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After completing Half Life 2: Episode II I went to see what else got installed when I bought the Half-Life 2: The Orange Box (PC DVD).

Portal is by far the most imaginative game I have played in a long time – with a portal gun you fire it at a wall/ceiling/floor and then do the same again at a wall/ceiling/floor and the two points are then joined as a portal. So fire it in the ceiling and then in the wall and when you walk through the wall portal you fall out of the hole in the ceiling.

There are some fantastic puzzles in it that require a mix of lateral thinking and quick reactions. No baddies to shoot – the only shooting that happens is by sentry guns which you have to disable/knock over.

The tune you get at the end is sung by the computerised voice that guides you all the way through the rest of the game. It is really melodic and weird but I can’t stop listening to it…

Okay, my prediction about West End Gridlock has come early…

Roadworks short of Roseburn mean traffic is down to one lane, and the buses still have to stop so that’s a nightmare in the mornings – have taken to going through Murrayfield playing fields to avoid it – works well, much less stress and can join the main road easily beyond the tailbacks.

Then you hit the roadworks at Haymarket/West Maitland Street/Shandwick Place so I went round the back onto Melville Street etc.

Doesn’t add that much distance, maybe a bit more time, but less stressful for now.

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Just finished On The Edge by Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame. Excellent reading if you are familiar with what happened in his rocket car crash. Half of the book is written by his missus Mindy and she writes really well – very touching in her honesty.

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Friends of ours have bought and are doing up an amazing Villa in the spiritual Carcassonne area of France. Simply register with them online to be in with a chance of winning 3 nights for two people and you could be the first ever guests at La Villa de Mazamet

Below is a picture taken on New Year’s Day 2007 showing off the freshly painted shutters.

The fun is all due to start in the 2nd week of February and go on for 19(!) weeks.

I’m talking about the Tram works going on in Edinburgh of course – well I don’t even think its the actual tram lines getting laid at this stage – just moving the utilities out of the way of the lines.

Shandwick place, the main route into the West End of the center of Edinburgh is going to close for the whole of the 19 weeks with diversion sending buses and cars in different directions.

The route into town isn’t hugely different from my current one so now major issues there other than it being really busy. The problem appears to be coming out of town as bicycles aren’t allowed on the Western Approach Road. Either that restriction is lifted (not sure I would go on it though as its a wee bit dangerous), bicycles will follow the pedestrians along their route through to haymarket, or we are going to have to find alternative routes, up Lothian Road to Morrison Street I guess.

Will be interesting – glad I’m on my bike though as at least I won’t be stuck in traffic for my 3 mile journey into and out of town.

It was back in my Uni days that I borrowed a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel off Greg. Probably more than a decade later I saw Waterstones doing a 3 for 2 offer and proceeded to buy 24 of them – from The Colour of Magic through to The Fifth Elephant.

In fits and start since buying them I’ve worked through them all in the suggested order – sometimes taking a year to read one (other books jumped the queue) and in the last wee while reading more than 1 per month.

They aren’t the most high-brow of novels but they have been thoroughly enjoyable – making me laugh out loud on many an occasion.

I still have a few to go to catch up with the author’s prolific output but I’ve got some other reading to carry on with…

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