Game On…

Recently I went to the International Spieltage at the Messe Essen centre in Germany with Marc Harrison. It is probably the largest event of its type in the world with something like 150000 people visiting during the 4 days.

Marc and I were not there for the whole event but we did spend a good couple of days visiting the many stands, playing several entertaining board games, looking at the wide array of folk wandering about (families with small kids, enthusiasts with sack-barrow loads of purchases, strangely costumed LARP fans, comic writers and artists, and all many of geeks of all shapes and sizes). It is a vast place spread of three major halls with an emphasis on board games (although there are a number of other table top games, role play games, live-action-role-play stands, comics, dice shops, scenery and paraphernalia, and much more on display. Some of the games have a generic popular appeal and others are quite niche (such as the Glass Blowing in the Bavarian Forest board game that was very popular).

We stayed out of Essen at the small town of Mulheim an der Ruhr beside the river at a hotel recommended by our friends Gary and Mary who have been here before. Hotel Handelshof is a pleasant place with friendly staff who were happy to provide a large room where we could play our newly bought games with fellow gamers.

As I was flying budget and only had hand luggage I only bought one game (some of the other guests from the UK had driven over so that they could fill their cars up with games). I was captivated by the prettiest game on show called Tokaido where the object is to travel this renowned Japanese route and become the most well-travelled player, tasting the most exotic food, buying gifts, viewing majestic scenery, donating to roadside temples, meeting people and bathing in hot pools. It is a simple game to pick up and is ideal for the more social rather than hard-core gamers.

The plan was for Marc to go on to the UK where he had another event to attend before returning to his home in Sweden, but sometime after arriving in the UK he lost his passport so he had an unexpected delay and spent some time staying with us (where we got to play some more games), before he got a replacement and managed to get home just in time for Heather’s birthday.

More of wot I have heard…

Self titled album by Jake Bugg

This is the first album from a young man with a remarkable voice. His sound is reminiscent of the American blues tradition of many decades ago and sounds incongruous coming from his baby faced mouth. I am not sure he has developed much of a range as of yet but his new album is already out so he is working hard on his sound.

Time by Rod Stewart

I got this album for Sue who is a big fan of Rod but I found that I like his new sound and the personal lyrics of these newly penned songs. I think the style complements his vocal range and it is an easy listen.

More of wot I have read…

The hundred-year-old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the humorous travels through major historical events by the aged lead character.

‘Desperate to avoid his 100th birthday party, Allan Karlsson climbs out the window of his room at the nursing home and heads to the nearest bus station, intending to travel as far as his pocket money will take him. But a spur-of-the-moment decision to steal a suitcase from a fellow passenger sends Allan on a strange and unforeseen journey involving, among other things, some nasty criminals, a very large pile of cash, and an elephant named Sonya. It’s just another chapter in a life full of adventures for Allan, who has become entangled in the major events of the twentieth century, including the Spanish Civil War and the Manhattan Project.’

Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

this is the sequel to Rivers of London and I found the joke was a little forced in places, but nevertheless the story trips along nicely and the descriptions of the places in and around London demonstrate the authors fondness for the city its history and his characters.

‘I was my dad's vinyl-wallah: I changed his records while he lounged around drinking tea, and that's how I know my Argo from my Tempo. And it's why, when Dr Walid called me to the morgue to listen to a corpse, I recognised the tune it was playing. Something violently supernatural had happened to the victim, strong enough to leave its imprint like a wax cylinder recording. Cyrus Wilkinson, part-time jazz saxophonist and full-time accountant, had apparently dropped dead of a heart attack just after finishing a gig in a Soho jazz club. He wasn't the first.

No one was going to let me exhume corpses to see if they were playing my tune, so it was back to old-fashioned legwork, starting in Soho, the heart of the scene. I didn't trust the lovely Simone, Cyrus' ex-lover, professional jazz kitten and as inviting as a Rubens' portrait, but I needed her help: there were monsters stalking Soho, creatures feeding off that special gift that separates the great musician from someone who can raise a decent tune. What they take is beauty. What they leave behind is sickness, failure and broken lives.

And as I hunted them, my investigation got tangled up in another story: a brilliant trumpet player, Richard 'Lord' Grant - my father - who managed to destroy his own career, twice. That's the thing about policing: most of the time you're doing it to maintain public order. Occasionally you're doing it for justice. And maybe once in a career, you're doing it for revenge.’

More of wot I have seen…

Blue Jasmine a Woody Allen film

Woody Allen films have a habit of being ‘quirky’ and this was no exception. The acting was very entertaining and disturbingly believable but you are left hanging at the end in what feels like an uncomfortable conclusion. It is not exactly unsatisfying as it is obviously intentional, but it does make you think. Not really a feel good flick that is for sure.

Ha Ha Holmes

This was a little bit of gentle unpretentious theatre full of set pieces, slapstick and groan inducing gags. But because it was never pretending to be anything else it could be taken for what it was, a bit of old fashioned comic nonsense. There is a series of the Ha Ha productions and this one was loosly based on the Hound of the Baskervilles with squeaky voiced comedian Joe Pasquale in the lead role as Sherlock Holmes.

Den Bosch…

Not long ago I went to ‘s-Hertogenbosch (more commonly known as Den Bosch) in the Netherlands. I was there to participate in a training course at our offices and had driven from home in England, taken the Chunnel train across to France, driven up through Belgium and into the Netherlands.

The course was called Functional Safety Engineer and was certified by TUV in Germany. It was a refresher course for me as I had done it several years before in my previous company. The training was intense and required you to remember many facts and complex details about the international regulations surrounding the definition, implementation and verification of solutions and process that apply to safety systems in industrial applications.

The office was close to the Golden Tulip Central hotel that was located on the pretty cobbled square that formed the old part of the town, and so I had time in the evening to get out and play tourist.

In the square is a statue to Hieronymus Bosch who is the most well know historical figure to come from the town. He was an artist with a vivid and scary imagination whose paintings of the torments of hell are remarkable as they are surreal.

In the middle of the square are several cafes with outdoors seating where patrons can survey the world from the seat under large umbrellas. It was at one of these that I enjoyed a Bosch Bol with a lovely dark Trappist beer. This local delicacy is basically a huge profiterole full of cream and covered in chocolate, and I chose to have this before going to have my dinner just in case I couldn’t face it later. As it was I had a fun time at a busy trendy diner called Dit where I sat at the bar and had a plate of starters and a cone of fries with mayonnaise.

The town seems to have an affluent population as it caters for an eclectic range of fancy shops including quite a few antique and retro style establishments. I did like the sweet shop Shoeperij Tum Tum with its old fashioned jars covering the walls and enamel bowls for the customers to choose from the wide range of liquorice pick and mix. I also liked browsing the comic shop called Strips van Silvester where I bought a copy of The Goon.

I missed the weekly market as I was taking a ride in an electric boat on the Binnendieze canal tour that went around, through and under the buildings of the old town.

So apart from the brain ache it was and being alone I had quite a good time, made better a couple of weeks later when I found out that I had passed the course