The Clan of the Cave Bague

There just aren’t enough hours in the day, are there? I mean, you get home from work, try and spend an hour with the children before they’re passing out with exhaustion, get them all scrubbed and off to bed. You sit down with a nice cup of tea, play a video game for half an hour, maybe watch something on telly. Boomf! Midnight hits you on the arse just as you least expect it.

It’s infuriating. I have a shelf full of really good games I’d like to have a go at and I just don’t have the time to do it.

Anyway, Ducky went on her first adventure into town yesterday – a splendid time was had by all. She does need a new clutch cable though, because the current one is a little more elastic than is healthy. Shouldn’t be difficult to fit though. I did get a few strange looks, hurtling through the middle of Edinburgh in one of the few remaining three wheeled cars, but it was certainly fun. I reckon there’s enough space on the parcel shelf to put a couple of pot plants, so I’m eyeing up one of Debbie’s geraniums.

Still, teatime beckons, so I’m off for a cuppa.

Well, Matthew has decided that Ducky is the best mode of transport known to mankind and he reckons we should sell the Mazda and use the pennies to buy presents for Ducky. He also thinks that ducky is some form of little boat.

In other news, Animal Crossing arrived yesterday. Tristan, Matthew and I have all been having great fun pottering about planting flowers and doing odd jobs for Tom Nook. It’s a welcome diversion from the life-consuming drama which is Zelda: The Wind Waker. I have an embarrassingly wide shelf full of top Gamecube games that I just don’t have time to play, so I’ve vowed not to buy any more until I’d played them. The problem is, being a boomtown reviewer, I tend to get all the good titles sent to me anyway. Gak!

Debbie was a little, er, unsure about Ducky’s corner turning abilities (being a trike and all) and was letting out nervous squeals at roundabouts, but she soon got the hang of it. Being largely made of plastic with an 850cc bike engine in, the little thing can fairly hurtle along. She’s like Ned but cheap For those of you arriving late in the day, Ned was my much beloved Series III Land Rover that I couldn’t afford to run cos it used more petrol than the QE2. Ducky, on the other hand, costs fifteen quid to fill up and gets eighty miles to the gallon

Well, after a fortnight of unseasonably warm weather, we finally had the mother of all thunderstorms last night. And just in time, too – the earth was like dust. Having Scotland bathed in sunshine for two weeks in the middle of April is not natural. My mother and father are just back from a trip to Florida (why??) (I mean why did they go, not why did the come back – obviously) and were waxing lyrical about the ridiculous amount of bland always-the-same sunshine. I couldn’t handle that – I like variety in my weather

Anyway, this thunderstorm kinda crept up unannounced – it was very strange. One moment it was slightly overcast then there was a bright flash and a cacophonous KERTHWANG! right above the house. Next up, we had three minutes of intense hailstone, followed by a couple of hours of steady downpour. Lovely So, everything was wreathed in fog for the last few hours before midnight, and this morning there is a glorious wet glow to everything – just in the nick of time too – the flowers were beginning to look a little worried.

I’ve never understood the desire some people have to live somewhere permanently sunny. I mean, I get sick of it after a few days in summertime. Fortunately, we don’t often get the same weather for more than a few days in a row. It’s been really odd having all this sunshine. Still, it’s over with now so I can get back to forgetting about it and look forward to some more dank, drizzly, and generally dreich weeks ahead. Hooray!

Eep! It’s been horrendously busy! Well, kinda. Spent a lot of time faffing about in the garden, doing some planting and tending, drinking beer, and so on. Picked up Zelda: Wind Waker and Super Monkey Ball 2 to review for Boomtown and managed to finally get the Sims review written. Gahhh. Zelda is simply the most beautiful game I’ve seen since Ico – it’s vast and deep and pretty.

As well as that, we all popped down to the Borders to visit our mate Richard Two-Trees – who has sheepies! And a goat! The goat is cool – it’s like a big dug – it follows him around all over the place. He gave me some new ideas, so there’s been a lot of organisational dashing around as well. All in all a busy time and I’m dreading going back to work. Oh well, not to worry – have to earn a crust, and all that

Well, I’m on holiday this week. It’s yummy Been scuffing about in the garden, playing games, doing all the life stuff that work gets in the way of. Anyway, during the week (so far) Debbie and I have noted an inexplicable increase in the amount of big white vans in the street. Also, Debbie spotted some suspicious looking old people prowling up and down the hill. We’ve just been discussing it just now – Debbie was first to link the van insurgence and dodgy crumblies but reckons the resulting theory is too sinister to give utterance to.

It is very odd though. Old people in themselves aren’t too much of a problem, but suspicious prowling lurking old people are a different matter. Especially with so many anonymous vans driving around. I think our street is being watched by some kind of anti-youth scheme set up by some leprous old Montgomery Burns type person.

As we speak, the slide in the back garden is being turned into something altogether more interesting by the children. We’re sitting watching them out of the patio doors. Those children have absolutely no sense of self preservation. They’re a danger to themselves.

Dot has found her voice. She’s a kleeklee. She is shrill. I think I’m going deaf.

Wednesdays are interesting. Expecially around lunchtime. By the time you’re reached lunchtime, you’ve kinda dragged yourself up the hump of the week and are teetering on the summit seeing the vast expanse of Thursday and Friday zooming away at your feet toward the weekend. So, without further ado, we should let out a cry of “Geranium!” and charge headlong into the gravitationally accelerative part of the week.

Or something.

Last night was leafletting night. Myself and some other members of the local SNP group spent part of the evening charging around Newtongrange poking newsletters through letterboxes in preparation for the local elections at the end of this month. Seems to be quite a good response too – many die hard labour supporters are beginning to realise that New Labour aren’t the same party their fathers voted for.

But, politicking aside, it was a lovely day yesterday – lots of lovely warm sunshine – unusual for Spring in this part of the world, but who am I to complain? The sun was out, the birds were singing and bob the dog stretched and went off in search of his breakfast.

And speaking of dogs, I was almost eaten by a white german shepherd last night. I was dropping a leaflet through a letter box when this thunderous bellow came from the back garden. “Eep!” thought I, “sounds like a big dug!”. Fortunately there was only an unfeasibly small slot in the fence for it to squeeze through, so I considered myself safe. A bad tactical mistake – one must never underestimate the elastic properties of big dugs. Anyway, the dug in question came charging through the gap in the fence and galloped right at me. By this time, I had broken the sound barrier getting out of the garden and shutting the gate. The owner came out to see what the noise was and reassured me that “ach, he’s dead gentle – wouldny hurt a fly”. Well, that was a relief – here was me thinking it was a self propelled engine of teeth and death too. That’s certainly what it looked like.

Wednesdays are interesting. Expecially around lunchtime. By the time you’re reached lunchtime, you’ve kinda dragged yourself up the hump of the week and are teetering on the summit seeing the vast expanse of Thursday and Friday zooming away at your feet toward the weekend. So, without further ado, we should let out a cry of “Geranium!” and charge headlong into the gravitationally accelerative part of the week.

Or something.

Last night was leafletting night. Myself and some other members of the local SNP group spent part of the evening charging around Newtongrange poking newsletters through letterboxes in preparation for the local elections at the end of this month. Seems to be quite a good response too – many die hard labour supporters are beginning to realise that New Labour aren’t the same party their fathers voted for.

But, politicking aside, it was a lovely day yesterday – lots of lovely warm sunshine – unusual for Spring in this part of the world, but who am I to complain? The sun was out, the birds were singing and bob the dog stretched and went off in search of his breakfast.

And speaking of dogs, I was almost eaten by a white german shepherd last night. I was dropping a leaflet through a letter box when this thunderous bellow came from the back garden. “Eep!” thought I, “sounds like a big dug!”. Fortunately there was only an unfeasibly small slot in the fence for it to squeeze through, so I considered myself safe. A bad tactical mistake – one must never underestimate the elastic properties of big dugs. Anyway, the dug in question came charging through the gap in the fence and galloped right at me. By this time, I had broken the sound barrier getting out of the garden and shutting the gate. The owner came out to see what the noise was and reassured me that “ach, he’s dead gentle – wouldny hurt a fly”. Well, that was a relief – here was me thinking it was a self propelled engine of teeth and death too. That’s certainly what it looked like.

Watched the final episode of Buffy season 1 and the first of season 2 on DVD last night. Have a bit of an early Buff rennaisance, but then why not. I’m in the middle of organising things for the impending shift of the llamasoft website from Dowcarter to Black Cat Networks. It’ll be good to have the site on some independant space, but it’s quite a bit of work in the meantime.

All is well in the land of me. The schools are on holiday just now so Debbie is up to her eyes in wired children. Tristan is playing through Starfox adventures on the gamecube and loving every minute of it. Matthew, as ever, is winding people up. Harmony is just Harmony. Debbie is taking them all to the park in Newtongrange today, so they should be full of fresh air and exhausted by the time I get home – which is just as well cos I’m out doing a leaflet drop for the SNP tonight.

Gak – my evenings are full! I still have to write a review of Panzer Dragoon Orta for Boomtown, and they’ve just sent me the Sims on the ‘cube. Run away!