Team: Kirsten Tomlinson

I had a bit of excitement yesterday morning. A parcel arrived for me containing a Nintendo DS Lite and a game. My reward for a little bit of voice acting I did for Yannis. Yannis is the man who writes the music to go with many of our games and while he was working on a non-Astraware project, he was asked to find a 'female English voice', so he asked me.

I spent two evenings recording my lines (all two of them...) with Yannis 'directing' and Howard recording the two hours or so of me repeating the same line over and over in various ways, interspersed with hysterical giggling and random chatter about children (Yannis has a daughter about the same age as my son). Somewhere in that recording must have been a successful take of the line, as it is now part of the game. So I now have my voice (and name) in a game that will be in games stores all over the english-speaking world! The game is a remake of an old C64 classic - Impossible Mission.

It's exciting, because while I have done some sound effects for Astraware games (I'm the frog in Bzzz! and one of the people clapping and cheering for Astraware Boardgames) none of these are recognisable as me. In "Impossible Mission" it's definitely my voice coming from the speaker. Of course having now played the game I realise I don't like hearing my voice so much. All I ever seem to say is "You have failed your mission" It's not called "Impossible" for nothing...

We haven't all gone mad, we're celebrating Towel Day.

On this day, fans all around the globe celebrate the life and works of the hoopy frood Douglas Adams by carrying around a towel.

"Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

Here in the Astraware offices we are mostly harmless, but we all know where our towels are (even if a few of those places are variations on "at home on the kitchen counter, waiting for me to pick it up")! Even Wiki Monkey and the Chuzzles are getting in on the fun!

I was also pleased to be able to park in an appropriately numbered parking space this morning!

Howard's towel - as you can see - is a bit on the threadbare side. He claims it still has nutritional value, and also works to defend him against the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal...

If you still think we've gone mad, you really need to read Douglas Adams trilogy in five books - the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - and then you may feel the urge to join in next year!

Today is World Book Day. (At least, here in the UK. For the rest of the world it happens on 23rd April.) Over the last week I have been working on an outfit for my daughter Maria. The schools in this country have a 'come dressed as your favourite book character' day. Unfortunately for me, the last book Maria read was Charlotte's Web Which meant she had to be a spider. My Son went as a dog. He has a cute little board book called 'Sam the Dog' and as his name's Sam....

So, in honour of World Book Day, I took a poll around the office of people's favourite books. We have an interesting mix. One or two people had very little trouble naming a book. Another one or two couldn't decide on a favourite, and some said 'oh I don't read much' There's also a nice mix of genres.

Here's the list! (In no particular order)

My favourite book varies depending on which I read most recently and how I feel. Today it's Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Jan chose A Song of Ice and Fire, a fantasy series by George R R Martin. Here's the first book in the series.

Kieren's 'favourite of the moment' is The Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko.

Katherine couldn't narrow it down to one, so we have: The Eternal, by Mark Chadbourn and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

Steve, our poker expert, chose The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky.

Mike likes A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

Priscilla picked The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.

Iain played the Tolkien - The Lord of The Rings card and David countered with Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials.

Alison was another who had trouble narrowing it down to one - She chose the The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy books, and A Moment in Time by H.E. Bates.

Graham likes Magician (Riftwar Saga), by Raymond E. Feist.

Paul S. admitted that Watership Down by Richard Adams still makes him cry (me too Paul!).

Paul K suggested Animal Farm, by George Orwell.

John picked The Complete Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant Part Two.

Roland went for Robert Rankin's Waiting for Godalming.

Howard narrowed it down to John Steinbeck, in particular, Cannery Row.

Jamie was another who picked a series - The Dark Tower, by Stephen King (yes, that Stephen King; no, it's not horror).

And finally Ruth, who managed to narrow her choice to a single author - Agatha Christie.

There are some fantastic books there, and I've certainly expanded my reading list for a while (I was very intrigued by Katherine's description of House of Leaves!)

I'm not a new employee to Astraware. Technically, besides Howard and David, I'm the longest-employed Astraware employee. However, I have had two little breaks from working (they're called Maria and Sam!)

I have now been back at the company for nearly two months. Back in the office I can now have adult conversation (well, adult in the "not suitable for children" sense). Faced with the prospect of having to work from home to look after a poorly child, I realise what the best thing about being back in adult company is: I don't have to spend endless hours listening to the same kiddies television theme tunes over and over again!

Other advantages include being able to swear without risking one or other of the children repeating the offending words to their school-mates, being able to eat chocolate without one or other of the children asking, well demanding, a "bite" and of course, Katherine's cakes!

I can't claim huge experience of other offices (I've always been a retail worker) but I think the Astraware office has probably the most fun of any I know about. Plus, my official job description being QA tester, I don't feel as though I'm doing much real work, since all I do all day is play games!