Going to the docks

Another week of remote gaming saw eight people involved. At first, four of us (Martin, Katy, Ian and I) played Tea Time while we waited for the others to arrive. It's a nice game, but I don't really get it. When Ian began with a move where he picked up two cards that cancelled each other out, I thought that was a smart move so I did likewise (having no cards is better than having one or two), only to then learn that Ian had mis-clicked and my admiration had been entirely misplaced.

Martin 43
Ian 37
Katy 33
Andrew 30

During this game, Adam T and Andy B arrived. With still more to come, the six of us chose For Sale as a nice little filler before the evening's main event.

I couldn't tell if Katy's eagerness to play was sarcastic or not, given her poor history at the game, but she did mention the "joint second" that she achieved last week. She started by picking up a 24 card for free band she disparaged bidding exchanges as "dick wars". At this moment Joe joined us, and he must have wondered exactly what game we were playing.

As for the game, Katy got her first win while Adam said "I am able to confirm that there are two zero dollars cards."

Katy 48
Martin 46
Ian 45
Andy 41
Andrew 40
Adam 38

Sam arrived too and we split into two groups of four. Sam, Ian, Katy and Martin played American Bookshop.

Katy 8
Martin -3
Sam -8
Ian -15

While me, Joe, Andy and Adam decided on a real challenge: Yokohama. It had been ages since I played and I made a few sub-optimal moves, as well as forgetting how to score points. Adam, too, was working hard to re-familiarise himself with the game, which lead to "It's all coming back to me now" by Celine Dion going around his head. Andy worked as adviser to the rest of us, since he'd played the online version before. Joe's recent real life game against Katy must have been great preparation since he strode away from us almost from the start.

Joe 131
Andy 113
Adam 70
Andrew 49

During the final stages we noticed Martin, Ian and Katy popping in to watch but never staying long. I hopped over to Google Hangouts, only to see that Ian and Sam had already packed up for bed and Martin and Katy were playing Mandala.

Finally, we were all back together, but only enough for us to bid farewell. I was frazzled after Yokohama, so I popped off first and the rest must have gone soon after because a few minutes later Discord sent me a notification of Martin’s last words of the evening: “Can anyone hear me?... Bye then” which gave me the image of him as an astronaut drifting into deep space.

I'm sure he'll be fine. At least by next week.