Due to work commitments, holidays and other factors, we have decided to cancel the meeting tonight.  Our next meeting will be Tuesday 22^nd April when we will be returning to the Jockey.  More details will follow nearer the time.

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 25^th March will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

Since we didn’t get to play it last month, the “Feature Game” will again be Sushi Draft!.  This game is similar to 7 Wonders in that it is based on “card drafting”, however, the aim is far less complex.  The story goes that the children are having a competition to see who can eat the most of one type of sushi at a Japanese family feast.  Mother, however, wants the children to eat a balanced diet, and will give pudding to the one who eats the most varied meal.  Therefore, the aim of the game is to try to do both…!

And talking of Japanese food…

It was their wedding anniversary, so Jeff and his wife went out for a meal in a posh Japanese restaurant.  When they arrived, the waiter asked whether they had a reservation, but as Jeff had forgotten it was a “special day” he hadn’t had time to make a booking.  “No problem,” said the waiter, “I’ll see if I can find a table for two.”

As they were waiting for a table to be prepared, Jeff’s wife couldn’t help noticing a fish tank full of beautiful tropical fish. She turned to Jeff and said, “I would love some fish like that for our aquarium at home.”

Jeff agreed, keen to make up for his earlier faux pas, agreed that they were beautiful and asked the waiter what the fish were called.

The waiter replied, “Sushi…”

Due to illness, we have decided to cancel the meeting tonight and our next meeting will be Tuesday 25^th March.  More details will follow nearer the time.

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 25^th February will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  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 Sushi Draft!, which is a fast little card game picked up at Essen last year that is still waiting for an outing.  The game is similar to 7 Wonders in that it is based on “card drafting”, however, the aim is far less complex.  The story goes that the children are having a competition to see who can eat the most of one type of sushi at the family sushi feast.  Mother, however, wants the children to eat a balanced diet, and will give pudding to the one who eats the most varied meal.  Therefore, the aim of the game is to try to do both…!

And talking of sushi…

Jeff and and his business partner were opening a new sushi bar in The Strand.  Since The Inns of Court, Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn and the Temple occupy much of the surrounding area they decided to make it exclusive to lawyers.

They called it “Sosumi”.

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 11^th February will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  As usual, we will be playing shorter games from 7.30pm as people arrive, until 8pm when we will start something a little longer.

One of our regulars is moving to pastures new and this will probably be her last week.  So, we have decided to make “Feature Game” one of her favourites, Keyflower.  We have played it quite a bit, but she missed out on the Farmers expansion which was an interesting addition, so we may include that too, however, if she can’t make it, we may play something completely different…

And talking of farmers…

Jeff was a small-town country farmer with a watermelon patch.  Unfortunately, he found that some of the local kids had been helping themselves to his prized watermelons.  After some thought, Jeff came up with a way to discourage this profit-eating situation and he put up a sign that said, “WARNING! ONE OF THESE WATERMELONS CONTAINS CYANIDE!”

Jeff smiled smugly to himself the next evening as he watched the kids run off without eating any of his melons.  A couple of days later, Jeff returned to the watermelon patch to find that the sign was still having its desired effect and discover that none of the watermelons had been eaten.  However, there was now a new sign that said, “NOW THERE ARE TWO!”

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 28^th January will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  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 Zooloretto:  The Dice Game, which is a quicker, dice version of the tile laying game, Zooloretto, which we’ve played before.  In both games players are zoo owners and the aim is to collect large sets of animals and make their zoo profitable, but too many animals become difficult to store…

And talking of zoos…

Jeff and his small son were standing in front of the tiger’s cage at the zoo.  Jeff was explaining to the little boy how
ferocious and strong tigers are and junior was taking it all in with a serious expression.

“Dad,” the boy said finally, “If the tiger got out of his cage and ate you up …”

“Yes, son?” Jeff said expectantly.

“…What bus should I take home?” the boy finished.

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 14^th January will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  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 Parade, which is a set collecting card game with an Alice in Wonderland theme.

And talking of Wonderland…

The White Rabbit was running happily through the Wonderland woods when he came across the Dodo smoking a cigarette.  He ran up the Dodo and said, “Hey, Dodo, you shouldn’t do that. Think of your health. You should come running in the woods instead!” The Dodo looked at the White Rabbit, looked at his fag, caughed, shrugged his shoulders, tossed the cigarette over his shoulder and ran off through the wood with the White Rabbit.

After a while the Dodo and the White Rabbit came across a the Cheshire Cat rolling a joint.  The White Rabbit ran up the Cheshire Cat and said, “Hey, Cheshire Cat, you shouldn’t do that.  Think of your health. You should come running in the woods instead!”  The Cheshire Cat looked at the White Rabbit and the Dodo, looked at the spliff, shrugged his shoulders, tossed the joint over his shoulder and ran off through the wood with the White Rabbit and the Dodo.

After a while they came across a the Mad Hatter setting up a line of Coke.  The White Rabbit said, “Oh, Mad Hatter, you really shouldn’t do that. You should come running with us in the wood. It is much better for you.”  The Mad Hatter looked at the White Rabbit looked at the line of Charlie, shrugged his shoulders, then ran off through the wood with the White Rabbit, Dodo, and Cheshire Cat.

After a while they came across a the Alice filling a syringe with heroin.  The White Rabbit said, “Oh, Alice, you really shouldn’t do that. You should come running with us in the wood. It is much better for you.”  Alice looked at the White Rabbit then at the syringe, shrugged her shoulders, then ran off through the wood with the White Rabbit, Dodo, Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter.

After a while they came across the Queen of Hearts drinking her way through a magnum of Champagne.  The White Rabbit ran up to the Queen and said, “Your Majesty, you really shouldn’t do that.”  The Queen immediately jumped up and starts beating the White Rabbit mercilessly with her mace shrieking “Off with his head!”.  Alice grabed the Queen and pulled her off the White Rabbit and said, “Your Majesty!  What are you doing?!?!” The Queen gets one more blow in and says, “That Rabbit!  He always makes me run around the damn woods when he’s on Ecstasy!”

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 31^st December and, as it is New Year’s Eve will be a bit of a party with pizza and nibbles.  Following the fire at the Jockey, the party will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along so we know how much pizza to make.

The plan is to start off early with the “Feature Game”, which, like last year, will be the gorgeous, dexterity car-racing game, PitchCar.  Then we will have something to eat, rearrange the tables and play something a little longer and maybe set off some fireworks at midnight.

And talking of New Year…

The New Year’s Eve party had turned into a regular marathon with numerous guests coming and going.

At one point, a man knocked on the door, was greeted heartily although no one knew who he was, and was led to the bar in the basement.  He sat there happily for a couple of hours before a strange light dawned on his face.

“You know,” he confided to his host, “I wasn’t even invited to this party. I just came over to tell you that some of your guests’ cars are blocking my driveway.”

The guest paused a moment and then continued, “My wife’s been sitting out in the car waiting for me to get them moved…”

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 17^th December will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  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 Morels.  This is a quick little card game based on mushroom picking.  We’ve chosen this because we know some people will probably be late arriving and it’s a cute little game that the early birds can play while they are waiting to hear who will come.

And talking of mushrooms…

Jeff was out Christmas shopping and while he was waiting at the checkout, he got talking to the man in the queue behind him.  The conversation got around to wives, and he said he had been widowed three times. Jeff was appalled, “Three wives, all dead and buried?” he asked.

“Yes,” replied the man.

“What happened if you don’t mind me asking?” said Jeff.

“Not at all,” the man answered, “The first one ate poison mushrooms.”

“What happened to the second one?” asked Jeff, all agog.

“Poison Mushrooms,” replied the man.

“And the third?” asked Jeff, thinking he might have spotted a pattern.

“Fractured skull,” said the man.

“Oh,” said Jeff, “How did that happen?”

The man paused, then replied, “She wouldn’t eat the poison mushrooms…”

Following the fire at the Jockey, our next meeting on Tuesday 3^rd December will be held in a private house in Stanford.  Please get in touch if you would like to come along and would like directions.  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 Tzolk’in:  The Mayan Calendar, which is complex strategy game where workers are placed on a series of gears that move as the game progresses.

And talking of Mayans…

Jeff’s best friend was Burmese and as it was approaching Christmas and he wondered what to get him.  He searched high and low, but could not come up with anything suitable so he did what everyone does and tried the internet.  As he was searching about, he I read somewhere that the Mayan calendar ended on the 21st, and decided a new calendar would be a great Christmas gift for his friend from Myanmar…