Boating & BBQ

It was a largely quiet night spent on Friday catching up on episodes of Saxondale, a new series co-written and starring Steve Cougan. Cougan plays Tommy Saxondale, an ex-roadie with anger management issues and a pest control business. It usually takes a few episodes for me to get into Cougan's style of comedy but I found myself instantly enjoying this series. The characters are well rounded and spot on and the laughs are four-to-the-floor when Tommy is on the verge of losing his temper. It's on tonight at 10pm on BBC2 so check it out.


I've also been busy playing a new game for the PC called Prey. The story focuses on Tommy, a Cherokee garage mechanic and former U.S. Army soldier living on a Native American reservation. His girlfriend owns a bar on the reservation whom he is trying to convince to run away from the reservation and Indian heritage. His grandfather is there also trying to warn Tommy of imminent danger when they are transported into a massive alien starship. After being freed by other captives, Tommy tries to locate his girlfriend and has a near-death experience where he meets with his grandfather's spirit who bestows him with spiritual powers. After returning to the world of the living, Tommy gains the power to perform astral projection, using his spiritual body to pass through the alien forcefields and areas inacessible to his physical form. It's a straight-forward FPS [First Person Shooter] given an added coolness due to gravity walkways allowing Tommy to walk upside-down and a unique method of room rotation adding a little vertigo edge to the game to throw the player off balance. It's nothing too ground-breaking but if you're craving something to fill the gap after Quake 4 then this is the game for you.

On Saturday we were off to Bangor for some boating courtesy of Lou's dad. We sailed out of the marina around 2pm and spent the afternoon cruising around the coast and mooring close to a beach near Crawfordsburn to enjoy the scenery, sunshine, conversation and a bottle of wine.




After mooring up and making our way back to Belfast, it would be a shame if we didn't exploit the good weather by having a BBQ so we stopped into Sainsbury's and stocked up on meats and beers before relaxing in the garden after a well-deserved sea expedition!




A great time was had by all and alas none of us retired to our beds until 4am which meant that Sunday was spent recooperating. I relaxed by sprawling out on the spare bed and watching The Ipcress File, a late 1960's film starring Michael Caine. A number of leading Western scientists have been kidnapped only to reappear a fews days later, brain washed and completely useless. The British send their agent, Harry Palmer, to investigate. Palmer, played by Caine, soon gets results, and is in contact with the man who could be behind the operation which is when his involvement puts him in danger. I found the film to be watchable on the whole although a little stilted and dated at times. It's not one to rent in my opinion but if it's on on a Sunday afternoon then tune in and enjoy.

Well, that about wraps up my weekend. I hope you had an enjoyable time whatever you got up to. See you tomorrow for more and thanks for stopping by!