Monday 29 December 2008

A revolving door of partners!

This post is not as salacious as perhaps the title suggests. I was originally going to call it "Hooray! Ann is back! (And I have new games!)", as Ann returned yesterday from her 3-weeks-plus holiday with her family back in the USA.

But I thought it was interesting that as Ann left for her trip, Peter Hawes' partner arrived back from her overseas holiday. And, when Ann returned, John Farrell's partner started her overseas holiday! Coincidence? Or is something else going on?

Similarly, just after Tom Felber - a Swiss gamer who was living in Brisbane for a few months as part of an amazing around-the-world adventure - left the city, I was contacted by Adam Polkinghorne, a Brisbanite gamer who had just returned to the city after living in Switzerland for six years!

Gnomes of Zurich? Wheels within wheels? Machinations against The Secret Bread Empire? Mysteries abound!

Anyway, it's great having Ann back, as I prefer sharing life with her to not sharing life with her. At the same time, I enjoyed my solo time while being on a break from work, where I could do (or not do) pretty much whatever, whenever I wanted. Sure, I didn't get done a lot of the ever-present "projects" I was planning to get to, but that's hardly new in my life....

We had a nice Christmas gift exchange - I teched her up and she geeked me out - followed by a wonderful holiday pizza, and then we caught up on a little TV before she fell into a jet-lag sleep. She's back to work today. Fortunately, I'm still off for another week!

One very cool thing about Ann travelling to the USA is that it gives me the opportunity to buy games cheaply and then have them brought to Australia for free. Here's what Ann was kind enough to lug back for me:

Agricola Animeeples and Vegimeeples (for pimping out my copy)
Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game (great gaming for paranoids!)
Clue Express (checking out the various Express titles)
Dirty Deutsch (a card game that teaches you how to swear in German!)
Dominion (Ann digs it, so I hope to get a lot of games played)
Frank's Zoo (I game away my last copy of this classic; I'm glad to have it back on the shelves!)
Glory To Rome (excited about this; good buzz and it's supposed to be similar to Race For The Galaxy)
The Mother Lode Of Sticky Gulch (in support of Scott Starkey, because I like his Stocking Stuffers)
Race For The Galaxy (a new copy so the cards are as pristine as the ones in the expansion)
Race For The Galaxy: The Gathering Storm (woo hoo!)
Time's Up! Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition
Time's Up! Title Recall

Unfortunately, my copy of Fantasy Flight Games' new edition of Cosmic Encounter - the greatest game ever - was shipped to our American address after Ann left. So, I guess I'll be bringing that back when I go for The Gathering of Friends in April.

Time to start focusing on getting some games played....

3 comments:

Iain said...

I hope you like Glory To Rome - it's one of my favourite games - probably my favourite game of 2008. Can't wait to play it again.

gregor said...

Yes, Glory to Rome rocks! Reminds me more of CE than anything else I've played. If you're coming to cancon let's get a game of it in. I've been trying to get converts-- it's not hard.

Kevin S. O'Brien said...

Wow, high praise indeed! With you two (and a bunch of other people) being so fond of it, I'm even more keen to get it to the table.

It looks like I'll be showing up to Cancon / the Australian Games Expo for one day - Saturday - only, as On The Beach was already scheduled for that weekend. But it will probably be a long day of gaming! I look forward to seeing you there. We should definitely play Cosmic Encounter while I'm there!