Game

Woo! 100! This has to be by far the longest I've kept a diary going (by about 95 entries...)

Something that hasn't yet emerged in the blip photo's is my enjoyment of board games. Note we are not talking Monotony here - the board game world is split into two: 'high street' games and enthusiast's games. They could not be more different.

High street games, occasionally themed with tank engines or soaps, typically brought by someone for someone else because the box looks nice. Enthusiast's games, rarely on the high street, often imported, brought by people for themselves because the game is worth playing.

I'd always enjoyed boardgames but we got into it as a family when No.1 son arrived. Looking for a social focus to invite friends round we settled on a shared takeaway and a boardgame. 20 years later it's still going.

The board above and components are not related. Interestingly very few of my collection of 100+ games contain 'money' of any form. These components are from:

Acquire - share trading in hotel chains
Vino - vineyard business, trading vine in a fluctuating market
Modern Art - savvy auction purchases
Wrott & Swinders - extremely silly antique-trading game
Samarkand - Desert traders
Auf Achse - a German game, delivering parcels against contracts

The board is from my game! A couple of years after the group had been running we'd run out of the games we knew about so I set about drafting one. This led to publication as "Special Delivery" and later licenced as "Rapid Delivery" (not my choice of name!). For the avoidance of doubt, I've not retired as a millionaire... but it was fun.

PS. All bar one of the placenames on the board are real English towns and villages - even Barton in the Beans!