Brazil was excellent.

Laptop is now back up to speed with a 320Gb disk in it. I have TimeMachine doing backups of both my machines.

Wedding ring has arrived, fits and looks sick.

I’m also trying to lose weight. Before Holiday: 15st3, After Holiday: 14st8, Now: 14st4.

Further to my previous posts about gaming on the iPhone, I continued to look for games that might sate my need for mental interaction. (Especially given that my laptop is dead meaning that my usual avenue of code tinkering no longer is viable.)

Tilt controls are out. Most games fail to have a calibration tool or a sensitivity dial. The assumption is that the player will be sat or stood vertically, with the device out in front at them, at a 45-50 degree angle. This kills the abilty to lie down and play the game (bed, sofa, hammock) which is usually the places I want to play (at least on this holiday this far). The sensitivity thing is also important. What works for the developer using the software every day isn’t going to work for joe average who has yet to build the motor functions. I also want to be able to dull down the sensitivity if I am on a train compared to a chair at home.

3D games are out. First person shooters and the like are out. Having tried a couple of the higher rated 3D times and found the frame rates to be jerky, I am just not interested.

So what does that leave me with? I want games that exercise my brain, have some pacing and urgency about them and can be played for 5 minutes to several hours.

So far the two games that have drawn me in are Sol Free and Bejewelled 2 (the later rapidly becoming what I feel epitomizes a really good mobile game). I looked at all the poker games but none captivate me, it would be really cool if pokerroom.com had a client.

If there was a geometry wars style game that would be excellent.

So I am writing this post on my iPhone. However this is mainly out of lack of choice – it appears that the hard disk in my laptop has gone to the big platters in the sky. This means I am left with my iPhone.

This is combined with a lack of wind.

I have also read most of my books.

I am bored.

So I have decided to craft a list of things I am looking forward to for when I return. Best seen as a list to distract and comfort me on return from the cold.

I am looking forward to: (in no particular order)

1. Not be constantly sweating.
2. Sleeping through the night without waking up and feeling like I am doing my best impression of a bowl of ice cream in an oven.
3. Red wine.
4. More red wine.
5. Beans on toast.
6. Home made granary bread.
7. Lots of vegetables, I’ve yet to see a carrot here.
8. Bitter/real ale.
9. Having a computer back.
10. Fast reliable Internet access everywhere.
11. Service in a resturant.
12. Strong UK winds.
13. Big epic UK sessions.
14. Playing on my wave board.
15. Scrambled eggs.
16. Cold drinkable water form the tap rather than warm bottled water from the shop.
17. Meals that aren’t just meat+chips+salad.
18. Not putting on sun cream every 2 hours or so.
19. Wearing my flexifoil jacket.
20. Chatting to my dad.
21. Chatting to my mum.
22. Chatting to Bailey.
23. Chatting to Mike.
24. Playing World of Warcraft and dinging level 80.
25. Playing on my xbox and sinking my teeth into EndWar.
26. Driving my car rather that relying on beach buggies, Taxi’s or busses.
27. Taking the skills I’ve learnt here in the waves and using them at home.
28. Hanging out with Karl.
29. Organising a trip to France, Belgium and Holland to kite surf 3 countries in one weekend!
30. Sitting on our damn comfy sofa.
31. Seeing friends.
32. Listening to music on my speakers and feeling enveloped by the sound.
33. A nice hot bath.

I might add to this later. I think I is important to note that I love it here in Brazil, it is great fun and I am loving the kiting, the company and the food. It is just important to remember what it is I love about where I live and going away for an extended time allows o e to do that. Oh. And read a lot