While I loathe board games, casino games and card games (save Canasta), playing road-trip games (“Kansas, Sarasota, Alabama”) and parlour games (charades, etc.) is something I could give up everything for and do professionally.

And so it was my dream, in importing a motley collection of intelligent people to a remote television-less inn, that parlour fun would ensue. Thus charades were formally placed on the agenda.

When Steven made the call for the charadians to assemble, the result was me and Steven, lonely by ourselves, in the corner.

Fortunately the resourceful and imaginative Tessa came to the rescue with a suggestion to play “Celebrity” instead (if you ever need to organize an international peace conference or mission to Mars, I believe Tessa is the person for the job).

A distant cousin of charades (and, indeed, inclusive of charades in one act), Celebrity is a team-based game involving the guessing of commonly-known celebrities (the threshold being “known by at least half of the group”).

The upgrade to Celebrity from Charades was enough to bring in a good dozen Zapians, and two hours of wacky antics ensued.

It will (for perhaps me only) be the highlight of the conference, and I owe a great debt to all those who played along.