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Tuesday evening games-fest II

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:24 GMT

It's nearly eight months since my good friend Joan and I, in the temporary absence of our husbands, held a five-hour 'games fest' evening. It so happens that this week, once again, our menfolk are away at the same time. So we thought we might try a re-run. Not that it was quite the same... for one thing, I knew I would not be able to walk even as far as the local Souvlaki Express. I thought I had bruised my toes badly three weeks ago. The advice and observations of various knowledgeable people, combined with the rather slow healing process, suggets that two of them were in fact broken. So I'm not walking anywhere at present.

Joan offered to pick up some halloumi souvlaki (if that's not a total oxymoron...) on her way. And since we'd both eaten lunch early, we ate that at once, while it was still hot, along with some rather spicy and delicious falafel which she had also bought.

Then, not sure what we would play, I got down a selection of our games:

Joan suggested starting with Bananagrams, as it was at the top of the pile, and is a pretty non-competitive game that would get our brain cells going. So we did this one, where I think I finished about half a second before she did:

Followed by this one, where Joan was about two seconds ahead of me. I photographed this upside-down (as it was her grid) and rotated it, which is why it looks a bit odd:

Joan wasn't too sure about RUSED... I thought it was probably all right. It wasn't until posting it right now that I spotted NAJ. I'm decidedly dubious about that word... !

Here's my grid done at the same time, with the last two letters that I hadn't quite had time to place. I think I had more than my share of 'tricky' letters, although the two Qs were in my starting tiles, along with a U, so not difficult to play:

Then we did one more, and as far as I recall finished at exactly the same time:

Brain-cells now functioning, Joan asked about Boggle - a game I hadn't played in years. So we did a few rounds - I think it was five in all.

The timer didn't seem to be working so we just stopped when we'd both decided we were getting bored (or repeating words). As far as I remember, I won all the rounds - not that it mattered.

After that, we switched to Upwords. Yes, a third word game - and this time, it was Joan who was the winner. Quite interesting, really, that different kinds of word game must still use different kinds of skills, tactics and strategies.

Here's our second game of Upwords, which Joan also won:

We did consider Scrabble, but we play Lexulous online anyway. We decided not to play Rummikub, since Joan's husband, who is not much of a game player, is usually happy to play it. So we decided to try a round of Settlers of Catan. It was just after 9.00pm by then and we thought it might be the last game of the evening.

We were just placing our first settlements when my other good game-playing friend Sheila texted; we'd suggested she join us if she was able to get out, and she wanted to know if she could come. So we removed our settlements and waited until she arrived. A three-person game is more fun than two-player anyway, as it involves trading.

This isn't the most flattering photo of either of them, but for some reason it's the only picture I took with faces in:

Sheila won. If she hadn't done so that turn, Joan would have done. I was trailing.

It was a good game.

By then it was 10.00 and I was beginning to get a bit tired, but we thought we might play a quick game of Dixit - something that isn't possible with only two people. The three-player rules looked as if it would make the game faster than playing with more people, and Sheila hadn't played before.

I got so interested that I forgot to take any pictures during the game, other than this selection of cards:

It wasn't that quick. Shortly before 11.00 Sheila's husband called to say that the children were all fine, but that it was rather later than she had expected to be... we were a couple of turns away from the end by then.

Sheila turned out to be extremely good at Dixit, and won - she was about three or four points ahead of Joan, who is also very good at it. I was so far behind that they almost lapped me on the board. I'm not sure if it's just that my creativity is a different sort, or whether my being strongly a morning person (and thus mostly closed down after 10pm) meant that I was even worse than usual. It was fun, anyway.

I was in bed by 11.30...

Church visits in June

Wed, 16 May 2012 04:29 GMT

Here's the scheduled church visits in June.

Sun 3rd Widcombe am, Cardiff Bay pm

Tue 5th Newtown

Wed 6th Wrexham

Sun 10th North Bradley

Mon 11th - 13th Bala conference (I must book this !)

Tue 12th Caergwrle

Wed 13th Ebenezer Swansea

Sun 17th Freshbrook Evangelical, Swindon am, ? pm

Thanks for your prayers !

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Or not???

Wed, 16 May 2012 01:18 GMT

Last month, CNN reported that apparently tourists find the French the least welcoming of all nationalities, while Brazilians are the most welcoming (you can read the full article here). I have to confess to feeling a slight sense of relief that Germany did not top this particular poll In fact, we only come in at number 4, behind Russia and the UK.

The UK??? Now they really had my attention! I might be slightly biased but I've always found Brits to be incredibly friendly and welcoming. And so encouraging and appreciative of even the tiniest bit of English visitors speak. There are always exceptions, of course there are, but on the whole that's always been my experience.

I wonder how people decide whether a place and its people are welcoming or not. Is it dependent on whether or not things go their way? Whether or not local people speak the visitor's language, thus making things easy for him or her?

Particularly as tourists, we tend to come to a new place with so many expectations, and often with very little willingness to learn, to understand, to be challenged, to meet people on their turf. No wonder things often go so very wrong! A few things happen that confirm my preconceived ideas and suddenly I “know” that in [fill in appropriate country] people are rude/unwelcoming/arrogant/etc.

The article makes some very good points about differences in culture and values.

“The French are very protective of their language, and customers can get different responses for ordering in French or in another language,” said Lo. [...] According to Yi, though queuing is a social norm in the West, it’s not a common behavior for Chinese people, “so [it] could be interpreted as being rude [by international travelers.] [...] “[These waitresses] don’t have the confidence or language skill to handle foreign travelers. Sometimes, they’d rather avoid them,” said Lo.

So maybe the waitress I wrote off as being rude might just be feeling very insecure as I am making her speak a second language. And the man in a shop in the Middle East might actually be showing me respect by not looking me in the face.

It's not easy getting over my emotional responses to things but not treating people as just a colourful backdrop to my holiday experience (bit like a theme park) and instead remembering that I am visiting people in their home, as it were (even if I'm paying), is very helpful. There is so much fun to be had by adjusting my attitude!

OK, getting down from my soapbox now

And yes, there definitely are rude people in each and every country!

However, I still don't understand how the UK could possibly come in at number 3!

Moonsquirters

Tue, 15 May 2012 11:11 GMT

Percy Thrower I am not so where Eli gets his desire for a bit of gardening is a mystery but one that shall be capitalised upon.

A while back he asked if he could grow some tomatoes and somehow he managed to sweet-talk mummy into taking him shopping for seeds etc.

That was a couple of months ago and today Eli has eleven very healthy looking tomato plants which he actually grew from seed.

So this afternoon he was über excited to see that one of his plants has two small green tomatoes on it. Bless him, he had no idea what they were because they were so small and green, apparently "they don't look like the ones in the packets".

We're not too sure what sparked his interest in growing tomatoes, I suspect that Charlie and Lola might have had a part to play in all of this, but it can only be good, especially if he actually starts eating the things.

Apparently spinach is next on his list of things to grow. One can only marvel at his choices and hope that somehow the freshly grown produce might encourage him to eat something green for a change.

Here's hoping!

Proudly showing mummy his tomatoes

The biggest of the two lurking in the greenery

Gwilym has a placement for work-experience

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:56 GMT

Thanks for your prayers. He got a phone call this morning to say he's got a place for work experience at Le Coq Sportif.