The First Flush of Spring

It was a momentous occasion at Hannah and Adam's house - perhaps Arthur sensed something in the air, as he was unable to get to sleep - with long-time absentee Katy returning from her year-long cycle across America and even-longer absentee Quentin returning from his enigmatic doings in the UK. Andrew was still away in Japan, but joining our hosts and regulars Joe, Martin, Ian and myself was also fellow Eastonite Steve, doubling down on last week's appearance.

We began with cake, courtesy of Katy. In classic Katy style she pulled the rug from under the confectionary by saying what she learned from her trip was that "all gaming groups are the same", leaving us emotionally on the ropes before the evening had even begun. She's back, ladies and gentlemen! Katy floundered to justify this seeming broadside at our interchangeability before Joe came gallantly to her rescue with some sanguine philosophical reflections, and then Martin proved the truth of the statement by lifting the lid on the first game of the night: The Chameleon. It'd not been seen for a good while either, but the fact there were eight of us (at this point Hannah was still trying to get Arthur settled) made it a good fit.

In the first round, the word was Soup and Quentin was the chameleon. I can't remember who was accused, but Quentin got away with the word "tray" despite Ian pointing out you can carry many things on a tray, not just soup. Quent also guessed the word, courtesy of Joe and Steve's clues "Kitchen" and "Pea".

In the second round the word was Risk, and Ian was the chameleon, covering his back by saying the word "Strategy". Many of us thought Katy was the chameleon, with the word 'gray' that I'm still not clear on the reasoning of. Then we had one more round where the word was Insects. Joe did his best to incriminate himself by clueing the word "Startled" in reference to a Bristol band no-one had heard of; even his reading of the entire wikipedia entry not convincing us that it was a non-suspicious clue. But Katy's clue of 'Black' didn't convince enough people for her to get away with being the chameleon; though to be fair she did have to go first.

Hannah now swapped bedtime roles with Adam and we split into two groups. On the big table Hannah, Martin, Katy and Joe took on the evil-doing that is Northern Pacific. On the coffee table in the front room Ian, Steve, Quentin and myself collaborated beautifically on reconstructing the ancient temple of Menara.

Or at least we did until I knocked it over. Then we started again, determined to succeed, as the room rang to the soundtrack of the other table. At first there was much mirth, delighted cackling and verdant swearing coming from the direction of Northern Pacific. Then: silence. I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but clearly the fun of track-laying and station-investing had been superseded by the fun of revenge fantasies conjured and in some cases realised.

They later blamed Adam, who had returned to restart the game and tie for a three-way win:

Adam/Martin/Katy 23 (tied on tie-breaker!)
Joe/Hannah 18 (tied on tie-breaker!!)

Whilst they blasted out a game of Gold Fever...

...we came to the end of Menara in the front room, with Steve and I putting together the last Temple Floor. Quentin, ever the strategist, didn't want us to place it at all, reasoning we didn't need to to secure the victory. But we decided a glorious failure was better than a clinical win. Fortunately, it was neither: a glorious victory instead. We all took photos.

Hannah now retired to bed and Steve too, with an early morning looming, hit the road. The rest of us settled around the big table for the returnee's debuts at Just One. It was a hilariously catastrophic attempt with a number of clues overlapping and cancelling each other out. Including clues for 'shower' which I won't reproduce here, and poor Joe being left trying to guess the word Buffy from Giles and resurrection and Quentin trying to glean the word Shower from 'psycho' and 'power'. We failed, failed, and failed again, just hitting the disappointing 'average' score.

We wrapped up the evening with the return of another absentee - Fuji Flush, which remains a slightly tricky game to explain despite the simple rules. Quentin was already looking marginally baffled when Ian mentioned dick points. "Don't confuse him with dick points" Martin said, adding another aphorism to the GNN canon. Katy threatened to go out first but kept getting busted. Martin picked up a whole bunch of rubbish throughout the game, giving up all confidentiality to show me his cards.

And I won, going out on a 17 when nobody had the cards to collaborate with - essentially, they were collectively dickless.

Sam 0
Katy 1
Adam 2
Ian and Joe 3
Quentin 4
Martin 5

A fun end to a fun night. Thanks to our hosts in particular, and welcome back strangers!