A Week on the Water

Last week we swapped our urban cottage for a few days in a narrowboat on the Llangollen Canal. A little chill out time was just what we needed and the pace of life as we pottered along at 3 miles an hour got right to the heart of that.

The Llangollen was a lovely canal to spend our time on. Travelling almost exclusively through countryside rather than towns and cities, the highlight of the journey for us was the day we spent reaching the source of the canal. As the Vale of Llangollen started to open up around us, we passed over the longest and highest aqueduct in Great Britain - the Pontcysyllte. Not for the faint hearted as there is a shear drop from the edge of the boat. Definitely stayed seated during that one.

From there the canal got narrower and narrower, winding it's way along the valley edge towards the town of Llangollen and a final unnavigable section where we had to switch to foot. Finally we reached the horseshoe falls; a perfect semi-circle of waterfall that separates the water for the canal from the river Dee.

We were with my brother, parents, and my parents 18 month old labrador - Monty. It was great to spend some time with family, both working our way through the series of locks and swing bridges, and settling down at the end of the day to a glass of wine and a game of cards. Monty also seemed to enjoy his week, providing us with much amusement as he checked up on everything that was happening, hared up and down the towpath and did laps of each lock - though also providing us with a few heart-stopping moments as he ran over the lock gates or leapt from the boat in pursuit of someone who'd dared to get off the boat without him.

A really good week.

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Life's a Game 9. Mapominos

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

September's game is Mapominos 

This is one we've only discovered in the last couple of years, but has provided us with great enjoyment. It comes in five variants; Europe, Asia and Australasia, Africa, Americas and UK Counties. In each box you'll find a card for each country (or county) in the region, complete with a few stats about the country and - most crucially - which countries it borders.

The aim is to put down all your cards first and is played very much like classic dominoes. You place each country next to one that it borders, creating a grid-like map that can often be rather askew! What could be more natural than North Korea sitting next to Georgia - they both border Russia after all. Play is also limited by the surface you use. If the card won't balance of its own accord then it can't go there - sorry but that's the rules!

The whole world laid out on the floor.

It can get better though, because its possible to combine packs to make the game bigger. With some friends we joined up all four countries versions to make the world which we decided to play on the floor - but having done so once I think we'd be up for the challenge of limiting it to the size of a table. It did provide some interesting card combination's:

Things getting busy in the Caribbean. 

Spain, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Trinidad and Tobago.
Not natural neighbours but united around a border to the Atlantic Ocean

Mexico, USA and Canada sitting - surprisingly - next to each other before jumping the
Atlantic to the UK and Cape Verde.

Each set is as different as the part of the world it represents which affects the game play quite a lot. We've found the Americas set to be rather slow play. It consists of only 35 cards and most of them being islands meaning that everyone ends up playing lots of sea (transit cards) just to get their cards connected. It would probably be improved by making the 50 US states individual cards to boost the number of connections.

At the other end of the scale there's UK counties. With over 150 cards it apparently makes for a long and intricate game, though we've not played ourselves. We'd definitely recommend going for Europe to most new players (though obviously if you're more familiar with Asia or Africa that might make a better choice). All told, we've had lots of fun playing all the different versions of this game though - so do give it a go.

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Life's a Game 8: Whist

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

August's game is Whist

If you have a good memory you'll recall that many many months ago, whilst talking about Cribbage, I said that my family have always enjoyed a game of cards. Whist has many different variations I've enjoyed both knock-out whist and nomination whist with different groups of friends and family.

Deciding which card to play... In this case clubs were played first so I have to follow suit with my Q.

All versions of the game involve playing cards in tricks; each person plays a single card and the person who played the highest card in the chosen suit wins that trick (if you've ever player Hearts on the computer thats also a trick based game). This continues until everyone's hands are empty when scores are tallied, the cards are re-dealt and it starts again. With nomination whist (sometimes called "oh, hell" whist apparently) you make a guess at how many of the possible tricks you think you can win in each hand before play starts and the scores are based on how accurate your prediction was. The number of cards dealt varies throughout the game adding an extra challenge of adapting your bidding tactic to match.

The advantage of this sort of scoring is that someone with a rubbish hand can correctly predict to win zero tricks and get almost as many points as person with all the aces who correctly bid four - its all about playing your hand to match your bid, and less about the cards you're dealt. Of course the person who was given a hand of 8's, 9's and 10's would probably beg to differ as making an accurate prediction is significantly harder with the middling cards.

This time spades were led, so I have a choice to make. The A on the table will win the trick regardless so I played my 10, hoping that my K might win me a trick later.

We've had so much fun playing this game over the years on all sorts of rainy evenings and family holidays and it has an added advantage that all you need is a pack of cards and pen and paper.

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Life's a Game 7: Uno

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

July's game is Uno.


Uno is a fantastically simple game, but one that has provided us with lots of amusement over the years, particularly when we get together with the same university friends I mentioned here. To play Uno you use a special bright and colourful deck of cards that contains the numbers 0-9 and a set of special features on backgrounds of red, blue, green and yellow. There are also a few cards with a black background that can be played at any time.

The game play is straightforward - everyone is dealt a fixed number of cards and the aim is to be the first to put all your cards down. Each person takes it in turns to place a card on the pile in the centre, and that card must match either the value or the colour of the one before it. If at any point you can't play you pick up another card which puts you further behind. Some of the special cards also force the next player to pick up two or four cards which is definitely to be avoided and the swiftest way of doing so is to play another "+2" card to pass the curse on. These cards will accumulate so woe to the person who finds themselves at the end of a chain of them and has to pick up 6 or 8 cards! 

Other special cards include miss a go's, change direction of play and the ability to dictate what colour the pile becomes next. The intensity with with special cards appear tends to increase as the game goes on, and peaks once someone has declared "UNO" - meaning they have just one card left and should be stopped from playing it at all costs.

While this might not be the game when intricate strategy is what you're after, the rest of the time its good fun and suitable for all. 

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Life's a Game: 4. Cribbage

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

April's game is Cribbage.

Looking for  cards that add up to fifteen...

This is one of those games that, for me, goes right back into my childhood. I have distant memories of being taught to play by my Dad, but feel like I've always known it. We played card games a lot as I grew up, often as a family activity; my Mum, Dad, brother and I sitting down on a Saturday evening for round of whist, bridge or canasta and this is still a well loved way to pass our time when we all get together today. With cribbage though, typically a two player game, it was game for mostly just for Dad and I.

As time went on I taught Joe how to play, and also discovered one of my university friends knew this game. Between us we taught another of my housemates and cribbage has become a favourite once again. We nearly always play when the four of us are together.

Crib scoring board. 

There are many quirks to this card game. It comes with it's own special scoring board to help you keep track of your points and the game is broken into two different sections in each round, both of which can score you points. As well trying to find the classic runs and pairs of many card games you're also on the look out for cards that add up to fifteen and every player starts by donating one or two of their cards into the crib, or box, which the dealer gets to treat as an extra hand at the end of the game to score bonus points - and this is what gives the game it's name.

Section 1: Play out your cards one at a time trying to make combo's
with your opponents cards; here we have 15 on the table, 2 points. 

Simple enough to learn, reliant on the luck of the cards, but with the chance to become skilled at spotting the best combinations to score you points this is a game that can be enjoyed by the young and old on different levels, and I'd recommend you give it a go.

Section 2: Add up the points in your hand. This person scored 6; two fifteens (K+5) and a pair. 

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Life's a Game 3. Chronology

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

March's game is Chronology

Another charity shop find, this months game takes a little more thinking about - though it is set out in such a way that even those with only a slight knowledge of history can take part and enjoy it. 

Unlike some of the games on our shelves, this one doesn't take long to explain or play, with a game taking around 30 mins. Each player starts with one card face up on the table, then everyone takes it in turns to be read a historical event. If you can correctly guess where this sits in the timeline of events you have in front of you then you get to add the card to your line. The first person to have a set of ten cards wins the game. 

Of course this means that the first round is not that hard - you just need to guess whether the event took place before or after the card you were given at the start. Once you have nine cards on the table, perhaps some of them grouped quite closely chronologically, guessing the location of the tenth can be quite a bit trickier. 

A lot of the cards are based in the last 200 years, but the dates do stretch all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians (everyone breaths a sigh of relief when asked was the building of the pyramids before or after WWII) and could involve the discovery of America, the first successful heart surgery, or the production of the first Barbie. There's no way you could know all the events in the set - but because you only need to know where it sits in history, not the dates themselves, there's always a chance for a guess. 

Good for when a game of Monopoly just seems too long, or for a change of pace from other board and card games, I wouldn't say this was the best game on our shelf, but we've played it multiple times with different groups of people and always seem to enjoy ourselves - and you can't say fairer than that.


p.s. The next challenge in The Great Swift Bake Off is approaching. This month two dozen biscuits are the order of the day. We'll open Mr Linky next Wednesday - what will you make?

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