I Love The Inland Revenue!

There's a phrase you don't here very often.

But it's true. In the UK if you start your own business you need to register with the Inland Revenue within three months of starting up. I'm sailing damn close to the deadline as I started Reiver Games three months ago next week! So I finally pulled my finger out and contacted them.

The guy on the phone was polite, helpful and warned me that registering would take about five minutes. He guided me efficiently through the process in less than five minutes, and then offered to get someone to contact me about a course they run. They offer a free course to cover the basics of running a business and doing your own books. They would email to arrange a time that is convenient for me to attend. Excellent.

Before Mal arrived last night I got another set of tiles (and hence game) finished. That completes the previous batch that I started before The Wife went away. Now I'm in a position to concentrate on the next batch, for which all I've done so far is construct the boxes and glue a few tiles. The batch is twelve copies, so ideally I'd like to get them (and a few more) completely finished before The Wife gets back. We shall see...

Last thing last night Mal and I had a game of Border Reivers. It's kind of the World Series of BR, as Mal has played the game more than anyone else - we've played about twenty games against each other. I won the first fifteen or so, but now the score must be around sixteen to four. Mal's creeping back. In last night's game I made a fatal flaw. Early on Mal got a secret card, I was afraid it might be Insurrection or Reiving Party, so I rushed an army back to protect my city. Nothing happened for a few turns, and I finally decided to get Mal off the mine, so I move the army out of the city to threaten Mal's hold on the mine. It was an Insurrection, and Mal won the combat, then promptly sacked my city leaving me with no settlements whatsoever. My three remaining armies fought on bravely, but Mal had three too, and a city to gain more. I was wiped out a couple of turns after the sacking. It was the first time Mal had played an Insurrection that early in the game (it often comes out later), and since I'd not had a Militia card I really should have protected my cities with armies. Chump! Still, a nice victory for Mal. He earnt it.