A sunny set visit, a recce to the site of the SFX Weekender 3 and a trip to see the Weasleys. There’s not a lot of office in this week’s From The Office
Spirits are high in SFX Towers. We sent issue 218 down the internet pipes and to the printers earlier this week, but we’re chipper, mainly because every morning we can now wake up to a tasty chocolate treat in our advent calendars (except Dave G, who doesn’t like chocolate, the weirdo; and Russell, who only eats chocolate with an obscenely high cocoa percentage, because it’s “hardcore”) and in just a few day’s time we’re going for the office Christmas meal. Not just any old Christmas meal either – Christmas pie! 2011 might have been a tumultuous year, but we’re ending it on a high.
Otherwise it’s been a week characterised by work-related office absences. Dave G’s heading to London later today to interview Harry Potter ’s ginger-wonders The Weasley Twins, Jordan was there on Friday for a first look at Sony’s new handheld the PS Vita, yesterday Dave B and Ade took a train to Prestatyn to make plans for the Weekender 3 and Comic Heroes editor Jes is nowhere to be seen. This may or may not be linked to the fact that he’s currently putting the hours into Mario Kart 7 ahead of his grudge match with Jordan. In fact, the only reason they email each other nowadays is to trash talk one another.
Nick’s been out of the office after a long weekend away too. On Saturday he grabbed his passport, hat and bullwhip (don’t ask) and absconded to Malta on a top secret mission – a trip to the set of Sky One’s brand new fantasy series Sinbad ! We have to keep the details tightly under wrap upon threat of a visit from a sea serpent, but Nick got in the spirit of the middle-eastern adventurer by scaling a crumbling 17th century Maltese fort and skilfully avoiding death traps like a Welsh Prince Of Persia. Better than that (at least for the rest of team SFX ) he brought back delicious Maltese chocolates. And no, before you ask, they weren’t Maltesers. Don’t blame us if you spot a food-related theme here, it’s almost lunch.
Nick's not the only one who's back from foreign climes - reviews ed Ian returned considerably browner of hue on Monday after spending two weeks in Florida, land of palm trees, rollerbladers and alligators. Judging by the tweets we saw, though, the thing that excited him the most about the whole trip was picking up a DVD of CHUD for only $5. Strange man.
We've got (almost) a full house today, though as the lovely chaps from 2000AD, Abaddon and Solaris are visiting SFX Towers. We'll be checking out their Judge Dredd iOS game this afternoon. Then, erm, going to the pub.
Dave G’s taking a day off tomorrow and (foolishly?) he’s left Rob and Jordan in charge of posting his Friday regular Spurious Awards. Unfortunately seeing as Jordan’s done very little (read: nothing) for the past few days except play Skyrim till his eyes bleed he’s relying on random things he spots on the street, like Desiato Hotblack estate agents in London (the inspiration for the Hitchhiker ’s character, apparently) or the delivery van you see on the left, found just round the corner from SFX Towers. He was also pleased to see Buffy ’s Emma Caulfield tweeting a link to his latest Tweets Of The Week , and has made it his mission to get a full house of Whedon alumni linking to his regular Monday(ish) feature. Some say he’s delusional, we like to think of him as naively optimistic.
Working on the schedule for Weekender 3 is making Rich’s head hurt - but that's only because there's so much great stuff to get in there. He’s also moulding next month's extremely exciting news section – with one potential story (with a heavy practical element) looking very, very exciting for the Deputy Editor.
Russell is relaxing a little before he starts work proper on the latest SFX Vampires Special. How does he relax? Well, last night he went home, ate pie and beans while watching Dick Whittington, synced his iPhone to add more Sex Pistols and Guns N' Roses (yep, he still hasn’t shut up about his new phone), had a game of chess in the bath and then read Professor Richard Wiseman's 59 Seconds . Curious lad.
Ade is feeling the effects of his nine-hour train ride to Pontins Prestatyn yesterday with Dave B for a Weekender site visit. Despite the lengthy train journey his enthusiasm hadn’t waned one jot when he turned up in the office this morning, “It’s going to be the best god damn party this side of the universe. OMG… It's only eight weeks away! Eek!” And that was before the first coffee of the day.
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Random Quote Of The Week: “ Jennifer Lawrence versus pie? Pie wins.”
Whose Dinosaurs? (Last week’s answer: they were Rich’s scribbles!)
