House Directions

For future reference coming over to our house, here are the directions from the Kilmacud Luas stop.

Progress

I finished dismantling the last of the kitchen units last night and am storing the big bits out in the shed (which is bigger than I thought). Still have to do the sink unit and remove the tiles in there.

Tasha stripped some of the wallpaper in the front bedroom with a steamer we borrowed (should make life a lot easier)

Tonight, the plan is to remove all the internal doors and maybe some skirting boards.

House

We got started on the house this evening. Tasha stripped the surface of the wallpaper up stairs so it’ll be easier to remove and I dismantled the crappy kitchen that was left.

Need to get a skip for the bulky stuff and the wheelie bins in for the smaller things.

Turns out the fireplace in the front room was just sitting in front of the old one so restoring it should be no problem.

More Sad News

My (maternal) grandfather passed away this morning at 6am. He had been very frail and fearful for the last few years but his death was painless and peaceful at home.

With the recent death of my aunt Mary too, it’s been a tough month or so but at least their passing's were painless.

Oblivion

I finished the Shivering Isles main quest and only have a few bits of side quests to do.

That’s all the guilds, Knights of the Nine, Daedric shrine, wilderness and settlement quests done.

I’ve lined up the other plug-ins via Xbox Live Marketplace and as soon as I’m back online, I can finish them off too.

I started off Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, an original Xbox game, last night. Spooky stuff and odd playing without a HUD. The controller shakes quite a bit.

House

Just got word. We finally get our keys on Monday (with an inspection on Thursday).

About… bloody… time!

Weekend

I’m very sorry I missed the last Dominion but Tasha had organised a surprise trip to visit Gabi and Simon in the UK. I hope everyone took lots of photos.

It was great to see Gabi and Simon again and we had a winter wonderful weekend with an abundance of snow.

It was my 30th birthday last week and thanks to everyone for their tremendous generosity and congratulations. Tasha got me an Xbox 360 Elite to replace the bird fluff infested one I have now. Will try to sort it out to sell it on but I won’t use the new one until we’re in the house. She also got Fable II for the Xbox 360 and Okami and Resident Evil 4 for the Wii so I’ll have lots to play once we’re in the house.

No More Dominion :(

I am very sad to report that there will be no more Dominion after this Saturday (see here for details).

I’ll admit that like a lot of the older gang, personal commitments kept me away in the last few months but it played an important part of my young adulthood and up until now.

Most of all, I am glad I got to have met such good friends and even asked Tasha out for the first time there.

My thanks to Greg, Orla and Conor for letting me guest DJ every once in a while. It meant a lot to me and helped my confidence greatly.

Unfortunately, as this week is my 30th birthday, I already have plans and will not be able to attend the last night :_(

I am sure the guys will work on something in the future and I look forward to their endeavours.

Oblivion Checklists

I’ve made up these checklists so I can be sure I don’t miss anything in Cyrodiil. They’re broken down by region and have any quests associated with them listed too. This way you can avoid them and wait for the quest to clear them out to prevent corrupting the quest.

Ayleid Ruins

Forts

Caves

Mines

Settlements

I was also looking at an excellent mod for the PC version, which would make an ideal official plug-in called Kvatch Rebuilt. Essentially, it’s a series of quests which progressively rebuild Kvatch (after being destroyed during the Oblivion Crisis). The castle, arena, guilds, homes, statues, etc. are restored and the quests are spaced over time for a more realistic progression. Seeing as Bethesda have done plug-ins for a wizard, thief, vampire and warrior, this could make effective use of the existing environment.

Oblivion Guide

Having completed the main quest (rather quickly I thought), I’ve moved onto the various city quests and will eventually move on to the faction quests.

I ordered the Prima guide for Oblivion and it arrived today. 544 pages! Tons of stuff covered so I should be able to cover everything in the game.