So those of you who are members of the (awesome and wonderful) Forever Harvest Moon Union will know that the new Harvest Moon Sunshine Islands game was released in the US on the 10th November. Since I stay in the UK I decided to import myself a copy because Natsume are rubbish with release times in the UK - they tend to be at least 3 years after US release dates, and I simply didn't want to wait that long

So I pre-ordered myself a copy from Gamestop (in order to get the preorder bonus) which cost me about $44.98 (or approx £27 in my money, not including the conversion fees my credit card will charge me for buying in a non-GBP currency), including shipping. I didn't think this was too bad, but it was considerably more than I'd usually pay for a DS game...

..So you guessed something was about to go wrong right? Yeah well my game arrived this morning, and I was told by the delivery man that I owed an extra £19.79 (roughly $33.10) for import tax that had been slapped on by our stupid government! That nearly DOUBLED the cost of the game!

As you may have guessed I'm absolutely raging as I write this, and am about to go and send someone from customs a very, angry email. That charge has brought the cost of a simple little DS game up to more than I would ever even consider paying for an Xbox 360 game! I've imported quite a few games before too and I've never had to pay anything on them... to go from nothing to almost £20 is pretty shocking in my opinion, especially seeing as I had almost no way of finding out how high the charges would be before I ordered my game, and I had no way of refusing to pay them.

This has completely spoiled what would otherwise have been quite a good day for me, I don't even want to play Harvest Moon anymore

Right so I was tagged by pakhair, so now I have to post a blog containing 10 facts about myself that you may or may not already know Then I have to tag 3 or more other users, who have to do the same thing again!

So first off, here's my 10 facts!

1. I love chocolate, and sweet things in general. Dessert is always my favourite part of a meal

2. I hate people touching my toes because I'm scared they might break off (I know it's silly but I can't help it! lol)

3. Rammstein are one of my all-time favourite bands, and I'm going to see them (again) in Feb next year *excited*

4. My first proper games console was a bright green Gameboy Colour

5. I would LOVE to do a parachute jump

6. I donate every month to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA)

7. I have an amazing boyfriend who I have been with for over 3 years now

8. I am fascinated by vampires, and wish I could be one

9. I drive a black Seat Ibiza who is lovingly called the Vengabus lol

10. I play the Dancing Stage Universe games on my xbox in order to get some exercise

Next the users I choose to tag are:

KriobaKeys

lordcin

and AudioPrison

So now you guys have to do a blog like this too!

p.s. Sorry about the lack of 'white space' in this blog, Gamespot keeps taking it out whenever I hit 'Preview' Grrr....

Just a quick blog to let everyone know that I won't be online on xbox live for a while - my console got the E74 error last night so I've got to send it back to get repaired

I'm really quite annoyed at it because while I do play it quite alot I don't use it excessively, and in my mind a console should never break down unless it is used an extreme amount (or is dropped or whatever). Microsoft really need to get their act together, I recently read that the breakdown rate for 360s is about 54% - which is completely insane!

In the mean time I'll probably be playing my Wii, DS, PS2 or computer... but I miss my xbox already lol

Ok so here it is as promised - the obligatory birthday blog!

Well that's it, I am officially 21 today! I'm very, very difficult to shop for so most of my relatives just game me money so that I can get myself something - I feel rather rich at the moment I still don't have a clue what my boyfriend (apart from Left 4 Dead GOTY edition, which I asked for) or my friends have got me though because I've not seen them yet- my boyfriend is taking me out to dinner tonight (in a nice Italian restaurant yumyum!) so I should get some presents then! I think I'll wear my pretty leopard-print dress...

As for my friends I'll see them tomorrow night because I'm going out to celebrate, but I'll probably not get my prezzies till Sunday (since I don't want to be trailing them round pubs/clubs as they will inevitably get lost or broken). As some of you will already know I've decided to have an 'Animals' themed night out to celebrate which should be a great laugh! Me and the girls are very excited as we LOVE to make fools of ourselves by going out dressed like complete loons (but still looking good at the same time lol) I am going out as a leopard, and the other costumes I know of are ladybird, bumble bee, cow, cat, and baboon lol Not sure what alot of folks are coming as though cause they won't tell me!

Anyway I'm away to have a shot on Star Ocean: The Last Hope, that my mum got for me

Hey there guys! I just thought I'd better post a blog to let you all know that I'm not going to be about as much for a while, I'm finding that this website (particularly posting on everyones blogs) is gradually taking up more and more of my time which could be spent doing other, more constructive things- e.g. building up a portfolio so I might actually get a job one day.

So I'll still come on every so often and try to comment on a few blogs, but if I miss one or two then please don't be offended. I'll also be pretty inactive in most of the unions I've joined (sorry guys) but I am going to try to keep active in the Forever Harvest Moon union, as I helped to set it up and it's something that I'd really like to be a success (if anyone reading this is a fan of harvest moon and hasn't joined yet then what are you waiting for??? lol)

I'll probably be back online on Friday for the traditional birthday blog, but in the mean time I'm off to teach myself XNA

Happy gaming my gamespot chums