The domino effect

What a shock! It’s turning into a positive heatwave! The last couple of days we spent some of the afternoon sitting in the sun, chuntering over a glass or two.

On the way back from the golf club on Friday we stopped at a toy shop & bought some dominoes, one nice set & one lightweight set for our hols.

A few years ago, we were staying in a gîte in Provence. It was too early to eat but we were getting bored just reading. We looked around & found the gîte had a box of dominoes. Neither of us had played since our childhood long ago. We decided to have a game to wile away the time. After that we played most evenings. We were hooked.

Once home we didn’t think any more about it. Then, on our recent holiday in Italy, we had a few very wet days. We looked at what games there were there. Sure enough there were some sets of dominoes. So we decided to play.

Our new friends, Ruth & Col, quickly got hold of the idea & became addicted to the game. Once they were back home, according to the card we received from them, they bought a set & now their grandchildren & disabled neighbour have all been drawn in.

We finally decided it was time for us to buy some dominoes for ourselves. Later this year we will be off to another gîte in Provence. We thought we would go armed with some dominoes. We found a very light, rather small set, for the holidays. They won’t add much weight to our luggage or take up much space.

We also saw a rather nicer, much heavier, set which we bought, thinking it might occasionally be nice to have a game at home.

So Saturday & Sunday we sat out in the sun. The conversation tended to dry up as the warmth encouraged us to doze off, especially yesterday as we were fairly tired after doing the chores.

We thought we might as well have a game of dominoes to pass the time until dinner.

As we played, the conversation once more flowed. We both found ourselves hearing Col’s doleful voice saying “I don’t like this” whenever he couldn’t lay down a domino or he had picked a high value one.

While we were in Italy, we also discovered that dominoes is not a game known in Rumania. The head waiter was a Rumanian. He was fascinated watching us play & trying to learn the rules of the game. He’d never seen anyone play before. Another new convert? I wonder.