Monday 28 April 2014

Troughs I have Fallen Into

My hero Chill did this: Chillmoose
So I’ve fallen into a trough. Everything, every little thing is irritating me. I’m trying to listen to some new music and it’s all fine, some of it very good, but I’m anxious to listen to more, to not forget connections and recent recommendations and I’d usually write them all down but I don’t want to do that today because if I’m writing anything I should be writing that bloody essay for Uni. Not a hope of that. Need to sleep as I went to bed too late again. Just couldn’t lift myself up to bed. Even knowing that I’d have to run Basti in to school again this morning. Would have stayed in bed much longer given half a chance. But then I’d have been late going swimming and Cheryl needed the car so that wouldn’t have worked either. And that’s the shape you find yourself in and you know that nothing, nothing will pick you up and through this. You have to let it overwhelm you, go through it and wait for it to eventually dislodge itself. And all the time you worry about comfort eating, I could really go for that. I tried to arrange a table tennis table for the children this morning and of course that’s not been possible. Basti’s bike needs fixing. And when is that going to be addressed? When I do something about it of course. That grates, big time. I have Facebook and twitter open, normally I only have one open at a time but now I’m getting anxious about keeping up with all the tweets. Shouldn’t I be trying to cut back on the number I’m following? Why I’ve selected some I do not know. Yes, I will prune. When though, I do not know. Trapped you see. At times like these I’d like to read but I have such a huge pile of books to wade through, too daunting to start as I’ll pick the wrong one. It's as if there are all these men pushing one side of my brain. And on the other side there's these men pushing back. In between all those men are these men...

Saturday 26 April 2014

Train and Waggle Dance, yes again!!

So my Saturday has been taken up with two games. Not what I had expected but it's turned out to a fascinating day. I had plans of writing some of my teaching essay for Uni, it's due in tomorrow week so about time I dedicated an hour or two on it. As it was I got a lot more written than I'd expected and so was ready to learn a new game, The End of Atlantis. At Essen last year, Philip and I sat down at this amazing circular board and waiting patiently for someone to come over and sell it to us. Being British we were very patient for a good quarter of an hour and then sloped away hopefully unnoticed! Never mind. I picked it up a few weeks ago now, the few bits on the Geek read well and the board is so very pretty....

As it was Henry from Grublin dropped me an email saying he was hoping to submit Waggle Dance to the Geek today so that it's up tomorrow on its own page. That's where all games dream of being, and will be the start of the funding process too, with it being launched on kickstarter on the 27th May. As Hagrid would say, 'Oops, I shouldn't have told you that!' My resemblance to the character has been put to me before so don't go there. Henry was after some feedback on his blurb for the game so a few us have been trading insults and suggestions, changing words and tea-towel ideas. It was a very interesting process to be involved in and hopefully of use.

During the conversations I caught up with the fact that the mighty Tractor Boys have another season down under, although that will include a trip down the road to see them against Brentford. And an East Anglian derby of epic proportions is still looking very likely too. I then swooped down onto a conversation about depressing games. Depression being so dear to my heart, and even closer to my head, I was intrigued by the number of bizarrely themed games. Some well clearly humour-based but others, well, I don't know what the designer(s) were thinking. Then one provoked even more than the usual debate. A game simply called 'Train'.

It's taken me hours to read through all the posts on a single discussion about this game, it's heavy reading and I'm not sure I'm quite bright enough to have taken it all in. Anyway, the 'game' is a one off, not made public, only used by the 'designer' to offer her take on history, in this case placing Jews on trains as part of the holocaust. It is more of an art-piece than a game. But that gaming is able to offer such important subjects for consideration is important to me. Whether the designer should have ensured more historical accuracy I'm not so convinced about. Some of the more valid points, in my opinion, are;

  • 'the strength of the game is that it gets a reaction from everyone who encounters it'
  • 'it makes devaluing life shocking or horrifying'
  • 'meant to elicit a knee-jerk reaction and prod our consciences'
There are discussions on the possible self-publicising nature of the designer. Those that say the hidden information should not have been hidden. That tragedy should not be politicized. For me though I believe that anything that raises this topic, in whatever form, has to be valid. We must never forget what happened there, never let it happen again although I'm far from convinced that we're doing that even now. 

Friday 25 April 2014

Noir Poetry

My dissertation will be poetry it has been decided. Of the poems written over the last couple of years I have two themes running, one the reflections of Ivan Shrimpton, an old widower from Suffolk. He talk odd he do. He remembers stuff from the past, notices things from the present. All in his accent. The second has been falling back to my favourite genre of film, the film noir. Those US films from around 1943 to 1957, and all the nods to them ever since. There are a few poems about these, some interesting ones in Silver Birch Press's anthology 'Noir Erasure Poetry'.

Rosemarie Keenan's 'My Lovely' from Raymond
Chandler's 'Farewell, My Lovely' copyright Silver Birch Press
Erasure poetry is where the poet takes a page or two of existing text and picks out words and phrases, in order, to create a poem. Many in the anthology have used famed noir authors James M Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Cornell Woolrich amongst others. The book's good, the poems well thought out. I can't imagine it takes very long to construct a poem this way, you have to have a feel for the rhythm and language of course. I don't think I'm that attracted to writing it though although will be very tempted to use it as a poetry writing exercise in any future teaching.

For my portfolio I will watch each of the film noir dvdd I have, that's some thirty-eight films, a real treat! Indeed, I watched the first one this afternoon, 'Angel Face' with Jean Simmons and Robert Mitcham. Great start and a couple of ideas sprung up too which was most welcome.

Anyway, here's the first noir poem that I wrote some time ago now. It was submitted for a module early in the course so I doubt I can use it for the dissertation.

On the Night in Question

Grainy noir streets in every shade of damp gunmetal
where under-lit over-coated characters
are busy watching, stalking, their footsteps uncertain,
shuffling, worn and scuffed shoes heavy on the asphalt,
and cigarette smoke mingles inside exhaust fumes
thickened with extracted grease-riddled steam
and the fog that rises confused off the oil-laden canal,
he switches off from the hum, the shouts, the abuse,
“yeah, she’s gone home,” leaving him to sway 
the pock-marked path to the final bar.

Distant sirens ascending into closer sirens,
too loud alcoholic laughter, fragmented screams,
merriment and anger, stupidity, misunderstanding,
incessant arguments, booted bottles breaking in the gutters,
improvised jazz straining the ears of but the few,
the swollen bass player nodding very nearly in time,
disgusted guitarist noodling aggressively to drown him out,
ice tumbling into glasses, the barman giving a damn,
his side of the bar cluttered in clean glasses,
the other dripping in beers, forgotten knives and forks.

At the far end slouches our lonely, blurred victim;
he finds he’s finished off the whisky bottle
he thought he’d been in the middle of,
his insides becoming as wet as the outside air,
he lays his worn out head onto his dampened hair,
unaware of the black-handled, dull-bladed knife
piercing his already tormented kidney,
of his seeping blood rolling down his leg and his mac,
of the taste of his iron blood filling lungs and mouth, salty, clagging,
of his eyes blinking shut, his heart and brain powering off,
body still balanced ridiculously on the stool sinking into the pool.

Not even the spotter with secondary responsibilities,
not even he saw our killer making his way out of the scene,
heading for the station’s chaos, into its final hour of mayhem,
of frenzied young couples already late by hours not minutes,
of scared individuals, uncomfortable with no peace of mind,
their anonymity being betrayed by their nervous bulging shadows
amongst the drunken, piss-stinking rabble
eyeing them full of threat and hate-soaked disdain,
our murderer is at home here, in the gristle of the world,
waiting for train’s motion to take him deep into the night,

while anxious train staff only see their shift lengthening yet again.

Thursday 24 April 2014

Second Thoughts; boxes


Over the past year I’ve been considering that life is a whole series of boxes. We are contained in one after the other, there is no respite. They come in a myriad of sizes, shapes but they are all we have. 

So, I’ve slept in my bedroom box. It’s as large as any bedroom box I have ever slept in with the possible exception of the garden box I've used in a couple of times when I have found indoor boxes too hot in summer time. The garden box is still confining though despite it’s open ceiling. 

I use the en-suite box each morning on waking, and then take the stair-box down two flights and into the kitchen box. It is a small box yet functions well. It has the basics of sink, oven, fridge (skinny), a little bit of worktop and the washing machine too. We cook every day, prepare meals, put ingredients together, that sort of thing. There is no microwave or dish washer, it is too small. And yet, it’s a much used box, it performs well above it’s relative stature, it should be proud of itself. 

The other ground floor box is our lounge which is actually quite spacious. Most of my day is spent at one end of this, parked at the dining table. I have a view out of this box, out to the road at the front of our overall box-house. Here I can watch people using the long thin boxes that are the pavement and the road. There might not be the physical box sides but it is obvious how these box-corridors work. We need to use them to get to another box where we will spend more time. It is rare that they are very wide, we do not need them to be so. Their transparent boundaries however, do let us have views of what goes on outside our immediate box. Views into other boxes.

Sometimes these corridors will be short and we’ll open the car-box, another cramped space that we all spend too long in. It can be a stressful box, tiring too. Yes it comes with a view but as boxes go it’s never going to be the most comfortable. Or perhaps we have taken a longer corridor-box to the waiting box of the bus stop or train/tube station. From which the transportation box will arrive and we clamber on board, taking a seat, hopefully. These boxes come with additional strangers that we must share the space with. Some become familiar and yet we rarely get to know them. 

On arrival at our destination station, or car park, we’ll resume the corridor travel to a box that might look bigger on the outside, but is in all likelihood, just another series of smaller boxes, and we will only get to use a few of them. If one is our office-box then we may have a few more corridors to traverse before coming to rest in a too familiar box for work. This is what I did for years. Lots of different boxes, the majority quite small, for three or four people. In some of the larger floors the boxes would themselves be divided up so that I would only need to use a small percentage of it.

In shop-boxes we are surrounded by items on display. These boxes often come with box supervisors who know from nothing, all the way through to being 'geniuses' about their wares. Thought is unnecessary in a lot of these boxes, formulaic scripts will do. ‘Can I help you?’ I was asked yesterday as I placed an item I wished to purchase on the counter and opened my wallet. Well, of course you can, I need you to take my money, give me a plastic bag I don't want or need and prevent me from being caught shoplifting. ‘Er, just this please,’ I said handing over a note. And that was it. The transactional box required nothing. Indeed the next one, the supermarket box had even less human interaction with my self-checkout skills being finely honed. Return the trolley to it’s box, load the shopping into the car-box. And it goes on like that, day after day.

Some boxes look impressive, large, tall, with many floors, balconies, large windows and I look at them with envy. I would like to live in that box. And yet, it’s just another box. Maybe it has taller ceilings, is larger in area? Yet I will still take up the same amount of room in that box as I do in this one. Perhaps it has a better view, wider, or of greater distances, yet that’s all it is. When we visited Thierry in Bayswater last week the private flat he'd hired for their holiday was such a property. In Central London in must be worth a fortune. And yet, it was just another box from the inside. The outer shell held greater potential.

I haven't mentioned gig-boxes, tour-van-boxes, hotel-boxes, stadia-boxes or wide open parks. They all do much of a muchness. I will only use the small area around me for a short while, it may as well be another corridor-box or a simple room box. Whenever I go swimming the box is flooded at the bottom so I wear my Speedo goggles. The changing cubicle is a tiny box. Over the last nine months I hate to think how long I have spent in those boxes. Would be like a prison box. There’s a Scarfo song called ‘Prison Architect’ with the refrain ‘Hey prison architect, design a box for living’. 


All in all, boxes are good. It’s all about how you connect those that you use. How long you spend in each one and whether you can make the experience as positive as possible. How big does your box need to be? What on earth are you doing in your box? I think it’s important to consider this more often, not take them for granted. Personalise your boxes whenever possible, fill them with sensory items, experience them, consciously. 

Lid on.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Boxes, Part One

There's been a discussion on BoardGameGeek about a new game called Splendor. Unusually, everyone seems to love the game. It's been well manufactured with great components, it's easy to learn and play, it has a good rule book and I picked up my copy for around £22, so very affordable I would say. The discussion however, has been about the size of the box. The photos illustrate the point. So, why is the box so huge?

 








The main responses centre upon having a box of 8.5"x11"x2.8" (21.5x27.6x6.7cm) that will sit prominently next to other games of equal stature. All very subjective I'd say but once I started thinking about it it's true. Any game coming in a smallish box, say the size of two packs of cards, can't possibly be anything other than a light filler, once of those games without much brain-power needed for the start or end of an evening. It'll last about half an hour tops and normally cater for up to six players. Anything that comes in a small, compact box simply cannot be greater than that.

Splendor with its insert, all very neat and tidy
Looking at my collection there are some gems to be had in small boxes. And yet they don't get the love they surely deserve. Is it to do with box size? Well, yes, perhaps it is. I'll list the following; The Great Heartland Haulage Co., Glen More, Lungarno, Aton. All punch well above their weight but I've struggled to get them played at the club.

There are then those that come in boxes way bigger than necessary, that confirm that the opposite is also true, i.e. the box is at least medium size and therefore the game must be a good strategic one inside. These would include Battle Line, Carcassonne, Race for the Galaxy, all highly regarded.

Interestingly, a lot of two-player games come in a standard, square box of around 8"x8"x1.25" (20x20x3.2cm). Your expectation of it being a two-player game is set up by the box size. You'd be surprised if it could play more. Balloon Cup is one such game, part of the publisher, Kosmos's 2-player series. Yet even the French guy who's picture I've stolen has made himself a very smart tin one to hold everything in.

On the other side of the argument are those games collectors who try to conceal the fact that they own too many games by decanting as much as possible into smaller boxes. You should see the expansions I have in my Carcassonne box, or Agricola, even allowing for my luxurious cotton baggies from www.thecleverbaggers.co.uk.

I guess that box size will also come into the equation of pricing a game. The smaller the box the cheaper it must be right? Yet, make it a medium size and charge low and the suspicions about it will escalate. There's no way they could have turned out a good game for that price in that size box, unless the components are sub-standard perhaps?

Anyway, I've got Henry of Grublin thinking about this issue now as part of the Waggle Dance manufacturing process. I'm sure he'll make the right call for the game!




Tuesday 22 April 2014

It's Just Waffle Today

Good. Easter's done. Have found all those long lost notes about losing weight, my motivations, my monitoring of food, the regime, the recipes etc. Despite another very late night following games at Andy's - the less said about one of those the better - I was up relatively earlier as Basti had an inset day today and had promised to coming swimming with me early. We arrived about 8.15 i guess and it was pretty busy for a Tuesday although it cleared reasonably well. He reckoned he was going to try and get to twenty lengths and I said I needed to do at least fifty not having been for almost a fortnight.
I like the pool, but the photographer's made it look amazing!

As it was we both did well. I hit my usual sixty-four lengths, a mile, and he got up to thirty-two much to everyone's surprise. We both felt good afterwards too, hurrah. Just as well as we needed to go school trousers shopping and get the groceries. As ever, I didn't have the right change for the car park so we dashed in to the uniform shop but ended up trying on three pairs before finding the ones that need taking up by at least five inches. Never mind. Our supermarket trolley race didn't go too well with him constantly asking me how much longer we had on the parking ticket and what else was on the list. If he'd have just got the blinking stuff maybe we would've been less stressed!

Anyway, I sent him out whn the ticket expired and finished off in the shop. After paying I took out a huge display scattering some produce all over the place and giving one old fellow the fright of his life. Ooops! The car was fine but as soon as I got home I realised I'd forgotten to buy any meat. Damn. Off to the butcher's in a mo' then.

At home I took his trousers up. They're quite neat and I doubt anyone will notice that I could only find the navy cotton and no black. Then made another tomato soup, provencal style the recipe reckons. Not sure about that but it tasted beautiful. As Mrs Hora put it, 'like real tomato soup without that bought after-taste. Certainly good for the diet. Have booked myself in for a service, am due to consider how the reduced medication has been. Seems ok to me although I'm worried about the next step, went a bit fractious after missing a couple of days of the early morning ones and I can't sleep without the nighttime ones.

A beautiful new chunk of vinyl arrived today too. An And Also The Trees 12" produced in France for RSD14. It's so pretty in it's huge sleeve. There were discussions about the box for the game Splendor over the weekend. The contents take up about 10% of the box it's sold in. But then would gamers buy a tiny box and believe the game is as good as it is. I have several small boxed games that don't get the merit they deserve because of that. Strange. Anyway, a 12" sleeve looks brilliant, so much nicer than a cd cover, never mind a downloadable photo.


Wonder what David Moyes is up to today. Bet he's inundated with journalists dreaming they're going to get something amazing to write up, plus friends and colleagues trying to be supportive I hope. I haven't looked at the news since I heard an announcement in Lidl. I think I'm in the camp that will say he wasn't give enough time. But then you look at how well Martinez, Pellegrini and Mourinho and have done since last summer and I think, mm, what has he been up to? You could easily add to that list Pulis, and even Sherwood. Still, he'll never have to work again if he doesn't want to. Will probably be the next Scotland manager if he fancies that... And then who's in at Man U? Some big name, for two or even three seasons before he moves on again.

Sunday 20 April 2014

Waggle Dance Revisited

Ok, so Easter's been good. Family seen and fed, some games played, Norwich lost... and finally I have the chance to look at Waggle Dance again. I like it. A lot. It plays really well, with two, three and four. It has plenty of options, plenty of room for pontification and analysis paralysis, what's not to love?
The Easter Bunny created chaos in Sunny Hounslow

I suppose I wish I could come up with some magical suggestions to improve the icons that Henry has asked me to consider. Yes, they're not quite there as yet. Or maybe they are, maybe someone has resolved this and I just don't know about it yet!! I do so hope so. It'll be close to perfect once they're right. And the rule sheet. It's in a 'map' fold-out style and I like that a lot. I think the order's slightly awry but not far off. I've made a few suggestions re terminology/language, nothing major and hopefully that will be of use. Anyways, I feel privileged to have the chance to try it out during development. It's going to do well come release time. Hurrah!

Also played some more Granny Wars, top game that, all the way from NZ. Plus Splendor which is another short, simple and involving game. I even managed to beat Basti at The City, now we've sorted out the rules a bit it's a bit easier for me!

Listened to a ton of music too; Bombay Bicycle Club, Tricky, John Newman, Los Campesinos, Soul Family Sensation pretty much on rotation. I so love my music.

Saturday 19 April 2014

Hesitant Rain


So, the weather forecaster tonight told me that potential rain tomorrow was being hesitant. Forgive my seriousity but that ain't going to happen is it? Really? I think I have it in for weather forecasters in general. I struggle with the, literally, phenomenal, technological advancements I have witnessed during my lifetime and yet we still can't tell what the weather will do in a couple of hours time. Apart from in the Formula 1 pit lanes of course, they know, and change their tyres accordingly.

Yes, the only time we know what the weather's doing is actually as it happens. How many 'forecasts' begin telling us what the weather has done? Why would I want to know that? From a forecaster? Anyway, at least I know that the rain tomorrow will be hesitant. I can let my brolly to be similarly cautious, prepare my wellies too.

As it happens today was different from the normal Saturday. We had Mrs Hora's mum coming to stay with her other daughter, husband and youngest. I was told to make my roasted tomato soup for lunch and it was delicious yet again. Most of the soups I've tried to make have been either too watery, or too thick and lacking in flavour. This however, is both simple and tasty. One kilo of tomatoes get chopped and chucked in a roasting tin with a chopped red onion, red pepper, four carrots, two garlic cloves, a big glug of olive oil and seasoning. In the oven at gas mark six for 40-50 mins and then blitz with a pint of vegetable stock. The consistency is fine and the flavours are wonderful. Luckily, I made double today so there are two portions going into the freezer for the future. Perhaps for a day of less hesitant rain.

I made dinner too. Turkey gnocchi. I marinaded the turkey strips in lemon, garlic, mustard and olive oil. Cooked the gnocchi and the fried it with some onions before cooking the turkey and marinade, adding some cream and mixing the lot together. Side salad with mustard dressing and off we went. All very good. Ate too much apfel strudel with ice cream and cream - mmmm - for afters but sometimes... you know. Plenty of wine and John Newman, Soul Family Sensation and Tricky to accompany the food and all is well tonight.

Only thing missing was a couple of games but you can't have everything. I did manage to watch a couple of playthroughs earlier thanks to the wonderful Rahdo and Markus Wiehrauch. I will be investing in 'It Happens', but not 'Norderwind'. Also, may I make a smaller box for Splendor. There was an interesting forum discussion on the size of the box compared to its contents which included a link to UK game designer Jake Staines who I came across yesterday coincidentally. He's designed a print and play game that looks great, Maquis. Will give that a go when we get some more colour ink. In fact, the other two he's produced are also of interest, good man!

Thursday 17 April 2014

Regrets

Regrets. Until 2009 I lived my life pretty much to a ‘no regrets’ principle. What the hell was the point of thinking something done and dusted could have been different? I made the decisions I’d made with an honest heart and for the best, so going over alternatives and worrying about the choices made seemed stupid to me. If I lived it all again I was sure I would have gone with the same decisions a second time. Maybe if I come back for a third life I could add some variety.

But in 2009 regret took over and since that time I regret a massive number of things in my life. I’ve not been capable of even seeing the options, never mind making the most of things. The more I think about this the worse it seems. I regret all the paths taken and regret all the paths I didn’t take too. So I can’t win. That’s what depression is you see. It tells you everything that’s wrong and points out where you strayed, where you could have gone and then tells you in no uncertain terms that you should never have been on any path in the first place. In fact, you’d have been better off in bed.

There, at least the twists and turns my thoughts and I torment each other with, could mount up without fear of action. Like that buzzing fly taunting me now as I tap away at the keyboard. The dripping tap in the kitchen and the smoke alarm beeping because its battery is ending its life. These things all say the same thing to me. Regret.


Tonight was Holy Thursday Mass. The last supper, the washing of the feet. And afterwards the lights are all turned off and there are just candles in front of the alter for the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrement, marking the hours before Judas betrays Jesus. I sat there contemplating. It’s peaceful, spiritual, but so, so scary. I cried several times and couldn’t come to terms with myself. After almost an hour and a half it was time for me to leave. I moved onto my knees and tried to pray away regret but it’s still here with me now. I will sleep instead, let the mirtazapine take me off instead. Tomorrow will be another day.

Key Games: Keyflower and Glass Road

Gaming this week started with a new experience, the Richmond Board Gamer's Club on Monday night. Set up as the sister club to the IBG I've often read about their 'game of the month' envious that I couldn't get along. With Uni taking up Tuesday and Thursday evenings, IBG on a Wednesday meant that going out on a Monday too would, quite frankly, taking the piddle.


Anyway, with Uni now over bar the assessment for the PGCert and my dissertation of course, Mondays become a possibility. And 'gotm' for April is Keyflower, one of my favourite ever games! Ok, so that decision was based on only one play but hey, it's good to be opinionated sometimes isn't it? Even a slight contretemps with the game's main designer, Richard Breese, at last year's Essen hadn't swayed that opinion. I'd been told that the Triple Crown wasn't the most salubrious establishment in Richmond, and whilst not far from the truth the upstair's room was fine, quite light in fact, with a balcony and views over London Scottish Rugby Club's ground. Maybe we're lucky at IBG to be overlooking the Thames but it certainly wasn't a view to shy away from.

I'd given IBG regular Andy a lift over and knew I'd meet a few chaps I'd played with in Isleworth. As it was, of the nine of us there for the evening, there was only chap I didn't know, and he was most pleasant. I just wish my amnesia hadn't taken his name away from me within seconds of being introduced to him, forgive me. So nine of us. Keyflower to be played, three copies, that's three threes, bizarre but there you go! I'd met Gary many, many times but apparently we'd never played a game together so it was good to put that right. And the three was made up by 'Victor' as I'll name him (foreshadowing that'll be).

The game has several key mechanics (!); auction, worker placement, modular board, network building, set collection, pick-up and deliver. That they all work together so well is a clever piece of design. There's also a lot of player interaction, and I've read that Breese feels this is very important. The theme is also consistent, good use of the seasons for the four rounds. I haven't even mentioned the artwork as yet. Breese's sister Julia has been his main artist for years, for the whole 'Key' game series, and the colours are always bright, restrained, clear. I love it.

So, the game proceeded pretty quickly until winter was upon us. I felt I was doing ok but thought that Gary had so many resources he must have some high scoring bonuses hidden behind his player screen. And Vic - yeah, we were getting on well by this time - looked like his collection of powerful green meeples would put him into contention too. I'd expected him to outbid me with the greens and when he met those expectations I was able to move my pieces across to another more useful tile but then sat there smug rather than realising I had a further six meeples that I could place. Oh well. Game over. Scoring, mm, not bad, sixty-one. Gary had fifty eight, and Vic, well, sixty-three. Later, I realised I had another point having taken the first-player meeple for winter. If only... I'd utilised those unleashed meeples. If only.

All that was forgotten however with a six-player For Sale. Another great game. Bid on thirty property cards numbered one to thirty, and then sell them for between $0 and $15,000. The bidding got ridiculous early on so I was forced to take a couple of low value properties but if you play these right later you can often get a good return on them. In the end I had $7,000 left of the initial $14,000 so that would be a help, as the others had used their capital completely with only one exception. At the sales things went well, my low value properties picked up brilliant returns and I managed to collect plenty of second highest value cheques too. Final scoring saw me reach forty-nine. Scott to my left - who normally wins every game he plays - had forty-six, and he turned out to be in second place, hurrah!! A good evening all told. I will be going back.

Glass Road, superb design
Then yesterday Josie played Glass Road with me for the first time and I then played three solo games of it too. My scores weren't great, 22 1/2, 23, 20 and 23. My highest to date is 27 1/2 but there's an American lady, Denise, on BGG who's played loads and has had two scores of twenty-eight recently so I was trying to reach that dizzy height. As it was I had another opportunity at IBG. Two newbies to the game and Philip, who picked up the Office building, as he always seems to do, and showed exactly how to use it. I completely blew this chance to score well and finished third with an 18, damn! Philip won with 24 1/2, Andy scored an excellent 19, and visiting policeman Anthony 12 1/2 although he'd learned a lot over the final two rounds.

Philip, Andy and I then played Santa Cruz. It's by the designer of the excellent Verrater and Attika games but I have to say we all felt it was a bit of a non-event. Philip, who'd played before, decided that once you understand it, it's boring. He'd hoped for more from his second game. Andy, who won, was also unimpressed. Still, it's rare not to have a good experience so when you do at least you know the rest of time it's been great. Context see, it's everything.

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Birthdays

So Mrs Hora has another birthday today. It's the 31st she's had since we've been together, wow! The children came in, way too early, but the collection of pressies was good, some books, secateurs, earrings, massager thingumajig, top and I've promised to get her 'band in a box' software so that she can jazz along with full backing. We had a family breakfast together too, the first in quite some time as we're all over the place when it comes to getting up.

Then a good march to the tube and off into Bayswater to meet up with Thierry, Helga, Ennio and Wim who are over for a week from Berlin. Thierry has been one of our best friends for so long. I bought a video of The Beloved he'd recorded in Paris way back and then when Cheryl was teaching at a language school in Lowestoft the French leaders told her about their friend Thierry who liked the same sort of music that she did. They gave her his address and it was the one I'd got the video from, obviously!

He moved over to London with Carole and we went and visited them and that was that. We followed them around various homes; Puteaux, Milan, Gladbach and Berlin. He and Carole got married. Cheryl was maid of orleans, I mean, honour. And we drove the piece montee down from Bayswater to Alfriston. We had to break off the top bit to get it in our Renault 5, thus dooming the marriage. It lasted quite some time to be fair. Thierry and I set up Peaceful Fish Productions in 1999 and he's still giving the world advice on film finance, film music and that sort of thing. He has yet another project starting up that I may be able to do some writing for, could be very useful.

They'd brought presents for all of us including an incredible Belgian Easter Egg, and Josie and I got a tinned gherkin each... plus the perfect napkin for me to use whenever we see my sister's husband Heinz again. We had a pleasant lunch together before the others all took off to go to Harry Potter World. I really wasn't up for it so returned home alone where I've managed to scape my shin falling down the stairs in the middle of some games reorganisation, ouch. Never mind. I fixed the shelf in Basti's room and managed to load it up with books giving additional shelving for games in the box room, hurrah! The others are all off to Brick Lane for some more food so I've no idea what time the taxi I'm driving will need to be at the tube, could have done with an early night. Not that there's anything to get up for tomorrow of course!!

Monday 14 April 2014

Wordsmiths

I love lyrics. All those things people sing out that I wish I could say, those clever lines, enticing, romantic, all of that. And how cool would it be to have an orchestra following you around playing the music too, adding to the atmosphere, genius? Imagine what a place the world would be. Damn, I just have. It would be full of Chris Rea, Freddie Mercury, never mind Elton Trousers and those beautiful boy bands. Full of cliches, manufactured pop. It would be horrendous if we could all do that. It'll have to be just me, and a few others I allow this incredible capacity.

That's put me right off the topic! I was going to go searching some of my favourite lines and spread them liberally around for you amusement, but the moment's passed. It'll save for another day.

It's been a Barry White afternoon. Stumbled across a 9-minute mix of 'Let The Music Play', top. It has such a wonderful intro, Barry chuntering on about going into town, to see what's going on, 'she's at home', he calls back to someone, 'yeah, she's at home'. What a superb line. Barry was my mum's favourite, along with Gilbert O'Sullivan, what a duo they could have been!

This morning I listened to the Soul Family Sensation's one and only album 'New Wave', a gem of indie-house. It has a gorgeous track I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby plus the lyrical treat that is the Sheffield Song:

it was summer, i was younger, 
when i saw her by the boats on the sand,
i should have told her that i loved her
i don't want baby to go home
i don't want baby to cry
i don't want to say goodbye
but she's gone, back to Sheffield... it was Wednesday.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Palm Sunday and Toe Dipping

Surprisingly, Josie and Mrs Hora accompanied me to church today for what's always a particularly moving mass on Palm Sunday. We collected our crosses and had them sprinkled with holy water by Fr Stewart. Am looking forward to this week, the first Easter at home in a million years and so I can attend the whole caboodle of celebrations at St Bridgets.

The back of the church has this painted on the ceiling, I love it
So, last week in Suffolk Nana gave me some pocket money and on our trip to Bury St Edmunds - yes he'd died again - I bought two commercial albums, something I'm very shy about doing although I have managed to surprise the children. So, Rudimental's 'Home' and John Newman's 'Tribute' have been placed between Blaine Reininger and Sarandon, and Myrna Loy and New Musik respectively. John's nasal tones are not liked by Mrs H but he doesn't use them that much in fact. Really liking his songs after a couple of listens I have to say, very very catchy. I like the Motowny, Northern Soul vibe he's using to great effect.

Been working on Waggle Dance, preparing my thoughts to feedback to Henry and co at Grublin Games. Still hoping the family will indulge me later today to trial out and comment too. There's stickers in it for play-testers for starters! Backed another kickstarter during the week. Tony Boydell is a much respected - by me anyway - English designer and he spread the word about 'Of Mice and Lemmings'. It's a simple looking card game but I'm happy to back another UK project.

Another game I'm trying to help at the moment is from a small Finnish publisher. For some reason I think I like Finland a lot. It's the next country in Europe I'd love to visit. No idea where this has come from but there's a great quirky Finnish film, 'Frozen Land', and a band that supported Spearmint once, Laakso, were superb. I've also bought a few games through lautapelit.fi, top service. Anyway, here are two links to two ks campaigns that look like they could well do with some support; Of Mice & Lemmings and Troll Hunt.

I encourage you all to dip your toes into different worlds, track down the books of Norman Collins and Jojo Moyes if you've never read them, Spearmint's 'A Week Away' album is on spotify if you have to, and play a blinking board game, modern games are unbelievably good, start with Ticket to Ride Europe and go from there...


Saturday 12 April 2014

A12

For some ten years after moving to London I still had a season ticket for Ipswich Town Football Club. For the the first couple of years it was a great way of keeping in touch with my dad, we'd been going together since I was seven. In those early days the team was at its best, frequently qualifying for the UEFA Cup. I remember coming home from middle school and being allowed to go to the Wednesday night games despite the fact that we wouldn't get home until 10.45pm at the earliest. I saw Johan Cruyff playing for Barcelona. I was thirteen when Ipswich won the FA Cup, and then the UEFA Cup just three seasons later.

We were fortunate enough to get to know some of the players, Kevin Beattie stayed over at our house many times. We'd go and visit his family and that of Allan Hunter before the matches, and go into the players' lounge after the games, me in awe of the stars all drinking together, my autograph book in hand. For one of my birthday’s Kevin gave me a fully autographed football of the England squad, including Elton John no less!

After my dad passed away in 1991 I kept my pilgrimage going. At first, I couldn't imagine not going, but after a while it felt part of the grieving process to watch the team doing their thing. I saw players that he would have loved, even more that would have infuriated him. Gradually the team worsened and there nothing that they could do but revert to second tier football. In 2000 I realised that I was making more effort getting to Ipswich every other week, and weekdays too, than the players were putting in on the pitch. My minimum four hours in the car, or five hours by train and tube, were more than the hours effort I felt some highly paid professionals were putting in across a whole week. I stopped going. Much to my surprise I didn't miss it at all. Twenty-nine seasons and it was easy to just switch off. That quite disturbed me. Such a huge part of my life became meaningless immediately.

Last Saturday, the family travelled most of my old journey to attend a family do in Dedham. The journey meant nothing. I drive so much slower than I used to do too. The journey was familiar but not in any nostalgic way, it was just a journey. After the lunch, Mrs Hora dropped the children and me off at Colchester station and we caught a train to Diss. For the first time ever I didn't even bother looking across the Orwell from the train station to Portman Road as we stopped in Ipswich. Even if I'd driven I'd park at the station so the five minute walk to the ground was a regular trip. They won two one today, home to Doncaster, the play-offs still a possibility. Did I read that they've been in the Championship longer than any other team now? Great.


This blog is dedicated to Cooper, Burley, Mills, Talbot, Hunter, Beattie, Viljoen, Osborne, Johnson, Whymark, Woods. [lest we forget; Sivell, Harper, Peddelty, Butcher, Osman, Wark, Muhren, Thijsson, Hamilton, Mariner, Gates, Brazil, Lowe, Wright R, Tarrico, Baltacha, Brennan, Zondervan,  Johnson D, Putney, Dozzell, Dyer, Marshall I, Wlson K, Forest, Williams G, Mowbray, Venus, Stewart, Scowcroft, Holland, Naylor, Mathie, Johnson G, Stockwell]

Not a photo in sight

It's taken me several days but I think I'm getting back up to speed following the sojourn in Suffolk. Am back to the diet, jotting down my daily weight, rereading my mantras to keep me on track and writing out my intakes. Need to get back to the buying of food to ensure there aren't too many treats, and plenty of good fruit. More importantly I need to remember that Im trying to get my food intake to a low level, so that my eating patterns change to eventually become 'normal'. Whenever things go awry, as they did in Suffolk, I need to consider what I would say to a good friend who'd strayed from his/her regime, encourage them to start again and keep it going... Swimming was fine yesterday after a full week off. No problem reaching the mile again. Hopefully, will get a full week in next week.

Have also caught up with my emails, only two left to respond to although I seem to have deleted one of them so have asked the sender to resubmit. Similarly, have read through all the articles on the Geek so my gaming knowledge is bang up to date. Just a bucket load of play through videos to watch at some time. All very useful. Have one additional hand written blog to add here, maybe get a chance to do that later too.

Been into Kingston already this morning, Josie's iPod got a cracked screen through her brother's stupidity. Unfortunately, or conspiracy perhaps, it wasn't possible to replace it so we traded for a new one, £75. Had been hoping to get away with £20 replacement screen, ouch. Picked up another little something for Cheryl's birthday though together with a new kettle to replace our dangerously dripping old one. Kettles don't seem to last very long in our house, why is that?

Have enrolled at Richmond Adult Community College to do a five week intro to AppleMac course just after Easter. There are still several things I'm uncertain about and it was cheaper than replacing an iPod. Might stay on to do the intermediate course afterwards. Am absolutely loving Apple so far I have to say. Functionality seems so much better, and easier too. The course will undoubtedly answer my few questions and show me some useful stuff too, as well as some bits I'm never going to go near!

On the journey home we watched two firemen walking down the street in full regalia. They must have been no older than three, probably on the way to a friend's party I guess. They looked so cool, and funny. I imagined a real fire engine driving past but then stopping to say hello to the little guys. What a treat that would have been for them.

Friday 11 April 2014

Waggle, such a great word

Wow, don't think I've played so many games in one week, been very fortunate this last week. Up in Suffolk the children and I played Cuatro, Battle Line, Hanabi and The City multiple times. Then Wednesday night - board games at the London Apprentice with the IBG (Isleworth Board Gamers) - it was another Hanabi and Railways of North America. Yesterday, Tom and Ivy (age 19 months) popped over and we played The City again with Basti, plus Babel which I liked a lot, another Uwe Rosenberg game. Today Tom and Ivy picked me up and we went over to Andy's in Whitton for the afternoon and more new games to me anyway! Splendor I've ordered and playing it I'm glad I have, another game I enjoyed (must check to see if there are many I don't: hold on, Galaxy Trucker, Steam Planet to name but a couple!), followed by the prototype I've been sent by Grublin Games, and then Legendary, Marvel Heroes deck builder.

Railways of North America is an interesting expansion to the Railways Tycoon / Railways of the World series. After the original board, Eastern US, and the expansion, Western US, the North America was never going to be anything but Canada but I guess the US company couldn't lower themselves to calling it such in case their main buying audience in the USA were put off. Anyway, the Canada map is wide, and thin. It looked too small to play well with four but with four of us keen to try it we were able to disprove this. The box says it plays up to five, I think that would be very cramped but you never know. There are some pretty good unique features; the snow line, which adds to the cost of building per hex; the mines, which add additional cubes - 1 to 5 depending on your luck - to grey cities; and the ferry cards allowing you to connect to some offshore cities. We enjoyed it. We thought it was going to be expensive but in the end not that many loans were taken. The major routes didn't bring in many points and the proliferation of grey cities was interesting. This expansion also comes with cards and rules to combine West and East US maps, bring it on.

So, let me tell you all about the 'prototype game'. It's called 'Waggle Dance', great name. It's by a designer called Mike Nudd and Henry of Grublin told me it was his immediate choice for the publishing company's second game. It's bee themed, which I like. It contains 18 dice per player, which I'm often dubious about. Tom and I set it up yesterday but then missed the rules for the 'Queen Cards' so gave up at that point. I found them, on the back of the rules sheet, so played a four player couple of rounds early today and then at Andy's we played a full game.  Henry had told me that they were happy with game play and I have to say that everything worked well for us. It was tight on the scoring, and there are certainly a lot of decisions to make. The use of the dice is perfect for me. Plenty of choice as to which action you decide to allocate your dice too - like Castles of Burgundy for me - and the chance to tweak them with cards as well: excellent.

card backs, the 'worker' dice, pollen cubes and 'Queen' cards
Henry's questionnaire had us looking at the icons and rules. Both aren't far off but do need some improvements, which is what sending prototypes is all about. Am planning to play with the family over the weekend, will be interesting to see what Basti and Josie make of it. I've certainly bought into it. Andy earlier suggested that it offered nothing 'new', and I suppose he has a point. But then if you expect every new game to have new mechanics you're going to be disappointed. If I was looking for every new novel I read to offer something new... you get the point. For me, the mechanics and the play was great. There are a vast number of big decisions to make, several options to consider and most importantly you need to get your timing as efficient as possible. Indeed, it was heavier than I thought it would be, which is good. The rules are pretty straight forward after one game, I doubt you'd need to refer to much for following games. I'm excited by it. Keen to try it some more. Always good signs.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Rare Breeds

Suffolk, just outside Diss. Despite the fact that this rural part of the country is decades ahead of it's northern counterpart, still struggles with the internet. I opt to be www free for five days. It's different, in all the wrong ways.

Still, with time on my hands I read a little, nothing of substance. Wrote a bit, one poem I like, and another couple of works to work upon, plus a couple of blog entries, one I'll add here next and another for another double entry tomorrow. Played games with the children, many games; The City, Hanabi, Cuatro and Battle Line. Fortunes couldn't have been more different with the first of those and the last. Played about six of each with Basti winning all of The City, how did he manage to get so many park and fountain combinations? Battle Line though, I could do no wrong. Now obviously both games are dependent on the luck of cards picked up. But clearly I've decided that there's more you can do to influence the Battle Line. We even played twice with the tactics cards. Basti was keen to try these out and I resisted them, which means he didn't get to play very many!

Cuatro is definitely better with more than two. Another dice fest but some interesting choices to be made. Not bad. Hanabi was, unbelievable. Two three-player games, one including Nana, and we managed to get all the cards out, both times. Never happened before. Spooky but relatively straight forward too. If it hadn't have happened again last night with three new players at the IBG (Isleworth Board Gamers) I would have been more than surprised. But now I'm wondering if it's very possible, every time? Concentration. Great fun too!!

Nana is always so very generous on our trips out so we travelled back on two trains, two tubes, heavily laden with goodies. Footwear, sundry clothes, a new iron, rucksack, lemon curd, marmalade, teabags, a small poetry library, my tutor's new thriller, and Basti's xbox and wide screen tv of course. Only he would think to lug those around the country for four hours plus.

The children and I have also managed to get Nana to commit to visiting us again in Hounslow. It's been at least seven years so that's quite something. Fingers crossed it actually happens, there are plenty of excuses to be found between now and the end of May!


Sunday 6 April 2014

the passage

for all and none. It’s the title of an album from the passage. lower case is important. The first group I really obsessed over. They were relatively so obscure that I felt that they were mine and mine alone. Dick Witts was the man behind the group, a former percussionist with the Manchester Philharmonic Orchestra he worked with Tony Friel, later involved with Mark E. Smith and The Fall, to release two singles on an obscure label. I guess the first song I ever heard by the band would have been ‘Do the Bastinado’ and my Peel tape from them has him explaining that it was a torture being hit on the underpart of the feet. Next up was definitely ‘Shave Your Head’ with a brilliant bass synth line and the lyric, ‘take it out on your friends, shave your head’. I was hooked.

As was my thing at the time I wrote to the passage at the address given out and Dick replied. His writing was striking, neat, odd. He was very interesting too. We swapped a good eight or nine letters over a couple of years and the music they released continued to be experimental electronica with some great guitar chords over the top, superb drumming, and the lyrics of someone evidently very intelligent. I was completely in love with them, and always will be. Their four albums will always feature in my top 50, and certain songs will be with me forever. I never understood why they weren’t more popular, but then that seems to have been the case for a lot of bands I fell head over heels with. 

taboos - sleeve art
Bizarrely, around 2004 I was travelling back from Brighton on the train and this chap looked so like Dick I was awestruck. I didn’t what to do, whether to say anything or just let it go. We’d never met, he’d never remember me and yet, yet I must say something surely? He was writing for quite some time so I decided to get up and walk past, see if I could check out the hand writing. It was him, no doubt. So, how the hell was I was going to approach him? I was still trying to figure that out when he started gathering his possessions together, as if he was getting out at the next stop, Gatwick. No turning back. ‘Hi Dick, I used to write to write to you when you were in the passage, thank you so much for writing back and giving me so much pleasure with all your albums.’ He was so nice. So polite, telling me about a recent website set up by another fan Keith Nuttall. I’d sent Keith some info on a cassette I had in my collection. The discussion was short but wow, another hero I’d met. How brilliant was that?


The passage remain one of the more obscure bands I have liked and yet their music is as fresh and as relevant as any of it. Their commentary was profound, genius to an impressionable lad back in the day. I loved all of their songs. Quirky, experimental, brilliant. I love that their artwork was so consistent over all of their releases. I was annoyed that Cherry Red released a sort of ‘best of’ without informing the band. I wrote to Cherry Red to complain about that but never received a reply. One of the novels i am working am is titled after another passage song, and the chapter titles similarly so. That my tutor doesn’t think it’s appropriate is difficult for me, it means so much you see. I guess time will tell whether I stick with that plan or not. Whatever happens I will still love the passage, their ‘difficult’ music, their opinionated lyrics, the genius of Dick Witts.

Friday 4 April 2014

Swedish Vampires

With Mrs Hora out playing jazz guitar yesterday evening Basti surprised me with a request to watch a film together, he's decamped into his room pretty much all the time since Christmas. He's been keen on watching some horror films over the past year and I picked up two going relatively cheap, both Swedish vampire tales. The first 'Frostbite' was awful, not even hilariously awful. I haven't been in a rush to watch the second one as a result. If you're following the tone of this piece then by now you'll be garnering that 'Let the Right One In' - dreadful title - was actually very good, hurrah!

The story is nothing exceptional, a girl, Eli, and her father move in to Vallingby, a Stockholm suburb and we see him draining the blood from a local to take home to his daughter. They've moved in next to 12 year-old Oskar who is bullied at school and he and Eli form a 'cool' relationship centring around a Rubik's cube and falling in love. 

The film is slow paced, in all the right ways; the scenes are beautifully snowy, stark, the trees shown in detail, the apartments very square, neat. The music is similarly atmospheric and thankfully uncliched. The characters of the town are brilliant, a motley selection of real people, and indeed the school kids, particularly the mates of the bully, learn a lot over the course of the film. Our young loves are perfect: he's ice blonde, has a perfect snotty nose more than once, and she is the antithesis, dark-haired and all knowing. She has the best line; 'I've been twelve for a very long time'.
Whilst not being into the horror genre to even the smallest extent I really enjoyed this. I'll certainly re-watch it. The relationship between the two children is sweet and very well-handled. It reminded me of the odd relationships in 'My Life as a Dog' but also 'Betty Blue' and 'L'Enfer', intense but also deep and meaningful. That there's been a US remake has naturally annoyed me although the Amazon reviews are still strong. I won't be going there. Nor too will I read the book, the odd horror film is fine but I can't imagine buying into it across a novel.

Thursday 3 April 2014

Expectations

Ok, so yesterday you probably thought I was going to relate some hilarious April Fool Day's story didn't you? It's okay, be honest. Sometimes though, our expectations aren't met. Frequently this is disappointing, rarely, it's exciting. Amongst the one-line top tips I've collected over the last few years one of my favourites is to try and make the next word as unexpected as possible. During an undergrad seminar we examined the literal, as opposed to the figurative. We also rewrote a number of similes. It's easy. Think of any simile, there's a fair chance it's a cliche too. So, rewrite it, think about it for a while and there's a myriad of options available. Don't tell me something's as cheap as chips, tell me it's as cheap as the unbranded children's building blocks in T k maxx. Who knows, they may even sponsor your blog...

Digressed already, sorry! Too much Victor Hugo. Expectations. During the restructuring of my life I have spent a huge number of hours considering mine, realigning them for greater efficiency. Never in my wildest dreams... whoops, never in my most outrageous hopes did I expect to be earning money from writing. And yet, here I now am and things are moving forward nicely. I enjoy the writing. I'm loving trying to meet that challenge of writing a story over the length of a novel. Of putting words together to make poetry. Of trying to help others to work with their inhibitions and put pen to paper.

Relationships tend be built around expectations. And how we communicate those of course. I feel sure that more open and honest talking would sort out so much of modern life friction. It's about getting yourself across simply, and then listening. Don't finish your sentence and start formulating the next one. Listen. I think I'm a pretty good listener, my problem is thinking I don't have anything valid to say back. Get rid of that expectation and perhaps, who knows? I suppose that ties in with treating others as you would like to be treated. Now that's a maxim I would force people to have as their daily mantra for at least one month of the year, gosh it might even grow from there...

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Subbuteo Swimming

As an avid fan of Subbuteo when I was growing up I loved collecting teams, playing leagues and cup tournaments. I even got Subbuteo Cricket and Rugby and successfully played those solo too. And Football Express, their 5 a-side football game, was superb. In 2000, when I started working from home, I found myself surfing and stumbled back into a whole world of Subbuteo I hadn't thought existed. I also discovered eBay and the two combined into a ridiculous collection. Amongst April Fool's Day jokes of the past Subbuteo came up with a few, and swimming was one of them. For me, it's my way of keeping track just how many lengths I've swum each morning. Let me take you through the mind of an hour's swim...


I get up whenever I get up and head off to the local baths before breakfast, I don't want to be too awake when I start you see. And then it's quick shower and into the pool. Lane selection is crucial. Wednesday's are tricky, along with Monday and Friday they tend to be quite busy. And come 9am, a time I'm usual in the water, the Blue School arrives with at least ten thousand children eager to swim and probably just as many eager not to. The ensuing high-pitched kerfuffles go on for half an hour and concentration is easy to lose. Not with my system though.

Mustn't count strokes. That's really tough. Early on I know I can do a length, twenty-five metres, in twenty-four strokes, but as time goes on that averages out at twenty-six or twenty-seven and I always feel that's too many. My breast stroke is not great, but I figure that the less fluent my style the more work I must be putting in to travel my morning mile. Makes sense doesn't it?

So, I need to keep track of the lengths. The first ten I see as my warm up. It'll take me those to get into what ever rhythm I'm going to swim to for that day. It's easy keeping up with the first ten. After that I need to turn to the classic Subbuteo 'heavyweight' figure as they are called amongst collectors. The first 190 teams Subbuteo produced are considered to be the perfect collection despite the fact that that model reached references around the 324 mark and higher in Italy. My counting takes me through the first sixty-four of those. As mentioned the first ten don't need much monitoring but from eleven - QPR - I'm checking where I am by going through the catalogue. Twelve - Bristol Rovers, thirteen - Blackpool, seventeen - Ipswich, white sleeved version, my team, hurrah!

In the twenties though I start getting confused; too many Scottish teams. Never sure whether Hamilton Academicals or Queens Park are twenty or twenty four respectively. But I do know that Hearts are twenty-seven and those Canaries are twenty-eight. Into the thirties and I'm completely lost. Fortunately, thirty-two lengths is half way so I align myself to that. Thirty-four is Juventus, thirty-six Floriana from Malta and then Grimsby and Poland make up the last of the thirties. During all this time I am thinking of what the day will hold for me, stuff I need to remember to do, dreams I'm like to have. And there are my fellow swimmers too of course. Such a huge number of regulars, people you only see in just one item of clothing. My self-loathing is high out of the water, I must look horrendous! Never mind. We all say hello, talk about how busy the pool is, how noisy the children are and the water temperature of course.

Ajax
Where was I? Thirty-nine, yes, Poland, didn't reach forty-one, that's easy to remember, Liverpool, followed by Chelsea, Coventry, Falkirk, Hibs. Hibs is another landmark as it means I'm into my last twenty lengths, and then forty-eight, Spain, three quarters of my swim completed. Never count it in percentages, that's my top tip. It's a mess and feels horrible, not sure why. Anyway, fifty is Brazil. Then Sheffield Wednesday, Exeter, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Fiorentina, Ajax, AC Milan, Inter Milan. Who the hell within Subbuteo chose which teams to be numbered like this? Why are there so many Scottish teams so early on? How do you get from South-West England over to Italy, and the Netherlands.

Thankfully, by the time I reach fifty-eight I start counting down the lengths to go. Just as well as I can never recall what teams are referenced in the early sixties, I know they're actually quite rare in collector's terms, which equates to unexciting in football terms. Especially when I was ten. The last lengths and I allow myself to count strokes; four lots of seven, twice. Done.

Tuesday 1 April 2014

The Beloved

When I was younger, so much younger than today... I used to write to the bands I loved whenever Peel gave out an address on air. Through that I managed to correspond over time with Elizabeth Cocteau Twin, Morrissey, Dick Witts of the passage as well as forge two life-long relationships. The first of these was through Steven Burrows of And Also The Trees, and I've driven them around Europe on eleven of their last twelve tours, great fun! The other was with Jon Marsh of The Beloved. In their Peel days they were indie pop and for me were as perfect as I now believe Spearmint are. There are several songs I listen to over and over; L'Amour Dure Toujours, Seppuko Glory, and Idyll, plus their two Peel sessions: one of which was the most played Peel session of whatever year it was... yes, I jotted all the sessions down in those days.

When they moved into the house arena I loyally followed and found massive enjoyment in so doing. Dancing to proper dance music rather than indie pop was so much much easier and man did i like a good groove in those days. I loved all the remixes of their tracks, and Jon's remixes of others' work too: Depeche Mode, Alison Limerick, Blur, Nyam Nyam, to name but a few.

It's been a while but we've stayed in touch and today we met up for the first time in a while, chatted on about respective life problems, footie, music, had coffees at the RFH in the sunshine and then went shopping in the Speedo shop in Covent Garden before having lunch at Eat Tokyo just round the corner from Jon's studio. Jon's children managed to April Fool first thing, taping up the underneath of his mouse with him only realising upon the third restart of his computer... hilarious! Excellent to catch up, also interesting for me to be up in town too. It's been a long time but I managed it all fine.