Warming Up

Our house in Edinburgh had quite a few toys left behind for us to play with. The kids mainly, but I love playing too. The game that really gripped the imagination of both kids was one called Marble Run. We got it off the shelf on day one and they played with it every single day we were there. And so did I.

So as a reward for Phoebe being a good girl and for Ernie not having killed himself, we bought them a Mega version of the game for our house. And it turns out it's just as much a reward for me.

Disappointingly the game in Edinburgh had lost its marbles (we didn't just build the structures and then imagine the marbles though, we found a small metal ball in another game that did the trick), so we were delighted to see that a brand new game comes with an incredible TWENTY marbles, which is not only great fun when you release loads of them into one run, but also increases the chances of Ernie eating one and choking on it. You have to love the jeopardy.

I don't know about the kids, but I had a LOT of fun. It's the most brilliant game known to mankind and I've played Penguin Race.

Having kids is finally starting to pay off. God, I love playing. I have missed it. And you look weird if you do it without kids around.

I got some admin done on my clunky old laptop, cursing the fact that I'd somehow broken my newer one (as I think I mentioned the USBC attachment no longer went in far enough to charge the thing. I mentioned it on Twitter and someone suggested there might be lint in the slot - but I knew it wasn't that as the connector was sticking out too far. But I think for the first time it occurred to me that there might be something in there blocking the way in. And I think it shows how exhausted I have been that it's taken me four days and some prompting to consider that. I looked in and couldn't really see anything amiss, but then my eyesight is terrible now, so I hoovered the slot, which had no impact either and then put some tweezers in. A small piece of debris popped out and my computer was fixed.O had saved myself a visit to the Apple Store and the embarrassment of a computer expert having to tell me that the issue was detritus in my hole (had that problem at the doctors too). I have never been happier to solve something in my life. I guess Marble Run is turning me into an engineer.

It feels like a long time ago that we recorded this, but RHLSTP series 17 gets underway (in video - a few audio specials went out in July) with Angela Barnes.

Listen here 

Watch here 

And Me1 Vs Me2 Snooker is back for an exciting 94th time. Listen here 

And a swanky new newsletter went out today - I think it might have ended up in a few junk folders, but it isn't spam. Or at least it's spam that you signed up for. You can see it here if you want the latest news on guests for the tour