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Fun times
We are continuing to play more and more board games as a family and the latest additions have been some of the most fun yet.  I will point out I rejoined Quickflix (sort of Oz version of Netflix) and have felt obligated to watch the dvd that arrives instead of what we really want to do to make it decent value for our money. After one month on a low price, I opted to cancel so we just have a couple more dvds to watch when they arrive and then they go back…so we can soon play the games as we want to do. A couple weeks ago, Discworld: A game of Ankh-Morporkh arrived in the mail and we eagerly looked forward to having time to play. For the Scientist and me, the game has a lot of meaning as we have read most of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series over the years. Game Fanatic knows the series only slightly from having been read one of the YA/children’s books many years ago but hasn’t read any further than that…after all, it wouldn’t do to listen to suggestions from the parents, would it? :D  Lego Lover has no interest in any of it and refuses point blank to even try playing the game. This was a disappointment but we had to carry on without him or never play at all. The game uses a deck of cards with various abilities/tasks on them and there are cards for many of the character from the series. Instead of a single goal for players, there are about five or six different goals over about eight cards. Three happen to have the same goal but are represented by different characters. Nobody knows what the goals of the other players are at the start so half the game play involves working out who has which goals and preventing competing players from winning…while also trying to win your own goal. It was mostly by chance but I won the first game we played and all three of us had a good time. It was far better than I expected it to be (being adapted from a series of books) so I imagine we will play that one often, particularly when Lego Lover isn’t interested in playing games.
Two other games arrived from here in Australia and we played these late last week. The first one is Ghost Stories, another cooperative game that goes really quickly. We found this one is far more complex in play than Castle Panic or Forbidden Island are  and were a bit tentative during our first game. I think we will play far better the next time since we have more of an idea of what we are doing now.
The second game is Cyclades, which has a Greek mythology theme which appealed to everyone. This game involved quite a bit more set up than the other recent acquisitions so we didn’t try it out until the weekend. It also requires a lot of space so we had to clear the kitchen table and use the extension to have sufficient room…even so it was a bit crowded on the sides where the boys were sitting. This game had elements of several others we’ve played recently so it was a matter of putting it all together and making heads or tails of it…We had a bit of trouble on our first play because it wasn’t clear how one was supposed to earn gold from early in the game and it seemed as though we were missing some elements of it. We played the game the best we could with the knowledge we had and the Scientist won that one. A bit of online research showed us where the missing information was…at the back of the manual. This wouldn’t be an issue normally except the manual has more than one language. When Game Lover was working it all out, he read to the end of the English language section…but there were diagrams at the back to show how the board was supposed to be set up at the start. There were also a couple smaller points that were clarified. We tried again on Sunday and it was so much better to play with some ability to win. This time, Lego Lover returned to his game goal that mostly involved making sure his father didn’t win…he was quite destructive in the game but he also nearly brought it to a halt. At the end, I wasn’t able to make any progress due to his strategy and decided to just play it through to the end. Despite his best efforts, the Scientist did win again by reaching a certain goal required…and so won it quite fairly the second time. It was a lot more fun and it looks like another winner of the recent games acquisitions…
The downside to all these good games is that we are sure to miss out playing other games because we like these so well. Â We have three others still on the way…well one is on the way and one is on backorder and another is due to be posted out from the UK very shortly.
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Fitness update
It’s now been nearly eight months since I started going to the gym and I’ve lost just under 9kgs now. It’s certainly not going quickly but at least it is shifting. It’s funny that I bought a pair of 3/4 length black denim pants last month to wear to the Neil Finn/Paul Kelly concert and it is already getting rather loose around my waist. I think I may find it more difficult with the cooler weather as almost all my clothes for winter are larger sized…I am going to try to manage with only a few new additions as I don’t want to invest too much in clothes I plan not to fit next winter.
The exercise is mostly going okay although I seem to have a bit of an injury to my calf muscles at the moment. Yesterday I was using the glutes machine (you stand over the machine and push back a pedal with one of your feet to lift the weight) and was finding it quite uncomfortable to do the weight I’ve been using for a while. My calf muscles were a bit sore beforehand but I suspect this might have pushed me over the edge. The unfortunate part is I have a tai chi workshop in the morning and I’m worried it’s going to be painful to work on the moves I need to focus on. It isn’t painful with every step so I’m hopeful resting today will allow me to feel okay in the morning.
I’m continuing to mix up my workouts every so often to keep from getting bored with exercise and it seems to work for the most part. I backed off from rowing workouts due because it almost always exacerbate my shoulder pains. But i tried it out again a couple days ago and it felt pretty good. I probably just need to keep the times shorter than I’d been doing to keep on track. I also tried out a step class I hadn’t done before and it was mostly okay. I didn’t stick it out for the full class because I got rather mentally exhausted trying to keep up with the choreography but will go back to it at some point to try again. I also tried a bit of a boxing class yesterday just to see if I could do it…again it was a matter of the moves overwhelming me so I quite after about ten minutes. I had tried a shorter class before but didn’t find it gave me much of a workout…this one seems like it might do a lot better if I can learn enough to get through the class. I’ve found the classes can be a sort of challenge to overcome so taking little steps will hopefully allow me to reach my goal.
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Just like that…
it suddenly turned into autumn here, bordering on a bit of early winter. Most of the month we’ve had warm temperatures and have had to run the air conditioner most days. I think Perth set a few records on high temps for April earlier on…last week it was still warm and we were still needing turn on the a/c by midday. Then a couple of days ago, it got cool…so cool that I found myself searching for my bed socks to keep my feet warm at night. There has been none of the gradual shift in seasons this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we skip right on to winter weather in a couple weeks…although I hope it doesn’t happen like that.
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Another board games post
Last week, Game Fanatic’s board games all arrived on Monday and last night we finally finished trying all the new games out. I think all of us like all of the games in their own ways…Except that Lego Lover didn’t play one at all so it would be hard to know his opinion. Game Fanatic I played Summoner Wars, which is a two player card/board game. I was worried it would be too overwhelming but I found it was playable. Also, GF points out there is an iPad version so I could practice strategy there even though the free version only has one deck available. GF also realised he’d made a couple mistakes when explaining some of the rules. As it is, we’ve tried so many games this week I’ve just about forgotten that game now although I do remember that it was a lot easier to work out than Magic the Gathering was…(we spent a lot of money on MTG a couple years ago but haven’t played in over a year or more and none of us recall how to play…as we’ve invested so much money I’d like to get back to that and learn it properly again. ) GF also played the Scientist on Wednesday when I was out. He won both matches with ease, of course. :)
The second game was Kings of Tokyo and that was quite a lot of fun for all of us. The game was easy to learn and relatively quick to play. Well, it would be quick to play but Lego Lover takes a long time with most of his turns for some reason…even when he does understand what’s going on. Sometimes Lego Lover also plays rather recklessly and ends up losing when he might have won by playing more practically. Actually his recklessness is usually related to his desire to make sure his dad is hampered at every step of the way. I think that’s often more important to him than winning.
Last night we played Evo, which was created by the same guy who designed Smallworld. This was by far the most involved set up of the three games with GF referring frequently to the manual to figure out how many of each item was needed based on number of players. The actual game play wasn’t too hard but it does involve quite a bit of strategy. I randomly ended up being the first player at the start of the game which would usually be an advantage in most rounds. Later on I fell far behind and never managed to recover. It might be a bit better now I understand the basic play a bit more but I think getting behind like that pretty much locks one out of opportunities to recovery. I did get a card rather late in the game that would have helped a lot more but it was rendered fairly useless by the time I got and used it. All that said, if a player were more aggressive and willing to battle, I think it’s possible to do better than I did. Funnily, Lego Lover was determined to win a battle with me and had about five opportunities to get a dice roll in his favor and failed…He was less concerned about winning than beating me in that instance…And of course he was quite busy trying to prevent the Scientist from getting anywhere and wasted quite a lot of opportunity and points…otherwise I think he possibly could have won the game.
We still have more games to come but they probably won’t arrive for a while as they are mostly on backorder from an Australian company on the east coast.
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Games and more games
On the weekend we had a play with both Dominion and Castle Panic. The first was quite enjoyable and we can see lots of room for more interesting play as we try different decks and get used to playing a deck building game. The game is only supposed to take about thirty minutes but with us playing the first time plus the slowness with which Lego Lover took his turns, it was more like an hour and a half. Fortunately we started fairly early and had time for a game of Castle Panic afterwards. This was the big winner of the night…at least that seemed to be the consensus of the family. Game Fanatic and Lego Lover overwhelmingly preferred this to Dominion (even though they liked Dominion). The nice things about the game are short set up times and the fact the game goes really quickly. We came nowhere close to winning the game we played but we did have a lot of fun playing it.
Just after that, we watched the Tabletop show for Pandemic which is available on You Tube and looked to be really fun too. I have heard this one is another popular co-op game which is similar to Forbidden Island but a bit more complex. Game Fanatic and I had an appointment in Perth so we went into the city proper to Tactics, a board game and hobby shop that carries a wide selection. On the day it was particularly muggy and this place is downstairs from a shopping arcade…it was miserably hot with no air moving in any direction. But there was a copy of Pandemic there and it wasn’t quite as overpriced as most of the other games there. I didn’t buy it, knowing it was likely to be cheaper elsewhere but it was tempting. One day that will surely be added to our family collection.
This morning the postal van delivered more packages for Game Fanatic. This included the games Evo, Summoner Wars and King of Tokyo. I don’t know much about any of the games except they all can be played with just two players. Game Fanatic had hoped to play one this evening but we had a video to watch and we also got pizza from the shop for dinner…in addition to going to the gym today, there just wasn’t time to play.
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Change of plan
I arrived for my blood donation this afternoon and filled out the paperwork required. When I turned it in, the reception person asked if I’d be interested in doing a plasma donation instead. I guess the local supplies are quite low at the moment. For some reason she didn’t have any information about my having donated plasma before. It didn’t require too much change of plan aside from the fact it took a lot longer than a simple blood draw requires. The first two times they only took something like 700 ml of plasma but this time it was increased to something like 825. The previous times, there were three sessions of the blood being drawn and separated but this time it became four. And the last session’s draw was quite short but it seemed to take much longer than the other ones. The place was fairly busy when I arrived but I was the only one there when I finished. I guess it was a slow afternoon. I won’t give a full blood donation until July but did book in to do plasma in another month.
I still haven’t been able to re-enrol for my tai chi class online because the class I want is still showing as sold out. It seems unlikely this is really the case so I contacted the owner again tonight for the second time to clarify that there is still space in the class. I find it hard to imagine otherwise but there could be people joining with discount vouchers, I suppose. I have suggested to her that I book in with a different class instead and sort out the day later on.
We didn’t end up trying the new board games this evening after all. By the time all the coming and going was over and food was eaten, it was getting late. Looks like it may have to wait for the weekend as I will be out tomorrow and we have some dvds to watch from a video service we are trialling (for the second time now!). Â As we weren’t going to play games, I decided to retry the iPad version of Caylus and see if I could get an understanding of the game play. I got through two games and finally feel I have some idea of what I am doing. I still need to work out some of the finer points but at least I feel I am in the game now. :) Â I have a few other games on the iPad that I am trying to learn too, along with others that are the same as games we already play (Carcassone, Settlers of Cataan, Ticket to Ride, etc).
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New games
I received my two new board games in the mail this morning. Apparently the post van person just knocked on the door and left them on the doorstep. Game Fanatic was on top of them as soon as I opened them and has a bit of an idea of how they work already. I suspect at least one might get a bit of a play tomorrow once we are settled at home for the evening.
Meanwhile, Game Fanatic has ordered four more games from a company here in Australia, one for each member of the family. I think these were all games unavailable at Ozgameshop (or cheaper in Australia). The shipping for all of them only comes out to $7.50, which is pretty cheap for four board games. He gave me a choice of three co-op games that he thought might interest me and I chose Ghost Stories. I don’t recall the other ones but they all seem to be quite different. All are on backorder so it’s hard to tell when they will get sent out.
A few years ago I bought a copy of the Lord of the Rings board game from 2001 from a secondhand shop for about $3. When I checked the pieces, I thought the ring was missing but Game Fanatic pulled it out on Sunday and discovered no pieces were missing. I’m not sure why I didn’t see the ring before as it’s quite visible. I was beginning to think we wouldn’t ever play the game but we did play it Sunday evening, without participation from Lego Lover who refused to play. But we did have a bit of a mishap before we got around to playing the game. Game Fanatic had set out all the pieces on our coffee table during the afternoon and left it there until we played. Our little girl dog, Fluttershy, got hold of a couple of the character pieces and had a bit of a chew on them. One probably can be glued back together but the other appears to have a piece totally missing. We can still glue some of it back, I guess, but GF is really upset about it. This is a game that was in excellent condition when we got it. She also chewed on a couple of wooden place markers but other than the teeth marks they are fine. The game itself went quite well though. It’s another co-op game and requires the use of two two-sided boards, covering four locations. It’s one of those games which really required us to play before we worked out the proper rules so we had some mistakes along the way. Still, we nearly won the game, getting beaten at the very end. It requires a fair bit of sacrifice by players which I think will be interesting as we play it in the future.
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Random stuff
I’m due to donate blood again tomorrow with a full blood donation. It actually seems a long time now since my plasma donation in February, which seems to be a good thing, I think. Maybe I will increase my plasma donations since I am feeling okay about it. I did manage to get through gym workouts yesterday (just) and today (comfortably) so I will be taking tomorrow off while I give blood. I’ve also decided to do cardio workouts only for a few days to give my body a bit more time to recover from all the new workouts I’ve been trying.
My tai chi class finished for this term this evening and I will be on to level six next term. As I was telling the Scientist, it feels really great to feel up to speed on the moves at the end of term for a change. Usually it takes until well into the following term before I start to get a real handle on new moves. Next term will be mostly moves I know but will be done on the opposite side. I imagine this will be a big challenge for me, particularly because there are a lot more moves to work on each week this time. But there are a few new moves to look forward to and at the end of next term I’ll be done with level six…which means I will know all the moves in the tai chi set (108 ). I went to re-enroll for next term online and my usual location says it’s sold out of spaces. I find this rather difficult to believe as there aren’t that many people attending regularly right now so surely there is still space. I also wanted to do a workshop focusing on level four and that wasn’t available at all in my choices. I sent an email to the owner and she has already replied saying she was going to rectify the problems and to try again tomorrow.
There are appointments to take Game Fanatic to this week on two afternoons. We see his clinical psychologist on Wednesday and it’s on to the psychiatrist he saw last month to continue the assessment for autism. I was a bit perplexed last time we saw the clinical psych as he seemed concerned about fitting GF into the current criteria for autism due to the fact he had no language delays. The language criteria in place currently does not require a delay but does require one or two other criteria to be met. Lego Lover was diagnosed without a language delay so I don’t see the issue. Apparently the new criteria, which goes into effect with the new DSM V next month, isn’t a problem for diagnosis…Since it’s likely to take that long to reach the conclusion of this process, I suppose it doesn’t matter in the long run.
We seem to be in a bit of an autumn heatwave right now. Today the temperature unexpectedly reached 37.6 locally which is somewhere close to the 100F. Apparently the heat will continue through the week. Just when we thought the new air conditioner will start being run less regularly, we are getting a full test of it’s ability to cool the house in summer conditions. Not to mention higher electricity bills…
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Past the one year mark
It seems like such a long time ago now but on Thursday, it was a year ago that I had my knee surgery. My knee isn’t totally healed yet but I suppose it’s starting to get close to its maximum. I believe it could take a few months still to reach that point but if I’ve kept patience (sometimes) over the last year, I surely could stick with it a few months longer. One of the odd things I’ve noticed lately is that it’s as likely to be my right knee causing me trouble as my left…which probably is a decent indicator of improvement…assuming that’s it’s not my right knee getting worse…but I’m sure my left knee is improving.
I thought I’d have more to say about this anniversary of sorts but I don’t. At the moment my whole body is sore. I’ve been trying some different workouts at the gym the past few days and my body isn’t too happy about it. I’m due to donate blood on Tuesday and I planned to switch my break day from Monday to Tuesday. It seems possible my body is going to tell me otherwise…Hopefully it will all feel better in the morning and I will just it easy for a few days instead of trying too many new things and working more muscles that have been dormant. Honestly I had no idea there were so many different muscles that could be worked, especially on the bikes.
It’s midnight and I’m rambling so might leave it there. Just didn’t want to forget to make not of this milestone.
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Only taken a couple years…
After playing Ticket to Ride on my birthday, Game Fanatic suddenly got back into playing board games after backing away from them for the most part. He pulled out Alhambra, a game we had yet to try, and worked out the rules. His first observation was that it wasn’t terribly complex. He also pointed out that it has a slightly Carcasonne-ish element to it although it’s considerably different. We tried out the game tonight and it all went well…except that Lego Lover was very slow to take his turns and it took a lot longer than we expected. It was a lot of fun and easy to set up so I suspect this will be something we play more often than the more complex games we own. I recently noticed there are expansions for this game so we might invest in some of those at some point.
We often purchase video games from Ozgameshop, a UK retailer that sells at a much lower price and offers free shipping. More recently they added toys and board games to the items they sell and the prices are again much lower than any local retailers. They sent me a birthday email with a $10 discount on my next purchase so I used it this week to buy a couple more board games and hope to get those in the next couple of weeks. I’m finally getting a copy of Dominion, which I’ve heard good reviews about from a variety of sources. The other games is Castle Panic, which I saw on the web video show, Tabletop (hosted by Wil Wheaton). Game Lover and I watched and liked what we saw. It’s a co-op game. in a similar vein to Forbidden Island, which our whole family enjoys playing. And because he’s in one of those moods, Game Fanatic has bought three more games for himself this weekend….
Tomorrow is supposed to be International Tabletop Day and our family is going to have our own game-playing party. We plan to play Alhambra again and will likely play at least one other game. We will have to fit that in between egg decorating and other weekend activities. I also got an email from a local friend inviting us to play board games on Sunday. It only came tonight so not sure if we will go or not… it’s a good chance for social outings for Game Fanatic so perhaps we can work something out.