Hello from Rhodes!

We are having a great time in Rhodes, we are online to get some addresses for postcards, but the weather is great, we have been to the old city and seen the knights castle and we have been relaxing by the pool. Right, off to play some pool!

Sadness

As we are approaching our holiday we have had some very bad news.
The father of my sister-in-law died on tuesday.
He went to see the docter early august, was diagnosed with cancer and it all went very quickly.
They are a very close family so my brother and sister-in-law, her mother, her sister and many many other family members are all very upset and will miss him terribly.
We are going to the funeral tomorrow (actually driving down this evening) in the hope our being there will be of some comfort.

--Miki

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

For those of you who are gaming geeks, you will remember a very old game for DOS or something even more archaic called Prince of Persia. The game saw you (the prince) being thrown into a dungeon and having to escape and rescue the princess etc etc.

Fast forward 350 million years to the present day and the POP license has been resurrected for every format under the sun. I always thought that those sorts of games were mass market crap, dumped down to be sold alongside a shiny new playstation or such. How wrong I was.

For the tiny sum of 5 Euros I bought this game (and two others in a deal from the Free Record Shop) and put it on my shelf to be played when I had time. One Sunday I remembered it and gave it a try. I was instantly hooked.

The gameplay is excellent, your character is likeable enough if not a bit square, but the acrobatic moves the prince can do are fantastic, just to watch the screen is a pleasure. The graphics too are not bad, some of the areas are a little bland, but the huge scale of the thing is the best part of the levels. There is also a very nice blurring effect when you are looking into the sun, which is very realistic.

However, the best part of the game has to be the dagger of time. With this weapon, the prince can suck the life force out of the bad guys, filling a power meter. Should something go wrong (you fall into a spike pit, or get chopped by an axe in battle) then all you need do is use the power of the dagger, rewind time a bit and do things differently! Why give the prince several lives when you can just mess with the time space continuum?

I will most definately be picking up the sequels (for the same price, though I may have to wait for that!)

If you can pick this game up for less than ten quid BUY it! You won't regret it! There is a link to amazon if you click the pic, they have it 25.99!!! I think I got a great deal!





- Steve

My cousin Vinny

On friday 9-9-2005 my cousin Vincent married his girl Thirza in Maastricht.
Neither of us had been there before so we took the opportunity and stayed for the weekend.

The wedding was nice, Steve met the remainder of my family, we cought up with peeps, ate, drank and even danced. It was also a good research opportunity for our own wedding. Only downside was the extreme heat, but you can't do anything about the weather.

The town was lovely, unfortunately our hotel wasn't !
well, you can't have it all ...



-Miki

Emperor: The Death of Kings

This is the secong book in the Emperor series and I have to say that I loved the first book and this book is turning out to be just as good.

The story picks up with Julius Caesar on board a galley in the med attacking rebel Greeks and pirates. The story jumps from the young Caesar to his friend Brutus, who is running away from a very angry man with an axe after he slept with the man's daughter...

I don't think it will take me long to read this one, it's totally gripping and I will definately be reading the final installment.





- Steve

Vice Duke

We went to Amsterdam again yesterday.
We went to the British consulate to get a "Certificate of no impediment to marriage".
This is supposed to certify that Steve is single, but what really happens is you fill out a notice of marriage and they put it outside on the wall of the Consulate for 21 days and if no-one comes forward to say they are his wife and the thing is off, then they assume you are single. Has any married person checked ever to see whether their spouse was on the wall of any of the consulates in the world ?

The second part was Steve filled out a form stating he is single and then we met the Vice consul and Steve had to place his hand on the signed document and "solemly, truthfully and sincerely swear and affirm" it was true...

The third part is you pay 128 euros...

We spent an hour and a half in there and they didn't even have tea, and they call themseves the British consulate!
We were really glad we didn't have the problems most of the other people had, like stolen or lost passports.

After we saw the Vice Duke we checked in to a nice hotel near the Leidseplein, we chilled out for a bit and then had a lovely Mexican dinner.
Today we hung out in Amsterdam for most of the day and now we are back home, a great time in AMsterdam and another thing done for the wedding :)

Miki