Go the office to myself this afternoon, hence the post.

Things have been quietly busy here at work since my return to Germany. Working under my new boss is quite frankly bliss. While I’m still managing my own workload I get support from him that my previous boss quite frankly couldn’t be arsed. I’m really racing ahead on the work that I am doing and things are developing quite well 😀

Still settling into the new house. It still feels slightly unreal and I’ve recently realised how freaked out I’ve been of late. I don’t miss Leeds one bit, but the constant newness of everything sometimes is a bit overwhelming. I could also do with some sort of social life this side of the hills.

Current challenges are dealing with the backgarden, which with the rain-sun cycle which we’ve had of late is turning into a right jungle and sorting out books/papers that were thrown into cupboards when we first arrived. Part 2 of the great RPG/comic sale has to kick off soon, since the garage is full of this stuff and I’d like room to store things more appropriate to a garage. Some sort of push bike may be in order, even though Rach doesn’t like the idea of dreamy hippys on blissfully unaware biking on the busy roads.

Off to see Skindred at Manchester Academy tomorrow and off to a wedding of one of Rach’s workmates at the weekend.

Here’s some piccys of the garden.

Germany trip

tower at nightTentacles was mind blowingly good. The location was spot on for a roleplaying con. The beer was ace and due to the german purity laws didn’t give you a hangover. The company was good. Lots of games were played.

Friday. After getting up at silly o’clock to get the plane arrived mid afternoon after a short train journey and a climb up the hill which nearly killed me (next year I will be much thinner and more fitter!!). Sat around in the sun admiring the view of the Rhine from the castle courtyard and chatting to people. Drank lots of beer, went to the Gloranthan Gathering, where the very bright future of HeroQuest was unveiled by the new publisher Moon Designs, then went to the convention barbeque in the courtyard prepared by Charlie Krank president of Chaosium Inc before ending the night with a game of Zombies !

Saturday played in a 35 player Freeform called Griffin Mountain or Bust, which was my first proper freeform. I had a cracking time playing, seven hours just flew by and have got the bug for more. It was a lovely way to meet a good third of the convention as well as playing a very memorable game 😀 Finished the night off by playing in a rather hyper 11 player game of Feng Shui run by Ginger Matt.

Sunday was the day that I ran 10 hours of HeroQuest using my 3 part mini-campaign, Red Sun Rising. I really enjoyed myself and the two of the players stuck with the whole game. One of the most memorable RPG games I’ve ever run. This finshed at about 11:30, so I grabbed a beer chatted then went to the closing ceremony. Never have I experienced such a feeling of pure love and posistive energy than was in that room. Not only  were we celebrating  this  years con but also the  ten years before it. It was amazing. Then stayed up until 3 drinking an chatting.

Monday got up and slowly got sorted out for the trip home. Never have I seen so many people loitering outside a building not wanting to move on. But they did and so did we gradualaly drifting back to Frankfurt airport to catch our flight back home mid evening.

I’m up for it if I’m not too busy next year.

Here’s the photos me and Ginger Matt took.

De Vinci Code & The High Temple of Capitalism

Went to see the De Vinci Code at the Trafford centre with Rach last night.

This was my first time at the TC, and I must say it blew my mind. Now I’ve been to my fair share of Megaplexes (Newcastle’s Metro Centre, Leeds’ White Rose) but this one was like a palace, full of columns, marble and glass domes. Shops were the same old same, but I was aware that I was in a High Temple to Capitalism. The resturant/food court is especially bonkers. The food court is like the deck of an ocean liner, with a fake sky (with stars that come out when it gets dark!!!), and the restruants upstairs are in themed areas (Greek, Egyptian, New Orleans, Chinese). We had a lovely meal at Est Est Est and caught up with each other. Which is good since Rach is about to embark on a week or two of nights while I’m off to Germany.

The off to the Odeon, in the Roman Themed section, to see the Film.

When me and Rach read the book on our hols a couple of years ago, we both thought that it was a nice light read that was taylor made for a film adaptation. We were’nt surprised at the news that Tom Hanks would be taking the lead in a film version.

As films goes the plot was fairly predictable, maybe because I’m pretty conversant in the conspiracy theory behind it all and had more importantly read the book, but what really impressed me was the fine and enjoyable performances through out.  Paul Bethany as the psycho albino monk (a role that I thought he wouldn’t have the physical presence to pull off, but I was pleasantly wrong), Ian McKellen,as the Grail Expert and Jean Reno as the relentless French cop really stood out.

One to copy of Sky Movies when its shown, and an enjoyable light entertainment film if you don’t take the plot seriously.

Still monkeying about with asp.net

Why all this monkey nonsense this afternoon? Because I’m finally nailing a webapp that I’m writing in Asp.net (Microsofts web programming framework). Its the end of a steep 3 month learning curve, and frankly its boring the pants off me. Saying that once I’ve done this I’ll be pretty much fluent and can really move on at work.

So while we’re at it heres a link to Web Monkey  an excellent web designers/programmers site.

and 4guysfromrolla.com, an asp.net tutorial site which is frankly keeping me sane.

..and Mr Newport Sr likes the garden and house too.

Dad came over on Saturday, after a breezing through all the traffic hotspots on the way from Washington up in County Durham. Had a great time and despite it pissing it down all weekend he took a fancy to our garden as well. George also turned up and we spent Saturday night supping fine ales in the halfway house. Had fun cooking a curry on Saturday and an mushroom and onion omelette for Sunday breakfast, and using the dining room. Defiinatly into the idea that I’ll be able to do a full cooked English breakfast like a bed and breakfast does next time we have guests 😀 Finished off the visit by going for Sunday lunch at the Halfway house.