The Games Genius

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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

The visitation of the in-laws (Becks & Ralph) at the weekend allowed me to engage in a couple of my passions.

Firstly the cooking I had decided to do couldn’t be put off as it was going to form part of the meals that we would be eating. Usually I spot a couple of recipes to cook at the weekend and then can’t be bothered to cook them in the end!

We had a nice lunch of ‘bits’, a kind of help yourself selection of cold meats and salad and bread and things. We followed this with a Rhubarb & Star Anise Crumble. Very nice, although I didn’t tell Becks what was in it until she’d eaten it. We did have a shaky moment when she asked whether she liked rhubarb or not. Fortunately the rest of us all rolled our eyes and I wasn’t left to mock her on my own!

I also made a Lamb & Leek pie for tea (just me & K) and to be honest was not really impressed. The lamb was minced with herbs and layered with leeks in a hot water pastry and then cooked in the oven. To be honest the lamb didn’t really taste of anything and kinda just boiled inside the pie. I usually like lamb but cooked like this was not nice. The pastry was good though.

Since it was raining we just sat around in the afternoon, putting all the new furniture to good use and drinking tea, eating Crème Eggs and playing games, my other passion.

We aimed for short easy games so we could play a few. Each of us picked a different game.

Chronology was first. It’s a nice gentle game of guessing dates and putting them in the correct order. Ralph won. (Still chance for me to save some face)

Next up was Fluxx, an interesting card game where the rules change each round depending on what is played. Ralph won. (Grrr! No matter there must be something good coming up)

Yahtzee – a game of skill and strategy and a bit of luck. Ralph won. (Damn that pure fluke!)

I picked Carcassonne to play, a game of city building in medieval France. Ralph had never played before, Becks sat out. Ralph won. (Bum!)

Finally we played Mille Bourne, another French game, cards this time, where you play in pairs. Ralph (and Becks) won! (Sob!)