Second hebdomaversary

Wednesday wash day, the Dutch saying goes. When I looked this up right now I found that, funnily enough, in England Monday is wash day. It doesn't even alliterate!

However that may be, I have decided that for me, Saturday shall be wash day. Since I wanted to be off to Beyond Monopoly! as early as I could (this is one of their Saturday game days) I gathered my stuff in several bags (still have to get a usable container) and found that, at this hour, I had 8 washer/dryer combinations at my disposal. Everything easily fit into one machine (they are huge), and the programme gave me 30 minutes, in which most of the rest of the weekly once-over was finished. Drying: another 45 minutes, time for shopping. And so, after barely two hours, with my conscience and my appartment both as clean as I could get them, it was off to the Bar Convent.

This wonderfully thought-out schedule didn't work out quite as planned, unfortunately: either the load was too big or the setting was wrong, but what came out of the dryer may have been dryer but was most definitely not dry. Nothing for it but to drape the damn damp things over the available spaces in my room and then go off to the Bar Convent.

It was somewhat over 12:00 when I got there, and things were already in full swing. About 40 to 50 people I reckon were playing some 8 different games or so. I felt right at home again. I was lucky enough to also find some of them waiting for enough players to arrive and start a game, so we soon got going with Mission: Red Planet which had us off to 19th century Mars to fight over mining resources. Amazingly advanced, those Victorians were!

When you see these game-players gathering together, you might feel that you want to get out of there quite quickly. They are mostly the nicest people, but not all of them are what you would consider well-adapted to let's call it everyday society. This is more true of this York games club than what I've seen in Twente - although, come to think of it, Fanaat also has its share of these lost souls. It's not for nothing that the authoritive web site on board games is called boardgamegeek.com...

So, in fact I was mining for ice and other treasures in the company of some true Martians. Is it to be wondered that I ended up last?

With a girl of about 10 and a boy of 7 or 8 and their dad, I played one round of Small World (which I will forevermore associate with Floris under observation in the hospital, that might actually be the last time I played it before this) and two rounds of Scotland Yard, a game which I first played 30 years ago or so and didn't know was still around. Well, I say "dad": when I asked the girl (whose name to my shame I forgot to ask) if she liked games, she said yes, ever since George moved in who had a lot of boardgames, she had also been playing them. That took me aback briefly. I am unfamiliar and thus uncomfortable with these more complex family situations.

Next Cartagena (pronounced Cartahena, folks!) of which my parent played two sets to shreds, so I was on familiar grounds for a change. The last three were new to me:

• Paris Connection: a railroad game (another one!) set in France. Everyone buys shares in six companies that are simultaneously expanding their networks. Sounds like Union Pacific when described this way, but a very different game. Simple rules, nice board, a lot of counting involved.
• Die Säulen von Venedig: building on pillars (Säulen) in Venice. A fun game, not too complex and with a very nice board. To be recommended! My phone ran out of power, I don't have a picture unfortunately.
• Marrakech: laying out rugs in a bazaar and trying to get the bazaar CEO to walk on them. Utterly original, with the rugs executed as colourful pieces of felt; I never saw the like. Simple, fast, fun. Another recommendation. I promised Sebastiaan of the Dondersteen to keep him posted if I found anything interesting; I think the last two qualify.

There was still some time to kill before we absolutely had to leave at 21:00; to my surprise someone came up with Love Letter. That makes four games which I played before! I think I know not more than one out of ten in the club's collection.

The Bar Convent is an odd place, they have meetings there, a restaurant, but also hotel rooms I think. This synopsis would perfectly fit any modern hotel, but it has a very different feel. There are strict rules against bringing your own lunch, which I was warned about already, but that gave me a nice excuse to get something warm from the restaurant. All in all, another very enjoyable day.

Tomorrow will see York's first-ever marathon. The weather promises to be nice again for most of the day, with some sunshine. I think I will go out to watch the race. Should be compatible with another bike tour; except that I have to be back earlier than last week: in a moment of madness I booked a ticket for a live broadcast of the Bolshoi Ballet performing Spartacus, once more at the Cityscreen. I'm a bit scared of this, since it will last for over 3 hours. I can only hope there is a break somewhere in there, unlike in regular English movies... must be, this is coming live from a theatre show in Moscow!