Eleventh of the Eleventh

I may have finished with my study for the year, but work has not slowed down; in fact I think it’s got even busier. Summer is theoretically our quiet time of year, but in reality it’s the time when everyone says “you’re not busy at the moment, so could you…” Oh well, at least I’m not bored!

I had been looking forward to spending last night listening to Radio Shropshire‘s Bookcrossing update, because I’ve missed it for the last few weeks, but I got a phone call from the Gwilks yesterday inviting me to go with them to a games evening in Shirley. I almost said no, but I’ve kind of been wanting to be invited to one of the Shirley evenings (which seem to be the “inner circle” of the games playing group), so I decided to grab the chance – Radio Shropshire can survive without me for another week.

It was a fun evening, anyway. There were a lot more people there than at the other games evenings I’ve been to (enough that there were generally three games going at any one time), and I was introduced to a few new games, plus got to have another go at some more familiar ones. I’ve decided I’m better at most of these games when I don’t really know how to play them – once I’ve had a couple of goes and think I understand how they work, I start getting clever and trying to use strategy, and that’s when I normally lose miserably. When I’ve got no idea what I’m doing and just depending on blind luck I do much better 🙂

We’re having our own mini games evening tonight. MrPloppy has invited a few people from his group (not sure how many of them will actually turn up, of course), and I invited lytteltonwitch and awhina – awhina just rang to say she can’t make it after all, but hopefully there’ll still be enough of us to play a game or two.

And I think tomorrow we’re having a meetup for a visiting bookcrosser (lytteltonwitch has arranged it, so I’ll have to find out the details from her tonight), so it’s turning into quite a social weekend, really!

The weather has been weird lately, icy rain one minute and hot nor’wester the next (it’s doing the latter right now), so my vague plans of getting out and releasing some books once my exam was out the way haven’t come to fruition yet. I did release a couple at the university the other day, though – someone had obviously been cleaning out their office, because a big pile of books had been left outside the English department for people to take, so (as well as grabbing a couple that looked interesting) I added to the pile: Pagan in Exile by Catherine Jinks and Six Plays by Lillian Hellman. After getting a catch from there the other day, I’ve got high hopes of them…

I forgot in my account of Tuesday’s meetup to mention the most significant event of the evening: the release of the cheat book! Lytteltonwitch and I decided that the joke had finally outlived its amusement factor (the number of people wanting to journal it has steadily decreased with each convention it’s been to, and lytteltonwitch reported that at Adelaide most people seemed bored by the idea), so we ceremoniously presented it back to awhina to do with what she would. She promptly released it in a hidden spot in Cafe Bleu, where it’s unlikely to be found for some time. Goodbye, faithful cheat book! You’ve served us well for many years – enjoy your retirement!

Currently reading: A Sudden Wild Magic by Diana Wynne Jones (library book)