by Too many cancellations this week. As there were last week. I’m going to implement a new system for any new students I get, as well as my current biggest offenders, whereby lessons are booked in blocks of five. At the end of the fifth lesson they’ll need to pay for the next five if they want to continue, and so on. If they cancel within 24 hours of the lesson, or don’t show up at all, they lose out. Anything else just isn’t fair on me. This might mean I get fewer new students but hopefully the ones I do get will be more committed.
All these cancellations mean I’m getting to play a lot more Scrabble than I bargained for. I got in nine games yesterday, six of which I won, although my rating only ticked up a fraction. The first game, against a slightly higher-rated player, was interesting. I found the first two bingos of the game but my opponent hit straight back with two of his own, and some iffy draws and sketchy word knowledge led to my downfall as I lost by 41. Until yesterday I hadn’t made a single 100-point play but, like my cancellations, they came one after another, as I found EXPUNGES (102) and rECYCLE (106) in successive games. What’s more, I drew a P immediately after the rECYCLE play which allowed me to front-hook it for 63 points on my next turn. My other bingos included such delights as FiEFDOM and pETERMEN. I broke 500 in four games and had three wins by over 200. The FiEFDOM game was an extreme form of the kind I try to avoid: almost the top-left half of the board was blocked off, and I had nowhere to play my Q or other high-point tiles. To my amazement my opponent missed an out-play that would have given him a two-point victory, and I scraped home by 20.
It’s getting chilly. And dark. And it’s only two days until our clocks go back. Will this be the last time this happens in Europe? I seem to be in the minority of people who actually like daylight saving. We get lovely summer evenings here, and seeing everybody out and about in the squares is very uplifting. That extra hour of daylight in the evening surely boosts both Timișoara’s mood and its economy. But in winter, when temperatures often fall through the floor, I’d rather it be light at 9am, which wouldn’t be the case if we moved to permanent summer time. Why can’t we keep the best of both worlds?
The Red Sox are on a roll. After beating two very good teams to make the World Series, they’ve now taken a 2-0 lead.
