While the Sam's away...

 For once I didn't have to arrive at this week's venue because I was hosting. I was using my time looking after Sam's cat productively by hosting a games night in his kitchen. Anna was already there at 7.30, keen to try board games again for the first time since Christmas. Joe heralded his arrival by knocking over some milk bottles. Then Ian, Martin and Gareth arrived shortly after. 

While we sat down to a game of That's Not A Hat. This was my first attempt and it was a mind melting game of poor memory and worse bluffing. Everyone had a moment of pure bemusement as they failed to have a clue about the card face down in front of them. 

During this game Katy arrived early enough to be dealt in. Anna's technique was to tell everyone she had mild concussion and then try a process of elimination to remind herself what her card was. Finally, Katy picked up her third penalty card and ended the game, to considerable sighs of relief. Somehow, like Hooky, it looks very light and breezy but is, in fact, agony.

During That's Not A Hat, Laura arrived to everyone's surprise. It turns out she'd hit 'reply' instead of 'reply all' and so only Ian knew to expect her.

We split into two groups. First we needed a bigger table so I asked if anyone knew how to extend Sam's kitchen table. Luckily, Gareth is an engineer and tables are simpler than engines so he was able to work out the locking mechanism and we successfully enlarged our playing area.

Joe, Martin Gareth and Katy played Mille Fiori, which is a game that Katy usually excels at. She must have found it challenging as, during her thinking time one round, Joe drummed his fingers impatiently on the table.

"Is that drumming for me?" asked Katy.

"No," insisted Joe

"Because it ended when I took my turn," said Katy, delivering a devastating blow like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Joe stuttered his lack of defence.

In the end, Martin came first in a strong field of players.

Martin 212

Katy 204

Joe 181

Gareth 169

Meanwhile, the rest of us played Raj. It was new to Anna and Laura so I explained the few rules that there are and we were off. In round one, Anna was confused by how to avoid negative numbers. Then, in round 2, we all tied for two rounds so there were three tiles available for the winner of one particular round and, by luck or judgement, Anna took them, putting her right back in the game. 

Round 3, however, was more straightforward and I did enough to push me from third to first.

Andrew 37

Ian 31

Laura 30

Anna 22

Surprisingly, Raj lasted only slightly shorter than Mille Fiori. A slight reshuffling of seats happened and we began again. Joe, Martin, Gareth and Ian played Sheepy Time while Anna, Katy, Laura and I played Kingdomino. Anna got a basic rules explanation to not overload her with the deeper strategies of Kingdomino. Katy, too, insisted she was all about aesthetics. Mind you, despite that, she still came second.

Andrew 61

Katy 48

Anna 45

Laura 39

Then Laura left and Katy, Anna and I filled in the time until Sheepy Time ended with a quick game of Tsuro. Katy got stuck in a corner ("You've left me all sausages" she said, faced with nothing but u-turns) and I was able to push Anna off the table for my third win in a row.

Sheepy Time ended:

Joe, 3 points past the pillow

Ian, on the pillow

Gareth

Martin, "fucking nowhere, just put me last."

Then we finished with Fun Facts, the game of trying to guess how much you know about your friends concerning uninteresting questions, for example, how much (on a scale of zero to one hundred) do you need the last word in an argument. Katy was, clearly, top of that one.

I should've been more confident about the number of languages that I can say "I love you" (6) but Gareth was so confident putting his down that I thought he must know loads.

During "how much do you like your haircut" Katy cheekily asked Joe if this question was upsetting him. 

We finished with 38 points which, in a seven player game, equates to "nice score".

And so we were finished. Everyone left after putting the table back as it was. Thanks all, hope to see you soon.