As usual, in December I was going out of my way to try new things. It’s a habit I strongly recommend and I always enjoy looking back at the end of the month to see what I’ve been able to try. Also as usual, December was a busy month. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t seem to get much chance to stop in between working, sleeping and rushing around trying (and failing) to catch up with as many people as possible.
As a result, I had a hard time remembered to actually try new things this month. However, it’s not as if I can travel to a new country, get a new job, and take up three new hobbies every single month, that would be excessive (I’m told). So, here’s what I did get up to:
5. Sheltered. This is an Android game (you can probably also get it in the App Store and on Steam) that P’s sister recommend to me. Your goal is to keep a family alive for as long as possible while they shelter in a bunker, apparently after some kind of nuclear catastrophe. It’s really addictive and I can’t explain why.
4. Mamma Mia at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow. I’d never seen this before. I’d never wanted to, reasoning that it’s just not really my kind of thing, but when B suggested we go I thought I ought to at least try it. I was right, though, it wasn’t my thing. I ended up leaving during the interval. Oooops.
3. The Nutcracker at The Festival Theatre in Edinburgh. I’ve never been to the Festival Theatre before and I haven’t seen the Nutcracker in at least 10 years. I’m pleased to say that this went better than Mamma Mia did.
2. Rude Wines. I’ve been a devoté of Naked Wines for years and order a couple of cases a year from them. However, when I got a flier with a discount for Rude Wines I decided to order a case of that too. That made two cases that showed up in December, which as just as well, since a bottle of wine went to almost every adult member of Paul’s family for Christmas (14 botttles! 14!) Anyway, I’m pleased to say that the wines I tried were delicious. One to keep an eye on.
1. Mogwai! P and I saw Mogwai live at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. My sister and her boyfriend came up for the gig too and we had an amazing weekend that peaked when I won us a VIP upgrade at the concert. Mogwai were brilliant.
In Becky's Head 
I’ve only got a few this month:
At the request of a teacher friend, I arranged for one of her pupils to spend a work experience day in our department, learning about our profession, and had the pupil shadow me for part of the day.
I played a new game called Avalon (based on The Resistance), with a bunch of new people. The game is a psychological one where you have to work out who the traitors are amongst the group and I enjoyed the experience of spending an evening with a group of new people (the game I’m a bit meh about, though).
Took part in a stupidly high-level meeting, including the CEO of one of our major software suppliers and our HR and Finance directors. Even managed to contribute usefully!
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That’s a great collection of new things! Avalon sounds a bit like the Battlestar Gallactica board game, with trying to figure out who the cylons are – is it?
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No, it’s not like Galactica at all – it’s much more a talky game. Each person is assigned a role at the start of the game (loyal/traitor) and it’s played over a series of rounds. A subset of players have to go on a mission, the team is chosen by each player in turn and the whole group votes on whether or not the mission should go ahead. You can only reject X missions before losing the round automatically. If the mission does go ahead, it’s only successful if all those sent vote unanimously (anonymously) to succeed, so it’s about learning over time, questioning voting choices, remembering how people voted, and lying through your teeth (if you’re a traitor).
I enjoy the social bit, but I’m really bad at lying and not very good at figuring out what was learned from each vote/mission and what parameters to change to learn more.
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Oh yeah, very different. Sounds intriguing but I can also see it being tricky.
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