The addiction is getting out of control for all of us. We started our first game at 16:30; Sasha won it. Dinner, dishes, and the 2nd one. We played a Zeevaarders-Steden & Ridders combination, very interesting (and I won!).

Just done with the 3rd game... and guess what, after months of practising: Mieke won! She played really well, and was at the 13 points long before anybody else came close. Congratulations!

Now up to the 4th one.

We're at my parents now. Obviously we're playing Kolonisten again. The victims today are my parents' neighbours. We taught hem Kolonisten, and then played two games.

It was the first time I've played with more than 4 players, a bit different rules. Because I lost both games I'm not sure I like it.

This evening I was at 999 Games to learn some new games. Once every month they organize such an evening.

I've learned a couple of games, also some new titles that I had never seen before, such as Solo and Beestenboel.

In the beginning of the evening I had to arrange some paperwork, and then Rutger invited me for a game of Andromeda. It's an older game, but I never took the time to learn it.

After that I asked Jerry if he could refresh my memory on Machiavelli. I've played it before, but I forgot how exactly the game is like.

The next one was Solo, basically the same as the Dutch game called Pesten.

Regenboogslang is a game for kids, very easy.

Another kids game: Beestenboel. Quite boring for adults, fun I suppose for kids. Remotely related to Set. Funny how the farmer on the cards is called: Farmer Rutger.

The next game, 'Oh Hell' looked more interesting. It is quite similar to 99-en (a game I once almost won a tournament in). We didn't actually play it, but the rules looked easy enough.

Babel, the next game, we played longer. It's quite interesting.

The last game we played was Caesar & Cleopatra.

Most of the shops we have been working with the last weeks have a website of some kind but today's shop has a really nice one: Kaatje.com. They even have an English version.

Kaatje aan de Rein is a small gift shop, with a lot of different things. Books, candles, Christmas decorations, small stuff -- and games of course. We did our games demonstration in the garden of the shop! They had a very beautiful tent in the garden, and decorated it cosy inside. And (very important for us :)) there was a big gas-heater as well.


I've explained the Kolonisten card-game and Medina for the first time. There were guests basically all the time, but it was never too busy. Unfortunately we didn't bring Ettie's camera.


It was one of the nicest demo's we've done in a long time (together with the Haarlem one 2 weeks ago). We even got a present from the shop when we left. We also took some of the new decoration material of 999 Games, perhaps we can cheer up our hallway a bit; they're really nice.


Here's the commercial the shop had on their website for today, I liked it:

The 'toy of the year 2002' has been announced today. One of the candidates was Medina, a game of 999 Games. The price went to a toy-car. It's an election for general toys, not only for boardgames.

In the past Isis & Osiris and Carcassonne have been candidates too. Kolonisten van Catan and Elfenland were even choosen Speelgoed van het Jaar.

Another game award is the Spellenprijs (where Medina is a candidate as well) and which was won by Machiavelli in 2001. The winner of this year's Spellenprijs will be announced on the Spellenspektakel in Eindhoven. I'm curious if Medina will be the winner. I haven't played it yet but many people like it. Perhaps this Saturday in Den Haag I'll have a chance to play it.

Carcassonne (again), Eufraat & Tigris, El Grande, 6 Nimmt and Tadsch Mahal have all be choosen in the past by German game players and jury to be Spiel des Jahres (or to receive the Deutsche SpielePreis).

The Spellenstapel has a lot of information on different game awards.

I've put online a few pictures from today's tournament. See here.

Yuri and Herman were today's winners, congratulations! One of the two finals was very interesting.

We're leaving to Nuenen in a few minutes. Today's Kolonisten tournament is organized together with Schellens Speelgoed.

Yesterday evening I've put some pictures online of Sunday's tournament. See here.

Thank you Ettie, for borrowing me your camera!

It never seems to end... we've played Steden & Ridders again, twice. Jerry and Marjolein were here, so after dinner we played the whole evening. Jerry won the first two; the last one was a regular Kolonisten which Marjolein won.

I'll go to Chess in a while to work on my practical assignment.

We had 54 people playing today in the tournament. Ettie brought here digital camera (thanks!) I've made quite a lot of pictures but I haven't been able to connect the camera to my computer yet.


Hans Baert is this weekend's big winner: yesterday he won the worldcup qualifications in Weesp and today he was number 1 here in Haarlem! The other person who will play in Eindhoven is Frans de Bode, an honourable third place is for Harry Rood.

Ettie, Mieke and Jaap also participated.

Their results were quite good: both Mieke and Ettie were first in a game! In the final score Mieke was 24th, Ettie 25th. Jaap enjoyed the playing a lot.