Nicholas Quirke was revealing a secret pleasure in his blog on 24 May 2021 that he had not previously shared. Every morning, almost without fail over breakfast he played a few rounds of online scrabble with half a dozen friends and challengers. He also indulged in a puzzle game, Blockudo and completed their daily challenge and took part in their events which he regularly played on the subway. he had reached level 56 in scrabble and of the 187 games he’d played he had won 175 and enjoyed a longest winning streak of 37, only ever losing a match to 2 players. He felt quite proud of his achievement. Games were on his mind as Peng had bought a new one for his Nintendo switch and after breakfast he was encouraged to join him in playing Super Mario Party. It had been some years since he had played games like this with his sons and it bought back the frustrations he felt when trying to achieve the levels of skill their youthful hand eye coordination had mastered. He was always a slight step behind and the joy stick bought him no joy at all as event after event he lost. However, they had fun even though the entire morning passed in pursuit of a success. Clearly the leisurely pace of the online scrabble suited him better than the pressure of speed. A simple lunch of salad and marinated tempeh broke the spell of gaming and once he had organised his blog it was time for him to go to work and share his knowledge of the English language with Jean. Though the day looked cloudy and as if it might rain the air was humid and he was again a sweaty mess once he had cycled to the school. The lesson passed uneventfully and it wasn’t long before he was wending his way to the penultimate episode of ‘Mare of Eastfield’ and his pleasure turned again to frustration that he was denied seeing it through to its conclusion. Impatience gripped him and instead of going to bed another attempt to master the skills needed for gaming prepared him mentally and physically for sleep.