Civilisation 5

I pre-ordered the latest Sid Meier's Civilization V (or Civilisation 5) from GAME for just £25. I've been a great fan of this turn-based strategy game for many years and was eager to play the latest graphically intense version.


It arrived a day before the official release date in Europe and frustratingly wouldn't authorise via Steam. I waited until midnight but it still wouldn't work. However the next morning it was fine. Unfortunately, no nice paperback manual with this version just an electronic file, so I've ordered the strategy guide from Amazon for an extra £9.

Having spent many hours this weekend with it, I'm happy to report it was well worth the wait. In fact the gameplay is smoother and more intuitive than previous versions and the addiction levels are even higher. A classic game redone to be even better.

Selling on Ebay

I've been buying and selling on Ebay for a while now. Just a few spare parts, especially CPUs as they are high value and low weight to post. Graphic cards and memory also plus my nephew's fridge that he left behind when he went back to Canada.

I've also been accumulating an increasing number of trade-in PCs that I've replaced wioth new DELLs. I decided it was time to reduce a few by selling them on Ebay. I started with a DELL Dimension 4600 that I'd refurbished starting at jusr £1 for 10 days. It went for just £23 yet others where selling for £52 to £71. Hardly worth my time and effort.

Needless to say I'm trying again with a Dimennsion 3000 for just 3 days. Want to bid on it?

My new laptop

A couple of weeks ago I was ordering a new laptop for a customer of mine. It was the DELL Vostro 3500 which I've been supplying for a while as a good quality, solid professional laptop with fine performance and all the latest technology features.

As I was ordering, I noticed that a slightly better specced version was available for a few pounds extra; the CPU Intel i5-430 was 20% better with 3Gb DDR3 memory (50% better) and a 320Gb 7,200rpm hard disk drive (30% better). Together with Bluetooth and Wireless N connectivity plus fingerprint recognition. As I ordered it DELL offered a second one for just 50% of the first. Great deal, so the price was £292 including VAT and delivery.

I figured that this was a great replacement for my old 5-year old DELL laptop which I should be able to sell for about £100 as it still offers responsive performance with Windows XP and a one and a half hour battery life.

Needless to say my new DELL laptop is superb and I'd recommend it to anyone!

Replaying an old classic game

For my birthday my son bought me the download of one of my all time favourite games Monkey Island 2, Le Chuck's Revenge. This is the recently reworked version with much better graphics, hints and the original developer's commentary.


A real treat to go back over the old island locations such as the cemetery, the voodoo lady in the swamp and the pirates at the dry cleaners! I did need help with some of the puzzles since it was a good few years since I had played the original version.

Really good fun and a welcome change from playing another rework of an old classic game Starcraft 2.

A wonderfully sexy keyboard

I treated myself to a Microsoft Sidewinder X4 gaming keyboard as a belated birthday present. I knew it was going to be different as soon as I started opening the packaging. What emerged was a slim, but weighty keyboard which just sticks to my desktop.

The keys are glossy with white lettering until when you plug it in and then a warm orange glow comes through each key. As a two fingered typist this makes it very easy to see the keys as you type. Also the keys are low profile with a smooth, full travel.

Other functions such as the media keys and the macro keys are useful and work well. It also has a calculator key which I believe is almost essential to any keyboard.

So don't wait, just treat yourself.

My daughter's wedding

The lack of recent posts to this blog is for a real good reason. Just over a week ago my daughter Madelaine got married in a wonderful ceremony.

The venue was Oakley Hall, near Basingstoke and it was just perfect and so was the weather. We could walk from the majestic rooms into the surrounding gardens and chat with our friends and relatives on the large patio. My daughter of course looked stunning in a beautiful dress and I was so proud to give her away to her new husband. The meal and service was good and we had a great band to party us into the night. We stayed in the very comfortable rooms at the hall and then just continued the following day at breakfast. Perfect.

Finished Borderlands

I've finally finished the game Borderlands. It is a great game and it took me a while to finish even with the game guide book. I didn't complete all the possible tasks and I did turn on god mode to kill the end game boss.


However I slowly travelled my way around Pandora and mostly sniped all the skags, bandits, rakks, spiderants and bosses that I found. I liked the caustic weapons the best as they continued to hurt the enemy after the initial shot and the trace gave an idea of their new position. I found a six-shot caustic revolver with telescopic sight which was a great melee weapon.

Now I'm going to try and finish the other game I've been playing for a while Dragon Age: Origins.