Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages
Contains quest walkthrough and much, much more....
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Voice Actors
Patrick Stewart - Emperor Uriel Septim VII
Sean Bean - Martin Septim
Terence Stamp - Mankar Camaron
Lynda Carter - Nord Females
Ralph Cosham - Breton Males
Wes Johnson - Imperial Males, Lucien Lachance, Demons
Michael Mack - Redguard Males
Craig Sechler - Dark Elf Males
Jonathan Bryce - Various
Catherine Flye - Various
Gayle Jessup - Various
Elisabeth Noone - Various
Sean Bean - Martin Septim
Terence Stamp - Mankar Camaron
Lynda Carter - Nord Females
Ralph Cosham - Breton Males
Wes Johnson - Imperial Males, Lucien Lachance, Demons
Michael Mack - Redguard Males
Craig Sechler - Dark Elf Males
Jonathan Bryce - Various
Catherine Flye - Various
Gayle Jessup - Various
Elisabeth Noone - Various
Hardware and Levels 1 to 4
James and I have been having a few issues with Oblivion. It looks like there is some issues with the NVidia drivers released specifically for the game.
In-game movies are unwatchable due to jerkiness, which is a shame, as when I loaded up on my Sony Laptop the intro video played pretty well (GeForce 6200 Go drivers haven’t been updated since last May!) although the game needs to be cranked right back to Low Detail settings to be playable.
Once there is a definitive fix for these issues I’ll post a link, but in the meantime a suggested fix can be found here.
On my main PC the game is beautiful and runs like a dream. My specs of Athlon 64 3200, GeForce 6800 XT (256 MB) and 2 GB RAM seem to be plenty for 1280x1024 and high detail (although AA is turned off).
Looking at other peoples' setups I reckon the RAM is a big saver on lag as it allows to the game to buffer better. I noticed this in X3 as well which is prone to combat lag even with 1 GB of RAM.
OK, so you have finished the tutorial and are staring at a lake, a dock and some hills with towers in the distance…. What now?
First time through I decided to explore, wandered into a dungeon and had a great time. This is probably a bad idea. Why? Phat Lewt! After the tutorial I was stuffed to the gills with stuff to sell, so that last thing I wanted was a dungeon crawl with even more treasure.
I suggest you head straight to the Imperial City. If it is daytime (8 am to 8 pm – look on your Map for the current time) then head to the Marketplace to sell up. If it is night time then visit each of the city sectors and run around to reveal the minimap so that all the doors are revealed for future use.
You can also try Speechcraft on the Guards as it is worth putting in a bit of practice on the minigame before you hit the shops. The minigame for Speechcraft is not rocket science and is all down to practice. I’ll let you learn the details yourself (read the manual!) but each round (after the 1st) is a question of recognising that you either have a good starting position or lousy one! Good starting positions will give you a massive boost in NPC Disposition if you play them right and Lousy ones just need to be sacrificed to make certain that the Disposition loss is minimal.
I mentioned “after the 1st” round just there… The 1st round is generally a write off as you need to spend a few seconds extra working out which of the 4 options are positives and which are negatives. This costs you about 5-10 points of wasted disposition (which ticks down every second that you think) and so damage limitation is your main exercise here.
Initially both Serena and I struggled with this minigame but after a few practice sessions on Guards it is pretty straightforward and should be used on all characters to maximise their Disposition to you before you take any other options. (A Quicksave before you start is also a good idea!)
OK, so you are ready to sell. Different merchants buy different stuff and some have more money than others. Their money determines the most expensive item or stack of items they will buy, so a merchant with 100 Gold will not buy a 200 gold sword or a stack of 15, 10 gold potions. In the latter case he will buy the potions 10 at a time though. A merchant’s gold does not decrease as you sell stuff to them, nor does it increase as you buy stuff.
The price you receive when selling or are charged when buying an item is dependant upon the level of haggling that you have set. If you leave it alone and never change it you will get poor deals and your Mercantile skill will go up slowly.
Clicking the Haggle button brings up a slider that shows the merchant’s disposition to you, the merchant’s Mercantile skill title and your skill level. Dragging the slider to the right (haggling harder) means you get a better deal, but are more likely to get refused on a deal. Every time you get refused on a deal the merchant’s disposition to you drops by a point.
Your success at haggling is dependant on the difference between your Mercantile skills and the merchant’s disposition to you. If you can find a merchant with an Apprentice skill level and 80+ disposition then you can push the haggling over half way and get really good deals! Generally you can expect to get fleeced early on! Just tweak the haggling up a point on each sale until you start to get refused. Then drop back down two points to get the best deal and the highest likelihood of skill-ups.
Whilst exploring and selling I gained enough skill-ups to level (I have Speechcraft as a Major Skill). If you sleep for an hour or longer you will level up. This raises your Health, Fatigue and Magicka scores and allows you to pick three attributes to raise by a point. Depending on what skill-ups you have done (Major and Minor skills) some of the attributes will have multipliers, so in my case Personality had a ×3 next to it, which means that spending a point there will raise that attribute by 3 rather than 1. By carefully planning your skill-ups you can usually get three attributes with ×3 or better next to them each time you level. I think ×5 is the maximum, but I haven’t managed that yet, (and possibly only ×3 bonus from Minor skill-ups) so I can’t get any deeper into the mechanics at this time.
So do we do the main mission delivery quest or not? I have chosen not to, have explored the City and done a quest for the Merchants to bring one of their wayward fold back into line. I have also visited both city spell shops and bought some low cost spells for training the spell skills. I visited the Mage’s Guild only to be sent to my “local recruiter”, but no-one can tell me who that is! I assume that I have to do the first part of the main quest to unlock that.
James and I have both explored outside the city as well and have picked up quests such as Kill the Necromancer and Investigate the Missing Villagers, although I haven’t started them yet. The world is teeming with wandering monsters and dungeons / ruins / caves for you to investigate further.
If you are a Morrowind veteran you will be glad to know that I haven’t found a Cliff Racer anywhere yet!
So what next?
Well I really want to join the Mage’s Guild to get access to the Altar of Spellmaking, so I think I am going to do my core quest delivery and see what happens then. After that I reckon there is a Necromancer who is waiting to be slain and Villagers to be rescued!
To be continued…
In-game movies are unwatchable due to jerkiness, which is a shame, as when I loaded up on my Sony Laptop the intro video played pretty well (GeForce 6200 Go drivers haven’t been updated since last May!) although the game needs to be cranked right back to Low Detail settings to be playable.
Once there is a definitive fix for these issues I’ll post a link, but in the meantime a suggested fix can be found here.
On my main PC the game is beautiful and runs like a dream. My specs of Athlon 64 3200, GeForce 6800 XT (256 MB) and 2 GB RAM seem to be plenty for 1280x1024 and high detail (although AA is turned off).
Looking at other peoples' setups I reckon the RAM is a big saver on lag as it allows to the game to buffer better. I noticed this in X3 as well which is prone to combat lag even with 1 GB of RAM.
OK, so you have finished the tutorial and are staring at a lake, a dock and some hills with towers in the distance…. What now?
First time through I decided to explore, wandered into a dungeon and had a great time. This is probably a bad idea. Why? Phat Lewt! After the tutorial I was stuffed to the gills with stuff to sell, so that last thing I wanted was a dungeon crawl with even more treasure.
I suggest you head straight to the Imperial City. If it is daytime (8 am to 8 pm – look on your Map for the current time) then head to the Marketplace to sell up. If it is night time then visit each of the city sectors and run around to reveal the minimap so that all the doors are revealed for future use.
You can also try Speechcraft on the Guards as it is worth putting in a bit of practice on the minigame before you hit the shops. The minigame for Speechcraft is not rocket science and is all down to practice. I’ll let you learn the details yourself (read the manual!) but each round (after the 1st) is a question of recognising that you either have a good starting position or lousy one! Good starting positions will give you a massive boost in NPC Disposition if you play them right and Lousy ones just need to be sacrificed to make certain that the Disposition loss is minimal.
I mentioned “after the 1st” round just there… The 1st round is generally a write off as you need to spend a few seconds extra working out which of the 4 options are positives and which are negatives. This costs you about 5-10 points of wasted disposition (which ticks down every second that you think) and so damage limitation is your main exercise here.
Initially both Serena and I struggled with this minigame but after a few practice sessions on Guards it is pretty straightforward and should be used on all characters to maximise their Disposition to you before you take any other options. (A Quicksave before you start is also a good idea!)
OK, so you are ready to sell. Different merchants buy different stuff and some have more money than others. Their money determines the most expensive item or stack of items they will buy, so a merchant with 100 Gold will not buy a 200 gold sword or a stack of 15, 10 gold potions. In the latter case he will buy the potions 10 at a time though. A merchant’s gold does not decrease as you sell stuff to them, nor does it increase as you buy stuff.
The price you receive when selling or are charged when buying an item is dependant upon the level of haggling that you have set. If you leave it alone and never change it you will get poor deals and your Mercantile skill will go up slowly.
Clicking the Haggle button brings up a slider that shows the merchant’s disposition to you, the merchant’s Mercantile skill title and your skill level. Dragging the slider to the right (haggling harder) means you get a better deal, but are more likely to get refused on a deal. Every time you get refused on a deal the merchant’s disposition to you drops by a point.
Your success at haggling is dependant on the difference between your Mercantile skills and the merchant’s disposition to you. If you can find a merchant with an Apprentice skill level and 80+ disposition then you can push the haggling over half way and get really good deals! Generally you can expect to get fleeced early on! Just tweak the haggling up a point on each sale until you start to get refused. Then drop back down two points to get the best deal and the highest likelihood of skill-ups.
Whilst exploring and selling I gained enough skill-ups to level (I have Speechcraft as a Major Skill). If you sleep for an hour or longer you will level up. This raises your Health, Fatigue and Magicka scores and allows you to pick three attributes to raise by a point. Depending on what skill-ups you have done (Major and Minor skills) some of the attributes will have multipliers, so in my case Personality had a ×3 next to it, which means that spending a point there will raise that attribute by 3 rather than 1. By carefully planning your skill-ups you can usually get three attributes with ×3 or better next to them each time you level. I think ×5 is the maximum, but I haven’t managed that yet, (and possibly only ×3 bonus from Minor skill-ups) so I can’t get any deeper into the mechanics at this time.
So do we do the main mission delivery quest or not? I have chosen not to, have explored the City and done a quest for the Merchants to bring one of their wayward fold back into line. I have also visited both city spell shops and bought some low cost spells for training the spell skills. I visited the Mage’s Guild only to be sent to my “local recruiter”, but no-one can tell me who that is! I assume that I have to do the first part of the main quest to unlock that.
James and I have both explored outside the city as well and have picked up quests such as Kill the Necromancer and Investigate the Missing Villagers, although I haven’t started them yet. The world is teeming with wandering monsters and dungeons / ruins / caves for you to investigate further.
If you are a Morrowind veteran you will be glad to know that I haven’t found a Cliff Racer anywhere yet!
So what next?
Well I really want to join the Mage’s Guild to get access to the Altar of Spellmaking, so I think I am going to do my core quest delivery and see what happens then. After that I reckon there is a Necromancer who is waiting to be slain and Villagers to be rescued!
To be continued…
Monday, March 27, 2006
The Tutorial and Character Creation
At the start of the game you just pick your race and appearance.
There is a huge amount of tweaking that can be done, but to be honest you will probably be playing the game in 1st person and will hardly ever look at your own face, so what is the point!
I created my elfin looking Breton and was promptly thrown in prison for reasons unknown (I seem to remember starting the first Elder Scrolls game in prison as well - must be a character flaw!).
Both your appearance and race can be changed at the end of the tutorial if you change your mind, so need to fret.
All you skills start out with a score of 5/100 for now.
Anyway, I don't want to spoil the plot but let’s just say you end up crawling around under the prison.
Up first are some handy rooms where you gather some basic equipment and get taught how to use it - bows, swords, lock picks, torches, armour and shields etc.
Then it is basic combat training against the old RPG faithful (rats).
Next comes magic training (also against rats).
Soon you hit the "You are encumbered" message and are unable to move - no crawling around at nanospeed here - you go from full speed to stop just by picking a mushroom! Time to go into your inventory and drop all the crap you picked up. My advice is that if you are not wielding a weapon or wearing some armour - ditch it. Too heavy! Keep the interesting and valuable stuff. That Two-handed warhammer may be worth 60 Gold (on average), but it takes up 20% of your carrying space and by the time you hit a merchant your mercantile skill is so low you will be lucky to get 20 gold for it! Keep stuff you can use along with Gems, Potions and high quality loot (Goblin Witch's Staff etc).
Whilst you are running through the tutorial you will start to get a feel for the controls, which aren't bad - I switched jump and activate round, as they didn't feel logical at their default settings. I'll probably remap Block and Cast round for my Mage as well, as shields don't form part of my fighting style. Expect to whack a few chests or boxes instead of opening them though... They are indestructible so don't fret. Just try not to do that when attempting to initiate chat with NPCs! Note to self - look up the Yield Key again!
Wading into combat for my Mage involved a puny fire based missile spell. Targeting is a bit tricky when you and your target are moving, but I reckon that you will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Defensive spells will be the order of the day as you progress though, as being backed into a corner was a regular occurrence for me. Casting heal spells during combat is hard - Pre-combat Regen spells and Instant Heal potions on a hot key are another essential for the future.
Lock Picking has its own mini-game. Feel free to indulge in this all you like, but apart from "Very Easy" locks, you will soon find yourself hitting the "Auto Attempt" button. Why? At low skill levels the mini-game is too hard for Average and upwards locks and so hitting the Auto button may burn a few lockpicks, but you will eventually succeed.
There is another mini-game for Speechcraft, but that is out with my tutorial ramblings and I will come to it another time.
Eventually you get a bit more of the plot and get asked to pick a star sign (again you can change it later if you want). The Thief and The Mage seem good choices for a starter, with the others being more specialised.
Again the plot moves on a bit further and I accidentally nuke one of the "good" guards in a royal rumble. After the fight he walks over and tells me that it is a good job he likes me, but don't do it again! Nice touch I thought, but it was his fault for running into my line of fire!
Soon, the plot gets serious and only one good guy remains standing (apart from you). He nicks the best sword you have found so far (bastard!) and then suggests what class your playing style indicates. This is when you completely ignore the recommendation and click "Custom". Select your 7 major skills, your bonus stats and your focus type (magic, combat or stealth). You name your combo (or pick "adventurer") and then off you go. More on this in a sec.
Soon you reach a grate to the outside world. Time to do a hard save before exiting the tutorial. Why? This is the point at which you can completely respec your character, so being able to reload after deciding that you don't like your character after all is a major bonus. Otherwise you have to play the tutorial all over again.
To round this off, here are some pointers on skills.
The "obvious" thing to do would be as follows. OK - I want to be a thief. I shall pick the 7 stealth skills as my major skills (+20 starting point bonus), pick a focus in stealth (+10 point bonus) and pick a race like Khajit (+45 in assorted stealth skill bonuses).
Congratulations - you now have a really skilled level 1 Thief, but have just put a level cap on yourself of Level 42 (Max level is 53) and all your other skills stink!
How does that work? Ignoring a few skill ups obtained during the tutorial your skills start as follows:
7 Major skills at 25 and 14 Minor skills at 5.
You then apply Focus bonuses of +10 to all of one type of skill (Magic, Stealth or Combat).
You then apply racial bonuses of +45 across various skills.
You start at level 1 and for every 10 skill points you gain in your major skills, then you gain a level.
Your skills are all capped at 100.
Assuming that your Focus and Racial Bonuses are all in your Major skills, then you Max level is calculated as follows:
Starting Major Skill Total = (25 x 7) + (10 x 7) + 45 = 290.
Maximum Major Skill Total = (100 x 7) = 700.
Difference = 700 - 290 = 410.
Max no of Levels you can gain = 410 / 10 = 41.
Therefore max level = 42 (You start at level 1).
However if you start with your focus and racial bonuses all in Minor skills then the calc is as follows:
Starting Major Skill Total = 25 x 7 = 175.
Difference = 700 - 175 = 525.
Max no of Levels you can gain = 525 / 10 = 52 (rounding down).
Therefore max level = 53.
So there is a balance to be struck between being well skilled at Level 1 and not reaching Level 50+.
Every time you level up you get a bonus to your Health, Magicka and Fatigue scores and can increase three of your stats (just like in Morrowind).
The monsters in dungeons and the loot you get from chests is based on your level, so it is only at the high end that a power gamer might see a drop off in their abilities. Your Average Joe gamer won't ever notice the subtle differences.
So what did I do?
I am playing a Breton Mage/Thief (Spellblade).
My Major skills are all Stealth related apart from Destruction swapped for Acrobatics.
My Focus Bonus is in Magic.
My Racial Bonuses are mainly Magical.
The combo gives me lots of starting skills (All Major and some Minor) with scores of 20 or 25 (Destruction being 30) and allows me to progress my level (or not) by using non-combat skills like Speechcraft and Sneak, rather than being forced up levels by being hit or hitting things in combat. My Max level is still 53 as my difference score is 520.
I can progress my magic skills using training spells without it forcing up my level and hence can increase my survivability.
This was not me powergaming but was a pure fluke as I wanted a more balanced character at level one. Just lucky!
Well I will let you digest that and write more about Levels 1 to 3 later.
PS The game is great!
PPS Typos and Apostrophes corrected (thanks Serena)
There is a huge amount of tweaking that can be done, but to be honest you will probably be playing the game in 1st person and will hardly ever look at your own face, so what is the point!
I created my elfin looking Breton and was promptly thrown in prison for reasons unknown (I seem to remember starting the first Elder Scrolls game in prison as well - must be a character flaw!).
Both your appearance and race can be changed at the end of the tutorial if you change your mind, so need to fret.
All you skills start out with a score of 5/100 for now.
Anyway, I don't want to spoil the plot but let’s just say you end up crawling around under the prison.
Up first are some handy rooms where you gather some basic equipment and get taught how to use it - bows, swords, lock picks, torches, armour and shields etc.
Then it is basic combat training against the old RPG faithful (rats).
Next comes magic training (also against rats).
Soon you hit the "You are encumbered" message and are unable to move - no crawling around at nanospeed here - you go from full speed to stop just by picking a mushroom! Time to go into your inventory and drop all the crap you picked up. My advice is that if you are not wielding a weapon or wearing some armour - ditch it. Too heavy! Keep the interesting and valuable stuff. That Two-handed warhammer may be worth 60 Gold (on average), but it takes up 20% of your carrying space and by the time you hit a merchant your mercantile skill is so low you will be lucky to get 20 gold for it! Keep stuff you can use along with Gems, Potions and high quality loot (Goblin Witch's Staff etc).
Whilst you are running through the tutorial you will start to get a feel for the controls, which aren't bad - I switched jump and activate round, as they didn't feel logical at their default settings. I'll probably remap Block and Cast round for my Mage as well, as shields don't form part of my fighting style. Expect to whack a few chests or boxes instead of opening them though... They are indestructible so don't fret. Just try not to do that when attempting to initiate chat with NPCs! Note to self - look up the Yield Key again!
Wading into combat for my Mage involved a puny fire based missile spell. Targeting is a bit tricky when you and your target are moving, but I reckon that you will get the hang of it pretty quickly. Defensive spells will be the order of the day as you progress though, as being backed into a corner was a regular occurrence for me. Casting heal spells during combat is hard - Pre-combat Regen spells and Instant Heal potions on a hot key are another essential for the future.
Lock Picking has its own mini-game. Feel free to indulge in this all you like, but apart from "Very Easy" locks, you will soon find yourself hitting the "Auto Attempt" button. Why? At low skill levels the mini-game is too hard for Average and upwards locks and so hitting the Auto button may burn a few lockpicks, but you will eventually succeed.
There is another mini-game for Speechcraft, but that is out with my tutorial ramblings and I will come to it another time.
Eventually you get a bit more of the plot and get asked to pick a star sign (again you can change it later if you want). The Thief and The Mage seem good choices for a starter, with the others being more specialised.
Again the plot moves on a bit further and I accidentally nuke one of the "good" guards in a royal rumble. After the fight he walks over and tells me that it is a good job he likes me, but don't do it again! Nice touch I thought, but it was his fault for running into my line of fire!
Soon, the plot gets serious and only one good guy remains standing (apart from you). He nicks the best sword you have found so far (bastard!) and then suggests what class your playing style indicates. This is when you completely ignore the recommendation and click "Custom". Select your 7 major skills, your bonus stats and your focus type (magic, combat or stealth). You name your combo (or pick "adventurer") and then off you go. More on this in a sec.
Soon you reach a grate to the outside world. Time to do a hard save before exiting the tutorial. Why? This is the point at which you can completely respec your character, so being able to reload after deciding that you don't like your character after all is a major bonus. Otherwise you have to play the tutorial all over again.
To round this off, here are some pointers on skills.
The "obvious" thing to do would be as follows. OK - I want to be a thief. I shall pick the 7 stealth skills as my major skills (+20 starting point bonus), pick a focus in stealth (+10 point bonus) and pick a race like Khajit (+45 in assorted stealth skill bonuses).
Congratulations - you now have a really skilled level 1 Thief, but have just put a level cap on yourself of Level 42 (Max level is 53) and all your other skills stink!
How does that work? Ignoring a few skill ups obtained during the tutorial your skills start as follows:
7 Major skills at 25 and 14 Minor skills at 5.
You then apply Focus bonuses of +10 to all of one type of skill (Magic, Stealth or Combat).
You then apply racial bonuses of +45 across various skills.
You start at level 1 and for every 10 skill points you gain in your major skills, then you gain a level.
Your skills are all capped at 100.
Assuming that your Focus and Racial Bonuses are all in your Major skills, then you Max level is calculated as follows:
Starting Major Skill Total = (25 x 7) + (10 x 7) + 45 = 290.
Maximum Major Skill Total = (100 x 7) = 700.
Difference = 700 - 290 = 410.
Max no of Levels you can gain = 410 / 10 = 41.
Therefore max level = 42 (You start at level 1).
However if you start with your focus and racial bonuses all in Minor skills then the calc is as follows:
Starting Major Skill Total = 25 x 7 = 175.
Difference = 700 - 175 = 525.
Max no of Levels you can gain = 525 / 10 = 52 (rounding down).
Therefore max level = 53.
So there is a balance to be struck between being well skilled at Level 1 and not reaching Level 50+.
Every time you level up you get a bonus to your Health, Magicka and Fatigue scores and can increase three of your stats (just like in Morrowind).
The monsters in dungeons and the loot you get from chests is based on your level, so it is only at the high end that a power gamer might see a drop off in their abilities. Your Average Joe gamer won't ever notice the subtle differences.
So what did I do?
I am playing a Breton Mage/Thief (Spellblade).
My Major skills are all Stealth related apart from Destruction swapped for Acrobatics.
My Focus Bonus is in Magic.
My Racial Bonuses are mainly Magical.
The combo gives me lots of starting skills (All Major and some Minor) with scores of 20 or 25 (Destruction being 30) and allows me to progress my level (or not) by using non-combat skills like Speechcraft and Sneak, rather than being forced up levels by being hit or hitting things in combat. My Max level is still 53 as my difference score is 520.
I can progress my magic skills using training spells without it forcing up my level and hence can increase my survivability.
This was not me powergaming but was a pure fluke as I wanted a more balanced character at level one. Just lucky!
Well I will let you digest that and write more about Levels 1 to 3 later.
PS The game is great!
PPS Typos and Apostrophes corrected (thanks Serena)
Back in Business
OK, time to put this blog to some practical use.
I will be tracking my progress through and thoughts on The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion for PC.
I will be tracking my progress through and thoughts on The Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion for PC.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
For Alex
I resent the implication that I haven't updated my Blog for 3 months....
I blatantly posted some stuff in December!
Anyway, this is the start of a long silence - probably.
I blatantly posted some stuff in December!
Anyway, this is the start of a long silence - probably.
Monday, December 05, 2005
EBay
Forgot to say that Serena and I saved a small fortune on EBay yesterday.
We bought £300 worth of new electrical goods for under £200.
Makes a change, as I usually find stuff on EBay goes for more than I can buy it based on a pricerunner search!
We bought £300 worth of new electrical goods for under £200.
Makes a change, as I usually find stuff on EBay goes for more than I can buy it based on a pricerunner search!
You don't have to be mad to work here....
Well it has been a strange weekend for a couple of reasons….
1/ I got the car MoT’s on Sunday and rather than sitting around in Kwik Fit I took a stroll over the road into the local “leisure complex”. The only place that was open was the Megabowl, so I bought an awful cappuccino and sat down to read my magazine.
After about 20 minutes I started to have a bad headache and realised that the only other people present were a group of 7 year olds attending a birthday party, so the staff had pumped up the S-Club 7 to record volumes. I decided to go sit outside instead! You would have to be bonkers to work there, or have a strong tolerance for crap music (and coming from me that is a serious complaint!).
2/ Arriving at work this morning, I hit the kitchen and made myself a cappuccino with one of my Nestle instant sachets (I miss our London coffee machine!). Returning to my desk I reached for my chocolate sprinkles to find them absent. I looked around and found them behind my PC, looking mangled.
The little tube has been chewed beyond all recognition and the area is littered with mouse droppings! I have put in a complaint to the building services team! Surprisingly my advent calendar has survived untouched – although the chocolates from those usually get eaten by the cleaners!
Well we return to London this weekend, so this week could be mildly stressful and next week will be awful!
I just hope the house is liveable, as we have given the builders 3 more weeks than they originally asked for.
Ho Hum!
1/ I got the car MoT’s on Sunday and rather than sitting around in Kwik Fit I took a stroll over the road into the local “leisure complex”. The only place that was open was the Megabowl, so I bought an awful cappuccino and sat down to read my magazine.
After about 20 minutes I started to have a bad headache and realised that the only other people present were a group of 7 year olds attending a birthday party, so the staff had pumped up the S-Club 7 to record volumes. I decided to go sit outside instead! You would have to be bonkers to work there, or have a strong tolerance for crap music (and coming from me that is a serious complaint!).
2/ Arriving at work this morning, I hit the kitchen and made myself a cappuccino with one of my Nestle instant sachets (I miss our London coffee machine!). Returning to my desk I reached for my chocolate sprinkles to find them absent. I looked around and found them behind my PC, looking mangled.
The little tube has been chewed beyond all recognition and the area is littered with mouse droppings! I have put in a complaint to the building services team! Surprisingly my advent calendar has survived untouched – although the chocolates from those usually get eaten by the cleaners!
Well we return to London this weekend, so this week could be mildly stressful and next week will be awful!
I just hope the house is liveable, as we have given the builders 3 more weeks than they originally asked for.
Ho Hum!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Games.....
Well life has been busy.
Lauren hit 10 lbs last week (spot on the 50th centile, adjusted for prematurity).
Work has been mental.
Anyway, this post is to complement James' blog about Games and timesinks.
I have recently aquired Dungeon Siege 2 and Civilisation 4.
The former is very like the original and looks poor graphically compared to other modern games, however it is still good fun. I haven't had chance to multiplayer it yet though.
Civ 4 is just like Civ1, 2 and 3... i.e. You start playing and the next time you look at the clock it is 3 am!
Serena and I managed to multiplayer it last night and it worked great.
I am currently awaiting X3: Reunion. That is likely to be my timesink of choice over Christmas. I agreed with James that is a good job that Oblivion was delayed....
Ho Hum. Now all I need is for spare time to lose in the timesink!
Lauren hit 10 lbs last week (spot on the 50th centile, adjusted for prematurity).
Work has been mental.
Anyway, this post is to complement James' blog about Games and timesinks.
I have recently aquired Dungeon Siege 2 and Civilisation 4.
The former is very like the original and looks poor graphically compared to other modern games, however it is still good fun. I haven't had chance to multiplayer it yet though.
Civ 4 is just like Civ1, 2 and 3... i.e. You start playing and the next time you look at the clock it is 3 am!
Serena and I managed to multiplayer it last night and it worked great.
I am currently awaiting X3: Reunion. That is likely to be my timesink of choice over Christmas. I agreed with James that is a good job that Oblivion was delayed....
Ho Hum. Now all I need is for spare time to lose in the timesink!
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Two Bad Jokes
Number 1:
A man goes to the zoo .
When he gets there, there was only a dog .
It was a shitzu.
Number 2:
Two goldfish in a tank.
One turns to the other and says "Do you know how to drive this thing?"
A man goes to the zoo .
When he gets there, there was only a dog .
It was a shitzu.
Number 2:
Two goldfish in a tank.
One turns to the other and says "Do you know how to drive this thing?"
Monday, November 07, 2005
Full Time - Boo Hoo!
Well I am back to work Full Time now.
My four day weeks are no more.
How on earth am I going to cope?
SIGH!
Still another 4 weeks before we head back down to London and I get my PC back. Gaming on a laptop just isn't the same. At least Maggie has a 4 MB connection for me to exploit whilst we are up here.
The commute by train is fairly uneventful, but the cost is frightening. Still we are saving a small fortune in living costs and hopefully we will have a nice bathroom when we get back. The kitchen may also be done, but I am not holding my breath over that one!
OK - back to the grind.
PS Everyone in Kentucky OK? Those tonrnadoes looked nasty!
My four day weeks are no more.
How on earth am I going to cope?
SIGH!
Still another 4 weeks before we head back down to London and I get my PC back. Gaming on a laptop just isn't the same. At least Maggie has a 4 MB connection for me to exploit whilst we are up here.
The commute by train is fairly uneventful, but the cost is frightening. Still we are saving a small fortune in living costs and hopefully we will have a nice bathroom when we get back. The kitchen may also be done, but I am not holding my breath over that one!
OK - back to the grind.
PS Everyone in Kentucky OK? Those tonrnadoes looked nasty!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Drinks, Horoscopes and Life in General
OK, about time for a blog update!
Last night was supposed to be a night full of farewell drinks for some of my colleages of the past three years.
However I was meeting Gareth for a coffee before hand, and we decided that we were enjoying our catchup far too much to interupt it prematurely.
Feeling peckish we nipped round the corner to the Metropolitan and enjoyed a nice bottle of Tempranillo and a steak au poivre. Far more satisfying than fighting over plates of "nibbles".
Got home in good time around 11 pm to find Serena completely exhausted and Lauren being grumpy. I happily took over feeding duties and Serena crashed out. Lauren settled off to sleep around 12.15 am, so I decided to move my alarm back an hour, since a 6 am start no longer loooked appealing!
The commute in on my normal trains is fairly painless. The "+1 hour" combo turns out to be a tad more busy and also prone to be delayed.
Since I only have a 9 minute connection window at Linlithgow I was getting worried when the first train was 8 minutes late leaving Edinburgh Park. I shouldn't have worried though as every other train I was due to take was also running 8-10 minutes late as well! Hence I got into work 10 minutes later than my timetable said I would!
Reading the Metro I got through the normal amount of rubbish slightly quicker than normal, and also pollished off the Sudoku is record time, which left me twiddling my thumbs with 2 stops to go. I happened to glance at the horoscopes and read something along these lines...
My response to that is...
Last night was supposed to be a night full of farewell drinks for some of my colleages of the past three years.
However I was meeting Gareth for a coffee before hand, and we decided that we were enjoying our catchup far too much to interupt it prematurely.
Feeling peckish we nipped round the corner to the Metropolitan and enjoyed a nice bottle of Tempranillo and a steak au poivre. Far more satisfying than fighting over plates of "nibbles".
Got home in good time around 11 pm to find Serena completely exhausted and Lauren being grumpy. I happily took over feeding duties and Serena crashed out. Lauren settled off to sleep around 12.15 am, so I decided to move my alarm back an hour, since a 6 am start no longer loooked appealing!
The commute in on my normal trains is fairly painless. The "+1 hour" combo turns out to be a tad more busy and also prone to be delayed.
Since I only have a 9 minute connection window at Linlithgow I was getting worried when the first train was 8 minutes late leaving Edinburgh Park. I shouldn't have worried though as every other train I was due to take was also running 8-10 minutes late as well! Hence I got into work 10 minutes later than my timetable said I would!
Reading the Metro I got through the normal amount of rubbish slightly quicker than normal, and also pollished off the Sudoku is record time, which left me twiddling my thumbs with 2 stops to go. I happened to glance at the horoscopes and read something along these lines...
Whilst you are not normally the last one of the office, today will suprise you
with someone or something that will encourage you to stay late.
My response to that is...
Not bloody likely!Ah well, I suppose I should do some work today! Hopefully I will get back to updating this a bit more frequently.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Grim
Well what should I expect?
I am working in Glasgow and communting along the M8 from Edinburgh.... of course it is going to be raining and the traffic is going to be terrible!
Even after 4 years Clyde 1 still haven't changed their Breakfast radio show presenter!
Still George makes me laugh.
I am working in Glasgow and communting along the M8 from Edinburgh.... of course it is going to be raining and the traffic is going to be terrible!
Even after 4 years Clyde 1 still haven't changed their Breakfast radio show presenter!
Still George makes me laugh.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Get Stuffed
Gotcha (for now).....
Blogger have introduced Word Verification for commenting, which should reduce the random commenting I have been suffering from....
Hopefully.
Blogger have introduced Word Verification for commenting, which should reduce the random commenting I have been suffering from....
Hopefully.
Scary
Well Serena drove for the first time since her operation today.
Tomorrow she is driving to York with Lauren!
(I am driving up in a van behind her, but it isn't safe for Lauren in the van.)
I can tell Serena is scared, but I told her to take her time.
We have to take it easy as Lauren isn't supposed to stay in the car seat for more than 2 hours at a time, which means we have to take a 1/2 to 1 hour break somewhere around Grantham!
I am sure it will all be fine, but I am sure I will be tense until we get there.
Tomorrow she is driving to York with Lauren!
(I am driving up in a van behind her, but it isn't safe for Lauren in the van.)
I can tell Serena is scared, but I told her to take her time.
We have to take it easy as Lauren isn't supposed to stay in the car seat for more than 2 hours at a time, which means we have to take a 1/2 to 1 hour break somewhere around Grantham!
I am sure it will all be fine, but I am sure I will be tense until we get there.
Monday, September 26, 2005
A Changed Man
Well it seems like I have managed to curb my rampant spending!
What with the building works and the arrival of Lauren, I am finding that saving money is imperitive, so I am no longer buying computer games and DVDs on a whim!
I was hunting around on Amazon and they have added a "Wish List" function, so I have had a look at all the things coming out in the next few months that I would normally buy without thinking and have added them to my wish list.
What this means is that if you would normally buy me a Birthday or Christmas prezzie (not those of you that I have reciprocal "card only" agreements with), then you can now browse my wish list and not be worried about getting me something I already have or don't really want! Failing that - amazon vouchers will always be welcome!
This all seems very materialistic, but I like to think of it being practical and would encourage you to do the same so I don't need to hassle your other halves for ideas!
I am also going to have a clear-out of crap soon, so expect to see some EBay transactions in my name!
What with the building works and the arrival of Lauren, I am finding that saving money is imperitive, so I am no longer buying computer games and DVDs on a whim!
I was hunting around on Amazon and they have added a "Wish List" function, so I have had a look at all the things coming out in the next few months that I would normally buy without thinking and have added them to my wish list.
What this means is that if you would normally buy me a Birthday or Christmas prezzie (not those of you that I have reciprocal "card only" agreements with), then you can now browse my wish list and not be worried about getting me something I already have or don't really want! Failing that - amazon vouchers will always be welcome!
This all seems very materialistic, but I like to think of it being practical and would encourage you to do the same so I don't need to hassle your other halves for ideas!
I am also going to have a clear-out of crap soon, so expect to see some EBay transactions in my name!
Friday, September 23, 2005
Hijacked
I see that both James and I have had "comments" added from random users pointing to an off-site dating agency.
Don't click them.
I'll delete the comment shortly.
Don't click them.
I'll delete the comment shortly.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Back to the Grind
Well my 4 week holiday is over!
Now I have to get up at 1 am to feed Lauren AND come to work the following morning!
Anyway - I am working Part-time (3 days a week) for the rest of this month, so I expect I will get a few entries on my rather quiet blog!
Here are some more pictures of Lauren for you to look at:
Piccies
Now I have to get up at 1 am to feed Lauren AND come to work the following morning!
Anyway - I am working Part-time (3 days a week) for the rest of this month, so I expect I will get a few entries on my rather quiet blog!
Here are some more pictures of Lauren for you to look at:
Piccies
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