Apologies for the lack of updates in the last month: I’ve been busy with my new job – and a lack of game playing, to be honest. Now that I’m not writing regularly for any one publication, I’m not in the mind of gaming PR people much anymore.

So, yeah, I’ve stared a new job – and it’s a complete departure from the generally desk-bound career I had as a newspaper journalist. In fact, it’s as far removed as desk-dependent as you can get – and frankly, it’s a refreshing change.

I’m working as a loader for Air New Zealand at its Christchurch operations, which means that the bulk of my duties are loading aircraft (737s, ATRs, that sort of thing) and handling baggage. And you know what? I’m enjoying it. It’s different and it’s challenging me in a new way, the people I get to work with are friendly and awesome  – and I get to wear hi-vis during the day!

At the moment, I’m doing 7am to 3.30pm shifts but come the middle of this month, I start the shift work – and that’ll be a shock to the system of a worker who’s been used to the cushy 9am to 5pm work day.

So if you happen to see me from the airport departure lounge, give me a wave – chances are I’ll wave back! (of course, that assumes you know what I look like and can identify me amongst all the other hi-vis Air NZ ramp staff!)

Anyway, in terms of gaming, I have to admit I haven’t done a helluva lot in the past few weeks. I’ve played some Sniper Elite V2 after I downloaded it for free during some Steam promotion a few weeks ago. It’s fun but to be honest, for a game that has the work Sniper in it, there’s more stealth and wandering around than there is sniping!

I’m also trying to find time to play Grid Autosport, thanks to Codemaster’s Aussie PR man Kerrin kindly sending me a PC code. I’ll get around to it soon, Kerrin, I promise!

I’m also testing out a Magellan Cyclo 505 cycle computer at the moment (I usually use a Cyclo 100 on my road bike) so I’ll have a review of that in the next couple of weeks, too. I used it yesterday on a short ride and it’s impressed me so far.

Oh, and a couple of weeks ago, I dropped some money on the collector’s edition of The Witcher 3. Granted, I had a lot of store credit at EB Games to cover the cost of the CE but I’m still amazed that I was prepared to drop a not inconsiderable amount on something gaming related.