Washington!

Washington Monument
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

Back, had a good time. Quite tired, no sleep on old rickety 747 home next to large smelly man with no sense of personal space, so probably won't make much sense. Saw some famous and very familiar buildings. Almost felt odd that there weren't any aliens attacking or something.

At the conference, one speaker had a powerpoint slide called: "how gaming is contributing to winning the war on terror". Says it all really.

More chat later, follow the photo to see more... the Smithsonian Air and Space museum was the real highlight.

Off to the home of democracy...

Just about to leave. Very excited for lots of reasons. Ever since watching Ghostbusters in 1984 I've always wondered what a twinkie tastes like and now I might find out. Also going to see lots of buildings familiar from movies, visit the Smithsonian and do some shopping. Oh, and go to a very good conference where I will learn lots about 'serious games'. Will make sure I say "Internet" and not "Innernet".

Sorry the missus isn't coming :-(

Jimmy

Head
Originally uploaded by chill.

Couldn't resist posting this from Chris's site.

Renovation... kitchen in progress

no kitchen wall!
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

... and it's gone, hurrah!

2 days of building work, and they seem to be cracking
on pretty damn quickly. We've really got a sense of how big our new open plan kitchen/diner is going to be. All very exciting.

What this photo doesn't show is that they've built half of the units ready to be placed. I am very happy not to have had to do this bit.

Renovation... kitchen

kitchen wall and dresser
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

One of Derek's greatest bits of work: the fake dresser in the dining room, built to accommodate the fridge and microwave in the kitchen.

Rebrand!

Have been meaning to get comments working for ages. Will someone test them?

The builders start on Monday on the kitchen and other bits and say they'll be done in 2 weeks. It's all moving really quite fast... and is getting a bit scary. Oh well - looks like pre-Christmas visits are on if anyone is interested!

Work is also quite busy - we've been around schools all over the UK testing our first prototype site. Just in from a daytrip to Newcastle ("Geoff, Geoff, Spuggy's stuck in the lift!!"), was in Wales earlier this week in a town I think was called Llllddddyyyfffcawllll. Next week I'm off again on the BBC Leadership training programme for 2 days, then to Washington the week after where I'm definitely not going to buy a new ipod.

Hold on, I'm going to miss half the building work... oops. I was also away when the living room ceiling fell in. Good job we've got such a good project manager holding things together.

Busy day at the office...

This is worth the 9mb download - a newly cut trailer for 'The Shining'. Very odd.

Spare bedroom - after!

sparebed_after2
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

We're moving into this room for a few weeks, while we get cracking with our bedroom, which will first involve the removal of some of last owner Derek's particularly superb DIY innovations - including a built-in wardrobe with 45-degree mirrored doors, and a very strange contraption made using kitchen worktop. Oh yes.

Spare bedroom - before...

sparebed_before2
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.

Spare bedroom - after!

sparebed_after1
Originally uploaded by nicktryg.