Belgian Steam

Back to Tuesday games this week as Crabro had got rid of his cold. Not surprisingly, given how much he likes this game and railway games in general, he arrived with a box full of extra maps for Steam.

We quickly decided to play the intriguing looking Belgium two-player map and absorbed the few extra rules with no trouble (we thought).

To my utter surprise I found myself the winner, which is probably the first time I've beaten Crabro at this kind of game and just to prove it was not a fluke, after lunch I did it again. My pleasure at this was only slightly mitigated by finding out that we had in fact unintentionally ignored one of the rules. Hard to say how much this would have affected the result since both of us were making the same mistake but anyway I'm happy to have even been competitive.

These games having been surprisingly quick to finish we looked for something to finish the day that we could get into fairly fast. Alhambra fitted the bill as we both knew the rules and enjoy the game. 

Despite Crabro's seemingly useful strategy of building a large flexible hand of money cards and then going on a multi-buy spending spree, I eventually also won this with a fairly balanced Alhambra and longish wall. Crabro finished third behind "Dirk", the dummy player used to balance two-player games. I'm not sure where Crabro went wrong but he claims that, despite really liking Alhambra, he has never won a game, so at least he is consistent.

London Wetland

Unusually there was Sunday birdwatching this week as I was very kindly taken, by my birding mentor and his family, to the London Wetland Centre.

This was a day full of delights from start to finish with the sight and sound of the Ring-Necked Parakeet to start with and beautiful views of all kinds of birds both captive and wild from an assortment of well-designed hides and viewing areas including one, unusually several stories high.

As well as enjoying unusually close views of some of my favourite ducks, geese and herons I also saw my first Water Rail of the year, my second Snipe and many other things from Egyptian Geese and American Black Ducks to Foxes and a sadly now rare Water Vole. There were smaller birds competing with the fat Grey Squirrels and the pushy Parakeets around the feeders and these included Stonechat and Long-tailed Tits in addition to the usual Bluetit, Great Tit, Robin etc.

I was able eat my lunch (of rather splendid cold roast beef and horseradish jam sandwiches, fruit and tea) while watching Little Grebes just in front of me having their own meal of rather stubborn sticklebacks.

The venue has been cleverly constructed to give natural views of genuinely wild birds along with artificial versions of various types of habitat with an idea of the type of wildlife to be expected there. In addition there is a very useful shop for birding books, binoculars and 'scopes unfortunately a bit out of my league, and a warm indoor observation area complete with 'scopes available for the use of anybody.

It was a splendid way to spend a Sunday and I'm still enjoying it as I run over the sights and sounds in my mind today.

Dunge revisited

On Friday I was taken for another visit to the Dungeness area for some birding. It was a beautiful day and a very pleasant stroll round to the various hides. It was however fairly empty as far as the birds were concerned.

We stopped off at the gravel pit to start with and then headed down to the beach in search of the Glaucous Gull. Although we were not certain for a while, it did become clear that none of the assembled gulls were the bird in question. There was a Caspian Gull about we were told, but even my birding mentor was not confident he would be able to identify it if we saw it.

On the beach itself it was fishing day and the long line of men fishing off the beach was clearly deterring any birds from staying on the shoreline. Further out to sea there were some Auks and Guillemots about as well as Kittiwakes and a Grebe.

There's a Snipe at the base of the reeds...

We headed back to the entrance and round the reserves many hides, having our lunch on the way and were rewarded with some very nice views of Marsh Harriers hunting low over the reed-beds and a mid-air disagreement between a Green Woodpecker and a Peregrine. The falcon soon resumed its hunt and the Woodpecker its undulating flight with neither the worst for their argument.

During the course of the afternoon we also came across a very well camouflage Snipe resting at the foot of some reeds almost invisible until he turned his head and long beak. I was happy to see my first Smew, or at least the first that I am aware of and some nice views of other ducks, geese and swans which I much enjoyed for all their lack of rarity.

As we departed we had a brief view of a white bird by the water. Was it just another Little Egret or was it the Great White Egret? Unfortunately, I was the only one who saw it standing relatively clear and I'm pretty convinced. My birding mentor only glimpsed it as it was obscured by reeds and the bank of the pond. In my mind I see a heron-like stance and size and a flash of a yellow beak. No ticks for probables though.

Tutti Frutti From The Terrace

Image via WikipediaFriday film night unexpectedly took place despite Arthur's car "Gladstone" being a bit poorly. This week we continued the Paul Newman season together with another episode of the comedy drama Tutti Frutti.

I was surprised but highly delighted when the doorbell rang and I found Arthur standing outside clutchin two bottles of beer, a large pork pie and a handful of Paul Newman's early work. The delight was not misplaced as it proved to be a top film night in every respect. The antics of Clocherty, McGlone, Kettles and co had not lost any of their charm and put us in a very good mood as we broke out the pie and the pint glasses were issued. The usual SPOILER WARNING should appear here I suppose.
From the Terrace (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)


The Newman film this week was something of a soapy drama on an epic scale. From the Terrace is big in every way, as it is 149 minutes of De Luxe color, Cinemascope and overheated husbands and wives.

Relishable scenes of confrontation between Newman and his real life wife Joanne Woodward ensue as Newman pursues his career goals at the cost of his marriage, only to find redemption at the last. He is on the brink of achieving his goal and being given a partnership in the firm to which he has dedicated so much of his time, only to realise that the love of a good women is more important.

Cracking stuff from 1960 with a hint of the luridly-covered paperbacks of the era and a whiff of Peyton Place.

Plus or Minus by Fair Means or Foul

Thursday games began with three player Uptown, a little tile placement game. When the others (Petra Pan and mrwendell) arrived they requested a game that either we already knew or was light and easy to learn because it had been a long hard day at the coalface and synapses were frazzled.






After a bit of a discussion in the hobbies room and some exploration of the games shelves Crabro and I emerged with an twenty year old Klaus Teuber "race" game which has been published under various names such as Hoity Toity and Adel Verplichtet, my own copy being the Gibsons-published Fair Means or Foul.

At first glance this is more complicated than it looks but each turn breaks down into the choice of a card in each of two phases. The intermediate object is to build collections to exhibit in various stately homes but the overall object is simply moving round the track. Light but enjoyable, it passed quickly enough that we had to look for a third light game to finish the evening. I suggested to Crabro we might try Plus and Minus again while it was fresh in our minds.

This worked fine even though the venerable game is a symphony of browns and pastel colours muted by the fading of time. Clearly it was old but still fun. Petra Pan, the youngest of our merry band thought it was so old that it might date from...the seventies! At this point I felt particularly old, as the 1970s were arguably the Rooftrouser heyday when I was a schoolboy then a student, with all that implies. I couldn't, however, remember the games at that time being particularly brown or wooden. In fact we were mostly playing Risk, Diplomacy, Speed Circuit and Kingmaker at the time. As I think I've mentioned before I do not know how old Plus and Minus is but I suspect it is from the 1930s or 1940s although it would not look out of place a decade or two earlier still.

 A not too taxing evening of light, fun games but as to the results I think I will say that the younger elements were on form and draw a veil over my own performance.

Carnage

Image via Wikipedia A visit to the wonderful "Duke's" yesterday for a members' preview of the new Polanski film "Carnage". This turned out to be a real treat after some initial problems involving the misreading of train times. Having still managed to arrive before curtain up I was very relieved but found myself sitting right down the front at a somewhat acute angle to the screen. As usual I must warn that there may be

SPOILERS AHEAD.

I shouldn't have been surprised that the film was a treat given that it is a chamber piece written by Yasmina Reza and starring John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster and Christoph Waltz. Having seen one of Reza's plays (Life x3) I wasn't surprised to find that the dialogue is very sharp and that the action remains almost entirely in one (alright two) locations. It is very much like a filmed play (and has its origins in her play God of Carnage) albeit with a more mobile POV than would be possible for a theatre goer.


Image via WikipediaThe  premise is that one couple goes to the home of another to discuss the dispute between their sons which has ended in violence requiring dental work. Initially tightly screwed down into a semblance of a civilised attempt at reconcilliation, gradually things deteriorate and we learn more about the individuals, their attitudes to each other and to the offending offspring.









Image via WikipediaJust wonderful in my opinion and I look forward to an opportunity to see it again. The film is set in New York but of course could not be filmed there owing to the ongoing legal problems for the director, however given the almost entirely interior location of the story this is not a problem. One minor problem though was that as with the Malick film the screen appeared to me very dark. From my point of view the film took place in something almost resembling twilight. Having blamed Malick for taking his ideas too far (because he had chosen to make the film dark as it was how he remembered the fifties) I am now beginning to suspect it was something to do with the angle I watched both these films at. It is either that or films here are being projected at low luminance. Since I seem to be the only one suffering this I'm going to assume it relates to where I was sitting. This probably means I have to see Deep Blue Sea again...


 Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Image via Wikipedia






In the evening I watched the well-known 1951 film of Dickens' Pickwick Papers. This was another treat, with a cast chock full of familiar faces of the era and well serving Dickens' affectionately humourous portrait of the pompous but loveable Pickwick and his quaint band of oddballs.

Almost as much fun spotting the actors as enjoying the comedy set-pieces. Although a number of scenes from the book are not given an airing in this film, it does no disservice to the tone and humour of one of Dickens' best-loved works.

Once Bittern, Twice Shy

Birding on Friday took us into another county. Scary though leaving Sussex might be, we ventured just over the border into Hampshire in search of a Shore Lark which was reported to be at the old oyster beds on Hayling Island.

Sure enough, it was immediately obvious that the bird was still in residence from the number of similarly attired folk old enough to know better f pointing 'scopes and other lenses in the same direction.

A couple of friendly birders pointed us in exactly the right place and we very soon had good, if distant views of its little yellow and black physog.

We all agreed that it had much more pronounced markings than the last Shore Lark we saw at Seven Sisters Country Park. While at Hayling Island we also saw a number of Brent Geese and assorted waders including a large number of my favourite bird the Oystercatcher.

Although this was clearly a great place to come birding, the chill brought by the wind whipping across Langstone Harbour meant that this wasn't necessarily the ideal place to be here (unless you were one of the wind-surfers whizzing by, presumably) so we decided to retreat inland and back to Sussex. Wet wood ho!

 We arrived at Burton Mill Pond at lunchtime and decided that there was nowhere particularly suited to a sit-down picnic outside by the pond and, wisely in my opinion, opted to eat in the warmth of the car. After lunch we ventured out again though and after a quick look around the pond set off for a walk in the woods.

This is a strange post-industrial environment of trees, heaths, streams and bogs caused by nature reclaiming what was once a very busy landscape of iron, peat and clay extraction. It's still possible to see where the waters of the hammer pond fell six feet towards the mill building driving its enormous hammer.

Sadly, the Tawny Owl was not in its usual resting place this year but there were a number of other birds about, including a Great-spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinches, Siskins and other "Little Brown Jobs".

After an enjoyable ramble through the fantastic landscape of the woodland with its gnarled trees, peaty bogs, weird tussocks and fungi, we returned to the pond. After another hot drink we then stood by the side of the water, along with one or two other lunatics while we waited for dusk and hopefully for some Bitterns to fly in.

While we waited we were entertained by something like seventy Cormorants gathering in a tree (or several similar trees close together). A number of Buzzards displayed, huge silhouettes in the reddening sky as they made their high and lonely-sounding cry.

Out on the pond, various ducks, grebes and a Heron where diving, dabbling and quacking. It is a beautiful spot and as the sky, which had been overcast most of the day, turned pink and then began to darken we scanned across the water anxiously for the final act of the day.

Unfortunately this time we were disappointed and eventually we had to admit that even if they appeared it was now too dark for us to make anything out. Even in good light a Bittern can quickly disappear once it arrives in the reeds. Reluctantly we returned to the car.

A shame about Wol and the Bitterns but otherwise it had been another marvellous day out for me.