Herne Bay

On Thursday I took a trip down to the coast with my family to Herne Bay. Mum and Dad had to do some things in town there so it was the perfect excuse to take a day and come along. 

Despite it being cold and miserable, I really enjoyed myself. We had never actually been there, either shooting past to visit my aunty in Dover or going to Margate instead.  This also goes for Whitstable too, which I hear is also nice.

Its remarkably sheltered there despite it being on the coast. I noticed a lot of Agave planted out in the communal beds along with Echium (Tajinaste Rojo for Spanish speakers) and a lone Opuntia down by the Indian restaurant. 

Apart from that, its also a dog town, in fact we saw a meat dog (a staffy) carrying a packet of ham along in its mouth, as well as a few other nice dogs. So if you're a fan of dogs you are well served.

But what if I don't like dogs and am a cat person, well, they have a cat cafe which was not open at all when we were there, but you could see a few of the cats milling around, including a few Weedle types asleep in a basket, in the window.

All in all I spent most of the time looking on the beach (stones) and eating fish and chips which had to be done when you're by the sea.

In a few other news I got the Wailing Siren Mystery ported over and am waiting for another book to come before I start work on the Disappearing floor.

Oh and Goemon 2 + 3 are now translated. Though there are some screeching from the left as 3 contains the word tranny in it. Its even present in the original Japanese as new half, but don't let that stop you enjoying it.

Ilford Junk tour

Decided to take a trip out to Ilford in east London.  A place that holds no particular memories for me but has always done good. There are two ways in for me either a stop off at Stratford station and a bus (25) out at the bus depot outside or much better changing on the Central line and getting off at Gants Hill and walking through Valentines park.

We got to see a few horrible geese as well as some squirrels and a friendly dog too which before exiting out on the main road into Ilford itself. Don't bother with the bus unless you can't walk a short way, in that case you can get the 128 outside the station which will take you there.

Travelogue over with, St Francis Hospice had 10 CD's for a £1 and it was a struggle to get even 10 to do this. We picked up a few Mixology Multimedia CD magazines with a look at Propellerheads ReBirth before Roland BTFO'd it from the net, and I hope an interview with Lil Louis.

Some of the choices were just weird including a ragga CD misprinted with Acker Bilk on it instead (something of a win this as I can't stand ragga). A few singles and a pronunciation CD for opera which is weird, like someone incanting a spell, as they chant basically the words to Carmen or The Magic Flute.

Finally we have a few that were missing including an old Music magazine demo cd and for good measure the PS2 demo disk with basic on it so you can pull off that hack  to run CFW and back ups. I have free mcboot on the old beast but this is a viable version as well.

Finally we have a mural dedicated to Ilfords famous son, Jon Hare, programmer for Sensible Soccer amongst other well regarded games back in the day.

Fake Flowers and Game Stamps

Never really told this before, but as a kid I used to collect stamps. No real particular genre, my main aim was a set from all of the countries in the world. Of course it would set me in great stead for later on in life with general knowledge and that, and as a side effect can recognize most of the languages in the world from writing alone.

Looks like Royal Mail have brought out a set of stamps celebrating Gaming in general so if you want a set of stamps that big up Tomb Raider or Dizzy then you're in luck. Sensible Soccer gets a stamp as does Elite, but not Frontier, which I sunk 13 game years in back in the day, finally you get a stamp representation of Lemmings too which is nice.

Full list is

Elite
Sensi
Worms (why)
Wipeout
Dizzy
Micro Machines
Lemmings
Populous with Peter Molyneux's grinning face superimposed onto every one.

There are also 4 separate Tomb Raider ones too which is overkill.

There are a few notable omissions from the list which is understandable, so without further ado, here are my 8 stamps from British dev studios.

Thing On A Spring
Elite 2: Frontier
Hover Bovver
Tomb Raider
Manic Miner specifically Eugene's Lair.
GTA V Lindsay Lohan Look a like only
Head over heels
Sensible Soccer

Finally the Mail have been punting a story about how a child bought a Mammilaria with glued on fake flowers. Looks like they've been in a hole for the past 30 odd years or so, they've been doing it since at least the 80's. Even then I could tell they had been glued on as they looked unnatural.

Here is a blog post slamming these fakes, and if you want pink flowers on a Mamm then you're in luck there are quite a few nice pink flowering species out there, some even commercially available from B&Q.

Decade begins

Can't believe it's 2020 already. Where are my flying cars, jet pack and space travel?  Joking aside I hope all my regular readers, hah, enjoy a few happy and healthy new year and indeed new decade.