Heros

I spent the weekend (Thursday to Monday) attending and participating in the Heros Advanced Squad Leader tournement held in Blackpool. I drove up to Blackpool from Milton Keynes in a very leisurely way on Thursday, arriving about 13:00. I had eaten lunch at a motorway service station before I arrived, so I was able to book into my room and then go out for a long walk along the seafront and then the beach towards Lytham St Annes and back. The weather was glorious - a far call from the equivalent weekend last year, which was snow, sleet, slush, bitter winds, and all in all not very nice. The difference in weather made a substantial difference to Blackpool too. Last year there were virtually no businesses open, and very few people around. This year most of the businesses, including the big dipper, were open and there were a lot of people around (including unfortunately, hen and/or stag parties which were disturbing the peace between 02:00 and 03:00 some of the nights).

The tournement proper started on Friday, Initially I increased my unbroken sequence of losses from 11 to 13, but then won one game, lost another, and then won the last one. As a result I ended up the tournement with a record of 2-3 for the event, which will, I am sure, shift me off the bottom of the ranking list. The selection of scenarios at the event was really interesting and presented a variety of knotty problems.

I had managed to leave my mobile phone - my only phone - on the boat. This did not help as I had an auction going on ebay for the sale of my old boat engine, which terminated on Saturday, and the travel agent for the Xtreme Everest expedition required payment for the (small) outstanding balance by Friday. Trying to use the bed and breakfast's pay phone revealed that one of the keys on the numeric key pad was not working, so I could not use that, and attempts to use Skype by one of the attendees did not work for a variety of trivial, but annoying reasons. I ended up borrowing the under desk phone from reception at the bed and breakfast, and duely made my calls. Then somebody needed to get back to me in respect of the engine sale, and this was another farrago of problems.

The good news was that the engine sold, for an amount that I considered reasonable, and I have subsequently arranged for the engine to be collected from the boat yard where it is currently held.