Roll 6, move ahead to Social Life, congrats- you have achieved 5 extra points

While most people have faithful furry companions, my most endeared companion remains that of the electronic species. My laptop. It’s currently virus-ridden due to…well I’m not sure what…I mean it’s not like I illegally download movies and music or anything…but I’m using a holistic approach to tending to my beautiful Toshiba and will rely on TLC and positive energy to rid my laptop of its negative energy. Yes, yes, M is a techie and could probably get rid of the virus in a few short hours, but I’m just going to try it my way for a little while longer.

I’ve become addicted to the internet and while not scouring sites for jobs one can often find me scouring sites for…everything else. I’ve been trying not to be a Facebook addict (please note the keyword here) and in doing so, ended up creating accounts for Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, follow numerous blogs and newspapers and I just recently discovered Gumtree. Now, what is Gumtree? It is the equivalent of Canada’s Craigslist and Kijiji. Ohhh Craigslist, how I miss thee! The number of nights I spent in Toronto laying in bed, looking up pointless nothings in the classifieds. Who cares if I had no use for harp lessons, a diamond-studded rat cage, or a penthouse apartment beside Hooker Harvey’s on Jarvis and Gerrard for $150/month… the pure entertainment of it all was enough to keep me up until 4AM. And don’t even get me started on the personals section. So just imagine my sheer delight when I came across the UK equivalent. Now keep this delight in mind…and multiply that by 1 000 000 000 when I stumbled upon the Community Chest section and discovered a Bath board games group. I experienced my lifetime high at that moment, ladies and gentlemen. I love board games and have no shame in admitting that I would choose a night of board games over a night out a bar 99% of the time. If you mix in board games with alcohol that may be enough to push me to 100%.

Next meet-up: Jan 10, 2012

Location: The Bell pub

Time: 7:30PM-closing

While I was on board (no pun intended) from the get-go, M agreed to go with great trepidation. He was hesitant about the kind of company that would be at the pub. I think he was afraid of meeting the ghost of computer geek past (I say past to be kind, but the geek’s still in him. The launch of Skyrim didn’t quite ignite the same level of passion in me as it did him…) and become re-acquainted with his hardcore gamer childhood/teenage self. Just so you know, I did stumble across a Bath PC Gamers Group, but I opted not to inquire further about that one.

So into the pub we went and there we were faced with 25+ people having intense games of everything from Jenga to Settlers of Catan. My smile stretched from ear to ear…even more so after a pint of cider. Actually, that’s a bit of a lie. The smile stayed the same, but my face got slightly more rosy…the Asian flush is worsening with age.

Anyhow, we eased into the night by joining a table of people and started off with a tame game of Jenga, moved on to “challenge” ourselves a bit more with Yes/No (DO NOT PLAY THIS POINTLESS GAME EVER!!! I would sooner pick fluff between my toes than play Yes/No again. Aim of the game- plain and simple, you are asked a series of questions where you cannot say Yes or No), and after playing a few torturous rounds of the awful game I politely suggested we move onto something different. We ended off the night playing Mental Floss (similar to Trivial Pursuit), which to my great relief was fun, challenging, and made the night pass by very quickly. I didn’t win, BUT I succeeded in not getting too competitive! I need to restrain myself before letting strangers see the real side of me ;).

The board games club just launched October 2011 by a sweet and chirpy fellow board games lover by the name of Sarah. The club already has a faithful group of followers and I think Sarah is well deserved in getting free pints all night for all the new clients she’s brought into The Bell. I’m not too sure about this yet, but I THINK there may be some kind of hierarchy/cool kids thing going on. I’m going to do a bit of further investigation but it appears that the “seniors” (people who’ve been going for awhile, not the elderly) have first dibs on all the good games. I was eyeing Settlers of Catan the entire time but never got the chance to sit at THE table. One day…one day I will rise to the top.

Would I go again?

Verdict: YA MAN!!!!!