Settle ALL THE PLACES!!

As you know, it was my birthday about a month ago and among the meeting up with friends, I got some pretty cool presents. However, my favourite (well, tied favourite with The Fault in Our Stars) and definitely the most well used was the board game Josh got me: Settlers of Catan.
If you haven't heard of Settlers of Catan before then 1) I insist you find a way to play it as soon as humanly possible (although faster would be preferable) and 2) here is a brief summary:
The goal of Settlers is to be the first to reach 10 victory points. You gain these points by building settlements, upgrading your settlements to cities, having the longest road, having the largest army (made up of knights which are a type of development card) or from a development card that specifically says "1 victory point". (As well as being knights and victory points, development cards can also give you other bonuses such as building two free roads, gaining two free resource cards or taking resource cards off other people.)
You build roads, settlements and cities and buy development cards by trading in resource cards in specific combinations of sheep, wheat, rock (well, technically ore but we never call it that), brick, and wood and these resource cards are gained depending where your settlements are on the board and what number is rolled on the die.

 
1) Resource card
2) Development card (here giving you 1 VP)
3) Roads
4) Example of a port where you can trade resource cards if you have a settlement next to one
5) The robber. It is moved when a 7 is rolled or when a knight is played and blocks a hex stopping the adjacent settlements from recieving the resource cards
6) The cards showing how much everything costs and the cards to indicate who has the longest road or biggest army
7) These numbers go on the hexagons and when that number is rolled, the resource of the hex can potentially be collected
8) The smaller one is a settlement, the larger, more church like one is a city
9) A hex. Different ones indicate different resources. For example, this one indicates wheat
10-12) Pretty self explanitary... the board... the rule book, the die...

Anyway, after that not so brief summary, I would definitely recommend playing it. I was introduced by a friend a couple of years ago and since my birthday, everyone I've introduced it to has loved it. It my have a similar sort of concept as Monopoly but Settlers is just hands down better. You still take turns to build and roll the die but you can still collect resource cards when it's not your go, you can still trade cards with whoever is having their turn and your plan can be changed drastically when it's not your go. You can't just pop off to the loo quite so easily without missing anything and it requires a lot more skill and planning than Monopoly. Furthermore, it is much quicker. Monopoly has been known to go on for over 2 hours with people getting so bored once the initial gaining of properties has been passed. However, Settlers requires you to keep focused, pay attention, and a game is usually under the 2 hour length. It's not always clear who will win and things can change drastically with even just the placement of one more settlement in a good place.

Basically, I am obsessed with a great game. I think I've played on average almost once a week since my birthday where possible and I'm still not fed up. Each game is different and different tactics lead to a win each time. Additionally, the flexibility of the board means you can change it so the "best" places on the board are different each time.

I think if I say much more it'll be overkill so I just have one word: PLAY.

Live long and keep blogging =]

Don't interupt me, I'm reading a book!

I tend to go through reading phases. I will go weeks or even months without reading a single book and then I'll read three or more in quick succession. At the momont, I'm going through a patch of high reading density - partly due to "The Fault In Our Stars" and partly because I'm starting to get familure enough with the tube to feel ok reading on it - so I thought I would share some of my thoughts with you.

The Fault in our Stars - John Green
I've been waiting for this book for what feels like forever. So long in fact that I didn't want to start it in case my expectations exceeded the reality however, ohn Green certainly didn't dissapoint. Without giving away any major plot lines, I will say that this book is one of the most heart-felt and full of feeling books I've ever read. It takes a lot to make me cry at a film with all the atmospheric music and even more so for a book yet The Fault in our Stars had me feeling so atatched to the characters, so much part of the plot and I felt like I was going through all the feelings with Hazel almost as if I was her. So great and thought provoking was the novel that I genuinely just sat and pondered for half an hour before actually getting on with anything else. John writes from Hazel's perspective as a teenage girl almost worryingly well and the novel exceeded my expectations and fully deserves the praiee and attention it has been recieving. It truely doesn't forget to bet awesome.

Let It Snow - Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle
After the emotionally heavy nature of The Fault in our Stars, I decided that a light, rather stereotypical christmas romance would be good. However, with John Green and Maureen Johnson as two of the authors, I knew it would be great. Although this book is arguably a typical 'boy falls in love with girl' compilation, there is a brilliant unique twist to these stories: the three short stories all interlink. As you would expect with a book containing three short stories, the separate authors' novellas each stand alone in their own right, telling three wonderful love stories in their own distinguishable styles (particularly noticable if you've read any of their other books) however, the three stories subtly overlap. Whichever order you read them in, after the first novella, characters you've previously met pop up subtly in the other two and the three link together seemlessly. If you often find yourself wondering what happened tothat character that only got briefly mentioned then I think this will be a great book for you! In real life, there are often those people we only know as 'that guy at school' or 'that girl who works at the coffee shop' but this intertwined style of writing makes you think about those people, reminding you that their lives are just as complicated as yours and in fact they don't stop existing the moment you close your eyes.

About a Boy - Nick Hornby
I'm a pretty firm believer in 'read it first' when it comes to films based on books, however, there are a few cases where I haven't found out a film is based on a book until during or after the film and About a Boy is one of those cases. I'm not very far through the book but I can't help but feel that the film has ruined my enjoyment of the book. I can't help but see Hugh Grant as Will and already knowing the ending always spoils a book. I just can't quite read it without many plot based presumptions. Nevertheless, I'm not saying I'm disliking the book. It's a pretty good and easy read and definitely worth the 10p I spent on it at a jumble sale but it is most certainly being added to my list of examples of books/films that back up the argument to 'read it first'!

Live long and keep blogging =]

by the way, some of you might say I've failed on the whole blogging weekly thing however here are three good reasons why I haven't:
1) I haven't gone to sleep yet so it's functionally still Saturday
2) A lot of people work by a Monday to Monday week
3) It's still technically Saturday in some other time zones

Snow?!

For a while, the idea of snow has been batted about. Will it snow? Won't it snow? Will it reach London? Did you see it sleet for two minutes? Well, at the weekend, it finally snowed in London.

It was the first time I'd seen snow in London and to be honest, snow at home is much more exciting. Sure, London looks clean for once directly after the snowfall but before long, the smog makes the ice black and the snow just melts away. Bit anticlimatic if you ask me.

I was on Skype to my parents earlier and they still have quite a lot of snow left in the garden. Here in London, the snow was practically gone before I had a chance to turn around and say snowball fight! Then again, it being London, I wasn't so inclined to have a snowball fight as the snow just doesn't seem as clean as at home. No offence London.

Anyway, I took a few pictures from the hill near my university so I thought I'd share them here. I was also in Soho when it snowed however I didn't have my camera with me then so I don't have any pictures of a dark, snowy Soho or Picadilly Circus.

Live long and keep blogging =]

Helping the Homeless

Yesterday evening, I went to church to give a hand with the night shelter that the church takes a turn with each week during the winter months. At East London Tabernacle, the home groups each take a turn to take charge of cooking the meal and this Thursday, the home group that I'm part of took charge.

As well as giving a hand with the cooking (we'll ignore the incident of the burnt chick peas) we sat in amongst those welcomed into the church for a warm meal and a bed for the night, talking to them or, in the case of the guy I ended up sitting next to, being talked at.

While the guy we were talking to didn't have much education, hadn't been to uni, been expelled from college and had been out on the streets for around 12 years, listening to him gives you a wider perspective on life. I may know more than he'd care to know about differential equations or ecosystems but he knows how to survive on the streets, he knows more than I do about political situations (but then, seen as I know next to nothing that's not hard) and I really think the goverment should take a leaf out of Sherlock's book and use the homeless network to solve the UK's drugs problems and simultaniously getting more people off the street!! Possibly... I never claimed to be the next prime minister...

On a totally unrelated note, I'm going to head off to make a den with Josh, Rosanna and Bradley.

Live long and keep blogging =]