager tried to sell us a loan as we were leaving ... no thank you. I think that we will be taking Ms Dogwood's business elsewhere.

From there we split up to follow our respective interests - bag hunting for Mrs Dogwood, books and games for the rest of us. After a browse in Waterstones we went to Game to have a look at the new Nintendo DS - a lovely bit of kit and a notable bargain at £99. I had a brief play with Super Mario 64 and was most impressed with the quality of the screen and the smooth and colourful 3D graphics. The control system uses a touch sensitive screen with a mini stylus and is remarkably intuitive. The other game on display was Wario Ware, which actually made me laugh out loud several times. A bizarre collection of mini games, all making innovative use of the touch screen to spin plates, pop balloons, poke kittens, pick noses and unravel toilet rolls. Apparently Animal Crossing is due out on this machine which makes me want one even more.

Food shopping in M&S, followed by a coffee in Costa - no chocolissimos though, as the machine was broken - boo! I was feeling tired by this point, and I missed a 66 on the way home, made even more frustrating by a clear sighting of a 67 a few minutes later. I retired to bed with a bit of a headache, but I feel a lot better now I've had a walk with the dog and a couple of ibuprofens.