Late last night I painstakingly reinstalled PESJP2013 into a more user-friendly folder on my Windows laptop. Tested it quickly before going to bed, and all seemed fine.

This morning, it wouldn’t work.

Now, I’ve got some PC-tinkering chops. I’ve led something of a sheltered life that has made me a semi-geek. I can rustle up a script, install an Operating System, that kind of thing. I’m a high-intermediate user—by no means an expert (not even close), but just knowledgeable enough to eye a list of running processes and know what’s going on inside a computer. That kind of thing.

So when it comes to figuring things out and fixing them, I’ve got some moves, is what I’m saying. I could drill down into this PESJP2013 installation, figure out what’s causing the problem on my PC, and fix it.

But I haven’t got time today, and probably won’t have time tomorrow. I’m doing other things, see.

Poor old football gaming has slipped down and slipped down the pecking order so far that there is nowhere left for it to go except to completely drop off the bottom.

I’m more likely to play my Football Manager 2010 save or have another few matches on my New Star Soccer save than I am to play either PES or FIFA right now.

As recently revealed, my personal life has undergone a radical overhaul. After years of mostly blissful single life, there’s now a Mrs not-Greg on the scene. And just like Eve in the Garden of Eden, she’s upset the applecart and no mistake, guv’nor.

That’s not fair actually. Yoko has never specifically banned me from football gaming. She doesn’t really understand what it is, and looks upon it quite neutrally, in fact. She just likes doing other things, and I currently like doing those other things too. (I never would have dreamed that women still watched so much actual, proper television. It’s women who are keeping TV alive as a medium!)

I had an emergency game of PES2011 after this morning’s crash. No spark. Nothing really.

And so, gentlemen (and any ladies who happen to be stopping by), we have reached the inflection point of the current crisis.

I am not willing to abandon the blog, not willing to shut it down. I’m not closing the door on 5.5 years of work just yet.

But it is clear to me that I face a change in life circumstances and habit that is impacting upon the very nature of the blog.

So the blog will be going on a summer hiatus, starting at the end of this week, to last just over one full calendar month, or about 5 weeks.

Friday’s post will be the final one until the start of July. I’ll post a specific date of return, and I will stick to that date.

Early July usually brings the first concrete news of the new PES. The PS4 and Xbox One are just around the corner. I might splurge on that dedicated gaming PC after all.

And then we’ll see where a new era of football gaming might take us.