BG5. Akropolis - A solid hexagonal tile laying game with a double multiplier scoring system. Simultaneously light and breezy and a thinky abstract. Quite a tricky combo to pull off and lets this be suitable for family/gateway and more experienced/jaundiced settings.

BG4. Hansa Teutonica. The best board game. Tight but not fussy. Fierce but welcoming. The turns are a ball balanced perfectly on a hill that always finds its way back up effortlessly. The theme gets out of the way and is good enough. Err, there's cubes and stuff, you make trade routes and get points

M1. Order and Chaos - Lady Maisery. I first heard this when I was very ill last year. So now I have the song for my funeral. I'm not crying, you're crying etc. Also incredibly well written, beautifully sung. Lady Maisery are firmly in the should be heard pile for me.

BG3. RA. It's so pretty now! The fundamental trick here is the excitement of the auction is retained, without the stress that a lot of people hate. One bid with visible possible future bids removes the anxiety over value and round brinkmanship. Persistent scoring and gentle catch-up is the icing

Voting shirt (UK General Election), courtesy of @acollierastro.bsky.social

B2. Creation Node - Stephen Baxter. I love so many of the ideas here. The measured expansion, the tacit human acceptance of the time delays involved and the avatars that help mitigate it, the familiar politics. The core ultimately disappointed, too big and too magic to fit with the grounded world.

BG2. Dro Polter. 3rd evening of this amazing dexterity push your luck game. It starts as a fun, light game and ends as a fun, light, super tense, shit talking, brinkmanship as the bells accumulate. The sweat, the cramp, the diving for the ghost. Already a classic party/pub game for me.

B1. Strange Hotel - Eimear McBride. "Wolf Hall" person is tiring to read but is so rewarding here. My favourite part of any book, the sentences, are extraordinary. With each perfect diorama, you get pulled further and beautifully into the protagonist's mind to the point of discomfort and intimacy.

BG1. Sankoré. It was a beast to set up. Doing all of it myself, it took me 40mins! That's a lot. Beautiful game with great theme. Teach was ok to 3 experienced board gamers. The turns and mechanics were smooth and fun. No idea how to win, but we all had lots we wanted to try next time, a great sign

F1. Weird. Imagine that a normal biopic is Gangsta Paradise. Weird is then Amish Paradise. Except the Amish kick a bit of ass. Funny, well made and subversive of the tropes that typical biopics slide in, it only really suffers by not letting us really care about Mirror-Al, leaving the end a bit flat

Since I am now on "good tw***er", I night actually post stuff, seems like a plan. I think I might as well post short reviews of stuff to get in the habit. A revolutionary plan, obviously. Might do categories. MUx, BGx, Fx, Bx, Vx etc.