It’s 6pm, I’m about to leave work and I’ve just set up this, my first attempt at a blog - for pleasure - in about five years.

The reason I say ‘for pleasure’ is that I write for a living. Sometimes I’ll be writing blogs all day long, but then that’s work; writing about subjects I care little about to pay the rent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining - I realise some people have to do proper work for a living, if they can get work at all. But that’s what I do.

I’ve blogged elsewhere in the past few years too. I’ve written reviews, blogged for free online game time, helped friends out with various projects etc. But it’s always been to an agenda, which has not been of my own making. Before that I tried my hand at very specific blogs thinking that if I wasn’t focused, no one would care, or follow my witterings, or LOVE ME.

But now, older and a little wiser/cynical, I’ve realised that if I’m going to blog it’s going to have to be for me. Sorry, but screw you guys. Me me me. That means on the topics I want to talk about, when I want to talk about them, and in a style that suits the mood. If no one reads them, fine - if it gets things off my chest, that’s good enough for me. I think that, by living by this rule, I may just stick at it.

English, male, forty-something, mortgaged up, living with the missus. But don’t drive, don’t want/have kids, haven’t really grown up and don’t buy into the theory at all. Drink and eat too much crap in the contented realisation that I won’t live for ever and that, as Bill Hicks so rightly said, any years I lose because of this will be the ones at the end.

Go Play Listen. Terrible name for a blog. That said, it’s a way of describing what I do when I choose what I do, which means it’ll be what I write about. Go places, play games, listen to music - often doing all three at once (yup, I multi-task). Simple pleasures.

Going places could be anything. In the last two weeks I’ve been in Cambridge, London, Exeter, Oxford, Dawlish and New York doing everything from live gigs, watching Arsenal, helping my dad move house, weddings, work, gaming, meeting old friends. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Playing is games, mostly of the board variety. No, not Monopoly; ‘good’ board games, from gateway titles such as Ticket To Ride and Carcassonne to more complex card and board games such as Race for the Galaxy and Through the Ages. Don’t turn your nose up - there’s nothing nicer than sitting around with friends, tunes and beers and clashing brains. There may be a bit of PC gaming too I guess, probably about MMORPGs, but I rarely get too passionate about them these days - it’s been a lame few years for the genre.

Which leaves listening. From being a 16-year-old Our Price employee, to kit-bagging around the country watching bands in the 90s, to writing about music in zines, websites and newspapers, music has always been the thing. I’m a bit jaded now but a good band still gets my heart racing like very little else can.

And of course any feedback would be great - I’m happy to listen to you too, from praise and encouragement to your snotty derision of my pathetic, ignorant opinions. Bring it on.