Tag Archives: Kevin Sides

Wheelchairs, brothels and community spirit!

OK, it seems like forever since I last wrote. I stopped blogging during the election, and it has proved hard to start up again, but I suppose I will slowly get back in to it. Part of the reason is I have been so incredibly busy with the old lady down my street who I have long been friends with; we know go for an hour long walk every evening, and her cup of tea every night takes another hour, with frequent visits during the day eating up my spare time. She’s lovely but the endless phone calls as she has become forgetful do drive me mad! Still I guess this is part of the “big community” we hear so much about — I’m lucky enough to live in a street where people are very friendly, (yes, that includes very much the really nice folks from the brothel that used to be down the road till the big police raid a couple of years back — not that I ever twigged it was a brothel till the police kicked the door in, and I lived next door to it!), and spend a lot of time talking to one another and helping one another out. Continue reading

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Grand Tribunal 2010 – Ars Magica convention in Cheltenham UK! (August 20th to 22nd)

Well it’s been a long time in the planning, but I can finally confirm that Grand Tribunal 2010 will be going ahead this year in Cheltenham. This will be the fourth Grand Tribunal, a mini-convention dedicated to ATLAS GAMES products and in particular the tabletop roleplaying game of magic in 13th century Europe, Ars Magica. Anyone signed up to the yahoogroup should have already received an update with details of pricing, accommodation options and the first events planned. Continue reading

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The End of an Era: Richard Dawkins forum to close

Unfortunately I popped over to RD.net to see what was going on, and found that an announcement had been made that the forum is to close. It will remain live for 30 days to allow us to retrieve anything we want to save: given I had written over 10,000 posts (7,000+ remain after an earlier purge) and I guess many million words as I am not known for my brevity, that will prove immensely difficult. Given that the search has not worked for months, in order to protect other parts of the website and keep the bandwidth manageable, well it will be next to impossible. Continue reading

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Boardgame Review: Settlers of Catan

Another review with a link to a free on-line version of the game –.if you like games, and are bored with Monopoly, Risk, and Cluedo (I’m not a great fan) this is a fun and fairly simple game playable in an hour to an hour and a half. And it is a really good one, a real classic. Five out of five as far as I’m concerned! In fact I would say even if boardgames are not your thing, then like Ticket to Ride this is a game well worth buying anyway. Continue reading

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From Ricall to York: Our New Ars Magica Saga Starts

A few days ago Tom and I were chatting about how much fun it would be to start a new Ars Magica roleplaying game saga. So being CJ, this happened and quickly. Tom, Ed and I discussed the setting and decided on the Stonehenge Tribunal (roughly speaking England & Wales) and as I have long wanted to do a game which covers the Angevin/Plantagenets from Henry II through Richard, John and Henry III we decided on a start date of 1160, and a fast saga with a few years between stories. The changing of the seasons and usurpation seemed appropriate themes, and we therefore decided to go for the players as new magi arriving at a Winter covenant that had declined in to a crumbling wreck. Tom wanted to set the saga in York, and so the stage was set. Continue reading

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Just in case anyone wondered…

I’m still alive! I had an enjoyable board games evening last Friday night, and DC, Tom Nowell and Richard Lay came over for an hour and a half while we played a quick game of Condottierre, a fun card/board eurogame … Continue reading

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The Cats of Normal Terrace: mourning Ziggy

Nowadays my blog is filled with me talking about ghosts and stuff, and it’s probably easy for people to forget that I have a life outside of work, psychical research and religion.  This post is about the street where I … Continue reading

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