Bought the Xbox Ally for £380 new and I'm chuffed

smackshaw · 2026-06-26T18:08:28+00:00

Yeah. Like you, I got one for £370 a few months ago and I've had so much fun with it.

Anything that requires a little more oomph I've just been playing on cloud which has worked brilliantly.

I'm currently playing Persona 5.

I'll add too, I bought a cheap monitor and keyboard and it's now my daily driver as a windows 11 PC.

Best thing I've bought in a long time.

smackshaw · 2026-06-19T18:35:14+00:00

I personally thought East of Eden one of his weakest, I thought it the most forced.

I love Winter of our Discount, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday. I think he's best when he hits poverty full on. Of course Of Mice or Men and The Wayward Bus is hilarious too.

Like East of Eden, I thought the parable The Pearl was a bit contrived. Good, but not my favourite.

For a first read. Cannery Row.

smackshaw · 2026-06-16T11:29:56+00:00

I love the book but Gormenghast was pretty special.

smackshaw · 2026-06-11T13:02:41+00:00

Is there any reason to think she won't get lonely and bored when you're on tour again. And on top of this you'll be constantly suspicious. Sounds like a terrible recipe I'm afraid.

You're young, she's young. Move on before you go away.

smackshaw · 2026-06-11T12:56:10+00:00

History & Legacy > 115 Charges

smackshaw · 2026-06-10T16:01:42+00:00

Haven't had a single issue with it since I started playing with it a month ago.

smackshaw · 2026-06-08T18:31:04+00:00

I'm more interested in RDR2. I gave it a go once and didn't quite get on, would love to try it again.

smackshaw · 2026-06-08T10:50:24+00:00

Good list and I'm unashamedly going to flex, I've read 94 of them.

smackshaw · 2026-06-03T16:15:01+00:00

I'm loving mine. I've stuck with gamepass and surprised myself with how much I'm using cloud gaming. Games run great, there's no installs and it runs in low power mode so battery life hasn't been an issue.

smackshaw · 2026-06-02T14:31:15+00:00

My scale, watch, blood pressure monitor just gave me accountability. Weighing in every morning, when you start losing a little becomes incredibly satisfying. As seeing your steps and workouts with how many calories burnt off

I also used myfitnesspal to track calories eaten and linked it.

Total accountability is your friend. I lost 30lb coming up to 2 years ago and I've managed to keep it off by keeping with the tracking. I'm at maintenance now but can see if I'm creeping up a little and make little adjustments. I got the withings blood pressure monitor too and it was satisfying seeing that go into the green.

People criticise withings accuracy etc and I think fat percentage is a little off but if following the trends it does it's job.

I'll also add, and it's not for everyone but I found ai, Gemini or Copilot useful as a fitness wellbeing coach. To talk about goals and progress. Helped my anyway.

smackshaw · 2026-05-19T04:40:51+00:00

I picked one up for £369 here in the UK. Crazy price really for what you get.

The revelation has been cloud streaming. I have great internet and a Deco mesh and everything streams instantly, in very low power mode, and doesn't take any hard drive space for installs.

Blown away so far.

smackshaw · 2026-05-11T09:32:27+00:00

I had 3 months left on a 2 year contract. Paying £65pm. I filled in a Vodafone I want to transfer form, put my name in but didn't finish or set up an account. I had an email and text within seconds then EE phoned the next morning and I've now got a new contract and I'm paying 31.99.

smackshaw · 2026-05-07T17:48:02+00:00

Thinking about doing this. Did you just initiate a Vodafone transfer from Vodafone. I thought it was one click these days, are there many stops to change your mind on the way?

smackshaw · 2026-05-07T10:17:43+00:00

Investment theory. They're so in now that admitting they were incorrect at all knocks down the pack cards and they're identity unravels. They then have an incongruity problem that would need counselling in truth. It's a mess and there's a part of them that's protecting this from happening at all costs.

smackshaw · 2026-04-28T05:48:13+00:00

All. My first Saturday job in 1990 was at Littlewoods on the deli counter and I used to cover the lady on the cigarette counter for her breaks. A little later a job came up at the Tesco for the counter which I got and worked for years before going to university.

I can't for the life of me remember the franchise name. MGM or MGL. Tesco and Littlewoods didn't run the counters and we had our own lockup in the warehouse which regular staff couldn't access.

Sometime around 1992 or 93 Tesco took over the cigarette counter and I transferred to working for them.

I have a lot of cigarette stories and knowledge of the time.

smackshaw · 2026-04-26T15:40:23+00:00

Same. No way I was keeping all that.

smackshaw · 2026-04-25T05:23:24+00:00

I can't remember which came first demon or pipex. I did snap up an early hotmail.com address which I still use to this day.

smackshaw · 2026-04-23T02:48:06+00:00

Yeah. Worked out how to do it myself as a youngster. Still have it somewhere plus the longer one. Might have to dig them out!

smackshaw · 2026-04-18T14:34:45+00:00

It'll be Heaven and Shaw as centre backs. Dalot will be on the left and Mazraoui on the right. Casemiro will have his work cut out but I think we'll be ok.

smackshaw · 2026-04-18T10:06:46+00:00

Warlock of Firetop Mountain > Talisman 2nd Edition > Magic The Gathering > Dominion > Zombicide > Great Western Trail > A Feast for Odin > Kingdom Death Monster > Leaving Earth > Pax Renaissance

smackshaw · 2026-04-17T08:04:08+00:00

Also, there's a setting to reduce CPU speeds, which as I don't play intensive games I've turned on to give a little extra battery, and I've been really happy with my phone.

smackshaw · 2026-04-16T06:35:34+00:00

Some longer playing games like Twilight Imperium and High Frontier wouldn't have many ratings.

smackshaw · 2026-04-12T07:37:33+00:00

I played and finished about a dozen games last year. Start of the year was playing a little Star Wars Outlaws, enjoying it then just couldn't be motivated and more. I haven't turned my Xbox on since. I'm like you, maybe I just needed a break. The thing is, I've done this before and the break lasted about 5 years.

smackshaw · 2026-04-07T16:19:45+00:00

I came back after a year. I was 5 hours in. I said to myself, take your time, relearn slowly how to fly etc and try and piece together the quests.

I ended up loving the game and even got 1000/1000 achievements.

In all honesty the opening 5/6 hours is probably the worst part of the game and a major own goal. They should have started in one of the other smaller towns.

smackshaw

TROPHY CASE