After spending the first three days of a 4 day break decorating the house, we finally put down tools, paintbrushes and paint today, and had a day to ourselves.
I got on the 10:05 train out of Marlow bound for Maidenhead, with designs on raiding the second hand game stores. Now the next generation games machines are out, the PS2, XBox and Gamecube games are dropping in price like a stone…
It turned out leaving Marlow so early was a mistake. I arrived in Maidenhead at 10:30 and realised that (being a bank holiday in the UK) most of the shops were not yet open. I therefore walked up and down the highstreet, and learned a little more about the layout of the town along the way. Finally the shops started to open and I grabbed a coffee while watching the various establishments prepare for the day ahead.
When I used to run regularly, pounding the streets in the early hours was always my favourite time of the day - seeing the newspapers being delivered - the beer barrels being dropped through hatches in the pavement - the flowers being delivered to the florists. One day when I no longer have to commute to London I will resume my early morning runs, and once more wave as I pass my fellow dawn inhabitants.
So - what were the proceeds of my adventure? Mechassault, Prince of Persia, Halo and True Crime: New York for the X-Box, and all the Price of Persia games, and Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2. I spent the same on all that lot as one full price game. They would have cost 400 pounds when the games were brand new. I keep telling my nephew that it’s the best way to buy games, but he seems to be proof that marketing really works (and his parents do nothing to dissuade him).
I did notice while wandering around the shops that the Virgin Megastore had Nintendo Wii boxes on display with no “pre-order” stickers on them. While buying a couple of DVDs I asked if they had any in stock - Nope. It turns out there has only been one delivery of Nintendo hardware across Europe since Christmas.
Next stop was the book shop, and I had a bit of luck. While wandering around clutching a book I picked up for W (“Put Me Back on the Bike” - the biography of Tom Simpson), I picked up “Tyrannosaur Canyon”. They back cover had a quote from a journalist saying that if John Grisham had written Jurassic Park, this is what it would have been like. I started reading it on the train coming home, and got thoroughly engrossed. Not exactly the high brow stuff I have been reading recently, but I would argue that a good book is a good book.
I mentioned DVDs earlier, didn’t I. Following our cancellation of the movie channels on Satellite television, we are going back to buying a couple of DVDs each month. This month they are “The Holiday”, and “The Prestige”. We saw the trailers for both at the cinema, but never got around to going to see them - life got in the way as it seems to have for months now.
I am probably going to be banned from going shopping for another month or so. In my defence, I did ring W while wandering around a newsagent to ask if she had her latest knitting magazine - and ended up buying two copies - one for her, and one for her friend. The guy at the checkout gave me a pretty weird look, but he didn’t say anything - I’m guessing they get a fair number of obsessive compulsive knitting magazine buyers…