Hilarity, weirdness, Wii and Dismember

Work was an annoying day.

After work, picked up Will, Steve and Kara for a meal and drinks in the pub with Rob and Em. We had a decent meal and lots of drinks, and were entertained by the internet enabled jukebox which claimed to have 2 million tracks available. Steve stumped it on his first go, but I found 'Dismembered' by Dismember, which actually got switched off half way through by the bar staff - boo.

After that we headed round to Rob and Em's for an evening of homebrew beer, general conversation, Tiger Woods golf on the Wii, hilarity, photographs of hypercheeks, Wispas, and various YouTube videos. It was a superb evening, and a good time was had by all. I would type more but it's late and I'm tired. I do have photos though.

Must sleep.

Too much computers and Red Bull

After spending all day faffing around trying to troubleshoot that weird network issue and things, I spent the evening rebuilding the MP3 playing Optiplex with a 120gb hard drive. It went OK and I was able to get it running quite well.

Yesterday found that Morrisons was doing a 12-pack of Red Bull for about £7, which is cheap. Not a good thing though.

Examined my finances again. Next year is going to have to be very lean.

8-string Rickenbacker

This went for a grand on Ebay. I've never been so tempted to increase my debt so much. 8-string Ricks are rare, and I've never seen one in that colour. Amazing.

Fat fat fat

Oh dear God, when will my fat binge stop? I've been eating pasties and cake for the last two weeks with the occasional geek fest which invariably includes vast amounts of crisps, dip, pizza and sweets. Then this evening went to a newish Chinese restaurant with some guys from work for a meal. It was really good but the pudding was a highly unhealthy chocolate concoction. I think I have put on weight over the last couple of weeks. Mind you, it's that time of year again, the urge to do less exercise and eat more has definitely kicked in. It's really hard to get motivated to walk the dog and take other exercise when it's dark and cold and wet.

Other than that it was a frustrating day. Some machine was generating huge amounts of traffic on one of the networks, slowing everything to a crawl. Very annoying as we couldn't work it out at all.

The last episodes of Heroes are on right now, being recorded by my Mum. I had to steer clear because of the returning from the Chinese after the first one started. I'm listening to The Great Southern Trendkill by Pantera to block the sound of the TV from downstairs. To be honest, I rather dislike the shouty vocals on this album, but I've always been really into Dimebag Darrell's guitar sound. Absolutely astonishing stuff. I can't play guitar, too many strings too close together, but if I could, the ones I'd like to be able to play like are Dimebag Darrell and Angus Young of AC/DC.

The Dean ML signatures made in his name after he was shot are very, very metal, but I've always quite liked them. I saw a basic Dean ML bass for $200 while visiting Steve and Kara in January and I was quite tempted to bring it back as it was pretty good for the price, but the logistics were a bit much.

219mph on a public road

Urm, OK, this kind of thing is fun in Burnout and other games, but someone should tell these guys that driving at 219mph on a real road with actual traffic is a bit of a cockish thing to do.

Uneventful day today. Had a go on a simulator of an Underground train, rather dull but much funnier if you don't bother to close the doors and hurtle through stations at top speed.

Computers piss me off

I just spent a few minutes putting some parts into my MP3 playing Dell Optiplex. I upped the RAM to 512mb and found a suitable laptop style DVD/CDRW drive that would fit in it. However, it all went horribly wrong.

The USB card suddenly stopped working with the Code 10 errors that took days to resolve last time. Unplugging it left the BIOS without any power due to the dead battery so it lost all the settings yet again. The replacement DVD/CDRW drive I put in didn't work, and then a horrible smell of burning filled the room as the accidentally unplugged laptop style floppy drive cable shorted out against the metal case. Fortunately no damage was done to anything important, and I never use the floppy anyway so the burnt out cable isn't a problem.

However, after a tantrum, I discovered the DVD/CDRW drive issue was down to just having not pushed the connector in hard enough, and the USB card mysteriously started working again. Just weird. It seems OK again now, so time to put it back where it was and see if it behaves over RDP. Now I just need to work out how to get the tiny 20gb hard drive upgraded without disturbing anything. Ghosting the partition to another drive might work, perhaps. Dunno.

Given that I actually work with computers, it's odd how frustrating I find them. Windows in particular does some very peculiar things on occasion.

Edit: Took the RAM out, it didn't like it and crashed, and now the FUCKING USB CARD is not working again! For crying out loud!

Further edit: The hard drive has bad blocks and is probably about to fail. I hate hard drives, they are so unreliable. Can't wait until solid-state drives become cheap enough to afford.

Sloganising

(19:25:20) DoubleL: I'd Walk a Mile for a Snot.
(19:25:24) William: Lipsmackin' Thirstquenchin' Acetastin' Motivatin' Goodbuzzin' Cooltalkin' Highwalkin' Fastlivin' Evergivin' Coolfizzin' Massive Cocks.
(19:25:43) DoubleL: Penis - The Appetizer!
(19:25:49) William: The Dirt says Hot, The Label says Massive Cocks.
(19:26:11) William: They Drink Big Smelly Flaps In The Congo.
(19:26:14) DoubleL: Poppin' Fresh Ejaculate.
(19:26:32) DoubleL: Two Hours of Faeces in Just Two Calories.
(19:26:41) William: I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Old Mans Nappy.
(19:27:02) DoubleL: The Smegma that Smiles Back.
(19:27:13) DoubleL: It's Just For Me And My Pustule.
(19:27:20) William: Is Grandmas Anus Cream In You?
(19:27:30) DoubleL: Bulbous Hemorrhoids - It Does a Body Good.
(19:28:00) DoubleL: Beware of Expensive Diarrhoea.
(19:28:19) DoubleL: Diarrhoea Really Satisfies.
(19:28:37) DoubleL: It Makes Your Diarrhoea Smack.
(19:28:46) DoubleL: Nobody Better Lay a Finger on my Diarrhoea.
(19:29:09) DoubleL: You Can't Get Quicker Than a Slippery Genitals Fitter.
(19:29:24) DoubleL: Let The Slippery Genitals Take The Strain.
(19:29:33) William: Hope It's Pussy Chips, It's Pussy Chips, We Hope It's Pussy Chips...
(19:32:05) DoubleL: A Pubic Hair Is Forever.
(19:32:11) William: Wait Till We Get Our Herpes On You.
(19:32:17) DoubleL: You Press the Pubic Hair, We Do the Rest.
(19:32:35) DoubleL: All Flatulence, All The Time.
(19:32:51) DoubleL: Designed for Flatulence, Engineered to Last.
(19:35:19) William: There's First Love, and There's Anus Love.
(19:35:30) DoubleL: The Biggest Inflated Titties Pennies Can Buy.
(19:35:51) DoubleL: You Can Be Sure of Inflated Titties.
(19:36:05) DoubleL: I Want My Infected Boil.
(19:36:08) William: Please Don't Squeeze The Ballsack.
(19:36:23) DoubleL: I'd Like to Buy the World an Infected Boil.
(19:36:36) DoubleL: Built Scrotum Tough.
(19:36:42) William: Only The Crumbliest Flakiest Ballsack.
(19:36:42) DoubleL: Nothing Comes Between Me And My Scrotum.
(19:36:51) DoubleL: You'll Wonder Where the Yellow Went, When You Brush Your Teeth with Scrotum.
(19:37:02) DoubleL: Crunch All You Want. We'll Make Scrotum.
(19:37:14) DoubleL: The Best Part of Waking Up is Scrotum in Your Cup.

Try it here.

Acting drunk, and seeing my nephew off to the army

Yesterday was another Heroes fest. Rob, Em, Vicky and I went into Andy's house and watched the remaining episodes of Heroes that we needed to catch up on. Only two left, and they're being shown on Wednesday. I'm actually out with some people from work at a meal, so I'll have to leave my Mum with detailed instructions to record them. She has a monopoly of the TV all the time, so it's only fair that she can record something for me for once.

The day was also enlivened by lots of alcohol (except for the drivers, Em and myself) and Andy's home-made lemon cake, the fairly horrific Wales vs South Africa game and some totally random conversations. It's interesting how you can kind of adopt the mindset of someone drunk and join in the inane conversation. Some of the stuff was so random (and indeed disgusting) that it can't be repeated here. The perpetrator knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Today I played some more Mario Galaxy (up to 60 stars) and went to my sister's house. My nephew is going off to the army tomorrow and after his basic training, will be going to Afghanistan round about September time. Bit weird though, he was born when I was 10 and I remember it well. Scary that he's now taller than me. He seems to be quite calm about the whole business, but then he's always had a chirpy optimistic view of the world and gets on with pretty much everyone, so hopefully he'll be fine.Several of my brother-in-law's relations came round to wish him well too, so it became quite a gathering. Even my brother called from Berlin to speak to him.

Next weekend, my other brother and his wife are coming up. I saw them in March in Berlin, but I haven't seen my nieces for a while, so it'll be good to see them again. One of them is due to give birth to a girl in January, causing much dismay to the future grandfather and great-grandfather (not because of the actual pregnancy, but the being a grandfather part). Not to mention the future great-uncles and great-aunt. It sounds so old somehow to be a great-uncle.

Image is from Superdickery, cited as the best use of shapeshifting powers ever. I have to agree.

I need a pair of Hot Slags

By now you are probably confused, so let me explain. The Hot Slags in question are guitar pickups. Despite my attempts at thriftiness and saving, I still have the urge to tinker with things.

So I'm stripping the pickups and electronics out of my Squier Strat and replacing them as a long-term project. I was looking at some IronGear pickups which are called, yes, Hot Slags.

Not all that interesting, but I thought it would be a funny title for a blog post.

Black Crusade

Well, the Black Crusade was certainly interesting. Five bands in six hours, all full-on metal. I went with Ally and his mate Stu, who drove. We headed to Manchester at about 1:30 and got there an hour before the doors opened. We got some Chinese which was really nice, but Stu and I had the chilli chicken, which was very hot. Good though. And then we headed in. It was weird, being amongst the oldest there and the three of us were in the minority, not wearing some band t-shirt or having piercings or tattoos. Ally was wearing a white t-shirt so he was easy to find in the sea of black. We got a spot by the mixing desk in the middle of the arena, which was pretty decent. I got stuck next to a bunch of weirdos watching the England game on their phones, which was entertaining when they lost. Also one of them kept flashing around an iPhone, which he hilariously dropped face down onto a filthy piece of chewing gum on the floor. Also I kept standing on something squashy which turned out to be a Machine Head t-shirt one of them had bought for £30 or so which I had then trodden thoroughly into the beer soaked floor.

Shadows Fall were loud and not that great. Arch Enemy were pretty good although the woman's shouty vocals were a bit much. I was expecting to enjoy DragonForce more than I did but their guitar wankery based songs didn't go down very well and were pretty tedious. The last bands were Trivium and Machine Head, both of whom were really good.

I'm not sure which band the picture is of, but that person doing the devil horns did it just at the right moment, and I thought it summed up the evening quite well.

I quite enjoyed it, although it was seriously loud. Full-on metal isn't really my thing these days and I'm more into the AC/DC style of rock, but I did have a good time. I was worried about going as crowds bother me, but I stayed well clear of the pit and it was fine.

Today went round to my Dad's and had a look at his wife's new car. She got an ex-demo Mercedes C200 Kompressor, which she got with basically every extra you can imagine for the price of a basic model. It even has the sat-nav which is a £2000 option. It works really well and I was able to plot a route to my brother's apartment in Berlin and to the hotel we stayed in at Madrid. The stereo also has iPod integration and we tested the iPod Touch on it. It worked perfectly and even displays the song on the little display in the middle of the speedo. It was a bit embarassing as the first song it played was 'Fucking Hostile' by Pantera.

We had a look at my wipers and had dismantled quite a lot of it before realising we didn't actually have to. Oh well, it was interesting to see how the mechanism worked, and we cleaned it all up and greased it. One is a little off, but at least they both work OK now.

There was very nearly a disaster too. I had left my Discovery at the end of their driveway so it was out of the way. My Dad forgot it was there, and reversed at top speed towards it in his new Fabia. Fortunately my frantic cries of 'STOP!' got through and he braked, inches from collision. His rear bumper probably wouldn't have stood much of a chance against my towbar, so that was lucky.

Black Crusade

Just got back from the Black Crusade. It was good, and also LOUD. Full report tomorrow.

50 Stars and counting

Up to 50 stars in Super Mario Galaxy. I think other stuff happened today...but I can't remember...must get more stars...

Games, rugby and food

Spent most of yesterday in a rugby club with Rob,Em, Andy and Vicky, Em's sister. In theory we were watching Rugby but most of the time there was spent talking about various things. This was then followed by an epic Chinese meal and a nostalgia fest of old kids shows off YouTube. Highlights were SuperTed (HOW camp is Skeleton) and the Rainbow Twangers episode.

Today walked the dog which was really annoying. If you have two very excitable dogs, you keep them on a lead right? Not this guy we met while trying to get out the way of a madman in a Volvo who hurtled in a junction without looking. This black shaggy thing suddenly shot across the road and went for the hound. All he was doing was sniffing but he did it so aggressively that my dog was terrified. Then the Volvo moron reversed unexpectedly and things got even worse. The guy with the two insane dogs was very apologetic but I still think he is a fool. I've had the hound attacked before by out of control dogs with idiot owners. Annoying.

Then spent the day playing Galaxy for a rather long time. I've got back to where we were the other day and found a couple of secrets along the way. Superb game. It's inspired me to dig out my copy of New Super Mario Bros on the DS. Work tomorrow. Boo. But have got Wed and Thu off as going to see the Black Crusade in Manchester. Should be fun.

Sleepy now.

Too much?

Time spent playing Super Mario Galaxy today: 9 hours. That doesn't include the time spent on Assassin's Creed (about an hour and a half), Portal (at least 45 minutes) and Tiger Wood (at least 20 minutes).

Needless to say, my head is somewhat babbled right now.

Honestly though, Super Mario Galaxy is amazing. I am actually relishing having to play my copy again for 9 hours to get where Will, Rob and I got to today. Plus, the two player mode, while not full two player, works well enough to make it fun for two people to play. It is the defining game for the Wii, rather like Super Mario 64 defined the N64.

Super Mario Assassin

So we are taking a break from the wonderful world of Super Mario Galaxy by attempting to complete the inordinately hard tutorial for tiger Woods Golf. It works but seems to be incredibly hard. Assassin's Creed? Yeah well. It looked like it was going to be al period but unfortunately it has a gimpy Matrix style futuristic storyline involving genetic memory, which drove Rob to tears of anger. When it was actuallly in the game though, it was pretty playable. Spent some time playing the Portal game out of the Orange Box, which is genius.

But Mario Galaxy is awesome. It is a total joy to play, looks fantastic, and is just awesome. Unlike Tiger Wood, which actually seems broken as it is so hard.

Incidentally, I got £55 for the six games I traded, which wasn't too bad. We went to GameStation in the end which as worth it for the two trained chimps behind the counter. We also got rather a lot of crisps. Definitely try the Honey Barbecue and Sweet Chilli Kettle Chips.

Got that slightly disorientated feeling I get when concentrating too hard on a game I really like, not felt like that for a while. This has got to be the longest thing I have ever typed in one go on the iPod Touch.

Tiger Woods is hard. Actually rather like real golf, which kind of makes it not fun. Give me Mario Golf or Wii Sports any time. Also Mario Golf has cool treehouse courses and things. Rob and Will are getting frustrated, the tension is high and the language ripe.

cue mass hilarity at discovering the face editor in Toget Woods has a field called "Nostril Detail". Worrying. Will's golfer is a fat, scarred squat ugly man with a hideous face and horribe teeth. Reminds me of Second Life where we set out to make our characters as ugly as possible to go against the norm of tall beautiful people.

I don't want to play it at all.

Randomness and Galaxy GAN

Frustrating and busy day today in work. For the first time ever I came very close to losing my rag completely with a user. Fortunately it was resolved easily enough but it was a very tense moment.

Badminton was OK, but frustrating. I know I can pull off some good shots on occasion but I'm still shit at being in the right place when it matters. This is why I tend to prefer singles, but never really get a chance to play it.

Super Mario Galaxy is out tomorrow and Assassin's Creed, which I'm getting despite mixed reviews. Will and I are calling the day 'Super Mario Assassin' but Rob is going to have to call it 'Super Mario Wood' as he seems intent on getting the new Tiger Woods golf game for the Wii.

I'm going to trade the following Xbox 360 and Wii games:

Excite Truck: Fun, but repetitive after a while and I never really got into it.

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam: Actually a really good game but I got as far as I could and got frustrated. Probably the only Tony Hawk game I actually really enjoyed since Tony Hawk 3 on the PS2.

Rayman Raving Rabbids: It was OK until Wario Ware: Smooth Moves came out which was better all ro und and more fun.

Test Drive Unlimited: OK but boring after you've painted your fifth Lamborghini in tasteless colours and multiplayer is just your typical Xbox Live crap, being insulted by 12 year olds in Enzo Ferraris.

Gears of War: It was undoubtedly a good game and looked incredible. But the campaign was too sh ort, I don't like the control system and the multiplayer sucks (IMHO).

Viva Pinata: Oddly enough I bought this game and never actually played it. I am determined to one day...but not just right now. Also there is a DS version coming out.

After years of (allegedly) playing the bass, I can finally manage to come close to playing Iron Maiden bass lines. Steve Harris has a fairly unique way of playing and I've found it quite hard to get the hang of it. But it's worth it. He's the reason my dream bass has always been a Fender Precision Bass.

Say what you like about Iron Maiden, but I've liked them since I was 10 years old and was lent the Powerslave album. The first album I ever bought for myself was their debut album. My proudest moment was getting an enormous poster cover for the 'Can I Play with Madness' single. Why? Because my Mum thought it was the most revolting thing she'd ever seen and refused to come into my room when it was up on the wall. You can see it above. I still think it's an awesome image.

Icky sticky mud, yuck

Need to underseal the Discovery. But it's rather intimidating. It needs to be completely clean and dry before applying Waxoyl or something, but given that I live up a muddy, wet track it's not easy. I did look into getting it done professionally and there's a company called BeforeNAfter which is quite highly recommended. The catch is that it would cost about £460 for the Discovery, which I can't afford and is about half of what the vehicle is worth anyway, though you could argue that having it done would increase it's value.

Oh well. I think the best idea would be to get it steam cleaned underneath and then take it to my Dad's and do it there on top of a huge tarpaulin or something. While I'm at it, the engine could do with a clean and the axles aren't too pretty either.

It's weird having only one wiper. It's like there's something wrong with your left eye. So it needs that fixing (which I can do), a track rod end and the steering wheel straightened. Also the springs still need replacing and the gearbox/transfer box main shaft is clunking. But hopefully that'll keep going until it's up to at least 150,000 miles. If it starts jumping out of gear, then I'll worry.

Got rained on while walking the dog, annoyingly. It was fairly repulsive today, cold, windy and wet.

The pic is of a cyclops and when I first saw this at about 7 years old, it scared the shit out of me. I still don't like it now.

Tiredness

Woke up early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, which was annoying. Then when I was defrosting the car, I accidentally hit the wipers while the windscreen was still frozen. The driver's side wiper went, but the other didn't. Now it just sits at the bottom of the windscreen and twitches occasionally. I was hoping to take a look at it after work but was thwarted by the Mystery of the Missing Socket Set. I hope it doesn't rain before I can fix it.

Played with the new Mii contest channel on the Wii. Looks quite fun, or it will be when it's properly running. Also dug out Amplitude for the PS2, a rhythm action game I got bored of rather quickly last year because while it's a good game, the button combos are a bit crap. It's fun to mess with though.

Feh. That sums up the day pretty much. The Monorail Cat always makes me giggle. Also LOLCODE is awesome.

Trumpets of Depression

Friday was meh, had a dull day in work and then went to badminton and just hated every minute of it. For some reason I wasn't in the mood. The pub afterwards was OK though.

Saturday was better, met up with some old work colleagues, one of whom is going home to China for ever. That was good and if I ever want to visit Beijing, I know I've got somewhere to crash (seriously!). After that went to Andy's to join him, Rob and Em in a mad Heroes fest. I missed the first few episodes but we watched so many I picked up fairly quickly what was going on. I think there's about four left, so that should be interesting. It's a pretty good series.

Today was a fairly useless day. Weather was treacherously changable so didn't walk the dog, but did take him for a run and play. In the last few months he seems to have realised how to be playful, which is nice, as he's always been a bit of a serious minded creature.

Also played around with my crappy Squier Strat and made some atrocious noises because it won't stay in tune, but then it did only cost £15 from a car boot sale and needs some new machine heads. Then watched some DVDs and read the trade paperback Chronicles of Wormwood. Probably not recommended if you're religious (like most of Garth Ennis' stuff) but I really liked it.

Didn't achieve anything else other than realising that if just specified the width (480) when ripping the DVD, the height is worked out for you and it then displays OK on the iPod. It should also work on the PSP as the screen is the same width, but less height (touch=320, PSP=272).

The iPhone is out. If it wasn't so ludicrously expensive to get one (£270 for the phone plus £35 for 18 months on O2) in the UK, it might have been the first thing to tempt me away from Nokia. Interesting that in France it's illegal to not sell an unlocked version of a phone.

I have rediscovered the joys of Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes, the greatest cereal of all time. Also the Wispa has returned, cue dancing girls and orgies in the streets.

Soup, stuff and touch video

Work was not notable. Except I went to to the delicatessen which does great sandwiches. At this time of year though, they also do nice soup and I had some of the Cream of Vegetable. It's really tasty and you get a bread roll with it. Superb.

This evening I experimented with a program called Handbrake that Steve told me about. It lets you rip DVDs into formats suitable for playing on iPods and things. I used the Linux version which operates solely from the command line. Even then it was a simple matter to rip a DVD into the 480x320 resolution of the iPod touch. The resultant file was small and looked great on the device itself. The first test was Rubber Johnny, as it's only short and was only 48mb. The next test was Star Wars Episode III which squidged into a 1.1gb file. It worked, but the aspect ratio wasn't right, so it was stretched. Played OK though.

I'm really happy with the Touch. I just wish I could have got the 16gb version and I'm sure there'll be a 32gb version when flash prices drop. If I could afford it, I'd certainly pick one up if it came out.

Cinema

Went to the cinema with Rob, Em and Will, preceded by a visit to Pizza Hut. Amazingly the meal was OK, on time and correct. Service at Pizza Hut can be patchy so that was a nice change. Maybe it's because they seem to pick their staff on looks rather than competence. The film we went to see was Elizabeth. It wasn't dreadful, but had a lot of montages and things that made it drag rather. Also Clive Owen was dreadful.

Other than that, a fairly uneventful day. Nothing else springs to mind as being blog worthy. Tired now and the touch keyboard is a bit of a pain for much typing...

Underground

Work was meh. This evening was meh, cold and dark.

The Jubilee line trains make that interesting sound that always reminds me of holidays, because there are similar sounding trains on the Madrid and Berlin Metros. I'm not sure what that sound actually is, but I like it. The Washington DC Metro made a similar sound, but it was a thin hum.

While you're appreciating the sound the trains make, how about having a dinner party on the train? Wish I'd seen something like that on the Underground rather than the usual boring miserable commuters.

Got the 16th November off for Super Mario Galaxy - hurrah! I think that may be payday and if it is, I'm hoping to pick up a copy of Assassin's Creed at the same time.

Flying V Ukulele. Maybe the coolest thing I've seen today, which is a little sad.

Bang!!!!!

Went round with Will to Rob and Em's after work and had some of the vast vat of chilli that Rob made, along with some of Em's fantastic home made rolls. The went to the huge bonfire opposite Sainsbury's. It was really good too, absolutely enormous and with really good fireworks. We were also kept entertained by a woman behind us who kept saying things like "It's all gunpowder this, there's no electronics". Em and I had a ritual toffee apple though it should really be called a Red Sugar and Crap Apple. All good fun. After that watched some QI before going our separate ways.

Work was OK after a week away, much to my surprise. So that was nice.

Portmanteau

Did nothing yesterday. The weather was crap, the mood oppressive and I just didn't do anything much. Was also tired after the ultra-crappy trip back from London.

Actually I did spent some time downloading album covers to install in iTunes so that the coverflow mode on the iPod touch looked better. That's quite a nice feature, it's like flicking through a CD collection now. I'm quite happy with it. At the moment it's a competent music player and internet browser, and hopefully now that Apple will be releasing an SDK in February, some decent software will come out.

Today went to up where that house was being built and saw the assembled timber frame. It's pretty cool, about 10 metres square and like a tall bungalow. Now that the frame is up it makes more sense. Should be great when it's finished but there's still a lot of work to be done and the planning department of the council love throwing spanners in the works.

Other than that I completed Halo 3 today (sorry Rob, I got impatient). Just like the first game, some levels are amazing, and some are utter pants. The two worst were a Flood ship and the final Warthog dash, which was utter, utter shite. It played like something out of a PS1 game or something. So there. Halo 3 does have good moments and the multiplayer is excellent. But the campaign was lacking, just like Halo and Halo 2.

Back

The course finished at half twelve or thereabouts, so I wandered around a bit before trying to get a train. It was a good course to be fair.

I happened to go into a guitar shop in Denmark Street just as they had a load of guitars come in. I'd been in there before and examined a 1960's Gibson EB-2 (£2,500) and a 1960's Precision Bass in Candy Apple Red (£1995). Not the most expensive, one place there had an immaculate 1963 Strat for £27,500.

So they had some great stuff in there. But as they unpacked this load of guitars, I watched in amazement as vintage Les Pauls were briefly examined and put carelessly on stands, along with a couple of vintage Jazz Basses, and even a Mustang and MusicMaster.

But then they unpacked a black Rickenbacker 4003 (just like the pic above). One of my objectives for this week in London was to play one and so far I hadn't found one. So I asked the guy if I could have a go on it. He quickly hooked it up to a massive amp and left me to it. And wow. This has been one of those things where I was worried that I'd hyped it to myself so much that the real thing would be a big let-down.

But what an instrument. It felt right in every conceivable way, the shape, weight, style, the neck, the sound, everything. It wasn't perfect, the pickup switch was a little wobbly and the E string was too quiet (easy fixes), but what a bass. Oddly enough they unpacked two exactly the same except one was fretless, though I didn't try that one. Also in another place I had a quick go on an example of the tiny rubber stringed Ashbory bass, and in the same place, a full scale double bass, which was interesting.

I didn't inquire as to the price of the 4003. They are not all that common in the UK, and command a huge premium. The answer would have just depressed me anyway.

The train back from Euston was a nightmare. I didn't get a seat until Crewe.

It's odd to be back. Despite my complaints, I'd sort of got used to London. I did take my camera, but as I didn't really do anything touristy, I didn't actually take any pictures.

My feet are killing me. My work shoes suck for walking around in and I've done a hell of a lot of that over the last few days.

London

Things I like about London

The Tube, you can get anywhere on it.
Shops, you can get anything and I've seen several dream basses in the flesh.
Food, shop carefully and you can get bargains, got an all-you-can-eat Thai buffet for £6.50, and it wasn't bad either.
Loads of things to do.
Mix of cultures.
It stays awake into the late evening.

Things I dislike about London

The Tube, noisy, smelly, hot, and horrible when busy.
The Jubilee line gets a special mention because at 8:20am it's hideous.
So many people (which admittedly is the definition of a city)
Regent Street, full of expensive shops with shallow people buying branded stuff like iPods and Lacoste.
Snot shouldn't be black.

It's fun to visit but I wouldn't want to live here.