back of a spreadsheet; back of the net

The first weeks was spent at home with MLW, Bluebird (on holiday from University) but with the Captain still at school. We pottered. Did some jobs around the house. Decorated the Christmas tree. Welcomed my dad home from his trip to Australia. BB and I went to see the new Star Wars film at the Cinema. I went up to  Aberdeen to visit some friends for a night. MLW went to see her mum for a night. It was both okay and great. We enjoyed it. We prepared for the Lithmas feast.

The celebration week started with Lithmas, just MLW, BB, the Captain, dad, his wife* and me. This was jolly. Very good food. Nice herring.  The traditional 13 dishes.

We had our usual Christmas Day. No lunch but a big breakfast / brunch and then cheese and left overs for supper. The Captain seemed to like his presents. These included two board games (Deep Sea Adventure and Colt Express) and some computer games.

My aunts were due to join use on the 27th for my dad's birthday dinner but the weather and traffic meant they called off their trip. Sad but wise. So we had a quiet few days and saw dad. BB went to see her mum and other siblings for New Year. Dad and his wife went up to Orkney for New Year. It was just the three of us for Hogmaney.

Hogmaney was surprisingly lovely. The three of us spent the evening playing Deep Sea Adenture, Colt Express and Carcassone. We were expecting the Captain to bail out at about 9 but he stayed awake and cheerful until half-past midnight and we went out to watch the Edinburgh fireworks on Bruntsfield Links.

In amongst this I fitted in month end, working from home, in my pyjamas. I am not loving work at the moment. More on that anon.

The final week was spent at the cottage on the coast. We were there on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday morning.

A nice long walk along the coast from St Abbs to Pettico Wick, past the lighthouse. We say two seal pups and two adult seals. One of the seal pups was only a few meters from the path so we were very, very close. I've never been so close to a seal. The Captain, who loves seals, had "emotional tears" when he saw it. A day trip to Berwick-upon-Tweed and a short walk around the Elizabethan walls.  Berwick seems like a nice town but a little downcast in winter. We've planned to have a few more trips out but the weather was cold and wet on other days so we stayed in and watched TV or played board games or did jobs around the house.

Board Games

Deep Sea Adventure is a collective push-your-luck game. You are divers, diving for treasure. You play over three rounds making your way down a path made up of treasure tokens. Tokens are worth varying points. If you pick up a token you move more slowly and use up oxygen from a collective supply. If you don't make it back to the submarine your treasure falls to the bottom of the path. The next round has a shorter path (shortened by the removal of any treasure tokens that have been returned to the sub or fallen to the bottom). The third round shorter yet. Highest points total wins.

Nice mechanics. It's not a rich game. There are only a couple of strategems you can play. Three games a day is plenty but I like it.

Colt Express is quite an engaging game.

You are train robbers in the Wild West competing with each other to rob a train. The train is made up of carriages and a locomotive with an inside and a top. (The set is very 3d and physical.)  You have a deck of cards which are movements on the train (move along the train, move up to the roof or down inside a carriage, punch an opponent, shoot an opponent, move the sherriff, steak some money). You take turns placing movements for your character in a story deck, and then play out the action card by card. The trick is to work out what other people are going to do and how that will move you (eg, if you get punched you move one carriage along in a direction of your opponets chosing. If you are planning on robbing some loot but have been moved to a carriage that doesn't have any then you have wasted a move.)

It's fun, it rewards thinking ahead but if you don't mind if you win or lose it is also funny if your plans don't come off. The Captain likes to tell the story of the game as he flips over the cards.

Carcassonne is the classic Euro tile placement game. You place tiles to create a landscape. The landscape is worth points. The Captain is surprisingly good at it. We've been playing a cut down version of the game with him for a few years but this was the first time we'd played with farms and the full scoring mechanics. We're currently playing with the rules for a few expansions, Builders and Traders and Abbey and Mayors but with all the tiles we have. That makes for big, sprawling games.

I spent quite a lot of time watching TV over the holidays .I spent a lot of the holiday watching all four seasons of Peaky Blinders, some of it on my own, some with BB. I wanted to catch up Seasons 1-3 on Netflix before Season left iPlayer so I had challenging targets. I watched the Christmas Day Doctor Who Special. It was okay but I agree with Andrew Rillstone - more anon.  MLW and I watched the whole of War and Peace over two evenings down at the cottage. (I think seasons is probably enough, I suspect Season 5 will jump the shark). I caught up on Designated Survivor.  We finished watching the Crown. That was enjoyable and seems to be taking a very political and to my mind republican view on the monarchy. I started watching Ozark which is about money laundering and looks like a long, slow burner. There's some good television around. MLW and I watched Arrival, the film of the Ted Chiang short story, The Story of Your Life. I thought the film was superb.** So lots of relaxing television.

I'm reading a short, light history of Ireland. So far I up to the Tudor invasions and Stuart plantations. I can already see that it is not going to end well.

Sunday we came back to Edinburgh for rugby and then I spent the afternoon doing drama. Committee meeting which was fine. An afternoon workshop on a play about gender inspired by the Legsit front page by the Daily Mail - more on that anon too.

Back to work. I am not enthusiastic about work but I am rested. Hey ho.

*I don't mean "his wife" to sound as distant as I fear it might, compared to say, "step-mum". My dad has been married three times, I have two step-mums. My family is a little non-standard. Hey ho.

** My only complaint is that Amy Adams looks distractingly like Nicole Kidman in the film. To the point that I kept thinking, "what's Nicole Kidman from 15 years ago doing in this film?"