Bath Christmas Market - The Redemption

Very early driving lesson was on the cards first thing this morning. It marked the first time I drove in the darkness and also against a fair bit of rain. Still felt that I did rather well though and it was a good lesson overall.

Tomorrow marks the day the new Super Smash Bros game comes out so I spent most of today counting down the hours. What made the time go by very quickly was a meet-up with Louis and Rachel to go out in the evening to Bath Christmas market. I heard reports that it was hell on Earth, but since we went late on a weekday it was a perfectly good level of people, I'd even say it was quite empty in places! Really glad we got a chance to see the market after being snubbed by it last year, felt really festive as I munched down on a wild boar burger and sipped a hot chocolate - we even got a little decoration for our tree!

Manager Meet Up and Goodbye

Had quite possibly, the quietest day at work I've ever encountered so far since being at the coffee shop. Between 1-3pm I think I only served 5 people, there were 4 of us working too and after we cleaned everything there was literally nothing else we could do aside from chat and drink coffee - I'm getting paid either way so I'm not complaining.

After closing up the shop we all hung out again at a nearby pub for our managers leaving party. It was the first kinda social event we all attended outside of work and it was nice to see everyone with a beer in them and a bit of Christmas cheer. I brought Pass the Pigs with me as a bit of a joke, but after I presented it everyone wanted a go! It went down remarkably well since everyone wanted a go and someone even brought their own copy of the game off Amazon there and then so they could play it later. After we put down the pigs, we presented our manager with a gift (a copy of Watchmen as recommended by me) and a card, he was smitten since he wasn't expecting anything at all.

It was a bitter sweet event, no one had a single bad word to say about him and we were all happy he was moving on, but deep down we all wanted him to stay. In the time I worked with him I'd dare say that we became good friends and it was especially hard to say goodbye to him once we all left. If you're out there Mitch, know that you're a damn good egg and it's sad to see you go.

Not Quite a Panto

Once the working day was done Rebecca and I rushed home to head out to the glittering streets of downtown Bristol to go and see a play at The Old Vic, specifically A Christmas Carol. This particular production had a kinda Tim Burton / steam punk vibe to it which gave it a unique identity without losing sight of the main story. I asked Rebecca if it was a panto and she assured me it wasn't, moments later they were asking the audience to get up on stage. Bless this one little girl, they picked her out to play Tiny Tim and she did a smashing job, she spent most of the second half sitting in the wings because they needed to bring her back in every now and then but she was a good sport. Really enjoyed the show though thanks to some creative staging and some visually knock out moments.

Starting to feel the Christmas spirit a bit now. First thing we did after the play ended was buy a bottle of advocaat, which as we all know, pairs beautifully with a mince pie.

Manager Meet Up

Wrote up a little 'to do' list last night and I successfully followed it to the letter. The centerpiece was heading into town for some Christmas shopping, not only did I get some good bits and bobs, but also a calendar for next year and some Christmas tree decorations. In the evening U met up with my manager at work for some very casual drinks at the pub, was really great to hang out with him outside of work, sadly he's leaving us in a few days time and I really relished the opportunity to grab a drink with him.

StratLAN Day 4

Even though Mark was quite literally banging on my bunk bed to wake me up, I managed to sleep in until 11am this morning. So I dragged my weary bones back onto my desk for one final day of games, we were ready to stick on our PC's all day but Mark spotted a VR headset in the corner of one room. Since trying out VR, Mark and I have been desperate to play a game called Beat Saber, and today our wish was granted. It was a total revolution too, after I beat a challenging level I took of the headset and exclaimed 'That was so much fun!' I can't remember the last time I said that about a game.

A little while later, I packed down my desk and said farewell to Daniel as we hit the road. My feet and heart felt heavy after we announced we were leaving, its been a really amazing experience staying in the camper van and playing games with my close friends all day for a long weekend. In some ways, games are the ultimate rejection of reality and I feel that knowing that real life would rear its ugly head tomorrow made the prospect of leaving all the more difficult.

StartLAN Day 3

Committed to trying to involve myself a little more with the crowd here at StratLAN today and Mark and I managed to integrate neatly with some chaps sitting near us. Started off with a good old game of Worms Armageddon followed by several shooters and Golf With Your Friends. Our other goal was to go at it quite hard tonight too so we ended up playing board games until 4 in the morning! Did quite well I reckon.

Here's a handful of pics took by Mark and me of the event as promised. Got one of the campervan (I'm in the top bit that's all puffed out) really cosy camper.

And here's a few of some of the set ups in the dark, that's about 1/6th of the amount of people and computers at this event, blooming mental!

StratLAN Day 2

Woke up to a hell of a good view of the sun rising over the race course, it was practically beaming today, much to the chagrin of all the serious gamers here who wouldn't stand for even a smidgen of screen glare.

Spent the day playing a few more board games than expected which was a nice change of pace. Dan even cracked out the new Mario Party for some 4 player fun. I want to take a few more pictures tomorrow so I can make a little slideshow for Rebecca, make her chuckle at least.

Big shout out to Mark's BBQ beans too, kept my belly full and my lips tingling - just what I needed this afternoon to keep me going.