Pub Lunches

(Lunches from Pubs)



JAMES says:

There used to be no stauncher supporter of pub lunches than me, what with all the meat and cheese and beer they usually involved. Plus, cheap as slightly nasty chips, and no awkwardness with tips and service. If you’d have told me that I might get a bit tired of pub lunches I would’ve laughed in your face and very possibly challenged you to a duel. But such is the position I find myself in.

The office I work in is a bit too pub lunch focused. Every Friday I am perfectly happy with, but then you have to add in people’s birthdays, after meetings, particularly sunny days, particularly boring days etc. Last week, no word of a lie, I had four pub lunches in a row (over 4 days, I hasten to add). After a while the constant cycle of fish and chips, bangers and mash and burgers oppresses the soul and the stomach. Don’t get me wrong, I try to resist. ‘I have bought sandwiches’ I cry, ‘pah’, they respond, ‘you can eat them tomorrow, you big girl.’ ‘But, I’m skint’, ‘it’s only £3, sure’, ‘I’m getting fat’ (I’m not, of course, but I was clutching at straws), ‘yes you are’, they lie in perfect harmony, ‘but burgers taste nice’. And there’s really no answer to that.

All I have to look forward to is a big pile of food, a couple of pints and a sleepy afternoon. Which isn’t so bad, I suppose.

6.5/10

Civilisation

(God Sim)



JAMES says:

This PC game is now in it’s third incarnation, but the basics are the same. You start of with a little village then it grows til you have a big empire and can go and beat up the Iroquois. It is one of those games that if you have a certain type of personality can take over your life, even though a lot of what you’re doing is actually a bit repetitive, building mines and churches etc. until you start to feel autistic. And I rather stupidly installed it on my computer right before starting to study for my next set of exams.

There are two ways of playing civilisation (or civ as me and my cool computer game friends like to call it). Either you can play it on easy so you’re the baddest guy around and there’s no challenge, or you can play it on hard and spend your whole time getting your ass kicked by the Americans, which is not my idea of fun. After devoting approximately a year of your life to it, you can actually complete it on hard mode, but you’re just another year closer to death and unfortunately it’s hard to transfer your new skills of building vast armies and crushing your enemies beneath your jackbooted heel to the real world. Unless you work in HR. That joke makes no sense.

I do hate feeling this way, as once I no longer get a kick out of dedicating my life to becoming the supreme ruler of a fictional computer world I have few joys left to me, but it just all seems a bit pointless. It is still the best computer game ever, though.

8/10