Mat Bowles

Italian heat and a tired MatB

Well, Italy was well worth the journey and the money. Apart from the heat.

Now, I’m known for not being a fan of hot weather; I’ve never quite got the point of it, why is it supposed to be nice again? Anyway. When the Italians you’re with are complaining that it’s too hot, then you know it’s too hot. Ah well.

Friday, journey was good, if a little long. N/Exp to LHR, KLM to AMS, a run through the terminals, including the Schengen passport checkpoint (very convenient it was too, check at AMS, no need at Bologna, they’re both members so common border controls work nicely thank you very much) only to get to the flight and find a 3 hour delay; it’s stuck at Berlin getting the air conditioning fixed. KLM staff very helpful, including giving free meal vouchers and a phome voucher.

Am struck by the daftness of the system though; there’s a huge que of people asking essentially the same question; putting a notice up behind/next to the would make most of the questions disappear, but, instead, they have to repeat the answers a lot. I just listened in to a few answers, got the picture, collected my vouchers and thanked them for the help. Lots of coffee (and chats to a few disgruntled passengers) later, the flight finally departed. Unfortunately, no reception at the airport, so couldn’t text Roberto, Luca and Vince to tell them about the delay.

Not an issue; got to the hotel, reception bloke used master key to let me in, Vince and Seb were still awake and rather drunk; both snore when drunk and tired. Ah well; Vince normally sleeps quietly, but, well, the combination of Italy + Seb’s company prompted him to drink more than usual…

Saturday went well (apart form the heat) and I placed above 50/50, considering I’d made 1 change to my deck in 6 months (added Malachite Gargoyle) I was happy; great fun, and I got to proclaim that Rocks Rule regularly.

Sunday? I RULED (with a lot of help from Chris Dyer’s deckbuilding skills). The Gahid deck he built for me was immense fun to play, and very effective. My two losses in the 6 rounds of Swiss qualifiers were to Simone (EU Champion and fellow Conspiracy member) and Thomas Nizou (one of the best French players with a Chyre deck). Stomped Seb 2-1 in the top 16, his deck was good, but relied on neutralising threats by pushing them back, I had too much movement, and assuming I got an avarage draw and avarage rolls I could break his ranks easily. Unfortunately, Roberto’s Garn Healing deck could soak up all my damage and he beat me in the top 8. Still, getting 13th in Swiss and top 8 in finals for a World Conquest qualifier and the 3rd largest tournament yet held in Europe is something to be pleased with. Only drawback was the number of friends I played; maybe I’ve got to know the best players in Europe too well? Roberto lost to Gigi in the next round, who went on to win; Seb is convinced (and I agree with him) that he’d have beaten both of them, his deck stomped both theirs easily. But it didn’t stomp mine, and the nature of the environment is rock/papers/scissors in so many ways. Gigi also came close to taking The Queen from Arne. A great weekend; better than last years, the hotel was closer, the heat didn’t ruin it, the pizza was good. Roberto bugged me into getting back into the online community, my sparkling wit is apparently missed. I’ll see if I can make the time. NEed to seriously think through how I’m going to approach CCGs tho; I love the events and the tournaments and the players, but dislike the planning and collecting of cards. Need to talk to Chris about it I guess.

Monday? Seb and I switched rooms to a twin as we were both staying on, Sy and Mark left for the airport after breakfast (great to see both of them again, must go to London more), and we went into town after Vince left his luggage in our room. Seb showed us around (he’d been here for awhile already) and Roberto met up with us in the afternoon. Bologna is a really nice place, not quite as interesting architecturally as Sienna (which remains my favoured city) but more than made up for by bars, pubs, cafes and nightlife. After an ice cream and a snack lunch, we went to the two local game stores (both immensely cool and well laid out, Goblin especially impressed with the decor and gaming demo tables; imagine a games store run in a professional GW-style, but selling everything in a friendly environment) and ended up in the Transilvania Rock Kafe, a pub/pizzeria with a horro style decor and, um, Dire Straight and other AOR as the music. Gotta love the Italians; take on the style, but not quite get the point of the music. Eventually stumbled to a taxi and back to the hotel.

Tuesday started with weirdness; we couldn’t find the room key, but the door was locked from the inside. After searching everywhere, we discovered the internal phone didn’t work, so I used my mobile to ring the reception to ask them to get us out. Oops. After breakfast, Seb went to close the roof window (top floor) and found it on top of the wardrobe. Um, huh? Ah well. Roberto picked us up and we went to a restaurant for lunch; turned out it was the hotel Manolis and the rest of the Gree players had stayed in last year, which freaked me out a little when I finally realised what the deja vu was. Pasta lunch, I love ricotta, then we took Seb to the airport. Roberto and I had planned to leave my luggage at his while I went to town (he does need to do some studying for his Phd in nukes after all; why do I always end up making friends with physicists?), but, due to the bus strike and some other commitments, we ended up dropping that plan. I sat in a bar and read a book for awhile (Frances Wheens “How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world”- highly recommended, especially to ), then got the bus into town, wondered around a little, grabbed some food, went to Dragon (the other games store, where I ended up playing several games of Warlord with some guys who only read English not speak it; I love the common language of CCG mechanics…) then decamped to Transilvania for a last evening before catching a taxi to the airport and waiting fo my 6am flight.

Journey back was ok, read a lot, never can sleep, then collapsed in bed. The rest of the free time when not at work this week has been watching Battlestar Galactica episodes; the original series. I had forgotten how godawful it truly was. Still, fun.

So, to today; I’d planned to travel to Exeter this afternoon, but, well, I came online while eating lunch and haven’t managed to get off again, let alone leave the flat. Ah well; ? I guess I’ll need to specifically come up for an arranged game at a set time; now have all Battlestar Galactica to lend out as well, stupid really, am now low on things to watch so B5 would be cool.

Still, overall, a relaxing holiday has put me in a good mood for the absolute hell the next 6 weeks at work is going to be; spent the last year planning for it, now I find out how good I really am.

June 6th, 2005 Posted by MatGB | Uncategorized | 3 comments