It’s 10 years ago this month that I published a post called ‘Home computer gaming from the 1980’s onwards’. A lot has happened in the last decade, both in life and with computer games. I hadn’t played too many games for a good while until the Covid-19 pandemic hit and Read more…
In a much earlier post, I discussed my journey with computer games since the 1980’s. This post focusses specifically on a particular game, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW) on Nintendo Switch and thinking about travel and experiences when you can’t actually travel anywhere. It also relates to the Read more…
I’ve been a big fan of the West coast of Scotland since going up there as a kid and staying in a place with a boat on Loch Shiel. There was nothing much to do other than drive for days out around the beautiful and remote roads and villages. Taking Read more…
Our camper van trip to Belgium was a long time in the making. We first hatched the plan several years ago but then, various things conspired to get in the way of our much-discussed voyage. However, in 2017, the stars finally aligned and we started to plan our trip. Massive Read more…
We’ve always loved our music festivals, ever since we first visited the Essential and V Festivals in 1997, but it wasn’t until Solfest in 2005 when we experienced our first festival with a VW van and our first child Summer who was just a few months old at the time. Read more…
Boarding the ferry at Kennacraig
It was partly the words of Jim Morrison, but mainly the Whisky Lounge that led us up to the Island of Islay in Scotland. We had taken our vans to a wet and windy Beacons Festival 2014 last year and it is there we had properly discovered the delights of Whisky. The Whisky Lounge was set up in order to educate the world about the “water of life” and the how best to drink it. They ran several events at Beacons Festival and had an amazing set up complete with Chesterfield chairs and settees and a whole lot of top quality whisky. We enjoyed it so much, we attended several of their talks over the course of the weekend. (more…)
Back in 2013 we got wind of a little festival called Beacons at Funkirk Estate near Skipton on the Yorkshire Moors. We didn’t know too much about it other than a band called the Savages were playing. We did a bit more research and got ourselves booked in. We took our VW vans along and had one of the best weekends on record. The festival was relatively small but it had an amazing blend of interesting arts things combined with some really well chosen acts that kept us entertained and amused from start to finish.
Lining up for the VW drive out
Back in 2011, we had the opportunity to check out the Circle Yer Wagens VW festival on the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man VW Club had arranged a brilliant deal with Steam Packet for £280 to get your van over from Heysham, entry into the festival and 3 nights camping on the Michael United football ground. We had an incredible time on our 5 night stay on the Island and we vowed to come back soon. (more…)
Magnavox 3000
I have to doff my cap to my Dad, who, in an inspired move, bought us a TV console around about 1980. Memory and the Internet fail us as to exactly what it was, but it played about 8 games, most of which were essentially Pong. I think it was the Magnavox Odyssey 3000. We might have still had it at our house had our rabbit Toyah not chewed through the wires in the hope that they contained lettuce I suppose. Either way, this was one of the world’s first home computer games systems and it paved the way for a future entwined with computer games. (more…)