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Residents of Gadget HQ were shocked this afternoon when Terry, the office’s beloved Boiley Egg, was found to be missing. Head Ranger Mandy Evans was the first to discover the disappearance, checking the Egg’s enclosure at approximately 13:30 and finding it empty. Police Chief Barnaby has issued a statement announcing that the Gadget HQ Police Force will be searching round the clock for their ovular friend, and appealed for anyone with any information to please come forward.

Missing: An Egg

The drama did not end there. Already distraught from the disappearance of the egg some sources are calling her “best friend” and “trusted confidant”, Miss Evans had brought in two raw eggs with the intention of using Terry the Egg to boil them. However, displaying her trademark steely resolve, Miss Evans announced that she would not be beaten.

“Adapt and overcome, that’s my motto. Don’t think you can’t do it because you don’t have the things you need,” she stated. To the amazement of her colleagues, she dropped her eggs into the office’s electric kettle and flicked the switch. Although she did concede that “I’m not going to be able to get it as perfect as I would have done had I been using a Boiley Egg”, Evans laughed in the face of her nay-saying co-workers and kept reboiling the kettle for five long minutes.

We WISH this was our kettle.

Emptying the eggs out onto her plate, Miss Evans tentatively peeled back the first few fragments of shell to reveal two boiled eggs in excellent condition, delightedly exclaiming “Awhhh look at that! How is that for a good egg?” The praise from her co-workers, though begrudging, was well deserved, and ensured that this story did have an eggstra special happy ending.

To enjoy your own cute little Boiley Egg, have a look at him here!

What time is it? Oh come now, you know what time it is. I know what time it is. Sam and Mandy know what time it is. Even Academy Award Nominated Actor Woody Harrelson knows what time it is!

Yeah he does!

It’s Sporcle Friday time! Once again, there’s no real theme to this weeks quizzes, just whatever we thought sounded fun at the time. The first round of this league was very exciting with me and Mandy tied at the top and Sam bringing up the rear, but would someone take a commanding lead this week? (Spoiler alert: Yes!)

Quiz One: Test Your Memory

A simple memory test to start with, but an unforgiving one. A single mistake would result in the end of the quiz, as Mandy found out when she scored a paltry 3/11; to be fair, she’s very tired today, and Sam and I were absolutely fine with it! Things looked good for the two of us, and we both scored maximum points to win 2 points each. Sam was now level with Mandy, while I’d taken a 2 point lead.

Quiz Two: Sins, Dwarves and Spice Girls

In all honesty, any quiz with this as the title is probably going to be the best quiz in the world, but unfortunately Mandy will never know! A computer malfunction meant that she was unable to complete this quiz; as compensation, she now has a Double-Points-Joker to play on a quiz of her choosing to make up for it. With the Supreme Quizzing Machine now out of today’s running, Sam and I went head to hear. He performed admirably, naming an excellent 18/19 answers correctly but, as you can probably tell by the smug tone of my writing, I achieved another perfect score! With a maximum 4 points for today’s quizzing, it looks like the Reflection of Perfection is on course to win the second Gadgets Sporcle League, but there’s a long way to go yet…

So, the table at the end of week two:

1^st: Murray “The Reflection Of Perfection” Dougall – 7 points

2^nd: Sam “The Man That Gravity Forgot” Nicholls – 4 points

3^rd: Mandy “The Supreme Quizzing Machine” Evans – 3 points + 1 game in hand

Good afternoon everybody, it’s Friday! Or at least, it feels like it’s Friday because we’ve moved the Gadgets Competitive Sporcle League forward to today. Of course, this is the first time we’ve played under the new ruling where it’s quite simply first to 10 and then we have another league, so everyone was keen to start strong.

Quiz 1 was selected as name the fruits that either sink or float. “But Murray,” I hear you cry. “That sounds so easy! Everyone knows that a watermelon is far too big to float.” Not so, dear reader. Watermelon, pumpkin and pineapple were some of the most surprising floaty-fruits, while tiny things like grapes and limes will sink to the bottom of the ocean in a second. Out of the 18, Mandy and Sam both scored an acceptable ten, but I began with a victory on a score of 13.

Next up was easily the most addictive Sporcle quiz we’ve ever come across, selecting 196 real countries from a list of roughly 270. Sound easy? What I haven’t yet told you is that selecting just one single wrong answer would stop the game. We had a few goes each, being caught out by such diverse “fake” countries as Siberia (a region of Russia), Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) and Scotland (absolutely definitely a country in its own right).

Pictured: Scotland. Totally being a country.

After the first few goes I was ahead by miles, my score of 123 absolutely obliterating Mandy and Sam’s scores of 34 and 23 respectively. However, intimidated by my greatness, they kept going, which lead to Sam beating me by a single point with 124. Not to be bested, I hit a heroic 131 before being forced to stop. Mandy, taking advantage of her power as “the boss”, allowed herself another go and fluked a victory with 134.

So, the scores at the end of Round One (table is ordered by points then alphabetically according to surname):

1^st: Murray “The Reflection Of Perfection” Dougall, 3 points

1st: Mandy “The Supreme Quizzing Machine” Evans, 3 points

3^rd: Sam “The Man That Gravity Forgot” Nicholls, 1 point

Happy Friday the 13^th everybody! After Wednesday’s blog about Shallow Waters, we decided to keep charity week going and take an office trip to the blood donation centre yesterday! Mandy and I have both given blood before but Sam was losing his National Blood Service virginity, and he was none too keen on the idea! Fortunately he’s also a sucker for peer pressure, so we dragged him down to the bank and he bravely faced his fear head on.

Sam. Being scared.

If you’ve not given blood before, let me dispel some myths for you:

1. You will be jabbed in the arm by two massive needles
2. They will take as much of that red stuff that keeps you alive as they possibly can
3. You may feel faint or dizzy, and may experience some bruising or death
4. It really, really hurts

Or at least that’s what we told Sam. Here are four slightly more accurate facts:

1. You will receive free squash, crisps, biscuits, stickers and key rings for your time
2. The needles are tiny and they only take a pint of blood, leaving you plenty
3. You may feel slightly faint and experience some bruising, but you will not die
4. It hurts a tiny, tiny bit; seriously, you can barely feel it and it’s over in seconds

In all seriousness, giving blood is at worst mildly uncomfortable for a minute or two and you could literally be saving someone’s life by doing it. Plus, did I mention the free squash? Orange and lemon? Livin’ la vida loca.

If you want to find out more about giving blood or see where the nearest place to donate is, go to www.blood.co.uk Go on. It makes sense.

It’s Easter at Gadget HQ, and that means it’s time for the Gadgets Annual Easter Challenge! 4 official events and 1 bonus round of Easter-based competition with 2 points for a win and 1 point for 2^nd place, the winner would receive a limited edition Cadburys Dairy Milk Olympic Egg! After Sam and I competed in a friendly Easter egg hunt (I know what you’re thinking and yes, I did win by a landslide), we began the first event.

ROUND ONE: WORDSEARCH

It’s very difficult to convey in a blog just how tense this was, but Mandy found the 17 Easter-based words quicker than either of Team Bloke. I came close behind in 2^nd place with Sam slightly behind in 3^rd.

ROUND TWO: EGG AND SPOON RACE

In easily the most farcical of the rounds, Sam exploded his egg on his trousers before we’d even begun, and Mandy lasted seconds of the course before the pace got too much for her and her egg fell to the floor. Of course, when you’re as calm and collected as I am it’ll take more than the failure of your colleagues to get to you, and I successfully completed the course in record time.

The yolk's on Sam.

ROUND THREE: SPORCLE

With Mandy and I tied on 3 points each we took up the challenge of “how many words can you make out of Easter?” Turns out there are chuffing loads of them! Mandy came bottom of the pile with 53, Sam just pipped her with 55 and once again, I stood tall and victorious with 62.

ROUND FOUR: EGG DECORATING

So it all came down to this. My 2 point lead at the top meant that a single point (or a Sam victory) would clinch the championship for me. I designed Will the Canary, Mandy went for Disco Egg and Sam created King Eggy. Here are the contenders in all their glory:

King Eggy, Disco Egg & Will

We took them to the next door graphic design company and asked them to rank them. After much deliberation, the results arrived and in a shock worthy of Luton Town winning the League Cup in 1988, Will the Canary was the winner! Mandy’s Disco Egg came 2^nd which meant that poor Sam’s King Egg came third.

THE RESULTS

Once again, the final table signified a heroic victory for our hero, a solid showing from Mandy and a disappointing performance from Sam.

1^st: Murray “The Eggxecution Of Eggcellence” Dougall – 7 points

2^nd: Mandy “Shell-Shocked” Evans – 4 points

3^rd: Sam “Neggative” Nicholls – 1 point

To the victor, the spoils.

Good afternoon Gadgeteers, did you have a good weekend? We’ve moved Murray Monday to Tuesday this week on account of Good Friday, which means we all get a day off! So instead of the usual 3-blog salvo, we’ll be hitting you with a brace of writing today and Thursday. What are we going to talk about today? The current happenings at Gadget HQ!

First off, we’ve got a lot of new products coming in, and I really mean a lot. There’s an awesome range of water guns, cannons, balloons and other watery warfare equipment to keep you drenchtertained through the hot summer months, some funky festival goodies, and some handy travel gadgets in case you’re planning on holidaying your way through the Olympics. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s soon to come:

Of course, getting in so many new products also means we’re clearing out some of our older ones. The Special Offers section of the site has items with up to 50% off and once they’re gone, they’re really gone! If you’re looking for a bargain then there’s nowhere better right now, so hurry before they vanish!

Finishing off our Spring Cyber Cleaning exercise, we’ve revamped our football gifts to offer individual sections for some of the big clubs. Fans of Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur can now peruse our range for just their team without seeing any of their rivals. Don’t worry, fans-of-other-clubs, we’re working on including lots of other teams too.

So that’s it for today; lots of updates and lots of cool new things for you to have a look at! We’ll see you Thursday…