FROM THE SFX OFFICE

The cow-pocalypse, celeb-spotting and counting sleeps to the Weekender in your latest peek behind the curtain

No-one’s more excited than Russell however because not only is 206 a blip in the rear-view mirror, but his vampire special goes on sale today. Make him feel happy by going out and buying a copy, eh? It’s really quite good. He’s also quite pleased that his football team is second in the Future Publishing table and is glowing from his captain writing in the match report, “Pass of the game goes to Russell for that exquisite through ball he played to Marc who finished with aplomb.” Bless!

Steering well clear of any and all sports during his week off (unless you count the serious work his thumbs got courtesy of a PS3 controller) Jordan returned to the office this week, only to duck out early on his first day back for the first press screening of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s new film Paul , immediately declaring it “the best sci-fi comedy since Galaxy Quest !” He was also pleased to discover his pithy 140 character twitter review re-tweeted no less than 83 times, thanks in no small part by a retweet from a certain Mr Pegg, only to emerge with egg on his face the morning upon discovering a wayward apostrophe had obliterated his grammatical integrity. As a punishment/reward (you be the judge) we’re sending him to see Nic Cage’s latest rug in action for a screening of Drive Angry 3D tomorrow. Wish him luck.

Much to Jordan’s chagrin (the PS3 versus Xbox360 debate rages on), Rob received a copy of Dead Space 2 this week and has been filled with gamer’s glee as he wages a one man war again those pesky Necromorphs. He also interviewed the mighty Warren Ellis and got to review a fresh pile of fantastic graphic novels for the next issue of Comic Heroes , so is feeling pretty pleased with himself.

Dave B and Jon are downstairs...

Nick celebrated his birthday on Saturday with a dish of Eggs Benedict at the Wolseley in Piccadilly, living out his Ian Fleming fantasies as ever. The moment was enlivened by a personal appearance by Cameron Diaz, but sadly she wasn't dancing in her Spider-Man knicks, Charlie's Angels style. But still, the birthday gods were smiling. Back in the office he was almost reduced to warm tears of gratitude by the SFX team's spot-on choice of presents - Misfits series 2 on DVD and a SHIELD mug. Nick Setchfield, Tea Drinker Of SHIELD has a certain ring to it...

Ian’s taking some much deserved, post-deadline, pre-Weekender (one week to go folks!) time off today and tomorrow to catch up with The Sarah Jane Adventures series three, put together CDs of background music and on-stage stings for the Weekender, and rewatch bits of Blake’s 7 in preparation for meeting Sally Knyvette. Dave G meanwhile had a close encounter of the bovine kind recently during a trip to London for a screening of ITV 1’s new supernatural drama Marchlands , when a renegade cow on the line brought his train to a halt. Epic National Rail fail.

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Random Quote Of The Week: “I’ve been doing nothing horrible and sticky.”

Whose desk? (last week’s answer: it was Ian’s random crap! Again!)