Jolly Holidays

A whole week off, and no posts. What have I been doing exactly?

Well, for starters I’ve picked up Mr Driller : Drill Spirits again. I was initially disappointed with this game, thinking that it wasn’t hugely different to Mr Driller 2, apart from slightly better music and graphics. I’d reckoned without the Dristone mode though – this removes the time pressure of your oxygen continuously decreasing and instead takes 1 point off for each block drilled. Secondly, there are gems to collect that give you a variety of power-ups from barriers to protect you from falling blocks to destroying all blocks of a particular colour, and others in between. It turns the game from being an action/puzzler into a much more strategic sort of puzzle game, where you really have to think carefully about the route that you take to make the best use of your resources and the effect that different falling blocks will have on the layout of the board. Stunningly addictive and highly recommended.

Next, we’ve been playing a Dungeons and Dragons boardgame, picked up cheap for £10 from TK Max, and worth it for a nice set of dungeon floor plans alone. The mechanics of the game have been streamlined, although the rule set is not particularly well written possibly making it a bit tricky for the intended beginner audience – it’s certainly not a patch on the basic rules starter set that we got for christmas. Having said that, the dice based combat (with different colour dice doing differing amounts of damage) works well, and the cards for monsters and treasure are good. Again, worth buying if you see it cheap, although the plastic miniatures included are a bit rubbish.

Wednesday was a rainy day, so that was spent watching the DVD of Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Deliciously dark, and achingly funny in places with a minimal amount of schmaltz. Jim Carrey is a hoot as the villainous Count Olaf, although some of his best stuff is only seen in the ‘orphaned scenes’ section of the special features. This is destined to become a goth classic, I think, along with Edward Scissorhands and Nightmare Before Christmas.

Thursday was Chesterfield market, and you’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy – stalls laden with tat, junk, gew gaws, old books, power tools, military memorabilia, framed photographs of Barnsley Town Council from 1959, porcelain pigs, knock off dvds, old boots and one or two kosher antiques. Absolutely wonderful, and it kept us all amused for a couple of hours, before a well deserved pub lunch with Rachel and Lina.

Thursday was also the day the vacuum cleaner exploded. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic, but the power cord has been wonky for a while with the motor cutting out at irregular intervals. I’d just finished doing the bedroom carpets, when there was a loud crack and a shower of sparks from where the cord goes into the switch. Eeeep. I unplugged it cautiously and left it well alone, and I suppose we’ll have to go and buy a new one.

Today, I’ve had a couple of work things to catch up on, even though I’m supposedly still on holiday. Most irritating was a request to convert a sales spreadsheet to the current version – “It’s not showing the drop down boxes on the second tab, so maybe I’m using an old version” Well, yes, that’s why it says version 5.01 with a release date of December 2003 instead of version 6.08  you dozy moo. I’ve sent her the notes for updating it herself, but whether she’ll actually bother with them is another case entirely.

Ok, that’s me caught up, so I suppose I’d better go and put the washing out …