The Iron Age Pig Issue
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Variable Pig The Iron Age Pig Issue The Zine Poll issue, featuring the 170th issue of “Polar Pig”, “The Universe Is A Pink Blancmange Called Simon” 88 and on-the-shelf vol. XVI, issue 39. Variable Pig – (Iron Age Pig) 3 VARIABLE PIG (IRON AGE PIG) POLAR PIG 170 Welcome to another edition of Variable Pig. This will almost certainly be our last issue from 2018 so may I begin by wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. Alex Richardson recently resurrected the Zine Poll and the results were as follows THE 2018 UK GAMES ZINE POLL RESULTS Pref. Matrix Avge. ------------------------ Votes TOTAL W D L Pts Score Score SCORE ------------------------------------------- 1. VARIABLE PIG 12 2 0 38 10.000 8.982 18.982 2. Ode 11 1 2 34 9.408 8.673 18.081 3. Where Is My Mind? 10 2 3 32 8.820 8.343 17.163 4. Hopscotch 9 1 0 28 8.232 8.500 16.732 5. Fury of the Northmen 6 5 3 23 7.644 7.619 15.263 6. Obsidian 6 2 7 20 7.056 8.055 15.111 7. ...mais n’est-ce pas la gare? 5 0 2 15 5.880 8.500 14.380 8. Minstrel 4 3 5 15 6.468 7.300 13.768 9. Outbreak of Heresy 4 2 3 14 4.116 9.000 13.116 10. The Cunning Plan 4 2 8 14 5.292 7.711 13.003 11. Dane’s Games 4 2 5 14 4.704 8.086 12.790 12. Devolution 3 1 7 10 3.528 7.100 10.628 13. To Win Just Once 2 2 7 8 2.352 7.667 10.019 14. Gesundheit 3 1 4 10 2.940 6.750 9.690 15. Save Your XXs For Me 0 0 2 0 0.588 8.000 8.588 16. Quartz 2 0 13 6 1.764 6.641 8.405 17. The Tangerine Terror 0 0 14 0 1.176 5.011 6.187 I am, naturally, overjoyed with the results as this is the first time that the Pig has won the poll. My thanks to everyone that took the time to vote, and especially to Richard for printing and publishing Variable Pig and creating our fabulous website. Thanks also to Tom for his sub-zine and to Bob and all the others that have run games or contributed in other ways. It’s great to see that there are still seventeen zines still going, especially as Brendan’s “Damn the Consequences” and Brad’s “Western Front” weren’t eligible, I receive about half the zines listed above and all offer great places to play games postally. Variable Pig – (Iron Age Pig) 4 It’s been a very hectic couple of months for me with business travel. It began with a 2.5 week trip to Shanghai and Japan for a business team meeting and multiple customer visits. I spent nine days in Shanghai staying in the Xujiahui district on the Puxi side of the city (west side of the Huangpo river), which I had not visited before. It was a very busy trip for week, but we did have time for some sightseeing and tourism. I met with an old friend and colleague on the first Saturday and spent a lovely afternoon walking around the old French concession near Xujiahui. It’s always surprising and enjoyable to find these quiet, older districts with low rise mansions and gardens, surrounded by the modern city. We met up with some more old friends for an enjoyable dinner that evening. Sunday was a more relaxed day, but we still found time to visit the Tianzifang market in Dapuqiao. This is an old market area, full of tiny shops and bars, narrow streets and alleys. It was quite crowded with both tourists and locals and, as many of the shops produce their own goods, lots of interesting things to see. Bags loaded, we braved the Shanghai subway (very clean and efficient) back to our hotel. Variable Pig – (Iron Age Pig) 5 Our last sightseeing was a team building event, exploring an old temple and gardens near the Bund before having dinner on a river cruise along the Huangpo at night. Shanghai by night is spectacular, and even if you’re not a fan of big cities, it’s hard not to enjoy the beautiful way all the buildings are lit up at night. It’s still amazing to me that when I first took a cruise along this river in 1995, there was almost nothing built up on the Pudong (East side) of the river, other than the Radio tower and a few docks. The change over the last 20 years is really impressive. Of course, this was a work trip and we were busy all week, but it was also really nice to meet some new colleagues plus catch up with lots of old friends from Asia and Europe. We left Shanghai on the Friday and flew to Osaka, a for the weekend before a few more days visiting customers in Japan. I didn’t know Osaka that well, but as my Boss was also interested in sightseeing, we bought some 5 day Kansai region JR passes which were a bargain at 14000 JPY, less than the return Shinkansen trip from Osaka to Hiroshima. Japan seems to have a lot more of these special regional train passes available for tourists now, and these now include the Nozomi trains which are the fastest. We took an early Nozomi from Osaka to Hiroshima Saturday morning and then picked up the Sangyo line to Miyajima-guchi to visit the Itsukushima shrine and the famous torii. This is one of the three most famous views in Japan. I had visited this before with Jacqueline and the children when we lived in Japan, but Maria, my boss had not and I was happy to play tour guide. The tide was out, so it was possible to walk right up to the torii, but we missed the classic views of the torii rising from the sea. Maria and I also visited the shrine, which we missed previously, before enjoying soba and a local beer for lunch. Most of the tourists heading back from Itsukushima island took the train back to Osaka, which I thought a little sad, given our second destination. We continued to head west on the Sangyo line to Iwakuni, to see the beautiful Kintaikyo bridge. This is a stunning, five arched wooden bridge across a wide, shallow river, overlooked by wooded mountains and a white castle. I had hoped that the leaves would be turning to red, which would have been even more beautiful, but we were a little early. Variable Pig – (Iron Age Pig) 6 Sunday, we visited Nara. Jacqueline had been to Nara before when my Aunts and Uncle visited, but I had not. Nara is famous for it’s overly friendly deer and many Buddhist temples, including one that houses the World’s largest indoor, wooden statue of the Buddha. This was very impressive, but I most enjoyed two delightful Japanese gardens close by. These were both beautifully laid out and oases of calm amidst the nearby crowds of tourists. After a busy day in Osaka, my boss flew back to America and we decamped to Tokyo for the final days visits. We arrived late on the Monday night, but I had Tuesday evening free to return to Yokohama and revisit some old haunts, including my favorite Ramen restaurant where I met the family who now live in our old house. It was only a short visit (sadly no time to go to the Onsen), but it was fun to enjoy the nostalgia of walking along Motomachi again and taking the Minatomirai subway. As US flights depart Japan in the late afternoon and early evening, I was also able to spend the final morning visiting the KSP lab where I worked for 3.5 years. I was able to enjoy a week back in the US before my next trip to Cartagena, Colombia for our Latin American distributor meeting. I had not been to Cartagena before and was very impressed. The city is situated on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and was heavily fortified by the Spanish in the past to defend against pirates and the British. The brightly colored, walled old town and fortifications have been preserved and the city is now a UNESCO world heritage site. We spend a lovely, but very hot, afternoon touring the old city and also enjoyed three great dinners in the City. Variable Pig – (Iron Age Pig) 7 Away from work, we had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. We had dinner with friends on Thanksgiving and the Thomas, Kelsey, Hannah and Tyler all came round on Friday for more food and quite a few games. I think Thomas was the only one that went shopping on Black Friday. Jacqueline went out with friends on Saturday afternoon, but Saturday evening we went to see “I Hate Hamlet” at the Bucks County playhouse, a charming little theatre on theatre on the banks of the Delaware. The play was about a modern TV actor whose main series had just ended, who had signed up to play Hamlet at New York’s theatre in the park. The play was set in the apartment of the deceased actor John Barrymore (known for playing Hamlet), whose ghost was summoned by the actor’s agent. The play was very well done and had some very funny moments.