Wednesday 26 December 2012

Christmas 2012

A lot of the last month or so had been spent preparing for Kaleb's first Christmas. We were having the grandparents over so had a lot to get ready.

The holiday I had taken off work in December had been split in two; a few days at the start and the rest at the end of the month. We started off by going to London for a photoshoot that we had organised at the Baby Show. There was a bit of an issue getting there as the trains were in chaos, but we made it eventually. Kaleb was wonderful for the whole session, even after the longer than expected journey. The photos are great and we're glad we got them.

Sunday 11 November 2012

Family

I had the unfortunate news recently to hear that my Great Uncle Pip passed away at the end of October. 

I took the day off work to attend the funeral with my mother, grandmother, Liz and Kaleb. We left pretty early in order to get to Pickering, Yorkshire in time (and hopefully without rushing around when we got there). Lucky we did as there had been a lorry drive off the other side of the motorway as we were driving up, which caused a bit of traffic (I think later on they closed the whole motorway to get a crane in, if so it's a good thing we missed that).  

Saturday 10 November 2012

Return to Ravnica - first games

I have, so far, now played Return to Ravnica limited twice. The first time being the prerelease where I played Golgari, and the second being a draft where I drafted, erm, Golgari. 

The prerelease, at Chaos City Comics in St Albans, was a fun time. Liz had been out in London during the day, but came back with Kaleb to cheer me along. I thought I had a really good sealed pool (I had the Golgari prerelease box), with a Lotleth Troll, and a couple of scavenge creatures (plus the creature search thing), but only managed to win the first match. All other games were fun and close, which is the main thing. I think I've been out of practice for a while (not that I normally do well in sealed anyway). 

At Hemel the other week, both me and Liz were there to draft, again with me having Kaleb on my lap. I opened up a pack with the red X spell with overload, so took that first. After that, I didn't get passed too much red, and got a couple of BG cards, so moved into Golgari. In the second pack, I opened a Niv Mizzet, which I took wondering if I could get enough cards to support him, but saw very little blue or red so didn't bother risking trying, and stuck with the Golgari plan. 

In the third pack, I was passed an Underworld Connections (the opener taking a on-colour Mythic over it). I build my deck quickly so I could keep Kaleb amused before we started, I had a fairly low curve, but a fair number of scavenge cards, so did have a couple of things to be doing in the late game. 

In the first game, I played Joel, where we had some close matches, and I was fortunate to win the last match with a pair of Giant Growths. 

The second game, I played Liz, playing Rakdos, and we had some interesting games. The first looked like there was a bit of a board stall, I had some good defenders, and she had some big unleash creatures (who couldn't block, but would do a lot of damage on the swing back if I attacked). I won the first game, but lost the second very quickly due to a lack of lands of the right colour. She had a very aggressive start which punished me greatly...


I was able to win the third match, when she unfortunately had similar problems that I did  (although could do more with less, so it wasn't as quick). Kaleb at this point had decided to go to sleep...


In the final round, I played Sam, who we hadn't seen for some time. He had the four mana Demon, but by the time it came out I had a big enough board that I could tap it and swing for the win. I did stall a couple of turns once he played a swampwalker and I kept a swamp in hand, casting my black spells using only a gate, until I was able to deal with it otherwise. 

The set is a fun set, and I'm sure I'll play another guild eventually... I do quite like the multi coloured scavenge creatures, I had multiples in my deck and they seemed to work quite well. I did like the green hexproof dude, that worked well with the scavenge creatures. Removal seems a little light in the set, but the hexproof is always handy against what there is, and it makes the deathtouch creatures all the more useful, and giant growth a nice trick to help in combat. Hopefully a set I will be able to play some more in the coming future. 

Baby Show (this time with added baby)

I took most of a week off work recently, and instead of resting like most people do when they have time off, I was busier than usual. One of the events keeping me busy was going to the Baby Show in London.  Me and Liz had been to the Baby Show earlier in the year, however Liz was "carrying" Kaleb that time as it was before he was born, and this time he came with us (and I did most of the carrying,). 



Thursday 13 September 2012

M13

I actually got to do a M13 draft the other week. We took Kaleb along to Hemel with us, to see everyone again and when we were about to start drafting, Kaleb had almost finished feeding, so we waiting so Liz cold join in too - she hadn't the last time we went with Kaleb.

As he was still awake, I conduced the draft with him on my lap, with seemed to go well, he just sat there chewing his hand as he often does. My first pick was the new Liliana planeswalker, which I took quite happily and went to get as many other black cards as I could. I had a choice between Cower in Fear and the black ring fourth pick, taking the ring, which I think was the right choice.

I hadn't finalised on a second colour in the first pack, but stared to move into green.

I built the deck fairly quickly, it had a pretty low curve but some nice finishers. Kaleb had started to get fractious by this point so my first round opponent kindly sleeved and shuffled my deck.

I won the first match and lost the next two,all the time having some very close games. I won a couple by casting Sign in Blood targeting an opponent at two life :-)

In all, I had a fun time,and it was great to see everyone again. The set is fun to play,and even has some hidden complexity for a core set. I once cast Rise from the grave on my green "Serra Spider", and started getting the bonus from the black ring because it was also black now.

Saturday 25 August 2012

Things are going swimmingly

I took some time off on both sides of this bank holiday weekend, partially to spend more time with Kaleb, and partially to get as much unpacking done as we can.

So far, its going well. We've put a couple of bits away somewhere instead of just shuffling boxes around, and the conservatory has more room to walk around in which is nice.

We took Kaleb swimming too for the first time, as the designated baby/parent session is during the day while I'm usually at work. It took a little pre planning (mainly ensuring Kaleb had a feed an hour before we went in), but we got there in time for the start of the session, and slowly took him into the water.

Holding him, I sat down in the shallow end so his feet got submerged, then shuffled along until he got further underwater himself. His reaction was fairly neutral throughout. He didn't giggle and smile, but didn't cry at all either, so at least he doesn't hate it. I got him floating too; holding his head and bum, letting him lie on the water, then let go of his bum so that floated and I only held his head. Right before we got out, I let go of both for a moment so e could float on his own. A fairly successful session, the only crying I can remember was when we tied to dress him afterwards.

The second day was also swimming. It started earlier (and we woke up later) so we got there at the end of the session (it is general swim after so it didn't matter). Kaleb was more active this time, kicking his legs as I held his head so he could float. It did mean that he dunked his head under when I tried to get him to float on his own, but he was fine after a little cough and a cuddle (the latter being probably unnecessary as he didn't seem bothered by it at all). We got a couple of smiles out of him too.

Hopefully we'll be able to go swimming with him more often, we may have to find some time when i can come along too around work, probably in the general swim session.

I did spend the last two days thinking it is the weekend, so it is nice to have it only just starting. I think we'll be able to focus on unpacking a lot more now, and hopefully make some more good progress.

Friday 10 August 2012

The land of nod

One of the common themes or memes about having kids is the lack of sleep parents get. Another is how horrible it is to change nappies (it isn't), but that's another topic.

I get the feeling that, if this child induced lack of sleep is as bad as is made out, we have been very lucky with Kaleb not keeping us up too often. I think the worst we've had is a few nights where he woke up in the middle thereof and didn't sleep again for an hour or so, but that is rare in comparison to a 'usual' night.

Within the last month, he started to only wake once after midnight for a feed before the morning. For a while, this was sleeping through till 5, but a couple of nights he woke at 2 instead (before having a long sleep, past 5).

The timing of this one walk in the night seemed to spend on when his last evening feed was, so we started aiming to ensure he had a fairly late feed, a bit after 11, which would usually last him till 5.

For the last three nights, however, he has had his late feed as usual, but slept through till the next morning, waking around the time I get up for work. This has given us a solid six or seven hours sleep through he night, which we are pretty grateful for. Here's us hoping he continues to let us have some sleep too for the future to come :-)

Wedding

Last weekend, me and Liz went along to the wedding of two of our friends from uni.

We had a lovely time, with my dad driving us down and looking after Kaleb during the day. The service was nice, some interesting music played throughout. I wondered when the lords prayer had changed from old English to modern English. The bride looked lovely, and the groom was calm enough at the start to give me a hug.

We then went over to the reception venue, giving Kaleb a feed before dad took him to butlins nearby the visit his uncle who was holidaying there. I had an interesting kiwi drink before going into the dining area for dinner. Food was tasty, particularly the home made ice cream. Plus it was nice to have an un-interupted meal, which has reduced for us somewhat since Kaleb was born.

After the meal and speeches, dad had come back with Kaleb wanting a feed, and not happy with the bottle we left for him. We then brought him in to see everyone while the music started, and he became as popular as ever. The groom likes it when babies grip onto your fingers, and got accused of being broody.

We stayed a bit longer, having a little dance, before getting ready to head back. Saying our goodbyes to everyone, we fed kleb before driving off home. I heard YMCA playing before we left and was almost tempted to run back to dance along, but we were just about to leave and had a long drive ahead of us. All in all, a very enjoyable day, and I wish all he best to the new couple

Thursday 9 August 2012

Time and time again

I've mused about time and our perception of it a couple of times on this blog before. Sometimes thinking it for a by quickly without really noticing it, and maybe about how I felt I had a bit of spare time and not much to fill it with.

Luckily, the latter is no longer a problem. Between moving and looking after Kaleb, my hands have been pretty full. My only complaint here is that unboxing stuff seems to be taking ages, and I would rather be playing with Kaleb, which is a lot of fun.

My other observation, that time seems to pass by quickly, has also changed somewhat. While Kaleb has only been here about 2 and a half months, it feels longer. And the time spent together doesn't seem to zoom by quite so much, which I am happy about :-)

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Injections

As Kaleb turned two months, we took him along to the doctors to get his injections. He had two at the hospital, the first being a Vitamin K injection just after he was born (the first time he cried actually), and the second time was a BCG injection (he didn't cry that time). So going into the doctors, his reaction could go either way. 

Friday 27 July 2012

Trains

With the house move being away from Luton, it is no longer feasible for me to walk to work. I've considered cycling (I recon it'd take me an hour ish), but haven't done anything apart from just think about it. So commuting is now done using one of the selling points of Flitwick when we were choosing an area to move to-the train line.

Working in St Albans, Liz has been getting the train from Luton for some time, so we'd need to live somewhere near the train line for her to confined working. Luckily for me, I could get the same train line to Luton, which I've been doing for a week or so now.

Initially the price was somewhat of a surprise, but I am used to not only off peak prices, but using a railcard also, so. The difference is noticeable. I've talked to a couple of colleagues who commute by train and the recommendation is to get a monthly ticket (best cost ratio, I think after that the returns are diminishing).

In my years of getting the trains off peak, I got one of my first experiences with disruption yesterday. Must be a morning train thing.

I listen to podcast on the way to work (I've been a week or two behind since not listening to them while on paternity leave), so generally ignored the people at the station till I got to my platform, where ii noticed there was more people than usual. Then I saw the big delay signs...

I bumped into someone from work, who filled me in (signal failures near Bedford), so we wandered down the platform, away from the crowds to make use of one of the benches.

A little wait later, and a voice came over saying that someone had stolen some cables preventing trains from running. They seemed to put a lot of emphasis on the words 'cable theft', I guess to try and shift commuter anger away from them...

Sitting and waiting for a train (they were going to send one to Flitwick and back as it wouldn't be able to get to Bedford), we saw the fast trains zoom past. I was informed that they weren't affected by the cable theft due to being engine powered. Interesting. "It'd be nice if the fast trains stopped for us to help out due to the fault" my colleague suggested. "They probably would if the rail companies weren't privatized" I replied.

For some reason, it took a while for the train to decide to move platforms, and then actually do it, but we were eventually on a train and on our way. Not too late to work, about 40 mins I think. Maybe cycling isn't such a bad idea...

There were still delays on the way back, I found as I arrived at the station after work. While the prospect of getting the train one stop to get a bus wasn't great, it was a nice day and I wasn't going to let something like travel disruption ruin it.

One ice cream later, and I am waiting on the usual platform for the train to Luton. I hear there is one arriving on another platform, so start wandering towards there. Not rushing, there'll be another train soon if I miss it. My original train started to arrive as I had just got up the stairs, so I stuck with my original platform instead.

Getting off at Luton and heading for the exit, I thought I saw Bedford on the travel plans for the train I just got off. Checking the list of stations and seeing Flitwick, I asked a man in Orange for confirmation (I thought Luton was the terminating stop). It was going on as normal, so I got back on, and was on my way home, without the bus.

A fairly pleasant journey overall. I think I was lucky, both that the trains I needed to get arrived in a timely fashion for me, and also that my train commute is fairly short, so I am less affected by delays.

New house

After a long wait, I finally have a house of my own to live in, and not be renting.

We had always planned on buying a house as soon as we could, and knowing Kaleb was on the way had an interesting effect of focusing, for saving for a deposit and actually looking for somewhere.

Our first decision was roughly where. While I liked the 15 min walk to work, we had decided to move to somewhere that was not Luton. As we would both liked our current jobs and neither of us could drive, we had to find somewhere that we could both get to work via public transport (as neither of us could drive).

Harpenden was ruled out pretty quickly (very expensive), St Albans was ruled out just after (still expensive). I had commuted from Watford to work before and it wasn't overly enjoyable, so we would have to be looking north of Luton instead (which I wasn't too bothered about as prices seem to go down the further away from London you go).

Someone had told Liz that Harlignton was nice (one stop after Leagrave-part of Luton), so we had a wander round one day. Seemed a little pricey, and of the 6 shops there, seemingly a nail salon, hairdressers and gun shop were more important than, say, a butcher. The convenience stores didn't stock nappies; Liz noted the availability of which might come in handy when Kaleb was born.

As we still had some time left in the day, we went to the next stop north to Flitwick. A short wander around near the train station and we found it to our liking. Large supermarket next to the station (so access to anything we might need), and the house prices were around what we might be able to afford.

After our trip to Wales in march, we started looking at some places online. Picking out a few we liked, we arranged some viewing. We looked at 3 in total, two being unsuitable for our needs, but one being just what we wanted. Close to the train station, the supermarket and some schools, with a garden. Three bedrooms was one more than we immediately need (and thought we could afford), but it means its urgent for us to need to move again in the future as we have the space to expand.

We put an offer in, and was told later that evening it was accepted. We had hoped that, being first time buyers buying a house with no chain it would be quick (6 weeks they said...) So we could move in before Kaleb was born, but it took a long time so we only moved in a couple of weeks ago.

I'm already liking it more than Luton, its a lot quieter, even near the train lines they're not too loud (nothing compared to planes taking off and landing) and everyone seems friendly. Still in the process of moving everything in, and I suspect we'll have some boxes that need unpacking lying around for a while yet.

Saturday 14 July 2012

And the little one said...

Kaleb will be 7 weeks tomorrow, and its surprising how fast he's growing. Grew out of newborn clothes a few weeks back, and we can see him taking up more and more room in his Moses basket. Yet when I hold him he still seems tiny, so he's now growing too fast yet.

Developmental wise, he had a further advancement the other day. I had got back from work, send put him face down on his playmat for some "tummy time". After a bit of a wriggle, he managed to turn himself over! Laying there on his back, looking around. Liz was having an excited squee, and I tried to get a video of him doing it again, but he didn't seem up for a repaying performance.

He did the reverse later on. Sort of. I lifted his legs up to put a new nappy on and he flipped himself over onto his front. I kind of helped with that one though...

Thursday 12 July 2012

Last Avacyn Restored draft

Me and Liz organised a trip to Hemel the other week, to see everyone and bring Kaleb along.

As the M13 release was imminent, it would be the last time we would draft Avacyn Restored. Well, last time for me anyway, Liz planned to look after Kaleb and maybe get a board game in.

I can't remember too much about the draft (my first pick being not very memorable), apart from the fact that it was very diverse. End of the first pack I had a playable in all colours, but mostly green, so decided to stick there and see what else I could get.

In the end, I had more black cards as a secondary colour, so went with that. Deck was a little lucky, but had 2 each of the black common two drops, and some fairly aggressive green, so it was looking good. Two trusted forcemage and a wolfir silverheart were the top cards, and both interacted well with wandering wolf and howlgeist.

I lost the first game of the first round. My opponent had some good fliers which I couldn't do much about. I won the next two games by gathering more creatures to push damage through. A quick interlude to test out my modern infect deck, and I was on to the second round.

First game of match two, I won with the wolfir-howlgeist interaction. In the second game, my opponent played the hexproof soulbond creature before another one, so I was able to remove it before things got silly. A close game later and I git the second win.

The third match was very quick, I won both games with an aggressive trusted forcemage with blades bracers. And wolfir silverheart which was actually passed to ne last pack by this opponent. I'm sure they regretted that... The second match ended with both paired and a joint assault for lethal.

I think ended the night 3 matches up and one game down which I think was a good way to end the set :-)

Sunday 8 July 2012

Busy weekend

Apart from the weekend he was born, I think this weekend has been the busiest we've had with Kaleb. This is most likely down to the large amount of travelling we did. 

Sunday 1 July 2012

Department of Redundancy Department

I feel somewhat fortunate that my bank was not one of those affected by recent computer glitch that caused issues to the Royal Bank of Scotland and Natwest. It did, however, give me pause to consider holding multiple bank accounts again (I used to when I was a student; my old child account and student account), so I am not completely screwed if something happens to my bank. 


I was reading in the Private Eye yesterday that the RBS in the past few years cut a number of technology staff (and off shored some others), and now the major problems they are facing are caused by computer problems. 


I was extra amused when I read that because on the very same day, using a cash machine while out shopping, the RBS branded machine asked for me "PIN Number". I had a look to see if the cash machine I was using was labelled as an ATM Machine (it wasn't)


It would appear that there were no jobs cut at the Department of Redundancy Department... ;-)

Saturday 30 June 2012

Perception

It is interesting how time and events can change your perception on things.

The major one, as I have pondered before is how ones perception of time changes. Interestingly, it is often time that changes your perception of time. One way to see this is thinking back to how long days and years took when you were younger, seemingly stretching on for ages, compared to an older perception when it doesn't "feel" as long. Note that time itself isn't speeding up around you, it is your perception that has changed.

Another example I noticed earlier today was when I was holding my son, and he was looking out over my arm to his mother. I suspect he was the first male to stare about 20cm below her face that she didn't complain about... So events also change perceptions.

I would say the biggest event of all that can change your perception on something is experience. It is easy to have an opinion on something never experienced, but once you have gone experienced it, your perception on it can, and often will, change. Knowing this (or at least expecting it), I tried to enter parenthood with as few perceptions or expectations on it as possible. So my experiences will be painted onto a blank, untainted canvas, if you will. I think it has helped in me adapting to the massive change so quickly and, like Liz pointed out, it feels natural and as though he's always been here.

Sunday 24 June 2012

Four weeks

Kaleb is four weeks old today. The time has gone by somewhat quickly, but as I'm awake more, the days have seemed longer (I've mused about perception of time on this blog before). 


It's been a fun time. I get some times to spend with Kaleb when Liz is busy doing something and he's not asleep. At the moment, he's mostly just look around, but its nice to spend some time together. Occasionally he tries to focus on me when I'm facing him; he'll move his eyes or head around to follow if I move my head :-)





Friday 22 June 2012

Football - Alternative to Penalties

This blog post will be quite out of character for me, as football isn't really something I'm into. I guess Liz watching it because the Euro 2012 is on got me thinking a little. In particular about resolving draws. 

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Kaleb

Bang on his due date, Liz gave birth to Kaleb, our son. 



I'm almost at the end of my paternity leave now, so thought I would write about the whole experience of the last two weeks, and the new arrival in my life. I've already done a couple of small updates on Google+ and Facebook, but nothing as substantial as this post (as with before the birth, I add more to an opt-in list on Google+, so let me know if you want to be on it to hear more updates, I think it defaults to emails if you're not on Google+). 


Sunday 20 May 2012

One week to go

After all this time, there is only one week left until I'll have some pretty big changes in my life (surprisingly caused by something so little). Well, it could be a week, it could be less, it could be more (but not too much more), but soon we'll have a little baby in our lives to care for and raise. 


I'm really looking forward to it. 

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Drafting Avacyn Restored

Me and Liz went along to Hemel to do a draft of Avacyn Restored last night; probably the last time we'll be able to go for a little while. This would be the second time to draft the set, so we had a bit of an idea about what some of the cards did. 

Saturday 12 May 2012

The Helvault and Avacyn Restored draft

Due to some illness, I didn't go along to a Avacyn Restored pre-release. With a baby coming along soon I'm not going to be going to as many events as usual, so I didn't mind too much. I had a look through the set while it was being spoiled and it looked interesting though (but I sometimes find it hard to see what a set looks like without playing it). It wasn't one that I looked through and thought it looked awesomely fun straight away, but not all sets do that, so that's fine. There were a couple of fun looking cards, that I might try to get for a couple of decks. It seems to take me a couple of days to listen to the Magic pod casts I listen to (The Mana Pool and Limited Resources), so I think by that point I had listened to the pre-pre-release ones so was about as prepared as a pre-release (which, it kind of was to me, the second interaction with the set [1])


Even though we had missed the pre-release, on the weekend the set was released we popped in the comic shop I play at sometimes (Chaos City in St Albans) as it was free comic book day (and we were passing through St Albans), and were asked if we wanted to come to the Monday night Magic event they were doing, which would be a draft of the new set. We said we might come along if we had the time spare to. As it was on a bank holiday, we did have a bit of time, and did make an effort to go along, if anything because it's a few set and we'll have less Magic playing time soon...

Friday 27 April 2012

One month to go

Today, we only have one month until the baby is due. It might come earlier, or later, but there is only about one month for us to wait. 


As much as I'd love to get started on being a Dad now, I know I still have a little but longer to wait. I should be good at that, I've been doing it for the last 8 months...

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Dark Ascension draft

I've not been able to draft as much as I would have liked recently, so was happy that me and Liz had a spare evening to go along to Hemel yesterday. Getting ready, we wondered how many times we had actually drafted the set, figuring it had only been once, maybe twice. I had gone to the pre-release so was one time up, but it was still a lot less than I would have liked. 


Sitting down, we opened the Dark Ascension pack and I had a look through, before deciding that, as I hadn't played the set much (and won't have much of a chance to soon), I would go for a fun deck as opposed to a super powerful one, and went with Diregraf Captain, with the intention to get a fun Zombie deck. 

Monday 9 April 2012

Tidy

In my last post I pondered what I was going to do with myself over the long bank holiday weekend. In the end me and Liz did end up doing a lot of tidying. We finally finished sorting out stuff in the middle bedroom that we've had to do for a long time, which is good. Some things just got re-boxed again, but at least we have sorted through it at least the once. We also did a huge pile of paper shredding that has been getting bigger and bigger, and sorted out things in the dining room, including gathering together some books we don't use to give to a charity shop somewhere. We did take some things to a charity shop today; the first two we usually go to were closed (as its a bank holiday), but luckily we did find one to drop off two bags to (as they were getting heavy carrying them into town). I did also make some cake and a load of biscuits which I brought along to dinner yesterday with my family, which went down well. Still have some cake left, but the biscuits got finished off pretty quickly (I was eating them on and off since they were cooked, so I didn't have a full tub to bring along anyway). 


In all, it was a productive weekend, which I think is good, as it gave us a chance to catch up on things that we've been meaning to do for a while. Plus I got to try out an old cake recipe I had written down to see if I could still make it. 

Friday 6 April 2012

Four

This weekend is sandwiched between two bank holidays, leaving me with 4 days off in a row. As I have been pretty busy, I hadn't really thought about it, so the extra days off is a nice surprise. 


My problem at the moment is that, as I hadn't thought about the extra days, I haven't got anything planned, so need to think of something to do for the extra two days. 

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Magic deck: HaakonStorm

When Innistrad was first being spoiled, one card that caught my eye was Rooftop Storm. Reading the card, I thought it would be fun to pair it with Haakon, Stromgald Scourge...



Monday 12 March 2012

Wales Trip

I started the last week waking up to this view:




This was taken looking out the window of the chalet we were staying in for a holiday we were on the last week.  

Sunday 26 February 2012

Baby Show

As part of our preparation into parenthood, Liz thought it would be a good idea to go to a baby expo in London at the weekend. It was at the Excel centre, and I commented that I felt like we were all grown up now because the last time we went was for the MCM expo...

Friday 10 February 2012

Updated Terravore deck

A while back I updated my Terravore deck, and had it sitting around for a while waiting to test it. Then a friend of mine came over for a bit, and we got to playing some Magic so I got to test it out. 


The deck is all based around the card Terravore, one I really like when I first saw online when I started playing Magic years ago. I decided I would build a deck around it, and when I eventually got some copies of the card, I did. 







Dark Ascension pre-release

Bit late for this posting now, but I've been busy. 


Went to the Dark Ascension pre-release in St Albans the other weekend - it was on a Sunday (so they had already run two the previous two days). I had donated some basic land cards as there was a message on the forum saying they were low and couldn't get hold of any land stations. Luckily I had a box of spare lands that I sent along to be used over the weekend. 


I got there a bit early and we waited around until the start, lining up to get the boosters and then we all opened them at the same time (I got mine towards the end of the line so didn't have to wait as long as others). 

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Twice my life

Not done a blog in a little while, have meant to, but not gotten around to it. Busy I guess. Have a few things to talk about (mainly a couple of updates on Magic decks), and hopefully will find the time to do it soon. 


In the mean time, a fairly big event recently was my Dad's birthday party last weekend. He turned 50, which meant that, with me turning 25, I am now roughly half his age (or his age when I was born). Something to think about as I will become a Dad around my 25th birthday. 

Friday 13 January 2012

Baby Update (20 week scan)

I had a day off on Tuesday so I could go along to the hospital with Liz for her 20 week scan (yup, she's 20 weeks, so half way through). Luckily, the scan wasn't as early as the last one, so we got what almost resembled a sleep in. 


We got to the hospital on time (despite getting a different bus than last time which went a slightly different route) and went to the scanning reception, which we now knew how to get to and told them we were here. We went to their waiting room (last time we went to the antenatal area) and waited to be called (they were running a bit late).