Kamikaze Chess

There is really no excuse for the fact that I haven't written anything for almost amonth, except for the fact that to be quite honest I haven't done anything worth writing about and I haven't been feeling particularly inspired to scribble down any thoughts.

I am almost at the end of the first month of intensives and they are going quite well, my students are all lovely but the teenagers are hard work on a morning.

To pass the time between classes, Clare, Jake and I have been playing chess against each other. At first Jake was unbeatable and to be honest I was a little rusty since I hadn't played for about a decade. I remember learning to play chess when I was staying at the Ingoldsby Hotel in Torquay one summer when I was little. It was before my brother was born I think so I must have been quite young. A man taught me in the bar, I can't recall his name. However, nobody in my immediate family could play chess so my parents bought me an electronic chess set and it was fun for a bit but I missed the rivalry of playing against someone.

Anyway I have been getting gradually better and I have won the last few games against Jake. Clare and I were getting a little tired of playing today so we invented a new version of chess which I have decided to name Kamikaze Chess. You are only allowed 5 seconds to make a move or you lose your turn. This led to us rolling around in fits of hysterics as the pieces went flying off the board and back into the box as fast as lightning and at one point I had managed to get three pawns to the other side of the board and had 4 queens. Great Fun.

Apart from that, nothing new. Oh, the new fridge has arrived and it is super sexy!