OK, I was trying to riff on the chorus in “Go West” (Pet Shop Boys version), but I’m not sure I got the right letter; Stupid double-vowel structures. 🙁

I was awake from 1am until about 4am, for reasons unknown, which is why there’s a great big brainspew about yesterday’s tourism. It may also explain any trifling incoherency in said brainspew.

I hit the breakfast zone at a bit before 7, and for a while was the only one there; People started drifting in from about 7, so I think I’ve found my time slot for a leisurely morning.

Currently, I’m chillaxing in the lobby on a comfy sofa, watching the heavily-accented people go by. There are a lot of French speakers, or at least what sounds like French from the few words I can pick out, and a solid representation of something which sounds Eastern European.
I cannot work out what the hotel staff converse with each other in; I’m almost hoping it’s some combination of a few things, the language of Hotels, like Taxilingua from Snow Crash.

Chris’ son Grant is going to be collecting me at 10, so I’ve got a little time to kill.
It might be worth doing a spot of planning for tourism things, mostly in terms of “What’s next to this” and “When’s likely to be a quiet time for that”

|o| /o/ |o| \o\ |o| /o/ |o| /o/ |o| \o\ |o|

OK, so there was a slight change in plan when Grant came down with something, so Chris (& Fran, his wife) came out to pick me up instead.

Little towns/villages in Essex look almost too much like what I’d expected them to; Narrow roads, brick buildings right on the edge of the footpath, not quite quaint but within an easy walk of it.

It was a really good day.
Got to meet the menagerie of three dogs, one of whom was very licky, and two cats, who mostly ignored me, in the manner of cats.

We went to Southend Pier & ride the rattly little train to the end, which was quite a lot of fun. Just the idea of a 1.3 mile long pier is kind of awesome, and gives a very different view of the Thames.
The weather did pick up while we were out there, & the degree of change in visibility over very short periods of time was noticeable. Also, as someone who’d walked out & then snuck into the train for the trip back told us, there’s no cover from the wind for most of it, so he didn’t feel like battling the cross-wind for the walk back.
Also the rain.
Such rain.

We got dinner at a carvery place on the way back; Must be the first time in years that I’ve been to one, and it was very nice. I had almost no idea what the chap with the knife was saying thanks to a strong accent from somewhere local, but he seemed to understand me OK.
Still have no idea what the hollow edible possibly pastry-based case thing was; I meant to ask, but forgot.

Mostly, this day was about catching up with Chris, meeting Fran, & talking about all sorts of stuff, often with a gaming bent to it.
The games stash there is both Mighty and Fearsome, and apparently represents only a portion of what has passed through the house over the years.

We played;

1. Station Master
   This is one of Chris’ games, using cards & a few little tokens, where you build up trains until they’re full and have variable amounts of investment in each train. Carriages are worth points, some carriages are worth negative points, & there’s the opportunity to shaft the other players by sandbagging trains they’ve got an interest in.I’ll admit to being a little confused by the rules as described, but once I saw them in play, no worries at all. It was interesting to watch the growth of ‘dump trains’, as people tried to get rid of the negative cards stinking up their hands.
   Quite fun, and has a bunch of opportunity for the sort of shaft thy neighbour tactics that I’ve seen in games like Fluxx or Groo.
2. Camel Up
   This ones a German Boardgame which Chris thinks will do well this year. It’s a humorous game, which I wasn’t aware the Germans did.
   To qualify that, all of the games which have previously been identified to me as German games have been very complicated & intricate, and often a bit mathematical. Camel Up … Isn’t.
   I thought, based on the box art, that this was Camel Cup, and given that it’s about betting on a camel race, it seemed fair, but we checked and no, it’s Camel Up.
   Basically, camels race around a pyramid, and you bet on them. The pyramid is used as the randomiser/dice shaker, and the whole thing has a fun comic-book look to it.This was a lot of fun; It’s difficult to take a bad bet seriously with graphics like that, which to me at least makes it easier to enjoy the game.
3. Mondo
   Probably another German one, though I’m not certain of that.This one’s about picking up little landscape tiles to build an island, or islands if you grab a lot of water, trying to make sure that the edges match so that the patches of Forest & Grassland & Desert & Water make sense.
   Of course, once you’ve placed a tile, there’s no moving it, and everyone is drawing from the same pile of tiles, and you’re all doing this at the same time.
   Did I mention the ticking countdown timer?

   This was kind of relaxing, like doing a jigsaw puzzle. With a time limit. And competition for the pieces.

Ended up staying up to about 1am, which had some consequences on Wednesday, & I stayed over; Fran & Chris gave me their bed & went with the lounge, at least in part to prevent night-time animal incidents.