Magpie Monday - The Games People Play

(That makes two song titles in my blog titles this month. Don't worry, I'm not making a habit of it)

After a few weeks' break, I'm back on the Magpie Monday train, as I've finally caught up with the washing, and almost caught up with myself!

And I thought this week, I'd go for a change.  I'm sure I've posted more than enough baby clothes in my Magpie Monday finds to last everyone a lifetime, but that's not all I look out for, and this week, it's time to kick back, relax and spend some quality family time.  What better way than with a silly game or two?

First off, my Mum's favourite holiday game.  I have to admit I don't quite *get* Rummikub, I haven't really played it enough yet to understand anything more than "it's sort of like rummy, only with tiles rather than cards".  My Mum takes her set on holiday everywhere she goes, and swears by it for starting conversations & forging international friendships.  I'm not so sure about that, but when I found a set for £2 on a stall for the local Dog's Home at a family fun day, I thought it was worth a go.  This isn't the travel version, and so weighs a bit too much to go in the suitcase, but for quiet evenings at home, maybe?

Next, a classic.  For certain values of the word, anyway.  The 80's wouldn't have been the 80's without DLT, and snooker on the radio (interspersed with darts on the radio, depending on which was in season).  We found the home version on a car boot sale AGES ago for about 50p, and it ticked more of our boxes than I should admit.  Snooker *tick*.  Radio *tick*.  Quiz *tick*.  80's tat *tick*. Pointless thing we'll probably never use *tick*.  All the cards, and the dice are still in place, and it's got some useful questions if you're ever lumbered with setting up a quiz night.  I think that might have been the excuse we had for buying it.  Ah well.

Quiz nights.  Well, a bit more than that really.  SqueakyDaddy used to do charity race nights (until the work dried up).  You know the kind of thing, in the pub, horse racing on dvd, bet on a number or a silly name,have a litle quiz as well, that sort of thing.  Well, at the end of the nights, they'd have a novelty race, pigs or something, but most of them were a bit rubbish.  We found this brand new, still in the cellophane, dvd game in a charity shop somewhere on our travels for about £3.  Though we haven't had the chance to use it yet, it's a good source of alternative novelty races.  This plus the quiz game were meant to be used for those nights, but the smoking ban & the price of booze has kind of killed it all off.

And finally...  I'll post a little bit more on the subject later in the week, but we've been chosen to be part of the HABA Mums Club, and be ambassadors for the HABA toy brand.  Well, before that happened, I bobbed into the Somerset Air Ambulance shop in Taunton, and found this beauty.  I was just intrigued by it, it was still sealed, so I had no idea what it was going to be about, especially as I don't speak German.  I could just about work out "card game", and the obvious socks.  The rest I thought I'd figure out, or make up.

When I opened it up, I found a very cute & colourful card game, complete with a sock monster!  I'm still not quite sure what I'll do with it, it's going to be a fair while before Squeaky's old enough to play matching the socks, but I have a hankering towards scanning a load of socks, adding letters somehow, a string & peg image & making a piece of name art.  It probably won't happen, but the idea's there anyway.

Wow! What a long post.  Makes up for being away, huh?  Jump aboard the Magpie Monday train!