My Xbox kicked the bucket a few weeks ago and it’s only just hit me what I’m missing out on.

I tried to switch it on so I could finish my second play through of ME2 ahead of the new release and nothing happened. It was then that I noticed those three dreaded red LEDs staring, unblinking out of the inky black of my console.

My heart sank, I’ve had my 360 for over five years; longer than I’ve known my wife and had never been through the RROD experience before. A quick online search later and I was running the diagnostic to see if it was a problem with the PSU, no such luck. I registered my unit through the MS site, just on the off chance that they still had it as being under warranty - again no dice.

I don’t want to have to pay £75.00 to have it repaired as there is no guarantee it will be a permanent solution, it might just go again after 90 days meaning another £75.00 to have it repaired again.

Alas I don’t have the spare money to buy a new machine at the moment so I guess I’ll just have to let the Kinect and my library of shiny discs gather dust until I can get my act together.

It’s not all doom and gloom though; it’s a fantastic weekend for sport. England take on the Auld Enemy Scotland in the 6 Nations (rugby union for anyone from outside of Europe), United face Chelsea tomorrow (football) and my boys Osi, Tuck and JPP get to beat up on Tom Brady in the Super Bowl on Sunday night.

Add in to the mix that it’s my wedding anniversary on Monday and my wife is out getting waxed, styled and pampered as I type should be a good indication that I might be getting lucky at some point.

I’m a self-employed solicitor working for an umbrella company.

In essence they take a percentage of the fees I generate for providing me with a desk, light, heating etc etc. This scenario has worked well at previous firms but for some reason just isn’t going well at my new place.

I mainly deal with conveyancing and wills and probate, which, to be honest aren’t the greatest areas of specialism in an economic downturn. However, my new firm have said they will train me in whatever areas I want to retrain in to provided I can source work as they don’t want me to take work of other solicitors.

This is all promising but the problem is in order to attract work (particularly personal injury / civil litigation) you need to be able to pay for it from a referral company. Most referral companies that I deal with charge a MINIMUM of £750 per case which is £200 more than the firm are willing to pay out which leaves me with no work. 

I feel like I’m whining a bit for no good reason. I should be able to pull in some more work with a little more hard graft but it seems like I’ve spent all of my waking hours recently chasing leads and trying to attract new clients and not doing any billable hours to bring home the money or spending time looking after my wife.

I’m sure it’s just a slump due to moving to a new place but life just seems to be moving, if not backwards, then very slowly forwards at the moment. Plus I haven’t had sex in almost a week and that always puts a downer on my mood so I think I’ll bend the wife over the sofa after we put my daughter to bed.

Welcome, welcome, one and all to the wonderful world of Haribo. Please, sit down, kick off your shoes and relax as I rant and rave about the injustices of the modern world and the positioning of my life in it.

I will mostly be using this blog as a forum to vent my frustrations with work, love, sex and family but will also talk about music, video games, films and whatever else takes my fancy.

Any questions? 

Then let us begin.