Holiday Time!

Well, it's been around twenty months since I started this blog at the behest of my videogame-hating wife who was tired of listening to me babble on about them. I guess she hoped it would channel my interest in the subject in a more creative direction. I don't know how any of my regular readers feel but I'd like to think it's been fairly successful. At the very least, it's forced me to expand my gaming horizons beyond the few consoles I've owned in the past and play some games I've been hearing about for 20-30 years! For the first time since Red Parsley's birth, however, I am going on holiday!

Yes that's right, even as some of you are reading this very post I may be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, for RKS is taking a well-earned break in Brazil for... one month! I've been to Brazil three times before so I know I'll have a supremely enjoyable and leisurely time, plus it's the summer there at the moment too which means it will be very hot but with a lot of tropical rain storms, and believe me - it can rain in Brazil and then some! My travels this time will take in my wife's home town, Brasilia, where we will spend Christmas with her family, before moving on to Sao Paulo (and possibly Santos) for our New Year celebrations with her friends. This overwhelmingly huge city is home to many unique and diverse areas and one of them is Liberdade, its Japanese neighbourhood where I will hopefully encounter the same anime and ninja weapon stores that I saw on my first visit!

One thing that did disappoint me, just a little, two years ago when I was last in Sao Paulo, and something that's loosely associated with the bulk of the subject-matter of this blog, was the lack of anything remotely associated with retro gaming. Considering Brazil's supposed retro-gaming heritage, this was a big surprise to me. We are talking about the country that supported many consoles for far longer than anyone else, after all. Take my beloved Master System for example, which saw new releases here right up until 1998 when I was preparing myself for the Dreamcast's launch. Brazil, like some Far-Eastern countries, has also seen the release of many 'clone' consoles and 'unofficial' games too, so I hope this time I'm able to find some treasure-troves of retro goodness. If I'm successful, you'll read about it here, I'm sure!

Of course, this kind of thing is hardly the reason for my visit though, and regardless of whether or not I find any little retro nuggets, I'm sure the trip will be a fantastic one. I'll still be posting things here every few days but before anyone starts calling me a sad bastard for writing blog posts about retro games while I'm on holiday in a tropical country - I've actually had quite a few posts saved up for a while now. Of course, I may find some time to do some holiday-related posts but we'll see.

In the meantime, I hope you all have a great month while I'm away, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. My friends and family in the UK, and indeed many more in other northern countries, will of course be shivering away in temperatures of -10°c or so, but spare a thought for my wife and I if you will, sweating and burning in the tropical heat of summertime Brazil...