Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 1^st July, at the Horse and Jockey pub in Stanford-in-the-Vale.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

This week the “Feature Game” will be Bohnanza.  This game is about bean farming which sounds very uninspiring when it is described, but is great fun and a game we’ve played a lot before and always enjoy.  We are playing it again because one of us has a new copy in Spanish, and we fancied playing it in a different language!

And talking of beans…

Jeff loved baked beans, but unfortunately they always had a somewhat lively effect on him.  After he met the woman of his dreams, he made the supreme sacrifice and gave them up because he couldn’t imagine subjecting his new wife to his beastly emissions.

On his birthday, his car broke down, so he called his wife and told her he’d have to walk home. On his way, he walked past a cafe and the wonderful aroma of baked beans overwhelmed him. Since he was still a couple of miles from home, (and it was his birthday after all), he figured he could indulge, then walk off any ill effects. After three large portions, he walked home, jet propelled.

Jeff’s wife met him at the door and seemed somewhat excited. She exclaimed, “Darling, I have the most wonderful surprise for you for dinner tonight!”

She blindfolded him, and led him to his chair at the head of the dining room table, making him promise not to peek. He sat down, but just as she was about to remove the blindfold, the telephone rang and she went to answer it. While she was gone, he seized the opportunity to relieve the build-up of wind – it was not only loud, but ripe as a rotten egg.  He gasped and felt for his napkin and fanned the air about him.  He had just started to feel better, when another urge came on.

This one sounded like a diesel engine revving, and smelled even worse. He tried flapping his arms, to clear the air. But another one snuck out, and the windows rattled, the dishes on the table shook, and a minute later, the flowers on the table were dead.

When he heard his wife ending her conversation, Jeff neatly laid his napkin on his lap and folded his hands on top of it. He was the picture of innocence when she walked in. Apologizing for taking so long, she asked if he had peeked at the dinner. He assured her he had not, so she removed the blindfold and yelled, “Surprise!!!”

To his shock and horror, there were twelve dinner guests seated around the table for his surprise birthday party.