It has been a couple of months since the last post, but I put that down to being fairly busy. Louise and I have been trying to arrange the wedding and so far have close to 70 people confirmed coming away with us to Barbados for the ceremony. It is amazing how quickly time passes though, (it will only be a year away soon.)
I flew out to Vancouver for an Online Summit, internal to EA, and had to present a summary of some of the more interesting products EA had shipped with online functionality this year. Most of the rest of the time was spent listening to what other groups within the company have been working on and it was interesting to hear. At the weekend a few of us went up to Whistler which was a great place to ski. Unfortunately I only had one day of it due to illness, so I'll have to go back one day.
Easter weekend Louise and I flew out to Portugal to meet up with my parents to try and catch some sun. We got a little, but it was cold in the evenings.
I went back to DICE again on Friday and had a good trip. We flew out of the brand new Heathrow Terminal 5 which opened with many problems last week. It seemed fine to me now after a settling period. The odd unfinished lamp post, some staff that didn't know what they were talking about and some odd layout decisions, but pretty nice overall. As for DICE itself, the projects coming out of there look great. Battlefield Heroes looked especially impressive and will be launching to a closed beta very shortly. I've been playing the Battlefield: Bad Company beta on Xbox 360 too, and I think its pretty fun. It has definitely raised my interested and impressions of the game so will be picking that up when it appears.
I've filed my US taxes but had them returned to me because I forgot a form. Hopefully that will all be sorted quickly so I can get my nice little rebate payment sent to me.
It is performance review season again right now at work and I think I have done well again this year. I have submitted my review and I'm hoping for good things from the meeting with my manager in a few weeks.
Chris is back from his Asia tour soon, which has now included a month in the US. I think he is in San Francisco at the moment and I would love to be there with him right now to catch up with him and my friends. I'm hoping for a trip out there soon, but there has been no mention.
Thanks to my Dad and Dagenham & Redbridge I went to the Carling Cup Final at the new Wembley Stadium in which Tottenham beat Chelsea. After seeing things from a regular punter's point of view at the England game it was quite a contrast to see the fancy part of the stadium. I was fed in a fancy hall along with the players from both teams that were not playing that day and had a cushioned seat. Not bad at all.
I'm trying to finish up some games so I can get to others. I'm rushing through Mario Galaxy right now and want to get to Burnout Paradise next before GTA4 comes out.
I finally got my tools out and laid a new floor in our hallway. Its too much like hard work... all that bending and kneeling. My frail computer geek physique can't take it.
Randomly it is snowing here today. Crazy English weather.