Here was the day at last.
First, since my son's school is uphill as well, I had planned to go after leaving him at school. Too bad, the post office only opens at 9:30. Quite inconvenient.
So, this afternoon, I left again and started my climb. Lots of pictures follow, as requested by JW.
The Forest Park (that's its name) has been under work since I arrived in Belgium. Every day I can see it not moving forward by an inch. It's all muddy, and they just put large barriers across the park which are very annoying when it comes to cross it. But today, there had been some progress!
Some progress indeed: even though they have not nearly finished the parts they are already working on, they have just condemned yet another path. Usually, I could take the path you see here and then walk uphill, alongside the fence you can see in the background. This new extension of the fence incurs a 5-10 minutes detour, and there is little choice but to go around it!
Okay this is where you can finally turn around. As you can see in the very background of the picture, the path I was supposed to take is now further away. I just hate them for this, and I am not putting down this stupid fence only out of cowardice - but it would be the moral thing to do. I do believe there is a powerful cartel of construction companies that benefit massively from letting all works take far more time than they should (this part you've seen in the first picture was supposed to be finished by the end of the summer: and it's the first step of the whole park restoration!). People should protest at some point, as condemning the whole park all this time is just infuriating and a massive lack of respect.
Finally, I am back where I was supposed to be. This is a narrow pathway (it didn't exist a few months ago but the beating of people's feet created it as they got around the fence), which I often take with my son.
The other side of the park, after a good climb. You can't hear them but there are a bunch of green parrots chirping around. You can't mistake these birds for any other species, they make a very distinctive noise.
Now through another park - the Jupiter park. Another climb, but fortunately there is no work in this one.
On top of the hill - you can see a small patch of Brussels. The blue tower rightmost is the Zuid Tower (Tour du Midi).
Here you can see the "Altitude 100" church (because it rises 100m above the sea, the highest spot in all of Brussels). I'm getting closer!
Ugh. 10 people are already waiting before me. And it reeks of majijuana inside (like so many places in Brussels). Fortunately, I brought a book.
Finally, I got it! And it's not one package, but two!!! Definitely not Nut Hunt though. So, what is it?
I went back uphill today, and here is what I got:
Ah, come on! Sending a package to the KS backer pseudo instead of the real name? Actually, the mailman left a notice in the wrong mailbox (not his fault really); the said notice was then left stranded in my building hall, I found it one week later, and had an embarrassing conversation with a pretty nice mail guy who "didn't want to know why I'm not using my real name to receive package" but handed me the package nonetheless.
Instead, Nut Hunt. I did had to go uphill to grab it in the end!
The box is oversized but the components are pretty, even though the squirrel meeples are tiny and too few.
The cards from the four "nut" decks are all identical. They could have been resource cubes of four colors. Only the objective deck makes sense. So, if you replace the cards with a handful of cubes, you may end up, I think, with a box half that size.
That's the set-up. The rules are really light, and the set-up particularly easy. You play against an AI which is actually fun. I lost first, then immediately wanted a rematch, and won! On the 'easy' level of course. Hint: the Fox is a tool, not a hindrance. Once you get this the game becomes easier. (It shouldn't be hard to get: you have an action to trigger the Fox to bother you, so unless you are masochistic, the Fox is of use by design).
I paid too much for what it is, but I'm not disappointed. I don't think it's a very interesting solo game in the long run, but it should be a very neat family game.
David Bowie - Up the Hill Backwards
Thank you! This made my day. Also: you ordered Beethoven 😍