I (perhaps we as a family) needed a distraction from the frustrations of politics and from the mental anguish of coping with the restrictions imposed/self-imposed during the current coronavirus pandemic, so I ordered the Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit game.
An aside: we have a typical board games Compendium. Only my youngest daughter (daughter 2) and I really spend much time with it. Chess is our game. She’s a keen student, a shame I’m a novice-level player and no teacher isn’t it! But we enjoy the contests, and that’s all that matters.
Honestly and perhaps selfishly, I didn’t want to play from the compendium (or jump into Minecraft despite daughter 2’s multiple asks), so bought the new thing.
My daughters have read the Harry Potter books and watched the films multiple times (understatement!), bought many and disparate forms of merchandise, and lived the franchise. Ok, ‘franchise’ is a rubbish word to use but I’m writing this in the early hours of bin day so yeah…
My wife isn’t particularly interested, but she knows enough that, after a visit to London’s and especially the pilgrimage to Kings Cross Platform 9-3/4 last year she booked us on the UK Harry Potter Studio Tour earlier this year, you know, during a time we could do things, go places, see people, drink Butter Beer…
If’s an amazing experience; if you’re even a casual fan it’s something I can recommend without hesitation. Go early, it takes literally (not figuratively hours to get round. It’s well worth saving up for too, it really is. (And the shop is nowhere near as tightly-packed as Kings Cross’s.)
Me? I’m a big fan. I’ve seen all the films multiple times, find something new each viewing. I even started to read the first book, felt the need to pause as I found out Vernon is a… (ok, I’m an engineer, it’s all good stuff this!)
Incidentally, I’ve not had the inclination to read anything other than bedtime stories to the girls in recent years, but wax a voracious reader as a child:young adult.
The game arrived yesterday and so around teatime I played a round with, ok against, daughter 2.
It gets Baz’s seal of approval both as game and as that distraction. There are questions that my wife in the other room answered (gleefully!) or are obvious to a fan of any level, or need a knowledge only multiple viewings/readings can bring, or are downright sneaky in their apparent simplicity.
Who didn’t play, and why?
My wife’s not interested in games much which, though puzzling, is ok. (This is a judgment on her character!)
Daughter 1 (the oldest) is a newly-minted lockdown teenager, with all the personal issues attendant. (I’ll bring her round to a session eventually, see if I won’t!)
Ruby dog, though she appreciated a tiny piece of my pastrami sandwich, her achievement unlocked after patiently nuzzling my knee under the table for a while, wasn’t even worth interested in the unused game wedges in the box on the floor beside our dining room table,
Mollie cat, who didn’t even attempt to cross the table after her teatime; perhaps she’d learned that interrupting me during my working hours wasn’t profitable, dunno. But today is indeed another day.
So, as distractions go, this game, oh yes, it is most definitely one.
Um…
Yeah.
Ah…
Daughter 2 beat me.
Which, though I expected her to, was nice.
Result.