More Fun And Games

Having posted the little piece yesterday about games, I realised I'd unaccountably forgotten about some pretty intense playing post-university. Usually this took place at times of holiday, celebration or general partying. I'm thinking of quizzes like Trivial Pursuit played with company at Dave Stott's or Tony Steel's. And I recall several sessions of Formula One, a Waddington's board game that became a particular favourite. (I neglected to pay tribute to Waddington's yesterday, a brand name to be trusted in England. I think they were the equivalent of the States's Parker Brothers.)

In fact Tony at one point developed quite a selection of fairly sophisticated games, like a Sherlock Holmes one with Baker Street in the title that I remember as distinctly complicated. But perhaps memory is addled by the fact that reasonably profuse quantities of alcohol accompanied the gaming of that period. It added to the fun, certainly, but detracted from the clarity of it all. I suppose that's why I don't really regard this playing as having quite the same quality as that of my genuine youth.

I also forgot to consider games played with our various nieces and nephews, predominantly Fifi and Fafa. Cadoo springs to mind. And Pictionary at silly Christmasses visiting England. But here the fun took over from the intensity, I think. You really need to passionately want to win, even if you don't mind losing, for games to mean something.

Oh, and what about Scrabble which the missus and I used to play quite often at weekends? And sometimes with Mum when she was visiting Singapore. Gosh, I'd forgotten how good that was. Probably due to the shock of sometimes losing!