Somewhere Over The Rainbow

I spent yesterday in the Royal Preston Hospital. But, don’t worry, my recent HIV test proved negative (actually true, I had a HIV test because they couldn’t work out why I had a massive butter bean sized gland in my neck), I was there to keep Hannah company as she had two of her wisdom teeth out.
The day involved a lot of sitting around, we got there before 12 but she was only called into theatre at 6. I had my book about the Nazis but time passed slowly. Then again, it was worse for Hannah as I didn’t have to go through an operation under a general anaesthetic at the end of it.
While she was being operated on I went for a walk around the hospital. All day I’d wanted to do what I was about to do: I put on my IPOO and listened to Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. I looked for the Hyde Ward and Sam Tyler but even though I found neither it was so cool that I decided to do it again straight afterwards.
Hannah is okay anyway, she was a bit groggy last night and has a sore mouth today but the operation was a success.

I had a nice weekend doing some gardening, a task that previously filled me with horror but which actually turned out to be very enjoyable for once. I planted some bulbs in the front garden and have knocked up some seedling pots inside to grow some chilli plants, plus some poppies and sunflowers for the back garden. Even though they’ll take a few weeks to show up I can’t help but look at them every day in case they’ve sprung up miraculously overnight. Heh, look out for ‘Indietron Chilli Corporation’ in future months. Place your orders now.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it in here but the house has now been fully redecorated and hopefully the next thing I’ll need to do to it will be when I decided to tart up the living room. It should be okay for another two or three years. This leaves the garden, which will hopefully be finished in a week or so. I can’t wait as I have a monkey puzzle tree to plant, a cherry tree to buy and a barbecue to organise. Woo!
Apart from house things I have been mainly doing the following:

- Betting on horses
- Playing World of Warcraft
- Buying records
- Watching Liverpool

Saturday being the best day of the week because I usually get to do all four whilst drinking cups of tea and indulging in light snacking.
World of Warcraft is a great game and something I’ve been playing for the last couple of months. I won’t bore anyone with a lengthy blog about it, instead I’ll list my top 4 things about it. Everyone likes a list don’t they? Especially one that goes up to 4!

1. I’m from the generation that is still somewhat in awe about multiplayer games played over the interweb. I played around on a MUD at uni but that was obviously text based, it still seems quite futuristic that I can play a game and interact with someone in a different continent. Mental!

2. The game is split into two rival factions and it works really well. I’m not alone in enjoying helping out fellow members of my “side” and I’ve grown to actively dislike players on the other team. They’ve ruined too many quests and pointlessly killed my character way too many times to be forgiven and I spent a couple of drunken hours on Saturday evening waging “payback” on their blood elf asses. I tried to be all peace-loving at first and generally left them alone but it’s infuriating when they camp where you’ve died waiting for the easy kill when you resurrect yourself. They get nothing for ruining someone’s game, bar some obviously piapic surge in their dinkle-winkles. Horde scum!

3. The sheer size of it. There are lots and lots of different areas in the game, all with different quests, terrain, cities, monsters etc… Some areas I’ve enjoyed greatly, some have made me grind my teeth with rage.

Top three areas :- Dustwallow Marsh, Duskwood, Winterspring.
Worst three areas :- Un’Goro Crater, Arathi Highlands, Hillsbrad Foothills.

There is huge variety in the areas but there is also a tonne of equipment, weapons, armour, spells etc. I’ve got my main character to level 60 (only the last and hardest 10 to go) but I’ve really only touched about 20% of the game so far.

4. Playing with friends is great fun and I’ve enjoyed the times I’ve wandered off into a dungeon or off on a quest with a real-world chum (Dave) or the other people in the guild. Everyone is really nice and friendly and willing to help each other and that gives me a stupid warm glow inside.

See, not all lists are good are they?
Still, I wanna go home and play it now.