I often tell people that for me as a journalist the week before Christmas is like the final 10 metres of a 100 metre sprint: the finish is almost in sight but it’s the point in the race where you really have to dig deep and give it all you’ve got.

I mention this because a few days after Christmas is when I tend to pack up the family (not literally) and we head out of Christchurch for a family holiday – but in the week leading up to that glorious day I have to write up enough gaming and technology stories and other stories for the sections of the newspaper I write for to cover my absence. So it often means late nights and early mornings, scrabbling together reviews for not-so crucial games that can run over that holiday season.

While a family holiday means time away from game consoles and big budget games (which, just between you and me, will be something of a blessing as I’m pretty burned out after a rather packed gaming year) it does, however, mean more time with mobile gaming platforms: read Nintendo 3DS and my Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. I’m sure I can get away with taking those platforms away with me this year, besides I need the tablet to check those all-important emails.

So this week is also about loading up my tablet with games that will keep me busy during the quiet time: I’ve just bought GTA3 Anniversary edition and recently added Sprinkle and World of Goo to my collection. I’m gutted, though, that I missed some good games in the Android Marketplace’s 10c sale. Apparently GameDevStory was on offer for the princely sum of 10c. How could I have missed that?

The holiday period is also when, obviously, the blog goes into summer hiatus – at least for a couple of weeks: but it’ll come back in the new year refreshed and revitalised, ready to go.

Right, time to start pre-loading some games onto my tablet and start looking for the 3DS titles that are worthy of my time. My two favourites on 3DS at the moment are Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. Feel free to recommend some others.