Team Blog

I was up early, priorities straight: I went to town to pick up the new Nintendo Wii before work . More money on more consoles but this a "revolution" and I can't wait to set it up and wander through Hyrule.

You would think it would be out of the box the minute I got it to the office, but actually Paul K was more interested in it after standing in a queue for 45 minutes to hear that he 'may' get one on Monday. Ahh, how smug I was. Paul S wanted to buy it for £400 but I had to turn him down. They are both now continually refreshing the Amazon web page hoping they can get one of the supposed new stock they are putting on this afternoon.

I can't tell you how it is yet but from the videos I've seen I cannot wait. Usually I end up with mates going drinking and coming back on some console or another for a few hours of fun. This is going to get even better now.

Update on the Amazon refreshing... Paul S managed to order one but Paul K's checkout got completely messed up somewhere.

I just need to get home and power this beauty up, unless Howard allows us to set it up in the office

David and I are currently basking in the cold winter glory of Bavaria, visting with those lovely people from UIQ (the people who have supplied Cmdr. James Bond with his latest phone). We got in late last night and luckily the hotel restaurant was still open, allowing me to indulge my penchant for Bratwurst and Sauerkraut (which has become a ritual for me on my first night of any visit to Germany). As you can see from the photo David couldn't resist investigating my food prior to tucking into his own Salmon Linguine - not very German, but he insists it was very tasty!

I won't mention anything about the beer here in Germany, as that would not be setting a good example for any of our younger readers out there, just let me say we had to do some quality checks before bed.

I'll get David to check in with you tomorrow and let you know what exciting things he's learnt from the UIQ team.

December 5th is officially Day of the Ninja. To celebrate the day I created some shortbread shuriken

Chocolate Shortbread Shuriken

• Step 1: Commandeer your local artist and hold them at knife-point ask them nicely to draw you a template for your biscuits. Alternatively, here is the one Mike drew for me!
• Step 2: Make your favourite chocolate shortbread recipe. The one I used was 300g butter, 350g flour, 100g caster sugar, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and a big pile of chocolate chips. Just mix it all together until smooth (with chocolate chip lumps, obviously!).
• Step 3: Find yourself a lightly floured surface and roll out the dough to about half an inch thick. Place on your template and cut around it with a sharp knife. Transfer the biscuit to a greased baking tray and repeat until you run out of dough! I managed about 18
• Step 4: Bake in a preheated oven at about 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 for around about 40 minutes. Remember that chocolate shortbread is naturally brown so it's probably cooked before you think it is! (Mine might've been a little well done today, oops! but it doesn't seem to be stopping people eating them! ) Once cooked, transfer to a cooling rack.
• Step 5: Try to resist the urge to throw them around, and enjoy your tasty Ninja treats!

I'm glad to report that Larry is now out of hospital and is recovering at home. He has been surprising the doctors with his 'better than vampire-like' (as Graham put it) healing abilities . It must be all the crisps he eats .

Larry came down with stomach pains yesterday morning, so on doctor's advice we shipped him off to the local hospital's Accident and Emergency center to get it checked out. It turned out that he was suffering from appendicitis, so last we've heard they were getting him ready to have his appendix out. Ouch!

All of us here in the office are wishing him a speedy recovery and we hope to see him back to full health soon!