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Lots o' stuff
Jan. 27th, 2012 10:26 am Rob has had most of this week off so we've been trying to make the most of it, given the fierce heat that Perth is experiencing. Friday afternoon saw us skipping over to Genghiscon, and the weekend passed in a Genghiscon coloured blur. We had a few formal engagements, What's new in Boardgames which proved to be an animated discussion of both board and console and computer games - and we also spent all Saturday morning with the Disc Golf which proved to be very popular indeed, with around 40 people going about the course throughout the morning. I played it a couple of times myself, but lost my Skeeter to the carnivorous ferns.
Rob found it later though, on Saturday night as the rest of us were playing Ticket to Ride with "John"- tall, red haired, had lots of interesting retro board games which I'd love to play. I don't know his second name, but if someone could put me in touch with him or bounce him the WABA Mt Claremont details, he was interested and good fun to play with.
We also did a Ring of Fire event, where people stand around a disc basket and throw into it to various calls and gave away some discs during that.
We also flew our AR Drones in a Red Bull air race style event, with Brendan, and both Rob and I were crowd favourites as we had the most spectacular crashes and popping of balloon airgates! Brendan was the only one who finished the course, despite his helpful rejiggering of our controls. (definitely NOT sabotage, there was improvement!) I think it's because our MyTabs don't have multi touch...but further experimenting will help.
And on Sunday we taught mahjong. And throughout the days and nights we gamed of course. It was a great convention, and a big thank you to everyone who made it happen. There were issues with the venue not having rooms available which were promised, and the program suffering, but the excellent LiveCon app - available both for iPhones and Androids ensured that on the fly updates were available to people who had them or people who were standing next to people who had them that didn't mind sharing the information.
Thank you all so much and good luck to the new committee!
Then throughout the week we saw Sherlock with ratfan, visited Down Under Disc Evolution for more prize discs, and visited Whitfords where I spent some of my birthday vouchers. Whitfords is a huge shopping centre. Did you know they have a Typo Stationery Appreciation Society shop there? It was dangerous. I spent money there, but not a lot because they had A5 sketchbooks on sale for 5 bucks each - you know the think little black leather look ones that can strap closed? Very pleased.
And one of my vouchers went on a BookSeat which is an Australian product, btw. They were selling them at either Collins or Dymocks. I'd used one at the Blood Bank and they're absolutely awesome, works well for the MyTab too. I got a purple one. There were other colours there as well and animal prints. Very good quality. I'm really delighted with it.
I also got the two Jasper Fforde juveniles - if you're missing Dianne Wynne Jonnes you might give The Last Dragonslayer a go...it gave me the same sensation I got when reading...oooh The Magicians of Caprona comes to mind, or any Chrestomanci book. And it gives some of the same mindflipping sensations that the definitely adult Shades of Grey gives.
For example
"That's the perpetual teapot I mentioned earlier. It' always full of tea. The same goes for the biscuit tin. You can help yourself"
Tiger got the subtle hint. I told him I liked my tea with half a sugar, and he trotted off to the steaming teapot to fetch some.
'There're only two biscuits left,' said Tiger in dismay, staring into the biscuit tin.
'We're on an economy drive. Instead of an enchanted biscuit tin that's always full, we've got an enchanted biscuit tin with always only two left. you'd be amazed at how much wizidrical energy we save.' "
Yesterday was Australia Day/Invasion Day. It was very hot, and with a work day the next day we decided to cower indoors in the aircon instead of going to the river with the boats as is our normal want. Mum came over, we dashed outside to cook some sausages on a camp stove for lunch,with leftovers from visiting Poss the night before. (We'd done up a sort of retro picnic - potato salad, watermelon salad, rice salad, pineapple (forgot the beetroot) and cold chicken, which is what my family did for picnic lunches in the 70's / 80's. Of course the watermelon wasn't done with balsamic vinegar, the rice wasn't brown and the pineapple and beetroot were tinned back then, but this was more a sort of interpretation...and the cold chicken wasn't Nando's but you get what I mean.)
Mum owed us a favour from some time or other and had promised us a game of Glory To Rome, the extremely strategic game. The first game was about a 5 point spread in points. After we'd finished and had lunch, Mum wanted to play again, somewhat to our surprise. Simpler (Glory to Rome is not a simple game, nor is it intuitive, I'm still finding my feet with it and discovering new ways to do things), less aggressive, collaborative games were rejected by Mum "I think we should play that one again."
So we did, and this game went on until we were down to the last 6 cards in the draw pile, and I ended the game by taking the last building site in town, believing that I had the best stuff in my vault. But it was not the case, my mother and Rob had both out vaulted me. I beat Rob by a couple of points, but Mum had won by another 3 points. What a game!
She has since reiterated that she really enjoyed the game. It was a big surprise.
So even though it was not on the river, there were no pretty fireworks and it was bloody hot outside, it counts as one of the best Australia Days ever for me, where close family who doesn't really game sat down and played a difficult game and enjoyed it and wanted to do it again.
And if you can play Glory to Rome, you can play anything.
Last night it rained several times. I don't have to water. I'm expecting a large package containing 3 kneeling chairs and I have a purple Bookseat. I've had a Really Good Week with fun, friends and family despite the fact that the bitumen is melting in places on occasion.
I'm really happy.
Rob found it later though, on Saturday night as the rest of us were playing Ticket to Ride with "John"- tall, red haired, had lots of interesting retro board games which I'd love to play. I don't know his second name, but if someone could put me in touch with him or bounce him the WABA Mt Claremont details, he was interested and good fun to play with.
We also did a Ring of Fire event, where people stand around a disc basket and throw into it to various calls and gave away some discs during that.
We also flew our AR Drones in a Red Bull air race style event, with Brendan, and both Rob and I were crowd favourites as we had the most spectacular crashes and popping of balloon airgates! Brendan was the only one who finished the course, despite his helpful rejiggering of our controls. (definitely NOT sabotage, there was improvement!) I think it's because our MyTabs don't have multi touch...but further experimenting will help.
And on Sunday we taught mahjong. And throughout the days and nights we gamed of course. It was a great convention, and a big thank you to everyone who made it happen. There were issues with the venue not having rooms available which were promised, and the program suffering, but the excellent LiveCon app - available both for iPhones and Androids ensured that on the fly updates were available to people who had them or people who were standing next to people who had them that didn't mind sharing the information.
Thank you all so much and good luck to the new committee!
Then throughout the week we saw Sherlock with ratfan, visited Down Under Disc Evolution for more prize discs, and visited Whitfords where I spent some of my birthday vouchers. Whitfords is a huge shopping centre. Did you know they have a Typo Stationery Appreciation Society shop there? It was dangerous. I spent money there, but not a lot because they had A5 sketchbooks on sale for 5 bucks each - you know the think little black leather look ones that can strap closed? Very pleased.
And one of my vouchers went on a BookSeat which is an Australian product, btw. They were selling them at either Collins or Dymocks. I'd used one at the Blood Bank and they're absolutely awesome, works well for the MyTab too. I got a purple one. There were other colours there as well and animal prints. Very good quality. I'm really delighted with it.
I also got the two Jasper Fforde juveniles - if you're missing Dianne Wynne Jonnes you might give The Last Dragonslayer a go...it gave me the same sensation I got when reading...oooh The Magicians of Caprona comes to mind, or any Chrestomanci book. And it gives some of the same mindflipping sensations that the definitely adult Shades of Grey gives.
For example
"That's the perpetual teapot I mentioned earlier. It' always full of tea. The same goes for the biscuit tin. You can help yourself"
Tiger got the subtle hint. I told him I liked my tea with half a sugar, and he trotted off to the steaming teapot to fetch some.
'There're only two biscuits left,' said Tiger in dismay, staring into the biscuit tin.
'We're on an economy drive. Instead of an enchanted biscuit tin that's always full, we've got an enchanted biscuit tin with always only two left. you'd be amazed at how much wizidrical energy we save.' "
Yesterday was Australia Day/Invasion Day. It was very hot, and with a work day the next day we decided to cower indoors in the aircon instead of going to the river with the boats as is our normal want. Mum came over, we dashed outside to cook some sausages on a camp stove for lunch,with leftovers from visiting Poss the night before. (We'd done up a sort of retro picnic - potato salad, watermelon salad, rice salad, pineapple (forgot the beetroot) and cold chicken, which is what my family did for picnic lunches in the 70's / 80's. Of course the watermelon wasn't done with balsamic vinegar, the rice wasn't brown and the pineapple and beetroot were tinned back then, but this was more a sort of interpretation...and the cold chicken wasn't Nando's but you get what I mean.)
Mum owed us a favour from some time or other and had promised us a game of Glory To Rome, the extremely strategic game. The first game was about a 5 point spread in points. After we'd finished and had lunch, Mum wanted to play again, somewhat to our surprise. Simpler (Glory to Rome is not a simple game, nor is it intuitive, I'm still finding my feet with it and discovering new ways to do things), less aggressive, collaborative games were rejected by Mum "I think we should play that one again."
So we did, and this game went on until we were down to the last 6 cards in the draw pile, and I ended the game by taking the last building site in town, believing that I had the best stuff in my vault. But it was not the case, my mother and Rob had both out vaulted me. I beat Rob by a couple of points, but Mum had won by another 3 points. What a game!
She has since reiterated that she really enjoyed the game. It was a big surprise.
So even though it was not on the river, there were no pretty fireworks and it was bloody hot outside, it counts as one of the best Australia Days ever for me, where close family who doesn't really game sat down and played a difficult game and enjoyed it and wanted to do it again.
And if you can play Glory to Rome, you can play anything.
Last night it rained several times. I don't have to water. I'm expecting a large package containing 3 kneeling chairs and I have a purple Bookseat. I've had a Really Good Week with fun, friends and family despite the fact that the bitumen is melting in places on occasion.
I'm really happy.
