Games on New Year's Day

As is our annual tradition, this afternoon/evening we hosted a games day. At tea time, Jon took this great photo of everyone apart from himself. Clockwise in the photo we have:

On the big sofa: Elly, Katharine, and Sally
In front of the window: Richard, Mr hazelh, and Brian
Opposite the big sofa: David, Bruce, hazelh
On the small sofa: Mummy hazelh, Paddy, and Caitlin

Jack didn't make it after a rather jolly time in Corstorphine last night. His absence brought our number down to 13, so we needed a black cat to protect us from bad luck. We could have asked Paddy and Caitlin to bring Hendrix along to the party (even though he is not entirely black) but Mr hazelh vetoed this idea. Instead we recruited (Recovery) Moomin, bedecked in a black ribbon, to the play the role of cat (extra). 

We played Catan (three games simultaneously), Dobble, Azul, Werewolf, and Empire. We took a break in middle of all this for curries followed by fruit salad and/or apple and bramble pie with ice cream. 

It was a fabulous way to spend New Year's Day. I am particularly proud of my part in Empire when playing Prince Edward. In this round Caitlin accidentally made it obvious to me and Brian that Paddy was Simon Cowell. We knew the last two 'missing' names (one of which was mine) so this guaranteed us the win. The funny thing is that as I type this, I can't remember the last name that gave us our victory. I'll add it if I remember it later. Jon and I think that the other missing name was Mrs Beeton.

In other news I received a very welcome present in my email this morning: the full draft of Marina's PhD thesis. After several months of commenting on the drafts of individual chapters, I'm looking forward to reading the document as a whole from start to finish.

Exercise today: small amount of (indoor) walking (7,803 steps).